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Posted on 05/08/2025 5:11:39 AM PDT by DFG
It was the plane that pilots 'put on' rather than flew; the beautiful beast that left even the Germans waxing lyrical.
If you ask people today what typified British defiance the most in the Second World War, many of them will tell you it was the Spitfire.
So when I got the chance to take to the skies in one - and even briefly take control - on a sunny morning in March, I knew that this would be the experience of a lifetime.
Today, as Britain marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we are rightly remembering the men and women who gave their lives in the fight against Nazi tyranny.
But it was specifically the bravery of 'The Few' - those young pilots who kept Hitler at bay during the Battle of Britain in 1940 - who I had in mind as I was flown above Cambridgeshire by a former Red Bull Air Race champion.
And the fact that we were flying from the historic Duxford Aerodrome - the wartime home of the Spitfire that is now a popular Imperial War Museum site - made it even more fitting.
Less then two weeks later, news of the death of the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, 105-year-old John Paddy Hemingway, was broken by the Daily Mail.
Like many other pilots, Mr Hemingway flew both the Spitfire and its great wartime counterpart, the Hurricane.
The debate about which aircraft was more consequential continues to rage.
But none of that drama was on my mind as I arrived at Duxford with my brilliant colleagues, videographer Amogh George and photographer Nick Edwards.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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The Spitfire relied on fuel manufactured on an island in the Caribbean. If the Germans had sent a U-boat to shell the refinery, it would have reduced the performance of the Spitfire. Luckily, they didn’t know about it.
I did not know Britain fought WWII by themselves.
They pretty much fought the Battle of Britain all by themselves.
The Spitfire was a great airplane but I liked the Hawker Typhoon as well.
The Spitfire was very short legged plane and so fragile (Seafire) it was withdrawn from Carrier operations as they crashed most of them on landing even before seeing Combat with the Japanese in 1944-45. They went with the Hellcat and Corsair instead. The US Army Air Force gave the Spitfire a try in 1943 and flipped many of them on landing due to the nature of the Brakes being so touchy and we returned them for US Models coming online.
Yet today, they are happily surrendering, without a fight, to Islam.
The Hawker Hurricane was overall a better plane and more rugged.
Please pardon my curiosity, but what was the fuel and what island was the source?
> I did not know Britain fought WWII by themselves. <
From the fall of France to Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Britain pretty much was fighting WWII on its own. And that was for more than a year. It was a remarkable accomplishment.
(I didn’t forget China. They had been fighting Japan since 1937 . But that really wasn’t part of a greater conflict until after Pearl Harbor.)
The homely Hurricane was also a more stable gun platform.
I’d guess rum. Cuba maybe?
60% of the Luftwaffe losses at the Battle of Britain were inflicted by Hawker Hurricanes. It just wasn’t as sexy as the Spitfire.
Britain didn’t win crap. They were in trouble, and we saved the day as usual.
The Spit was a great short range fighter but the P51 Mustang had much longer range, was faster, and many believed better armed with 6 50 cal. Brownings. The greatest thing about both aircraft was they shared the awesome Merlin engine. Their shared weakness was the Merlin’s liquid cooling.
The USA’s use of big, powerful radial engines(P47 Thunderbolt, F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair)turned out to be the way to go in piston-powered fighters.
If you want to know what made it formidable try some other article. The article explains it is a great plane but never anything other than it feels great.
Always loved the Hurricane.
I would imagine the fuel was progressively higher-octane aviation gas made possible by an unlimited supply of American oil.
Unlike the Luftwaffe which was limited to 84-87 octane from captured oilfields in the East, and liquid fuel derived from coal.
Don’t know about the island.
Very true...The Seafire even though beefed up for Carrier duty but on landing was so unstable landing as it was designed for grass landing strips that most were destroyed plus the range made them only suitable for CAP patrol as getting outside of view of Carrier was a real risk of running out if fuel so they went with American aircraft.
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