The Queen salutes the glorious Few: ... 75th anniversary of start of the Battle of Britain

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 10th July 2015 | Stephanie Linning

[naturalman1975]

The Queen today led members of the Royal Family in commemorating the 75th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain.

The Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of York were among the senior royals who joined the monarch as she watched an RAF fly-past from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

In the courtyard below, six veterans of the pivotal conflict looked to the sky as Spitfires and Hurricanes - two of the aircraft they used to defeat the Luftwaffe - flew in formation over the Mall. The aircraft were joined by their modern counterparts, Typhoon jets, which produced a deafening roar.

Meanwhile, outside the palace gates, hundreds of people gathered on the streets to witness the stunning display and remember the glorious Few who valiantly halted Hitler's plans for a German invasion.

[naturalman1975]

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

- Sir Winston Churchill, The House of Commons, Palace of Westminster, June 18th, 1940.

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain…

- Sir Winston Churchill, The House of Commons, Palace of Westminster, 20th August 1940.

[MEG33]

Memories of my father sitting by the radio in small town Texas, listening to Edward R Murrow reporting and saying This is London.
God Bless The British people.

[Arthur McGowan]

Reminds me of the line from “Beyond the Fringe”:

“Sir, I want to be one of ‘The Few.’”

I’m sorry. There are already far too many.”

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

" "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour." "

Comparatively few people, including British people, remember or care. Amazing how fast we let the past fade away.

[Sasparilla]

They don’t seem to make many leaders like him anymore. And, we have a, Community Organizer in Chief.

[NRx]

The Queen is herself one of the dying generation of war veterans. Hard to believe she is 89 and has been serving her people since she enlisted at the age of 17 in the Women’s Auxiliary force.

[NRx]

[Covenantor]

BBC has a whole series on the Spitfire and restorations of war birds. Good videos.

[Snickering Hound]

July 2, 1940:

King George and Queen Elizabeth have firmly rejected suggestions from influential quarters that Princess Elizabeth, 14, heiress presumptive to the throne, and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, be sent out of the country to one of the dominions because of danger of a German invasion, the Daily Mail said tonight.

Repeated efforts to persuade the royal pair to send the two princesses to a safer land have received this answer in effect: "We all face a common peril, thousands of parents in this country are compelled to keep their children at home. We would prefer to share whatever family perils there may be with parents of this country.

Fast forward to today, and the First Family won't even feed their own kids the same lunch that they're forcing on other school children.

[NRx]

During the war, many of London’s children were evacuated to avoid the frequent bombing. The suggestion by Lord Hailsham that the two princesses Elizabeth and Margaret should be evacuated to Canada was rejected by Elizabeth’s mother, who declared, “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave.”

[Covenantor]

She served as a truck mechanic and driver.

Now try to imagine Hillary or MO doing the same thing without spewing coffee thru your nose. ;>)

[naturalman1975]

I heard recently about the King's attempts to actually go ashore on D-Day ("After all, I am the bloody Duke of Normandy.") to help inspire British forces.

Churchill managed to dissuade him only by saying "If you go, Sir, I will go as well."

"Britain can't afford you to risk yourself, Prime Minister."

"Nor you, Your Majesty."

(Paraphrased, but my source was one I would consider very reliable).

[NRx]

That’s a pretty good and accurate paraphrasing of the conversation. (Churchill wanted to go badly but the Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff had threatened to resign en mass if he insisted.)

[nomorelurker]

DP and Wild Turkey just went thru nose. NO I can not imagine those two doing that.

[Bigg Red]

+1

[Bigg Red]

Great story!

[GoneSalt]

A very fine old movie, dramatized story of the man who designed the Supermarine Spitfire and the sacrifices he made knowing England would desperately need it... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gkdia6tHl0

[Churchillspirit]

My hero !

Saved thousands of little blond English girls like me from a fate worse than death.

RIP, Sir.

[diogenes ghost]

My father grew up in Lansing, Mi & was a private pilot. When the war was imminent he enlisted in the RCAF, becoming a Canadian citizen in the process, so as to fall under Geneva convention.

He had fighter training at Flin Flon, MB then to England and Spitfires. Flew in Battle of Britain, was shot down over channel & broke his back along with a couple of leaky holes in his legs.

After hospital, was declared unfit for combat flying, so he took up his US citizenship & spent rest of war in Fla & Caribbean as a trainer, and quite a lot of time in Catalinas on patrol.

I was born in '44 at Melbourne, FL while he was stationed at Banana River NAS (now Patrick AFB).

He is long gone, but I always take note when Spitfires show up in videos.

[GoneSalt]

I can imagine Hillary beating the truck with a tire iron, screeching that it must have been built by Republicans.

In a bad mood because that uniform makes her fundament look incredibly, impossibly, titanically humongous.

And the young British children asking the lady from America if she was Benjamin Franklin didn’t help, either.