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Bill Jonathan | LAC Bill Jonathan Ground Crew with 32 Sqn. |
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Return From the Fray by Richard Taylor. They came from every corner of Britain. And mostly they were young. These fresh faced fighter pilots, joined by an ever-growing band of volunteer airmen from the British Commonwealth and those who had managed to escape from the occupied countries of Europe would, over the summer of 1940, not only hold the world's most powerful air force at bay, they would defeat it. Richard Taylor's stunning piece graphically conveys the conflicting realities of those deadly aerial encounters over southern England during 1940. As the sound of Merlin engines briefly interrupts the tranquility of a sleepy English village, its residents are determined to carry on with everyday life. In the skies overhead the bitter battle will shortly be reaching its crescendo but, for today at least, the fighting is over as Flight Sergeant George 'Grumpy' Unwin, one of the Battle of Britain's top Aces, and the Spitfire pilots of 19 Squadron return from yet another encounter with Goering's much-vaunted Luftwaffe. |
We All Stand Together by Robert Taylor. Spitfires of 616 Squadron scramble from RAF Kenley during the heavy fighting of the Battle of Britain, late August 1940. Below them a Hurricane of 253 Squadron, sharing the same base, is being prepared for its next vital mission at a distant dispersal. All through the long summer of 1940, as Britain stood alone, a small band of fighter pilots took part in the greatest aerial battle in history. Day after day the men of Fighter Command valiantly took to the air to defend their country from the Luftwaffe and the threat of German invasion and Nazi tyranny. Outnumbered, but never out-fought, they fought to the point of exhaustion and, in doing so, paid a heavy price. But they won. |
Fields of Glory by Richard Taylor. September 1940 and they came in their hundreds, the black crosses under their wings clearly visible to those on the ground who listened in silence as the menacing drone of a thousand engines filled the clear blue summer sky. As Goering's Luftwaffe attempted to deal the killer blow to British defences, huge formations of Heinkel, Dornier and Junker bombers lumbered over sleepy English fields towards London. Surrounding them were their escorts, the formidable Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters. Diving our of the sun, 11 Group's fighter squadrons pounced, with the Spitfires going for the Bf109s while the Hurricanes fell on the slower moving bombers. Looking up on the swirling melee above, onlookers below could only watch in awe as the sky was filled with criss-cross patterns of creamy white vapour and spiralling trails of ominous, darker smoke. A parachute here and there caught the eye as the white silk drifted slowly down to the fields below. Hugely outnumbered, the men of RAF Fighter Command were supported by volunteer airmen from fifteen nations, and as more squadrons joined the fray the battle raged towards the capital until the Bf109s turned for home. The Few were finally turning the tide of the Battle of Britain. |
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