HereI present an album of colour photographs of the brave RAF pilots and the airplanes they flew during the Second World War... Music: Spitfire Fugue - from the film 'The First Of The Few'
The picture of the Lancaster crew has my Grandad in it! he's second from the right. He was the tail gunner and he survived to tell the tale, Heroe's all of them.
The young man at 1min 37secs - in the khaki BD top - brought a tear to my eye. He could be my younger son of today. Respect and love to all of them. RIP to those who were KIA or died of wounds. When come such others? 🇬🇧🇨🇦🇺🇸🇳🇿
My late aunt was a plotter at biggin hill during the battle of Britain and reading her diary 80 years ago what she and her colleagues went through was outstanding but she always said she was just doing a job god bless her and her colleagues for giving us our freedom
Today is Battle of Britain Day 15th September 2020 eighty years since the Battle of Britain was fought! May I offer my heartfelt thanks to them all, the air crews and to everyone who gave their all, and I will promise never to forget you all. Thank you!
Such brave men and women. Impossible to thank them enough. How lucky we were to have such wonderful beautiful people. God bless each and every one of them.
Notably one of the photos was of the RAAF featuring an Australian fighter plane, the Boomerang, which is maybe the most optimistic name you can have for a fighting aircraft.
Hi Nigel, thank you so much for sharing this video, my uncle Alf was in the RAF flying those planes. Even after the war he stayed in the RAF until retirement. 😊😊😊😊🐱🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Don't forget the many ground crew without which the pilots would not have had planes to fly. Everyone was important in this fight but it is easy and quite natural to forget the unglamorous network of support. God bless them all.
Correction: In the days when boys became men . . . Almost instantly. So many of them were only in their ‘teens. Today, they would still be in High School. I was five years too young to be in the military but i do recall RAF personnel visiting our school to encourage the lads of school leaving age to sign up for duty. What a terrible waste of young human lives. Today’s politicians have squandered the legacy these young lads left us. I hate to think what those young heroes would have to say about the young people of today.
This video came just at the right time (115 days in hospital). My father served in the Royal Air Force & I miss him so much. As for those in the photos ... all so young. In particular, I bet the crews of the bombers wished they had safe spaces to go to.
@@michaelshore2300 did not fight in aircraft, perhaps. They contributed many roles in support of the Battle of Britain from radar, dispatch etc without which the aircraft would have been less effective.
@@adrianjackson2696 There is an excellent documentary available about the ATA girls. They were so brave, flying unarmed aircraft to wherever the were required, this included Heavy Bombers. We owe so much to this generation of Heroes and it is our Duty, never to allow them to be forgotten.
I've always been in awe of these blokes. All the more remarkable that the service was only 20 years old when they fought the battle of Britain and only on monoplanes for a couple of years. Outnumbered and outgunned but still won. I love reading the pilot accounts. Bomber command were even more extraordinary when you take into account the casualty rates and all the conditions they flew in. We will never see the like of those boys ever again. War should be an outmoded concept now with the way the world is. Its no longer necessary and just cynical now. Their war was necessary
Hi Andrew, you have to read "Men of Air" by Kevin Wilson. It is all about Britain's bombing campaign in and after 1943. Some of the Aircrew stories are amazing and you find it hard to believe that after hearing a terrifying story of a Lancaster, shot to pieces and going down in flames with crew members killed or badly wounded that one or more survived to take up the story after Kevin's narration. You sadly also realise that the crews were pretty expendable and that when one crew were lost another was immediately put in their place. They were almost a disposable commodity!! Terribly sad that as volunteers they were used like this and overlooked after the war!! The book is a "must read" Andrew. Regards, Dave.
amazing photographs showing the human side of these people, what ever happened to these kind of folk and how would they feel, having put their lives on the line, with the society we now have ... i am deeply saddened by the deaths of those who made the sacrifice for what
I am a bit of an RAF buff so wanted to see if I recognised anyone in the photos and low and behold the first picture was of "Dickie" Lee and "zulu" Lewis. Lee died on the 18th August 1940 and was last seen by Peter Townsend chasing 3 109's across the Channel when he was very low on fuel. Townsend kept calling him back but he chased on. I also recognised:- Brian Kingcome Geoffrey Wellum Lettuce Curtis Eddie Edwards Sailor Malan Grubby Grice Les Munro Guy Gibson Eric Ball Douglas Bader Willie Mcknight Ginger Lacey Billy Drake Johnnie Johnson Maureen Dunlop Screwball Beueling Jan Zumbach Johnny Kent & Cobber Kain. All great heroes. Dave.
Fantastic pictures, thanks for posting. Just young men but to me they look like boys but that would disrespect them. Just makes you wonder how many of them in the photos made it to the end? Heroes the lot of them.
Thank you to them from France, may them Rest in PEACE. One of my grand father became prisoner of war in Arras, the other one was a butcher and had an ausweiss for carrying catle, he joined resistancy and helped allied aviators to hide and drive them to a secure place to be back in England. Before operation Overlord he took part in destroying of telephone lines... taking the risk to be killed and our family to be deported in concentration camps.
I have huge respect for your Grandfather and all those brave men and women of the resistance, many of whom gave their lives for the liberation of France and in assisting the Allies. They should never be forgotten, best wishes from the UK.
Magnificent video, very beautiful and interesting, tells about the peaceful and military everyday life of English pilots. Thank you very much, my dear Nigel! Have a good day! Hugs and kisses!
Thank you very much, my dearest Natasha for your visit and comment, I am pleased you enjoyed the se historic photos about the lives of our brave pilots... Hugs and kisses for an enjoyable weekend! Nigel
Wonderful and moving video. My father flew Hurricanes with 607 squadron at Manston and Spits in the Far East. Makes me fill up when I hear that music and see the old photos. Thanks for posting.
I was flown to 3,200 ft by Ginger Lacey (who was in one of the photgraphs) over Grindale near Bridlington in 1977.....whereupon I jumped out, as did everybody else..except Ginger. He is the pilot in the flying gear and scarf surrounded by officers at 2.37.
True heroes that we never post something about them in social media such a shame .all of them had balls of steels .respect on this man that gave their life’s for peace and freedom .
Great photos Nigel. My father maintained many of those aircraft throughout the war and I still have many of his wartime aircraft photos. Fast forward a few years, after my family left England, and I was a 20 year old RAAF pilot flying F-86 Sabres.My father spent his life in aviation related industry as have I. Thank you very much for those wonderful images.
...and I thank you for your comment, Roy . I read with great interest. The exhilaration of flying a F-86 must have been tremendous. I take my hat off to you...
I’ve just come across this excellent video. Well done! The pilot at 2:50 is the famous ace AVM James “Johnnie”Johnson and his dog Sally who followed him on ops across Europe after D-Day. Great image 👍
0:42 The pilot on the right is George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling, Canadian RAF ace piloting Spitfire in 2nd. World War and hero in Malta, considered by many to be the best RAF fighter pilot in the war, killed in a plane crash in 1948, aged 26.
My grandad was crew member of Pe-2 bomber on Eastern Front, flew 32 combat missions. He passed away in 1991. Thought of him looking at the photos of British airmen.
When I was at 38000 feet I thought how scary it would be if there were people outside wanting to shoot me down. Yet those bomber crews did it time and again.
The average age 19 years old flying a Spitfire the Ferrie of the sky and some one else paying for the petrol. Average life expectancy 4 weeks for a Battle of Britain Pilot .
Spitfire at the 2:45 mark is loading up with a precious and valuable “cargo”. Fresh beer from local breweries was delivered to the Normandy front by Spitfire in external wing fuel tanks.
i drank with geoffrey wellum in the local pub and lived next door to him in cornwall and also he gave me tips on how to fly a spit fire which i use in DCS world flight simulator to this day
That's great Chris!! Big respect for Geoffrey Wellum. In the Airforce at 17 and fighting Germans in the Battle of Britain soon after! I could barely scratch my arse at 17 leave alone go up and face the might of the Luftwaffe!! Heroes all Sir! Dave.
One of the things that these pictures don't really show is how much smaller people were back then. If you ever see any of these uniforms from that time period, you will be amazed at just how little people used to be. People now are GIANTS compared to the size of people that came of age in the 1930's, 40's and even the 50's.
We all know today how short the Queen is relative to most people today; however, if you look at pictures of her with people before she became Queen, you will see that relatively to the people of that time, she was not that short. It just is that today, she is kind of a time capsule of how much smaller people used to be. And a lot of the reason is better health care in the past 50 years and more meat from animals that contain growth hormone. One of the things that is in very stark contrast is how extremely huge the feet of millennials are. 50 years ago as size 13 shoe was unheard of for a man. I remember very well because it was my foot size. The average size of shoe for a man when I was young used to be 8 and for height, anything above 5 ft. 8 inches for a man was considered tall!
My uncle flew as RCAF Tail Gunner in a B24 Liberator 28 times into Germany in the spring & summer 1944. The attrition rate was 50% dead. His crew amazingly came thru with only a few minor wounds. They had a lot of Joss. All 9 of them became multi millionaires later in their lives in the UK, Canada & NZL.
Rightmarker's comment on the young pilot in Desert Airforce BD says a lot! Was not able to get a driving license and yet was allowed at 18/19 yrs old to aggressively prosecute war on others!! Very strange but good brave young men that we must all be eternally thankful for their sacrifices! May they rest in peace. PS somebody must know his name?
