Dragging this one up from the depths (pun intended), “The Flag” is actually a b@st@rdised version of “Engelandlied” which is a Kaiserliche Marine (German Imperial Navy) song. You can see the similarities in the song (give it a chance as it takes a wee while to get going!).
Now what is the connection to the RAF? Well, in 1940 the Nazi propaganda machine re-recorded the song and made postcards for the Luftwaffe, Weirmacht and Kriegsmarine for their service personnel to use - the song was “Engelandlied” or otherwise known as
wir fahren gegen Engeland. The song was also constantly played on the radio and the RAF Aircrew picked up on it and made their up their own version (suitably embellished to take the p!ss out of their enemies). Here is a postcard example:
Here is the Stuka version:
This is the later version, which is very similar, but is slowed down to something many of us might recognise:
So it is an RAF Aircrew tradition that goes back to 1940, the Battle of Britain and The Few. We should ensure that the story is remembered for future generations to realise the debt we all owe to The Few and how the started the very beginning of the end.