Never attended the Service, and first time I've watched it on TV. Very impressed. The current RAF represented from LAC to CAS. The Central Band and QCS as always doing us all proud. The flypast was brilliant, and twice for the price of one! Above all though those very modest veterans who no doubt in their minds are still the same young men who fought those frenetic, terrifying, and often bewildering battles day after day, often twice or thrice a day. They of course were there not so much in their own right as to pay tribute to and remember those who gave their lives.
The Royal Air Force is rightly proud of those of all ranks who served in Fighter Command in 1940/41. It is of course equally proud of those in other Commands and indeed in its overseas Air Forces, or should be. However if Fighter Command had failed to deny the Luftwaffe daylight Air Superiority then, all else would be irrelevant. We would have sued for peace eventually, invasion or no invasion. That is why we give thanks. That is why we remained free.