[QUOTE]Battle of Britain? 40% of young people don't know what it is][/QUOTE

Which means 60% do know. That was a pass mark when I was in:)

I suspect the average kid is more concerned with their own finest 15 minutes on YouTube, rather than Britain's Finest Hour.

Gentlemen, whatever reasons Britons have served in our forces, I'm sure many of us felt that we were trying to uphold a standard set by those, in particular, who served in WW2. Whatever, from their sacrifice to our service it was all done to ensure the freedom and democracy of our nation, and the rights of self determination of our children. As has been said, it's a damn shame that consecutive governments have dumned down our native history, in favour of giving a false prospective that we are no longer "British" but "a multicultural society" ! I'm not multicultural, I'm a native Briton, and anyone who thinks they can tell me otherwise can insert it anally (and I do not mean once a year). My children will decide the future of our country, both of them are aware of the sacrifice to give them that choice. What a shame that so many youngsters will prioritise the latest update to "Terror Op 2015" rather than reality.

Smudge

....and how many of the modern RAF believe the film that it was Fighter Command that caused the withdrawal of the German invasion fleet and not Bomber Command attacks on the Channel Ports during the "Battle of the Barges"? - Wensleydale

Probably not the ones who are aware of

BBC - History - Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain (pictures, video, facts & news)

Jack

An engaging piece from 2009 by the always-entertaining Clive James, chiding those ignorant of the history of the BofB:

BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View, The Man on the Fourth Plinth

Battle of the Barges
 

À propos of nothing at all, the enormous popularity of the "Harry Potter" series has always surprised me. I read (my daughter's !) first one to see what all the fuss was about.

Turns out it's just a fairy story for young adults. Typical ! At least our generation was more into Kipling, "Biggles of the Camel Squadron", and the like, which had both feet in recent history.

Country's gone to the dogs, by Gad, Carruthers ! :(

Danny42C.

And then there's this travesty from the Indy...
 

Battle of Britain 75th anniversary: The staggering numbers behind the four-month war over UK's skies - Home News - UK - The Independent


plural of aircraft is aircrafts? Since when....

Westminster Abbey
 

I heard from a bloke down the pub that serving SNCOs were not welcome to represent their Squadrons at the Battle of Britain Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey on 20 Sep. Officers only.

What percentage of BoB pilots were SNCOs?

http://www.spitfiresite.com/photos/historic/uploaded_images/so-few-poster-741209.jpg

I sincerely hope that the "bloke down the pub" was talking through his
alpha-hole !

D.

TTN:

10 July is the date that we consider the Battle of Britain to have started, with 31 October as the end. I believe the Germans have different dates.

I remember being at Abingdon for the airshow on the 50th anniversary, with the 168-aircraft flypast. I shudder to think how many we will get airborne for this year.

Yes that's true, Mickey. I was just commenting that in the past, B of B commemorations have centred around 15 Sep. Thats when you saw all the volunteers out rattling their tins collecting for the RAF Benevolent Fund etc. I also suspect your Abingdon airshow was in September

Hoping there'll be more to come in September this year.

There was a cartoon in The Oldie a couple of months back. HM is on the balcony watching a flypast something along the lines of yesterday's affair.

"No ma'am" says a flunkey standing behind her, "thats not the memorial flight, that's your Air Force!"

:(

Oh, where, oh where, has our little RAF gone ?
 

TTN,

Love it ! Best joke for quite a while, I wonder if H.M. ever thinks back to her 1953 Coronation Review ?

D.

So 60% have heard of it? That's a) slightly more than I'd have guessed, b) a lot more than could point to, say, the site of the battle of Kursk which contributed immensely more to Hitler's defeat.

Ah yes, Shot One - an important battle, but one wonders had the Battle of Britain been lost and Seelowe successful (or indeed had Britain surrendered) then Germany would be fighting on only one front and perhaps....just perhaps, Kursk would not have happened.

Churchill had the last, prophetic word: "Hitler knows that he must break us in these islands or lose the war !"

He did not "break us in these islands" (the BoB played the prime part in that), and he lost the war.

If he had broken us, then (as Wensleydale says), he would have been in a position to devote all his manpower and material to his 1941 second "Blitzkrieg", which (he hoped) would be a repeat performance of 1940. And he might well have succeeded. Who knows ?

Danny42C.

True..indeed if we're doing "what-if's", how about if we didn't "surrender" but simply chose to sit out a Russo-German war and watch as two evil mass-murderers ripped each other's guts out?

Its probably because there are too many battles to remember.
 

And while I'm on,personally I think we have too many of these quasi remember this or remember that days. I get sick of them. The wars long over. The fighters are practically all dead. That generation has gone. I thanked them repeatedly when they were alive, but they are nearly all gone and its time to move on. Keep it simple, have 1 full day of remembrance in November (like we used to) and move on.
We glory in this too much, at times. Recently, it seems all the time.

HS, I think I know what you mean. Indeed the thanks while they were alive was pretty limited. One association of which I was a member, had its official MOD support withdrawn after the 60th. The survivors will have their 72nd in September.

Thread drift, but on the subject of WWII, think how much we owe to Wallis Simpson. But for her, we would have had Edward VIII on the throne. I gather he was quite a fan of Hitler, and would probably have welcomed him.