Battle of Britain? 40% of young people don't know what it is
 

http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/hi...-invasion.html

What is wrong with 'young people' these days? Do they not even watch the 1969 film any more? Do they not know who Susannah York was? (Beagle that's your opportunity for an input). Is this the freedom that the Few bought so dearly so that 10% of 'young people' can believe that it was fought against the Vikings & a similar proportion that it actually took place last year? An urgent remedy is called for - perhaps a new X box game - Call of Duty, Battle of Britain - with an option to play a cigar chewing Yank flying a P51 against hordes of incoming Nazi planes flown by blonde Aryan cyborgs created by evil scientists in concentration camps. That should address the lack of history education in schools.

Nurse, I think my medication needs topping up.

Unfortunately, between the Normans, the Tudors and the rise of Hitler (but not what came after) anything else struggles to get a look in during history lessons.

But I thought the Vikings were on our side?? ;)

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...iking-T1-1.png

Speaking of the anniversary, does anyone know if there is a full 75th flypast planned or is the BBMF and four ship this weekend really all we're going to get?

1962
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads...x250-30503.jpg

2010
http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/5/...annah_York.jpg

Thanks to the media now aimed at the lowest common denominator. Such as the tabloid papers and trashy daytime TV. People these days are dumbed down. No wonder the govt gets away with fuel duty, a 1% payrise for us while a £19,000 payrise for the MP's themselves. "We're all in this together".

Hempy: a little unfair on the late Ms York methinks. We all age, those of us fortunate enough to survive long enough anyway. How about posting a more appropriate picture of her, in WAAF 'undress' perhaps?

Hempy that can't be her! Must be some unknown younger sister.


Now THIS is Susannah York! :ok:

( Ken Scott you owe me ;) )


Front...

http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/a...ain_docsc2.jpg


Back...

https://everardcunion.files.wordpres...usannayork.jpg


Sideways...

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...l1952/BoB2.jpg


On her back... :E

http://40.media.tumblr.com/719458e18...01wo1_1280.jpg



And still highly desirable even in WAF regalia!

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5086/5...568ac6f8_b.jpg

A side step from the BoB,

Someone I knew who I was friends with on Book Face (I hasten to add I am no longer friends with) commented on another friends post with the following;

RIP Nelson (relating to the late Nelson Mandela) - you were a hero!

My 'friend' didn't he die at sea.

'You mean Horatio Nelson'

'Friend' - Do I.

Genuinely cretinous, no idea about anything.

Not only was history at school a personal favourite of mine, but also its respectful to know and understand about the most basic of British history.

Sadly the only things most 'youngsters' care about now are Vajazzles and Celeb Big brother!

**I'm 23 btw** - and don't do either of the above :E

Battle of Britain? 40% of young people don't know what it is
 

Yowsah.........

.. and those who cannot remember Celeb Big Brother are condemned to repeat it.

Or summat..

Once worked with a highly educated wench (MSc in Chem Eng) in her early 30s who thought D-Day had taken place in the 18th C. When put right, she exclaimed, "Well how do you expect me to know that? It was before I was born..!"

I heard a few years ago that UK schools had combined History and Geography and taught it as "Humanities"?

Or the Cold War, the Korean War, Suez, 6-Day, Yom Kippur, Falklands .
.

Met a young Latvian, Latvia was always an independent State, never heard of the Cold War.

Martin le M, it is left to University, if you are so inclined, to fill in the gap. Some good TV programmes by historians, but not the incredulous young presenters revealing for the first time what was common knowledge at the time.

The Battle of Britain. Wasn't that North Melbourne v's Carlton at The Oval, 1986?

No, but they know all about the Slave Trade ! And some can even read and write !


mikedreamer787,

Them were the days !

Danny.

Before the outrage bus gets too full remember that the Battle of Britain is as distant from modern yoof as the relief of Mafeking was for those of us of a certain age. Then again we did get schooling in southern African wars courtesy of Michael Caine.

Of course Michael Caine was in the "Battle of Britain" too.
Canfield "Either we take off or blow up"
No mention of it being just the doors.

....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"?


If people are not told then they cannot know..... those of us who come from what is called the "Airfix Generation" and were brought up reading "Captain Hurricane" and "Battler Britain" in Valiant comic etc with twice weekly reminders of the War in "All Our Yesterdays" on TV knew about these events. Todays youth have no inkling about what happened unless of course they have a Spitfire/Lancaster PS3 game.


This is why it is important to maintain RAF Station Heritage Centres where the "new" recruits can learn about this - and why it is important for our leaders to ensure that they visit! My experience is that the current crop of RA intake rarely, if ever, visit such places and their supervisors who do not send them there should be ashamed!!

As an aside, today's events have taken me a bit by surprise. I know the significance of 19th July as being the date when the B o B is deemed to have started, but dont we usually commemorate it on or around 15th September, generally considered to be the climax of the battle? Anyone know if there are further events planned for September?

September is probably too close to the next SDSR for the MOD's comfort!

TTN. Surely it is now traditional to commemorate the start as well as the end - two for one so to speak.

[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.