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Today! 85 years since the Germans launched their biggest attack of the BoB on London. It kind of marks the period of time they began to realise it was a battle they weren’t going to win.
58 German aircraft lost with a further 20 seriously damaged. The RAF lost 29 with 21 damaged. The day was subject to massive over claiming. From the British perspective most of it was by class A idiot Leigh-Mallory’s 12 Group with their unwieldy impractical ‘Big Wing’ promoted by Bader. But the propaganda figure of 185 was allowed to stand.
The Germans similarly over claimed with far graver consequences. They believed through rubbish intelligence that the RAF was down to the bare bones. It wasn’t, though losses of experienced pilots was a problem for Dowding. This misread by the Luftwaffe led to confusion, recriminations and further unnecessary losses. It could be argued that the Luftwaffe never truly recovered from its defeat in the summer of 1940.
Regardless, German daylight attacks began to reduce in scale after mid September and while engagements continued throughout the autumn the pressure on Fighter Command progressively relaxed. The Blitz followed, but while this led to a lot of death and destruction, that was never going to force Britain’s hand.
One famous incident was the destruction of Oberleutnant Zehbe’s KG76 Dornier 17Z. It developed engine trouble and fell behind the formation. It was attacked by plenty of RAF fighters to the point where it was shot to hell. Sgt Ray Holmes spotted it and attacked and collided with it. He said that the tail looked fragile so attempted to knock it off with his wing. He did just that. This account by him differs from his combat report but regardless the Dornier was filmed pitching down, outboard wings ripped off and tail gone.
The aircraft fell on Victoria Station and the surrounding streets. Some of the bombs hit Buckingham Palaces and Holmes’ Hurricane crashed on the crossroads in between. Holmes parachuted and survived that and the war. The German pilot Zehbe parachuted and landed in Kennington. Women attacked him basically with anything they could get their hands on. He died of his wounds the following day. Two other crew members survived, another died in the aircraft.
Today I asked 3 adults under 40 and one at 55 about the Battle of Britain. I am sad to say none of them knew what or when it was.
This is a serious indictment on our education system.
How can we expect them to acknowledge our country when they do not even know about when we stood alone to save democracy in Europe and the actions of the "few".
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Battle of Britain Day on 20:46 - Sep 15 with 248 views
Today I asked 3 adults under 40 and one at 55 about the Battle of Britain. I am sad to say none of them knew what or when it was.
This is a serious indictment on our education system.
How can we expect them to acknowledge our country when they do not even know about when we stood alone to save democracy in Europe and the actions of the "few".
They are just listening to the wrong modern music:
Today I asked 3 adults under 40 and one at 55 about the Battle of Britain. I am sad to say none of them knew what or when it was.
This is a serious indictment on our education system.
How can we expect them to acknowledge our country when they do not even know about when we stood alone to save democracy in Europe and the actions of the "few".
Sadly too many people have forgotten or never bothered to learn about what we were fighting against and why. Both my teenagers are aware of the BoB. It’s still covered in school - hopefully that’ll long continue although you do wonder how much coverage it will still get after all this time and now no pilots remain after the death of John “Paddy” Hemingway earlier this year. Heroes the lot of them.
Battle of Britain Day on 21:09 - Sep 15 by Swansea_Blue
Sadly too many people have forgotten or never bothered to learn about what we were fighting against and why. Both my teenagers are aware of the BoB. It’s still covered in school - hopefully that’ll long continue although you do wonder how much coverage it will still get after all this time and now no pilots remain after the death of John “Paddy” Hemingway earlier this year. Heroes the lot of them.
Talking of heroes, the obituary of the last surviving combatant to have won the Victoria Cross was in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago, although he didn't serve in the RAF until a bit later in the war.
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