Today marked the 70th anniversary of Winston Churchill's famous speech about "The Few"....
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed
by so many to so few"
To commemorate the occasion and the brave pilots, a Spitfire and Hurricane of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight made a whistle stop tour today of many former RAF airfields active during the conflict.
Several key front line fighter bases were located in Kent including Biggin Hill, West Malling and Gravesend.
Kent was a ideal due to it's proximity both to London and to the German airfields only a few miles away across the English Channel in France.
Kent was a ideal due to it's proximity both to London and to the German airfields only a few miles away across the English Channel in France.
As you travel around Kent today, you often come across poignant reminders of the events of 1940 such as at the Garden of Remembrance at Manston airport (adjacent to the Hurricane and Spitfire Memorial which I wrote about in an earlier post).
The Shoreham Aircraft Museum is erecting memorials to all the Battle of Britain pilots who died within a ten mile radius of Shoreham. I came across this one to Flight Lieutenant James Alfred Paterson M.B.E. of the Royal New Zealand Air Force in Sparepenny Lane, Farningham during one of my recent Darent Valley walks.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have found this post of interest. Other posts from the archives you may like...The Meopham Air Disaster
Visit to West Malling
Posts
Lovely photographs.
ReplyDeleteI live on the Essex/Suffolk border and there were literally 100's of air bases around here during the War. Most of our villages have memorials to fighter and bomber squadrons.
Yesterday we say a Spitfire, Hurricane and a Lancaster fly over - heading down your way for the tribute fly past. Moving stuff eh?