Battle of Britain

Last night there was a very enjoyable 1½ hours on BBC 2 TV in which actor Ewen McGregor and his brother Colin related the story of the Battle of Britain and took the opportunity to fly in a Spitfire. Elder brother Colin is an RAF pilot who flies Tornados and has served in Iraq. He took Ewen for a high speed flight in his Tornado before he [Colin] took some lessons in flying old aeroplanes - starting with a Tiger Moth and then progressing to a Harvard trainer. After that his instructor was happy that he could have a go in a two seater Spitfire. Although even for an RAF pilot this was still a boyhood dream come true, I was slightly surprised that most of his problems in flying the Spitfire were on the ground. Of course the Spitfire has a tail wheel and a very long nose so it's almost impossible to see what you are doing while on the ground. Added to that steering on the ground is not easy. He had a very good take-off but his landing was a bit ropey. Later Ewen was given a flight in the Spitfire - with the instructor at the controls, not Colin - and he was like a child with a box of toys and sweets. He was gob-smacked and over-joyed at having the opportunity to fly in the most iconic aeroplane in British history. Then with an ex Hurricane pilot from 1940 they watched as his old aeroplane - the only Hurricane survivor from the Battle of Britain still flying - flew low across Kent. I do not generally feel any envy for the rich and famous or for their life-styles. But this was an exception. I was very envious of their having the opportunity to fly in a Spitfire. They enjoyed its a lot. I once made a control line flying model of a Spitfire, which was built with much loving care and attention. The Spitfire may have triumphantly survived from WW II but my Spitfire model could not survive my mother's cleaning jobs. Somehow she contrived to drop a door onto my Spitfire and it never flew again.

As background to this messing about in aeroplanes they recounted the days of August and September 1940 and did it very well, talking to some of the few veterans still alive and visiting the operations room, Biggin Hill and so on. One thing that struck me was a comment from one of the veterans when he responded to a question from Ewen - while Ewen & Colin were talking to two of them in a pub. Asked if they suffered from a loss of morale when their comrades were killed or did they just get on with the job, he said that they just got in with it. "After all," he said, " with only a few exceptions, we were not really close friends. We had only met them for the first time in July." I never thought of it like that before, but I suppose it had to be true of men who joined up, learned to fly and spent as little as 10 hours in a Spifire before being sent into dog-fights.

We seem to be giving very wide coverage of the anniversary of the Battle of Britain this year. I suppose it has to be that by the time the 80th anniversary comes around few, if any, of the veterans will still be alive - they would have to be at least 98 years old in 2020.

During last night's programme, I was also struck by the comments about how superior the Spitfire was to most [if not all] other fighter aircraft of the time. Nowadays, it is fashionable for the chattering classes, even the intelligent ones - you know, those with degrees in Politics, Philosophy & Economics - to tell us that we are no good at technology and that we have to buy everything from foreigners. Maybe we need to re-look at that idea and consider that perhaps we are not actually very good at financial and economic management.

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