BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1940) - Respecting THE FEW.

I hope all the emails have helped! I actually live in Biggin Hill and a couple of months ago the re-decorated the outside in camo colours and also decorated it with large RAF symbols, it looks really good (and far, far better than before!) I hope it won't be knocked down like all the old RAF sections of Biggin Hill are :rage:

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/yoursh...0640.0.scrambling_to_save_cafe_4_comments.php

There is a picture of Scrambles on the link above!

Looks like there's been a fairly good amount of support coming out so far, I just hope it does some good. That's for the update, Maisie!

And if anyone out there wants to join in but hasn't got around to it yet, there's still time to send an email...

PADDY,

I modified my annual Battle of Britain speech as a letter and sent it to Biggin Hill - I hope it helps. I have copied it below.

Regards,
Michael

To the editor of Biggin Hill News,

I am writing to protest the destruction of the Scramble Cafe at Biggin Hill. I am an American, but I grew up in Weybridge, Surrey, the city over which Battle of Britain Day fighting started Sept. 15, 1940.

The Battle of Britain is an extremely important event that people need to recognize, so let me take a moment to share this with you.

September 15. Here in the U.S., it doesn't mean much, but it should. Great Britain marks September 15 as Battle of Britain Day, and on this day in 1940 in the skies over London, an aerial siege that had gone on for over two months was finally broken.

Many Americans still bask in the glory of WWII and remember the sacrifices of brave soldiers at Pearl Harbor, Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, and in the skies over Europe in the Flying Fortresses. However, few Americans know that before December 7, 1940, the United States was strictly neutral and isolationist.

Europe was begging for help, literally being overrun by the darkest evil ever manifested in man. The Nazis, it seemed, could not be stopped. As Poland, Belgium, and Holland fell and the French surrendered, one tiny island nation found itself alone with its back to the sea, the last hold-out against Hitler's armies.

They begged for help. The U.S. sent supplies, but remained isolationist in the grand scheme. Britain was alone, with a devastated army swimming back from Dunkirk, and a badly outnumbered group of Royal Air Force pilots being the only line of defense against the still advancing Luftwaffe. As many have dubbed it, this was history's narrowest margin.

These brave pilots, whom Winston Churchill dubbed "the Few," flew day and night against the seemingly endless Nazi bombers and fighters. In Hurricanes and Spitfires, they held the line, but just barely - many dying in the skies or maimed beyond recognition. These were men defending their homes, with no thought of running. Of course, there was no where to run to, except the Atlantic.

These pilots' sacrifices effectively stopped Hitler's unstoppable advance. They faced daunting odds, often 4 to 1, but they held their ground. Were it not for them, D-Day might never have been, nor North Africa, for there would have been no effective staging ground to launch a counterattack against Fortress Europe.

In short, the RAF pilots who flew and died in The Battle of Britain gave freedom a slim chance of succeeding - they carved out hope with their blood.

The Scramble Cafe is a moment in history and its preservation is an opportunity, no, a responsibility to remember these men; every - single - pilot who died so the world might live.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. " - Winston Churchill

The destruction of the Scramble Cafe will be a shameful moment in Biggin Hill's history if it is allowed.

Thanks for reading this,
Mike French (no relation to the nation)

This support is just marvellous!

Really, really appreciate the time and effort you folk are putting in to help save a little piece of WW2 heritage. If we don't 'try,' then the developers and councils and local govt. will just walk all over things like this and nothing will be left for the generations who come after us. Thank you one an all for keeping this support going.

PADDY said:

Really, really appreciate the time and effort you folk are putting in to help save a little piece of WW2 heritage. If we don't 'try,' then the developers and councils and local govt. will just walk all over things like this and nothing will be left for the generations who come after us. Thank you one an all for keeping this support going.

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Every time a developer knocksdown a part of our heritage without opposition, it becomes easier for the next one to do the same thing. Two minutes to stand up for places like these is an awful lot less than the men and women we remember gave, and is the very least we can do.

I don't know if the plan for Scrambles to be knocked down is still going ahead, but when the article about it was published it said it would be closing on the 14th August if it was to go ahead. I might go up there an have look to see if its still open.

I have just been past there this afternoon and i'm sad to say that there are diggers outside with a pile of rubble to the back so plans to knock this piece of history is taking place.

That stinks to high heaven!

I am unable to post my inital reaction in this forum, but suffice to say that I am less than happy.

I'm so sorry...

I really thought we could have done something, I really thought we could...

I'm just gutted by this latest news, I feel stone cold over it...what is it with this throw away world of ours today that people feel they can just run rough shod over our heritage????

Airfield

Is there still a airbase there? I know this is the last of August, but i hope it survives.......these things need to be saved or eventually they will be forgotten....Ron

Support from the (or a) Dutch

Paddy,

Took up your suggestion and wrote to the editor too, using the link you provided. I suppose every little helps, even if it is from foreign lands. We were allies in the war though, that should count!

peter

Battle of Britain Day

today, Sept 15th, is Battle of Britain day. It's the official day of rememberance, but nothing much ever happens. Every now and then someone suggests it should be a public holiday, but heaven forbid that Brits should actually stop working now and then. Anyway, I always mark it, even if all i do is get my Battle of Britain collection out of its boxes or look at a few websites

http://www.battleofbritain.net/0041.html
http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/september15.html

BoB Day (to the Few)

""Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few."
" (WS Churchill).

"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour."

We will remember them. (thanks for that post).

Churchill knew how to turn a phrase! As did the pilots - many of them were owed large amounts of back pay and they turned that into "..has so much been owed to so many by so few" !

The Few

Paddy - I believe Winston said:
"Never in the field of human conflict was so mch owed by so many to so few."
He sure had his way with words.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your tea."
Churchill: "If I were your husband, I would drink it!"

Besides that I agree. Let us never forget the few. The fighterboys of 1940.
They made a difference!

WW2,Battle of Britain and The Handlebar Club

For many Londoners(and Brits),the Battle of Britain defined WW2.Out of this came "the few",who saved the country from invasion and destruction.
But a little known fact is how many from this distinguished group,and RAF fighters in general,started the handlebar moustache club in London.
I won't give the complete history,but WW2 buffs might delight in reading about this at:
http://www.handlebarclub.co.uk/history.htm

And i'm very proud to say i'm a member!!!!
Grow moustache,grow!!!

JD

Battle of Britain colour amateur footage

This has been floating around for sometime now but I thought that Battle of Britain enthusiasts here at FL who haven't seen this would like to...

mms://212.58.224.52/news/media/news_web/video/41144000/bb/41144739_bb_16x9.wmv

This is the only known example of colour amateur footage of a Battle of Britain dogfight. Enjoy!

Smithy said:

This has been floating around for sometime now but I thought that Battle of Britain enthusiasts here at FL who haven't seen this would like to...

mms://212.58.224.52/news/media/news_web/video/41144000/bb/41144739_bb_16x9.wmv

This is the only known example of colour amateur footage of a Battle of Britain dogfight. Enjoy!

Click to expand...

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap Thanks for sharing. Never seen it before.