Battle of Britain

For John, BLUF:  "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the Royal Air Force we have this web post announcing the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Britain.  Here is the key paragraph:

The Battle of Britain began on 10 July 1940 with a series of Luftwaffe attacks on shipping convoys off England’s south-east coast.  On that day, the RAF shot down 14 enemy aircraft and severely damaged 23 more, according to the then Air Ministry. Some 200 patrols were flown involving 641 aircraft.

Here is one of the flybys.

Here is the last paragraph of the article:

The battle ranks alongside the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo as one of the most significant in British history.  It was the first major battle in history fought entirely in the air and was the first significant strategic defeat for the Nazis during World War II.

And here is the "enhanced" Changing of the Guard at Buck House.

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Incidentally, this is also the anniversary of the birth of one of my Front Seaters, when I was an F-4 Back Seater in the Big 22, Bitburg AB, Germany.  We used to deploy to North Africa for weapons training and my Front Seater and I did Functional Check Flights (FCF) on aircraft that had undergone major maintenance, like engine changes.  Because our Wing had Fish Call Signs (like "Trout") for the dozen aircraft deployed to Libya, we flew FCFs as WHALE TEST.  This the tactical call sign for this chap of "Whale".  About four years later I was leading a flight of F-4s from Korat RTAFB onto a Tanker (for air refueling), over Cambodia,a when I heard WHALE check in his flight, from Udorn RTAFB to also refuel.  I mashed the mic button and said "Whale?"  The immediate response was "Flowers?" (a nickname I had picked up at Da Nang seven years earlier.  Incidentally, WHALE had been my wife's late husband's roommate during a deployment to Okinawa, where he died in an aircraft accident.  That was before I knew my wife or the WHALE.

Regards  —  Cliff