“While the spotlight is naturally upon the Few, clearly there are countless others who lost their lives during the ‘Finest Hour.’”
By Dilip Sarkar
“NEVER IN THE field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Winston Churchill spoke these dramatic words now synonymous with the Battle of Britain on Aug. 20, 1940.
His tribute was part of a speech to the House of Commons, a condensed form of which was later broadcast to the nation and free world. In it the prime minister paid homage to the aircrew of Royal Air Force Fighter Command, who, at that very moment, were fighting and dying in the skies over southern England to stop Germany’s Luftwaffe from achieving aerial supremacy as the prelude to a seaborne invasion of Great Britain.
With Churchill’s speech, the legend of “the Few” was born.
Two years later, Britain’s Air Ministry compiled a list of those of “the Few” who had perished during the Battle of Britain, intending to commemorate them individually by name on a national memorial.
It was decided that for the purposes of the monument, “the battle” was fought between July 10 and Oct. 31, 1940. But these are surely arbitrary dates.
The battle’s first phase actually began on July 2 in the skies above the Channel convoys. Moreover, the climax to the daytime air battles came on Sept. 15, 1940, the anniversary of which is now commemorated annually as Battle of Britain Day. Two days later Hitler indefinitely postponed Operation Seelöwe, the proposed invasion of southern England. Arguably, then, July 2, 1940 would have been a more appropriate start-date for the Battle of Britain, and Sept. 17, a more fitting conclusion.
The 1939-45 Star is a campaign medal issued to those serving in British and Commonwealth units during the Second World War. Two clasps were instituted, worn on the medal ribbon: Battle of Britain and Bomber Command.
To qualify for the coveted Battle of Britain Clasp, an airman must have flown at least one operational sortie between July 10 and Oct. 31, 1940 as a member of one of 71 Fighter Command or associated accredited units. The Roll of Honour numbers some 2,900 men, 544 of whom were killed or reported missing in action during the battle, a further 791 perishing before the Second World War ended.
Many survivors would join the exulted Battle of Britain Fighter Association, membership of which was exclusive to clasp-holders. The names of all of the Few are revered and remembered on the Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall at the National Memorial near Folkestone, and on Westminster’s London Monument. Immense pride is, rightly, attached to being one of the fabled Few or, indeed, having such a relative. Sadly, only one member of the association is alive today.
Many others, however, served and made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of Britain that fateful year – not just the Few.
Take, for example, the events of July 7, 1940. A convoy steamed east, heading for the Thames Estuary and hoping to safely negotiate the dangerous Dover Strait – under constant German watch – after dark. That evening, 45 Do 17 bombers attacked. Reinforcements were scrambled but before the six Spitfires of 65 Squadron’s Blue and Green Sections arrived on the scene, one ship was sunk and three damaged. When the Spitfires engaged, a strong force of Me 109s belonging to Jagdgeschwader (JG) 51 was sweeping over the Kentish and Sussex coast. The escorts fell on the British fighters. In the ensuing action, two of Blue Section’s pilots claimed three Me 109s destroyed – but of Green Section, nothing was ever heard of again: Flying Officer George Proudman, Pilot Officer Brisbane and Sergeant Hayes simply disappeared, shot down over the Channel by enemy fighters. The names of all three pilots are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial to missing British and Commonwealth aircrew, but all were ineligible for inclusion amongst the fabled Few. Whilst the Battle of Britain story and that of the Few is well-known, losses such as this, outside the official dates, are less widely appreciated and should be equally well recorded and shared.
Take also the case of Pilot Officer Alec Bird. On July 25, 1940, Bird was at Kemble airfield in Gloucestershire when a Ju 88 passed overhead, bound for the Gloster Aircraft Factory at Hucclecote. Bird and another pilot officer named Manlove, both members of 4 Ferry Pilots Pools, scrambled and intercepted the raider. Bird reached the German first, opened fire, and closed for another attack – but then either rammed or collided with the target. The Ju 88 crashed at Oakridge, all but one of the crew being captured – but Pilot Officer Bird lay dead in the wreckage of his Hurricane nearby. Because 4 FPP was not one of the 71 accredited Battle of Britain units, although Pilot Officer Bird was lost in action between the campaign’s official dates, his name will neither be found amongst the Few. Considering that a pilot could fly an uneventful operational sortie with one of those units and qualify for inclusion, this is surely a nonsense. For Alec Bird’s widow, Marjorie, it was “heart-breaking.”
Reflecting upon those early combats over Channel convoys, merchant seamen also lost their lives – 227 between July 2 and Aug. 8, 1940, when the enemy’s focus turned to mainland targets. Perhaps surprisingly, the youngest was 16 years old, the oldest 66, and most were foreign nationals. Many of these sailors were from China, Hong Kong and India – the majority of the latter Muslim. Very little, however, is known about these men – hidden history indeed, also requiring further research.
Then, think about civilian casualties. Some 43,000 lost their lives from bombing in Britain, half of them in London. Just 60 miles due North of Cherbourg, France, Southampton, however, was a major port and home to the Supermarine Aviation Works – building Spitfires. This made it a target.
Consequently, throughout the war, the city was a frequently visited target with 630 Sotonian’s being killed, and 2,000 injured. Among the dead, sadly, were 14-year-old Douglas Cruikshank, a “handy lad” at Supermarine, and 19-year-old typist Peggy Moon, both killed on Sept. 24, 1940 when, during a heavy raid on the Spitfire factory, the Peartree Green shelters took a direct hit. Sadly today, their graves are forgotten, poorly maintained – and as no known photograph exists, their likenesses have been lost to history. How many other civilian casualties this equally applies to is impossible to say.
In terms of the wider strategy, until we have access to ULTRA decrypts, we will never know the full extent to which the interception of German signals traffic informed RAF High Command decisions. That is a crucially important missing piece of the jig-saw. No less important, to me, however, are the personal stories of lives lived and lost – and while the spotlight is naturally upon the Few, clearly there are countless others who lost their lives during the “Finest Hour,” whose sacrifice and experience may be hidden but are equally worthy of recording and sharing – not least RAF ground crew and members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. There is certainly no shortage of lives lost requiring research – and to whom the researcher can restore a lost voice.
Dilip Sarkar is the author of Battle of Britain 1940: The Finest Hour’s Human Cost. Driven by his passion to research and share the stories of casualties, and record the human experience of war, Sarkar is a prolific and best-selling author whose work is highly regarded globally. A noted expert on the Battle of Britain period, who enjoyed a long and very personal relationship with the Few, Dilip was made an MBE in 2003 for ‘services to aviation history’, and elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society in 2006. He is a sought-after, dynamic, speaker whose enthusiasm is infectious, presenting and exhibiting at many prestigious venues on an international basis, and has worked on TV documentaries, on and off camera. Visit his website at www.dilipsarkarauthor.com
