How clear, crisp September days echo 1940.
I was born in London some 6 months before the end of World War II. The echoes of that tragic event in human history rang around the torn roadways and ripped buildings of London for many years, certainly for sufficiently long that I was able to remember as a young boy, away on his bicycle, the bomb sites and and the gaps where once buildings had stood.
Sometimes, when the September weather is as it was during the Battle of Britain, it’s almost as though those echoes can still be faintly heard. Maybe all Londoners over a certain age hear them?
Anyway, what has brought this to the surface?
This September, the weather in southern England has been gloriously fine, as it was in 1940. I was reading a Forum and came across a picture of the Battle of Britain memorial, as seen from the air (picture credit Steve H). So even though home now is many thousands of miles away from England, those echoes seem to be still to be there.
In the centre of the propeller sits a statue of an airman, reflectively looking towards the sky.
Too much has been said about the Battle of Britain to add anything other than this echo. But it does seem apt to close with the words of Winston Churchill.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day…
(As explained in WikiPedia – The speech is said to have originated after Churchill visited 11 Group’s operations room at RAF Uxbridge on August 16 during a day of battle. Afterwards, Churchill told Major General Hastings Ismay ‘Don’t speak to me, I have never been so moved’. After several minutes of silence he said ‘Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.’ The sentence would form the basis of his speech to the House of Commons on August 20.)
By Paul Handover, forever grateful for a life of opportunity and freedom paid for by the blood of so many.
Learning from Dogs 
Well said Paul, glad to see my photo put to such excellent use. I felt mixed emotions orbiting at relatively low level. One was feeling guilty for my aircraft noise possibly disturbing people on the ground in their moment of reflection, but at the same time this was my way of paying my respects – and what better way as it was obviously designed to be seen best from the air.
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If you look at the main picture and blur your eyes slighlty you’ll see about a third of the way along the top (at the start of the trees) the head of a dog resting on the hill (like a Jack Russell).
A new kind of Magic Eye or subliminal blogging!
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