I've been a bit down with myself recently..

[Vandiesel]

As per title really.. I'll cut the crap and come to the point.. I have a nice little business and things are great, however I'm owed a considerable amount of outstanding money from a company I do work for..

Nuff said:|

Now, I live in Kent & been out today to price a job in Dover harbour and on the way back decided to come off the A20 at Capel Le Ferne and take the old road into Folkestone and stumbled across a sign saying "Battle Of Britain" memorial.. So I popped in and and to my complete surprise and amazement this is what I found












And the skies where they fought and died..





Reach for the skies



To summarise my initial statement "I've been a bit down with myself recently.." makes me feel very selfish after visiting my new sanctuary..
I felt completely up lifted after reading all the names on the wall and some of the many plaques describing their stories of war!

I left after over an hour and felt very humble, but extremly proud to be British.

[A2ON]

Good read great pics.

Certainlly makes you think

[burge]

Great pics mate I know what u mean mate I am an infantry soldier in our glorious army!!!! The things the lads went through back then was horrendous I know my last tour of afghan wasn't great but compared to what those lads and lasses went through .....

[dave.tam]

Quality post

[southbynorth]

My Grandfathers name will be on their somewhere.

I too feel proud to be British, and sad for how often that seems an odd statement in this country instead of the norm

Your quite right, it puts it all into perspective..and good luck with getting your situation sorted

[vxr.paul]

That's a lovely thread with nice pics. Agreed I'm proud to be British too.!!!!

[VXR PAUL]

brings you back down to earth dont it my friend i alway's pay respect to those who fought for us! to live the lives we live now..and i am just glad that those who fought for "what great britain was " are resting in peace! as i would hate for them to see what it has came to now... god blesss them all !


RIP

[nige87]

Great post mate and so very true!!

[badboyburt]

Quite a moving post Huggie, brings our own problems into perspective Thanks for sharing.

[randomgary]

if memory serves me correct these next three weeks were the hight of the battle! guys were scrambled multiple times in one day! 70 years ago

im off to google some memories

[randomgary]

The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 aircraft and the RAF 915 in the Battle of Britain
Seventy years ago the RAF was locked in a life and death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the skies over England.
The three weeks between mid-August and early September in 1940 were decisive for the Battle of Britain.
The bravery of the RAF pilots was captured in Winston Churchill's speech on 20 August when he said "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".
Those left of The Few, as those pilots became known, are now in their 90s. Some of them fear they will soon not be around to remind people of the events that summer.
Tom Neil was a 20-year-old Hurricane pilot during the battle. He was often scrambled four or five times a day, flying 141 times in all.
"As soon as the scramble order came, you'd have to get off the ground in three minutes," he said.
"You're concentrating like mad, looking for the enemy as you get above the clouds.
"The adrenaline is racing… flak is bursting all around you, everything was exciting.
"When you get back on the ground, you feel like a piece of chewed string. You think Christ, that was rather nasty."
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

And which Battle of Britain would that be?”

End Quote Shopkeeper's question to Battle of Britain veteran Ronald Tooke
"The Spitfire was a beautiful plane to fly. When you were sitting in it you really were part of the plane," said Spitfire pilot William Walker, now 97.
But while the Spitfire came to symbolise the battle, the workhorse Hurricane was also held in great affection.
"It was the Hurricanes which won the Battle of Britain," Mr Walker said. "They outnumbered us two to one."
The pilots' days ran from dawn to dusk - sometimes from 0330 until almost 2200. A pilot had to be able to fall asleep in an instant, in the brief respite between flights.
Tom Neil flew so many times because he was never seriously injured, or burned, a common hazard for Hurricane pilots.
His friend James Nicolson once described to him "how he smelled like pieces of roast pork, how he could see pieces coming off his arm" in the cockpit.
Nicolson had stayed in his burning craft that day, August 16 1940, to shoot down a Messerschmitt 109.
He managed to bail out in time, and became the only fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain to be awarded a Victoria Cross.


The British planes had little ammunition - only about 30 seconds' worth - and they were firing 7mm machine gun bullets while the Germans had 20mm cannon.
The trick was to get in position - fast - and fire as quickly as possible before getting away. British planes could turn more sharply than the Messerschmitt 109s but otherwise they could not outmanoeuvre them.
One ace, "Ginger" Lacey, told the BBC he had had to bail out nine times in 16 weeks.
Continue reading the main story UP IN THE CLOUDS

Evan Davis Today programme
Have you ever dreamt you're Peter Pan? Able to zip around in the air, choosing any or all directions at a whim? No? Nor me.
But take a ride in the back of a Spitfire, and you get some idea of how the boy-who-never-grew-up might have felt as he punched the skies.
The Spitfire does exactly what it likes in the air - weaving and tipping left or right, darting up or down.
In fact, about the only thing it can't do is move into reverse, although as I was a little dizzy by the time we landed, I could have believed it did if you'd told me so.

• Evan Davis: Spitfire pilot

Peter Ayerst, who trained Spitfire pilots, said it was impossible to tell who would survive and who would not.
Pilots were kept in the air thanks to the bravery of ground crew, whose job it was to check, patch holes, refuel and re-arm the planes.
They too were risking their lives, particularly between August 15 and September 7, when the Luftwaffe targeted RAF airfields.
Ronald Tooke, then 19, was an engine mechanic for a busy Hurricane squadron.
He remembered the aerodrome being attacked on a sweltering summer day, when he went to sit in the shade by the hangar after testing a plane with a colleague.
"You can't sit there," said his friend, "our planes are coming back".
But the engine noise he heard was a Messerschmitt.
"That was the last I saw of him," said Ronald Tooke. He dived for cover, but his colleague was dead.
What is more, if the pilots had not known exactly where to go, they could not have fought at all.
Radar operators and the observer corps spotted German planes and relayed the information to the operations room, where it was plotted on a huge map.
William Walker, the quintessential Spitfire pilot
Hazel Gregory was 18 in 1940 and working as a plotter at the Headquarters of Fighter Command in Uxbridge.
The plotters would hear information through their headphones and instantly start placing Bakelite arrows on the map, adding to it at a rate of about one a second.
She recalled Winston Churchill visiting on September 15 - later seen as the decisive day in the Battle.
"You're too close to it to realise exactly what's happened," the prime minister said. "But you will later and one day you'll tell your grandchildren about it and the part you played in it."
Most of the veterans I spoke to said the Battle of Britain was no longer as well known as it used to be.
School children study World War II, but they usually learn about the evacuations and the Blitz, which affected many millions.
Ronald Tooke recently went into a shop near his Hampshire home, wearing his Battle of Britain badge.
The young shop assistant asked him what it was, so he told her. "And which Battle of Britain would that be?" she asked. And it was not a joke.

[MartyyVXR]

I used to stay in Dover up Burgoynne Heights when my dad was in the army

[Vandiesel]

Wondered what all the white stuff was on the grass!!




Unbelievable.. I dont know why I was drawn here today!

Thanks for the great feedback and research fellas

[wayne/VXR]

real men.

[wayne/VXR]

and we argue over a remap.brings it home.