Battle of Britain
From the Biggen Hill Air Field flew the planes that defended England during the Battle of Britain.
Located
just outside London, Biggen Hill now houses St. George's Chapel, which is
dedicated to the memories of the pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.
Each stained glass window in the chapel has an image of a pilot representing
every one of the squadrons that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The chapel also has a book listing each of the pilots killed during the Battle of Britain. Each day the book is turned to a page, which lists the names of the pilots who died on that day.
As the Germans swept through Europe, a number of pilots from occupied countries made their way to England to continue the fight from English soil. One wall lists those pilots from foreign countries who fought with the RAF.
Since the United States did not enter the war until over two years after the invasion of Poland, a number of American pilots saw early action by flying with the RAF. The Biggen Hill Chapel lists no American pilots, however. Because of laws which prohibit Americans from fighting with foreign countries, those Americans who battled the Nazis before Pearl Harbor first went to Canada and then registered as Canadian citizens. There is no designation on the Biggen Hill wall to tell which of the Canadian pilots was actually an American.
The most intensive period of the air battles occurred in 1940 between July and October. German attempts to break British morale through constant bombardment of London and other key cities from the air served only to unify the people. Additionally, new reports of the Battle of Britain, reported by Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and others, also aroused the sympathy of the American people, which had previously shown reluctance to involving itself in another European conflict.
Cronkite captures the spirit of the British reaction to this assault in his autobiography, "A Reporter's Life."
He noted that a number of Channel cities were subject to "rather desultory, usually ineffective shelling from the German-occupied coast. The constabulary, on these occasions, rolled out onto the main roads leading into town signs that were themselves representative of British understatement. They simply said: 'Warning: Shelling in Progress.'"
Winston Churchill
called the British people the true heroes of World War II, but the star aircraft
for the RAF was the Spitfire, which engaged in so many of the daring dogfights
above the English skies.
A number of other aircraft also played decisive roles.
The Hawker Hurricane MkI was Great Britain's first "modern" fighter of the 1930's. Its service debut came in 1937 and by the start of the war, 497 Hurricanes had been built for 18 British squadrons, as well as some exports. While the spitfires had the more publicized role, the Hurricanes were more decisive, concentrating on German bombers and downing more aircraft than the rest of the defenses combined. The Hurricane was equipped with eight 7.7-mm machine guns and had a maximum speed of 308 mph at 10,000 feet.
In 1940 the English launched the de Havilland Mosquito, which was most useful in photographic reconnaissance.
The Hawker Sea Fury was introduced in 1945, but the fighter-bomber played more of a role in Korea than it did during World War II.