THE FEW OF THE FEW – NAVAL AVIATORS IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
20 August 2020
Eight minutes to four on the afternoon of August 20 1940. The weather in southern England this Tuesday was autumnal: cool, windy, with intermittent showers.
It ruled out major actions by the German Air Force, which was one week into its onslaught against the British homeland.
For the past hour MPs had filled the Parliamentary chamber. Even during the greatest threat Britain had faced since Napoleon, democracy functioned largely as normal.
For a little over an hour, politicians had debated a raft of issues affecting their people and their nation in wartime: the Home Guard, overtime payments, the export of coffee from neutral lands to Germany, dealing with conscientious objectors, the employment of miners, and the rationing of plums, not to mention civil defence – protecting homes from the hail of bombs raining down on Britain day after day.
The daily business now gave way to the prime minister and an update on the war.
Winston Churchill would be on his feet for 48 minutes, as he informed fellow MPs of Britain’s military situation. “Our Navy is far stronger than it was at the beginning of the war," he assured his audience. There were now more than two million men under arms. Britain was now a fortress island. Its factories churned out war material as never before. Any German attempt to set foot in the mother country would be met with fire and fury. “The whole Island bristles against invaders, from the sea or from the air.”
Continues, including photos of FAA pilots at:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... gG_YfE3cu0
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