Let England Shake

"ONE SPITFIRE = £5,000 NINE SPITFIRES = 40 MESSERSCHMITTS GIVE AS MANY PENNY UNITS AS YOU CAN..."

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 06:53:39 -0400

“

ONE SPITFIRE = £5,000

NINE SPITFIRES = 40 MESSERSCHMITTS

GIVE AS MANY PENNY UNITS AS YOU CAN AFFORD

”

- Placard for the London Transport Spitfire Fund, circa Summer 1940

"…a single British plane [a Spitfire] suddenly dived into [a formation of seven German aircraft] from..."

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:58:08 -0400

“…a single British plane [a Spitfire] suddenly dived into [a formation of seven German aircraft] from above, the pilot tackling them single handed. He was hit at once by one of the enemy and I saw smoke pouring from his machine. He then turned and dived towards the ground about 1,000 feet to save himself, then straightened out…he certainly could have saved himself before his plane got further alight: instead he went on, avoiding the farm etc. and all of the houses and the post office and a large Army Service Corps depot…he drove on with his plane now ablaze. I saw the flames yards behind it and he had no chance then. He gave his life to save us all at Leigh Green…he met his death in this last act of self-sacrifice.”

- George Prior, in a letter to the Air Ministry, describing the death of Pilot Officer Noel J. V. “Broody” Benson of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron on August 28, 1940. He was twenty-one. Benson’s younger brother, Captain Brian Benson, Royal Army Service Corps, was killed in action in 1945.

"I have always loved England. But now I am in love with England. What a people! What a chance! The..."

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:43:03 -0400

“I have always loved England. But now I am in love with England. What a people! What a chance! The whole of Europe humiliated except for us. And the chance that by our stubbornness we shall give victory to the world.”

- Harold Nicolson, diary entry for 31 July 1940

"Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no signs of being ready to come to..."

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:45:57 -0400

“

Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no signs of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England and, if necessary, to carry it out.

The aim of this operation will be to eliminate the English homeland as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and, if necessary, to occupy it completely.

I therefore order as follows :

1. The landing will be in the form of a surprise crossing on a wide front from about Ramsgate to the area west of the Isle of Wight. Units of the Air Force will act as artillery, and units of the Navy as engineers.

The possible advantages of limited operations before the general crossing (e.g. the occupation of the Isle of Wight or of the county of Cornwall) are to be considered from the point of view of each branch of the Armed Forces and the results reported to me. I reserve the decision to myself.

Preparations for the entire operation must be completed by the middle of August.

2. These preparations must also create such conditions as will make a landing in England possible, viz:

(a) The English Air Force must be so reduced morally and physically that it is unable to deliver any significant attack against the German crossing.

(b) Mine-free channels must be cleared.

(c) The Straits of Dover must be closely sealed off with minefields on both flanks; also the Western entrance to the Channel approximately on the line Alderney-Poitland.

(d) Strong forces of coastal artillery must command and protect the forward coastal area.

(e) It is desirable that the English Navy be tied down shortly before the crossing, both in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean (by the Italians). For this purpose we must attempt even now to damage English home-based naval forces by air and torpedo attack as far as possible.

”

- Adolf Hitler, “Directive No. 16: On preparations for a landing operation against England”, 16 July 1940

Combat Losses for July 12, 1940

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:52:29 -0400

RAF - five planes and four pilots.

Luftwaffe - Nine planes and twenty-eight aircrew.

Combat Losses for July 11, 1940

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:45:13 -0400

RAF - six planes and three pilots.

Luftwaffe - seventeen planes and 41 aircrew.

July 10: The Battle of Britain Begins

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:52:01 -0400

RAF - 2 fighters and 2 pilots lost to enemy action.

Luftwaffe - 11 aircraft and 29 aircrew lost to enemy action.

"Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate: ‘To every man upon this..."

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:49:33 -0400

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
‘To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods[?]’”

- Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome, “Horatius”, XXVII

"The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have..."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:09:22 -0400

“The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, “This was their finest hour.””

- Winston Churchill, address to the House of Commons, 18 June 1940

"If it is thought best for France in her agony that her Army should capitulate, let there be no..."

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:51:14 -0400

“If it is thought best for France in her agony that her Army should capitulate, let there be no hesitation on our account, because whatever you may do we shall fight on forever and ever and ever.”

- Winston Churchill to Paul Reynaud, 13 June 1940

"What General Weygand called the battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is..."

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:51:16 -0400

“

What General Weygand called the battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

”

- Winston Churchill, speaking to the House of Commons, 11 June 1940

"No. Bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:53:00 -0400

““No. Bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them.””

- Winston Churchill, responding on 1 June 1940 to a suggestion from Sir Kenneth Clark (director of The National Gallery) that famous British art be shipped to Canada.

May 21, 1940: Counterattack at Arras

Tue, 22 May 2012 01:02:00 -0400

In an effort to stop the 7th Panzer Division and buy time for the BEF, two battalions of the Durham Light Infantry and the 4th and 7th Royal Tank Regiments, with 74 tanks (only sixteen equipped with anything heavier than machine guns) counterattacked near Arras. Though heavily outnumbered, they set the SS-Totenkopf regiment to flight, and sent Rommel into hysterics. The British were beaten back ultimately by point-blank artillery fire and relentless dive bombing attacks, but Rommel reported being attacked by five divisions (forty battalions), and the 7th Panzer halted its advance rather than risking blundering into any Allied ambushes.

"But none the less the fire became heavier and heavier and there were shells falling all round us and..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:08:59 -0400

““But none the less the fire became heavier and heavier and there were shells falling all round us and striking the tanks, including the tanks already knocked out, and it was high time time for us to go, and the Adjutant signalled for me to turn round and drive back. As we did so, I saw the Colonel’s tank had its side blown in, and although I didn’t know it, the Colonel and Corporal Moorehouse his operator were dead inside…As we drove back through the Matildas [a type of British tank] my heart sank because I realised what had happened: there were all those tanks I knew so well—the familiar names—Dreadnought, Dauntless, Demon, Devil; there were the faces of those men with whom I had played games, swum, lived with for years—lying there, dead; and there were these tanks—useless—very few of them burning but most of them smashed up in one way or another. And as the Adjutant and I drove back up to the top of the hill, one realised that this really was it. This—this was the tragedy—this was the end of the 4th Tanks as we knew it. In that valley, the best of our crews, our tanks, our soldiers, our officers were left behind.””

- Brigadier P A L Vaux OBE, 4th Royal Tank Regiment

May 21, 1940: Spitfires Over France

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:21:00 -0400

With the situation in France now critical, and the BEF’s back to the English Channel, it was now in range of British fighters based in Southern England. The Royal Air Force decided to commit its Spitfires — at that time the best fighter aeroplane in the world — to the air battles over France. On the morning of May 21, Spitfires from 54 and 610 (County of Chester) Squadrons began standing patrols over France. As of yet, they had never met their German opposite numbers, flying the dreaded Bf 109 fighter, in air-to-air combar.

May 20, 1940: The Germans Reach The Channel

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:14:34 -0400

On May 20, German tanks took Amiens and Abbeville, and pressed on to reach the English Channel. The British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army, as well as the Belgian Army, are now trapped in a corridor sixty miles long by no more than twenty-five miles wide, their backs to the sea. If the BEF was destroyed, there would be no reserve of trained men to replace them; it represented the entirety of Britain’s fully-trained and equipped land forces.

"Our task is not only to win the battle - but to win the war. After this battle in France abates its..."

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:04:19 -0400

“Our task is not only to win the battle - but to win the war. After this battle in France abates its force, there will come the battle for our Island — for all that Britain is, and all the Britain means.”

- Winston Churchill, May 19, 1940, his first radio address to the nation while Prime Minister. As he said “all that Britain means,” he paused, momentarily overcome by emotion.

May 18, 1940: The Situation Deteriorates

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:22:41 -0400

Generalmajor Erwin Rommel, formerly the commander of Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard and now leading the 7th Panzer Division, has reached Cambrai, only ninety miles from the English Channel. The British and French forces retreating from Belgium are now in serious danger of being trapped in a triangular pocket of land centered on the port of Dunkirk.

May 17, 1940: The British Expeditionary Force Retreats

Thu, 17 May 2012 01:56:00 -0400

The British Expeditionary Force had been fighting German forces in Belgium when the main German attack broke through French lines and crossed the Meuse. Now in danger of being cut off by a vast German pincer movement, the BEF began to withdraw from Belgium into France.

The Royal Air Force in France had suffered heavy losses, particularly in bombers. Hoping to counter the Luftwaffe, Churchill instructed RAF Fighter Command to dispatch a further ten squadrons of Hurricanes to France. Hurricanes were less advanced than the newest British fighter, the Spitfire, as yet still restricted to home defence, but the Hurricanes remained superior to any French-built fighter in service.

Billotte (in beret) aboard RMS Empress of Canada in 1941.

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:46:21 -0400

Billotte (in beret) aboard RMS Empress of Canada in 1941.