Smithy
Well-Known Member
Seeing as we're nearing the passing of all of these very special men into history and because it also happens to be my favourite subject when it comes to air warfare, I thought it was highly overdue for a thread for photos and images of The Few. Nothing fancy, just photos of those 3,000 odd men who in the summer of 1940 stopped the Luftwaffe hordes from gaining air superiority over Britain. Without them Britain would almost certainly at the least have had to sue for peace with the Nazi regime or eventually endured invasion. They saved not only Britain but arguably Europe, if not the world.
I have a silly amount of books on this, and a mound of unpublished photos from correspondence with various members of The Few. Hopefully as this thread progresses and if it's popular I'll endeavour to scan and post some of these unseen ones, but I urge others to post what images you have and what you find, even just trawling around on the internet so this can be VLJ's little nod to that summer in 1940 and those from Fighter Command who did so much to protect Britain.
B Flight, 85 Sqn, Castle Camps, early July 1940. Only two men from this picture survived the war and one of them was the squadron medical officer, so non-flying.
B Flight, 32 Sqn, Hawkinge, 29th July 1940
Brian Lane, 19 Sqn, after a sortie, summer 1940. He is only 23 in this image but the strain of combat flying makes him appear much older
Keith Gillman, 32 Sqn. He was lost over the Channel less than 4 weeks after this photo was taken.
610 Sqn outside A Flight dispersal, Hawkinge, July 1940
That should get the ball rolling, more to come...
I have a silly amount of books on this, and a mound of unpublished photos from correspondence with various members of The Few. Hopefully as this thread progresses and if it's popular I'll endeavour to scan and post some of these unseen ones, but I urge others to post what images you have and what you find, even just trawling around on the internet so this can be VLJ's little nod to that summer in 1940 and those from Fighter Command who did so much to protect Britain.
B Flight, 85 Sqn, Castle Camps, early July 1940. Only two men from this picture survived the war and one of them was the squadron medical officer, so non-flying.
B Flight, 32 Sqn, Hawkinge, 29th July 1940
Brian Lane, 19 Sqn, after a sortie, summer 1940. He is only 23 in this image but the strain of combat flying makes him appear much older
Keith Gillman, 32 Sqn. He was lost over the Channel less than 4 weeks after this photo was taken.
610 Sqn outside A Flight dispersal, Hawkinge, July 1940
That should get the ball rolling, more to come...