On Monday August 17th I read on the BBC News website that there was to be a Battle of Britain commemoration the following day. Eighteen Spitfires and six Hurricanes would gather at Biggin Hill the following day, 75 years on to the day from the ‘hardest day’ of the 1940 air battle to honour all those who took part. I immediately realised that this was be something quite out of the ordinary. It is unusual to see more than two or three Spitfires or Hurricanes in the air at one time, but just close to us in Oxted we would have the opportunity of seeing 24 of them in the air all at once. I immediately planned to visit Biggin Hill the next day to see them. It was unfortunately far too late to get any tickets, but I knew there would be a view from outside the airfield.
I should perhaps explain that Biggin Hill Aerodrome was a key station during the Battle of Britain, from which 32 Squadron were flying Hurricanes and 610 Squadron operated Spitfires. At lunchtime on August 18th 1940, nine Dorniers launched a heavy attack on Biggin Hill and Kenley that continued in waves throughout the day. Apart from landing to refuel and re-arm, the Hurricanes and Spitfires were airborne continuously long into the evening and despite intense damage to the airfield, at no time was it non-operational. As dusk approached, 32 Squadron had lost seven Hurricanes but not one pilot, and 610 Squadron had lost two Spitfires, also with no loss of life. Overall, on that day, the RAF lost 136 aircraft – but for the Luftwaffe, it had been a disastrous day, numerically and for their morale. On no other day during the Battle would either side suffer such losses.
The plan for the following day,was that the Spitfires and Hurricanes would fly a commemoration sortie with three formations, starting with a take-off at 1pm.
The first formation would head south to the Solent, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. The second formation would head east to Dover, and the Battle of Britain Memorial on the white cliffs at Capel-Le-Ferne. The third formation would fly over former Battle of Britain airfields at West Malling, Detling and Gravesend.
August 18th this year was a really gloomy day, but it didn't deter us, or the thousands of other people who hoped to see this once in a lifetime display. The sky was so dark that photography was really difficult, and I anyway I realised I had no power in my camera battery so I only had the camera on the phone. The road up to Biggin Hill was really crowded, Paul had to drop me off and then find somewhere miles away to park and walk back, but at least I was outside the fence in time to see the first formation take off.
I am embarrassed by the awfulness of the next two photos, but it was difficult to capture the aircraft, especially as they took off from the opposite end of the runway from where I was standing. In the first photo, I didn't even manage to get all four aircraft.
When another flight took off, I did at least manage to get all four, albeit just specks in the sky.
With 24 aircraft and 3 flight formations, that meant there would be 8 aircraft in each formation. In practice they arranged themselves in two groups of four, so here you can see the four little specks.
You can also see what a terrible day it was and just how many people were standing outside the fence, crowded four and give deep in places.
Other people than me took better photos - or had better cameras, so this was more typical of what we saw in the sky. - not my photograph, needless to say!
A Daily Mail photographer took a truly wonderful photo of fourteen of them all in the sky at once, but I didn't see so many at one time. There are quite a few high trees near the fence where I was standing, so I might not have had the best view, but it was still exciting.
Actually, the Daily Mail photos were quite outstanding, some of them obviously taken from other planes in the air at the time.
Somebody else also took this marvellous photo, with the huge commercial airliner in the sky above. This was also a more typical view of the aircraft as they left.
I can't tell you how thrilling it was as those historic aircraft roared over our heads, more and more of them, all flying in close formation and then peeling off in the three different directions.
The formation which was only going as far as Gravesend were back first and they flew patrols over the airfield, just as the aircraft did 80 years ago to protect the others returning. This meant that we got a really good view of them as they flew round and round close over the heads of the crowds. I abandoned all hope of taking a decent photo and just concentrated on watching them. Sometimes they were so low you could see the pilot's head in the cockpit as they went over.
This is also somebody else's photo, but one I would like to have taken, because I really was that close at times.
As they returned, more and more of them landed until at least there was only one solitary Spitfire patrolling the skies above the airfield. He swooped low over the road and the crowds there and out over the hillside where it falls away down into the valley below the airfield, then he quickly did a victory roll before turning round and coming in to land. What a marvellous moment that was!
It had all been so exciting we didn't really notice we hadn't had any lunch.
The next few days felt rather flat after all that excitement, but I had several medical appointments and the following weekend all my family were back again. The Manchester family left just before the Bank Holiday, but my sister stayed on until September 1st, and we had visits from my other son with his wife and my younger grandson, so it has been a very busy family time. I'm still trying to finish the washing of sheets and towels as well as trying to get ready for when we go on holiday ourselves in a few days. This has not been helped by my having another attack of renal colic, which is acutely painful and is probably caused by yet another kidney stone. I only hope I can avoid having any on holiday!
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