Defenders

Roy Hattersley of The Daily Mail went to see some of the last flying survivors of The Battle of Britain last weekend. Fourteen Supermarine Spitfires were at the show, all in flying condition. These were the planes that helped defend the island nation when it stood alone against Hitler’s Germany.

There is something very special about the Supermarine Spitfire. The Hawker Hurricane played an equally heroic part in the Battle of Britain. Indeed, in the long hot summer of 1940, it was – in terms of planes in the English sky and number of enemy ‘kills’ – the first line of our defence against Luftwaffe bombers.

But numbers – 27 squadrons of Hurricanes and only 19 of Spitfires – are less important than the spirit that the name invokes. When you think of ‘the Few’ who saved us in our ‘finest hour’, you think of Spitfires.

There were 14 of them at Duxford last Sunday for the Imperial War Museum’s annual air show. Each one was a genuine survivor of World War II. And they all flew. One – still in its original camouflage colours – did a victory roll. The older spectators remembered what that meant and cheered.

The first Spitfire in service with the RAF arrived at Duxford exactly 70 years ago. It was the brainchild of R.J. Mitchell, the aeronautical genius responsible for the seaplanes with which Britain had won the Schneider Trophy three years running.

Two years earlier, Mitchell had designed a new fighter plane to the specification of Air Ministry boffins. It was a complete failure. So he started all over again – relying on his own ideas. The result of his confidence and courage was the most famous aircraft in British history. And its fame endures.

Numerically, there were more Hawker Hurricanes in the battle, but the Spitfire is the one people really remember. It is a beautiful, graceful airplane, tiny by today’s standards. I’ve seen them in museums and once I saw one fly at an airshow.