The anniversary of The Battle of Britain

 

 

If you are having a bad day, if you are spitting your dummy out because your broadband is not working or your smartphone has died, or even if you feel low please spare a thought for those who defended this country 75 years ago.

It is  summer 1940. Young men, many still in their teens, are sent into the skies with minimal training in their Hurricanes and Spitfires. Meanwhile German aircraft try to break the R.A.F. with daily raids. Each day young men from both sides are sent in fragile aircraft to face death. Each day many do not return home. They are replaced with more barely trained recruits and the cycle begins again.

September the 15th was the day that Germany tried to bomb London, to draw the R.A.F. out and destroy it.

I know we are at peace but I can't help feeling that our troubles must be put into perspective by the fact that these young men faced death regularly and did not shirk that duty. In case we forgot the ladies, they were often trained in flying these machines in order to deliver them to airfields. I am sure a German pilot would not care if the enemy was male or female.

I can't help feeling that we, with our pampered lifestyles and reliance on a cradle to grave nanny state could do as well.