Robbo has had this march (called the “Ace High,” I believe) running through his head all day.
Today is Battle of Britain Day, the date picked to mark the anniversary of the RAF’s heroic stand against Hitler’s Luftwaffe. Ironically, the day Hitler switched objectives from obliterating RAF forward operations in southern England (which, it must be said, the Krauts were doing pretty effectively), to trying to terrorize London into submission was the day he lost the battle and (really) the war. Once England was secure from invasion, the counter-offensive was only a matter of time.
Of course, even if the Luftwaffe had gained and maintained air superiority, the question remains whether Hitler’s invasion force could have got across the Channel. The Royal Navy was still very much a potent weapon, and even in the face of air support, could have played merry hell among all those barges and whatnot.
Regular friends of the decanter will know that one of my favorite books on the subject is Derek Robinson’s Piece of Cake, a fictional account of a Hurricane squadron fighting in France and England from September, 1939 through September, 1940. IMHO, it is far and away Robinson’s best, most balanced novel, at least of the ones I’ve read. Don’t bother with the teevee adaptation of it, though, because as is so often the case, the film version is rubbish.
The Port Stands At Your Elbow 
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September 15, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Captain Ned
Interesting bit about the movie. The Bf-109s used were actually Spanish-built post WWII. Since Daimler-Benz DB601 engines were a bit rare at that point (most of them buried underground wherever they crashed), the Spanish-built birds used surplus Merlins.
Yep, all of the fighter-to-figher combat scenes are between Merlin-powered planes.
I remember seeing the movie in its original theatrical release with my Dad in a grand old movie theatre with a proper lobby and balcony and all of the trimmings.
September 16, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Robbo
Pretty cool. I’m just of the age (46) where I can remember the days when there was a big curtain in front of the screen, the rolling back of which signaled that things were about to get going.
There was a theatre in San Antonio (the Olmos, maybe?) that had all the fixin’s like you say. I remember going to see Peter Sellers and the Marx Brothers there.
September 16, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Captain Ned
Well, I’m but 47 so we both saw the last stand of the true and glorious movie houses.
The theatre where I saw Battle of Britain (in little old Rutland, VT) somehow was one of the four theatres to premiere The Towering Inferno in 1974. The whole street was blocked off and the spotlights were slashing back & forth like they were looking for Heinkels. Twas quite an impression to me at 10 back then.