Page 71 - All About History - Issue 27-15

FORGOTTEN HEROES OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
75 years ago this
month, Hitler was
on the verge of
becoming master of stand up to him, all Europe may be freed. But if we
all of Europe. Only
the Royal Air Force
stood in his way
Written by Nick Soldinger preparations had been made, however, would prove them were barely out of their teens, and history
n 18 June 1940, Winston Churchill stood Isles,codenamedOperationSeaLion,wasrisky.To
Hitler’splannedseaborneinvasionoftheBritish
up in Parliament. The mood was gloomy.
France had just surrendered, most of succeed,theGermanLuftwaffeneededtofirstgain
EuropewasnowunderNazicontroland complete air superiority. Although the campaign
O Britain faced Germany alone. “The Battle beganon10July,thetruepurposeofitwouldn’t
of France is over,” he announced. “The Battle of become apparent until Hitler’s so-called Eagle Day
Britain is about to begin. Hitler knows he must on 13 August. Between those two dates, skirmishes
break us in theseislandsorlosethewar.Ifwecan over the Channel, as the Luftwaffe picked off
Britishshippingconvoys,disguisedthefactthat
fail, then the whole world will sink into the abyss of onthemainlandtwohugeairfleetswerebeing
a new dark age.” assembled at newly captured airfields.
Churchill had been warning of war for years BythetimeEagleDayarrived,theGermans
but few had listened. The Nazis had spent much had amassed about 2,500 aircraft with the aim
of the 1930s building the modern war machine
of annihilating the RAF and its 660 serviceable
that had just ravaged most of Europe. By contrast, fighters. All that now stood between Hitler and
hisnewdarkagewerethecourageoussoulswho
British rearmament had only begun in earnest just
six months before the conflict began. What little would take on that monstrous armada. Most of
to be enough. But only just. would come to remember them as ‘The Few’.
Brendan
Finucane
NATIONALITY: IRISH
RANK: FLYING OFFICER, 65 SQUADRON
He’dgoontobecomeaposterboy
for the RAF, but the career of this
legendary fighter pilot almost didn’t
get off the ground
12 August 1940, the day before
EagleDay,witnessedthefirst
01 majorbombingofanRAFairfield
as Luftwaffe units probed inland,
testing Fighter Command’s resolve
beforethebattleahead.Thatday,
RAF Manston in Kent was playing host to 65
Squadron,andamongitsrankswasBrendan
Finucane.ThesonofanIRAman,theenigmatic
Finucane would go on to become one of Fighter
Command’sgreatestaces,butthe19-year-oldwas
luckytosurvivetheLuftwaffe’sopeninggambit.
With news that a significant force was headed
theirway,65Squadron’spilotsscrambled.
Finucane and his pals sprinted to their Spitfires
and clambered into their cockpits. As they were
preparing for take off, however, dozens of German
fighters and bombers appeared overhead. Hangers,
workshops and vehicles began exploding all around
them.AsFinucaneracedtogetofftheground,
craters began appearing in the runway before him.
Miraculously, however, he got airborne, as did all
butoneofhiscomrades.Withinminutestheywere
hurtlingthroughtheskies,chasingtheGermans
backacrosstheChannel.BythetimeFinucane
landed, he’d shot down the first of what would be
many enemy aircraft. When the swashbuckling
Dubliner was killed in action two years later, he’d
Finucane’s heroism soon spread
beyond RAF ranks. Models of his addedafurther27kills.Inthosedarkdays,Britain
Spitfire with its distinctive Irish was desperate for heroes, and Finucane’s bravery
shamrock nose art were even
sold in toy shops hadmadehimfamous.Morethan3,000grateful
Britonsattendedhisfuneralmass.
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