Spitfire memorial to be twice height of Angel of the North
A MEMORIAL twice the height of the Angel of the North will be erected to commemorate the men and women behind the Spitfire, without whom “there would have been no aeroplanes”.
The National Spitfire Monument, which will stand 131ft (40m) tall on Southampton’s waterfront, aims to pay tribute not just to the pilots, but also those who designed, built and maintained the legendary aircraft.
Foreign pilots and air forces who used the British-designed fighter will also be remembered.
The monument – of a Spitfire sweeping into the sky – will sit only a few hundred yards from where the Supermarine factories that churned out the Second World War aircraft once stood.
Those plants became targets of German bombing, with two raids in September 1940 killing dozens of employees. The damage was so severe that production was later dispersed to 28 sites around Southampton, the rest of Hampshire and Wiltshire.
Paul Beaver, author of Spitfire People and an ambassador for the project, said he hoped it would broaden perceptions of the aircraft beyond its role in winning the Battle of Britain.
“This is a story of engineering, cleverness, of technology development – it’s a story of training people, getting the right workforce,” he said.
During the war, production went on at all hours to replace lost aircraft and staff had to take shelter on-site during bombing raids. Many of the deaths in September 1941 happened when a shelter took a direct hit.
At the airbases, there was no distinction in attitudes to flying and ground crew, said Mildred Boyer, 96, a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the Second World War. “You were like a family. There was no ‘he’s got wings, he hasn’t’ – it felt like we were all together.”
The project, due to be completed by June 2024, has secured £3 million in funding from the Treasury and £500,000 from Southampton council. It is looking to raise a further £3million from donations.