Western Morning News (Saturday)

Dame Vera’s funeral a chance to mark role of civilians in war

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IT seems fitting that aircraft from the Battle of Britain, which is generally agreed to have officially begun 80 years ago yesterday, should have taken to the skies again on the anniversar­y, this time to mark the passing of Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn.

The entertaine­r, who died last month aged 103 and whose life was celebrated at a funeral yesterday, played an important part in the Second World War, demonstrat­ing that it is not only combatants who are needed when a nation is in peril.

Through this summer and autumn there will be many occasions when the anniversar­y of what many see as the most important months in recent British history – from July to October 1940 – are marked and commemorat­ed.

Historians don’t all agree on when the Battle of Britain officially began. The nation had been at war since September 1939 after the Nazi invasion of Poland and tensions had been building for months before that.

Britain stood alone from late May 1940 with the defeat of the French Army and the rescue of more than one third of a million men of the British Expedition­ary Force from the beaches at Dunkirk.

But it was on July 10 1940 when the first Luftwaffe bombs fell on Britain and the defence of the nation had to begin in earnest, led by the brave pilots of the RAF.

A spokesman for the modern RAF yesterday paid tribute to the courage of the young pilots who defended Britain in her hour of need, pointing out that the threat of invasion by Hitler’s Nazis represente­d the greatest threat Britain had faced for centuries and that the Battle of Britain turned the tide of the war.

Around 3,000 pilots defended Britain from the Luftwaffe, with 544 casualties during the conflict. At the height of the air battle, the RAF had only 749 fighters available, against an overwhelmi­ng 2,550 Luftwaffe aircraft.

Consisting of 2,945 aircrew, the RAF was joined by volunteers from 13 different nations, some of whom had battle experience against the Luftwaffe in their own air forces. This internatio­nal force became known as ‘The Few’. Just two Battle of Britain pilots are known to survive today.

Much of the focus of the commemorat­ions will, rightly, be on the military operations that defeated the Germans in the air battle over the skies of southern England. If that had been lost invasion would surely have followed and the course of the war could have been very different.

But alongside the courage of the pilots was the stoicism of the people who endured air raids, manned the clifftops and readied themselves to deal with invaders. They also donated their pots and pans to provide the metal needed to boost aircraft production and gave hard-earned cash to the Spitfire Fund.

Those efforts made the Battle of Britain and the rest of the conflict that followed into a people’s war – a fact underlined by the role played by Dame Vera Lynn, a civilian who did as much as many Generals and Air Commodores to keep up morale.

We salute her memory – and all those who played such an important role in keeping Britain free.

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