New RAF sweetheart Charlotte records song to salute our air heroes
THE RAF’s new sweetheart posed in a Battle of Britain Spitfire yesterday to mark the launch of a song about the sacrifices of The Few 75 years ago.
Charlotte Mellor, 18, whose father is an RAF chaplain, hopes her record will raise awareness of the Battle of Britain among her generation.
A recent survey found that 40 per cent of young adults have no knowledge of the Battle of Britain.
The song, If You Hadn’t Done What You Did, will also raise cash for the RAF Benevolent Fund and Bomber Command Memorial Fund.
The song pays tribute to the bravery of the young men who risked all to defend Britain from the Luftwaffe.
It was released yesterday ahead of Battle of Britain Day on September 15, the climax of the 1940 battle.
The song was written by 1970s pop star Jim Dooley, fundraising director for the £ 10million Bomber Command Memorial in London’s Green Park.
Charlotte, whose father the Rev Wing Commander Paul Mellor served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “This is very personal. When I was just six, Dad went to the second Gulf War with the Joint Helicopter Force. Now I want to show my appreciation of the people who fought in the Battle of Britain, especially as my generation does not know enough about it.”
Charlotte, pictured at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, where she lives, added: “If the RAF had not done what it did in the Battle of Britain, we have no idea where we’d be now.”
Mr Dooley, who worked with Bee Gees star Robin Gibb to help to raise funds for the Bomber Command Memorial, said: “The song has been released around the 75th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day.
“What few people know is that during the battle, Bomber Command was attacking the invasion barges and German airfields in France.”
Daily Express readers raised £ 1million towards the cost of the Bomber Command Memorial and the newspaper’s owner Richard Desmond donated a further £ 500,000.
If You Hadn’t Done What You Did is available from iTunes and Amazon. New RAF sweetheart Charlotte Mellor, 18, in a Spitfire cockpit yesterday at RAF Coningsby near Lincoln, where her dad is based