Luftwaffe To Join Battle Of Britain Flypast

[GOOSE]

An interesting one this.

A lot of time has passed since WW2, enough time?

The Luftwaffe has been invited to join special celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain Britain’s at next summer’s Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, organisers have revealed.

A delegation from the airshow visited the German embassy this month to invite them to join in commemorative displays alongside all the countries that participated in the historic events of 1940. The Italian Air Force, which flew alongside the Luftwaffe, has also been invited to join in. Dubbed ‘Britain’s finest hour’ by Winston Churchill, the Battle of Britain marked the most important event in Royal Air Force history – and proved pivotal to the outcome of the Second World War. Lasting less than four months, this was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces.

Interested in your views.

Here's the link - http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm? ... 10796CA514

[Focal_Plane]

On the 16th August, 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, Churchill visited 11 Group HQ at Uxbridge and spent most of the day their in the underground ops room with Hastings Ismay, his Chief of Staff.

They witnessed a day of intense fighting and heavy losses within Fighter Command, which Churchill was deeply moved by. When they left in the evening to head back to Chequers, Ismay said - Churchills first words to me in the car were: "Don`t speak to me; I have never been so moved". Then, after a short period, he leant over and said to me; "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few". This latter phrase was to be used again on August 20th when he addressed the House of Commons and gave his now famous speech about "The Few".

THE FEW... That`s what next year`s celebration should be about, nothing else, just the men and woman who fought in the Battle of Britain to protect us from Nazism; the Czechs, Pols, Americans, British - they laid their lives down for our freedom. It should be a celebration of a victory against all the odds by a body of people who`s only goal was to save this country from their tyranny. To do anything else is to demean their achievement and sacrifice.

A 70th anniversay such as this should be a national celebration. It seems to me that people are too interested in being politically correct nowadays, rather than doing the right thing. This should not be an event to act as a commemoration to all sides, it should first and foremost be a celebration of what "The Few" did for this country and what that really means to us as a nation. The other countries can mourn their dead as they see fit on their own prerogative. Reconcilliation between all the protagonist is something which happened years ago, that`s no excuse.

Political correctness is an insipid ailment which seems to be creeping into every part of our day-to-day lives driven by our country`s oh-so clever illuminati.

I think by this you can guess my feelings about this by now!.

[Richard B]

Never seen the problems back in the past with the Germans displaying over here at airshows.
infact they used to be over here all the time.

So just another poor advertisement from RIAT. and in bad taste if you ask me.

[SteveS]

It's not political correctness as such, we cannot judge all German soldiers, pilots, sailors et al (notice I didn't say Nazi) as we would do those we sanctioned the mass genocide of the Jewish people.

The men who fought on the German side were no less brave and no less scared than those who fought on the Allied side. They thought they were the 'good guys' too, fighting to regain German pride, the loss of which may go all the way back to Versailles. The Nazi party was able to assert their own 'spin' on everything that happened, to portray them as the victims;

In the memoirs of Heinz Knoke (I Flew For the Fuhrer - awesome read, a true view from the other side)

(written in 1939)
Recent years have seen Germany ridding herself more and more of the shackles of Versailles. Do we not have a right to live as free people upon this Earth?

...and then at the end of the book at the Wars end...

We are dazed by all the sensational disclosures and events which occur in rapid succession. Despotism without conscience has been revealed among the Nazi's in the background amongst Hitler.

Disgusted and indignant, the German fighting soldiers and officers turn away from those whose brutal war crimes and atrocities are now exposed.

Clearly, this doesn't apply to all who were in the German forces during the War, and maybe the book was 'politically correctisised' to be made more acceptable, I don't know.

People died for all sides here and many were too young to understand exactly what they were fighting for, believing it to be some of re-assertion of German pride following the Treaty of Versailles and the awful depression of the 1920s.

As you can see, I have no issue with the German's being invited to join the commemorations.

Steve

[Sheff]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. At a guess, it will comprise of a British Typhoon parked next to a Luftwaffe and Italian one in a vain attempt to create something of interest at an otherwise predictably dull RIAT. Cynical I know but I wouldn't wanna put any money on that not being too far from reality!

[Sparts99]

Over the summer of 1984 I was a member of the groundcrew on a CASA352 (Spanish built Ju52 copy) which displayed in the UK and Europe. During that time I met a number of ex Luftwaffe aircrew, I have no doubt having met them that they were brave and were fighting for a cause they believed in, they felt Germany had been opressed and were fighting to regain what they thought was their rightful place in Europe and the world. Flying to & from airshows it really brought home to what it must have been like, how vulnerable troops and aircrew must have felt flying to war in aircraft like that. But for all that my view is that the BoB was a victory for Britain and as such is Britain's and the countries whose citizens fought alongside Britain to celebrate, and so it feels wrong to me that Germany and Italy participate in any celebrations or commemorations specific to the event. Would it seem right for them to participate in a VE Day anniversary flypast over London ? If however the commemoration is one of reconciliation and partnership then absolutely they should be involved.

[RichC]

My view is that they should be held together.... why not?
Our pilots held total respect for their german counterparts....and vice versa...
It was the Nazi's that created the regime that it was .... not Germans as a whole.

Distinct difference between the German people and the Nazi people and i don't believe any Luftwaffe crew were "Nazi" orientated....
I could be totally wrong but going by the stories i had read by aircrew (especially the aces) they really didn't like shooting down each other but it had to be done.
Hitler at first didn't even want to invade the British Isles... he was quoted in saying he had respect for the English because in his words "we were pure like the germans" and i believe that he did not even want to get into a war with Britain but of course it was Britain which declared war on Germany, not the other way round.

Both countries lost an awful lot of people... its way in the past and so we should in this day and age be able to hold events together.
Most airshows portray an event where warbirds fly around in a dogfight.... with the German aircraft always coming away with smoke trailing....
Why not have a formation of British and German aircraft together for a change. Afterall, we are both part of NATO, we have both gone to conflict with each other on the same side (Afghanistan and Serbia/Kosovo).

[Dunk]

A couple of German Phantoms being chased by RAF Typhoons would be cool.

ILA Berlin have a similar thing, with a German Phantom being chased by 2 Typhoons, looks fantastic as the Phantom spews around on full power trying to turn while the Typhoons just hang in the air!

I dont have any problem with the Bosh being invited to fly with BoB!

[sjnovis]

I think it is a great idea, in fact I think all the nations that had pilots who fought along side us should be represented, Czech, Poles, Canadians etc etc..

That would make for a great flypast.

[dunmailbiffa17]

I can see all sides to this,in my opinion (The right to have one and express it givin to me through sacrifice) the only peoples views that matter and im sure will be consulted are the veterans now dwindling in number.However we are allies and interdependent on each other(All though i would like to see them in the fight with us in afghanistan) and they should take part in an act of reconciliation,i lived in Germany for many years with the British Army and the older generation always struck me as full of regret and loss.Im sure RIAT will do the right thing.