In My Opinion

[9goals2hattricks3pen]

Today September 15th should be a national holiday. The battle that saved the world as we know it.

[kettering_baggie]

Can’t have that, not enough ‘diversity’ amongst the pilots.

Actually, I just can’t imagine what it must have been like having to repeatedly take off to fly into dogfights with the knowledge that their demise might be just a few moments away. I think it was the great Australian cricketer Keith Miller that made a comment when asked by Michael Parkinson about ‘pressure’ in cricket, ‘pressure is a Messerschmitt up your @rse, playing cricket is not’. He was a pilot in WWII but not in the Battle of Britain. A very apt observation nonetheless.

[holmleighchris]

We don't want anymore Bank holidays. More and more people are being made to work them anyway. Could shift the August Bank Holiday to Sept 15th I suppose but a midweek bank holiday is very disruptive and it wouldsoon be moved to the nearest Monday to the date.

[TipperaryBaggie]

We have Spitfires flying over us every day and I still stand and watch them wondering what it would have like all those years ago when the sky would have been full of planes.

[9goals2hattricks3pen]

We don't want anymore Bank holidays. More and more people are being made to work them anyway. Could shift the August Bank Holiday to Sept 15th I suppose but a midweek bank holiday is very disruptive and it wouldsoon be moved to the nearest Monday to the date.

"We don't want anymore Bank Holidays" Don't know who the we is you're referring to but I suggest it's not the working masses. Our European cousins have many more National Holidays than we do 13 to 8 in most cases. And most French kids know more about the Bastille (whilst ignoring guillotine, reign of terror, Napoleon) from 231 years ago than British kids do about the Battle of Britain (that saved the free world) from 80 years ago.

The holiday could be any day of the 4 months it lasted. Tag it onto August Bank Holiday or if we really can't manage an extra holiday rename the August Bank Holiday "Battle of Britain Day".

Lest we forget. Which we are very good at.

[stripes39]

There's a very good documentary on BBC4 IPlayer about the real story of the Battle of Britain. Its well worth a watch even if you're very familiar with the story as not everything was as it seemed.