14 Wing Greenwood will mark the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain with a mid-week event September 17.
A service of commemoration will be held at St. Mark’s Chapel, Church Street, Greenwood; at 12:15 p.m. Members of the Defence Team, retired military members, and the public are welcome. Military dress is dress of the day.
The summer of 1940 was a dark time for the Allied Forces. A large portion of continental Europe had fallen to the Nazis, and Hitler was preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of Great Britain. First, he needed to dominate the airspace over the English Channel. His Luftwaffe (air force) needed to destroy the Royal Air Force.
The Battle of Britain was the first major battle fought almost entirely between opposing air forces. Waged from July to October 1940, it pitted a small group of Allied fighter pilots against the far larger German Luftwaffe. More than 100 Canadians participated in the Battle of Britain, most flying with the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, and 23 lost their lives.
August 20, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous speech, praising the airmen fighting the battle: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Overseas, the RCAF formed five new day-fighter squadrons in 1941. Battle of Britain veterans provided experience and knowledge to more than half of the new RCAF fighter squadrons up to the end of 1942.
