RAF 41: Parents Pointed and Whispered to Children … … ‘Spitfire!’ …

One of my favourite planes is the Supermarine Spitfire. It often appears in articles around this website. Spitfire by John Nichol is one of the many currently read, privately reviewed, and sometimes publicly reviewed books on the website.

I’ve read it several times, but there is one short piece of writing I always love to re-read. It sums up what millions of us have felt as kids growing up in the long shadow of the Second World War when we were very aware that something terrifying had happened just before we were born, and somehow, we’d won what everyone said we were bound to lose.

In one short line - a whisper - many will most certainly have experienced hearing and feeling with mum and dad that which John Nichol writes of.

In this brief extract, John Nichol perfectly finds the cadence and rhythm of a million thoughts of a million people over the years enjoying that same experience …

Extract from Spitfire by John Nichol

As I stood on the airfield, away from the public areas on grass that had once seen scores of Spitfires take to the skies during WWII, I watched in amazement as an astonishing phenomenon unfolded. For a moment, the cough and splutter of an engine went unnoticed – like the preliminary chords of an orchestra – and people carried on their conversations. Then the stammer turned into a roar as soothing as anything philharmonic. Chatter stopped, cameras pointed away from the domineering aircraft – even from the majestic Concorde – and towards the sound humming from the runway. People began to pour out of the exhibition halls and moved, some even running, struggling to release cameras from their bags, towards the barriers at the edge of the airfield. The aircraft they sought out was small, one of the smallest on the Duxford track. They had recognised the distinctive notes of a Merlin engine and, yet to actually see the aircraft itself, they still knew what was to come. A few heads nodded in recognition; enthusiasts squinted, trying to identify the variant.

Parents pointed and whispered to children: Spitfire.

The hum turned to the glorious crescendo of the Merlin engine at full power as the fighter streaked down the grass runway mere yards away from the admiring crowd. In seconds its curved, leaflike wings were outlined above as the wheels tucked neatly into its lean belly. Cameras tracked skywards. It was a wonderful treat to see a Spitfire in flight. Something to show those back home. As the fighter disappeared into the Cambridgeshire sky, the visitors turned back to the other displays with broad grins, happy that they had seen a legend, no, the legend, take to the air. Some had frowned at a slight deviation in the Spitfire’s usual elegance. A second canopy, sat behind the first, for this was one of the few two-seater versions which carried passengers. What they couldn’t have known – the reason I was there, the reason this book came about – was that a 90-year-old veteran, who had not flown a Spitfire for nearly 70 years, sat in the rear cockpit, grinning like a schoolboy.

End of Extract by John Nichol

John Nichol Website

A Sergeant-Pilot at the height of the Battle, 1940, one of the Few.

Parents pointed

and whispered

to children: Spitfire.

I love this photograph not only because the pilot is a sergeant-pilot, the rank Kenneth Ernest Webb held in Bomber Command, but because we see the head of one of two men - the pilot’s groundcrew - upon whom every pilot, every aircrew, was totally dependent. In my twenty-one years of service in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, whenever I was asked to remember The Few, I did most surely, but adding quietly and firmly, and The Many and with a playful glint in the eye … which always, to this day, prompts the reply in all manner of words, all of which can be nicely paraphrased, Oh, yes, of course. Absolutely.

RAF NCOs … enjoying a brief rest …

London, The Capital

Children taking shelter in the summer of 1940 during a heavy daylight raid on the Capital, LONDON.

I wrote to a friend in Liverpool this week that this image always gives me hope when I see what Ukraine is being subjected to. I've always been moved by this photograph ... it's as if I'm looking at my family ... the little boy, mouth wide open, shielded by his elder brothers ... and their sister opposite sitting quietly with that calm and determination that on the All Clear she'd get them all back home safely.

Somewhere, Dad was doing his bit, Mum was doing her bit, and their dogs and cats will be on yet another truce sharing the garden shed together ...

22 April 2024
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© 2024 Eyes to the Skies

Notes

1. RAF Battle of Britain Sergeant-Pilot ~ image is by courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM)

2. RAF NCOs … enjoying a brief rest ~ image is believed to from the IWM (ibid) Archive

3. LONDON, The Capital … Children watching a dogfight over London Summer 1940 is freely available. If its origin can be located and verified, then we would be only too happy to affirm the source

4. Confrontation at Beachy Head by William S. Phillips is a framed limited edition print No. 940 of 1,000 purchased and owned by Kenneth Thomas Webb

“Confrontation at Beachy Head” by William S. Phillips (limited edition 940/1000)