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Tomorrow.
[i]Eighteen Spitfires and six Hurricanes will gather at Biggin Hill on Tuesday 18th August 2015, 75 years on to the day from the ‘hardest day’ of the 1940 air battle to honour the courageous pilots, engineers, armourers, operations staff and ground crews who faced constant attack from the Nazi Luftwaffe on that day and during that period.
On 18th August 2015, the Spitfires and Hurricanes will fly a commemoration sortie with three formations, starting with a stream take-off at 1pm.
First formation will head south to overfly the Solent, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth.
Second formation will head east to overfly Dover, the former RAF Hawkinge and the Battle of Britain Memorial on the white cliffs at Capel-Le-Ferne
Third formation will route over former Battle of Britain airfields at West Malling, Detling and Gravesend.[/i]
Obviously there will be an opportunity to see them from outside perimeter fence.
Recently I have regularly seen a solitary Spitfire flying in the skies near Biggin Hill while on a bike ride, I can't imagine seeing half a dozen at the same time or the combined roar of the Merlin engines. Lump in your throat time I reckon 🙂
Cheers for that will keep an eye out.
Also [url] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33966632 [/url].
Hoping the Solent / Portsmouth flight might come my way!
[i] Lump in your throat time[/i]
absolutely.
As chance has it, we'll be waiting to board the channel tunnel, so might catch a glimpse
Grice Flight will be taking the route between Biggin Hill and the Isle of Wight. Expected departure is 13.00 local arriving over Ryde Isle of Wight at approximately 13.27 and then returning along the same route.
The towns & villages listed below are within 1.5 km of the intended route.
Leg 1 – 13.00 to 13.07 (13.31 to 13.38)
Chelsham
Warlingham
Caterham
Chaldon
Buckland
Betchworth
Brockham
Dorking
Friday Street
Abinger Common
Sutton Abinger
Holmbury St Mary
Peaslake
Leg 2 – 13.07 to 13.11 (13.27 to 13.31)
Cranleigh
Dunsfold Aerodrome
The Green
Alford Crossways
Northchapel
Leg 3 – 13.11 to 13.19 (13.19 to 13.27)
Lurgashall
Lickford Up
Easebourne
Midhurst
Woolbedding
Stedham
Minsted
Ingrams Green
Didling
Treyford
North Marden
Hooksway
East Marden
Marden
Compton
West Marden
Forest Side
Rowlands Castle
Havant
Drayton
Portsmouth
Gosport
Alverstoke
Ryde
2 lots of 4 just flown over the Folkstone tunnel station
Just watched them fly passed Langstone/Havant
[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bcjZwgac80m1ky9uosMNdDnbkTpM-7Bkl8gsUUw9zq5n=w1138-h640-no [/img]
Just seen them over Caterham. They sounded fantastic!
Well that's not something I thought I would ever see, not only Spitfires flying in formation but when they all returned and regrouped the sky was literally full of Spitfires and Hurricanes, as 18 Spitfires and 6 Hurricanes repeatedly did low level fly passes in formation over Biggin Hill. Too many to see all at the same time. I found the whole experience hugely emotional as I never forgot what it represented and what was being commemorating.
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And unlike today's pilots which I have the utmost respect for keeping the memories alive and have years of experience, those young pilots 75 years ago today were often barely more than kids with perhaps 9 months training before facing a deadly enemy.