The Battle for Britain

The Battle for Britain

Weekly magazine featuring the best British journalists, authors, critics and cartoonists, since 1828

The Battle of Britain: a boy’s dreams and a family’s legacy - Politics, Policy, Political Views

July 10 marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. While it was far away from Australia, as a lad growing up in 1980s Far North Queensland, my boyhood imagination soared over the skies of 1940 Britain. The Battle of Britain wasn’t just history to me. It was an obsession. Fuelled by Paul Brickhill’s Reach for the Sky and my hero-worship of Sir Douglas Bader, Airfix models of Hurricanes, Spitfires, Me-109s, and Me-110s filled my bedroom,…