First Light

BBC2 showed "First Light" last night, an excellent recreation of what is was like to have been a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, based on the memoirs of Geoffrey Wellum, who, aged 18 at the time, was one of the youngest pilots in the RAF. If you missed it, catch it on iPlayer. You can also read here how the producers worked hard to make the programme look and sound authentic. It was certainly fascinating to have the film introduced and narrated by Wellum, now aged 89, and was full of personal details that broke through the usual stereotypes.

PS: The BBC's detailed Battle of Britain site is also worth a look, with archive footage and clips from past programmes. Other programmes to be shown in the season can be found here.

303 Squadron

Channel Four have been busy with history documentaries this week and have also produced a fascinating account (which you can watch here) of the contribution of Polish Pilots to the Battle of Britain. When it became clear that Poland would fall to the Nazis, over 8000 Polish airmen escaped to Britain at the beginning of the Second World War, and a Polish government was set up in exile. The Royal Air Force was initially indifferent to the skills of these pilots, but they quickly proved themselves as the pressure from the Luftwaffe mounted. 303 Squadron was formed specifically for Polish pilots, and by the end of war had one of the most impressive records of any squadron, including the shooting down of 126 planes during the Battle of Britain. The programme is based on the diary of one of the pilots on the squadron, who recorded his experiences until his death in 1942. His son is interviewed for the programme here. He is very proud of his father's contribution, but angry at how an image of a Spitfire has been used by the BNP despite the fact the markings show that the pilot is clearly Polish... (See image below - many thanks to Dr Dixon for this)



PS: More information here from a website about the Polish contribution to World War II

PPS: Here are pages on the Battle of Britain from the RAF, the BBC and Robert Fisk in the Independent.