british war memorials · the battle of britain memorial flight

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= ---------- section a ---------- argentine graves [Rem] asquith, lieutenant raymond [BWM] ========================= ---------- section b ---------- baltic exchange [BWM] battle britain memorial flight [BWM] bayes, gilbert [BWM] bean, charles [BWM] blighty, a soldier's dream of [BWM] british medical association [BWM] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- canada and liverpool [BWM] cenotaph, new zealand [BWM] chopsticks memorial [BWM] cochrane, admiral lord thomas [Rem] collingwood, vice admiral lord [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- fishguard [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- glasgow university memorial chapel [BWM] grenfell, captain the honourable julian [Rem] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- halifax bomber lw 340 [Rem] havelock, major general sir henry [BWM] helles memorial [BWM] home guard memorial (torbay) [BWM] hollis vc, stanley [BWM] horner, lieutenant edward [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- king’s own royal regiment memorial chapel [BWM] king's royal rifle corps [BWM] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lincoln cathedral [BWM] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- malta [BWM] madingly [Rem] montford, paul [BWM] mckenzie, dr r tait [BWM] midleton, lord [BWM] music of remembrance [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nelson's island [Rem] newgass, lieutenant harold [BWM] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- polish war memorial [BWM] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- rugby school memorial chapel [BWM] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sandhurst, royal memorial chapel [BWM] sicily [Rem] st brides church [BWM] stirling bomber n 3654 [Rem] strange burial, a [Rem] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- turing, alan [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wakeful, HMS [Rem] wakenshaw vc, private adam [BWM] williams, lieutenant colonel henry [Rem] women at war memorial [BWM]

In the years after the Second World War, it became traditional for a Spitfire and Hurricane to lead the Victory Day Flypast over London. From that event, there grew the idea to form an historic collection of flying aircraft, initially to commemorate the RAF’s most important battle honour the Battle of Britain and latterly with broadened scope, to commemorate the RAF’s involvement in other major battles of the Second World War.

“The demand for appearances by the Memorial Flight's aircraft shows no sign of decline”

The original purpose of the Memorial Flight was to help celebrate the Allied victory and the anniversary of the end of the Second World War. It has since become a flying memorial to all members of the Royal Air Force, who lost their lives during the Second World War.

The Lancaster bomber, Dakota transport, five Spitfire fighters and two Hurricane fighters represent the types of aircraft which played such an important part in the final victory. Thus in July 1957 the RAF's Historic Aircraft Flight was formed at Biggin Hill. Its initial complement of aircraft consisted of a Hurricane and three Spitfires.

During its 48 year existence the Flight has been based at six different airfields, the consequence of the radical downsizing of the real estate of the Royal Airforce by successive governments. The Flight experienced variable fortunes before emerging in its current form as one of the world's best-known historic collections.

Since its inception the Flight's aircrew have been volunteers, all of whom perform a primary duty on such front-line types as Typhoon, Tornado F3, Harrier GR7/9, Canberra PR9 and Boeing E3D AWACs or on training aircraft such as the Tucano, Dominie and Super King Air. The one exception is the Officer Commanding for whom the demands of overseeing operations, administration and engineering dictate that he serves full-time with the BBMF.

In those tasks, and particularly in respect of display-related planning, he is assisted by a Reserve Officer as the Flight's Operations Officer/Adjutant, an Operations Assistant and a civilian Administrative Assistant. In the early years engineers, like the aircrew, made themselves available largely on a voluntary, self-help basis, albeit they were properly qualified in the various aspects of the aircraft.

With the expansion of the fleet in the mid-1970s, engineering was placed on a more formal basis and the team now consists of 25 full-time ground crew personnel led by a Warrant Officer Engineering Officer. Excepting fourth-line maintenance, these personnel handle all aspects of the maintenance of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's 11 historic aircraft both at Coningsby and out on the display circuit. Records show that for many years after its formation in 1957, the Flight conducted relatively low-key activities, typically making 50-60 appearances per season, a situation that continued into the mid-1960s.

By 1992 participation was up to 150 appearances, growing to 200 in 1995 and exceeding 500 in 1996. Since 2002 the Flight has been tasked for well over 600 individual aircraft appearances during each year's display season and this figure is now considered the norm. The demand for appearances by the Memorial Flight's aircraft shows no sign of decline and is expected to be as high as ever during 2005, with it being involved in commemorations for the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Run by Lincolnshire County Council Heritage Services, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitor Centre is based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and the motto of the Flight appropriately enough is: "LEST WE FORGET". In addition, the privately-owned American B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B (immortalised in the 1990 film Memphis Belle) flies as the airborne war memorial to the American airmen who were killed flying from the British Isles during the Second World War. In 2005 she was grounded by prohibitive insurance premiums imposed by the European Union.

Futher information:

Website: www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/