Battle Of Britain

In July 1940, the sky was not only filled with clouds but fighter planes too. Speeding in the sky shattering the clouds they made their way to shatter the world down them. During WWII when people saw the sky to find hope all they saw was the fighter planes. The Battle of Britain saw a campaign where the German Luftwaffe launched a trail of serious bombings while the Royal Air Force defended their homeland. Even today, this campaign is known as the first aerial event in history.

The Royal Air Force

It was the Royal Air Force who won the Battle of Britain, even then, the Luftwaffe didn’t stop the bombings on the United Kingdom. This bombarding is famously known as the Blitz which destroyed a large part of the London, England and several other cities in Britain. Around 20,000 civilians suffered the wrath of this huge bombarding in the capital alone.

When War Was Over

By the time the war was over, aerial force proved that it was the most important part of the war. The Allies forces won over the Axis forces and it was the air force that brought the victory near them. But the win didn’t come easy as there was a cost that the Allies’ forces had to pay. It was estimated that nearly 60,000 British pilots lost their lives in WWII. The fatality rate was almost 50 percent.

Things Changed

Time passed and it changed for the betterment of the British airmen and the mortality rate didn’t go much high. Commander Phil Richardson, a pilot with the Royal Navy, must have sighed with relief when he found out that seven decades later things changed for every soldier in every corner of the world. Back in 1944, it was his grandfather Ron who disappeared from the face of the earth during his mission to Europe, and the family who waited for his return never found out what actually happened to him.

My Dear Grandfather

When Phil was a kid his grandmother used to tell him about her husband whom he never met in person. “He was in the Navy, he was a fighter pilot in World War Two and did incredibly brave things. The inspiration that it gave me made me want to join the Navy and try to emulate him,” Phil told in the interview with the BBC  in January 2019.

Following His Footsteps

Phil always saw his grandfather as a war hero. He followed his grandfather’s footsteps and became a pilot. He joined the Fleet Air Arm, a branch of the Royal Navy that are responsible to fly the naval aircraft. His grandfather holds a very important place in his heart and it was because of him he joined the navy in the first place. But then, after 72 years, Phil came closer to his grandfather’s past that was lost in time.