Respect the few…

After a very busy weekend at the Goodwood Revival with Mario (full blog to follow shortly), we went back to Goodwood today for the Battle of Britain Flypast.

“SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW”

Today is the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Battle of Britain and to honour the ‘few’ around 40 Spitfires and Hurricanes took off from Goodwood for a special flight – the most Battle of Britain aircraft to fly together since WW2. From Goodwood the planes dispersed around the South of England so as many people as possible saw a Spitfire in the sky on the anniversary.

The atmosphere at the circuit was electric with a round of applause as each flight took off. One plane had to abort his take off but obviously managed to solve the problem and took off solo at the end to the biggest round of applause of the lot – just image owning a Spitfire and failing to take part in the biggest event ever since the war!

Also taking part was the only flying Blenheim bomber.

The Battle of Britain – the first decisive battle in history to take place entirely in the air – took place between May and September 1940 with Germany trying to destroy the UK’s air defences. The great sacrifices of the ‘few’ brave men of the RAF gave Britain an advantage and changed the course of the war. The climax of the Battle of Britain was on the 15th of September when 1500 aircraft took part in a battle that lasted until dusk. Watching Spitfire after Spitfire take off from what was RAF Westhampnett was an amazing experience and gave just a little feel of what it must have been like to see wave after wave of planes take off for the battle that changed the war.

A few of the Spitfires are two seaters and one of the original pilots was a passenger today, the other seat was intended for Prince Harry but he gave up his ride for an Afghanistan war veteran.

Tens of thousands of people were gathered at the airfield today to watch this historical event and to show respect and say thank you to those who gave so much to save so many.

Ready to go…

 safely installed at Goodwood, we get to use the stable lads accommodation at the house. Dropped Into the cricket match first where Lord March fielded the winning side by one run! Several of the drivers play including Derek Bell, Tiff Needel, Jason Plato and Tony Jardine. The real start of the Revival for us is the low fly pass over the Cricket Pitch (interestingly the oldest pitch in the country). It was a perfect evening with blue skies and the Spitfire looked fabulous. We had to sign on and get our passes and instructions before going out for a lovely supper, before the action starts tomorrow.  
    
    
 

Quick update… off to Goodwood Revival

Sorry for the lack of posts but we’ve been very busy. Mario has had his head gasket, his leaking fuel tank repaired and carburettor overhauled a well as having some rather neat little spotlights fitted, so for once we will have a working fuel gauge and be able to see where we are going! Brother Regie had also had a head gasket done and the radiator repaired so both boys are fighting fit and raring to go! We are now loading up and off to the Revival, our favourite weekend of the year, as part of the period taxi fleet. We will do our best to blog over the weekend but if we can’t there will be a full report next week. After the difficulties last year we are supposed to be working a shift pattern so we have some more time to see what’s going on.
Happy Revival everyone. Love Mario xx