Terry Smith Straight Talking

Happy Battle of Britain Day

The weather in London today is as it was on that day in 1940 when the greatest aerial battle in history reached its climax.
 
Last night I had the pleasure to attend a banquet at the RAF Museum to honour the Polish, Czech and Slovak pilots who flew as part of the RAF during the Battle.
 
The Poles were the second largest group of pilots in the RAF during the Battle after the Brits. The highest scoring ace in the battle in the RAF was a Czech Sgt. Josef Frantisek flying with 303 Polish Squadron.
 
This short clip from the movie Battle of Britain is an essentially accurate portrayal of the way the Polish squadron entered the Battle, by disobeying orders:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pplBZu0oU
 
As General Patton said in another context: 'It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.'
 
Thanks to them, enjoy your day.

Deja vu all over again?

Compare these two quotes which are about events 75 years apart but have a disturbingly similar ring to them. The only point I might make with Messrs Carn and Lascelles is about whether the individuals they describe were 'sour and discontented' or merely well informed.

“By the autumn of 2009, the financial world had become overwhelmed by a sense of having lived through something terrible – and of having survived it. Stock markets had rallied strongly, borrowing costs had come down and, crucially, bonuses were back. Even house prices in the UK and US had risen for a couple of months. The world economy, after the biggest fall since the 1930s, had stabilised and started to grow again. Unemployment was still rising, however, and most big economies were seeing falling consumer prices – something not seen in a generation. Amidst rebounding optimism the sour and discontented pointed to vast global imbalances and a future crisis in western government finances.”

Epilogue to “The Credit Crunch Diaries” by Nick Carn and David Lascelles November 2009.

“It all happened with a sort of surrealistic slowness so that it was quite possible to imagine that one had lived through it and survived it when in fact it had only just begun.”

Firsthand account of the onset of the 1930s depression.