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Fourteen Battle of Britain veterans are to take to the skies in a special memorial flight.

A chartered airliner will fly over parts of England and the English channel that saw some of the fiercest aerial combats.

The British Airways Airbus will be accompanied for part of the way by a Spitfire and Hurricane from the period.

Turning once again, and this time more generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon, of which I was speaking just now, the same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous manœuvre. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government—every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

It’s a bright summer Sunday in July, and I’m watching a Spitfire and a Hurricane twisting and turning through the sky above the white cliffs that form the southern coast of England. Then they climb away over the English Channel and are silhouetted against a blue sky crisscrossed with white contrails. The images I’m watching are real, but the time is 2009, not 1940, which the scenes call to mind. The Spitfire and the Hurricane are genuine from the Royal Air Force (RAF) Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, but the contrails are from commercial aircraft plying their trade.

The Battle of Britain was fought nearly 70 years ago in the skies above where I’m standing. It was an air encounter about which much has been written, a conflict which has been portrayed on film many times and commemorated at the National Memorial to the Few, which I’m standing next to as one of the Spitfires from the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight performs an immaculate barrel roll overhead. Today is Memorial Day, a day when the start of the battle is remembered. On this day, many people from many backgrounds, both military and civilian, congregate at the site of the memorial overlooking the English Channel, over which the Battle of Britain was fought. Some of the veterans of the battle are present, each with his own memories of what he faced in 1940. Many young people are also present together with senior military personnel from the Royal Air Force and from the many other countries that fought alongside the British people. Everyone is gathered to commemorate a momentous event in time and those who took part in it.

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