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Tomorrow, 16 August, marks the 75th anniversary of J B Nicolson's VC winning actions. The citation, published in the London Gazette in November, read as follows:

Air Ministry, 15 November 1940.

The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery : —

Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON (39329) — No. 249 Squadron.

During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson's aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs. Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.

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... and today is the 75th anniversary of the Hardest Day. The BBC is reporting on the mass flypasts planned for today; good to see they are reporting on this significant day. Alfred Price's book of the same name will be duly re-read, starting today...

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Was so looking fowards to seeing the mass flypast, didn't arrange to be able to go and see them as the route was to fly directly overhead, but at the last minute they took RAF Gravesend of the route so the flew too far south to see :(

Also been defeated by my GB project, the dogfight dornier is now in the bin, still got the defiant from the set to finish plus a spitfire, think I might add something else now, the starter hurricane and perhaps another spit, or maybe even give the dornier a 2nd shot

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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Also been defeated by my GB project, the dogfight dornier is now in the bin

Don't think of it as you being defeated, you're not the one in the bin. I think it's pretty clear who won this one.

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yeah, wot he says, plus, there are no failures in modelling, they just don't turn out as expected sometimes.

Dig the Dornier out, put aside for a while, then have another look at it.

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... and today is the 75th anniversary of the Hardest Day. The BBC is reporting on the mass flypasts planned for today; good to see they are reporting on this significant day.

I noticed that the itinerary for the flypastst din't include Duxford, otherwise I might have got to see them. But then I realised that they only took in airfields that played a significant role during the Battle. Probably best not to open that :worms::fool:

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Turns out they did do a flypast over RAF Gravesend, a "missing man" formation no less! The original itinerary didn't include it but there was a petition raised by the RAF Gravesend Facebook page which must have made the BHHH change their minds. Well done to all, the photos look great!

Edited by Kallisti
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Well apparently it was a last minute thing, so very few people were ready for it. There are a few photos on the RAF Gravesend FB page - it wouldn't have happened at all if a fuss hadn't been kicked up I reckon.

Sadly I'm in Berkshire nowadays so there was no chance for me to get to see it, I'm checking the flight plans for the Goodwood one on 15th Sept - one flight is supposed to fly near Reading so maybe I'll get a chance to see it...

Edited by Kallisti
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Hi guys, any room for a latecomer to the GB? I've been totally inspired by the models coming out of this GB plus yesterday's events over Kent.

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Hi guys, any room for a latecomer to the GB? I've been totally inspired by the models coming out of this GB plus yesterday's events over Kent.

Jump in, jump in, I have four on the go, but am planning to start another in the next couple of days!

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Did a news search on the BoB today, to see if I missed any stories on the events yesterday or anything upcoming, and found that some remarkable stuff about Ian Gleed has been published recently.

For a start I never knew that 'Widge' was an amalgam of 'Wizard Midget'. Rather good, that.

He also has a claim to be the leading gay fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain. Apparently he was fairly open about his preferences and had many a fling, the one survivor to talk about it being Christopher Gotch, who flew Hurricanes with 245 Squadron and was wounded over Dieppe. His memoirs 'Arise to Conquer' published in 1942 referred to a fictitious girlfriend called Pam, invented to spare any unwanted interest in his private life.

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20th August 1940 saw the only bombing raid on my hometown (bar a couple of V-1 hits) during the war.

Grandad had just got home from his shift at Thorneycroft's in Basingstoke, he had walked home as usual with his great mate Harry Deans. Shortly after arriving home, he heard a loud noise and opened the front door to investigate what was going on. Next thing he knew he was flat on his back in the back garden having been blown clean through the house and out the open back door.

The noise he investigated was a kette of Dornier 17s that had approached the town at rooftop height in order to bomb the railway junction that is adjacent to his row of houses. The bombs missed the railway and fell in his street. Three houses were destroyed, fortunately two were empty but the other was occupied by Harry and his wife and child. All three were killed instantly.

A second kette also attempted to bomb the junction, but released too early and the bombs fell in Church Square destroying a couple of buildings and killing several bystanders. St. Michaels church (the church I was christened and married in ) was also damaged having all the South side stained glass windows blown out, the clock destroyed and large bits of masonry, still visible today, removed.

Anyone now who walks down the old Victorian Burgess Road in Basingstoke and wonders why there are three 50's concrete houses in amongst the row of 19th Century houses, that's why.

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That's an amazing story airgunner! I love hearing snippets of past lives, sade to her about harry though.

It Made all the more amazing for me as your grandfather worked for one on my ansectors (my grandmothers side, also a relative of Siegfried Sassoon)

Rob

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Hi Airgunner, another Basingstoke boy here, fascinating story, but with the sadness which was to become so commonplace as the Luftwaffe began its bombing campaign against the British.

Given Basingstoke's status as a major railway junction it always surprises me it wasn't targeted more.

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While my Spitfire is drying I've started the ME109 form the 'Battle of Britain Experience' set. It's a long time since I've done something Axis so is this one OK out of the box? It's (apparently) Adolf 'Dolfo' Galland's aircraft, serial '< - + -'.

i have no idea have I...

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It's a long time since I've done something Axis so is this one OK out of the box?

Out of the box is perfectly excellent. It's your model. You build it how you want to. It's the having of the fun that's the important part! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Airgunner that is an excellent story, even if extremely tragic for those killed or injured.

My father grew up in Deal on the Kent coast and was 5 when the BoB started. My grandfather rather a chicken farm a couple of miles in from the coast, but with invasion scare the family were told to leave.

They ended up living in West Drayton a couple of miles from Heathrow.

My dad said when they were on the train to London the bombers were overhead, and they thought that they were following the train to London.

Also very scary for a 5 year old boy.

Karl

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I'm afraid a lot of peronal things (family and hospitals) came between me and starting my part of the group build, but thankfully I now have time to build the stuff I have in the stash for this group build.
I plan to build a Heinkel he111, a few 109s and some 110s. And yes, I plan on those planes to be shot down in the Battle of Britain, because, after all, that was the whole point of this battle, wasn't it?

Oh, and I discovered that I didn't have an early mark Spitfire... this being Britmodeller, I just had to build one. Before the mods ban me...

I'll post my builds in the thread.

And I just have to say: the builds I have seen sofar are great! compliments to all involved (i don't have enough likes for you all)

Edited by Dorbeck
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Mrs. P refuses to watch Battle of Britain with me, under any circumstances, yet can't understand why nobody waters her tomato plants while she's away. Could there be a connection???

I think you and your knowledge of the Batlle saves the family from a lot of trouble! it is not strange to try to keep the tomato harvest as small as possible. Before you know it, the Germans might bomb you...

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/07/battle-of-britain-1940-channel-islands.html

So, watching the Batlle of Britain is essential for any (future) father! Pity Mrs. P can't see that....

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