Westminster

The Battle of Britain Monument

Victoria Embankment
Westminster
LONDON SW1

Left:  The Battle of Britain memorial - photo by Colin Smith and reproduced by kind permission

This wonderful new memorial was unveiled by The Prince of Wales in September 2005.  It is sited on Victoria Embankment opposite the Ministry of Defence and close to Big Ben and Westminster Pier.

The memorial commemorates the sacrifice of the young men who flew the Spitfires and Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Luffwaffe of Nazi Germany in 1940. Outnumbered by 5 to 1 the pilots flew again and again in the summer of 1940 against the Nazi bombers raiding London and the majority of the young men who were killed were only 20 or 21 years old. 

The simple memorial graphically shows them running ("scrambling") to get airbourne, resting in full flying kit on the grass, and the women who plotted their routes and engineers who kept thier battered planes in the air. 

Along one side is inscribed the immortal words of Winston Churchill : " Never in the Field of Human Conflict was So Much owed by So Many to So Few". This still says it all.

JB

Nearest Tube station:  Westminster
Parking virtually impossible except on Sundays.

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