Now, if you grew up in the 1950s, you grew up against the backdrop of the Second World War.
British cinemas were full of films of the conflict, our cities and towns were still scarred with bombsites and pretty much every adult I talked to would have a story of what they did in the war.
Not that that many of them volunteered their story.
In our case my parents and grandparents only reluctantly offered up their experiences, and in the case of mother it was over shadowed by the loss of her brother wo died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp aged just 21.
Both he and mother were in the R.A.F., while my father and grandfather were in reserved occupations, and an uncle had been called back to the Black Watch, and would eventually end up in Austria administering a small town.
Nor was I alone, because all my friends had family who had been caught up in that conflict.
And so we took it all for granted, and over the years since, I have encountered hundreds of images of the war.
Even so I was pleased to see that Ancestry which is one of the leading genealogical platforms has released a series of photographs to commemorate the Battle of Britain, 80 years ago.
The collection includes the usual ones of young men from Fighter Command waiting by their planes on an “airfield somewhere in Britain”, or returning from a “sortie", but there are also plenty of the maintenance crews, as well as those of Bomber Command, and together they offer up a vivid picture of a moment in that war.
Location; “airfields somewhere in Britain”
Pictures; July 1940 Fighter Pilot returning after a battle with the enemy. Fox Photos WD 6152, and an R.A.F. Fighter Station ‘somewhere over England’ which show scenes on the landing field when men and machines had returned from a battle in the skies with enemy aircraft.
Pilots waiting by the Hurricane Fighter planes all ready for action, FOX WD 6169WD 6151.
Men of the R.A.F. running into action with their machine-gun during training”
*UK, Historical Photographs and Prints, 1740-1989, World War 11, Ancestry
Not that that many of them volunteered their story.
In our case my parents and grandparents only reluctantly offered up their experiences, and in the case of mother it was over shadowed by the loss of her brother wo died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp aged just 21.
Both he and mother were in the R.A.F., while my father and grandfather were in reserved occupations, and an uncle had been called back to the Black Watch, and would eventually end up in Austria administering a small town.
And so we took it all for granted, and over the years since, I have encountered hundreds of images of the war.
Even so I was pleased to see that Ancestry which is one of the leading genealogical platforms has released a series of photographs to commemorate the Battle of Britain, 80 years ago.
The collection includes the usual ones of young men from Fighter Command waiting by their planes on an “airfield somewhere in Britain”, or returning from a “sortie", but there are also plenty of the maintenance crews, as well as those of Bomber Command, and together they offer up a vivid picture of a moment in that war.
Pictures; July 1940 Fighter Pilot returning after a battle with the enemy. Fox Photos WD 6152, and an R.A.F. Fighter Station ‘somewhere over England’ which show scenes on the landing field when men and machines had returned from a battle in the skies with enemy aircraft.
Pilots waiting by the Hurricane Fighter planes all ready for action, FOX WD 6169WD 6151.
*UK, Historical Photographs and Prints, 1740-1989, World War 11, Ancestry
