The Boulton-Paul Defiant

During the Battle of Britain, the Hawker Hurricane got the most German kills and the more glamorous Spitfire was tops in the PR department, but there was another significant player in the skies over Britain during those tense times. That other player was the Boulton-Paul "Defiant".

The Defiant started out as a good idea in theory (it had a top-mounted turret with 4 .303 machine guns that could fire rearward so as to wipe out German fighters attacking from the rear.) It wasn't so good, however, if they attacked from the front or top or bottom or anywhere except from the rear, so the Germans caught on pretty quickly and the Defiant soon began being thought of as mostly a failure.

This was far from true, however. It simply was being used in the wrong place at the wrong time. Later, it started being used at night against German aircraft during the London Blitz, with devastating results. Ok, maybe not "devastating." But it did it's part. Moral: don't call a duckling ugly until it matures.

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See a film about the Defiant's manufacture, and also see it in action here.

Also on that page (if you go to watch the movie) is a more complete description of this fighter aircraft and its specifications, printed as a comment to the movie.

The Battle of Britain

"The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin..."

—Winston Churchill

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Britain.

The Battle of Britain was fought in the air. The German Luftwaffe assaulted the United Kingdom continuously from July 1940 through that fall, without letup. The world had never seen hell rain down to earth on such a scale before. It was imperative to the German plan of continued conquest that they gain air superiority over the British. Coastal shipping was attacked. Ports were attacked. Aircraft and munitions factories were attacked. Finally, in desperation, the Germans began the terror bombing of population centers. Had the Germans succeeded, the United Kingdom almost certainly would have been forced into a separate armistice.

The RAF held.

Through it all, the skies over Britain were NEVER uncontested. The Germans finally left off. Operation Sea Lion would never materialize. Much of Britain was in shambles, and years of hardship lay ahead, but the British had defended their island. They were staggered, but they were still standing.

When the final history was written, it would be the British who accepted the German surrender.

Indescribable bravery began over Britain, 70 years ago today.