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At first just specks on the horizon, but quickly they become larger as they approach at high speed. They look like Spitfires. Closing fast, they skim low above the harvest fields and now the sound of Merlin engines at full throttle is unmistakable. Yes, they are Spitfires!
With gun ports whistling the little fighters swoop past in a headlong rush to refuel, rearm, and climb back into battle. Just time as they rush by to glimpse the Me109 down in the wheat field below - one of the many victories for the squadron on that brilliant summer morning. In moments they are gone. Peace and quiet again descends upon this idyllic English countryside scene leaving one Luftwaffe pilot, his battle run, to contemplate his misfortune and his fate as farm workers hurry towards him.
The Battle of Britain commenced at the beginning of July, 1940. During the next two and a half months, at the height of a glorious English summer, the Royal Air Force fought with the Luftwaffe what was to become the greatest aerial conflict in history. Never before, nor since, has air fighting been so sustained in its intensity over such a period. And no fighter in history has captured the imagination more so than the Spitfire.
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