Emotional pressure points. We all have them. Sometimes they’re a surprise to us, and sometimes not. Expats sometimes find them when discussing Home. The fairer sex finds them in dreadful movies about bereavement and divorce, usually including words like “bittersweet” or “one woman’s journey” in the title. Wherever you may find them, you know it when you do.
And two of mine are aviation and the Battle of Britain. Which makes the Duxford Air Show on the 70th anniversary of the BoB a great place to be. So two weeks ago Gav and I took the motorbikes up to Cambridgeshire for this event, and just as well we did. The traffic up the M11 was stationary for miles and miles, such was the popularity of the event. Once again, two wheels beats four.
Inside the gates of Imperial War Museum Duxford was a strange mix of people. Quite a few old codgers, proudly decked out in blazers & medals. Lots of Americans. And everyone reduced to being a wide-eyed little boy inside, just gazing in absolute wonder at the displays. The world famous Red Arrows did their bit, followed by an F-16 Fighting Falcon that hopped across from BAF Kleine Brogel in Belgium for the display. 
And the RAF was also kind enough to launch a Eurofighter Typhoon from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire for us. Seeing this £70 million bit of kit open up 40 000 pounds of thrust in a 9g turn is enough to awake the Top Gun wannabe in any of us. The French Airforce’s Patrouille de France popped over from Marseille quickly to give us probably the best display of the day in their Alpha Jets. And the static displays were just as good. You could walk up and touch everything from a tiny P-51 Mustang to a massive B-52 Stratofortress. They’ve also got an F1-11, a U2, a Huey chopper, an F-4 Phantom, and even a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. I was like a child in a sweet shop.
But these weren’t why we were there. 70 years ago The Few defended Britain against the might of Hitler’s onslaught. Among these brave men were South African Sailor Malan, and Douglas Bader. Their tools of choice were the Hurricane and the Spitfire, and there is no better place on the planet to see these than Duxford. I was privileged to see the BoB Memorial Flight again – the combination of Hurricane, Spitfire and the only airworthy Lancaster bomber in the world passing lazily overhead while the rousing words of Sir Winston Churchill resonated from the PA system. And the sound of 16 Spitfires scrambling for take-off at the same time reduced me even further in mental age from 10 to 6. A number of the Spitfires were piloted by foreign pilots, symbolising the contribution made by South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, Poles, Czechs and others. Gav pointed out a t-shirt for sale at one of the stalls, sporting a Union Jack and the comment “These colours don’t run”. Beautiful.
After the sky was cleared of Spitfires, Hurricanes and ME 109 Bouchons, the announcer informed us of a special request: 19 Squadron, based at RAF Valley in Wales were the first squadron ever to deploy Spitfires. It was their request that they be allowed to do a fly-past with their black BAE Hawks in the Missing Man formation, symbolising the thousands of brave young men who took off, but never landed. As the formation approached from the west with the conspicuous unoccupied position, the commentator requested a minute’s silence in memory. For a full 60 seconds somewhere around 30 000 people stood dead silent as the Hawks flew slowly into the distance. And whatever it is that gets to my wife in chick movies got to me. Properly. The sunglasses are purely for UV protection, you understand.
We were in the presence of greatness.
