70 years on, Britain remembers 'the few'

Spectators, some in war era costume, gather on a grassy knoll to watch a flypast of world war planes, with a Lancaster Bomber, top, followed by a Spitfire as they fly over the National Memorial, at Capel-le-Ferne, in Kent, southern England, as part of events to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, on July 11, 2010. The Battle of Britain was the 1940 air campaign by Nazi German and British forces which fought to gain air superiority over the region. File photo: AP.

Vintage World War II fighter planes will fly over London to pay tribute to “the few”, pilots who defended the country from German attack during the Battle of Britain.

Between July and October 1940, Royal Air Force fighter squadrons battled German bombers that pounded Britain’s cities and airfields as preparation for a planned invasion.

Friday marks the 70th anniversary of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s rousing House of Commons speech in which he said of the air crews that “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Actor Robert Hardy will read the speech at a ceremony attended by Churchill’s granddaughter and Battle of Britain veterans, followed by a fly over of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters.