Watch the sky

I'm no war buff or armchair general. I've had an interest in our grandparents lives from childhood. The Battle of Britain is slowly fading from living memory and passing into national legend. Soon it will mentioned along side with 1066 and  Good Queen Bess and her struggle with Spain. 

I recently read Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop, it gave me moving story of the young men and women who took part in the air battles of 1940. The air crews from both sides risked awful deaths. 1940s warplanes were very flamible. Baling out over the channel or the North Sea was dreaded by the RAF and the Luftwaffe. What's striking is the culture of understatement and casual indifference by pilots. They took everything so lightly with the world watching the struggle for Britain. 

I wanted to make an illustration of the boys who took part. I don't want to make a Biggles 'chocks away' picture. I'm still working on the project to make a sensitive tribute to the few.