THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN ANNIVERSARY

It was in early July, 1940 that Britain, armed with speedy high flying Spitfires, took to the skies to defend itself against the mighty German Luftwaffe ~ the aerial warfare branch of the indomitable German Wehrmacht during WW II ~ and in three months turned back a near certain invasion and inspired the United States into action: Allen L Roland

I was just a young child in July of 1940 but I was acutely aware of the Battle of England for the British Pathe films were being screened continually in the United States and my imagination was stirred by the out manned RAF Spitfires taking on the overwhelming force of Luftwaffe German Messerschmitt's in the skies over England. The Messerschmitt was indeed a truly formidable foe and weapon ~ see 2 minute video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc-6y0VKzcA

But the RAF Spitfire, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin II inline piston engine of 1175 horsepower, enjoyed a faster rate-of-climb and more agility over its adversary of that time - the Messerschmitt Bf 109E.

The war ~ known as The Battle of Britain after Winston Churchill's mention during a speech in the House of Commons ~ began on July 10th, 1940 and would encapsulate the entire summer. The RAF could only muster some 19 total Spitfire squadrons. The primary player for the German Luftwaffe during this time would become the Messerschmitt Bf 109, a single-seat, single-engine fighter tested during the Spanish Civil War and bound to create its own excellent legacy in time.

After months of deadly bombings on British soil, The Battle of Britain was officially ended on October 31st, 1940 with a decisive British air victory. The sheer will and determination of the British people took center stage alongside ready-to-fight pilots on makeshift airfields. Key to victory was the British radar and communications network which outlined bomber formations as they arrived over the Channel and thus offered the key element of surprise. 

The Spitfire held only a slight edge against the equally-excellent Bf 109s, particularly in fighting under 20,000 feet. The Bf 109, conversely, held the advantage in its engine for it could send fuel from its tanks during the most aggressive of maneuvers - such was the fine line separating these two machines and pilot training and experience were truly at play in the conflict.

The Battle of Britain stands alongside some of the greatest battles in British history, such as the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Agincourt. It was a battle we could not afford to lose. if we had lost it we would have lost the entire war. We won it and barely ~ because of the immense courage and skill of a few hundred fighter pilots who flew against the massed might of the mighty Luftwaffe. It was truly Britain's finest hour. That is why we all celebrate every year the anniversary... of the Battle of Britain.

See 39 minute documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAuT_-wC7nw

One RAF pilot at that time, who was also a poet, truly captured the spirit and world of high altitude Spitfire fighter pilots.

John Gillespie Magee Jr. was an American pilot and poet. He trained at Trenton, St. Catharines, and Uplands and received his wings in June 1941. His officers noted he was, "a very good pilot prospect" but, "lacks discipline" and was "somewhat overconfident." His friends remember liking him and that Magee thought he could do anything, laughed a lot, and made them laugh.( Note ~ these are Common traits for most fighter pilots who are often living on the edge )

He was sent to England for operational training in Llandow, Wales. Later that year he was posted to No. 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, stationed at Digby, England. The squadron operated Supermarine Spitfire aircraft flying fighter sweeps over France and participating in air defense over England against the Luftwaffe.

On 3 September, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a new Spitfire Mk V. During the flight he was struck with the inspiration for a poem -"To touch the face of God." In a letter to his parents he wrote, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter he had written his poem, "High Flight."

Magee was killed three months later at the age of 19 just three days after the U.S. entered the war. At an altitude of about 400 feet, his Spitfire collided in clouds with an Oxford trainer flown by Ernest Aubrey Griffin. At the inquiry afterwards, a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open and died instantly. The Oxford pilot was killed in the accident as well.

But Magee's poem High flight lived on and truly captures the intoxication of high altitude flying, of playing with the clouds and being an eagle. It also inspired me as a young man to become a Navy high altitude aviator and also dance with the clouds in footless halls of air, where never a lark nor even Eagle flew ~ and as I explored the high untrespassed sanctity of space I too felt the silent presence of God which prepared me to eventually touch the hand of God by fully surrendering to love as well as claim my small part in a Unified Field of universal love and soul consciousness.

High Flight
   -by P/O John Gillespie Magee RCAF

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew -
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-battle-of-britain-anniversary.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and transformational counselor Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private Skype consultations (allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

THE GREATEST BATTLE OF ALL TIME / STALINGRAD

Mamayev Kurgan is a war memorial like no other on earth ~ for it is dominated by an angry goddess. The most gigantic, impressive and eerie statue in the world, Rodina-Mat, the Mother Goddess of Russia, touts up 160 feet without any pedestal, 20 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty ~ it is the resting place for 35,000 Soviet soldiers who died defending their city, their country and eventually the world.

Saturday, Feb. 2 marked a very obscure date for Americans, but one that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of young American boys in World War II ~ it is the 70^th anniversary of the final surrender of German forces at Stalingrad ~ The decisive battle of World War II

I was only nine years old when the invincible German sixth army was decisively beaten in the battle of Stalingrad and the tide of World War II permanently changed.

Here's a six minute video clip of what the fighting looked like at Stalingrad in the middle of the Winter ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=OVvoo1qFPDo&NR=1

I vividly remember the shock and elation of that event even as a young child in Nahant, Massachusetts ~ for quite suddenly a glimmer of  world wide hope replaced the growing despair of watching an apparently invincible German Wehrmacht, that had conquered the entire European continent in less than three years, brought to its knees by the courageous Russian defenders of Stalingrad.

Americans have never had to defend their country from a fierce fighting force intent on occupying them such as Russia endured in World War 2 ~ so to truly understand the depth of Russian patriotism, as well as other occupied countries and states, we must understand the battle and triumph of Stalingrad against insurmountable odds.

The human cost was truly horrific, as Martin Sieff explains in his commemorative article entitled ~ The Greatest Battle of All Time ~ and Why It Still Matters Today.

Excerpt: "The colossal scale of the fighting between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War was well recognized by Americans and Britons at the time but it has been virtually forgotten since. But it dwarfed every other battlefront of the war combined. Eight out of 10 German soldiers killed in World War II died fighting the Red Army. The colossal total of nearly 27 million Soviet military and civilian dead was more than twice the death toll of all Americans, Britons, Commonwealth, French and even Germans killed in the war combined.... According to British military historian Anthony Bevoir, 1.1 million Soviet soldiers died in the Battle of Stalingrad and that does not include the at least 100,000 and possibly three times as many civilian inhabitants of the city massacred by the repeated waves of indiscriminate Luftwaffe air attacks….Nazi losses were colossal, too. According to Russian estimates, 1.5 million German and Axis soldiers lost their lives in the entire campaign, more than five times the entire U.S. combat dead for all of the war and more than twice the combined Union and Confederate dead of the entire U.S. Civil War."

The Russian triumph at Stalingrad rapidly led to a German retreat and the inevitable encirclement of Berlin by allied forces. Here's the scene in the German film Downfall, where Hitler finally realises he is defeated in Berlin, and lets out his anger on his Generals. This is the original video, parodied so many times on Youtube ~ the film is excellent and English Soft Subs/Closed Captions are available, look at the bottom right. 4 minute video ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7PmzdINGZk

My point here is that patriotism that is grounded in overcoming a foreign invader ~ such as Russia's victory at Stalingrad ~ is far more formidable than just waving flags and singing anthems. America should be conscious that our illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in millions of civilian deaths and displacements. More importantly they have also become the breeding ground of patriotic freedom fighters who can no longer be labeled insurgents or terrorists ~ who we use to justify even more military spending.

And who is paying the cost of roughly 3 trillion dollars for these illegal wars and occupations?

American families are now paying at least $20,000 each for these occupations (including the hidden social costs) with no end in sight.

It's the biggest bubble of all ~ The so-called US government takes our money;
Then gives it to corporate thieves and uses it to create mayhem around the world.
We are poorer for it.
Our children are poorer for it.
The nation is poorer for it.
It's really no more complicated than that.

See three minute video http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/war-is-a-racket-1/what-the-war-costs-1.html

Now, 70 years later, the apparently invincible American  Wehrmacht, as recently represented by Vice President Joe Biden, set the record straight at the annual Munich Security Conference ~ as reported by WSWS ".. not only is this decade-long exercise in US militarism not ended, it is about to erupt in a whole number of new areas across the globe, threatening the lives of countless millions of people." See article ~ http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/05/pers-f05.html

"The greatest threat to our world and its peace comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or by instilling fear of foreign aggression, try to make us accomplices to their plans." ~ Hermann Hesse

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-greatest-battle-of-all-time.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net