Today In Fact, 15 September

My father was an 11 year old London lad during the Blitz. He remembers that he and a group of his mates were often mucking about in the rubble of buildings destroyed by German bombing. His best mate, “tiny” Tim was rather podgy.

Today in 1940, the Germans unleashed their largest bombing raid of the war. My dad and his mates were as usual mucking about around Piccadilly and decided to catch the number 15 bus to Barking. My dad and two of his fitter mates caught the bus by hopping-on the back end. Tiny Tim was huffing along but couldn’t catch-up so my dad hopped off to be with his mate.

To their horror, my dad and Tiny Tim watched as a Stuka dive-bombed the number 15 bus and his two fitter pals were killed.

The Royal Air force mustering all its planes repelled the German attack in the fiercest day of the Battle of Britain. Churchill famously said of the RAF and this battle that “never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed, by so many, to so few.”

Perhaps fittingly, today has also, since 2008, marked World Democracy Day. I helped to mark that first World Democracy Day with a conference and a tree planting ceremony promoting the African Union Charter for Democracy, Elections and Governance at the Old Fort on Constitution Hill.

– Posted by Douglas Racionzer ( serendipiday.blogspot.com )

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