Saturday, August 31, 2024

London Trip 10 - Duxford - The Battle Of Britain

We entered the Battle Of Britain gallery.

Duxford was the sector station for G Sector in 12 Group during the Battle.

A  shot down BF-109 greets you as you walk in:

This particular BF-109 E-3 crash-landed in Sussex during the Luftwaffe’s last major daylight raid on London in September 1940. The plane was subsequently restored to what it looked like immediately after the crash.

There's Hawker Hurricanes:




You can look inside the cockpit of one of the Hurricanes:

And of course, there are Spitfires:


A Bristol Blenheim bomber:

There's also an unusual plane used in the Battle of Britain, albeit in a non-combat role:

The Cierva C30A autogiro was used by the Royal Air Force to check radar accuracy. The Radar Calibration Flight 1448 was based at Duxford from 1940 to 1942.

Search lights and antiaircraft guns are also on display:



After the Battle of Britain was won, the Germans then in 1944  bega sending V-1 flying bombs and a captured V-1 is on display at the end of the exhibit.

The Battle Of Britain gallery is very well laid out complete with lots of detailed information about the pilots ground crews, observers, controllers, and others who all played a role in the battle.

1 comment:

Scott said...

It has been fun to re-live this trip to the IWM with you. A wonderfully different experience with all kinds of British types as the main attractions. Loved the Swordfish! And I did see bits of B-52 "photobombing" your American section pictures. For something that size, it's hard for it not to photobomb!