Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain was fought in the skies of Britain between July and October 1940.
Painting by Frank Wootton
While the German armies consolidated their hold on Western Europe, and Britain was still recovering from the retreat of Dunkirk, thirty-three squadrons of Hurricanes and nineteen squadrons of Spitfires took on the might of the German Luftwaffe.

The incredible skills, daring and courage of just three thousand and eighty Royal Airforce aircrew from throughout he British Empire who took part, ensured that Hitler’s projected invasion on Britain did not take place.

This tour explores sites connected with this momentous time. We visit aviation museums, seeing the aircraft of the time, find crash wrecks, drink in the pubs used by the fighter pilots and gunners, see a range of memorials and tour the actual airfields used.

The tour also visits other historical sights in the eastern counties of England of Kent, Essex and Lincolnshire and takes advantage of time in both these counties and London to look at the history of the Blitz, Hitler’s later attempt to subdue Britain from the skies.

This tour is available at any time of the year for private groups.

TENTATIVE ITINERARY	NIGHTSTOP
Day One - Sunday
Arrival London where you’ll be met by your Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd guide and transferred to our London hotel situated in West London. Ironically, you’ll be staying just a few hundred yards away from where the first of Hitler’s V2 rockets landed in 1944! Today is a rest and recuperation day but you might like to take advantage of the day to visit World War Two associated sites such as Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms and the Army Museum at Chelsea.	London
Day Two - Monday
Today, we first visit Westminster Abbey to view the beautiful stained glass window, dedicated to the pilots of Fighter Command. Then to the Imperial war Museum to see it’s excellent display on the war, and particularly it’s vivid recreation of a blitz, bomb shelter. From here we leave London, passing the memorial at Croydon before arriving at RAF Biggin Hill.	Kent
Day Three - Tuesday
The Hornchurch Sector is the subject of today’s explorations. We have three main visits; to the Battle of Britain museum at Hawkinge, to the memorial at Capel-le-Ferne and to the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial at RAF Manston. There’ll be guided tours at each destination and the Manston houses fine examples of a Spitfire TB752 and Hurricane LF751. The Hornchurch Sector covered the county of Kent, over which many dogfights took place, and we’ll be seeing some splendid scenery as we drive through and pinpointing some of the crash sites and the later V1 and V2 rocket targets (over 1400 of which fell on Kent). We’ll also be seeing Dover and it’s famed ‘white cliffs’.	Kent
Day Four - Wednesday
Still in the Hornchurch Sector we visit the Purfleet Heritage Centre and Thameside Aviation Museum. The latter, a small private museum houses a unique collection of crash wrecks. Our lunch-stop today will be at a pub near Epping, much frequented by Battle of Britain pilots, though sadly, it lost much of its memorabilia in a fire. We then head northwards into Essex, driving past what remains of the Hornchurch airfield and the more active Stapleford Abbots airfield. Our second main visit today will be at the North Weald Airfield and airfield museum. There’s much to see here including the Squadron, airfield museum and the airfield church. Later we’ll visit Blake Hall, which housed the ops room for North Weald.	Cambridgeshire
Day Five - Thursday
We spend the day in the sectors controlled by the 12 (Fighter) group, Duxford and Debden. Visits today will include The Imperial War Museum at Duxford, which houses the finest collection of military aircraft and which was, of course, a US airforce base in WW2. We’ll also be visiting the mediaeval university city of Cambridge.	Cambridgeshire
Day Six - Friday
North of Cambridgeshire, in Digby and Wittering Sectors, we can visit RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire is renowned as the ‘Home of the Royal Airforce’ and on the North Kesteven Airfield trail there’s much to rediscover. A particular highlight, however, will be our visit to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight base at RAF Coningsby. The Flight operates a Lancaster, five Spitfires, two Hurricanes and a Dakota. It is possible to view these still-flying aircraft and watch the technicians at work.	Lincolnshire
Day Seven - Saturday
We make our way back to London. An undoubted highlight of the day will be our visit to Bletchley. It was here that the Germans ‘uncrackable’ Enigma Code was broken, allowing the allies to read Axis wireless traffic. The house holds some fantastic and fascinating exhibits. Later, as we near London, we’ll pass the Stanmore Fighter Command HQ and the Uxbridge Fighter Group HQ, in addition to seeing Northolt Airfield.	London
Day Eight - Sunday
We transfer from our hotel base to the airport for return flights home. This has been a memorable tour and as we board our aircraft for the flight home we'll surely remember the courage of those who took to the skies in 1940.