The Real Heroes
A Mk1 Spitfire of 212 Photo Reconnaisance Squadron sits waiting for takeoff in Seclin, France in the spring of 1940. Its task to photograph the enemy positions.The Germans were advancing at breakneck speed across the continent. With no guns and all its armour removed to give it extra speed and height, only the skill of the pilot will get it home.
Painted blue to help them hide in the skies over Europe , the early reconnaisance Spitfires were stripped of all their weapons and armour, equipped with only basic magnetic compasses, no heating, unpressurised cockpits and notoriously unreliable oxygen systems. That made each mission to take vital intelligence photos of the advancing German Blitzkrieg a genuinely life threatening challenge.
Pilots kept radio silence throughout their lonely, quiet, high altitude missions. The low level, treetop height sorties known as "Dicers" were a very different animal, with small arms fire, anti-aircraft weapons and the Luftwaffe fighters trying to destroy you, your aircraft and the photos you had just taken every inch of the way!
The members of 212 Squadron kept their spirit of resilience throughout, even as they escaped from France after their aircraft were evacuated to England leaving many of them behind to find their own way home to Britain, where- they didn't know it yet- their biggest test still awaited them...
'The Battle of Britain'