Paul Day, the monument sculptor,
describes each of the scenes in the main panels of the Battle
of Britain London monument and the thoughts that inspired his
work
Click on any of the images for an
enlarged view
First Panel - Fighter Command
a - Pilots at rest
Waiting for the signal to be brought to readiness or to scramble
allowed the pilots much needed time to rest. The backdrop of
the Channel is a reminder as to where many pilots were to end
up finding a place of permanent rest. WAAF's crop up at different
intervals, watching down over the pilots. I see them as guardian
angels, willing their young men home to safety or to a pain free
end.
b - The observers
Scattered around the coast and inland, the 30,000 strong Observer
Corps ceaselessly scoured the air to intercept, visually and
orally, enemy raiders. After RDF (Radio Direction Finder), they
were the next line of defence and crucial for the relaying of
information back to Uxbridge.
c - Mechanics and Riggers
None praise the work of the ground crews more highly
than the pilots themselves, whose very lives depended on the
vigilance and efficiency of their RAF colleagues. Their tasks
were more repetitive, their heroism less glamorous than that
of the pilots, but they shared amply in the danger and took as
many risks. From bombing raids to machine gun sweeps by enemy
fighters, the ground crews faced battle at the sharp end. Here
the armourers wrestle with bullet belts whilst arming Hurricanes.
d - Scramble
That classic moment, when the signal to "Scramble"
is given, had to take centre stage. It is the very symbol of
the Battle. In this case, the pilots surge off the wall, out
of their picture and onto the pavement, into our world, a reminder
to say that these men really did exist and do those incredible
things.
e - Large pilot's head & plotters
Depicting an air battle in painting or sculpture is not easy
to do. Aviation painting has adopted the point of view of a fixed
lens attached to the wing of an observation aircraft maintained
at a safe distance from the action to serve the needs of composition.
The image is generally taken at a thousandth of a second and
completely freezes the action. I adopted the view that air combat
took place above all in the cockpit and in the eye of the combatant,
that it was fast and somewhat blurred.
It is as much about the psychological intensity etched into
the pilot's brow as the superb ellipses described by a spitfire
trying to avoid a pursuing Me109. In this case, with the huge
pilot's head, I wanted to put us in touch with the flesh and
blood behind the machine, though in some way, the flesh and blood
and the machine are one. A young face can look old when enduring
excessive physical danger and intense concentration. This I hope
is the case with this pilot who is surrounded by speed, smoke
and tracer fire. He is not alone, however. His moves are being
followed; his frantic speech passes directly from the air into
the ears of the young girls at the plotting tables who will him
on to victory and home to safety, who may even share his last
moments of agony.
f - Tales from the Mess
Young, inexperienced pilots drank in the commentaries of their
battle hardy counterparts. Knowledge gained this way was as necessary
to their survival as the initial flying course. I imagine that
it was camaraderie and a sense of the Squadron spirit that gave
those young men the strength to face death and injury on a more
or less permanent basis. Having read a great many pilot's memoirs,
I am still amazed at how easily death came through accident and
inexperience: an uncaged artificial horizon or undercarriage
raised during landings, navigational error and unchecked propeller
pitch.
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Second Panel - Britain at War
g - The slit trench
There are some superb archive photographs of Kentish hop pickers
watching from the shelter of slit trenches the air battle raging
overhead. The expression on many faces seems, at this early stage
of the War at least, to be one of curiosity and fascination.
The real nature of the threat had not yet become apparent. Images
of London's children sheltering in the same way reveal their
amusement at seeing dots racing around the skies. Not exactly
what I imagine when thinking of the frontline of a war and yet
this was it in Britain in 1940. The contrast between civilian
normality and a pilot's life at angels twenty was very marked.
h - Gunners
The threat appears in the form of aerial bombardment. At first
only the RAF installations were targeted. Delusions of a clean
war remained intact, that is before civilian casualty statistics
started to rocket. The gunners pass shells from one to the other
before ultimately being discharged into the sky. Before researching
the Monument I had no idea how anti aircraft shells worked, that
the art was in choosing the correctly timed fuse as well as in
careful aim. In the kiss blown between the gunner and a factory
girl I want to remind us that this action did not take place
in some sort of heroic bubble but in a world of human feeling
and frailty. Time, in removing events and their witnesses from
us, seems to filter out most of what is common in human experience,
making it seem distant and unreal. Anecdotal humour can perhaps
remedy slightly this distortion of time.
i - Woman power
Liberation for women: this War wrote a major chapter in the evolution
of Society's attitude to women in the work place .The woman worker's
role did not stop at the aircraft and munitions factory gates.
Women ferry pilots also flew the aircraft from the factory to
the airfield. This is not political correctness, just interesting,
historical fact.
j - Dogfight
In my mind, pilots have to be at the centre of this Monument
on both sides. Their lives are at its heart. As I wrote earlier,
I have chosen to portray a pilot's eye view of air combat and
not that of the aviation painter. In any case, skies in relief
sculpture are not the easiest of subjects to make work. I have
put the head of a Messerschmitt pilot onto the shoulder of an
RAF one to try and create the sense of a dual being fought out
by two knights of the air, in close proximity and to the death.
The "Hun in the Sun" has the advantage but as their
aircraft fly past behind them, the Spitfire has managed to slip
onto the tail of the Me109 and has caught it with tracer fire.
The pilots on both sides had a healthy respect one for the other.
Likewise, in this work, I am in admiration of all the young men
who took part.
k - St Paul's
St Paul's became the symbol of resistance during the Blitz having
remained standing while all around was demolished. The famous
photo collage of the Cathedral inspired this sequence. Although,
not part of the Battle of Britain as such, the Blitz was the
direct result of Dowding's successful strategy to save the RAF
and keep fighters in the air at all costs. German attack passed
from airfields and factories to almost any other legitimate and
less legitimate target.
l - Searching the ruins
I think one of the most troubling aspects of the Battle was the
bombing of heavily populated areas using inaccurate means and
the subsequent horrors that befell certain cities. The suddenness
of loss through bombardment is dramatically portrayed in Guy
Weston's film version, "The Battle of Britain" (1968).
That people could wake up the morning after a bombardment and
find their home blown away is terrifying. Of course some weren't
to wake up at all. This scene is in homage to the rescue services
and a reminder that, although the British people were tried by
fire, the Nation was never to be put through occupation and the
trauma that entailed. In any case, had we lost this battle, the
war in the West would have been definitively lost, and probably
the War.
m - brew up
Making tea in an Anderson shelter is not an act of great heroism,
more one of defiance. I like this as an image of the British
spirit of 1940, like the home guard with broom handles and bicycles,
the removal of signposts to confound the enemy, the collection
of saucepans to make fighters, and so on and so on, a tin dug-out
at the bottom of the suburban garden offering shelter to a whole
family against 1000 pounders; derisory means on the face of it
but cultivating that immensely powerful spirit of resistance
so essential to the Nation's survival.
Paul Day
September 2005
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