Press Release

BATTLE OF BRITAIN MONUMENT - CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC A maquette of Scramble, representing the centrepiece of the Battle of Britain Monument, was presented by the Rt Hon Lord Tebbit CH, Chairman of the Monument Fund Raising Committee, to Mr Stefan Fule the Ambassador of the Czech Republic at a ceremony on 28 October 2004 at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Kensington. Lord Tebbit received a cheque for £53.000 as a contribution from the Czech Republic towards the construction of the Monument. This is in honour of the spirit and sacrifice of the eighty-nine Czechoslovak pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain under RAF Fighter Command. The two-foot bronze maquette by sculptor Paul Day depicts pilots scrambling for their aircraft during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 Czech airmen from the Czechoslovak Air Force escaped to Britain following the Nazi occupation of their country in 1939. Flying Spitfires and Hurricanes the pilots were mostly older and more experienced than their young British comrades so their contribution to the battle in the air was invaluable. The Monument will record the names of all the airmen who flew in the Battle.