Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary
Mold Salutes is organising a number of events to
celebrate what has to one of the greatest
achievements in our history and raise much needed cash
for two very worthy and relevant organisations - The Battle
of Britain Memorial Trust and the Help for Heroes charity.
This summer will mark the 70th anniversary of the “Battle of Britain” a victory that was won by the pilots of the RAF,
some as young as nineteen, when they faced and fought off the German Luftwaffe aircraft in the skies over the
English Channel and the Southern Counties. By the beginning of 1940 Hitler’s armies had stormed across Europe,
Allied troops had been evacuated from Dunkirk and France was in the hands of the Nazi’s only Britain stood defiantly alone whilst all
awaited the news that the German invasion of Britain had begun. Sixty thousand of Hitler’s armed forces were preparing to land on our coast between
Folkestone and Brighton but before the order could be given the Nazi’s needed to control the skies which meant the destruction of the RAF.
Between the 10th of July and the end of October 1940 over 500 young pilots lost their lives, those who flew the Spitfires and Hurricanes became known as “The Few”.
The then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill speaking in the House of Commons on the 20th August 1940 used the immortal words
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”
“Mold Salutes” was formed by local people who thought that this special anniversary should be suitably commemorated here in Flintshire;
in 1940 there were four operational RAF bases within a ten mile radius of Mold, bases where many of the pilots who flew in the “Battle of Britain”
were trained before they headed south to join front line squadrons. The local aviation tradition continues with Airbus occupying the historic RAF
Hawarden airfield site to this day. The Association enjoys the support of the Flintshire County and Mold Town Councils, the Clwyd Theatr Cymru and the
Flintshire Local Voluntary Council in seeking to achieve three objectives;
- To suitably commemorate this historic 70th anniversary.
- To attempt to bridge the gap between the older and youngest generation by teaching the latter what life was like during WW2.
- To raise money to support both “The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust” and the “Help for Heroes” charities.
To try to build a meaningful bridge between the older and youngest generations "Mold Salutes" have launched their "Video History Project" which is now well under way with the active and financial support of the Flintshire Local Voluntary Council and sponsorship from the Denbigh and Ruthin solicitors Swayne Johnson".
Three teams of young people are currently interviewing and filming local WW2 veterans and people who were evacuated into Flintshire as young children and also local residents who can recall wartime memories of living in the area. Two of these filming teams are made up of pupils from the Mold Ysgol Maes Garmon and the Alun High Schools. A third team is made up of three media study students from the Glyndwr University in Wrexham who again with “Mold Salutes” volunteer support are visiting local wartime service veterans and filming them being interviewed. All the interviews will be edited to produce DVD’s which will subsequently be made available, funds permitting, to all the secondary schools in Flintshire as part of the “Mold Salutes Video History Project”. The project will close at the end of September with a “1940’s Party” which will be supported by the FLVC but organised and run by the young people from the two Mold High Schools and intend to invite the local veterans and evacuees they met during their project.
