Battle of Britain Spitfire "Per Ardua"

A classic RAF Supermarine Spitfire Mk I fighter in Battle of Britain markings from August 1940.

The poem is by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr., RCAF, who dedicated it “To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow”.

“Per ardua ad astra” ("Through adversity to the stars") is the motto of the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force, among others.

Per Ardua

“They that have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foeman to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;
Some that have left other mouths to tell the story
Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled,
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory,
Or fallen to an English field stained red.
Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage –
Yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land ....
Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow,
Till the far dawn of Victory, know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?”