The Few

A depiction of Hawker Hurricane fighters of No 1 Squadron RAF going into action over the south of England against Heinkel He 111 bombers of the German Luftwaffe, with Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter escort, on 16 August 1940.

The squadron's operations record book reported: "In the afternoon the squadron was engaged in its most successful action in England to date."

Squadron Leader David Pemberton made the first attack "to the beam and from in front", bringing down one of the Heinkels in flames with his first burst. His engine then caught fire - possibly because returning gunfire had caused an oil leak - but before he had decided to bail out the flames subsided, and he landed safely.

Pilot Officer Peter Matthews followed him in, picking out one Bf 110 from a formation of five attacking a Hurricane, and sent it down in flames.

In all, that Saturday, the squadron claimed 4 He 111 destroyed and 2 probably; 1 Ju 88 destroyed, and 2 Me 110s destroyed, while losing only one Hurricane whose pilot was unhurt.

This was the day on which Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command's 11 Group at Uxbridge and saw that at one point during the afternoon's heavy combat, all the Group's fighter squadrons were in action, with no reserves.

As he left, Churchill said to his chief of staff, Hastings Ismay: "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."

He repeated the phrase in a speech several days later, and it is this quotation that led to "The Few" being used to denote the RAF fighter pilots who fought during the Battle of Britain.

Note: It is uncertain whether these aircraft would have had underwing roundels. These were dropped in June 1940, when the Air Ministry ordered all fighters to have 'sky' colour undersides. They were reintroduced on 11 August - so it's a moot point how quickly the repainting would have been done. In the absence of definitive information I decided to omit them.