If like me, you search youtube every now and again to get a glimpse of the Spitfire either in WW2 or in other settings, then you may also have collected a few favourites. What about the Spitfire combat scenes from the movie 'Dunkirk', 'Dark Blue World', or perhaps the clips from the movie Pearl Harbour, or just the iconic "Battle of Britain" movie shot in 1969.
This one below is captivating because of the linkage between the factory workers who made the Spitfire and the pilots via their gun camera footage. The contributor put Battle of Britain in the title, which attracted lots of comments because most of the footage isn't, but just the same, I like the introduction. A boy asked his Gran what she did in the war. She explains that she built Spitfires. What planes the boy asks? "They called them Spitfires". The video goes on to show dramatic gun camera footage set to equally dramatic music. It takes you beyond the aesthetic of an airshow flypast to the frantic moments of combat.
Here it is:
Gran's job in the war along with gun camera footage
Do you have some clips of interest? Send them along and I'll also add a few more to this post as I dig up a few more of my favourites.
Another set of moving videos that aren't combat but rather a tribute to those who flew in combat, are short clips of the lone Spitfire as it flies above a former WWII Spitfire pilot's memorial / funeral service. There are a number of these on youtube. A fitting tribute to some of the very best and very last, representing all those that gave so much, flying perhaps the most iconic aircraft of all time to help defeat Nazi fascism.
Kurt
