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Guest Speaker: Ted Barris
June 12 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour – by Ted Barris
“Never in the field of human conflict…” are Churchill’s words that set the 113 days of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 apart from all others, as the greatest aerial battle in history. As the German Luftwaffe sought to destroy the Royal Air Force, gain air superiority, and invade the British Isles, Commonwealth fighter pilots scrambled from U.K. airfields day after day and flew Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft to thwart Hitler’s plan. They won but paid dearly.
Hawker Hurricanes climb to meet Luftwaffe attack, 1940.
Among the 2,937 aircrew in this first test of Allied skill, resilience, and courage, over 100 pilots flew with the “Canada” patch on their shoulder, and another 200 erks (ground crew) kept their fighters in the air. And Churchill orated that never was “… so much owed by so many to so few.”
In his 22nd book of nonfiction, Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour, Ted Barris has assembled unknown stories of Canadian airmen, ground crew, as well as engineers, aeronautical designers, medical officers, and civilians who answered the call and turned back the very real threat of Nazi invasion. You know the outcome of the Battle of Britain, but now you’ll meet the Canadians who helped secure victory in this WWII life-and-death struggle.
Pilots of RCAF No. 1 Fighter Squadron at RAF Northolt in 1940.
Ted Barris has now published 22 non-fiction books, mostly wartime histories. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany received the 2019 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. His book Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. His 20th book Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory enjoyed weeks on the bestseller lists. Meanwhile, in 2022, Ted learned he’d been appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
