This Sceptred Isle by Robert Taylor - Aviation Art

This Sceptred Isle- COMMEMORATING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1940 - BY ROBERT TAYLOR For nearly a thousand years the white cliffs of southern England had taunted many a foreign army. These fortress walls of chalk, however, were defended by the moat-like waters of the Channel and together they had shielded the British from her enemies. Alongside Drake, they had defied the armies of Spain and her great Armada and, in 1805, had halted the march of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. No enemy force since that of William the Conqueror, in 1066, had successfully managed to cross the Channel in anger but, in May 1940, one of the most powerful armies the world had ever seen arrived at Calais.   An invasion by Hitler’s all-conquering Wehrmacht was imminent – or so it seemed. To cross the Channel and breach the English defenses, the Luftwaffe simply had to gain control of the skies, and with massively superior numbers the outcome seemed inevitable. The fate of Britain lay in the hands of less than 3,000 young