On August 12, I immediately thought of Jane Sheridan, the spirited young WAAF who wrote to me a couple of weeks ago, when I heard the news that the Chain Home RDF station where she works had been bombed. However, I was soon told that no serious damage had been done and that there were no casualties.

The attack was part of a concerted effort by the Germans to hit what I’ve been informed off the record is our secret weapon in this air war: the stations which detect, using radio waves, the number and position of incoming enemy planes. On the 12^th, Me 110s hit stations at Dover, Rye, Pevensey and Dunkirk, though according to the RAF, there was no long term impact on any strike.

This strike on the 12^th though, was nothing compared to what has taken place in the following days since. The Germans are now throwing hundreds of planes into the attack every day; an aerial blitzkrieg of the same type that won them Poland, France and the low countries. Perhaps a thousand German aircraft flew over Britain’s skies yesterday. They bombed the airfield at Croydon, killing 62 people and injuring 172 more. They hit Hawkinge again, and crucial Chain Home stations in the south-east.  But the indications are that they suffered a humiliating blow at the hands of the RAF fighters. Some of the papers today are reporting almost 150 planes shot down yesterday, though I suspect that the eventual total is actually somewhere closer to half that number. The RAF lost 30 planes but only 17 pilots were killed. The battle really is on now.

There’s no doubt that added to the total of 17 pilots killed, there will be many more badly injured and as the statistics rolled in I thought about the patients I had seen at the hospital in East Grinstead only a week ago. What will happen to these men once they’ve been patched up the best they can by the talented ‘Maestro’? Surely their lives will never be the same again and many of them, whether they have burnt or have amputated limbs, will require help.

I know that the RAF Benevolent Fund was created after the last war for this purpose and I imagine that they will have a very important role to play in looking after many of the RAF casualties in the following months and years.

I suggested to Ted the idea of a big feature story about the work going on at East Grinstead. He said he didn’t think that our readers would want to know about injured and disfigured airmen and that it wasn’t good for morale. But I argued that we had a responsibility to not forget these valiant men, not bury them because they make us feel uncomfortable; not to forget the costs of war as well as the spoils of victory. ‘Alright,’ he eventually grumbled, ‘I’ll speak to some of the top brass at the RAF and see what they think.’

A conversation took place and Ted summoned me to his office. ‘The RAF have agreed to you doing the story,’ he said. ‘They say they want to stand by their men. They’re all heroes as far as they’re concerned, which means that I’m happy for you to run the piece.’