Sunday 15 September 1940 and Luftwaffe supremo Hermann Goering believed victory over the RAF was at hand. Today, he decreed, would be the day that his 'glorious' Luftwaffe would finally break the back of Fighter Command's stubborn resistance. Or so he believed.

In response to a massed formation of enemy aircraft detected heading for London, Air Vice Marshal Keith Park commanding 11 Group scrambled his squadrons. He also requested that 12 Group bring Douglas Bader's 'Big Wing' down from Duxford. Every available pilot and machine was committed. Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Park "What other reserves have we" "There are none", Park replied.

Depicted here is Douglas Bader leading his wing into the fray on that afternoon of 15 September 1940. As their Bf109 escorts begin to run out of fuel, the enemy bombers were left to fend for themselves - they were savaged. By late afternoon it was over and whilst the press made much of the RAF's initial optimistic claims – the Luftwaffe had actually lost nearly 60 aircraft and 150 aircrew. The RAF had lost less than half that number of aircraft and only 13 pilots. The tide of the Battle of Britain had turned in the RAF's favour, and German High Command knew it.