Mike McCahill’s review of Spitfire (G2, 20 July) was all the more poignant for its publication on the day when the death of Squadron Leader Geoffrey Wellum was announced, itself within a week of the announcement of the death of Wing Commander Tom Neil, both of whom were interviewed in the film. Their self-effacing attitude to facing death in the air every day during the Battle of Britain is to be admired, to be grateful for, and to be long celebrated. I hope you will do justice to both by publishing their obituaries on the same day In this, the 100th anniversary year of the Royal Air Force, there is no hyperbole or jingoism in saying that but for the sacrifice of the pilots in the Battle of Britain the world would have become a very different place.

Paul Faupel

Somersham, Cambridgeshire

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