The Unknown Warriors

15th September 2015

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and 'hashtag' #battleofbritain on Twitter was trending, meaning that a lot of people were tweeting messages about the subject. If you click on the hashtags it then brings up all the various messages and images relating to it. If a user wants to send a tweet they like to all their followers they click re-tweet, they can also favourite the tweet.

The above tweet proved very popular, at the time of writing it had 2000 retweets. If on average each user had 1000 of their own followers, this means the tweet would have been sent to a total of 200,000 people. However, if some of the re-tweets were by celebrities or politicians with larger followings, its possible this tweet could have been sent to a million or more people.

One big problem though, it is a complete lie and distortion of the truth. THERE WAS NO INDIAN PILOTS IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN.

I recall a similar very similar tweet a few months ago, (perhaps when it was the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the battle) making the same false point. Others sometimes use the Polish pilots to make the same point, but at least there was actually Polish pilots that flew in the Battle of Britain! The general theme seems to be to use WWII to attack those against mass immigration showing there was foreign pilots in the Battle of Britain, which means all arguments against mass immigration to the UK in 2015 are rendered useless and ignorant of the past.

Bloody immigrants, coming over here, helping us win the Battle of Britain & stop the Nazi invasion #BattleofBritain

This particular tweet mocking the likes of WWII veterans in the Unknown Warriors who are against mass immigration was created by someone called Andrew Spooner, whose profile showed him to be a Labour supporter of Yvette Cooper's campaign to be Labour leader. A quick Google seemed to show he has connections to the Fabian Society, a sinister Socialist group that works to destroy traditional Britain and impose mass immigration and multiculturalism. Their new logo is very modern and plain, but lets take a look at their old logo, which gives their game away a bit. A wolf in sheeps clothing.

In the early afternoon I tweeted to the person who sent the tweet and told them it was not factually correct. Did they ask for evidence that I was right, did they remove the image to stop misleading people. No, he instantly blocked me, which to me showed he was not interested in the truth, just in using the Battle of Britain for his own political ends. The tweet continued to gain more and more retweets.

So what about the image, it does show Indians in RAF uniforms. That is proof that, yes, Indians did fly fighter planes in WWII, particularly in Burma. However, check the names and nationalities of the men who fought in the Battle of Britain and you will see there is not a single Indian. In fact every single pilot that flew during the battle was either of white British or European ancestry. There was an Indian pilot who was awarded the DFC for action in Burma, Squadron Leader Mohinder Singh Pujj that is sometimes put forward as an example of an Indian that fought in the Battle of Britain. However, his Wiki page shows he arrived in Britain in 1940, one of 24 Indians, and they did not qualify and get their RAF wings until 16 April 1941. Then he flew in some missions here before flying in the North Africa and then Burma campaigns. His Wiki page also reveals that last year a large statue was unveiled of him in Gravesend. This is another example of how history is being distorted. Why would there be a large statue of an Indian pilot awarded the DFC for action in Burma, when there is no statues in this country of hundreds of British pilots awarded the DFC, including Battle of Britain pilots, or even of many British servicemen who were awarded the Victoria Cross!

The vast majority of the Battle of Britain pilots were white British born in the UK, something like 80%, then there was was pilots mostly of white British ancestry from the Empire, from places such as Rhodesia, Canada, Australia and South Africa. All were sons, grandsons or great grandsons of colonial settlers, the rest were of other European ancestry eg. French Canadians, but the majority were of British ancestry. Even, some of the smaller Commonwealth nations, such as two from the Caribbean were pilots of white British ancestry. Some people seeing the list might presume the pilots were natives of these places but the photos and names show they were not. This was still the days of Empire where white British were born as 'sons of the Empire' in places all over the World. Then there was the pilots from occupied Europe, the biggest contingent were Polish, then Czechs, then various others from places like Belgium. There was also some pilots from Ireland, which just 18 years earlier had been part of the UK.

It is completely Orwellian and insulting that the most popular image on Twitter on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain is not one of a squadron that took part in the battle or of some of the great lads that were killed, but of some Indian pilots, when not a single one of the few thousand that fought were Indian! And its not just an image, it is alongside a message which is a complete lie.

The only 'Indians' to fly in the Battle of Britain were a few of the white British that were born out in India whilst their fathers worked out there as part of the British Raj. This distortion of the truth about the Battle of Britain has been around for a few years now. There is certainly a heavy emphasis on the role of the Polish. Of course they did fight in the Battle and were excellent, and should be mentioned, but sometimes it is to such an extent that far surpasses the % of the pilots that took part. But at least they actually took part in the battle!

In 2009, in a video made in response to the British National Party using a Spitfire in their EU Election campaign, SAS veteran and bestselling author Andy McNab said the following, (video HERE)

"Nick Griffin talks about the Battle of Britain, well lets have a look at it, I don't think he realises that some of those guys that were flying the Hurricanes and the Spitfires across London were Sikhs, were Chinese, were Poles. That is why we won the Battle of Britain and actually as a country thats why we are so good."

That utter fantasy / lie was seen be large numbers of people. Don't take my word for it, check the nationalities and names of all the pilots that were awarded the Battle of Britain clasp. There is no Sikh names and as for Chinese pilots, what on earth is he on about! Again this is just so insulting to the memory of the pilots that actually took part, he is saying the reason we won the Battle of Britain is because of imaginary Sikh and Chinese pilots. Truth has been turned on its head as whereas he is trying to make out it was 'multicultural' it was in fact a battle that had only white pilots on both sides.

No, the reason we won the Battle of Britain was thanks to RJ Mitchell who designed the Spitfire, Robert Watson-Watt who invented the radar, the workers in towns across the UK who worked night and day building the planes, RAF Fighter Command leaders such as Hugh Dowding, who organised the defence, the ground crews including young British women in the WAAF and the white British pilots, their kith and kin from the Dominions, and European pilots from occupied nations such as Poland.

Here is what a Battle of Britain Spitfire armourer wrote in his letter to me for the book,

The Unknown Warriors, he can have the last word.

"They were the people we fought for - our folk and our country. For todays society I would not have done it."

UPDATE 18TH SEPTEMBER - As I mentioned above if celebrities or politicians retweeted this tweet it would be sent to many more people than my estimate. Well, it appears this lie really did get legs and run as none other than Harry Potter author, and donor of 1 million pounds to Labour not long after their illegal war, JK Rowling retweeted it to her 5.51 million followers!

Airmen came from the following countries:

Great Britain - 2,342

Australia - 32

Barbados - 1 (Aubrey de Lisle Innis, white British ancestry)

Belgium - 28

Canada - 112

Czechoslovakia - 88

France - 13

Ireland - 10

Jamaica - 1 (Herbert Capstick, white British ancestry)

Newfoundland - 1

New Zealand - 127

Poland - 145

Rhodesia - 3 (Chomley, Hodson & Holderness, all white British ancestry)

South Africa - 25

United States - 9

For a full list of names and biographical information of all those that took part in the Battle of Britain visit the Battle of Britain Monument website HERE