Kodiak mirror., 1945-12-01
BATTLE OF BRITAIN

THE BRITISH alone. From the coasts of ! their tight little isle they could see only Axis nations Axis sympathizers or Axis-occupied countries, lttery neutralS fearing to offend the swaggering Reich
 T have nothing to offer but blood, toll, and sweat" Winston Churchill had told them when he became prime minister And the last exhausted survivors from Dunkerque returned to English soil, he had vowed:
 We shall defend our island whatever the cost snay be. We shall fight on the landing grounds we shall fight the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender"
 Almost all their ground equipment was left In Flanders. But with few tanks and cannon, hunting guns and pitchforks, Britons grimly prepared defense. civilian home army was moblllzed DIS guised pillboxes erected along city streets The RAE hid airfelds throughout the countryside to protect it's meager force. More barrage balloons went up around London to halt low-fying bombers Workmen feverishly dug trenches-and air raid shelters--in the public parks. Churchill, needing the lessons of fifth column" treachery in Norway and the Lowlands, sped dubious aliens into concen- tration camps. Church bells were silenced; when they pealed again it would mean the Germans were comlng-by parachute.
 Women and old men went into munitions plants in grim race against time, and watched their ra tions grow simmer as the navy strove desperately to keep open Britains sub-infested life lines.
 The Luftwaffe set up airbases along the Atlantic coast from Norway to the Bay of Biscay. We're Sailing Against England" the most popular song in the Reich.
 Early in August the German air force began to come in greater numbers. At first they came by day and hit port Then they moved inland
 -Goering sent his fast and lightly armored bombers sweeping over by the hundreds to hit factories and railroad centers But often they bombed population centers without military value and srafed persons on the streets.
 The RAF, nursed it's 700 speedy Spitfres and Hurricanes carefully, sent them up only when the probable Naz bag seemed worth it, and often fused to be drawn into hopeless battle
 There were 61 major attacks from August to September g. The list of targets grew long and varled-the naval base at Portsmouth; the Croydon airport; the Tyneside industrial New castle; the Thapes estuary; the residential London suburbs the great shipping port of Liverpool Civilian casualties reached average of 75 day.
 On August IF the German government announced the whole area around the British Isles had been mined; in night raid on September time bomb was dropped in the garden of Buckingham Palace, 70 feet from the kings study September l2 Britain moved 200O,00O soldiers into defense posi- tions along the English and Scottish coasts
 But the air blitz just beginning. Just before noon September IS, Goering sent 250 planes over London and two hours later 250 more. The R.A.F. went up to get them, and Sunday crowds stood in the streets and cheered madly as flaming bombers plumeted out of the 700 square miles of sky above the sprawling capital At least 1855 of the enemy's planes-and possibly as many 230-went down