70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain

The One wrote:

Growler wrote:[color=red]can point me to thier names, squadrons and dates of death, as this Roll of Honour doesn't list any Indian nationals as even taking part in this battle, let alone losing their lives...... or are you going to again accuse horrid whitey of ignoring the sacrifices made by coloured warriors, whether from Asia or Africa.

http://www.battleofbritainbeacon.org/pilots/pilots.cfm

"During his conversion training, Pujji watched the dogfights in the skies above and by February 1941 he was an RAF Flight Commander piloting Hurricanes and Spitfires"

The Battle of Britain was over by Feb 41. It appears from that link that the Indian pilots may have been in Blighty at the time but didn't start flying combat until after it the BofB had finished.

the roll of honour growler posted has airmen killed in 1943

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/kent/hi/front_page/newsid_8872000/8872500.stm

"Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji is the last surviving fighter pilot from a group of 24 Indians who arrived in Britain in 1940.

....

Within a year 12 of the Indian pilots had been killed."

Well the BBC obviously used a bit of poetic licence in the headline. I suppose it depends on how you define a BoB pilot. If he was training whilst it was still going on.......maybe yeah.

The One wrote:the roll of honour growler posted has airmen killed in 1943

I thought the roll of honour was participants in the Battle not just those who died in it.

it is indeed. but it does mention deaths right up to the end of the war

Don't see the relevance - it's just and extra bit of info.

Dying in 1943 hardly precludes someone from being in the Battle of Britain, whereas not flying combat missions until 1941 does.

spangler wrote:Were not the brave men of the RAF fighting for TO's right to air his opinion on whatever thread he pleases?

That's the crux of the matter .... TO refuses to recognize the fact that Christian whites died in order to preserve the freedom that he subsequently enjoys far far away on his sub continent, ... as opposed to him speaking Japanese/Hindi, wearing a kimono and eating sushi 24/7.

If he had at least acknowledged that fact, there would have been limited, if no discussion on the issue.

JKLever wrote:I'd agree this isn't really the thread for discussing the Empire - could always start a glory of the British Empire thread. I'm sure Merls would get all teary...

Not so Lever ... all Empire's had good and bad issues, and the British Empire was no different.

It is perfectly within an Indian's right to reflect their dislike/hatred of the Empire's influence on their country (as it is for a Brit whose previous generations lived and died on the subcontinent, to defend the same) - albeit 60 years on - but as another poster on this thread pointed out, rather the British in India than the French, Germans, Dutch or Portugese - all of whom failed their colonies miserably after debunking from them.

But as you rightly say - this is / was NOT the thread to debase it with bigoted views on the basis of one line in a speech from Churchill (as alleged).