By Iain Dale

There are so many anniversaries related to the Second World War that some of them tend to escape many people’s notice.

This year we have quite rightly marked the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ Day in 1945. But today, I would argue, is even more important than those, and without today’s anniversary, we might not only have not had VE Day, but we would most probably all be speaking German now.

The dogfights over the skies of Britain between June and December 1940 became known as the Battle of Britain, after Winston Churchill’s famous war speech on 15 June 1940 in which he declared:

“What General Weygand called the 'Battle of France' is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.

"Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

"But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more........

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