Today is Battle of Britain Day. It’s a day that marks the beginning of the end of the Battle of Britain and a key moment where it became clear that the Royal Air Force was not going to be defeated in the skies over southern England and in-fact had gained strength.

On that day in 1940 1,500 aircraft took part in a massive battle that lasted most of the day. It proved definitively that the RAF was not a beaten force on its last legs but rather resurgent and able to bring large numbers of aircraft to fight the Luftwaffe all the way from the channel to London and back.

The scene is almost perfectly captured in a tense and dramatic sequence in the 1969 Battle of Britain movie.

And, with a distinctly different flavour, War Thunder creators Gaijin marked the day with a special legends video on the Spitfire. Ignoring the obvious advertising for a moment, the video is actually a really nice love letter to one of the stars of the battle, the Spitfire.

Though the Hurricane was by far the more numerous fighter in the battles in the skies over England in 1940, it was the Spitfire captured the imagination of the British public and created a legend that lives to this day.

On a more reflective and somber note its important to remember and recognize battles long past and remember the men and women who lost lives and livelihoods fighting those conflicts. These are things that I think need to be remembered sometimes when we take to the virtual skies.