Plans to mark 80 years since the Battle of Britain despite lockdown

  • Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Matthew Hudson

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford in Cambridgeshire is finalising plans to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain with an airshow in September.

The event will go ahead on the weekend of 18-20 September 2020 with organisers working hard to put in place social distancing protection for visitors, staff and volunteers. Tickets to the show will be strictly limited.

The Battle of Britain was the aerial defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force against bombing raids by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during the early part of the Second World War.

It lasted from 10 July 1940 until the end of October that year.  Many historians regard it as a turning point in the war and the first decisive battle in history that was fought entirely in the air.

A Second World War spitfire at Duxford in Cambridgeshire has been specially painted to mark the work of the NHS during the pandemic. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Battle of Britain Day is held on 15 September each year to mark is the anniversary of the largest scale attack of the campaign on London by the German air force.

The failure of Nazi Germany to win the air war is thought to have forced Hitler to abandon plans for an invasion of Britain.

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