Return visit from Down Under

Australian author and long-term Trust supporter Pete Roberts and his wife Di were hosted by Trustee Andy Simpson when they spent an enjoyable afternoon at the Memorial.

Pete, whose new book The Battle of Britain, Aircrew from Australia, their Aircraft and a Modeller's Guide, contains considerable coverage of the Memorial, visited Capel-le-Ferne just before the pandemic.

Andy, along with historian and author Geoff Simpson FRHistS (no relation), helped Pete with his research into the Few, particularly those who came half-way round the world to fight with the Allies in the dark days of 1940.

With the book now published in Australia and the UK, the couple returned and enjoyed the chance to catch up with Andy.

“Sadly, the day of their visit was one of the many in 2024 when it was raining hard, so a pleasant afternoon was spent in the Cockpit Café drinking tea and exchanging tales of the how interest in the Battle and the Few had come about,” Andy commented.

“Pete told he that he became ‘hooked’ after reading Paul Brickhill’s book Reach for the Sky, and since than he has been on a voyage of discovery which also led to an interest in plastic modelling and discovering the finer details of the aircraft used by the Australian Few in the Battle.

“This then led to new avenues of research over the years which resulted in his book.”

When he is not researching or building models, Pete volunteers at the Royal Australian Air Force Museum at Point Cook and contributes to various aviation publications.

(The Battle of Britain. Aircrew from Australia, their aircraft and a modeller’s guide by Peter Roberts (ISBN 978-1-923216-26-6)  is published by Busybird Publishing, 2/118 Para Road, Montmorency, Victoria, Australia 3094. (www.busybird,com.au))