IN the long annals of the world's history the battle of Britain stands as a wonderful example of endurance and fortitude. The Royal Air Force, vastly outnumbered by the enemy, defended the island bastion with such incredible skill and bravery that possibly civilization itself was saved from being set back or even temporarily blotted out.
The motto of the Royal Air Force is, Per Ardua ad Astra, which may be freely translated, "By difficult ways to the stars." What a magnificent motto for a body of men who forgot themselves that others might live. Rightly did Winston Churchill say, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Truly the checkered road of humanity has been marked by those pioneers and giants of untrammeled thought who gave their all that others might reap the benefit of some ideal to which the key had been found. More than ever we are appreciating the fact that it is the fearless, selfless thinkers who have led us out of the darkness of ignorance and superstition. The feats of the little island's air force were but the pattern of a courage which has come down the ages in many forms.
