--- title: RAF Pilots Who Saved England: Remembering 'The Few' description: Portraits of the young fliers, from many nations, who helped save England during the Battle of Britain. canonical: https://time.com/3581825/remembering-the-few-photos-of-the-raf-pilots-who-saved-england/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-14T17:07:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T15:15:13.000Z og:title: RAF Pilots Who Saved England: Remembering 'The Few' og:description: Portraits of the young fliers, from many nations, who helped save England during the Battle of Britain. og:url: https://time.com/3581825/remembering-the-few-photos-of-the-raf-pilots-who-saved-england/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01da9b482d1cd19/6987686c8e06017e51458865/141112-royal-air-force-15.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Battle of Britain, RAF, 1940 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: RAF Pilots Who Saved England: Remembering 'The Few' twitter:description: Portraits of the young fliers, from many nations, who helped save England during the Battle of Britain. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf01da9b482d1cd19/6987686c8e06017e51458865/141112-royal-air-force-15.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Remembering 'The Few': Photos of the Young Pilots Who Saved England by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:15 PM UTCPublished: Nov 14, 2014 5:07 PM UTC  Two pilots (Flying Officer Albert Gerald Lewis on right, on right; a flyer who appears to be Richard Lee, unidentified in archival notes, at left, between flights during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. Two pilots (Flying Officer Albert Gerald Lewis on right, on right; a flyer who appears to be Richard Lee, unidentified in archival notes, at left, between flights during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940.William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:15 PM UTCPublished: Nov 14, 2014 5:07 PM UTC “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” — [_Winston Churchill_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston%5FChurchill) _addressing the House of Commons, Aug. 20, 1940_ Of the countless memorable phrases uttered by the indomitable British Prime Minister during the war years, Winston Churchill’s tribute to and celebration of “The Few,” as the airmen of the Royal Air Force have ever since been affectionately known, endures as among his most moving and most heartfelt. (That not all of the pilots were, in fact, British—there were Poles, Czechs, Americans, Canadians, Irish, New Zealanders and others, as well—that fact hardly dilutes the power of the sentiment, or the intensity of Churchill’s and England’s gratitude to those fliers.) In 1940’s pivotal, four-month [Battle of Britain](http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/battle%5Fof%5Fbritain), thousands of these (mostly young) pilots held off fighters from the mighty German Luftwaffe, quite literally saving the Sceptered Isle from defeat at the hands of the Third Reich and proving to a skeptical world that the Nazi military juggernaut was neither inevitable nor invincible. Here, LIFE.com offers charming, revealing portraits of The Few by photographer William Vandivert. (Most of these photos did not originally appear in LIFE magazine.) [\[See all of LIFE’s galleries\]](http://time.com/photography/life/) As LIFE put it to its readers the following spring, when the magazine ran some of Vandivert’s pictures in the March 21, 1941, issue: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Close to 3,000 RAF fliers took to the skies in the Battle of Britain. More than 500 were killed; around 80 percent of those lost were Britons. The chances of The Few ever being forgotten by the nation they helped save? Zero. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Flying Officer Albert Gerald Lewis, a top ace of the RAF. The South African, pictured here at 22, shot down at least 28 Luftwaffe fighters -- including, on one memorable day, six in a six-hour span. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Three armorers, called 'plumbers,' reload Hurricane's eight machine guns with ammunition belts. Each gun gets 300 bullets, enough to last through 15 seconds of firing which comes is brief bursts. Each plane takes twelve ground men to keep it up." William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Royal Air Force ace Albert Gerald Lewis climbs out of his plane after an air battle above England, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Between flights, member of ground crew sits in the shade of his plane's wing. Notice emergency starter apparatus at his feet, already hooked up, and four little holes in front edge of wing. Through these, four of plane's eight machine guns fire in unison." William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A pilot at rest between flights during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Pilots at rest between flights during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Waiting for action ... pilots lounge in lifebelts. The adjutant at far right will answer telephone calls from headquarters. The intelligence officer beside him take reports from the pilots." William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Two pilots (Flying Officer Albert Gerald Lewis on right, on right; a flyer who appears to be Richard Lee, unidentified in archival notes, at left, between flights during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Pilots and aircrew members scramble to their planes during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command airfield, 1940. 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