About John Bisdee's Blog
The blog gives a day-by-day account of the Battle of Britain as it was seen at the time through the eyes of a young pilot, John Bisdee of No. 609 (West Riding) Squadron, Auxiliary Air Force. He kept a diary from the outbreak of war into 1941, recording not only his training and subsequent front-line flying, but also his off-duty life. We have transcribed his handwritten entries, and added notes to explain the RAF jargon and abbreviations that he used, and also to give extra information about the people and events described.
The entries selected for this blog cover the period 10 July to 31 October 1940 - the dates which were later laid down by the RAF for the purposes of allocating Battle Honours to units, and for aircrew to qualify for the Battle of Britain clasp. There are some gaps in the diary, and some material of a personal nature has been omitted from the blog - these gaps have been filled with extracts from the daily Air Staff Operational Summary, which was compiled to give senior officers an overview of the RAF's operations in the previous 24 hours. These snapshots also show the various phases of the battle, starting with skirmishes over shipping in the English Channel, moving on to heavy attacks on targets on the UK mainland and finally tapering off as the autumn weather made a successful invasion less likely.
The blog is also supplemented by relevant material from the Museum's collections, including combat reports and a series of portraits by Captain Cuthbert Orde, a war artist who drew many of 609's personnel. We are grateful to the families of both John Bisdee and Cuthbert Orde for permission to reproduce the diary text and the portraits.
