Spitfires: The Kids Who Built Them

Warfare

81 years after the beginning of the Battle of Britain in July 1940, we are looking at the people behind one of the iconic machines which helped the Allies towards victory. It is known that the average age of a pilot flying a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain was 20 years old, but many of those involved in designing and building the machines were even younger. In this episode Alasdair Cross, a producer from the BBC World Service, speaks to James about these individuals and their stories, and how their creation changed the course of the Second World War. Alasdair’s Sunday Times bestseller is called ‘The Spitfire Kids: The generation who built, supported and flew Britain's most beloved fighter’.