It’s easy to let it slip the mind, while we discuss mid-20th-Century combat aircraft and places to fly them to and from, that these places were born of necessity and were the places that many lived, fought from and died at, or flying to and from, in the real world.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of “The Longest Day”, 6th June 1944, when Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of Western Europe from its German occupiers.

I hesitate to use this as a reason to make a political statement, but as the world lurches back towards nationalism and isolationism in the early 21st Century, please, take a moment. Remember why these places existed, what those beliefs have created in the past and remember those who put their lives on the line, many of whom never made it back home, to give you the freedom to make these choices today.

Many thanks to Spencer Trickett of Skytoons Aviation Art for permission to post his D-Day commemorative image here.