as you say, she served during the war. she would have seen these spitfires going overhead. indeed she did, and she told the story of a spitfire saving her life as a medical student in aberdeen, which was a fascinating story about how she was scared by a german aircraft, turned around and saw a spitfire chasing it away. that was in the early stages of the war. the battle of britain proved a turning point in the war. around 1,000 raf planes were shot down during the four—month conflict. germany suffered nearly twice as many losses, but the margin of victory was narrow. the eight guns on the spitfires and hurricanes were onlyjust enough to win the battle. it's amazing that history hangs on so fine thread, isn't it? if she hadn't been asked to help and the decision had not been made to go with eight guns, who knows what would have happened? it was difficult for them at the time, the people developing the aircraft and the guns, to actually work out