The Kiwi Who Saved Britain

If ever any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe it is realised how much that one man, with his leadership, his calm judgment and his skill, did to save not only this country, but the world.

– Lord Tedder, head of the RAF, on Keith Park, at the New Zealand Society’s annual London dinner, February 1947

What happened on September the 15th, was that the German commanders finally realised that for the whole month, they'd been banging their heads against a brick wall, and had been getting precisely nowhere. And if you're getting precisely nowhere, the only sensible thing anyone can do, is to give up.

– Stephen Bungay, on the effect Keith Park's command had on the luftwaffe