Radstock man slams Tom Cruise film

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN WAS WON BY A SINGLE AMERICAN AIRMAN (...OR SO HOLLYWOOD IS ABOUT TO TELL US)
Winston Churchill said it was our "finest hour", but yesterday it was revealed the Battle of Britain was won single-handedly by Tom Cruise. Amid outrage from the West's war veterans and military historians, a new Hollywood film will claim that one American, Billy Fiske - played by Cruise - was responsible for the 1940 victory. But he didn't shoot down a single plane. Fiske was one of a handful of Americans who volunteered to fight in the battle, as the US was yet to enter the war. He was killed by German Stuka bombers in August 1940. His story is to be retold in the film The Few directed by Michael Mann, who made the fighter pilot hero movie Top Gun, also starring Cruise, and filming is due to start soon. "I've heard it is almost like he won the war all on his own," said war veteran Ben Clinch, who loaded the guns fired by the real Billy Fiske. "I can't see how they can make a film of Fiske's life. He was unremarkable, in the context of the squadron. He was just another pilot as far as we were concerned." Fiske's short life is perfect movie material - the handsome son of a wealthy Chicago businessman, he won a bobsleigh gold medal at the Winter Olympics when he was just 16, married the former Countess of Warwick and raced at Le Mans. However, winning the Battle of Britain was not one of his many accomplishments. "He made several sorties but he didn't shoot anything down, and his impact on the battle was negligible," said Bill Bond, of the Battle of Britain historical society.
Jack Younie, 84, of Radstock in Somerset, joined the RAF just before the battle began. He said: "It will make it look as though the Americans were everywhere, but they were hardly there at all. "There were pilots from India, Canada, Australia, South Africa and a few from America. "But the vast majority were British. And our pilots did a great job. If they had lost the Battle of Britain, that would have been the end of everything. Hitler would simply have walked all over us. "They're just trying to make a box-office hit, and they tend to hype it up with things that frankly stretch the imagination." Hollywood has a habit of ignoring facts to glorify the deeds of Americans. In the 2000 film U-571, US seamen recovered an Enigma code machine from a sinking German submarine and changed the course of World War II. Enigma was in fact retrieved by the British crew of HMS Bulldog. The basis for the new film is that the British were on their knees and desperate for help in their fight for aerial superiority with the Luftwaffe. There were, apparently, aeroplanes sitting in hangars and a shortage of pilots. A few brave Americans answered the call - risking jail in the then neutral US - and saved the day. Recalling another piece of Tinseltown propaganda, military historian and former RAF pilot Colin Pomeray, of Dorset, said: "It is like John Wayne being the big D-Day hero in The Longest Day. "The whole idea sounds rather nauseating. It's impossible that any one man could have won the Battle of Britain. "There simply weren't lots of Spitfires sitting in hangars, and I've never heard of the American volunteers facing the prospect of prison. "Fiske was a brave man, all the Americans were brave - but there were only a very small number of them. The problem is that after this, a lot of people watching the film in America will actually believe that is the way it happened." http://www.westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=127638&command=displayContent&sourceNode=127637&contentPK=9562995