On the 29th of November 54 members of the Forum attended at the Church Centre, the highest number for the current season.

The guest speaker, introduced by John Spinner, was Martin Cocker whose subject was The Battle of Britain, Victory, Defeat or No Result.  He brought with him a very realistic life-size model of a WWII aviator who he introduced as Arthur Aaron from Leeds who was awarded the Victoria Cross when he brought home his damaged plane saving the lives of his crew although seriously injured himself.

This set the scene for his talk which started with a summary of the causes of the war.  Martin then moved onto the invention of radar which was crucial in the conduct of the Battle of Britain.

After the German Army swept through Western Europe, Britain stood alone and Adolf Hitler published a leaflet titled Last Appeal to Reason which was ignored, after which Goering offered his Luftwaffe to defeat Britain without the necessity of an invasion.

Martin assessed the tactics of the British and Germans up to the end of the battle which is generally accepted as October 31st1940 after which a land invasion would not have been possible.

Martin then considered the question posed by the title of his talk, coming to the conclusion that the answer was somewhere between a British victory and no result.

Some of the Forum members gave their own opinions before Mike Earle thanked Martin for a fascinating and well-presented talk.