THE BATTLE of Britain, which ended 75 years ago tomorrow, was fought in the skies above the south of England – but Glasgow played a pivotal role in its successful conclusion.

From the men and women making Merlin engines at Rolls-Royce in Hillington, to the brave airmen who fought back the Luftwaffe, the city’s impact on the most decisive battle of World War Two was considerable.

The young pilots of 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron – who, along with their colleagues in 603 (City of Edinburgh Squadron) were responsible for shooting down the first German planes over Britain in World War Two – were among Churchill’s ‘The Few’ in the desperate dogfight of 1940.

The Battle of Britain was one of the most crucial turning points of the war.

In the early summer of 1940, Hitler had conquered France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, and the people of Britain were preparing themselves for the worst.

However, before he could invade, Hitler needed to gain control of the skies – so the Luftwaffe launched a large scale attack, intent on wiping out Britain's air defences.

But the great bravery and skill of RAF pilots, supported by the ground crews, radar operators and many more, gave Britain the advantage and Hitler called off his plans to invade.

The battle ended on October 31, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous declaration: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Glasgow’s ‘few’ included pilots from 602 Squadron, which started life as an auxiliary force at Abbotsinch (now Glasgow Airport) in 1925.

In January 1939, it became a fighter squadron and its Spitfires intercepted German bombing raids in the early months of the Second World War from their base at RAF Drem near Haddington.

During the Battle of Britain, 602 Squadron was moved south to Westhampnett, a satellite airfield of RAF Tangmere, taking the brunt of the Luftwaffe’s attacks.

One of the Battle of Britain pilots was squadron leader Sandy Johnstone, from Glasgow. The former Kelvinside Academy pupil, who got a job in a shoe company after leaving school, joined 602 Squadron when he was 18 and spent his weekends learning to fly.

He was just 24 when he took to the skies over England in the Battle of Britain and in later life, he recalled his memories of that day.

“All we could see was row upon row of German raiders, all heading for London. I have never seen so many aircraft in the air all at the same time,” he said.

“The escorting fighters saw us at once and came down like a ton of bricks, when the squadron split up and the sky became a seething cauldron of aeroplanes, swooping and swerving in and out of the vapour trails and tracer smoke.

“Everyone was shouting at once and the earphones became filled with a meaningless cacophony of jumbled noises.

“Everything became a maelstrom of jumbled impression — a Dornier spinning wildly with part of its port mainplane missing; black streaks of tracer ahead, when I instinctively put my arm up to shield my face; taking a breather when the haze absorbed me for a moment . .”

Glasgow’s role in the Battle of Britain did not just concern pilots – the city’s famous Rolls-Royce factories built the engines which powered the Spitfires taking part.

The later Merlin XX had extra power at low altitudes, which was to be of great importance in the Battle of Britain where a great deal of combat was below 6000 feet.

At the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe had around 2700 aircraft compared to the RAF’s 700, so ground crews had to work up to 16 hours a day to keep planes in the air.

Fighter Command lost more than 1000 planes during the engagement but thanks to the efforts of around 3000 aircrew – including the young Glasgow pilots - and all the men and women who supported them, the German war machine suffered its first significant defeat.

Former Govan High pupil Wallace Cunningham, who joined 19 Fighter Squadron in Cambridgeshire, was also in the thick of the fighting at the Battle of Britain.

He was the first Glasgow airman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in the Second World War and the Spitfire pilot later spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war.

Other Glasgow heroes from the Battle of Britain included Archie McKellar from Paisley, who shot down five fighters in a single day, and Glasgow-born lawyer Hector MacLean, who, despite being severely wounded when he was shot in the leg over the English Channel, managed to use his scarf as a tourniquet and land his Spitfire at Tangmere.