Stamps launched to mark Battle of Britain

The six stamps - three first class and three for £1.33 - feature photographs of pilots, ground crew and operations room staff.

Royal Mail vans in areas close to RAF bases will carry an image of one of the stamps, while a special postmark will appear on letters between July 16 and 18.

Andrew Hammond of Royal Mail said: “Our new stamps pay tribute to the men and women who helped protect Great Britain from the formidable threat of the Luftwaffe 75 years ago. It is fitting that these stamps will help us remember the debt that we will forever owe them.”

The stamps will be on sale from July 16.

A sheet of the stamps has a border featuring an image of Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a coastal defence position on July 31 1940, alongside the famous quotation from his speech about the battle: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”