Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn will be honoured with a Spitfire and Hurricane flypast

English singer Vera Lynn with her daughter Virginia at the piano, September 1956. Virginia lived next door to her mother in Sussex

Dame Vera Lynn’s daughter has said she is proud of the difference her mother made with one charity in particular which had ‘a very special place in her heart’.

The Forces’ Sweetheart was founder and president of the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity.

It helps young children with cerebral palsy and other motor learning difficulties to ‘get the best possible start to life’.

The late singer’s daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, the charity’s vice president, said her mother made a difference to the lives of many families.

Anyone who would like to make a donation in Dame Vera’s memory can do so through the charity, she said.

‘My mother first became involved in raising awareness of cerebral palsy in the ’50s when there was very little understanding of the condition and children who suffered from motor learning difficulties were often referred to rather pejoratively as ‘spastic’,’ she said.

‘Along with celebrity chums, including David Jacobs and Wilfred Pickles, she set out to change people’s attitudes towards the disability and help children reach their full potential.

‘There was no-one else raising funds to help at that time, so it was groundbreaking work.’

She added: ‘Although my mother was closely associated with other charities, not least those supporting veterans, the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity always held a very special place in her heart – the children loved her as much as she loved them, and I’m extremely proud of what it has achieved and the difference it has made to so many families’ lives.’

Pilar Cloud, executive manager at the charity, said: ‘We have been extremely honoured to have had Dame Vera Lynn as our president and she was always a very passionate and wonderful ambassador for this charity.

‘Moreover, she has always been hands-on, enjoying participating in sessions, singing songs with the children and setting the tone with real determination to ensure that ‘her families’ were never forgotten.

‘She was very fondly regarded by all of the staff and families, and will be greatly missed by so many people.’

Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn produced a catalogue of music that inspired British servicemen and women at home and abroad. Here are some of her best-loved hits:

– We’ll Meet Again

Dame Vera’s breakout song was written in 1939 at the outset of the Second World War by popular composers Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. Its lyrics were a message of hope and comfort to those who feared they would never see their loved ones again, and buoyed Dame Vera’s burgeoning career. It inspired a popular 1943 film of the same name, which saw Dame Vera play a fictionalised version of herself – a young singer who cheers British soldiers with her voice. The song still resonates with those who lived through the war.

– (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover

On a clear day, Britain’s towering white coastline could be seen by servicemen across the English Channel fighting in France. Composed in 1941 by Walter Kent to lyrics by Nat Burton, The White Cliffs Of Dover was an ode to those cliffs that symbolised home. Dame Vera popularised the song with her version, and it became one of the best-known Second World War standards. Its lyrics refer to pilots ‘braving those angry skies’ and describe the ‘light of hope in their eyes’.

– A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square

Stars including Sir Rod Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and even Twiggy have recorded versions of this popular love song. But it was Dame Vera’s version that captured the hearts of the British listening public, indelibly linking it with the Second World War. The tune was written in the small French fishing district of Le Lavandou, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, and refers to one of Mayfair’s large leafy squares. It was sung by Petula Clark at the 60th anniversary of the end of the conflict, and again by Katherine Jenkins at a star-studded concert celebrating the 70th anniversary of VE Day in 2015.

– There’ll Always Be An England

Written by the duo behind We’ll Meet Again, There’ll Always Be An England is perhaps Dame Vera’s most overtly patriotic song. With lyrics that reference the Empire, country lanes, and cottages tucked beside fields of grain, it carried a message of hope to servicemen abroad. In a satirical twist, 70s punk rockers Sex Pistols came on stage to the tune, and named one of their live DVDs after it.

– Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart

With this song, Dame Vera became in 1952 the first foreign artist to reach number one on the US Billboard charts. It was written by German composer Eberhard Storch around 1950, for his wife who was confined to hospital with a long-term illness. The story goes that Dame Vera was on holiday in Switzerland when she heard people singing the song in a beer parlour. When she returned home to England, she recorded the track with the soldiers and airmen of HM Forces and the Johnny Johnston Singers.

In the summer of 1940, as the Nazi war machine marched its way across Europe and set its sights on Britain, the RAF braced for the worst. 

Young men, in their late teens or early twenties, were trained to fly Spitfires and Hurricanes for the coming Battle for Britain, with others flying Blenheims, Beaufighters and Defiants, becoming the ‘aces’ who would secure the country’s freedom from Hitler’s grasp. 

But Britain’s defiance came at a cost. From an estimated crew of 3,000 pilots, roughly half survived the four-month battle, with 544 Fighter Command pilots and crew among the dead, more than 700 from Bomber Command and almost 300 from Coastal Command falling to secure Britain’s skies. 

The losses were heavy, but the Germans, who thought they could eradicate the RAF in a matter of weeks, lost more. 

2,500 Luftwaffe aircrew were killed in the battle, forcing German Air Command to reconsider how easily Britain would fall to an invading Nazi occupation force. 

The pilots who gave everything in the aerial fight for British freedom were named ‘The Few’, after a speech from Sir Winston Churchill, who said: ‘The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion.

‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ 

‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ (pictured: An aerial photograph of Spitfires) 

After the fall of France to the Axis in May 1940, German High Command considered how best to push the fight across the English Channel to take Britain out of the fight.

Up until mid-July the German campaign consisted of relatively small-scale day and night air raids, targeting towns, aerodromes, ports and the aircraft industry.

But the Luftwaffe was at full readiness, ready to ramp up attacks on ships and ports and eliminate the RAF in the air and on the ground.

After the Allies were defeated in western mainland Europe, the German Air Force set up bases near the Channel to more readily take on Britain, hurriedly establishing the infrastructure needed to co-ordinate an aerial conflict with the UK.

As the Battle of Britain begun, the Royal Air Force consistently downed more Axis aircraft than they lost, but British fighters were often overwhelmed by the greater number of enemy aircraft.

Pictured: One of the most iconic images of the summer of 1940 and the fight above Dunkirk, with Squadron 610’s F/Lt Ellis pictured at the head of his section in DW-O, Sgt Arnfield in DW-K and F/O Warner in DW-Q

Fighting in France and Norway had left British squadrons weakened as the time now came to defend the homeland from Nazi occupation, but as the year went on, the RAF’s fighting force increased in strength, with more pilots, aircraft and operational squadrons being made available.

The Luftwaffe started a mounting campaign of daylight bombing raids, targeting strategic targets such as shipping convoys, ports, and airfields – and probing inland to force RAF squadrons to engage in an attempt to exhaust them.

German air units also stepped up night raids across the West, Midlands and East Coast, targeting the aircraft industry with the objective of weakening Britain’s Home Defence system, especially that of Fighter Command, in order to prepare for a full-scale aerial assault in August.

Heavy losses were sustained on both sides.

The main Luftwaffe assault against the RAF, named ‘Adler Tag’ (Eagle Day), was postponed from August 10 to three days later due to poor weather.

Hawker Hurricane planes from No 111 Squadron RAF based at Northolt in flight formation, circa 1940

Pictured: Squadron 610’s fighter pilots, a unit which witnessed some of the most intensive aerial combat in the Second World War (taken at RAF Acklington, in Northumberland, between 17-19 September 1940)

The Germans’ plan was to make RAF Fighter Command abandon south east  England within four days and defeat British aerial forces completely in four weeks.

The Luftwaffe battled ruthlessly in an attempt to exhaust Fighter Command through ceaseless attacks on ground installations, which were moved further inland, with airfields in southern England facing intensive daylight raids while night attacks targeted ports, shipping targets and the aircraft industry.

But despite sustaining heavy damage across the south, Fighter Command continued to push back against the Germans in a series of air battles, which inflicted critical losses upon the enemy, who thought the RAF would have been exhausted by this point.

Both sides feared becoming exhausted through the constant engagements.

Pictured: German plans to invade Britain, if naval and air superiority was achieved

Focus of the German attacks then shifted to London, where the RAF would lose 248 and the Luftwaffe would lose 322 between August 26 and September 6.

By September London had become the primary target of Luftwaffe aggression, with large-scale round-the-clock attacks carried out by large bomber formations with fighter escorts.

German Air Command had still not exhausted the RAF as it had hoped to, and British forces continued to face off against their German counterparts, with Fighter Command pushing back Hitler’s forces, forcing German invasion plans to be postponed.

By October, it had become apparent to the Germans that the RAF was still very much intact, and the Luftwaffe struck against Britain with single-engined modified fighter-bombers, which were hard to catch upon entry and still dangerous on their way out.

By the middle of the month German strategy had pivoted from exhausting the RAF to a ruthless bombing campaign targeting the Government, civilian population and the war economy – with London still the primary target.

But as of November, London became less of a target, with the Battle of Britain morphing into a new conflict – the Blitz.