The Spitfire Blog
Royal Canadian Legion’s Tribute to Ethem
Mary Jefferies has just learned that renowned indie film maker and director Ethem Cetintas passed away suddenly. Those of us who were able to attend to the marvellous documentary “The Secret Spitfires” that we showed to a sold out audience will be sad to hear of the passing of such a talented man far too early. RIP Ethem.
A tribute to Ethem by Ray Winstone
I was so sad to hear of the sudden death of Ethem, he was a joy to work with and a consummate professional, I shall treasure the laughs and crazy stories over a jar or two. RIP. Ray Winstone
Ethem Cetintas R.I.P.
It is with huge sadness that I received the news of the death of Ethem Cetintas, my very good friend, business partner and collaborator of over thirty years.
Secret Spitfires story revealed in a documentary and a book
In the 80th anniversary year of Battle of Britain it is important for us all to remember what that generation had to do for all our freedoms. The untold story of girls, women, boys, elderly men and a handful of engineers who...
Secret Spitfire Arrives to Salisbury
A great emotional day happened on 7th August 2020 when our Secret Spitfire Memorial arrived in huge style to Salisbury! The charity was supported by so many people which made it possible to get the Spitfire replica made, a Mk9...
Dame Vera Lynn has passed away at the age of 103
Just heard the very sad news that Dame Vera Lynn has passed away at the age of 103. She was a supporter of our project and did the reading of the beautiful poem High Flight which gave us the honour of meeting her in person. What an incredible talented lady with such...
Secret Spitfires book is released
Secret Spitfires book will be released tomorrow, Monday 15th June. A lovely two page spread article with extracts from the book has come out today, Sunday 14th June, in Mail On Sunday to celebrate the incredible work people did during the war. Here's the link....
Celebrating VE DAY 75
A special day in our history when the sacrifice of the whole nation along with allies defeated the enemy who surrendered in Europe 75 years ago. Thank you to that generation for all our freedoms and guidance they have given us.
Thank the nation!
At this time of disaster it is such a proud moment to see the whole nation come together to help each other. Just like the story of our film, young and old, teenage girls, boys, all stand up to the threat along with our forces, medical teams and volunteers from all...
Salisbury Secret Spitfire Memorial on the way
A great news was released on 15th October that Secret Spitfires Memorial to honour all those workers who built Spitfires in secret in our city is going ahead. Thanks to the Salisbury Rugby Club who took on the task of making this happen has now formed a charity to...
Secret Spitfires invited for 75th D-Day Celebrations to US Air Force Museum IMAX Cinema
Secret Spitfires film was recently invited to US Air Force D-Day 75th Anniversary celebrations at the amazing USAF Museum, Dayton Ohio, to represent the RAF Museum American Foundation. This has been a great honour for us to show this incredible story to a lovely...
D-Day had started, sky covered in aeroplanes
As a tribute to D-Day 75, we have taken a small highlight from our film to show how people felt when they suddenly realised D-Day had started with skies covered in aeroplanes. We all owe so much to that generation for what they had to do....
Rest In Peace our wonderful Joan Burrough
Another one of the heroines of the Secret Spitfire factories, Joan Burrough, has sadly passed away. Many who have seen the film will remember her as the young girl who volunteered to work at Chattis Hill, which was the secret final assembly factory where Spitfires...
Rest In Peace our heroes who are no longer with us.
As 2018 ended we wanted to let our friends know of all the amazing people we have now lost who told us their incredible stories for our Secret Spitfires film. We had recently posted the sad news of our Bette who passed away just before Christmas and today had the sad...
REST IN PEACE Our wonderful Bette Blackwell
Our wonderful heroine secret factory worker Bette passed away early this morning. She was a perfect speaker for all those workers who gave so much for our freedoms. Many will remember her from our film where she had audiences in such laughter and many tears with her...
Thank you for all your support. Best Wishes to everyone!
Have the best Christmas ever and go forward to the New Year with happiness and joy 😊 It has been an amazing journey for all of us and we thank all who have kindly supported us in so many ways. Let's not let our heritage be lost.
A Secret Spitfire AA810 from one of the secret factories found!
A Spitfire has recently been recovered from a mountain side in Norway which was traced back to Vincents Garage secret factory in Reading which is featured in our film Secret Spitfires Director's Cut. This is one of the special...
SECRET SPITFIRES Director’s Cut film is released for Independent Cinemas and Your Local Events!
NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR LOCAL EVENTS. The wait is over. After a successful national outing in cinemas, the feature length Director's Cut version has been released for Independent Cinemas, Organisations, Cinema Groups, Schools...
ATA girl Mary Wilkins-Ellis 1917 – 2018 R.I.P.
Another huge loss to us all. Our amazing ATA girl Mary Ellis contributed many stories to our film and the time we spent with her will be remembered by us forever. Losing both Joy Lofthouse and Mary in such short time has...
Dream come through for a Spitfire engineer
Our cherished historian for Secret Spitfires film, Norman Parker, had a wish for so many years. Norman was an aircraft engineer who originally worked on Wellingtons and later he was transferred over to work on Spitfires. He...