Modlovecat July 16th, 2005 05:32PM  

Describes an air battle from the viewpoint of a flying ace. The lyrics and fast-paced style have made the song commonly associated with war, and it appeared in the 1986 film Incident at Channel Q, about a war between headbangers and conservative "straight people".

anonymous January 3rd, 2006 05:21PM  

No it's not. Charge of the Light Brigade inspired The Trooper. About the 6000 calvery who took on Russian Artillary and got bombed to pieces.

anonymous January 28th, 2007 04:15PM  

This song is definitely about WWII and air combat, how could it be more obvious? The WWII and war in general always inspired Steve Harris.I thing I've heard somewhere the thing about Nicko's flying lessons, I'm not sure though...

anonymous February 27th, 2007 04:08PM  

Umm Nicko wasn't learning how to fly, Bruce Dickenson was in the Airforce that's why he cut his hair, that's also why a lot of their songs are about war.

DarkLord March 14th, 2007 10:11AM  

Well, Bruce Dickinson learned how to fly indeed. In fact, he is a professional jet pilot now (He is also a great swordsman...) That's not why he cut his hair though. And that's not the reason why Maiden have so many war songs too. He wasn't taking flying lessons by "The Number Of The Beast" period, when the first war songs came up. By the way, almost the most songs about war were written by Steve Harris.

anonymous April 28th, 2007 01:58PM  

It's about the battle for Britain I think. Germans were bombing Britain when the British air forces had to scramble to get in the air.

"10 ME-109s out of the sun"

an ME-109 is a Messerschmidt fighter plane I think it may have been the first jet powered plane. a Messerschmidt is a german plane

anonymous April 26th, 2008 01:36AM  

It is about the Battle of Britain in WWII. If you don't believe me, then why does the music video and live performance of it start with a speech from Winston Churchill about the Battle of Britain? And yes, Bruce was learning to fly, and he supposedly actually flys the band around from show to show occasionally.

JarHead September 23rd, 2008 05:11PM  

There is no doubt in my mind that this is about the Battle of Britain...ME 109s vs Spitfires...just read the lyrics...with the Spitfires being in the defence. I don't know about you, but this song and The Trooper fire me the hell up...I cranked them in my gun truck my last deployment and I'll be doing the same this next one.

anonymous October 14th, 2008 03:14PM  

Yea, this song is about The Battle of Britain in WWII. You all described it well. The scramble, the combat, the adrenaline rush.

Just somthing that somone posted about Bruise Dickenson that pissed me off. Yes, he is a piolet. However, there is a HUGE difference between sword fighting (what you said) and fencing (what he actually does). The weapon he fences, does not swing the blade around in a crazed fashion like one would with a combat sword. A foil (his weapon) is only allowed to perform a lunging (or poking you could call it) action on the opponent's torso (no arms legs or head).

anonymous April 14th, 2009 08:20PM  

This song is about an airfield scrambling Supermarine Spitfires. (You can tell from the line "rolling and turning our Spitfires to face them") This was a common British fighter plane in world war two. The scrambled aircraft encounter German bombers (Most likely He-111s Ju-88s or Do-17s). This can be justified by the line "move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers." After a a couple passes the notice enemy escort fighters at 8 o'clock.(These were Messerschmidt Me-109s not the first jet plane,the Messerschmidt Me-262, but a nimble Nazi fighter. They turn into the attack. the chorus that follows describes an intense dogfight. We cannot be certain of what happens after that. I personally feel that after defeating many enemies the ace pilot is in the gunsight of an enemy and desperately attempts to evade the attack. He is hit, spiraling towards the ground, and unable to bail out of his doomed spitfire when the music closes, but that is only my personal belief and the real ending is open to interpretation.