- 5/16/2025
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00:30In the first eight months of the war,
00:34the Allied Air Force has sustained only a few losses.
00:37Between Hitler's invasion of Poland
00:39and his invasion of Scandinavia,
00:40there was a period of inactivity
00:42the British called the Phoney War.
00:45In Britain, the inactivity of the Phoney War period
00:48was used to build Air Force strength.
00:51New fighters, Spitfires, and Hurricanes
00:54replaced the aging biplanes.
01:00Since January 1940,
01:02there had been a British air presence in France.
01:06Hawker Hurricanes were the only aircraft
01:09in the British force adequate to meet the Germans,
01:12but even they had several handicaps.
01:15Their propellers were made of wood.
01:17Their pitch was fixed.
01:20They were very little different
01:21from those used on World War I fighters.
01:24They limited the Hurricanes' speed,
01:26rate of climb, and ceiling.
01:30The RAF had more than 160
01:32of the handsome Fairey battles in France,
01:35but they were too slow and poorly armed
01:37to match the German Messerschmitts.
01:39The Bristol Blenheim bombers were faster than the battle,
01:42but still not fast enough to match the Messerschmitts.
01:47RAF Bomber Command's contribution to France
01:50was the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.
01:52In spite of its small size,
01:54the Whitworth Whitley was a very good fighter.
01:57The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.
01:59In spite of its ugliness,
02:00it would become the RAF's workhorse
02:02in the first months of the war.
02:05But by May 1940, experience had already shown
02:08that it would not survive in daylight combat
02:10with the Messerschmitts.
02:11The Whitley was confined to night attacks.
02:19On the German side,
02:20the losses suffered in Poland and Norway
02:22had not yet been made up.
02:25In July 1940, the Luftwaffe had only 841 operational bombers,
02:30a drop of more than 150 since March.
02:34The war against France was to be fought
02:36over limited distances,
02:37against an enemy that was already demoralized.
02:41It was a situation perfectly suited to the German military.
02:45Now we are besieged and attacked with live ammunition.
02:52On May 10th, 1940, the Nazi Blitzkrieg
02:56was unleashed on Luxembourg, Belgium,
02:58the Netherlands, and France.
03:02The attack was carried out according to Hitler's own ideas,
03:06particularly its use of air power.
03:11It was launched in what the world would come to know
03:14as Hitler weather, perfect for air warfare.
03:23The Luftwaffe focused on the new assault with intensity.
03:26It mustered 4,050 aircraft.
03:37On the ground, the German tank forces were of uneven quality.
03:42But in the air, the Luftwaffe was the largest
03:45and finest air force ever assembled for a single campaign.
03:54At first light on May 10th,
03:56German armored columns cut through three neutral countries,
03:59Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg.
04:02Air attacks hit key fortresses and airfields.
04:11The Luftwaffe struck at more than 70 air bases
04:14and rail and other communication links.
04:18The Luftwaffe struck at more than 70 air bases
04:21and rail and other communication links.
04:48Messerschmitt Bf 110s followed up in strafing attacks,
04:52concentrating on fuel supplies and aircraft in the open.
05:11The great French defense system, the Maginot Line,
05:14extended only from Switzerland to Belgium.
05:17The vast defense gap from Belgium to the English Channel
05:20was to be protected by Allied forces.
05:26Hitler planned to trap the ill-trained,
05:28poorly equipped French and English divisions
05:31in this gap between Belgium and the English Channel.
05:35Most of Hitler's commanders believed the airborne attack in Holland
05:39to be extraordinarily risky.
05:42It had to be undertaken before air superiority had been obtained.
05:49Heinkel and Junkers bombers prepared the way.
05:52They destroyed half the Royal Netherlands Air Force on the ground.
06:02An hour later, the airborne assault began.
06:12Paratroopers seized bridges
06:14and attempted to take over government facilities.
06:22The airborne operations were successful everywhere
06:25except at The Hague, where tough Dutch soldiers
06:28overcame the Germans in a bloody firefight.
06:36The German air force was forced to withdraw
06:39from the German airspace.
06:50The Dutch Army Air Service launched its little Fokker D-21 fighters
06:54against the lumbering German Ju-52s.
06:58Whenever the Fokkers could break through the escorting Messerschmitts,
07:01the Ju-52s were at their mercy.
07:04But their successes became fewer and their losses increased.
07:10British RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers joined the fighters.
07:14They concentrated on attacking the Ju-52 transports.
07:20The British claimed 13 Ju-52s destroyed,
07:23but to achieve that, they lost 10 Blenheims.
07:28As the German blitzkrieg raced forward toward the Allied troops,
07:32the Luftwaffe and the ground forces struggled to improve their teamwork.
07:37Radio communication was often a hopeless muddle.
07:41Supply problems increased.
07:43The Luftwaffe ground forces were forced to withdraw.
07:47The German air force was forced to withdraw.
07:51The German air force was forced to withdraw.
07:54Supply problems increased.
07:56The Luftwaffe ground staff struggled to get bombs and fuel
07:59to the advance airfields.
08:02Yet, by May 12th, as the German 19th Panzer Corps
08:05coiled to spring across the Meuse River,
08:08the air-ground effort came together.
08:14There were high-level bombing attacks,
08:16followed by an eight-hour Stuka bombardment.
08:20A decisive element was the use of ultra-high-frequency radios
08:25by Luftwaffe operators in the German tanks.
08:29They communicated directly with the Stukas.
08:40The French were bewildered by both the location
08:43and the speed of the German attack.
08:45They tried to regroup to engage the Germans with artillery fire.
08:49Each time, they were subjected to level bombing
08:52from Dorniers and Heinkels.
09:02Then came mind-numbing dive-bomb attacks by the Stukas.
09:16The Stukas' combination of noise and accuracy
09:19unnerved the French defenders.
09:24Soldiers, unable to withstand the shock waves in their shelters,
09:28staggered into the open,
09:30impervious to the 250-kilogram bombs the Stukas carried.
09:39The Stukas flew many sorties a day,
09:42pressing air and ground crews to the limit
09:45and creating a level of havoc that surprised even the Germans.
09:50Within hours, the slow fighting retreat of the French
09:53turned into a rout.
10:00The German bridgehead was expanded,
10:02and by May 14th, German tanks were across the Meuse.
10:06The German forces were set to pry France open
10:09like a knife slipped into the shell of an oyster.
10:22The Allies were slow to respond
10:24to the original German threat on May 10th.
10:32The true cost of Britain's saving money
10:34on aircraft procurement became clear.
10:37The Allies threw their inadequate aircraft
10:39at the surging German columns.
10:42Any battles or blenheims that made it through the German flak
10:45were pounced on by roving Messerschmitts.
10:54The best French aircraft were slaughtered
10:56in the same brutal way as the British.
11:00As each day passed, the Germans moved from air superiority
11:04to air supremacy.
11:07On May 14th, a confusion in orders
11:09led to the German terror bombing
11:11of the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
11:15The Germans were forced to withdraw
11:17from the city of Rotterdam.
11:20The Germans were forced to withdraw
11:22from the city of Rotterdam.
11:25The Germans were forced to withdraw
11:27from the city of Rotterdam.
11:36The world seized on this attack
11:38as the realization of fears
11:40about the horror of aerial bombardment.
11:44There was talk of 30,000 citizens having been massacred.
11:48Later investigation showed that about 980 had died.
11:53The Germans had attempted to halt the attack
11:55but failed because of poor communications.
11:58The shock of the bombing caused the Dutch
12:00to surrender the next day.
12:09The French had no strategic reserve.
12:13They begged the new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
12:16to send more fighter squadrons to stop the tanks.
12:19Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding,
12:21head of the British Fighter Command,
12:23wrote a letter.
12:25This letter would ensure victory
12:27in the coming Battle of Britain.
12:30Dowding said that no more fighters
12:32should be sent to France.
12:34He said that 52 fighter squadrons
12:36were essential to the defense of the British Isles.
12:39He only had 36.
12:41He said, if the home forces drained away
12:44in desperate attempts to remedy the situation in France,
12:47defeat in France will involve the final,
12:49complete defeat of this country.
12:53By May the 20th,
12:54Allied air resistance in France was crumbling.
12:58The British expeditionary force found it necessary
13:00to make a fighting withdrawal to the French city of Dunkirk.
13:10Hitler decided that German armored columns
13:12would not try to cut the British off from the sea.
13:16There was concern that tanks may bog down.
13:19Hermann Goering promised Hitler
13:21that his Luftwaffe would halt the evacuation.
13:25He claimed that German aircraft
13:27would finish off the British expeditionary force
13:29and the French First Army.
13:31And they would do it with far greater severity
13:34than the German ground forces would have done.
13:40But the Luftwaffe was weakened
13:41by the relentless pace of the advance through France.
13:45It would not be allowed to pause and catch its breath
13:48before attempting its new task at Dunkirk.
13:52On May the 26th, 1940,
13:55the British Admiralty began to evacuate
13:57English and French troops from Dunkirk.
14:00In the next eight days,
14:02850 ships of all types,
14:04from small yachts to destroyers,
14:06evacuated 338,000 men.
14:11For the first time since the war began,
14:13the Royal Air Force found itself concentrating
14:15on a single place and a single battle.
14:18Fighter Command flew 287 sorties on the first day.
14:2216 squadrons operated at full strength over the beaches.
14:39There were long gaps in the coverage
14:41that the men crouching in the sands below
14:43bitterly hated.
14:45For the Luftwaffe, roles were reversed.
14:48It still had numerical superiority.
14:51300 bombers and 550 fighters.
14:58But for the first time, it had no advantage in quality.
15:16And there had been no time to prepare forward airstrips.
15:21The German Messerschmitts were operating from distant airfields
15:24and had even less time over target
15:26than the RAF fighters operating from England.
15:45Nazi bombers were still based in Germany.
15:48The long flying times reduced their effectiveness.
15:58German intelligence had reported
16:00that the Messerschmitt Bf 109
16:02was far superior to the Spitfire.
16:05In fact, the two planes were very close in performance.
16:16The Spitfire had the edge in maneuverability and top speed.
16:24The Messerschmitt was better in climb and dive.
16:30The 109s had one clear advantage.
16:32Their Daimler-Benz engines were fuel injected.
16:35They could be pushed over into a dive
16:37without the engine cutting out.
16:39This saved precious seconds in a dogfight.
16:46The Rolls-Royce Merlin engines fitted to the Spitfires and Hurricanes
16:50had carburettors.
16:52When they were pushed into a dive, the engines promptly died.
16:58The Luftwaffe had two successful days in the Dunkerque campaign.
17:02On May 27th, it punished the RAF in the air.
17:06It caused tremendous casualties on the ground,
17:09destroying troops and ships.
17:16But gradually, the advantage shifted to the defenders.
17:20In the nine days of the battle, the RAF flew 3,561 sorties.
17:27It lost a total of 177 aircraft.
17:40The Luftwaffe lost 250.
17:43The Luftwaffe lost 240.
17:50The RAF had done more than gain the greater number of air victories.
17:54It had permitted the successful evacuation of Dunkerque.
17:58This evacuation would be a major factor
18:01in the eventual outcome of the war.
18:07The ground war unfolded relentlessly as the Germans drove into France.
18:11The air war continued with undiminished fury,
18:13both sides extending themselves to their very limits.
18:18The French demanded that more and more British fighter squadrons
18:21be sent to France.
18:23It was almost impossible for Churchill to ignore the request.
18:27England could not expect the French to continue the battle
18:30if it refused to send fighters.
18:35The beaches of Dunkerque were empty.
18:38The ports of England were clogged with disheartened survivors.
18:42Only one important leader in Germany saw the opportunity of the century.
18:47General Erhard Milch recommended to Göring
18:50that England should be invaded immediately
18:53with whatever the Luftwaffe and the Navy could throw together.
18:57He was certain that the British were so disorganized
19:00that even a few divisions would be enough to invade successfully.
19:04But Hitler chose instead to crush France completely.
19:08He ordered his troops to turn and attack the French positions
19:11along the Somme River.
19:14The French Armée de l'Air had almost ceased to exist,
19:18and by June 1940, the RAF in France was down to 18 serviceable aircraft.
19:26France surrendered to Germany on June 20, 1940.
19:31Informed of the surrender, Air Chief Marshal Dauding said simply,
19:35Thank God, we're now alone.
19:41No more hurricane squadrons would be sent off to France to die.
19:45Hitler was now master of Europe.
19:47From Norway to Spain, from Belgium to Russia,
19:50Nazi Germany was in control.
19:54Hitler had received word from England
19:56that there was an active fascist movement there ready to make peace.
20:01He was certain that England would accept his reasonable peace terms.
20:05He was wrong.
20:12So far in the war, the Royal Air Force had lost almost 1,000 aircraft.
20:17The pilot shortage was critical.
20:19435 British pilots had been killed, were missing, or were prisoners of war.
20:25Dauding ransacked the Fleet Air Arm, Bomber Command, and Coastal Command
20:29for pilots to replace those lost in France.
20:40The Luftwaffe was also trying to recover from a 28% loss in strength
20:44since the fighting began.
20:47The greatest losses had been among the Junkers Ju-52 transports.
20:52Many of their pilots had been taken from training bases,
20:55and the loss cost not only the aircraft,
20:58but the most experienced flying instructors.
21:01There was a high loss rate among the fighters too,
21:04but Luftwaffe activity did not let up.
21:07New aircrews were brought forward.
21:10New planes flowed from the factories.
21:13The entire Air Force prepared to move forward to new airfields.
21:17From there, they would undertake the Battle of Britain.
21:22The odds against Britain's survival seemed very long.
21:25Hitler's armed forces had achieved their triumph
21:27through carefully planned operations, executed with precision and panache.
21:33His staff of generals was formidable.
21:37His intelligence forces were considered to be everywhere.
21:40They were sinister and effective.
21:43Standing above all this was Hitler's own cunning expertise.
21:47So far, it had not failed him in peace or in war.
21:51In contrast, England was now led by Winston Churchill.
21:57Churchill was 66 years old.
22:00For most of his life, he'd been scorned by his country.
22:03He was seen as a reckless, romantic adventurer.
22:08England still possessed the greatest navy in the world,
22:11but its army was in shambles.
22:14Most of its equipment was now in the hands of its new owners, the Germans.
22:19In spite of all this, Britain refused to surrender.
22:24Hitler could not understand why.
22:26He continued to have a love-hate relationship with his Anglo-Saxon enemy.
22:32With genuine reluctance, Hitler ordered his commanders to start planning two operations.
22:38The first was an air campaign to bring England to its knees.
22:42The second, to be used in case of failure of the first, was Operation Sea Lion,
22:48a naval invasion of England.
22:52Hitler knew that air superiority had to be established before he could invade.
22:58On August 1, 1940, he issued a directive that put destruction of the Royal Air Force as its first priority.
23:06After air superiority was established, harbors and food supplies were to be attacked.
23:12The third priority was to be attacks on merchant ships and warships.
23:25The Germans named the operation Atlaangriff, Attack of the Eagles.
23:30The opening day of the attack was to be called Atlatag, Eagle Day.
23:36This rotating aerial is part of a new radar system called H2S.
23:41Ironically, the German plan happened to be exactly the emergency the British had spent years preparing for.
23:48The British had a handful of clever, far-seeing people in a number of key areas.
23:53Aircraft design, armament, radar, ground observer corps, and training.
23:58They were more than ready to reap the benefit of a German plan custom-made to be beaten by the British preparations.
24:11What no one on the German side perceived was that the air war was going to be won by fighters and not by bombers.
24:22Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's nickname was Stuffy.
24:26He was not greatly loved by his superiors.
24:29When the war broke out, he was close to retirement.
24:32Dowding divided the country into four defensive zones.
24:37The principal barrier to German attack was Number 11 Group,
24:40directly across the channel from the Luftwaffe's fields in France.
24:46It was commanded by Air Vice Marshal Keith Park.
24:50In a larger area to the north, Park's arch-rival,
24:53Air Vice Marshal Trafford Lee Mallory commanded Number 12 Group.
24:58The primary task of Lee Mallory's 14 squadrons was to defend the Midlands area.
25:03The secondary task was to provide reinforcement to 11 Group when required.
25:11Well north of Manchester was Number 13 Group.
25:15The last group to be created was Number 10, commanded by Air Vice Marshal Sir Christopher Brand.
25:22Its eight squadrons were located southwest of Number 11.
25:28Dowding's headquarters were located at Bentley Priory.
25:32The Luftwaffe would have no equivalent to this RAF central nervous system for years.
25:38Signals were passed from radar stations in the observer corps to the filter room and the operations room.
25:45Dowding himself often presided,
25:47making the crucial decisions on how many aircraft were to be launched against enemy attacks.
25:54Number 11 Group was so close to the enemy
25:56that its squadrons did not have time to climb to altitude and assemble in large formations.
26:02Group 12 was 150 miles further away.
26:05This added distance gave it the necessary time to reach combat height.
26:16Lee Mallory of 12 Group insisted that the correct tactic
26:20was to assemble a large number of aircraft to attack the enemy formations,
26:24even if this meant the German bombers had time to deliver their lethal bomb loads before they were challenged.
26:30Dowding and Park objected.
26:33They wanted to prevent the bombers reaching their targets whenever possible.
26:38This argument about tactics really masked a disagreement among strong personalities
26:43and the desire for the glory of war.
26:46Number 11 Group was the last group to be created.
26:50Number 11 Group was the last group to be created.
26:53This argument about tactics really masked a disagreement among strong personalities
26:57and the desire for the glory of combat.
27:09More than 4,000 planes had been mustered for the Battle of France.
27:14Only 2,500 could be deployed against England.
27:18More than 1,000 were Messerschmitt fighters.
27:21In the second week of August, 1940, the RAF could muster 704 operational fighters.
27:29620 were Hurricanes and Spitfires.
27:34In Germany, there was no major effort to increase aircraft production,
27:37but in Britain, production gains were being made every month.
27:42So far, the mix of German aircraft had been perfect.
27:45Short-range fighters had been able to operate from airstrips close to the front.
27:49They'd been backed up by medium bombers and the morale-shattering Stupas.
27:58But the English Channel, from 30 to 120 miles wide, made this mix inadequate.
28:05The Luftwaffe now had to spread its efforts over a number of targets.
28:09The response of its enemy, the RAF, was very focused.
28:13The instrument which enabled the RAF to respond in this way was radar.
28:20For many weeks, the Germans failed to guess that the British were using radar
28:24to detect Luftwaffe formations and engage them with great accuracy.
28:29By using radar, the Fighter Command System could assign exactly the number of fighters
28:33seen as suitable to meet each incoming raid.
28:43Not much had changed in the line-up of RAF aircraft.
28:46But most of the Hurricanes and Spitfires had been fitted with de Havilland
28:49constant-speed propellers.
28:51Their performance was vastly improved.
28:55The fighter squadrons were operating from their home bases,
28:58fighting for their native soil.
29:01If an RAF pilot was forced to bail out,
29:04he could use the efficient British railway system
29:06to be back at his home base in time for the next mission.
29:17The Bf 109E
29:23The Luftwaffe's most important aircraft, the Bf 109E,
29:27had a maximum range of 410 miles.
29:33Under combat conditions, with fuel expended in weaving coverage over the bombers,
29:38the 109E could reach just inside the English shoreline.
29:42In raw terms, this meant 30 minutes over,
29:4520 minutes in combat,
29:47and 30 minutes back.
29:56On its return flight, the 109 pilot had to cross the chill English Channel,
30:01with its red low-fuel warning light flickering.
30:05German pilots joked about Kanalkrankheit, channel sickness.
30:13The twin-engine Bf 110 proved to be a total failure as a long-range fighter.
30:23Not only could they not escort bombers and survive,
30:26but they themselves had to be escorted by 109s.
30:29The terror of the European skies, the Junkers Ju 87,
30:34had a brief period of success in attacks on convoys in the Channel.
30:42In the month beginning July 10th,
30:45the Germans sank 40,000 tons of British ships.
30:50The Bf 108E
30:53In the month beginning July 10th,
30:56the Germans sank 40,000 tons of British shipping.
31:00But soon the Stuka proved unable to survive over England.
31:04Its slow speed made it difficult to escort,
31:08and it was impossible to protect its dive.
31:14The RAF found it difficult to protect shipping.
31:19Dowding husbanded his forces by keeping patrols small.
31:23Radar warning times were often insufficient.
31:27The initial fighting was a learning process.
31:30The Germans probed and the RAF responded.
31:40Losses were moderate on both sides,
31:42but both sides exaggerated claims of victory.
31:49The Luftwaffe lost 192 aircraft and the RAF, 70.
32:11At the end of the first phase of the battle,
32:15about the end of the first week in August,
32:18both sides had reason to be satisfied with their effort.
32:22The RAF had learned a great deal.
32:24It had grown in strength with five new squadrons.
32:31In July, Hitler had created the exalted rank of Reichsmarschall for Hermann Göring.
32:37On August 8th, Göring sent the following message to the Luftwaffe.
32:41Operation Adler.
32:43Within a short period, you will wipe the British Air Force from the sky. Heil Hitler.
32:49Phase two of the battle was about to begin.
32:53On August 10th, weather delayed the scheduled Adler tag, Eagle's Day.
32:58August 12th was dedicated to what could have been
33:00the most important Luftwaffe attack of the war,
33:03raids on British airfields and radar stations.
33:06But the Germans failed to realize this.
33:09But the Germans failed to realize the importance of these defenses.
33:19A special German fighter-bomber test unit, Airprobungsgruppe 210,
33:24was given the job of attacking the radar stations.
33:28Airpro 210 had two squadrons of Bf 110s and one of Bf 109s.
33:40The threat is of course the bomber and the most deadly method is dive bombing.
33:44That is pointing the airplane at the objective and diving.
33:49The aircraft were used to make diving attacks at angles of 45 degrees.
33:54At airspeeds from 3 to 400 miles an hour, they were very elusive targets.
34:00On August 12th, they attacked four of the British chain home radar stations
34:04at Dover, Dunkirk, Pavensey and Rye.
34:07Three of the four were badly damaged.
34:22A raid on Portsmouth by 100 Junkers Ju 88s
34:26smashed the Ventner radar station on the Isle of Wight.
34:38At this moment, the British radar system was vulnerable.
34:53The British struggled to conceal the damage from the Germans.
34:57They worked to get the stations back on air.
35:00They supplemented them with mobile units and reports from the observer corps.
35:08On August 13th, Adlertag began as scheduled.
35:13In spite of bad weather, the Luftwaffe managed almost 1500 sorties.
35:38The Germans lost 39 aircraft, many of them Stukas.
35:43The RAF lost 15.
35:46Luftwaffe military intelligence reports were optimistic.
35:50They overestimated Luftwaffe's successes.
35:54Goering and his commanders assumed they had whittled the RAF down
35:58to less than 500 Hurricanes and Spitfires.
36:02But there were actually more than 750 available
36:05and their numbers were building daily.
36:08Both sides gathered strength for August 15th.
36:12The weather improved.
36:14On August 15th, the Luftwaffe planned to saturate British defences
36:18with raids from all quarters.
36:21The plan was to attack airfields.
36:23This would force British fighters into the air where they would be destroyed.
36:28Just before 1100 hours,
36:30British radar detected telltale signs of incoming aircraft.
36:36The first waves were Stukas, escorted by fighters.
36:41They struck at forward airfields at Horkinge and Limpni.
36:52Then, just before noon, the tension switched to the north.
36:57The Germans assumed that defences there had been weakened
37:00to strengthen the south.
37:02They were wrong.
37:04The German bombers and fighters flying in from Norway
37:07were attacked by Spitfires and Hurricanes.
37:10The British fighters shot down eight German bombers
37:13and seven fighters with no losses of their own.
37:19A hundred miles to the south,
37:21a force of 50 Ju-88s ran into the Spitfires of 616 Squadron.
37:27They lost six aircraft,
37:29but pressed on to bomb the airfield at Driffield in Yorkshire.
37:36It was now clear to the Germans
37:38that bombers could not operate in daylight over England
37:41without fighter escort.
37:43And Bf 109s did not have the range to operate from Norway or Denmark.
37:49Luftwaffe raids continued through the day.
37:52The British claimed to have shot down 180 German aircraft.
37:57The actual number was 75.
38:00Still enough to shake Luftwaffe morale.
38:03But the British losses were heavy too.
38:0634 aircraft had been downed and 17 pilots killed.
38:11With its superior numbers,
38:13the Luftwaffe was in a position to wear the RAF down by attrition.
38:18But Göring's ego demanded that the RAF be torn from the skies
38:22in a few days with only a few German losses.
38:26In his anger, he attributed the Luftwaffe's casualties
38:29not to the British fighters or radar,
38:32but to a lack of fighting spirit in his pilots.
38:36In fact, Göring should have been proud of his men.
38:39In one day, they had flown 1,786 sorties
38:43and they had pressed their attacks resolutely.
38:47But it was not the last time Göring would accuse them of lack of will to win.
38:57GERMAN RAIDERS
39:04Göring made two other blunders.
39:06The first was his assumption
39:08that the attacks on the radar sites had not been productive.
39:11He removed them from the target list.
39:14Had the attacks been repeated day after day,
39:17the radar sites would have been destroyed.
39:20Fighter command would have had to commit to battle
39:22under far less advantageous circumstances.
39:27The second blunder was to insist that Messerschmitt Bf 109s
39:31fly very close escort to the bombers.
39:34This would deprive them of their advantages of altitude and speed.
39:47The second phase of the Battle of Britain turned into a weary struggle.
39:51Day after day, the RAF rose to meet the German invaders.
39:56GERMAN RAIDERS
40:02Germany's intelligence assumed that if German losses were high,
40:06British losses would be higher.
40:15The RAF was indeed hurt.
40:17By the end of the second phase of the battle,
40:19it had lost 175 aircraft.
40:26Pilot reserves were dwindling.
40:28New pilots did not become effective
40:30until after four or five missions.
40:37But the Luftwaffe's losses as phase three of the battle began
40:41were more than twice those of the RAF.
40:44It had lost 403 aircraft.
40:47About half were the all-important fighters.
40:51Göring had once predicted
40:53that it would take four days to destroy the RAF.
40:56But the Germans began to realize
40:58that they were running out of time
41:00to undertake an invasion before the winter weather struck.
41:12Göring now made his best decision so far.
41:15To accelerate the process of destruction,
41:18he ordered heavy attacks on the airfields
41:21in the south and the southeast of England.
41:26His intention was to either force the RAF into the air
41:30to be shot down or to destroy it on the ground.
41:36Messerschmitt Bf 109s were transferred
41:39to the Patek Calais area of France.
41:42This would give them the shortest distance to fly to get into combat.
41:46Their main task was still to provide
41:49very close escort to bomber forces
41:52that could number between 60 and 400 aircraft.
41:55It was hard, brutal work.
41:57It was more like street fighting in an embattled city
42:00than the clean combat in the blue
42:03that writers like to romance about.
42:06The third phase lasted only two weeks.
42:09During this time, the RAF lost 291 planes destroyed
42:14and another 171 damaged.
42:17In the same period, only 269 new and repaired Spitfires
42:21and Hurricanes found their way into the British squadrons.
42:25The RAF was losing pilots at the rate of 120 a week.
42:30All squadrons were tired.
42:36In the third phase, the Luftwaffe lost 361 aircraft.
42:40By September the 6th, there were signs
42:43that it was shifting its emphasis.
42:46Doubting warn that heavier attacks should be expected
42:49on the factories that built Britain's fighter aircraft.
42:53The RAF was worn thin, but never reached a point
42:56at which it had no aircraft or pilots in reserve.
43:00Still, the RAF was trending towards defeat.
43:05On August the 31st, it had its greatest daily loss.
43:0939 fighters were lost in combat.
43:1214 of the pilots were killed.
43:15If the Germans had continued at the same intensity
43:18for three more weeks,
43:20they would have established air superiority.
43:23But the Germans were hurt badly as well.
43:26Goering's biting criticism of his pilots undermined morale.
43:31Unknown to anyone, the course of the battle
43:34was decided inadvertently on the night of August 24th.
43:39German bombers sent to strike Rochester got lost.
43:43Instead, they dropped their bombs on London.
43:53Winston Churchill had Bomber Command on 12-hour notice
43:56to retaliate if bombs hit London.
43:59When they did, the RAF dispatched 81 bombers to Berlin.
44:04Hitler was so angered by Britain's effrontery
44:07in attacking Berlin that he ordered
44:09his own reprisal raids on London.
44:11This shifted the focus of Luftwaffe efforts
44:14away from destroying Fighter Command.
44:22On September 7th, almost 1,000 aircraft approached London.
44:26Their bombs killed 300 people.
44:29That night, another 300 Luftwaffe aircraft
44:32came back to attack the burning city again.
44:35Aircraft losses on both sides were heavy.
44:38German losses forced the Luftwaffe
44:41to shift to night attacks.
44:43It was the beginning of what Londoners
44:46came to call the Blitz.
44:51Optimistic German intelligence reports
44:54still promoted the attack on London.
44:57German intelligence reports still promoted the idea
45:00that the RAF was only four or five days from total collapse.
45:04Hitler persisted in talking about Operation Sea Lion,
45:08the invasion of Britain.
45:11September 15th became the day the Germans thought
45:15the RAF would finally be broken.
45:18The Germans pinned their hopes on the effect of sorties
45:22by only 277 bombers in three separate waves.
45:28The RAF reacted in strength.
45:31They shot down 35 bombers and 20 fighters.
45:41The results were so disappointing
45:44that Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
45:52The Luftwaffe began to concentrate
45:55on night raids on London.
45:59As London continued to suffer,
46:01Churchill, Dowding, and the other British leaders
46:04began to realize that the Battle of Britain had been won.
46:07The invasion could not come until next year, if at all.
46:13In the fifth and final phase of the Battle of Britain,
46:16the nature of German tactics changed.
46:18The Luftwaffe kept British radars busy
46:21with false attacks, fighter sweeps,
46:23and sudden raids by fighter bombers.
46:26The technique was difficult for the RAF to combat.
46:30Warning times were limited,
46:32but the danger was not nearly so great
46:35as the full-scale bomber raids.
46:37The Germans turned to the darkness for safety.
46:40They developed good equipment for navigation
46:43and bombing at night, but crews had to learn on the job.
46:47The RAF had no suitable night fighter,
46:50and London would take terrible punishment in the dark hours.
47:00But England's strength grew from day to day.
47:03The island that Hitler had once seen as ripe for plucking
47:06could no longer be invaded.
47:08In the course of the battle,
47:10Germany lost 1,733 aircraft and almost 3,000 aircrew.
47:15As a result, Hitler did not dare risk his fleet or army
47:19across the Channel.
47:21England was saved from invasion.
47:23Hitler would now turn his attention to the east,
47:26the Russian front.
47:28There, his aircraft losses would reach tens of thousands.
47:31His casualties would number millions.
47:44Great Britain won the admiration of the world.
47:47Pilots from 14 nations had flown in the RAF against the Luftwaffe.
47:57The hardy, undeviating Dowding was sacked
48:00less than two weeks after the Battle of Britain.
48:03Six months later, he was made Lord Dowding of Bentley Priory.
48:07But that was scarcely enough recognition
48:09for the brilliant leader of the Air Force
48:11that Winston Churchill referred to as The Few.
48:17MUSIC
48:47.
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