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00:00The End
00:30The conquering German armies covered Western Europe, the self-styled mastering high.
01:00The conquering German armies covered Western Europe and known as the
01:20Now Adolf Hitler stood just as Napoleon had stood more than a hundred years before and
01:39looked across the English Channel to the one fighting obstacle that stood between him and
01:45world domination. The tropped cliffs of Britain rose sheer and white out of the choppy waters.
01:56And beyond, a little island smaller than the state of Wyoming crushed that little island and
02:02its stubborn people and the way was open for world conquest. The fall of Austria, Czechoslovakia,
02:09Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France had given him more than 100 million slaves to work
02:21for him or starve. The preliminaries were over. It was time for the main event, the Battle of Britain.
02:39Hitler and his generals feverishly drafted their plans for the conquest of Britain. Every detail
02:56must be anticipated. A slip now might wreck the whole timetable of world conquest. Six weeks of final
03:04preparation went into those plans. Six weeks to determine the history of a thousand years. The
03:10thing was foolproof. See for yourselves how simple the whole operation was to be. Look.
03:15German plan for invasion of England. Phase one. Knock out the Royal Air Force and its bases. Get control
03:24of the air and the sea lanes across the Channel. Follow the blitz plan that had wiped out Poland,
03:30the Low Countries and France. Destroy communication and transport lines. Above all, get command of the air.
03:43Phase two. Pulverize the coastline with dive bombers. Drop parachute troops to take over the airfields and
03:52establish beachheads. Phase three. Actual invasion. Pour the German panzer divisions across in high-speed barges.
04:07Under an umbrella of protecting fighter planes.
04:14Then send spearheads of armed might to divide, surround, destroy all opposition.
04:20That's all there was to it.
04:28Conquer Britain. Force the surrender of the British fleet.
04:33Then, with the combined sea power of Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Japan,
04:39he could control the seas and tell us where to head in.
04:43The torch of freedom flickered low.
04:53On the Channel invasion coasts, more than a hundred fully equipped German divisions were singing the
04:57Nazi theme song, we are sailing against England, as they waited the word from Hitler.
05:02Here, for weeks, all the supplies and weapons of the Nazi war machine had been turned toward Britain.
05:16The jaws of the Nazi whale were set to swallow Jonah.
05:33And what about Jonah? How was he doing?
05:37Well, Britain also had an army, but it was an army dragged from the sea at Dunkirk.
05:42An army without weapons, these had been left behind on the roads of France.
06:07Tanks, guns, motorized equipment, all abandoned to save the one priceless item, men.
06:19In all of Britain, there was not enough equipment for one modern division.
06:31Only one tank for every thousand square miles of territory.
06:36Only one machine gun for every 1500 yards of beach.
06:41Britain had a navy too, but it was scattered all over the globe,
06:45guarding vital food and supply lines.
06:47And the British knew it would be suicide to use their fleet in the narrow waters of the English Channel,
06:55with the German Air Force in control of the air.
07:00Britain also had an air force.
07:04An air force outnumbered ten to one by the enemy, both in men and machines.
07:08And then there was Britain herself, the people of Britain.
07:14The people who were to be terrorized and forced to surrender.
07:17They knew that every man, woman and child, in uniform or out, would be Hitler's target in the onslaught that might come at any moment.
07:26They knew they had a job to do, and not much time to do it in.
07:30The young, the not-so-young, and the old.
07:37The clerk, the butcher, the farmer, the member of parliament, they formed the civilian army, Britain's home guard.
07:44They started from scratch.
07:52Experience.
07:54Equipment.
07:57Supplies.
07:59All were scarce.
08:02Only one shell to fire at each practice.
08:05The women of Britain refused to be left out.
08:14We'll enlist, too.
08:16We'll put up the barrage balloons.
08:26Man the AK-AK guns.
08:30We'll run the railroads and get the trains through on time.
08:35Ferry the planes.
08:40Carry the dispatches.
08:45Drive the ambulances and run the buses.
08:48And we'll see that our men are fed and don't go hungry.
09:00Others work.
09:02Men and women alike.
09:05They worked full time.
09:12Overtime.
09:14Double time.
09:1640 hours a week.
09:1850.
09:1960.
09:2070.
09:21Ours meant nothing.
09:27Fatigue meant nothing.
09:32Until the government forced them to cut down ours because over fatigue was hurting production.
09:36And when they weren't working, the men patrolled the moors for parachutes, blocked the roads,
09:57rehearsed invasion defenses.
10:03For something had happened here the Germans could never understand.
10:07In a democracy, it is not the government that makes war. It is the people.
10:23To lead them, the people had chosen Winston Churchill as their prime minister.
10:29And he spoke the words in every British heart when he said,
10:33We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.
10:39We shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets, and on the hills. We shall never surrender.
10:51This was Britain in its darkest hour. The people knew they were in for the worst the Nazi mind could invent.
10:59Yet they didn't panic or run away. They patrolled and waited. They drilled and waited. They worked and waited.
11:09Waited for the terror they knew was coming.
11:15Then it came.
11:19That's the sound that became part of the life of every man, woman, and child in Britain.
11:31August 8th, 1940. And the battle for Britain is on.
11:39Thirty enemy aircraft over the channel, flying due west.
11:43Here comes the Luftwaffe.
11:55In dozens of flights. Hundreds of planes.
11:59Bombers. Fighters. Dive bombers.
12:05Across that 21 miles of channel. That eight short minutes of water.
12:11Their first tactics were to bomb convoys in the channel.
12:15Convoys loaded with food and munitions bound for the great port of London.
12:21In the mountains.
12:23There was a Pharaoh's two-lander.
12:27After�.
12:32Oh!
12:33Oh!
12:35Oh!
12:38Oh!
12:39Oh, Lord!
12:43Oh!
12:44Oh, oh!
12:46Oh!
12:47Yeah!
12:48I said something.
12:49Oh!
12:50German fighters waited overhead for the defending planes of the Royal Air Force, the RAF, to
13:02disappear. They didn't have long to wait.
13:32The RAF came, facing odds of six, eight, ten to one, and dove in, shouting the old hunting
13:58cry, Tally Ho!
14:28Phase one of the Nazi plan called for the RAF to be knocked out of the air, but the men
14:33of the RAF hadn't read the Nazi plan.
14:58In the first four days, the RAF knocked 182 German planes out of the sky. For the next week,
15:15the Germans attacked the coast cities from the Thames River to Weyman.
15:45So, Jetty, take cover.
16:15The trailer paid off with 180 more planes. Then the Luftwaffe battered the great port towns
16:23of Southampton, Plymouth. Trying for a knockout before the flow of supplies from overseas,
16:30the ports took a terrible pounding, but they couldn't be knocked out. Cargos went on being
16:38unloaded with the protection of the RAF overhead. Battling the spitfires and hurricanes in the
16:44air wasn't panning out, so Goering switched his main attacks to the fighter airfields,
16:49Dover, Deal, Hawking. Maybe he could destroy the planes on the ground. He bombed the airfields,
16:57and the fields were hit, but the planes were saved. Or Britain, unlike Poland and the Low Countries,
17:05didn't make the mistake of bunching its planes on the runways. The planes of the RAF were scattered
17:11and hidden, only a few on any one field, and those in the far corners. The spitfire still
17:18went up to meet the enemy. In the first ten days of the Battle of Britain, Goering launched
17:2526 major attacks to get command of the air, and lost 697 aircraft. The British lost 153.
17:34and 60 British pilots bailed out.
18:04Valuable trained men were saved and ready to fight again, but the crews of Goering's planes
18:14were lost to him forever. The pace was too hot. Something was going haywire. The Nazis had
18:29to call time out. On a 2,000 mile front, from Norway to France, the whole Nazi blitz program
18:36was being stalled, because the RAF was still in the air. The shock troops were getting hoarse
18:42from singing, we are sailing against England. The long-range German guns were getting hot
18:55from throwing shells across the channel. In public, Hitler assured the Germans, Mr. Churchill
19:08tells his people that England will win, but I tell you that victory will belong to Germany.
19:14But in private, he sent for Goering, the boss of the Luftwaffe, and put him on the hot seat.
19:24Goering was told to do something and do it quick. So on August 30th, he ordered all-out attacks
19:31on inland air drones and industrial centers. Maybe he could knock out the RAF on the assembly line.
19:40And he adopted new tactics, too. More fighters and fewer bombers. Or maybe he just had fewer bombers to send.
19:50Anyway, those he did send were well protected. Fighters above at high altitudes. Fighters on both sides.
19:57Fighters in the front and in the rear. Fighters weaving in and out of the bomber formations.
20:06Britain, winner of the first round, was ready with higher morale and sharper defense.
20:13Improved listening posts were set up all along the coast and warned of the enemy's approach
20:18before he left the continent. A quick flash from the control station to the fighter station.
20:24And pilots were on their way to meet the enemy while he was still over the channel.
20:33Day after day, out of sight, and almost out of sound of the watchers on the cliffs.
20:39Four, five, and six miles above, the battles raged over the Dover area.
20:45The Dover area became known as Hell's Corner.
20:51By sheer weight of numbers, the enemy again and again broke through the coastal defenses.
20:58And reached inland to the air drop.
21:10Aircraft plants.
21:13Munition factories and machine shops.
21:17Munition factories and machine shops.
21:28Hello, gunfire in the southeast.
21:30Right.
21:31Right.
22:01But the workers kept on working.
22:14And the RAF kept on flying.
22:17These two men with wings, alone in the sky, behind their motors and machine guns,
22:23were shooting down more than the Luftwaffe.
22:26They were smashing the whole Nazi plan of world conquest.
22:35The
22:51Any claims, Johnny?
22:52Uh, a 109 destroyed, Freddy, yes.
22:55Oh, good show.
22:58How'd you get on, sir?
22:59Oh, I had a wonderful party, thanks.
23:01Are you all right?
23:05You get any of the batteries?
23:06Yes, I got a measurement 109 and a Dornia.
23:09Between August 24th and September 5th, 35 major attacks were launched.
23:14They cost the Germans 562 planes, while the British lost only 219 planes and saved 132 pilots.
23:26Invasion plans were going completely haywire.
23:30The Nazis were blind with rage.
23:34The German mind has never understood why free people fight on against overwhelming odds.
23:41Hitler now knew he was superior in every weapon, except the weapon of spirit.
23:46So he told Goering, break that spirit.
23:49Crush the people.
23:50Crush the spirit of democratic life itself.
23:53Invasion now would have to wait.
23:56The Nazis would avoid the RAF and smash the great city of London into the rubble heap they had made of Warsaw and Rotterdam.
24:05Could London take it?
24:07Even the people themselves didn't know the answer.
24:10The defenses they trusted in were London's hastily assembled anti-aircraft.
24:15The Akak guns.
24:16The balloon barrage, which kept the raiders at high altitudes.
24:19The Royal Air Force, now down to its last reserves.
24:24And the plain, downright guts of people.
24:28They sent more children out of the city.
24:34Tightened air raid precautions.
24:49Stationed more aeroplane spotters.
24:52Rehearsed firefighters.
24:54Moved into bomb shelters.
24:57They blacked out their city and carried on.
25:14The first blow aimed to crush the British spirit came on September 7.
25:20The roof reports planes coming in.
25:36Control room speaking.
25:38Customers and staff will now take cover in the basement.
25:41Please do not run, but keep moving.
25:43Down the stairs, or you can use the escalator.
25:50Third floor, clear.
25:52Second floor, clear.
25:54First floor, clear.
25:57That day, when 375 German planes came roaring up the Thames River,
26:04the Battle of Britain became the Battle of London.
26:08The Germans broke through the charge of hurricanes and spitfires that went out to meet them.
26:20Gone was any pretense of aiming military objectives.
26:26This just, savage destruction.
26:50Bombs fell alike on the homes of the East End poor and the Mayfair rich.
27:12On shops.
27:13Hospitals.
27:15Churches.
27:16For 28 days, the Nazis were to drop everything in the book on the city of London.
27:30Tons upon tons of high explosives.
27:34Delayed action bombs that exploded days later.
27:37Torpedoes that sheared away whole buildings.
27:40And underneath the war in the air, the war of the man in the street went on.
27:50He learned to exist with very little food.
27:56He forgot what it meant to have a night's sleep, spending most of his time underground in the damp and dark and cold.
28:02Hello, Mrs. Box.
28:03You're here early tonight.
28:04Well, I'm at the same site, aren't I?
28:05I think that'll be all right now.
28:06Yes, that's grand.
28:07Anyway, I'll be back in a few minutes if you want.
28:08Now, how are we going to get you up there?
28:09Get a young man to lift you up.
28:10Riley?
28:11Hello.
28:12Come here, young lady and lift up.
28:13Righto, I'm coming.
28:14The air raid wardens stayed at their posts.
28:31Doctors and nurses worked on steadily as the bombs crashed all around them.
28:36Rescue squads labored night and day.
28:40Firemen said, nuts to the bombs and battle to put out fires.
29:01This was life in the Blitz.
29:03Against all the rules of Nazi warfare, Britain was ready.
29:09Britain was refusing to cropple up.
29:14Across the channel, the enraged Gehring took personal command of the operations.
29:18And on September 15th, he sent the Luftwaffe into one of its greatest attacks.
29:30Five hundred German bombers and Messerschmitt fighters roared over the English coast.
29:39Slow mouth calling.
29:40Planes heard three miles southwest.
29:44Shout for hostile planes approaching from southwest.
29:48The British met the challenge by throwing in everything they had.
29:55An historic three-dimensional battle took place.
30:02Inside an area sixty miles long, thirty-eight broad and from five to six miles high.
30:07Applause.
30:08Applause.
30:09Applause.
30:10Applause.
30:11Applause.
30:12Applause.
30:13Applause.
30:14Applause.
30:15Applause.
30:16Applause.
30:17Applause.
30:18Applause.
30:19Applause.
30:20survey.
30:21.
30:50Two hundred individual dogfights took place within the first 30 minutes of the raid.
31:20Oh, what a strength.
31:22Oh, what a strength.
31:24Oh, what a strength.
31:25Oh, what a strength.
31:29Oh, what a strength.
31:31The power is greater than one I've ever seen.
31:34Center calling London one. Thank you center. We'll keep a look out for them.
31:54Hostile formation to the south. Some of the German bombers broke through London's defenses.
32:04And reached the center of the city.
32:24Ready to get the tinettes, doggy?
32:27Doggy, the tinettes. Oh, the tinettes. Okay.
32:34Doggy! Doggy, where are you?
32:46Doggy, where are you?
32:49Doggy!
32:52Doggy, where are you?
32:54Doggy, where are you?
33:04Blimey, I thought they'd got you.
33:06Who, me? Nah, I had me fingers crossed.
33:24Air Ministry communique. The biggest bag yet. 185 enemy aircraft shot down. End of message.
33:45Of the 500 German planes that came over that day, more than one-third were shot down.
33:51In the 28 days of terror from September 7th to October 5th, the Nazis dropped 50 million pounds of bombs on the city, killed 7,000 helpless civilians, and wounded 10,000 more.
34:07Bombs fell on Buckingham Palace.
34:10Westminster Abbey.
34:16The Houses of Parliament.
34:20Fleet Street, the center of the news.
34:25St. Paul's Cathedral.
34:34Bombs blasting the historic past out of the lives of Englishmen.
34:38But, in these 28 days, the Nazis lost 900 planes and their crews. The more they sent over, the more were shot down.
34:52The British Spitfire had proved to be one of the deadliest weapons ever put in the hands of man.
34:57If this kept up, pretty soon no more Luftwaffe.
35:00The frantic Nazis had to pull a new one.
35:07They did.
35:08On October 6th, they changed to night attacks.
35:12Maybe that way they could avoid those deadly Spitfires and hurricanes.
35:17Maybe that way they could crush the stubborn British spirit.
35:21Never mind control of the air.
35:23Never mind phase one, phase two, phase three.
35:28Now to concentrate on bombing the people themselves into submission.
35:32And make them cry for mercy.
35:51A hostile raid, sir.
36:21The RAF wasn't much help at night.
36:33This was just German bombs against British guts.
36:42Good evening, Harvey.
36:43Hello, Jack.
36:44Sound happy enough down there tonight, don't they?
36:47Yes, they're all right.
36:49The great docks of London were left roaring infernos.
37:03Homes were destroyed by incendiaries.
37:08Business blocks were aflame.
37:12And still the people of London took it.
37:14Night after night, they borrowed underground.
37:17And morning after morning, they dug themselves out of the wreckage.
37:30Good morning, Mr. Sparrow.
37:31Good morning, Mr. Arndt.
37:32I'm here tonight.
37:33Right here.
37:34Come on, Bethy.
37:40Would you like to sit down?
37:41Thanks.
37:42Good morning, Mr. Arndt.
37:43Sleep well?
37:44Fine, eh?
37:45What's it upon night?
37:46What about the one that came down about two?
37:48I didn't hear it.
37:49Did you?
37:50No.
37:51Oh, we're getting used to it around here.
37:52Good morning, dear.
38:23Don't you think you'd better go away from this for a bit?
38:26Of course not.
38:27Does it take more than this to get me out of my home?
38:29Now go on.
38:30You've got to get to work.
38:31Okay.
38:32The Battle of London was the battle of the people of the city.
38:39In spite of bombs and fire and death, they got to their desks and work benches to spend
38:45another 10 or 12 hours working, working, working.
38:50The British spirit was stronger than ever.
38:53And the RAF was flying higher than ever.
38:56Not only higher, but farther.
39:00SIO, operation for the night.
39:03GP-1562.
39:06EP-781.
39:09Ten aircraft.
39:11You'll find, I think, a decent photograph of the submarine yards there.
39:16There was a very good one taken the other night, Monty.
39:18Who's there?
39:19A bit further along.
39:21That's it.
39:23That's...
39:24There's the submarine yards.
39:25There.
39:26Just there.
39:27Yes.
39:28Well, chaps, this is your target for tonight.
39:30It's the submarine and shipbuilding yards at Bremen.
39:33It's a vitally important target, and it's got to be hit hard.
39:38In the midst of this life and death struggle, the British found strength not only to defend,
39:43but to counterattack with what few bombers they could get together.
39:51It's a very good thing, but I'm going to tell you.
39:53No.
39:54No.
39:55No.
39:56No.
39:57No.
39:58No.
39:59No.
40:00No.
40:01No.
40:02No.
40:03No.
40:04No.
40:05No.
40:07No.
40:08No.
40:10No.
40:11No.
40:12No.
40:13No.
40:14No.
40:15No.
40:16No.
40:17No.
40:18Hello, rear gunner. Can you hear me?
40:20I'm okay, skipper.
40:22Hello, operator. Everything okay?
40:25Well, it seems to be all here, sir.
40:48Stand by. I'm going in on a glide.
41:18Steady.
41:26I got the bullseye with the last one.
41:28Here was the RAF giving it back.
41:32I got the bullseye with the last one.
41:35Here was the RAF giving it back.
41:39I got the bullseye with the last one.
41:43Here was the RAF giving it back.
41:52Hitler cried, night gangsters.
41:54For this crime, I will exact a thousand-fold revenge.
41:58All the available German night bombers were put into the air.
42:13A thousand-fold revenge was Coventry.
42:28On the night of November 14th, a million pounds of bombs were dropped on the city.
42:45Coventry was smashed as flat as Warsaw and Rotterdam.
42:52Coventry was smashed as flat as Warsaw and Rotterdam.
42:57They were in France, City, were at the same time.
43:00Well, if he could do it.
43:02The tunnel was filled.
43:03They were filled.
43:04They were just large and yellow.
43:05The tunnel was secured.
43:06The tunnel was controlled.
43:07The tunnel was discovered.
43:09They had a blast, the tunnel was directed.
43:11The tunnel was filled with the tunnel,
43:13and now it has to spread its surroundings.
43:14The tunnel was removed from the tunnel.
43:16Of the tunnel was replaced.
43:18And now they were given.
43:19The tunnel was cast.
43:20And the tunnel was released.
43:21The tunnel was buried.
43:22The people of Coventry dug their loved ones out of the blasted ruin, saw them to their
43:45last resting place in a common grave.
44:15Hitler could kill them, but damned if he could lick them.
44:36They went back to their lathes and machines, for they knew the machine bench was as deadly a weapon as the rifle,
44:42and in their hearts was a grim determination that this enemy must be destroyed,
44:49that the day was coming when they would strike back, and how they would strike back.
44:59Christmas, 1940.
45:29Christmas, season of peace on earth, goodwill toward men, was the ironic quiet before Hitler's
45:49great burst of rage against a people who couldn't be licked.
45:56He couldn't bomb them into submission, so he would burn them to ashes.
46:14Millions of firebombs rained down on the great city of London.
46:33In a matter of minutes, more than 1,500 different sections of the city burst into roaring flames,
46:54flames that swiftly merged into the greatest fire in recorded history.
47:01In the midst of all the fire and destruction, vital water mains were shattered.
47:20Water pressure was almost entirely cut off.
47:25Heroes of the night were men of the London Fire Brigade, who stretched temporary hose lines
47:30out to the center of the Thames River, struggling through mud and slime.
47:35For the Nazis had carefully picked the night on which the Thames River had one of the lowest ebb tides on record.
47:42And while London burned above them, the people of the city held on, chin up and thumbs up.
47:58They knew this was the people's war, and they were the people.
48:03And a people that couldn't be panicked, couldn't be beaten.
48:12In the months to come, the British were to suffer many such bombings and burnings.
48:29But a nation that calls on cold courage when hot courage runs thin may die, but it can't be defeated.
48:38It can't be defeated.
49:08The Battle of Britain was won, but not by Hitler.
49:19Hitler had lost the battle.
49:25He had lost 2,375 German planes and their crews.
49:30For the first time, it was the Germans who ate the bitter dirt of defeat.
49:36Gone was the legend of their invincibility.
49:39For a solid year, the Nazis struck Britain with all their might.
49:44They leveled thousands upon thousands of homes, and damaged millions of others.
49:49They killed more than 40,000 men, women, and children, and seriously wounded 50,000 more.
49:55But not one single Nazi soldier set foot on British soil.
50:07But Hitler couldn't stop.
50:08And in our next film, we will show how he had to turn to the East again.
50:13Why did the Nazis lose the Battle of Britain?
50:17First, because a regimented people met an equally determined free people.
50:23And the free people made them quit cold.
50:26We've been bombed, dive bombed, high level bombed, machine gunned, been through two invasion scares.
50:37And the last lot we had, we had the house down about our ears.
50:41But we're still sticking it, and we're going to stick it.
50:45Second, because this was a new kind of war, and the RAF were the men who could fight it.
50:53These were the men who belonged to what Hitler called those weak, soft democracies.
50:59The British did more than save their country.
51:02They won for the world a year of precious time.
51:06It was not only for the people of Britain, but for the people of the world that Winston Churchill spoke when he said,
51:13Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
51:22There will always be an England, and England shall be free.
51:31If England needs as much to you as England needs to be.
51:41It was so in the middle of the riots.
51:42And it was really over there.
51:46There's something like a very strange nightmare.
51:51Who was once again and does not have different conservations?
51:56It was a
52:01movement that Deborah did have to do the same.
52:09THE END
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