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01:00and Prime Minister Winston Churchill could only growl defiance.
01:05We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in
01:10the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.
01:17Britain still had all the resources of its vast empire.
01:25Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and a host of other territories had all
01:31been quick to declare war on Germany.
01:33But they were thousands of miles away, across the oceans, and their military power could
01:41not be brought to bear where it mattered.
01:45Britain's situation seemed hopeless.
01:48And Hitler had no doubt that Britain would soon try to negotiate a peace.
01:52But Churchill quickly showed how determined he was prepared to be in the war against the
02:01Nazis.
02:01The powerful squadron of two French battleships and two battlecruisers was lying in the port
02:12of Merse-el-Kabir in French North Africa.
02:15If the French ships fell into German hands, the British Navy's position in the Mediterranean
02:21would become impossible.
02:27So on July the 3rd, a Royal Navy task force demanded that the French ships either join it
02:33or sail to a neutral port to be interred.
02:36The French refused.
02:40So the British opened fire on their former allies.
02:43They destroyed, or severely damaged, three of the battleships.
03:00Almost 1,300 French sailors were killed.
03:06But Churchill's ruthlessness didn't seem to impress Hitler.
03:10On July the 19th, he returned in triumph to Berlin.
03:13And was greeted by more than a million people.
03:18That day he made a speech in the Reichstag, the German parliament, offering peace terms
03:23to Britain.
03:27His offer seemed generous.
03:29Britain could keep its empire.
03:31In return, Hitler wanted a free hand in Europe.
03:34His plan was to conquer the countries of the East in order to win Lebensraum, room to live
03:39for the German people.
03:44But Churchill would have none of it.
03:46The British would fight on.
03:48This would, as he put it, be their finest hour.
03:51Churchill's defiance was immensely popular.
04:03King George VI wrote in his diary,
04:05Personally, I feel happier now that we have no more allies to be polite to and to pamper.
04:11But it was difficult to see how Britain could ever turn the tables and actually win the war.
04:25The British army might have survived Dunkirk, but it had lost almost all its tanks, artillery,
04:31and transport in the evacuation.
04:35It had just 25 divisions armed mainly with rifles to resist the vast armoured columns of the world's
04:41most fearsome war machine.
04:45So there was little to be done, except dig in and wait.
04:53Coastal defences were prepared and concrete strong points built all across southern England.
04:58Signposts on roads were removed to make it harder for any invaders to find their way around.
05:09Large open areas were littered with obstacles to deter airborne troops.
05:15A volunteer defence force, the Home Guard, was recruited.
05:19It was made up of men who were otherwise ineligible to fight, often because of their age.
05:28By the end of June 1940, almost one and a half million volunteers had signed up.
05:36But there were few weapons with which to arm them.
05:41Hitler, meanwhile, was getting on with his invasion plans, codenamed Operation Sea Lion.
05:46Some 20 divisions would be landed on a broad front along England's south coast.
06:01Barges were gathered from all over northwest Europe.
06:06These were hurriedly converted into makeshift landing craft.
06:10Troops were trained for beach landings.
06:17But for all Hitler's bravado, those panning Sea Lion were worried.
06:24Hitler might dismiss the English Channel as just another river to be crossed.
06:29But Britain's navy was still the largest in the world.
06:32It might be stretched thin by its worldwide commitments, but the Royal Navy's home fleet far outnumbered the German Navy.
06:41The German naval chief, Admiral Erich Rader, had no confidence that he could seize control of the English Channel for long enough to get the army across.
06:50But the Germans did have one area of apparent massive superiority.
06:59The Luftwaffe far outnumbered Britain's Royal Air Force.
07:06The Luftwaffe's commander, Hermann Göring, had little doubt that he could establish air control over the Channel long enough for Sea Lion to take place.
07:20On July the 10th, the Luftwaffe began attacking shipping in the Channel.
07:32In response, the British had two of the most outstanding of the new breed of single-engine, multi-gun monoplanes.
07:39The Supermarine Spitfire.
07:42And the Hawker Hurricane.
07:44The Spitfire was slightly faster and more agile than its German rival, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which escorted the German bombers.
07:56It would be used to intercept these.
08:01The Hurricane would prove a lethal bomber kill.
08:06But in July 1940, Air Vice Marshal Hugh Dowding, the head of Fighter Command, had less than 700 fighters.
08:14Against them were 2,600 German fighters and bombers.
08:21The odds against the RAF were daunting.
08:25Dowding knew that he could not take on the Luftwaffe every time it came over the Channel.
08:30So when the Germans began hitting British shipping, he did nothing.
08:34Instead, he would only use the RAF to stop the Luftwaffe from establishing the air supremacy needed for invasion.
08:51So he would only take on its big attacks.
08:56To help him, the British had one crucial innovation.
09:02Radar.
09:02By the 1930s, scientists in both Britain and Germany knew that objects well beyond human sight could be detected by bouncing radial pulses off them and measuring the time it took for the signals to return.
09:20In Britain, a team of scientists led by Robert Watson-Watt began developing radar as a means of detecting approaching aircraft at long range.
09:29Their work was seized upon by Dowding.
09:33He made radar the core of the world's first integrated air defence system.
09:38Known as Chain Home, this was a string of 21, 300-foot-tall radar masts sighted along the south and east coasts of Britain.
09:52These could pick up aircraft at a range of 120 miles and give their distance, direction, height and numbers.
10:00The information would be passed back to RAF fighter command's headquarters at Bentley Priory, just outside London.
10:11There, it would be assessed and warning of an impending raid passed to fighter command's operations room.
10:17Moonshine 1-4, sky blue, take target 1, channel G George.
10:24Roger.
10:25Controllers would then alert the nearest RAF airfields and scramble the necessary number of fighters.
10:33The question was, would radar make up for Germany's massive superiority in numbers?
10:39The stage was now set for what would become known as the Battle of Britain.
10:49Since June the 10th, 1940, the German Luftwaffe had been battering British shipping in the English Channel.
10:58The Luftwaffe's commander, Reichs Marshal Hermann Göring, was determined to lure the British Air Force into combat.
11:05But Britain's Air Chief Marshal, Hugh Dowding, refused to take the bait.
11:11He used his fighters sparingly, knowing that the real battle was still to come.
11:20As this first phase of the Battle of Britain began, the Luftwaffe had a massive superiority in numbers.
11:27It had 1,100 single-engine fighters available to the Royal Air Force's 700.
11:32Almost all the German fighters were the excellent Messerschmitt BF-109E, with a top speed of around 350 miles an hour.
11:46About two-thirds of the British fighters were Hawker Hurricanes, slower than the 109s, but more agile.
11:52The remainder were Supermarine Spitfires, with a top speed similar to the 109s.
12:05For their assault, the Germans had over 1,300 medium bombers.
12:09Dornier DO-17s, Heinkl HE-111s, and Junkers JU-88s, each carrying about 4,000 pounds of bombs.
12:24Göring selected August 13th as Adlertag, Eagle Day, for the start of his main assault.
12:31His aim was to destroy RAF fighters in the air, and the RAF's airfields and Britain's aircraft factories.
12:50Softening up attacks were made the day before.
12:53These concentrated on the airfields and the radar towers along the south coast.
12:57One station on the Isle of Wight was put out of action, and several were damaged, but these were working again within hours.
13:15Göring did not believe that radar had a significant role to play in the battle, and so these attacks were not repeated.
13:22It was a big mistake.
13:27Adlertag dawned cloudy, so the main assault was postponed until the afternoon.
13:37When it came, radar gave ample warning.
13:41Well, map calling.
13:43Plains heard three miles southwest.
13:52Nonetheless, most of the RAF airfields in the south were hammered.
13:57But by the end of the day, none had been put out of action.
14:08The Luftwaffe lost 46 aircraft.
14:13Britain, just 13.
14:15The Luftwaffe mounted its largest attack of the whole battle on August the 15th.
14:27Waves of heavily escorted German bombers forced their way through to the RAF airfields.
14:47The RAF was so overstretched that some pilots flew seven sorties that day.
14:52By the time the raids died away, some 90 German aircraft had been shot down for the loss of 42 British fighters.
15:03The battle continued with equal ferocity over the next few days.
15:14Both sides became increasingly exhausted.
15:18Dowding tried to rotate his pilots to rest them, but he simply did not have enough of them.
15:23Many were being sent into battle with just 10 hours flying experience.
15:34The Luftwaffe was suffering too.
15:37Its pilots were shocked and increasingly demoralized by the resilience of the British.
15:42As the fighting wore on for 12 solid days, the British losses began to creep up to match those of the Germans.
16:00The Royal Air Force was close to breaking.
16:05To turn the screw, Göring began using his bombers to attack at night as well.
16:12But this decision had an unexpected outcome.
16:15On the night of August the 24th, a flight of Heinkel bombers lost its way and bombed the city of London.
16:34It was the first attack on a non-military target.
16:37The next night, 81 British bombers responded by raiding Berlin.
16:53Hitler was infuriated and demanded massive retaliation.
16:57This came on the evening of September the 7th.
17:08German bombers attacked the London docks and surrounding areas.
17:14More than 450 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed.
17:19But in fact, this was Göring's second crucial mistake.
17:30By switching from the RAF's airfields just at the moment when it seemed about to break,
17:35he gave it the respite it needed.
17:36Had Göring continued to attack the airfields, the RAF could not have continued to defend the skies.
17:46Instead, on September the 15th, British radars picked up another massive assault on London.
17:52The first wave of 100 bombers and 400 fighters was intercepted.
18:00Fighting raged all the way from the coast.
18:02In the afternoon, another fleet of 150 bombers renewed the attack.
18:16Winston Churchill was at Fighter Command headquarters that day.
18:19After he heard controllers calling in reinforcements from neighbouring groups,
18:23he asked,
18:24What other reserves have we got?
18:29The reply was,
18:31There are none.
18:32But it was obvious that the Luftwaffe had failed to gain control of the air.
18:46And on September the 17th, Hitler postponed Operation Sealoid.
18:52The Battle of Britain did not really end.
18:55It died away.
18:56Hitler now tried a new tactic.
18:58By October the 5th, the daylight raids stopped,
19:05and the Germans concentrated on bombing Britain's cities by night.
19:12This was a so-called blitz.
19:16London was attacked every night but one, up to November the 12th.
19:19On November the 10th, the centre of the city of Coventry was obliterated.
19:25The blitz continued into 1941 with the last major raid being made on London on the night of May the 10th.
19:39More than 50,000 civilians were killed in the blitz, but there was never any question of Britain cracking.
19:49Victory in the Battle of Britain was a moment of huge national relief.
20:01Pilots had come from all over the empire to join the RAF, and from countries occupied by the Nazis, like Poland and Czechoslovakia.
20:09Churchill summed up the nation's gratitude.
20:12Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
20:23But for Hitler, this was no more than an irritating setback.
20:29Britain, he was convinced, could never be a serious threat.
20:32So he now turned to Eastern Europe.
20:36For Britain, there was now a chance to rebuild with a view one day to taking the fight to the enemy.
20:42But to do that, Churchill would need help.
20:54Britain may have won the Battle of Britain, but it was still immensely vulnerable.
21:02Britain may have won the Battle of Britain.
21:07Night after night, its cities were hammered by the Nazis' blitz.
21:16Its supply lifelines at sea were under constant assault.
21:23Churchill needed more help.
21:28And there was only one country that could provide it.
21:31The United States.
21:39By 1940, the US had recovered from the Great Depression
21:43and the economy was booming again.
21:46It had immense reserves of manpower
21:48and unrivaled industrial strength.
21:52But the people of the United States were utterly opposed
21:56to becoming involved yet again in Europe's wars.
21:59In July 1940, a poll showed that only 8% of them
22:04were willing to enter the war.
22:09Undeterred, Churchill lobbied the US president,
22:12Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
22:16Roosevelt had long admired Churchill
22:18for his outspokenly anti-Nazi views
22:20and the two men shared an interest in naval affairs.
22:24Roosevelt had been undersecretary for the US Navy in 1917.
22:29After he became president, Roosevelt kept in touch with Churchill.
22:34The two began a correspondence,
22:36Churchill signing himself former naval person.
22:40For all his avuncular image, Roosevelt had no illusions
22:44that German aggression would one day suck America into the war.
22:47So he began the long job of preparing American public opinion.
22:52I am a pacifist.
22:55But I believe you and I will act together
23:00to protect and to defend our science,
23:05our culture,
23:08our American freedom,
23:10and our civilisation.
23:17In July 1940,
23:19he got approval for a massive expansion of the US Navy,
23:23including the building of six large battleships
23:25and a new class of aircraft carriers.
23:28The following month,
23:33Congress agreed that the National Guard
23:35and other reserves
23:36should be called up for one year's active duty.
23:40And in September,
23:42the large expansion of the 150,000-strong US Army
23:46was agreed,
23:47with a limited number of conscripts
23:49being chosen by lottery.
23:50The first number drawn by the Secretary of War
23:56is serial number 158.
24:04That same month,
24:06Roosevelt announced a deal
24:07under which the US would supply Britain
24:09with 50 World War I destroyers
24:12in return for 99-year leases
24:14on bases in Newfoundland and the Caribbean.
24:18The British Navy,
24:19desperate for more escorts to fight the U-boats,
24:23began taking them over
24:24within days of the deal being signed.
24:28The clearest sign that Roosevelt
24:30was slowly winning the argument
24:32came in the November 1940 presidential election,
24:35when he convincingly defeated
24:37the isolationist Wendell Wilkie
24:39with 27 million votes to 22 million.
24:47At the end of the year,
24:48Roosevelt spoke to the American people,
24:50setting out the four essential freedoms
24:54which he believed were at stake
24:55and which Britain was fighting to uphold.
24:58Freedom of speech
24:59and religion
25:00and freedom from want
25:03and from fear.
25:05To save these,
25:06the United States must become
25:08the arsenal of the democracies.
25:10In other words,
25:11it must arm Britain.
25:12We shall send you
25:14in ever-increasing numbers
25:17ships, planes, tanks, guns.
25:21That is our purpose
25:23and our pledge.
25:28But some Americans
25:29remained implacably opposed
25:31to helping Britain.
25:32One of the most outspoken
25:37was the American ambassador
25:39in London,
25:40Joseph Kennedy,
25:41father of the future president,
25:43John F. Kennedy.
25:45A Boston Irish businessman
25:46who had made his fortune
25:47booze smuggling
25:48during Prohibition,
25:50Kennedy hated the British
25:51and seized every opportunity
25:53to claim that they would
25:54shortly be forced to surrender.
25:55However,
26:01Kennedy's virulence
26:02was counterbalanced
26:03by the growing admiration
26:05many Americans felt
26:06for the bravery
26:07shown by the British people
26:09during the Blitz.
26:13In particular,
26:15the broadcasts
26:15by the CBS London correspondent
26:17Ed Morrow
26:18helped to change
26:19public opinion.
26:25This is London.
26:28I remember the evening
26:28of Sunday, December 29th.
26:30It was just like
26:31any other winter evening.
26:33The first bombers
26:33were over London
26:34at about half past six.
26:41Soon the fires hissed
26:42from the top story windows.
26:47Hitler once boasted,
26:48I will rub out their cities.
26:52This is what he meant.
26:55This is what he meant.
26:59Encouraged by his electoral success,
27:02in January 1941,
27:03Roosevelt introduced
27:04his so-called
27:05Lend-Lease Bill.
27:13The United States
27:14would supply weapons
27:15and war material
27:16to Britain and China,
27:18which was still struggling
27:19desperately against
27:20the invading Japanese.
27:22Payment would be delayed.
27:25Roosevelt likened Lend-Lease
27:31to lending a neighbour
27:33a hose to put out a fire.
27:35He would worry
27:35about the payback later.
27:38Roosevelt was also
27:39being canny.
27:40It also meant
27:41that unlike in 1917,
27:43if America had to
27:44enter the war,
27:45it already would have
27:46a substantial
27:46weapons industry.
27:48American war preparations
27:52didn't end there.
27:53Roosevelt secretly
27:54authorised US military
27:56staffs to discuss
27:57a common strategy
27:58with the British
27:59should America
28:00enter the war.
28:01by April 1941,
28:08he felt confident enough
28:09to take another step
28:10to help Britain at sea.
28:13He greatly extended
28:15the Pan-American
28:15security zone,
28:17the area within which
28:18US warships
28:19would protect
28:20US merchant vessels.
28:21in May US troops
28:27set up bases
28:28in Greenland
28:29and in July
28:30US marines
28:31were sent to replace
28:32the British garrison
28:33in Iceland
28:33which was there
28:34to deprive the Germans
28:36of its harbours.
28:41The US navy
28:43also began providing
28:44limited convoy
28:45S-hooks
28:46particularly
28:47for US ships
28:48carrying Lend-Lease
28:49materials.
28:50Hitler now gave
28:56his submariners
28:57strict instructions
28:59not to sink
29:00American ships
29:01as he didn't want
29:02to provoke
29:02the United States
29:03into war.
29:07But inevitably
29:08there were clashes.
29:11On September 4th 1941
29:13a British aircraft
29:15attacked a German submarine
29:16thinking that
29:20the strike had come
29:20from the nearby
29:21US destroyer
29:22Greer
29:22the U-boat
29:23fired a torpedo
29:24at it.
29:28The Greer
29:29responded with
29:30depth charges
29:31and there was a
29:31running battle
29:32which lasted
29:33three hours.
29:38Neither vessel
29:39was sunk
29:40but the tension
29:41but the tension
29:41was mounting.
29:45On November 17th
29:47the destroyer
29:47USS Kearney
29:48was hit by a torpedo
29:50while on convoy duty
29:51off Iceland.
29:54The U-boat commander
29:56claimed it was an accident.
29:57He'd been firing
29:58at a British ship
29:59and the Kearney
30:00had got in the way.
30:01but 11 US sailors
30:06were dead
30:06and the destroyer
30:08only just made it
30:09back to port
30:09in Reykjavik.
30:12Roosevelt protested
30:14and the US press
30:15was outraged.
30:16However,
30:17the American public
30:18remained resolutely
30:19opposed to going
30:20to war.
30:24Within weeks
30:25at the end of 1941
30:26the situation
30:27was reversed
30:28in a single day.
30:34But in the meantime
30:35Britain would have
30:36to fight on alone.
30:40And luckily
30:41it had an astonishing
30:43weapon to hand.
30:55It looks like
30:56just another mansion
30:57in the English countryside
30:58a bit run down.
31:01But Bletchley Park
31:03once contained
31:04a secret
31:04that fundamentally
31:05affected the course
31:06of World War II.
31:10Because it was
31:11at Bletchley
31:12that Britain
31:12worked out
31:13how to read
31:14Germany's
31:14most secret codes.
31:20Since the mid-1930s
31:22all the German
31:23armed forces
31:23and intelligence departments
31:25had adopted
31:26a standard machine
31:27for encoding
31:28their messages.
31:31The cipher machine
31:33E
31:33better known
31:34as Enigma.
31:40It was developed
31:41in the early 1920s
31:43as a handy tool
31:43for businessmen
31:44to keep commercial
31:45messages secret.
31:46it was powered by a battery
31:51and its encoded messages
31:53were transmitted
31:54in Morse code
31:54to be decoded
31:55on a second Enigma machine
31:57at the receiving end.
32:01The critical element
32:02of the machine
32:03was three rotors
32:04which could be set
32:05to scramble the message
32:06in a way
32:06which could only be
32:07unscrambled
32:08by another machine
32:09and with the same settings.
32:13The rotors could be replaced
32:14and set differently.
32:19As a result
32:20each letter typed
32:21could come up
32:22in any one of
32:23150 million ways.
32:28Given the almost infant
32:29number of settings
32:30it was not surprising
32:31that the Germans
32:32remained convinced
32:33throughout the war
32:34that Enigma
32:35was uncrackable.
32:41It was the Poles
32:43who took the first steps
32:44in solving
32:44this baffling puzzle.
32:51They knew of the existence
32:52of the Enigma machine
32:53and assembled a team
32:55of top mathematicians
32:56to crack it.
32:57Marian Rozhievsky
32:58Jerzy Rozhitsky
33:01and Henry Zygalsky.
33:07But the team
33:08could not decipher messages
33:09without knowing
33:10the internal wiring
33:11of the rotors.
33:15The solution
33:16was supplied
33:17by French intelligence
33:18which sent
33:19its Polish allies
33:20material gathered
33:21by a spy
33:22in the German army
33:23cipher department.
33:25Amongst this
33:26was an Enigma manual.
33:28The Poles were able
33:29to reconstruct
33:30an Enigma machine
33:31and began
33:32laboriously decoding
33:33messages.
33:39By July 1939
33:41Hitler was sounding
33:42increasingly threatening
33:43towards Poland.
33:46Britain and France
33:47had promised
33:48to come to its aid.
33:51It was clear
33:52that war was coming.
33:55So intelligence officers
33:56from the three allies
33:57met in Warsaw.
34:01There the British
34:02and French were
34:02astonished at how much
34:04the Poles had done
34:05in decoding Enigma
34:06and the Poles agreed
34:07to send two of their
34:08reconstructed machines
34:10to London.
34:12Just two weeks
34:13after they were
34:13handed over
34:14Poland was invaded.
34:16by the time Poland
34:25fell to the Germans
34:26the Polish cryptographers
34:28had destroyed
34:29all evidence
34:30of their work
34:30on Enigma.
34:33Some were captured
34:35and tortured
34:35but none revealed
34:37what they'd been up to.
34:38The task was now
34:45taken up
34:46by the British
34:46at their government
34:47code and cipher school
34:48at Bletchley Park
34:50near London.
34:52Its head
34:53was Commander
34:54Alistair Denniston.
34:57Denniston recruited
34:58a strange collection
34:59of mathematicians,
35:01chess masters
35:01and crossword puzzle
35:03experts
35:03to continue
35:04the decoding.
35:08Among these experts
35:10was Alan Turing
35:11at Cambridge Don.
35:13In 1936
35:14Turing had described
35:15the idea
35:16of a universal
35:17computing machine.
35:19A machine
35:19that he believed
35:20would one day
35:20be able to solve
35:21all mathematical problems.
35:24He used his ideas
35:26to design decryption machines
35:28known as
35:28bronze goddesses.
35:34The raw material
35:35for Bletchley
35:35came from
35:36the British Y-Service
35:37a chain of radio
35:39listening stations
35:40which monitored
35:41and recorded
35:41German transmissions.
35:46The messages
35:47were fed into
35:48Bletchley's
35:49bronze goddesses
35:50and permutations
35:51run until at last
35:52the key was found.
35:56Once a message
35:59had been decrypted
36:00it was translated,
36:02analysed
36:03and passed on
36:04to the appropriate
36:05authority.
36:08From the moment
36:09he became
36:09Prime Minister
36:10and learned
36:11of Bletchley's work
36:12Winston Churchill
36:13understood
36:14its extraordinary
36:15importance.
36:18He referred
36:19to Bletchley's
36:20output
36:20as his
36:21ultra-secret
36:22information
36:23and ultra
36:24became its
36:25codename.
36:26The distribution
36:30of ultra
36:30was tightly
36:31controlled.
36:32Senior commanders
36:33were shown
36:33only that information
36:34which directly
36:35concerned their
36:36operations.
36:40The need
36:41to keep
36:41the source
36:42of the intelligence
36:42secret
36:43was so great
36:44that Churchill
36:45insisted that
36:46no action
36:47could be taken
36:47on the basis
36:48of ultra-material
36:49unless a cover plan
36:51had been developed
36:51to convince the Germans
36:52that the intelligence
36:54must have come
36:54from another source.
36:56The third critical element
37:03of the Bletchley operation
37:05after decoding
37:06and assessing
37:06the material
37:07was keeping
37:08control of it.
37:14Often ultra-revealed
37:15vital information
37:16about German plans
37:18and actions.
37:20News of forthcoming
37:21attacks and other
37:22intelligence
37:23was filed away
37:24was filed away
37:24in a massive
37:25card-index system.
37:27This was constantly
37:29mined for answers
37:30to questions
37:31great and small.
37:34By the end of the war
37:36Bletchley was decoding
37:37much of the German traffic
37:38almost as fast
37:39as it was being sent.
37:40It was jokingly said
37:42that it would have been
37:42quicker for a German
37:43commander to ring
37:45Bletchley to get
37:46his orders.
37:49It was at sea
37:50that the Allies
37:51first became aware
37:52of how vital
37:53information from
37:54ultra-could be.
37:55an early example
38:00of its potential
38:01came on June 8, 1940.
38:06The British aircraft
38:07carrier Glorious
38:08was covering the
38:10convoys
38:10withdrawing Allied
38:11troops from Norway
38:12when Bletchley
38:13decoded signals
38:14showing the German
38:15battlecruisers
38:16Scharnhorst
38:17and Leisnau
38:17were approaching
38:18its position.
38:20A warning was passed
38:22to Royal Navy
38:23headquarters
38:23but unaware of
38:24how accurate
38:25the information
38:26was likely to be
38:26this chose not
38:28to pass it on.
38:37The Glorious
38:38was intercepted
38:39and sunk.
38:42The British Navy
38:43had learned the hard way
38:44just how important
38:46the new source
38:46of intelligence
38:47could be.
38:50It was not a mistake
38:51it would make again.
38:53Bletchley also performed
39:04a critical role
39:05in the build-up
39:06to the Battle of Britain.
39:09It had provided
39:11a clear picture
39:12of the Luftwaffe's
39:13order of battle
39:13and the overall strategy
39:15being adopted
39:16by its leader
39:17Hermann Goethe.
39:18This information
39:22convinced the head
39:23of British Fighter
39:23Command
39:24Air Vice Marshal
39:25Hugh Dowding
39:26that his tactic
39:27of committing
39:28his fighters
39:28bit by bit
39:29rather than in large
39:31numbers
39:31was the correct one.
39:33A tactic
39:33that played a crucial
39:34part in preserving
39:35the RAF's narrow
39:37winning margin.
39:37As Britain continued
39:44its lonely fight
39:45into 1941
39:46it had at last
39:48found a way
39:49of fighting back.
39:52Bletchley Park
39:54was ready for action.
39:58The major breakthroughs
40:00had been made
40:00the systems
40:02for exploiting them
40:03put in place
40:04and well tested.
40:09In the coming years
40:11Ultra
40:11and the work
40:12of Bletchley Park
40:13would prove vital
40:14to the Allied successes.
40:17But as the Battle of Britain
40:18and the Blitz
40:19ground on
40:20these were still
40:21a long way off.
40:26Churchill still needed
40:27more immediate results
40:28and by early 1941
40:31he thought
40:32that he had at last
40:33found a way
40:34to get them.
40:50Nazi Germany
40:52might now control
40:53most of Western Europe
40:54but Britain's Prime Minister
40:56Winston Churchill
40:57now decided
40:58to take the war
40:59to the Germans.
41:01We shall not finish
41:01from the Supreme trial.
41:04All will come right.
41:06Even before France
41:07had surrendered
41:08he was looking for ways
41:09of striking back
41:10and of keeping resistance
41:12alive in the countries
41:13which had been overrun.
41:19Just as the last troops
41:20were being taken off
41:21the beaches of Dunkirk
41:22Churchill was already
41:24planning ahead.
41:27He wrote to his
41:28chiefs of staff
41:29demanding the formation
41:30of raiding forces
41:31which could attack
41:32the coasts
41:33of occupied Europe.
41:36Within a few days
41:37a call for volunteers
41:38had been circulated
41:39to create a force
41:40of 5,000 men.
41:46They were to be called
41:47commandos
41:48after the highly mobile
41:50Boer units
41:50which had fought
41:51the British
41:52for three years
41:53in South Africa
41:53at the turn of the century.
41:5410 commando units
41:58each of 500 men
41:59were set up.
42:02They began practicing
42:03attacks from the sea.
42:10One unit was ordered
42:11to specialize in parachuting
42:13and using assault gliders.
42:14this soon became the basis
42:16of the separate
42:17parachute regiment.
42:23Admiral Sir Roger Keyes
42:25was appointed director
42:26of combined operations.
42:30Churchill instructed him
42:31to prepare to mount
42:32three major raids
42:34as soon as the threat
42:35of an invasion
42:35of Britain had passed.
42:38One of Keyes' first tasks
42:39was to develop ships
42:41which could land
42:42his new troops.
42:45Three cross-channel ferries
42:47were converted
42:48so as to carry
42:48landing craft.
42:55On March the 4th, 1941
42:57two commando units
42:58and a demolition squad
42:59were landed
43:00on the Lofoten Islands
43:01off northern Norfolk.
43:06Their main objective
43:07was to destroy factories
43:09which converted fish oil
43:10into glycerine
43:11for explosives.
43:17The commandos achieved
43:18total surprise
43:19and landed
43:20without a shot
43:21being fired.
43:24A German armed trawler
43:26in the harbour
43:27was seized.
43:28They quickly destroyed
43:29the factories
43:30and the fish oil tanks.
43:31One officer could not
43:41resist using
43:42the local post office
43:43to send a telegram
43:44to A Hitler Berlin.
43:46It read
43:47reference your last speech
43:49I thought you said
43:50that wherever
43:50British troops land
43:51on the continent
43:52of Europe
43:53German soldiers
43:54will face them.
43:55Well, where are they?
43:56the commandos
44:00then rounded up
44:0160 Norwegian collaborators
44:03and 225 German prisoners
44:05before returning
44:06without any losses.
44:12With them
44:13they also took
44:14115 Norwegian volunteers.
44:16these would then join
44:17the free Norwegian forces
44:19in Britain.
44:27The Lofoten raid
44:28was an enormous
44:29public relations success
44:30and a huge boost
44:32for British morale.
44:33But its most important result
44:38was one
44:38which could not
44:39be publicized.
44:40The capture
44:41of a set of rotors
44:42for an Enigma machine.
44:44Although the machine
44:45had been thrown overboard
44:46from the armed trawler
44:47its crew forgot the stairs.
44:50They were to give
44:50invaluable help
44:51to the cryptographers
44:52of Bletchley Park
44:53in breaking
44:54the German naval codes.
45:01Then in December
45:021941
45:03four commando units
45:05landed at the
45:06Norwegian port
45:06of Vagso
45:07and were immediately
45:08involved in heavy fighting.
45:14The approach
45:15to Vagso
45:15was covered
45:16by the small island
45:17of Marlo
45:17on which the Germans
45:19had placed artillery.
45:24This was quickly
45:26overrun
45:26but across the water
45:28in Vagso
45:29the fighting
45:30was intense.
45:32It took several hours
45:44for the main
45:44German garrison
45:45to be subdued.
45:53The commandos
45:54then blew up
45:55several factories
45:56and sank
45:57eight ships
45:58before withdrawing.
46:03These raids
46:04convinced Hitler
46:05that sooner or later
46:07the British would
46:07attempt to retake
46:09Norway.
46:12So for the remaining
46:13four years of the war
46:14he kept some
46:15250,000 troops there.
46:18Troops which might have
46:20proved vital
46:20on other fronts.
46:21the Nazis.
46:22But effective
46:25as they were
46:25commando raids
46:26were not enough
46:27to stop the Nazis.
46:29Churchill needed
46:30other ways
46:31to hurt them
46:31so he focused
46:32on the resistance
46:33movements
46:34in the occupied countries.
46:41In July 1940
46:43a special operations
46:44executive
46:45SOE
46:46was formed
46:47as Churchill
46:48put it
46:48to set
46:49Europe
46:50ablaze.
46:54Its objectives
46:55were to encourage
46:56sabotage
46:57of the enemy
46:57war effort
46:58gather
46:59intelligence
47:00and prepare
47:01clandestine forces
47:02to disrupt
47:03German defences.
47:04the bulk
47:10of SOE's
47:11activities
47:12centred on France.
47:18Soon agents
47:19were recruited
47:19in Britain
47:20to build up
47:20and coordinate
47:21the French
47:22resistance networks.
47:24Radio operators
47:24and couriers
47:25were also
47:26trained to support them.
47:34One problem
47:35was how to get
47:35these teams
47:36into the country.
47:37Submarines
47:38high-speed launches
47:39and fishing vessels
47:40were all tried out
47:41but the German
47:42coastal defences
47:43proved difficult
47:44to penetrate.
47:48The answer
47:49was aircraft
47:50and in August 1940
47:53a special RAF
47:54unit was set up
47:55with Whitley bombers
47:56and short take-off
47:57and landing
47:58Westland licensees.
48:04agents and equipment
48:07were either
48:08parachuted in
48:09from the bombers
48:09or flown in
48:10and brought out
48:11by the Lysanders.
48:18On moonlit nights
48:19a growing number
48:20of reception committees
48:21would be waiting
48:22as an increasingly
48:23widespread network
48:24of resistance groups
48:26was built up.
48:33But all the
48:34while they were
48:34hunted by an
48:35increasingly
48:36sophisticated
48:36German
48:37counter-espionage
48:39system.
48:41This used
48:42direction-finding
48:43equipment to locate
48:44hidden radios
48:45and double agents
48:46to infiltrate
48:47networks.
48:51The work of
48:52SOE agents
48:53was desperately
48:54perilous
48:54and their life
48:56expectancy
48:57short.
48:58The slightest
48:59lapse in concentration
49:00might betray
49:01them to the
49:01Gestapo.
49:02Many suffered
49:03torture and
49:04death.
49:08But Churchill
49:09was sure
49:09it was worth it.
49:13Keeping resistance
49:15alive in the
49:15occupied countries
49:16gave hope to
49:17millions
49:17that liberation
49:19would eventually
49:20come.
49:20the British
49:28broadcasting corporation
49:29the BBC
49:30was also enlisted
49:31to raise the hopes
49:32of those living under
49:33German rule.
49:35They broadcast the news
49:36in all the languages
49:37of the occupied countries.
49:39The German penalty
49:44for listening to these
49:45bulletins
49:46was death.
49:47but people
49:49tuned in
49:49regardless.
49:51The BBC
49:52also played a
49:52crucial role
49:53in transmitting
49:54coded messages
49:55to resistance
49:55groups.
49:56These always
49:57came after
49:57the nine o'clock
49:58news.
49:59message
50:00very important
50:01for the
50:01chef
50:02de Gaël
50:02attention
50:04il va
50:05pleuvoir
50:06bougrement
50:06ce soir.
50:10For the
50:11peoples
50:12of occupied
50:12Europe
50:12the prospect
50:13of liberation
50:14might only
50:15be a distant
50:15dream
50:16but in the
50:17middle of 1941
50:18it suddenly
50:19became more
50:19likely.
50:22For by then
50:24Britain was
50:24no longer
50:25alone
50:25in fighting
50:26Nazism.
50:31It had
50:31gained a
50:32massive ally
50:32but it
50:33wasn't
50:34America
50:34which
50:35Churchill
50:35had
50:36assiduously
50:36been
50:37courting.
50:38It was
50:38the
50:38Soviet
50:39Union.
50:56visiting
51:14to
51:15the
51:17airport
51:18to
51:19to
51:20the
51:20airport
51:21to
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