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00:00autumn 1940 Britain is being pounded by the German blitz its people are demanding vengeance
00:09but when British bombers take off to attack German cities they hit an invisible wall of
00:16defenses using radar to pick up the incoming British aircraft German fighters can shoot
00:29them down with ease the British look to be losing the war of the bombs the German radar system has to
00:41be defeated it's up to a handful of Britain's new paratroops to provide the key their action
00:55would be one of the most daring and important raids of World War two and when it ended Germany's radar
01:02secrets had been laid bare now we had the elements we had the friar for long-range detection the small
01:11Wurzburg for anti-aircraft purposes and the giant Wurzburg for controlling night fighters
01:25although victorious in the Battle of Britain the country was soon suffering severely from the German
01:47bomber blitz as Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspected the ruins he was already ordering a
01:54counter-attack the RAF took off on punishment raids over Nazi Germany the effect of these attacks was
02:10immediate Adolf Hitler ordered that an air defense barrier be set up immediately and put Luftwaffe general
02:18Josef Kammhuber in charge Kammhuber brought together German searchlights and anti-aircraft gun defenses into a line
02:27stretching from Schleswig-Holstein to Liège this was then linked with a radar network the Germans had
02:42already developed their own radar for offensive purposes to guide their bombers now as Britain
02:51struck back in the air they turned to its defensive use positioning stations along the North Sea coast of
02:57their new empire to detect any attack and guide fighters by 1941 Kammhuber had tied all the elements
03:09together in a lethal multi-layered aerial defense system it started with the coastal radar stations
03:19these picked up incoming British bombers and alerted German night fighter crews given precise directions by
03:26the radar stations they could then intercept the British bombers those bombers that managed to get
03:38through then faced batteries of flak guns and powerful searchlights RAF bomber command called it the Kammhuber line
03:52it cost many British lives too in the face of the German defenses only three RAF bomber crews out of every 10 could be sure of completing their tour of operations
04:11it was a frightening statistic and meant that Britain faced losing the air war if nothing could be done about it
04:25British scientist dr. RV Jones headed the team dedicated to destroying the Kammhuber line he knew the key to it was radar
04:38but he faced opposition Lord Cherwell Churchill's personal scientific advisor wouldn't believe that the Germans had perfected radar
04:50following the invasion of France in spring 1940 Jones insisted that the Germans had brought radar to the Channel Coast
04:59he was sure that in July 1940 it had been used to detect a British destroyer that was then sunk by the Luftwaffe
05:11but he needed proof
05:18intercepted German secret messages referring to a system code named Freya gave him a clue
05:26and when I thought about Norse mythology
05:31Freya was the Nordic Venus
05:35and she had
05:37I said not really sacrificed but possibly massacred her honor
05:41to get possession of a magic necklace
05:44which I think was called Brzingomen
05:46and this was looked after for her
05:49by Heimdall who was the watchman of the Nordic gods
05:52who could see a hundred miles by day and night
05:55what better name you see for radar
06:00the task of getting further concrete proof fell to the RAF's photo reconnaissance unit
06:11a photograph of what was identified as a Freya radar station
06:14was taken on the 22nd of February 1941 by flying officer W.K. Manifold
06:23codebreakers at Bletchley Park provided Jones with a further report about Freya radar
06:28it was being used with some as yet unidentified equipment
06:32codenamed Würzburg
06:35in the autumn of 1941 an RAF photo reconnaissance sorty returned with pictures of a Freya radar unit
06:48installed on a clifftop on the northern coast of France
06:50it was near the village of Brunewald
07:02and Jones wondered whether the elusive Würzburg might be there as well
07:06but the question was what did the Würzburg look like
07:09it was probably smaller than a Freya which was difficult enough to photograph
07:14how could we how could we find one
07:17now there was at the station at Brunewald
07:21which is north of Le Havre on the coast here
07:25there was indeed a Freya station
07:28and there was a path that led from the Friars
07:33to a house on the cliffs
07:37and the Friars are down here
07:42and my colleague Charles Frank spotted that the path
07:46which seemed at first sight to go to the house didn't go to the house
07:50it stopped about 20 yards short ending in a loop
07:53and besides the loop was a dot
07:56again far too small to be resolved
07:59and even on this photograph which is a much closer photograph
08:02than when he took it on you still can hardly see it even with a magnifying glass
08:05but anyway there it wasn't Charles Frank said what's that
08:08and we decided that there was a sporting chance
08:12it was the radar equipment we were looking for
08:15to double check a second reconnaissance flight was ordered
08:20it was carried out by squadron leader Tony Hill
08:23on the 5th of December 1941
08:27he took his Spitfire low and fast over the English Channel
08:31the result was everything Jones had hoped for
08:38and he came back with just two photographs
08:42which are the great photographs of the war
08:46here was the house
08:48the road had come up to here
08:50and this blob you see really was just like the electric bullfire
08:54he took one flying past it that way for us
08:57and then it went past and took a side view as well
09:02and of course these gave us our first real sight of a Würzburg
09:09having confirmed the sight of a Würzburg radar station
09:12Jones now had to find out the wavelength of this radar system
09:16then he could jump it
09:18by doing that he would make the first chink in Kam Huber's aerial defense system
09:22but he needed to get hold of the radar equipment
09:28and this would mean penetrating Nazi occupied Europe
09:33along part of its most heavily defended coastline
09:38the proposal for a raid on Brunewald
09:40was passed from air intelligence to combined operations HQ
09:44its chief was Lord Louis Mountbatten
09:51he concluded that there was only one option from the air
09:58so the task of carrying out the raid was given to an elite group
10:02Britain's new parachute regiment
10:05but this had only recently been formed
10:11and its men had barely finished their preliminary training
10:14jumping out of aircraft on a raid was a brand new form of warfare for the British
10:24on the success or failure of the Paris
10:26would depend the lives of thousands of British air crew
10:29it was the Soviet army which first looked at the possibility of deploying paratroops
10:40in a series of massive exercises before World War II
10:46the Germans had picked up on these ideas
10:48using paratroops for raids during the invasions of Norway and Holland
10:52and then en masse to capture the island of Crete in May 1941
10:57British paras began training in the summer of 1940
11:07the initial force of 500 men grew into the 1st Airborne Division
11:18it was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Boye Brown
11:23number 2 Battalion of the Division's 1st Parachute Brigade
11:27had barely completed training when it was given its first challenge
11:30the Airborne Raid on Brunewald
11:372 Battalion C Company was chosen for the mission
11:40it was 120 men strong
11:42and almost entirely made up of volunteers from Scottish regiments
11:45C Company's commander was a tough Cameroonian
11:55Major John Frost
12:01C Company trained hard for what would be a very precise mission
12:04it was not merely going in to smash up the radar system
12:07but to retrieve vital components
12:10a technical expert would accompany the paratroops
12:15RAF radar operator flight sergeant Charles Cox
12:19he'd been a cinema projectionist before the war
12:23and had never been in a ship or an aeroplane
12:26now he had to learn how to jump out of Whitley bombers
12:32Cox would then have to examine the Würzburg on the raid
12:35while under fire
12:36he would have no room for errors
12:39the raiding party rehearsed for the mission
12:41using a scale model made by the RAF's photographic interpretation unit
12:46further information was supplied by local resistance fighters working in Nazi occupied France
12:51the plan was to drop the paratroops in three groups inland from the Würzburg installation
13:10and well away from the village of Brunewald
13:12where German troops were known to be stationed
13:15the first group led by Major John Frost would capture the villa
13:25and then cover the dismantling of the radar
13:33the second group was to advance on the beach
13:36shutting down any German positions and securing a landing area
13:40the third group would screen off the village
13:46and deal with any German counter-attacks from that direction
13:53Royal Navy landing craft would pick up the paras
13:56and their precious cargo from the beach
13:58late on the 27th of February 1942 the planning was completed
14:12it was now time for action
14:14the 120 British paratroopers prepared their weapons for the night raid
14:20and then marched onto the airfield at Thruxton in southern England
14:24from which it was to be launched
14:29ground crew gave the aircraft their final checks
14:32as the paras climbed aboard
14:39they took off in 12 black painted whittlers
14:42obsolete bombers known as flying barn doors
14:45during the flight the paras passed round flasks of tea laced with rum
14:58singing masked the inevitable tension
15:03the journey to the drop zone took just over an hour
15:06as major john frost jumped he was able to recognize the ground below
15:13reassuring like the models maps and photographs the paratroops had studied in training
15:19but that was the last moment of certainty on the ground the plan began to go wrong
15:33the second group led by Lieutenant Ewan Charteris had been tasked with eliminating the beach defenses from the rear
15:45but they landed some distance from their drop zone much farther to the southeast
15:49it meant they were the wrong side of Brunewald village
15:52frost's contingent landed in the correct area to the northeast of the village
16:07they took only 10 minutes to gather themselves together before advancing quickly and silently on the target
16:12frost led a section of his group straight to the villa
16:19while a second section escorted Cox and his engineers towards the radar
16:24pulling trolleys over a series of barbed wire obstacles
16:28some of them then peeled off to help in the attack on the villa
16:33while the rest continued to the radar station
16:36the attacks then went on while the third contingent commanded by Lieutenant John Timothy
16:51positioned themselves as planned between the radar and the Germans on the beach
16:55they then began to engage them
17:09at the same time Ewan Charteris and his paras set off at the double to bypass the village
17:14and get to the beach
17:16on the way they encountered and eliminated a German patrol
17:20at the villa
17:25Frost and his men had come under fire from Germans garrisoned in farm buildings to the north of their position
17:31Frost detached some of his men to cover Cox and his party of engineers
17:41as bullets whistled over their heads Cox wrenched most of the Würzburg's components out by sheer force
17:47then frost heard the sound of German vehicles approaching the village and gave the order to withdraw
17:54and gave the order to withdraw
17:57but as they neared the beach their escape route was barred by a German pillbox
18:06it was now that Charteris and his men arrived
18:08adding the weight of his force to the firefight
18:11and overcoming the German machine gun mess
18:22with the Germans on the cliff top defeated
18:24and the beach secured
18:26the Paris now waited for the landing craft
18:28but no radio contact could be made with them
18:32the Royal Navy flotilla had to keep radio silence
18:41waiting offshore as two enemy e-boats passed by
18:47Frost impatiently signaled with very lights
18:52he feared a German counter-attack
18:54as the enemy regrouped its forces near the villa
18:57but as the Germans advanced towards the beach
19:10the Navy's boats were sighted
19:14one of Frost's signalers brought the news
19:16the boats are here
19:18god bless the ruddy navy sir
19:20even then there was a sticky moment as the landing craft began firing on the cliff top
19:26just as the Paris were preparing their position to repel the expected German counter-attack
19:40under both friendly and unfriendly fire
19:42the Paris gathered their wounded and prepared to move off with their precious loot
19:46the withdrawal from the beach was hasty and chaotic
19:57the wounded and the radar equipment were placed in one landing craft
20:02the other troops crammed into the remaining five boats
20:05but in the confusion two of Frost's signalers were left behind
20:09once safely away from the beach the Paris transferred to Navy gunboats
20:20and the flotillas set sail for home
20:28two men had been killed and there were six men missing
20:31but all of those would survive the war
20:33the Paris brought with them two German prisoners
20:44one of them was the Würzburg's operator
20:52with the dawn came an escorting squadron of Spitfires
20:55ready to fend off a last-ditch effort by the Luftwaffe to destroy the boats
20:59but there was no sign of German fighters as the flotilla steam towards Portsmouth
21:04rule Britannia blaring from its loudspeakers
21:10back in London the captured Würzburg equipment was examined by RV Jones
21:14it was then sent on to the telecommunications research establishment
21:29there analysis revealed the extreme limits of the wavelengths to which the radar could be tuned
21:35most importantly it was discovered that it had no built-in counter to jamming
21:42with captured pieces of the Würzburg radar
21:45with captured pieces of the Würzburg radar
21:46Jones and his scientists got to work cracking open the camhuber line
21:54no longer would British bombers be so vulnerable to German air defences homing in on them with radar
21:59the RAF bomber offensive now went into full swing over Germany
22:15bringing the war home to Hitler and his Nazi henchmen
22:18over the next two years this built up to an awesome and devastating crescendo
22:30all thanks to a handful of newly trained British Paris and the treasure they brought back from Brunovar
22:37today Brunovar is the first battle honor of the parachute regiment
22:56it was a remarkable beginning to an extraordinary regimental history of daring and bravery that continues to this day
23:02even the Germans had to admit that the Brunovar mission was one of the most daring and successful British raids of World War 2
23:21so
23:23the
23:26became
23:33heroic
23:36the
23:39big
23:40and
23:41half
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