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00:03The fate of Western Europe hangs in the balance.
00:09Wave after wave of Nazi bombers head for London.
00:16Hitler believes Britain is on its knees.
00:21Intelligence reports were coming through
00:23that the British must be down for their last 200 fighters.
00:29The RAF scramble every available fighter
00:32to defend the capital city.
00:37It will be a battle to the death.
00:41You have to be a killer.
00:43You have to have that killer instinct.
00:46You open fire at 200 yards.
00:48By the time you've finished, you're breaking away at 50 feet.
00:53If the Nazis defeat the RAF,
00:57a seaborne invasion of the British Isles can begin,
01:01the Battle of Britain is one of the most heroic clashes of World War II.
01:08Now rare footage from around the world,
01:11expertly restored in full colour,
01:13tells the story as you've never seen it before.
01:2410th of May, 1940.
01:28Hitler shocks the world
01:30by launching blickskrieg attacks
01:32against the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
01:43Mobile panzer divisions sweep all before them.
01:48With close aerial support from the German Air Force,
01:51the Luftwaffe.
01:55The Luftwaffe is seen very much as the kind of spearhead of Blitzkrieg.
02:01Psychologically, it seems all-powerful.
02:05There are stukas that dive down with banshee-wailing sirens,
02:10bringing terror and mayhem.
02:21As the crisis unfolds,
02:23Winston Churchill is appointed British Prime Minister.
02:28British troops sent to France
02:30to protect their last remaining ally in Europe
02:33are forced into a humiliating retreat.
02:38The shock of the defeat is absolutely enormous,
02:43and the British Expeditionary Force finds itself cornered
02:46against the one surviving channel port, which is Dunkirk.
02:51Despite a miraculous evacuation,
02:55the German war machine appears unstoppable.
03:01Britain and her empire stand alone against Hitler's armies.
03:10But Hitler, long an admirer of Britain,
03:14is unsure about a potential invasion.
03:18The Nazis, I think, were astonished to have taken France
03:22as quickly as they did.
03:25It kind of left Hitler with a problem.
03:27What to do next?
03:29Hitler's long-term plan was always to go after the Soviet Union.
03:34He was quite happy to make peace with Britain.
03:37Effectively, he would be offering the British immunity from invasion.
03:44Some members of Churchill's war cabinet
03:47continue to push for a deal with Hitler.
03:51But the Prime Minister stands firm.
03:55Churchill refused to negotiate.
03:57He refused to parley.
03:59I will not talk to that man, he said.
04:03Churchill's attitude to Hitler is that once you open the door,
04:06even just a crack, it then blows wide open.
04:09Let's just step back, get over the shock
04:12of this terrible defeat that's happened.
04:15The Battle of France is over.
04:18I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.
04:23Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island
04:26or lose the war.
04:28One thing Churchill understood about the British people
04:32is that they were quite sleepy by disposition.
04:36And not only did Churchill galvanize everybody,
04:40he kept alive the threat of invasion.
04:44We shall fight on the beaches.
04:46We shall fight on the landing grounds.
04:49We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.
04:53We shall fight in the hills.
04:55We shall never surrender.
04:58Churchill's genius in 1940 was that he first persuaded the British people
05:02that they could do something amazing
05:04and then persuaded them afterwards
05:06that they had done something amazing.
05:11Churchill's priority is to stop an invasion.
05:15With France now under German control,
05:19his immediate concern is that the German navy
05:22will soon have the large French fleet at their disposal.
05:27So he reluctantly instructs the Royal Navy to sink the main French fleet,
05:33anchored on the coast of Algeria.
05:401,300 French servicemen are killed.
05:45Churchill calls the attack on a former ally his most hateful decision.
05:52But the French fleet can play no part in a German invasion.
05:57Hitler is undeterred.
06:01For Hitler, the army is absolutely everything.
06:04He completely fails to realize that the senior service in Great Britain
06:08is not the air force or the army, it's the Royal Navy.
06:11He doesn't understand his enemy.
06:14But the attack sends a clear message.
06:17Britain is prepared to fight.
06:20Hitler's hopes for a deal now seem unlikely.
06:24He knows that Churchill won't negotiate
06:26unless he thinks a German invasion is a real possibility.
06:33And while the Royal Navy controls the seas,
06:37Hitler's air force controls the skies.
06:43The all-conquering Luftwaffe can attack naval convoys in the Channel,
06:49crippling Britain's supply lines
06:51and drawing out the enemy air force, the RAF.
06:57The Luftwaffe was probably the most formidable air force in the world at the time.
07:01It outnumbered the RAF in terms of front-line strength by about two to one.
07:09Airfields are hastily constructed in France to launch medium-range German bombers.
07:16They will be protected by fighter planes, including the formidable Messerschmitt 109.
07:25The Messerschmitt 109, the single-engine fighter plane, is without question the best in the world in the summer of
07:311940.
07:31It can climb faster than any other plane.
07:33When it gets into the battle area, it can pack a bigger punch.
07:36It's got 55 seconds worth of machine gun fire, and it's got cannons as well.
07:43Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief Hermann Göring orders his forces to close the channel to British shipping.
07:51The flamboyant Göring is a former World War I fighter ace,
07:57and arguably the closest person to Hitler.
08:02He also has notorious taste for the finer things in life.
08:08Göring is the one Nazi who really enjoys the trappings of power.
08:12While he should have been really focusing on the job in hand,
08:15he's wandering around art galleries buying up art.
08:18Göring promises Hitler that in just four days his air fleets will overcome British defences in the south
08:25and destroy the entire RAF in four weeks.
08:29The Germans were enormously arrogant.
08:32They simply believed that if they threw an air force as strong as theirs,
08:36Britain was going to be destroyed by a single knockout blow.
08:4410th of July, 1940.
08:48Fighting over the channel reaches a new intensity
08:51when 60 German bombers attack a large convoy in the channel.
08:57The Battle of Britain has begun.
09:01But as the British ships come into view, the pilots see something none of them were expecting.
09:12Five squadrons of the RAF's fighter command are already there to meet them.
09:19It was as if the British had known they were coming.
09:24Leading the head on charge is the one plane that the Luftwaffe pilots fear.
09:31The Supermarine Spitfire.
09:35The Spitfire was something which the Germans had only experienced as a combat adversary over Dunkirk,
09:42where it came as a bit of a shock because for the first time this was a fighter capable of
09:46meeting the Messerschmitt 109E on relatively equal terms.
09:50The Spitfire was a glamorous aircraft.
09:56It has a beauty and a charisma and it caught everybody's imagination.
10:02The German bombers sink one solitary British ship, but lose 10 aircraft.
10:15The Luftwaffe have learned an important lesson, but Goring's intelligence services don't want to hear it.
10:24The person running the Air Force Intelligence Agency was a man called Beppo Schmidt.
10:30He ignored the defence system, which was crucial in enabling Britain to defend itself from the air.
10:37He started to encourage the belief that the Luftwaffe could win.
10:43Schmidt tells Goring that the Luftwaffe's fighters are superior to Britain's and they can produce them quicker.
10:51Schmidt's biggest problem was that he essentially was always telling Goring what Goring wanted to hear.
11:01He wasn't really interested in finding out the truth.
11:04Basically he just concocts a crock of lies.
11:08It is all based on the flimsiest of intelligence.
11:12And the picture that Beppo Schmidt presents to Goring is one that is entirely inaccurate.
11:21Goring's conviction that the Luftwaffe can defeat the RAF
11:26plays a key part in Hitler's decision to intensify the threat of occupation.
11:34On the 16th of July, Hitler issued a directive to start Operation Sea Lion.
11:41To begin preparations and if necessary to carry out an invasion across the Channel of the British Isles.
11:50He said that he was preparing this because the British were failing to come to terms.
11:57Germany prepares for invasion.
12:00River barges mass on the French coast.
12:02They are converted into landing craft that will transport nearly half a million men across the Channel.
12:11Paratroopers start training for airdrops on key targets.
12:18But Hitler is still hoping that Churchill will come to his senses and sue for peace.
12:30On the 19th of July, Hitler warns Britain to negotiate or meet the consequences.
12:39Hitler said, make peace with me and everything will be fine between us.
12:44You've been very foolish, Britain, to come up against me.
12:46When I went after Poland it was really nothing to do with you.
12:49You didn't have to come after me.
12:52Within an hour of the end of the speech, the offer is rejected by Britain.
12:58It's clear to Hitler that Churchill has to learn just how real the German threat is.
13:07Shortly afterwards, Hitler issued another directive asking the Luftwaffe to intensify the air war against Britain
13:15in order to gain air superiority over the landing beaches
13:19and to make the threat of sea-lying that much more credible.
13:25Hitler says Britain's position is hopeless.
13:28The war is won by us.
13:35August 1940.
13:39Hitler tells Göring to lay the groundwork for the total destruction of Britain's fighter defences.
13:47An operation they codename Eagle Day.
13:53The Luftwaffe is to bomb RAF airfields southeast of London.
13:59Over half of all RAF fighter command's planes are based there.
14:08On August the 13th, Eagle Day dawns.
14:13Within hours, surely, RAF fighter command's ability to resist the Luftwaffe will be destroyed.
14:20Eagle Day is a series of massed attacks on key airfields in 11 Group in the south of England.
14:28Multiple waves of bombers designed to knock out fighter command's ability to continue to generate sorties in the far southeast.
14:36To then slowly roll the RAF further and further inland so that the Luftwaffe could establish their superiority over the
14:42channel.
14:45But reports come through of bad weather ahead.
14:52Goring decides to postpone the attack.
14:57On Eagle Day, some people got the order to cancel and turn back.
15:02Some people got the order cancelled too late and some people never got it at all.
15:07The final order to launch it in earnest only went out at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
15:15As the German bombers arrive at the British coast, the response from the RAF fighters is swift, deadly and a
15:25total shock to the incoming Luftwaffe.
15:35This wasn't the easy victory Hitler had been promised.
15:4347 German planes were shot down and 86 pilots killed, missing or captured.
15:52The losses on Eagle Day amounted to something that was rather chastening for the Luftwaffe.
15:58The dive bombers, which had appeared to be invincible in France, were in fact extremely vulnerable when subjected to the
16:06attentions of coherent fighter defence.
16:09Are you all right? Did you get any of the batter?
16:11Yes, I got a management 109 and a door here.
16:18The Germans had been dangerously overconfident.
16:23Each of the armed services had been told to prepare for the occupation separately.
16:30What's the Luftwaffe's plan? Well, the Luftwaffe's plan is that we're just going to destroy the RAF.
16:34You know, there's no sense of coordination whatsoever.
16:37Hitler is in the Alps. I mean, that's sort of, that's like Churchill going to a sort of mountain retreat
16:42in Scotland while all this is going on.
16:44It's spectacularly unhelpful. It's just arrogant.
16:47And it completely reveals his total inability to understand his enemy.
16:58The Germans are also unaware that the British have developed sophisticated advanced warnings known as the Dowding system.
17:10Stuffy Dowding is the Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command.
17:13It is he who has overseen the development of this fully coordinated air defence system.
17:19The world has just not seen anything like this before.
17:23At the heart of the defences is Chain Holm.
17:2821 360-foot radar masts on the southern and eastern coasts that can detect aircraft up to 120 miles away.
17:39If German planes fly below their sights, 30 smaller masts, known as Chain Holm Low, will spot them.
17:49The principles of radar were well understood by the Germans who have radar of their own.
17:53What they did not understand was the way in which radar had been embodied in an air defence system.
18:06Once German planes are within sight of Britain, 30,000 volunteers man observation posts day and night.
18:15Tracking and reporting enemy raids.
18:23Radar can give you warning of a formation, but it can't give you any sense of height or size.
18:30So then that's supplemented by the Observer Corps, who have interlocking posts all around the coast of Britain and inland.
18:37They had a pair of binoculars and this piece of equipment called a pantograph, which looks a bit like a
18:42giant sextant.
18:43That would give them rough bearing distance and height for the formations they were looking at.
18:48In fact, reports of enemy raids arrive at Fighter Command headquarters in under 40 seconds.
18:55The heart of this is the filter room and the control room at Bentley Priory.
19:00And Bentley Priory is the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command.
19:03The filter room is what filters the information coming from the radar stations only.
19:08The control room is the coordination of that information from the filter room from the radar station and what is
19:15coming in from the Observer Corps.
19:18The Luftwaffe have no idea that the RAF know they're coming from the moment they're airborne above northern France.
19:28And their up-to-the-minute positions are being fed directly to Fighter Command.
19:43The British response in the southeast is under the command of one man, Air Vice Marshal Keith Park.
19:53While the early German attacks had multiple leaders, Park alone commands the 30 squadrons scattered across the southeast.
20:05As Eagle Day progresses, some German bombers inevitably get through this defensive shield.
20:12And several RAF airfields in Park's 11 group are hit.
20:26But the planned knockout of the RAF on Eagle Day...
20:30turns into a drubbing for the Luftwaffe.
20:38Compared to the 47 German losses, the RAF lose just 13 fighters in aerial combat.
20:49But Beppo Schmidt gives Göring vastly inflated RAF losses.
20:55Claiming the Luftwaffe have downed 70 British planes.
21:00Part of the problem, clearly, was the intelligence that was going back to Göring.
21:05Our old friend, Beppo Schmidt again, he was giving wildly inaccurate reports.
21:11Göring wasn't getting a real picture of what was going on.
21:17Schmidt also underestimates the speed with which the RAF can repair planes and runways.
21:25Engineers rush to get damaged aircraft back in the air.
21:32Bomb craters in runways are quickly filled in.
21:36Most RAF bases are fully operational again within 24 hours.
21:42And British fighter planes are being built faster than ever.
21:47Aircraft production has been revamped.
21:49It's now working round the clock.
21:50It has been streamlined.
21:52In July 1940, the Ministry of Aircraft Production produces 496 brand new Spitfires and Hurricanes.
21:58Whereas the Luftwaffe only produced 240 brand new MET 109s.
22:05Lord Beaverbrook, British Minister of Aircraft Production, introduces the Spitfire Fund.
22:12To raise money to build a plane the nation could rally behind.
22:18The public wanted to give money, and not just in Britain, in all around the Commonwealth, all around the world
22:24even.
22:24People wanted to donate to create more of these beautiful objects.
22:30And because the aerial battles are now over British soil, the RAF had another distinct advantage over the Luftwaffe.
22:40Whilst Eagle Day does significant damage, the numbers of aircraft lost on the ground doesn't translate into losses of pilots.
22:47Those pilots, a bit shaken, but unless they're badly wounded, they'll just go straight back to the squadron and be
22:52flying again even the next day, with a new aircraft.
22:56Valuable trained men were saved and ready to fight again.
23:00But the crews of Goering's planes were lost to him forever.
23:05For every aircraft lost for the Luftwaffe, they tend to be a total loss of both crew and aircraft.
23:11Those pilots are often quite a valuable source of intelligence.
23:16Aircrew are interrogated, and downed German planes comprehensively investigated.
23:23On one Heinkel bomber, they find the code word, knickerbein, written on a note.
23:32Secretly recorded conversations reveal captured airmen using the same phrase.
23:40They learn that knickerbein, or crooked leg in English, is a radio communication system that allows bomber pilots to navigate
23:49in the dark.
23:51It's an ominous development.
23:53The Germans are planning to bomb Britain at night.
23:58The knickerbein system transmitted a series of dots and dashes.
24:02The pilot flew a centre path between the two beams of dots and dashes.
24:08So he knew that was the course to follow, without having to recourse to maps.
24:13No one ever thought the Germans would be developing a system where you could actually navigate at night.
24:19But there is a whole battle, a technological, scientific battle, that is running concurrently with the main battle of Britain.
24:27And this is about night bombing, rather than daylight bombing.
24:32Fighter Command's entire defence strategy relies on spotters and pilots having clear sight of the enemy.
24:40If the Germans start bombing at night, British cities and industry will be practically defenceless.
24:52Meanwhile, Goering has finally awoken to the reality that the south-east of England is extremely well protected.
25:01So he changed his strategy.
25:03Perhaps the rest of Britain will be more vulnerable.
25:08On the 15th of August, they launched a maximum effort.
25:13It was pretty obvious that the south of England was strongly defended, but it wasn't at all clear that the
25:17north would be.
25:18The main raid went in over Yorkshire.
25:22It was Heinkel 111s, escorted by the BF110 twin-engine fighter.
25:33Over 2,000 Luftwaffe sorties are launched across Britain.
25:39But Goering learns another painful lesson.
25:43This time, 75 German planes are shot out of the sky.
25:49The Luftwaffe call it Black Thursday.
25:53Churchill, one of the greatest days in history.
25:58The Dowding system is just as strong in the north as it is in the south.
26:04It is at that point that the Germans discovered that the radar system went all the way around the coast
26:09and that they weren't just facing 11 group and 10 group, but there was 12 group in the Midlands
26:13and 13 group in the north and Scotland.
26:16Goering's feared Stuka dive bombers suffer the biggest losses, so he changes plans once again.
26:26The reason Stuka is getting decimated is because Stukas only work when you have complete control of the airspace.
26:34So Goering starts tinkering with tactics, saying to his fighter brains, you know, you need to close escort the bombers.
26:39You need to do more escort work, which means there's more work for the fighters to do.
26:43And also, it negates some of their strength.
26:45This deprived them of their main advantage, which was speed and surprise.
26:50Instead of cruising around at 300 miles an hour plus, and therefore almost by default having the advantage over the
26:56RAF fighters at the start of any engagement,
26:59the 109s were now tied down at about 200 and 250 miles an hour next to the bombers at lower
27:05altitudes.
27:06This was a huge mistake on the part of Goering.
27:10The RAF loses 32 fighters on August the 15th.
27:16Planes and airfields can be easily repaired, but the mental strain is mounting on pilots on both sides.
27:26Life for the average RAF pilot during August is this sort of schizophrenic existence.
27:33When they're on duty, they'll fly anywhere up to five or six trips a day.
27:39They're incredibly intense.
27:43This kind of intense combat.
27:49And then within half an hour, they're back down, sitting around dispersal, completely exhausted.
27:59The youngest Spitfire pilot to fight in the Battle of Britain, Geoffrey Wellham, has his fighter training cut short so
28:07he can join the war effort.
28:10Within 10 and a half months of leaving the closest existence of a boarding school, I found myself in a
28:18frontline Spitfire squadron.
28:21There was a lot of just sitting around and dozing and waiting.
28:27The tension of waiting and dispersal was something I shall never forget.
28:32The moment the bell rang, you sort of tensed up.
28:38You clambered into your Spitfire.
28:40Once you're in your Spitfire and you could feel the engine vibrations beneath your seat, you know, it was up
28:48to you then.
28:50But once again, British airmen have the upper hand over Luftwaffe pilots.
28:57To be an airman in the Royal Air Force was a glamorous thing.
29:00To be a pilot was still more glamorous.
29:02And to be a fighter pilot was absolutely at the top of the glamour tree.
29:07One in five fighter pilots actually came from overseas.
29:11You had French, you had Belgians, and you had a lot of Poles.
29:15They would go drinking at night, they would come home two hours sleep, and off they would go and fly.
29:22A British pilot would go down to the local pub and they'd be welcomed as heroes.
29:26Whereas the German pilots, they'd just have to keep on it all the time.
29:30In the evening, they're expected to discuss tactics, write up reports.
29:34If they do get a little bit of time off to go to a local bar, they've got a French
29:38barman kind of eyeing them up suspiciously.
29:41You know, no pat on the back.
29:42So from a morale point of view, it is much tougher for the Luftwaffe.
29:46On August the 16th, the Battle of Britain finally sees the Luftwaffe score some successes.
29:54Radar picks up massed Luftwaffe formations crossing the channel, heading for the south coast.
30:0284 Stuka dive bombers, protected by a staggering 214 Messerschmitt 109s and 43 Messerschmitt 110s, are heading for Southampton.
30:148 British squadrons intercept raids on Portsmouth and Leon Solent.
30:22But Goering's new tactics work.
30:25The RAF are overwhelmed by the fighter escorts, leaving the Stuka bombers to wreak havoc.
30:35Chain home radar master Ventnor on the Isle of Wight is hit by 22 bombs.
30:42It will be out of action for over a month.
30:45A major Luftwaffe success.
30:50And the RAF airbase of Tangmere is badly hit.
30:55Ten servicemen are killed and hangers wrecked.
30:59U.S. Airman Billy Fisk engages with the Luftwaffe.
31:04His hit and his fuel tank catches fire.
31:07He survives, but later succumbs to his injuries.
31:12Fisk becomes the first official American casualty of World War II.
31:19There are signs that the Luftwaffe is learning how to bypass the RAF defenses.
31:25One of the successes that the Luftwaffe had was not by weight of bombs, but by stealth.
31:32Flying underneath the radar screen proved to be more destructive than some of these large ones going in at medium
31:38altitude.
31:41Then losses continue to mount.
31:44On Sunday the 18th of August, the date the RAF would later dub their hardest day,
31:52Winston Churchill rallies the nation.
31:57Never in the field of human conflict was so much old by so many to so few.
32:06The few were the RAF pilots desperately fighting off the planned German invasion.
32:13Most important were those with five or more kills to their name.
32:18The Aces.
32:20The Aces were very important men because they shot down a wholly disproportionate number of aircraft.
32:27People who were very good shots, who were willing to get fantastically close,
32:31many of them, poles and checks, did brilliantly.
32:35What is striking is the novice pilots, many of them went right through the battle without hitting anything.
32:41You needed to have those fantastic reflexes, you needed to be willing to get phenomenally close.
32:46You had to be a killer, you had to have that killer instinct.
32:50It was all about getting your man in the back, playing a very dirty game.
32:56A lot of RAF fighters were shot down.
32:58They never saw the aircraft shooting at them.
33:00They were shot down by these 109s that were on free hunt, ahead of the bomber stream,
33:06trying to catch the RAF fighters as they came up towards the incoming bombers.
33:1180% plus of pilots who were shot down never saw the enemy who was shooting at them.
33:17The answer was never to stay still, have a quick squirt and then get out.
33:24It was always the other bloke that was going to get killed, not you.
33:33Despite the heroics of the RAF, Hitler's Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain, is still planned for mid-September.
33:42With no real intelligence, Goering doesn't realize how successful his recent raids have been,
33:49and he unnecessarily changes tactics.
33:52The one thing they don't seem to be well aware of is that they were actually doing very well when
33:58they were bombing the airfields.
33:59They were making real inroads.
34:01They were coming quite close to 11 Group.
34:05That's the group defending Southeast England, having to move out of Southeast England.
34:10But they didn't realize they'd done that.
34:14Goering tells his exhausted pilots to begin night bombing raids using the Kinnikabine system.
34:20When RAF fighters wouldn't be around to intercept them.
34:25The plan now is to bomb Britain round the clock until Churchill submits.
34:33Hitler had forbidden any direct attacks on London.
34:38This, he said, was a political act, and he wanted the decision to attack London to be his alone.
34:44However, one night in August, some Luftwaffe bombers, who were trying to bomb the oil refinery at Thameshaven, missed the
34:53target, and actually the bombs dropped on the East End.
34:59Homes are devastated, and nine civilians die.
35:04Whether accidental or intentional, the raid gives Churchill the opportunity to take the battle to the enemy.
35:12For Churchill, this is a fantastic opportunity because it gives him the excuse to do what he's been wanting to
35:17do, urging the war cabinet to approve for a long time, which is to attack Berlin.
35:22And that was a bit of a problem, because Berlin was at the very limit of the range of any
35:28bomber that the RAF had at the time.
35:35The first night raid by British bombers on Berlin is unsuccessful.
35:41But days later, eight German civilians are killed.
35:46Yet this relatively small number has an enormous impact on Germany.
35:53This is a great shock for German psychology.
35:56Suddenly the war is coming to them in Germany, even in Berlin.
36:01And it's a humiliation for Goering, and Hitler, of course, is furious.
36:06In the narrative of the Battle of Britain, it's all about fighter command, but actually bomber command is in operation
36:11pretty much every single day.
36:13They're targeting the new German airfields in northern France.
36:17The Germans are being bombed by the British every day up in the Padre Calais.
36:22But it's the bombing of Berlin that really unsettles the Nazis.
36:28Hitler was at his eagle's nest in the mountains at the time.
36:32He was informed and he said, right, they're heading Berlin.
36:37We will hit them back.
36:41Hitler's concept was, rather than destroy the RAF, we will destroy the British will to carry on.
36:47Therefore, we will start bombing their cities.
36:49If we change our tactics to night operations, using Kinnikabine, where the RAF are helpless,
36:56they won't be able to find our bombers at night.
37:01Hitler believes the devastation his bombers can drop on London will turn the population against the stubborn Churchill.
37:11On September the 4th, he delivers a terrifying message of the Sportpalast in Berlin.
37:18If the British attack our cities, we will wipe out theirs.
37:25When Göring arrives on the French coast for the very first time, it signals an ominous shift in tactics.
37:34On the morning of September the 7th, the Luftwaffe assembled more than 700 aircraft.
37:39They set off in a great wedge.
37:43September the 7th was an incredible day for Londoners.
37:46It was terrifying, of course, but, you know, the sight of this massive air fleet coming up the Thames,
37:51unlike what they'd grown used to in the previous month,
37:54this huge raid wasn't splitting up and going after the various airfields.
37:57It just kept going into London.
38:02By 4.30pm, all 21 squadrons protecting London take to the skies.
38:11They'd never seen an attack on this scale before.
38:18In the past.
38:19Dogfights ensue over the Thames estuary.
38:23With over 1,000 aircraft involved.
38:31Luftwaffe bombers then return at night,
38:34just as they will do for all but one of the next 57 nights.
38:43The blitz has begun.
38:48London goes up in flames.
38:59Londoners everywhere witnessed scenes like these throughout the night.
39:02The people there bear the brunt of Nazi ferocity.
39:06The London docks is the most important economic trading centre in the world.
39:10And there were enormous stockpiles of all sorts of goods from around the world.
39:15Things in particular like timber, molasses, all very flammable.
39:20So, for example, the timber fire at Surrey Docks is one of the most intense fires ever recorded.
39:24Stripped the paint from firefighting boats on the other side of the Thames, melted paving stones.
39:36The following day, Churchill visits the East End to see the damage for himself.
39:49Churchill memorably observed London was like some giant prehistoric beast,
39:54that while it could take terrible pain, it would take an awful lot of killing.
40:00The poor in the East End of London suffered terribly.
40:03They took the worst punishment in the Blitz.
40:08When they found all these bombs raining around their ear,
40:11what's remarkable is they didn't revolt.
40:15It was a ghastly time, and what those people suffered,
40:19especially those at the bottom end of society, was terrible.
40:27They took more than this to get me out of my home.
40:30Now go on, you've got to get to work.
40:34Evacuations of children to the countryside increase.
40:39Britain braces itself for a Nazi invasion.
40:44The bombing of London is very shocking for the people of London.
40:49But it's really good news for fighter command,
40:52because they're given a break, they're given respite.
40:55And after a period of bombing London,
40:5711 Group aren't in difficulty anymore.
41:00And if Hitler had hoped the British would turn on their leaders,
41:04he is disappointed.
41:05Public opinion swings firmly behind their steadfast prime minister.
41:14By mid-September, the Luftwaffe is no closer
41:18to gaining the aerial dominance they need
41:20for the successful invasion.
41:24If it doesn't happen soon,
41:26the occupation will have to be postponed until the spring.
41:34The bombing campaign across Britain intensifies.
41:42On September the 12th,
41:4418-year-old Spitfire pilot Geoffrey Wellham
41:47is sent into combat for the first time.
41:52I found myself with my leader,
41:54just the two of us,
41:56faced with a prospect of 150-plus.
42:00And it looked 150-plus, too.
42:03And I thought to myself,
42:05you know, this is a serious war.
42:07These chaps aren't doing all this for fun.
42:10They mean business.
42:13You picked one out,
42:15particularly if he was a little bit wide in his formation,
42:18just pick one out and have a quick go at him
42:20and then get out of it.
42:23I found this Heinkel on its own,
42:25streaking back to France as hard as it could go.
42:28And I managed to get a good shot at him.
42:35And he eventually crashed.
42:43With the weather deteriorating,
42:46Goering has one last chance to prove himself.
42:49Intelligence reports were coming through
42:52that the British must be down
42:53for their last 200 fighters by now.
42:56Surely one more push is going to do it.
42:59The Luftwaffe knows that the weather
43:01will very, very soon be too unpredictable
43:03to launch a seaborne invasion
43:04until the following year.
43:06When September the 15th dawned
43:09and the weather was clear,
43:11the Luftwaffe went for it.
43:15September the 15th
43:16is the Luftwaffe's last roll of the dice
43:19and becomes now.
43:22It's known as Battle of Britain Day.
43:35The first plots started coming into Uxbridge
43:39in 11 Group
43:41at about 11 o'clock in the morning.
43:44This first raid
43:45consisted of about 145 aircraft.
43:57For the first time,
43:59Britain's fighters outnumber the Luftwaffers
44:02as 275 fighters scramble.
44:0712 Group, north of London,
44:10launch their big wing,
44:12led by squadron leader Douglas Bader.
44:1756 aircraft in a massed sortie
44:19meet the incoming bombers head on.
44:43By 12pm, six German bombers have been downed,
44:48including one memorably
44:50over Victoria Station in London.
44:57This was just a prelude
44:59and the main raid came just after lunchtime
45:02in the afternoon.
45:036-0.
45:040-9-0-5.
45:06This time there were 475 aircraft.
45:10Three columns of Luftwaffe aircraft
45:13attack from a more southerly route
45:15bound for London.
45:24Big wing is scrambled again.
45:31As the Germans cross the coast,
45:33wave upon wave of RAF squadrons
45:36are there to meet them.
45:49The more aircraft the Luftwaffe set over,
45:52the more they lost.
45:55We felt that we were on top of them.
45:57We knew we were hurting them
45:58by shooting down quite a lot.
46:02The Germans lost an awful lot of airplanes.
46:04And, in fact, the Luftwaffe
46:09never, ever fully recovered
46:12from the mauling it had
46:13in the Battle of Britain day.
46:16In the final count,
46:1856 German aircraft are downed
46:21compared to 28 RAF losses,
46:24a ratio of exactly 2 to 1.
46:29They're intercepted
46:30by such a huge volume of aircraft.
46:32All of the RAF fighters piling in
46:34it's just unavoidably clear to them,
46:37even to Göring,
46:38that this has failed.
46:39It brought their delusions to an end.
46:42They had realized
46:43that the opposition
46:44was not weakening at all.
46:46It was just as strong
46:47as it had ever been,
46:48if not stronger.
46:50It was the turning point
46:51for the Luftwaffe.
46:53The Luftwaffe believed
46:54that the British were defeated
46:56and all of a sudden
46:57it proved that they weren't.
47:00Hitler loses faith
47:02in Göring's Luftwaffe.
47:04The landing craft
47:06and troops amassed
47:07on the French coast
47:08are redeployed.
47:10Operation Sea Lion
47:12is off.
47:14It's an overwhelming victory
47:15for the RAF.
47:16It's a massive defeat,
47:17catastrophic defeat
47:18for the Luftwaffe
47:19and for Nazi Germany.
47:20The reason Britain wins
47:22is because Britain
47:23is fighting the battle
47:24for which it is prepared
47:25and which it executes brilliantly.
47:27But actually,
47:27the component parts
47:28are much greater
47:29than the narrative
47:30would have us think.
47:31It's not just about the few.
47:32It's also about bomber command,
47:35coastal command.
47:36It's also about
47:37naval power as well.
47:40There are three names
47:41that you need to remember.
47:44The first is Winston Churchill.
47:47He is the man
47:48who decided to fight the battle.
47:52The second is Hugh Dowding.
47:54He is the person
47:56who created the weapon
47:57that enabled the battle to be won.
48:00And the third is Keith Park,
48:02commander of the 11 group.
48:04He's the man
48:05who wielded the weapon.
48:09After the defeat of France
48:11and the evacuation of Dunkirk,
48:14the Nazi surge
48:15through Europe
48:16had been checked.
48:20Hitler turns his sights
48:22towards the Soviet Union.
48:26Against all the odds,
48:28the RAF had been victorious.
48:32While Britain was perhaps
48:33in a much stronger position
48:34than we generally suppose,
48:36the traditional narrative
48:37of the few,
48:38those few very young men
48:40fighting, dying,
48:41risking their lives
48:42to defend their country
48:43is really at the heart
48:44of the battle
48:45and we should never forget that.
48:47If it hadn't been
48:48for that glorious legend
48:50that they had seen
48:51off the Luftwaffe,
48:52then it's hard to see
48:53how Churchill
48:54could have sustained
48:55the will of the British people
48:57through the very tough
48:58years that followed.
49:02we realised in October
49:03that the Germans
49:05had been denied their aim.
49:08I was shot up three times
49:10and I got away with it.
49:12I feel thankful indeed
49:14that I survived.
49:16I feel very privileged
49:18to have been in a position
49:20to have defended this country
49:22in a Spitfire
49:23in the Battle of Britain.
49:23the Battle of Britain.
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