DOCUMENTARY Finest Hour The Battle of Britain EP1

finest hour the Battle of Britain was made possible by contributions to your PBS stations from viewers like you thank you in 1940 the United States was inward-looking and poorly prepared for war as Adolf Hitler's armies swept forward only Great Britain stood between him and the complete enslavement of Europe but could the British people stand up to the Nazi onslaught when you saw the offensive coming through Europe like a knife through butter you realized that you were up against an army the world had never seen the likes of well I remember my father saying this is the most terrible time now this is the time when we all have to be very careful [Music] it brought all the brave ones to their knees prayed [Music] we went about all the numb for a while we were certain that in our hearts that we were going to be reduced to rubble at Europe's moment of greatest peril a generation of young men and women faced a daunting challenge the fate of the world lay in their hands you will hear the stories of the people who were there the people in the frontline [Music] the one thing we were not going to do is to surrender we were going to get back to our troops somehow we had to win the war and we were determined to do whatever happened everybody was going to fight right to the bitter end Kendyl be killed inside they were killing us and we had to kill them [Music] in May 1940 the quiet countryside along the border of France and Germany was untouched by a war that had begun six months before in distant Poland for all this time French soldiers and their British allies had dug in and waited for Hitler to make his move on the 10th of May he did with devastating effect one of the British soldiers directly in the path of the attack was 20-year old Ernie Leggett a farm laborers son from Norfolk who had joined the army to escape unemployment [Music] we marched into the woods we've got Huracan lamps and or company commander got us together and then said well chaps we're at war of course it destruct a sort of an excitement in there in the tummy when you aim to shoot we're aim your rather to shoot you or now shoot to kill [Music] I was going to be in the front line and meet the enemy face-to-face I suddenly realized good lord what have I done what why did I join an infantry regiment will I be killed when I get back to my home when I see my parents again what is going to happen Hitler's armies stormed into Belgium Holland and France his blitzkrieg was a new kind of war fast moving armored forces supported by dense air cover and it overwhelmed all initial resistance on the same day the 10th of May the British government fell and a new Prime Minister 65 year old Winston Churchill stepped into the breach outside Downing Street he received a rapturous welcome but inside many regarded him as a high-risk choice a maverick he stopped at number 10 had grave misgivings about this man they'd heard rumors about how he was impossible to please difficult to work for that he was like a man used to giving orders but unaware of the practicalities of carrying them out many of those who were already serving under Churchill in Britain's Royal Navy had mixed feelings about him - Churchill was already ruling our lives Annie right he was the First Lord of the Admiralty you know and he was always a gung-ho sort of bastard like you know I'd get in and do this and do that I mean if you look back on these career you know as a soldier in that he was a sort of boys on paper sort of man wasn't he you know fine leading a charge law he's been taught in the church that a lot brigade listen you know Churchill shocked fellow politicians by appointing himself Minister of Defence taking daily control of Britain's war effort then in his first speech as Prime Minister he prepared his colleagues for the worst I would say to the house and I said to those who have joined the government I have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and many MPs received the speech in anxious silence especially those from Churchill's own Conservative Party within Churchill's new coalition cabinet even senior ministers were concerned about his character Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax an old rival called him a gangster and his appointment a tragedy [Music] from the moment he took office Churchill's principle international objective was to bring the United States into the war either as an ally or as a source of much-needed economic and military aid Churchill half-american himself believed that President Franklin D Roosevelt would move quickly to help save Britain but a presidential election was just months away and Roosevelt needed the votes of the majority of Americans who wanted no part in another foreign war [Music] despite what happens in continents overseas the United States of America shall and must remain as long ago the father of our country prayed that it might remain unentangled and free the president allowed the sale of some military equipment but he did not give Britain anything like the aid its new prime minister was requesting Northern Europe was in chaos Holland succumbed to the blitzkrieg in just four days refugees clocked these roads from above they were terrorized by dive bombers with sirens fitted to their wheels coming down they made this really hideous screaming zone a scream out of error the first time I'm frightened I was really frightened and I just shook with terror could happen we could actually see the plight of the bumps coming down and because as they hit the ground there were men women children horses going up in the air and coming down again totally mutilated it was just devastating and of course the poor people had no last rites given to them they had no one to banish up their worlds they just died [Music] as the German attacks intensified more British troops were caught up in the turmoil one shocked soldier reported what he saw to his officer Peter Vaux he said I was wrong my motorcycle during a job for the camera and I was blown off my motorcycle and I found myself beside a little boy of about five and he'd had his legs blown off and he was blinded in one eye and he was a terrible thing and I took him in my arms and I could see he was dying and I took out my revolver and I shot himself I did too right didn't I said I said yes you did too right I would have done the same [Music] as a boy Peter Vaux loved maps and machines and dreamed of being a soldier 23 years old he was now a reconnaissance officer as the German columns advanced deep into France and Belgium it was Fox's job to look for them that was a creepy experience traveling through this empty countryside where are the Germans over the next hill around the next corner when Peter Volks finally spotted the Germans near the french belgium border he was ordered to plot his regiments route into battle was quite responsibility sir young second lieutenant Vaux to be taking the her regiment into battle with his map and his compass hoping to god he got it right [Music] Churchill worked late into the night trying to take command of every detail one evening eighteen-year-old Secretary Marion Holmes was introduced to her new boss this is Miss hems mr. Chad this is mr. prime minister and Church was sitting in this deep armchair absorbed in a document completely absorbed he didn't even look up or answer then without any warning he started to dictate so I typed aware and bear in mind it was not easy to hear Churchill because often he'd abandoned his dentures he had a slight speech impediment and he might at that moment be smoking years ago so I typed where and he she'd give me she and I I just took the minitor directive whatever it was over to him and went for the door and it was this explosion behind me where are you going I've hardly started and then he looked up and I looked I was transfixed wide I hadn't transfixed and anything with a whole face that fantastic face cherubic faces changed to this Marvis smile she did why I'm so sorry what was your name I said miss Holmes sit down and then he kept looking at me over his nurses receipt and he said you must never be frightened of me when I snap I'm not thinking of you I'm thinking of the work as he learned more about Britain's military weakness Churchill's cables to Washington became ever more demanding but Roosevelt's evasive answers generated frustration inside Downing Street Washington's man in London was ambassador Joseph Kennedy father of future President John F Kennedy he was sending Roosevelt a stream of messages predicting a quick victory for Hitler Kennedy was an isolationist who believed that America had no place in Europe's incessant wars if you think I sound like I'm a hundred percent isolationist he said is there such a thing as a thousand percent isolationist of that looking back I find it terribly hard to put any finger on what what Joe Kennedy really believed I don't think he was a profound thinker to start with as he said in one of his speeches and where we were just gonna have to learn to get along with dictators they're just gonna have to learn to get along with us Joseph Kennedy the American ambassador in London was considered to be a defeatist but one can well see why but in a dire situation facing as judge accorded the unbroken light of the German army and ill-prepared it was pure logic for the moment Kennedy's logic appeared correct news reaching Downing Street grew worse the Belgian Army was being routed the French were falling back towards Paris but Churchill was irrepressible and some who had first doubted him quickly revised their opinions he would be seen coming down the garden path with that great resolve and Jesse now chillingly contagious air of confidence and the job to be done and very soon indeed the whole attitude to him changed It was as if a superhuman current of electricity had gone through number 10 Downing Street he had this wonderful ability to go into a deep sleep for now sometimes with a black bandage of his eyes and awake refreshed and he reckoned it gave him two days out of every 24 hours in which to work and he would then go on until 2:00 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning incredible what has to remember all said that this man was already 65 years old under Britain's newly amended defense regulation 18b the police have swooped upon the British Union of fascists London headquarters Churchill's energy had a ruthless side peacetime civil rights were suspended as police were sent to arrest hundreds of British fascists and suspected fascist sympathizers including a Conservative MP leading members of the British aristocracy and even two of Churchill's own relatives Churchill tried to energize the British economy trade unions agreed to suspend normal working regulations and factory production quickly accelerated next Churchill established a new volunteer army to defend the homefront thousands rushed to join my uncle the captain in the First World War and he had gone down to the police station to become a local defence volunteer and he took the big bits of furniture out of the house and put them across the road and came back and said to my aunt his wife well they won't come through tonight now a word about the Women's Auxiliary Air Force better known of course as the web British women - were volunteering in ever-increasing numbers no idea what we were joining really especially we didn't have any idea what girls were going to be allowed to do but it was exciting double eight four two one nine you never forget your service number we see the girls about the placement we admire their smart appearance but fewer stop to think what's their work like a sergeant wouldn't let me tell aircraft he said he wasn't having a woman doing that they thought we could only drive the staff cars well that's a nonsense so we were assumed driving all the lorries and everything Edith heap was 20 years old a wool merchants daughter from Yorkshire she was living away from home for the first time in her life it's always a social side we always managed to go to the parties and out to dinner whatever however tired you went out and of course as wife's we had to clean our houses before we went out we were not allowed out unless it was spotless and I mean spotless because the sergeant used to go round with a white napkin and if there was any dust you had to do it all again like most British people at this moment Edith heap was unaware of the disaster unfolding just across the English Channel in northern France we didn't know all that much about it we only caught the filtering of little bits of news it we it was too anxious I think for them to tell us too much [Music] the British Army is searched for positions where they could try to halt the German advance ernie legate's battalion was on the march mile after mile of straight road we had to march mostly all the way back we couldn't stop to get food you can walk but when you're in your sleep and we've proved because on one night alone we marched just about thirty miles and of course the only time you woke up was when you bumped into the first in front or the person behind bumped into you most of us were young lads of only 20 years of age and it was a trauma for us after two days of marching like it's unit was ordered to make a stand at this derelict factory in Belgium we went into what I thought was a cement factory and of course we could see when around in the woods about 220 50 yards away we could see the Germans preparing [Music] my brother had a shotgun and used to shoot rabbits and of course I used to shoot rabbits as well it is a small boy no so consequently I was a good shot my first German I could away I remember he was on the right hand side and I saw him crawling along and then get up to run [Music] I just on the trigger see him drop and he was still there but a day later underneath my breath I mutter the Lord's Prayer which I I knew then I knew their schoolboy by heart had a wonderful boyhood in the country out in the rural district of Norfolk as we went to Sunday school with the church I don't know why I just he just went I had that feeling that tunnels God was for me and in our East window there is the cross Jesus and Peter somehow it captivated me and I couldn't take my mind off it when we eventually went to France and landed the first thing I saw was on the wings of our vehicles and everything was the cross Jesus and Peter and immediately I said to myself Ernie that is a good omen you are going to be safe for the moment Ernie Leggett was safe his unit successfully defended its makeshift fortress but back in London inside Downing Street Churchill's cabinet was now planning for the worst there was enormous anxiety of course quite anxiety people went about their business there there was no panic but this was Churchill's lead there was a tremendous flare of minutes and directives and family labels introduced action this day report to me on one side of a page respectable civil servants was seen actually running down the corridors of Whitehall Britain was gearing up for total war streets and parks filled with men and women practicing to resist air raids gas attacks parachute landings for some children it was all a great game everyone came out into the streets sandbags appeared piles of sand everyone seemed to be like ants beavering to create sandbags outside their house and everyone hopped out and filled up the bags and there we were working like little beavers and I remember thinking to myself this is fun this is war they were collecting iron railings we had iron railings in front of our house and they were just whipped away one day my dog thought that was great because he could hop up and rush out without being ended anymore we used to take great pride drawing lines on beach sheets of round paper and cutting up this brown paper and pasting stripes across the window the object of that of course being that if there was a a bomb blast the brown paper would hold the glass together [Music] as Britain prepared the American people were listening to the first radio news reports of German victories in France the latest French communique reports that there has been incessant fighting in the north that the Allied troops are carrying out their retreat in what is called good order and now the latest news direct 1st William El Charro reports from the German capital so go ahead Berlin history is rapidly nearing offend the German High Command stated flatly today for the destruction of the English and French armies fighting their reports of German success fueled a feeling in the United States that Hitler was unstoppable listening in a New York townhouse was a young journalist named Whitelaw Reid whose family owned the influential newspaper the New York Herald Tribune what was very depressing news with Germany ripping through Europe the way it did and in America people were very pessimistic about English chances of holding Hitler off well it just made you sort of a sick to your stomach things were going so badly and you didn't know how Hitler could be stopped the only armored force with a chance of stopping Hitler before his armies reached the English Channel was Peter Fox's Tank Regiment on the 21st of May they were ordered into battle near the town of Arras and reported to the colonel and I said this is going to be the real thing jungle isn't it he said yes Peter it's a real thing this time I didn't at that stage wondering about my own courage but I think that did think I wonder what's going to happen to us all we came to the start line which was the railway but we level crossing gates were shot and the bell was ringing ridiculous they were nowhere no trains as we knew after one ourselves that it took an old soldier one of the squadron commanders to drive straight through those gates and send them flying in all directions and that stopped the bell ringing and then everybody went through over the railway and up a small side through Subscribe and there the top in front of us was a whole stream of German lorries and drunks and half-tracks motorcyclists we waded into everybody did there was no blood thirst in it at all but these were the sort of targets that we've been trained to shoot at and we shot him there must have been a shock for them I guess and wet pleasure for us and then gradually I think the Germans seemed to disperse a moment of victory gave the British Army hope that it could turn the tide just 25 miles away Ernie legate's battalion was also stalling the German offensive [Music] just after dawn very early in the morning they started to machine-gun mortify shell and goodness knows what and we could see them coming cross at us all hellos let loose and of course what did we do we had to defend ourselves and we just shot back in the woods opposite us we saw them falling but they couldn't get across the river I mean excuse my language but it was like shooting ducks we couldn't help but disperse them just shoot the kill later on they came again and they weren't worried about their dead that they just ran over them and a sort of sickness sort of enveloped us and thought well who on earth could do a thing like that [Music] I had no feelings of regret the only thing I think about sometimes is that the Germans who III put away they had wives and families but that's war at Arras British tanks were still advancing when the German commander General Rummel launched a powerful counter-attack [Music] it was rather like when there's a tremendous thunderstorm of head you're waiting for the lightning I saw one of our tanks burst into flames and the commander jump out and he was shot and then I saw the cannister and the whole front of the tank was blown in and I knew of the candle was dead he must be it is at this moment that as were our backs were not the enemy one rarely felt the appalling sense of doom that our regiment rarely had been destroyed and it was destroyed right here right round one and there were the bodies it seemed wrong to be leaving the bodies lying there in an on the smothering tanks of the 40 tanks that Peter Vaux had led into battle only 12 survived the road to the English Channel was now wide open and German units were soon at the coast for the first time residents of Dover could hear the sound of the enemy that was menacing their country suddenly it seemed to burst upon us in Dover we never realized how bad things were going in France because the propaganda kept it from us we just couldn't believe what was happening we dreaded air raids we knew it was coming there is a silence between one battle in the next which is a deadly silence you can hear even the grass moving the birds stopped singing nobody speaks everything is so quiet that it's is just unbelievable they hadn't attacked we hadn't seen any Germans the Lance Corporal said to me Ernie just nip across the suit the bastards have been infiltrated on our left flank I put my rifle down and was crouching across this thing and all of a sudden ceiling and then they hit the floor and I was numb from my waist down which I couldn't feel a thing but I could see blood just pouring out I'd had a piece of shrapnel goes through my buttock and out through the groin a mortar shell had exploded here just feet away from Ernie Leggett it was the first salvo in a fierce new attack on the cement factory Leggett bleeding heavily unable to walk was now trapped I'm thinking well this is it I'm gonna die I was sick myself please God don't let me be bandit you know that lunch in the turning and the pulling out wolf dreadful [Music] I just thought that's my religion let me down and my good omen had gone and and I was gonna die I know I prayed and I could see things at home vividly minutes later I - come to myself and thought myself well it's no good here I can be bought it I could be shelled I could be bombed from above and I got on the opposite side of the railway lion and Fanny couldn't walk so I started to crawl I was crawling like that Blake's dragging behind crawling my hands and and I think announcer worn away cordovan on the rough stones they must have been German snipers they were firing at me I must have passed out because the next thing I knew had got somebody hold my wrist they were pulling me and I looked up into the faces of two men who were I knew and I heard I don't know which one it was but one City look bloody hell he's had it and I thought we said well please help me [Music] Ernie Leggett was carried to a field hospital one of only five survivors from a platoon of 30 men after the disaster at eros Peter Vaux had become separated from the rest of his unit with him in his tank were a corporal and a major we'd now run off the edge of our Maps Harris is at the bottom of a map sheet who had no Maps when we got to the main era students read instead of crossing over it corporal Burroughs the driver turned left when I came up and looked around me I didn't know where I was [Music] we saw there were German vehicles and we were arriving and joining them the party and I really didn't know what to do but my drivers a wonderful chap he changed done and he just moved at a steady 12 miles an hour sir he's never start no Knights nobody had any lies and he crashed into the bathroom line the men in the lorry all shouted the officer swore he cleared the half-tracks out of the way he indicated to us to go on and get him out of it and so we did in the confusion the German officer cleared a path for Peter boxes tank to pass through I wore bury Germans tank crews were buried and I don't think he ran us for a moment that we went to German tank Roosevelts ambassador in London advised him that Britain could be under German control within weeks ambassador Kennedy's opinion was now shared by the British Minister he saw almost daily Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax started talking about the need for a negotiated peace with Germany [Music] Churchill too was growing desperate he cabled Washington begging for urgent military aid without it he warned you may have a completely subjugated Nazified Europe established with astonishing swiftness but instead of sending Churchill the supplies he was demanding president was about launched a secret diplomatic initiative to prepare for Britain's imminent defeat he turned first to America's northern neighbor Canada a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire Roosevelt asked the Canadian government to send an envoy to Washington a senior diplomat traveled south and was smuggled into the White House what he heard there was reported back to Ottawa and shocked Canada's Prime Minister William Mackenzie King I questioned if ever in the history of the world a message came back picturing possibilities more appalling than those communications revealed Roosevelt feared that Britain's Royal Navy the most powerful fleet in the world was about to fall into Hitler's hands he wanted Mackenzie Kings government to persuade Churchill not to make what he called a soft peace that would give the Navy to Hitler but instead to send the fleet over the Atlantic to be based in Canada the president wanted me to bring pressure to bear on England not to make a soft peace even though it might mean the destruction of England comparable to that of Poland Holland and Belgium and the killing of those who had refused to make the peace and for a moment it seemed to me that the United States was seeking to save itself at the expense of Britain as Canadian politicians agonized about Roosevelt's approach the British Army was falling back towards the English Channel fighting for its life in a series of bitter rearguard actions we were putting up a good fight it couldn't get across the river we had no qualms about killing germs it's not accelerating it's just you're doing a job the things are being trimmed for four years in other words you just accepted as part and parcel of your life Martin MacLean from Newcastle had joined the army at 16 when his local shipyard closed married with a new baby he was the youngest sergeant major in the infantry in charge of his battalions mortar platoon in the chaos of battle Communications failed and McClane was left without orders the Germans over on one of the companies and this is the sad part of it all through may not receive Norris they brought in a regiment of accompany from another regiment to do an attack MacLean was not told that these British troops were moving forward directly into his line of fire she launched the way out of a wood we couldn't see them but they were in the close vicinity of our weapons and these lads launched into our three inch mortar fire and cement our and we still find that seems mortal when they run into our fire to this day nobody knows how many troops were killed in this accident of war a short while afterwards when I saw the something I'm telling you the honest truth Ardra miss Lord shoot myself that's facts and the man took the pistol of us because I would kill myself but I was devastated [Music] and from all my service add them Lars on my mind it disturbed my mind quite a lot [Music] Peter Vaux and his two companions were now completely isolated and deep behind enemy lines corporal Burroughs the driver reported that the petrol was getting very low and so we thought if we get to one of the villages where we were billeted we might find some friends there we might be able to fill up the tank if not we'll have to take my feet well we went to such a village in it they were driving tanks in it and now about a city it it shows empty we've got to get rid of the tank and we pulled into an orchard and the tent was actually spluttering as we did so the one thing we were not going to do was to surrender we it was bad enough that we went with a regiment we were not going to surrender and we were going to get back to our own troops somehow [Music] there was a certain rustle in the bushes behind us and out sprang a German officer [Music] he snatched the binoculars off my neck video didn't take the pistol from Ron my waist and then he said go and we were launched off and we didn't quite fast enough he said go on oh no first was corporal then me and then in the major and the German officer side by side the major actually dropped behind the German officer and dived into the bushes and the German turned and fired a shot at him but he missed they got my pistol out and I was shooting back and I shot her four shots without hitting him that the fifth shot when he was still some distance away went right into his chest he ruined Awards we don't shoot him and to my astonishment he kept on running he kept on shooting he kept on shouting and he came right up to me and then against me I had one shot left [Music] and I put it into him he fell down dead and we turned and we ran with or I might down the hill as fast as we could down the hill we went and arrived at him ruined Abbey down at the bottom and we hid in there panting and only then did I realize that I'd killed this man and now I did feel an awful feeling of guilt which was ridiculous because if I hadn't we'd all have been prisoners and I might have been dead as well acting on behalf of President Roosevelt a Canadian government urged Churchill to make a pledge on the future of his Navy to declare that it would be sent across the Atlantic if Britain lost the war but Churchill refused he told the Canadians that even to discuss the subject would encourage defeatism at a moment when he was trying his best to spread confidence Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King was caught uncomfortably between Churchill and Roosevelt although the diplomatic circuits buzzed with activity the result was a bad-tempered stalemate as Western politicians argued German tank columns moved up the French coast threatening to block the British Army's only route home on May 23rd they reached the port of Beloit Churchill immediately dispatched a flotilla of destroyers to help defend it when we've reached the a estuary there we found all these French destroyers they were bombarding and because we didn't know what they were but when you looked up on the heights a the whole load of German tanks and infantry and every Mo's what Ian Nethercutt was a 19 year old able seaman on board the destroyer HMS Keith all's on the gun we were actions they I mean there was some German motorboat troops at the far end just beginning to creep forward onto the jetty so we opened up on them and just there's a whole load of arms and legs and bits of note about flying around because to pound our shells make elleven that's when you hit someone with a minha many of the British soldiers gathered at the port were inexperienced troops from support units as the Germans attacked some of these men began to panic well it was just a rather yourself I'm so mad football crowd you know some jumped into the water and swam round the ship and tried to calmer on the bloody sides some had already got on the ship and hidden themselves damn Bella and you know we were too busy on the gun so worried about the torpedo man had to clear them off and then the skipper got some of the Stoker's the fire party's in with rifles and binders to get them off other British troops were fighting hard holding the Germans on the fringes of the town then German armor burst through to the harbour tanks were soon exchanging fire with destroyers two more British warships entered the harbor to assist the venomous and the Whitsett both under the command of aggressive captains which it came in and started blasting why every single thing you could say didn't care whether it was friendly a one friendly just blew it all down he was that sort of chap you know and the venomous was as well in fact Lee the Midshipmen on the venomous he blew down about three hotels I think on the front because when he and there was a tank in between two to lots of walls and he brought the whole bloody lot down on this tank and another tank it stopped a shell from a four point so been right on the front of it and it did a backward somersault never seen anything like it just rolled over and over because it's a big shell it's 80 pounds you know [Music] a new Menace came from above Stuka dive-bombers after suffering many casualties the Navy was told to evacuate the remaining British troops and abandoned belong to the Germans we did people over the place of wounded people lying around especially down on the midstate so I got down there and died down there you know but later soldiers and soldiers you can't bury him at sea but air blows were all collected up on their way across the channel and we buried them off the van the grim facts of this war could no longer be kept from the British public homes all over the country now received the first telegrams reporting the death or capture of relatives may be said are you there mrs. Melissa don't come in mrs. whatever it was it was about teas out but she sat down with one of those sighs you know hey I don't know she said what's the matter love she said well he's missing she said well it missing isn't never said he was killed or anything Anna oh no but I mean she's missing and every day that was the conversation still missing many had to wait for news of missing sons husbands or fiance's I was 17 I was in love I was I'd met the man of my dreams he was tall dark very handsome all he wanted to do is to be together I used to resent seeing other people walking about who weren't in the army and I used to realize well that's not fair because they've got their job to do the same thing he has but you couldn't help but feel that then I went to the front door I must have been raining for after a lot to be shot and she said hello but I can't think what her name was Cohen I mean I love what a terrible day is to the front dollars she came and she said well you look as is here fall about she says he's a prisoner of war Widow she ain't I remember I said oh well there you are that's in the lot shooting they won't kill him will they said oh no no they're going a camp and it'll be fat and everything remember that I had no idea what the hell it did with her with them you know mrs. comforter our mother was in France the German army was closing in from every side a few miles inland Martin MacLaine's battalion was running short of ammunition medical supplies and hope there was a really big battle going on and the Germans were well in among us then by this time the men will come out wounded and one of my lads was shot in the privates and the blood was squirting from doughnuts trouser legs and he says Armiger and he peered Willis I said I'm nothing I can do I knew he's going to die and we had nothing we had nothing there to help them see you've got no feel addresses you've got no bandages what can he do when a man stan is bleeding quickly his fear streams wait and you know he's going to die so that was it [Music] I was more responsible from now for the rest of the men to get them out we were on our own the company commander says we're all gonna do I said give the order every man for himself because now we want to completely demoralized and you thought nothing else but survival survival really at the finish with his army about to be overwhelmed Churchill gave a desperate order the evacuation of all British forces from northern France [Music] the operation was planned here at Dover Castle 350,000 men had to be transported across the English Channel [Music] the Admiral responsible estimated that he could get only 40,000 of them home next we furnish capital and the report of Edward armor oh go ahead London new defense measures are being announced almost hourly any newspaper opposing the prosecution of the war can now be suppressed you prove vessels arriving in British ports are being thoroughly searched for concealed proof refugees arriving from the continent are being closely questioned in an effort to weed out spies Londoners are doing their best to preserve their sense of humor but I saw more graves solemn faces today than I've ever seen in London fashionable tea rooms were almost deserted I thought one woman was standing in line waiting for a bus begun to cry very quietly she didn't even bother to wipe the tears away in Regent Street there was a sandwich man his sign and big red letters had only three words on it what and pray I have our that funding neck would be observed as the day of national fair Britain needed a miracle King George the sixth called his people to prayer on May 26th as the nation prayed Churchill presented his War Cabinet with the harsh truth Belgium had fallen France was on the brink of collapse America was staying neutral the Soviet Union was sticking to its alliance with Hitler Britain stood alone but there was an alternative a peace offer had been drafted in Berlin give Hitler a free hand in Europe and Britain could keep her independence her empire and even her Navy lorne Halifax argued that the time had finally come to talk peace if independence is not at stake that I think it right to accept an offer which would save the country from avoidable disaster the cabinet was divided some wanted to explore the peace offer Churchill wanted to fight on the meeting ended in deadlock in the rush to reach the coast British soldiers destroyed their heavy equipment to keep it out of German hands we went on this road and that's where we start seeing the devastation of a drawn army and all these lorries smashed up and broken up walk through there's just like to me a scene from Dante's Inferno I think everyone at this stage you know was just hoping for getting it out getting out getting onto a board getting away the next day Churchill reconvened the war cabinet again they discussed the German Peace Initiative Churchill urged his colleagues to reject it let us not be dragged down with France the approach proposed is not only futile but involves us in deadly danger Lauren Halifax was incensed Winston talks the most frightful rot he works himself up into a passion of emotion when he ought to make his brain think and reason I told him our ways must separate after just 17 days in office Churchill was facing the collapse of his cabinet and the loss of most of his army inside an ambulance packed with wounded men Ernie Leggett was on his way to the coast I was contended ghost with morphine and I must have looked one hell of a sight because at that time the stretcher bearers would in your own blood they put on your forehead what was wrong like come torniquet and morphine or whatever drug you were having tonight they telling me that had a tea and a name written to my own blood on my forehead I remember the ambulance being stopped the back doors opened I don't know where they was and I was taken across the road and III knew I was by the sea because I could smell the air around the port of Dunkirk over a third of a million men were waiting for rescue with little shelter from shelling or air attack the Royal Navy called for help from the British people manned by volunteers from all over the country hundreds of small boats trawlers and paddle steamers pleasure cruisers and tugs set out across the English Channel as they sailed towards the inferno of Dunkirk the world held its breath all around Britain families feared that their loved ones were about to be lost [Music] the evacuation started badly with the harbor destroyed most troops had to be lifted directly out of the water the man was standing in a long lawn right out to the water and the leading ones were after here have been standing there for hours waiting for one boat to come in and a minute it got there they all hung onto the side you had all this problem of emptying the boat the water and trying to get them in again by the end of the second day less than 1/10 of the men had been evacuated the German army was closing in fast threatening to capture all who remained and from the skies bombers attacked continually you care the bombs dropping the shells from the big warships booming out to sea and there was just one huge pool of smoke black horrible smoke all his smoke in the sky dimmed the Sun at times I couldn't walk and I was at the mercy of whatever happened III just couldn't get away when danger got close when the bombs were dropping then my commish would cover me up with their own bodies to shield me from being warded further that this what you called comradeship over two hundred British and French warships were soon involved in the rescue mission along with hundreds of smaller civilian craft he and neither cots destroyer HMS Keith sailed to Dunkirk through waters menaced by German bombs and torpedoes a white full had been coming out full of truths [Music] he was blown completely and off and they lost about 800 sold as in the water and a lot of them are still floating about in our floating in towards the beaches in their overcoats and God knows war on some parts of the beaches they'd had to stop rowing and pump because there were so many bodies flow in in the showers that you couldn't get your oar in and pull them into the beach so you just had to punt the boat through all these corpses to get into the beach [Music] and let could I pull it alongside a person with a mega for showing you'll all have to go back on the beaches 9 order 12 ships have been sunk and you know you're read about ships at its what 9 or 12 he says we'll try our best to get you up tomorrow so Baca Wentz along with the remains of his unit Martin MacLean had been waiting his turn to be rescued for three days and three nights we are shocked to think they've all begun we left prisoners of war hours and the Germans were shelling under a shell out hit the granite spear we come across this palin to french soldiers and they're all worn down blokes on a button with legs off dead or this pale up mornin a block stuck in the middle is Joe Glavin cut here and he's pleading fire berg and a blood squirting from him we were so shocked we shot off there under the Sun and left him but we'll come back to do what we could for him but it was hopeless then killer Dolly's man what a wasted life while most of their comrades still waited for rescue the first ship loads of troops arrived home to a nation in shock at the scale of the disaster in France I cycled down to see the troops arrive at the p.m. there was in a terrible state Benny was laying along the seafront thoroughly exhausted we could see the full horror of what was happening in the channel the worst part about it was seeing other people come home and you would think well he's not back yet he's not here is he going to be all right he was never doubted my thoughts really my friend's husband had come home two days before and those 48 hours I really began to think he wasn't going to come back in Downing Street Churchill also waited anxiously for news as the fate of his army hung in the balance he was now under intense pressure from Lord Halifax to respond to Hitler's peace initiative then in Halifax his absence Churchill summoned his other ministers to his room in the Commons he implored them once again to reject any deal and to fight on whatever the cost to their country or themselves if this Long Island story of ours is to end at last let it end only when each of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground Churchill's words United a fragile cabinet but if he could not get his army safely home he knew that his leadership and his war policy would soon be threatened once again five days into the evacuation rescue fleet faced the largest German air attack so far we were Amahl off the player hits a banker and when you look to the north you could see this great cloud of German aircraft and it was amazing there was layer upon layer of Fighters riding above them [Music] they all peeled off and we had 70 on us skipper worked up to full speed and he was slinging the ship from side to side now just suddenly sort of this stupid peering over the bridge practically it seemed to be always touching it and there's great big bloody yellow bomb and it's clamps there's a thousand pounder it's the part of the ports I did the next bomb blew up down in the engineer only killed everyone down there knowing a lot in there Cox and standing up on the signal deck screaming our abandoned ship and we took to the water and ready in the wall so you'd got survivors from five or six ships they were clambering around in the oil screamin and Yellin bloody cold and I've got this cold blast jacket always kept me up any right and we hang on to this Carly Rae often paddled away and we'd only got a few yards and couple of these German Messersmith kinda and they just opened up and pointed straight at us and just blazed away wrong across the top of the road killed the two blogs in or tried to dive under the wall to get away and couldn't we've got the head out of it we bloody fate was sticking through the bloody be any right are floated away and I passed out in the water and when I came to I was on my own thing and then I thought I'm probably going to die and I'd a long talk with more god [Music] after I think what it was we used to be told strength no more fainting soul and play the man and through such whining span of life as tool to beat rod prepare to meet thy God this island [Music] on the day that he and nether COTS destroyer was lost 30 other ships were sunk but still the operation continued without interruption and the Navy aided now by over 600 small civilian craft carried another sixty four thousand men away to safety we went queued up for to get an abortion X tear and I destroy I put it in and it there's the skipper or they some oneness and a big children honest crazy con john blinds jump we jumped in Missy let's rock Tom listen I was in and I pulled out in it when I came along and he dropped his bombs and it straddled the back of the board and the back there the ship lifted up and the water came all of what we got away all right after four days waiting without food or shelter Martin MacLean was finally crossing the English Channel landed in a poor and I showed up the man what place s MIT uses dov'è mate this is Dava I couldn't believe it [Music] the next thing I remember was waking up and I'm certain it was a New Haven and along came a Salvation Army nurse with a trolley and she gave me a lovely hot mug of tea and a cigarette I laid me on the jetty at Dover and I was sent to some crummy Hospital but the fact they are in Kent was me thinking I was going to have a lovely time in a civilian hospital was pretty nurses you know I landed that in Jillian with these monkey face sobs in the Navy you know they sit by tiffy you know the cruelest man out [Music] trains from all over southern England were commandeered to take the troops away from the channel course Martin MacLean 300 miles away from home was desperate to let his wife know that he was safe we got on the train and I had a luggage enabling me ordinary tie on Libre now wrote on the wife's address and I wrote in the back arrived safe and blady be senior soon I hope and I still get out without a stamp on she got that from the postman coming down the street and we still got a battery and she should these wear matches he's all right all right because when the mirrors come to a halt nothing for it you know [Music] I was at the hairdresser's when I got home his sister was Ranse Fred's home oh I couldn't describe the joy I felt and when I went down to his mother's we just hugged each other and he hadn't had a shave he wasn't washed he was hungry he done nothing to eat hardly but a lorry load of salmon they'd find on the way that had been abandoned never faced salmon afterwards the evacuation had gone better than anyone had dared to hope almost all the stranded British soldiers were rescued along with 80,000 French troops relief at the return of so many men temporarily masked what had been the most crushing humiliation in the history of the British Army it's a massive defeat it was a retreat but it was turned into the best marvelous heart-stirring miracle really this is the most magnificent sight of a generation this is the army under its magnificent leaders they have come back from a terrible and bitter battle but still in their tired and half-closed eyes is murder the spirit and cause for which they fight that has not gone that can never be taken away from them Churchill's seize the moment speaking to the world in defiant tones we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be to fight on the beaches we shall fight on the landing grounds we shall fight in the fields and in the streets we shall fight in the Hills we shall never surrender we taught him Syria he was a bulldog woman he had some funny ways but when he said we'll fight them on the beaches great you'll fight them on here everywhere that done the troops and the world and the country wonders despite the odds against us he made us believe that we could actually win that we were uncomfortable and he was asked in the in the Darr moment after the collapse of France and Dunkirk when we we rarely stood alone and in that moment of enormous peril he was asked if the are paintings from the rock from the National Gallery should be sent to Canada for safety and he said no no they should be hidden in caves and cellars we are going to beat them but Lord Halifax was not so sure he made contingency plans in case Churchill's bravado as he called it should fail behind the Prime Minister's back the Foreign Office sent a message to Germany via a Swedish diplomat keeping opened the option of peace talks Churchill quickly learned of the exchange and was furious he ordered his ministers to have no such conversations with foreign diplomats and instead to spread confidence in Britain's ultimate victory at all times not every British soldier was home Peter Vaux was still on the run in german-occupied France with two comrades from his abandoned tank he was hiding in an old monastery we realized that we were quite close to the river Somme and if we could only get there and get across there would be French troops the other side so we decided to walk to the Sun and we got into marshes then we got into bogs and it was lasting and we we were hungry and exhausted and cold and from time to time we saw Germans and heard German voices and we sloshed about in these marshes and we couldn't get anywhere near the river which is what we wanted to do and it was at that point that the major said I don't know we may have to give ourselves up and I said not yet and the corpus it not me some the men returned to the monastery local French villagers were afraid to help them but a refugee from Belgium was usually offered to show Peter Vaux the best place to cross the river Vaux in borrowed clothes posed as a refugee himself [Music] we passed two or three little positions of Germans until we got right down almost to the riverbank you could see the river men and there was a German position there with a sergeant major and they had a machine gun and he said let's have a look at your identity card so Susheela produces the identity card perfectly in order of course and they attend to me and then in yours and this Belgium was superb he turned on him like a tiger he said you as he told me afterwards he said you are a revolting race here is this boy only speaks Flemish parents killed by your horrible airplanes walked all the way from Belgium and you asked him for an identity card the German was quite shattered he said go I'm gone get away to America so we went away but when I was asked for my identity card my heart Stood Still Peter Vaux rejoined his companions in the monastery the three fugitives decided to wait until late that night and then try to swim across the river under the cover of darkness to fight in the fields and in the streets we shall fight in the Hills we shall never surrender giorgos words were broadcast in the United States journalist Whitelaw Reid listened alongside former President Herbert Hoover I was very concerned at the time of course about Bretton and I was thrilled by Churchill's words it was a terrific speech I think for rallying the forces and rallying people around the world and to the English cause but at that same time Herbert Hoover was in the household here last was sort of glum about it thinking that it was too late and it's too late for America to do anything and I just got a very negative feeling about his reaction for at all anyone in America who wanted to help Britain in 1940 had to contend with the powerful isolationist movement under the banner of America first tens of thousands attended rallies demanding their country's absolute neutrality the mainstream of isolationism is the America first committee one of the most powerful mass movements the US has ever seen folk hero Charles Lindbergh symbolizes its grassroots nature along with one-time Governor alfalfa Bill Murray and Montana's senator Burton Weaver he advocates the theory that the policy of isolation is as valid in 1940 as it was in 1776 [Applause] I think they believed in a fortress America that we could be strong and stay on our own and I thought America should come of age and we had to become involved and take responsibility for what's going on there was another reason why Washington did not rush to britain's aid many there were concerned about Winston Churchill's reputation as a heavy drinker Roosevelt reportedly told his cabinet I suppose Churchill is the best man that England has even if he is drunk half the time he's very unreliable when under the influence of drink Churchill's enemies in London shared the same anxiety they believed that the Prime Minister's war policy was driven by bravado Dutch courage Downing Street secretary Marion Holmes saw Churchill every day oh yes he was a regular drinker he drank quite a bit of brandy after but after a huge meal he drank with food that was the point I remember him being served lunch and checks he was very tired and he was working from bed and decided to have lunch in bed sardines which he loved and there were two crafts on the chair one had whiskey in it and one had water and I watched him pour his whiskey on his sardines and the water was still in the other Caravan so I felt this I've got to intervene and mention it he said one must be getting dotty but he never drank to the point of being the worse for wear and I remember him once saying I've taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me that really summed it up [Music] Peter Vaux and his two comrades waited for night to fall before making their escape across the river some one of them left a memento of his time hiding in the old monastery buildings that was corporal Burroughs he came from workshop and he'd been my driver for a long time you know with the tank you know your driver and you you are play very close indeed the rank doesn't enter into it really [Music] that night we did indeed go down to the to the riverbed the sergeant major wasn't there but there were patrols up and down and we waited and watched them and we realized that was at that gap of ten minutes between the time people went up and down so we stripped off all our clothes and did them up in a bundle which the major swam across with [Music] the Corporal wasn't a very good swimmer and I said I well I helped your cross and we set off but we'd all forgotten one thing and that was we hadn't eaten out through nearly a week and we were absolutely exhausted and I suppose the modern expression will be we were all so stressed out there was no doubt about it and then everything went wrong the major did get across the Corporal began to see and I grabbed him by the arms and tried to pull him [Music] and human bodies in what is slippery and his arms slipped from my hands I didn't grip tight enough I just hadn't the strength to do it and i actually have dived in and down and tried to get him bad that I couldn't and he was gone I I failed and then I don't remember getting out of that River but somehow I was aren't I've found myself on the far bank I longed to have saved him things haunted Midland rest my life Peter Vaux was helped by French soldiers and finally made his way home to Britain soon afterwards Paris fell and the French government opened peace talks with Adolf Hitler residents of England's southern coast expected to be the next target we knew after the defeat of our army the invasion from Germany was coming we'd wake up in the mornings and quite expect to see German troops stalking the town the population of Dover was 40,000 it got to 18,000 at that time the team was deserted but Dover was then becoming a fortress anti-aircraft batteries the seafront was bad wired they was erecting these concrete pillboxes overnight all the hotels of the day at the front at West Cliff had been taken over by the Navy and the bow bar was going up all along there but at that time you saw a lot of the Navy about it well you know there's somebody here we're not we're not going to be left unguarded as it way if something happens for 150 years Britain's Navy had dominated the oceans of the world but Dunkirk showed that her warships were vulnerable to air power then on the 17th of June German bombers sankt the troopship Lancastrian killing 4000 men for the Royal Navy it was the greatest single disaster of the war so far the Prime Minister was shattered by the news I haven't seen him suffused in grief at the loss and he'd cried and it takes a very great man I think to share his emotions it was very endearing in a way with warships on his mind Churchill cabled President Roosevelt pleading with him to send Britain 50 old American destroyers kept in storage by the US Navy mr. president I must tell you that in the long history of the world this is a thing to do now but Roosevelt refused saying that Congress and public opinion would still not allow such direct intervention in a foreign war meanwhile Roosevelt's generals carried out secret defense talks with the Canadian government talks aimed at bringing the Royal Navy under joint us-canadian control the moment Britain fell many influential Americans were by now thinking of a future without an independent Britain a top Nazi businessman threw a party at one of New York's finest hotels some of the most powerful figures in American industry attended including executives from General Motors and Henry Ford's son Edsel the Nazis guests were wined and dined and told to expect rich business opportunities in Hitler's new Europe convinced that Britain would fall at any moment white law read hurried across the Atlantic to cover the story for his family's newspaper [Music] I concluded that the invasion of Britain which I thought was imminent is going to be the biggest story since the birth of Christ and I wanted to be in on it and help him and I didn't get there for quite a while so I was very relieved on arriving to find that England was still in one piece Britain was not only in one piece read soon found that some of its people had been infected with their Prime Minister's bravado customs official seemed totally confident that all were to be well and he said he had taken his daughter in hand and he had shown her how to fit a broom handle into the end of a bottle and then he broke off the big end of the bottle and he said if any bloody Nazi comes in my house he he's going to get that right in the face well I thought it was unreal I thought Britain didn't have the means to defend itself at that point and they're in a kind of fool's paradise I know at one point I was talking to a woman she said she'd put a mattress on top of her tower so if she was going to be hit by a bomb it would bounce off four Americans already living in Britain war dominated every aspect of life this spring was glorious I remember having lunch in Chelsea with a dear friend of mine and talking about how beautiful the window boxes were and I was carrying on about the fantastic colours they were all so bright and garish and beautiful and heavenly and joyous and he took - said - come I'll show you show you another kind and we walked around a corner and there were two window boxes on a lovely little Chelsea house that had nothing but the darkest flowers a kind of a black tulip in a very purple pants and just as dark as they could be and he said the woman who lives in this house her husband was killed on a aircraft carrier that was sunk and she said that her window boxes will always be in mourning and for him as London's parks replaced flower beds with barrage balloons ambassador Kennedy decided that it was time to send his family and much of his staff home to safety Joe said breakfast he said I'm gonna send you home and my feelings were absolutely torn but there's as much as I missed my family I wanted to stay in England desperately wanted to stay a lot of the English drivers were still they were in the garden and they were talking in their wonderful cockney I heard one of the drivers say cor blimey the nuns have got to Paris and I just burst their tears you know it wasn't it had to happen I mean you knew it was going to but it just seemed like such a dreadful moment to think that the Germans went Paris Peter Vaux now back home found that despite the odds against Britain his own family had been infected with some of Churchill's defiance my father said to me can you get me a pistol and I did that he wasn't even elderly man the cause but but they lived in paint and they were very close to the beach he had a sort of feeling that if a german arrived on the bt he get one and Churchill remembered it say one of them one of his features you can always take one with you and that be exact in my father's attitude he wanted that pistol and I caught him one Peter Fox's regiment was ordered to the south coast to resist the expected invasion his first job was to find places where tanks and their crews could be based most people were eager to help but not all many cases people who got quite a lot to lose some of them would say what's the good look what they've done in France they will want you locked you weren't held them up they'll be in here in no time I don't want my Hospital but the thing was I was remembered was the little people the farm laborers the little farmer and the people in the terraced houses who was there marvelous they had so little to give and they gave it so readily here some factory workers who've organized their own defence Corps and fill in their lunch our Britain's volunteer army had plenty of fighting spirit but few modern weapons I found that men were sitting up nights making fishing poles and instead of a hook they put my wad of gunpowder on it and the idea was there would be hiding in holes every hundred yards or so and when a tank came rumbling by caught in the trap there would cast the Gunpowder on the top of the tank and explode it and that is how primitive some of the defenses in England were at that time the cables coming into Downing Street from Washington and Ottawa infuriated Churchill North America's leaders seemed obsessed with what would happen to the Royal Navy once Britain lost the war Churchill wanted them to help him win it or at least to help him survive an anxious summer but the military situation kept getting worse Italy had declared war on Germany side and France had just accepted humiliating peace terms Churchill's latest fear was that Hitler would seize the powerful French Navy thus threatening Britain's control of the English Channel and clearing away for the invasion of Britain it was a moment for decisive action at the end of June Churchill ordered his Admirals to seize all French ships in British ports and he sent a powerful force to demand the surrender of the main French battle fleet in the North African port of Iran aboard the British battleship HMS resolution was 18 year-old sailor Sam patience we didn't know until the actual sailing that we were going at to engage the French fleet who were trying to get to breasts or whatever German occupied France and we were told the purpose was to go and stop them gain the French were given the option of neutralizing or scuttling their warships negotiations dragged on but the result was deadlock the British Admirals were reluctant to open fire on men who had so recently been their allies but Churchill insisted ordering his Navy to settle the matter quickly [Music] we just opened fire on nor shattering though the ship seemed to shake you know you got a full selves over eight 15-inch cans Friday that's a lot on six inch batteries well all that one side the French warships tied up at the docks and unable to maneuver didn't stand a chance within minutes over 1300 French sailors were dead and many more were wounded caused a lot of damage that the key side was pottery buddies which we did with her Shelley you were never given you know a sort of fat crested mr. Weller was right or wrong as far as he was concerned he was just doing their job the fleet had to be stopped from going over to the gentleman's I didn't feel ashamed about doing that all was a question of them or us within days Churchill had put the better part of the French Navy beyond Hitler's reach some called it savage treacherous even but at a critical moment in the war it swung the balance of naval power back Britain's way when we heard this business of Iran we felt it was an awful thing because we tough floor I remember thinking of the time we'd seen the French sailors with the red pom-poms on their white hats at Shaba when we first landed it seemed an awful thing to be sinking their ships but we did understand it at least we did in the regiment we understood that it was necessary Churchill told Parliament that his action at Iran proved once and for all that his government would never make peace and for the first time since becoming Prime Minister he was acclaimed from all sides of the House of Commons the attack on Iran had a profound impact in America too after weeks of humiliation for the British cause here suddenly was proof that Britain still had teeth one New York newspaper editor wrote I'm for sending weapons to England so long as it's run by a Churchill who will fight President Roosevelt later said that Iran made him believe that the war in Europe might not end in 1940 after all and from July his policy to Britain took a much more positive line realizing that peace was now out of the question Hitler launched a new offensive in mid-july he ordered the Luftwaffe to take control of the English Channel and close it to all British shipping braving the pedals from Nazi invaders bent on challenging a supremacy on the scene [Music] I used to stand on the top of the western heights and what's the bombing of the convoys and I waved my fist up here the German bastards was the word I use my old mum said what did I hear you say Frank she said I've never heard you swear before don't you ever say that again I said well that's what everybody's calling them mum British fighter squadrons took to the air to protect the channel convoys the pilots were guided into battle by RAF ground controllers assisted by young technicians from the Women's Auxiliary Air Force like 20 year-old Edith heap they had furious battles over the convoys we used to hear them on the RT and it was like like a running commentary they'd look out there's somebody on your tail we could hear all that and and they'd say Oh sensei's being shot down you know there's a plane going down there's a parachute or there isn't one so you knew exactly what was happening [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and the girls in the radio cabins could actually say oh look out the something behind you you know do watch it and of course I couldn't hear what they were saying because they weren't it actual contact with them but it was very intense and we also heard all the language that they because you swear in battle you know buggers and blood ease and and and four-letter words and all sorts of things I mean which which you're going to say when you're being attacked aren't you and then and somebody got very uptight about girls hitting all this lines well we we weren't concerned with that hey we didn't know that me and B we didn't care about that we only cared about our pilots so tiller up destroyers steamed interviewer patrolling the seas against possible invaders suddenly a big flight of German dive bombers was recorded the tolling raf - hurtled to intercept them in the battle which followed nine Nazis were shot down really I suppose it was for the most exciting periods of my life to watch these dogfights we could hear the screech of the German dive-bombers in the channel the explosions it is flying a rooftop level you could see the pilot certainly the markings on the plane near the cannon shell blaze him into one another sometimes they they got stuck they couldn't get out you know because of the either the lid jammed the cockpit cover jammed or all there was fire now the fire it was the worst thing because they got terribly burned and then that was when they used to scream of course the screaming was was really really terrible [Music] and of course an awful lot of them went to hospital where these burn some of them pulled through something [Music] in July the RAF lost 110 fighters and shot down 140 German planes Hitler's attempt to dominate the channel was being resisted but only just Whitelaw Reid travelled to Dover to cover the story for his newspaper and prepare for the expected invasion well it was Hitler where most of the time that summer you know and the skies were bright blue and you can see the planes high in the sky had been asked down for the weekend by Secretary of State for war Eden at the time and I spent Saturday in their front yard with their children shooting bows and arrows and washing an occasional fight a German fighter come streaking across the sky so it was the nervous time and as a result a lot of people in Dover started living in the cliffs I remember the bombing of the Grand Hotel because I was up the street little ways and I heard things and got myself in the doorway of a shop and there was a great thunderous clap it's must have been the bombs hitting the Grand Hotel I guess and everything shook around me I hoped that the building wouldn't collapse and when I came out why a lot of glass looked like some new fallen snow in the street and I went back to the hotel and one wing was in rubble many of the American reporters in Dover began to feel an affinity to the British people in this their darkest hour witnessing the horrors of war firsthand red white law read to conclude that American neutrality must end the next day I was going out Shakespeare clef to see some of the dogfights overhead and all of a sudden there was a terrible screech [Applause] we went out to explore the beach and one of the things I found on the beach was an old man who had been too close to a blast and he'd been decapitated his head was lying close by and his dog lay by his side and it was a sad bit of evidence of the damage that was being done [Music] it seemed that the world was on fire and that we ought to do something about it they'd hit there was an evil that had to be eliminated somehow so progressively I came to that kind of thing and myself [Music] American writer Ben Robertson one of white law reads colleagues on the Dover cliffs later wrote about his feelings at this moment those were wonderful days in every way I lost my sense of personal fear because I saw that what happened to me did not matter we counted as individuals only as we took our place in the procession of history it was not we who counted it was what we stood for and I knew now for what I was standing I was for freedom I realized that good can often come from death I understood Valley Forge in Gettysburg at Dover reports from England began to turn American opinion pressure mounted to send substantial aid but time was running out from just across the channel the Germans were planning the biggest air attack in history the young fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force would soon be tested as never before [Music] the Battle of Britain is about to begin upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and the life in the world may move forward into broad sunlit upland [Music] finest hour the Battle of Britain was made possible by contributions to your PBS stations from viewers like you thank you

Channel: Texasbiology

Views: 47,814

Keywords: WW2, World War 2, documentary, history, military history, war, war zone, war files, tanks, Great Blunders of WW2, lufrwaffe, Whermacht, panzer, Afrika Corps, espionage, axis powers, War in Europe, War in the pacific, japan, germany

Id: uXu_PPca310

Length: 108min 22sec (6502 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 22 2019