DOCUMENTARY Finest Hour The Battle of Britain EP2 UL

[Music] the Battle of Britain is about to begin upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization the Germans were just the channel away and a lot of people didn't realize just how close the war had become and how final the outcome would have been the bravest people and I mean really brave were the ones who were terrified and went so the Germans came again so we fought them again no question no misgivings nothing romantic at all got it there's a job work Gentry well you did we were determined that they were not dangerous but we can really know what we're up against either [Music] war had come to Western Europe in the spring of 1940 Hitler's blitzkrieg knocked France out of the war and drove the defeated British army back towards the French coast where it was rescued by the Royal Navy in London some thought the war was lost but Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied his people to make a final stand Churchill looked to the United States for help but President Franklin D Roosevelt had to contend with the powerful forces of isolationism and was himself far from certain that Britain could survive the summer the eyes of the world were on southern England when on August 13th Nazi Germany launched the greatest aerial offensive the world had ever seen Hitler's orders were to destroy the Royal Air Force once this was achieved he predicted that Britain would be forced to surrender or else face invasion by his all conquering army Germany's 3,000 strong Air Force the Luftwaffe guaranteed their Fuehrer victory within a fortnight outnumbered three to one RAF Fighter Command braced itself for the struggle to come you think oh my god is its 400-plus which means anything between four hundred and a thousand can you no idea how it because I'm not comfortable so you've no idea what's coming and you know you've got sort of three and a half squadrons up against them [Music] must be some people very very worried because immediately before we actually incident the Battle of Britain our CEO and one flight miles just walked out so she we went into the battle with one flight commander only and a bunch of very young powers they just couldn't take you they just disappear from face the earth what happened to them I do not know Bob Dole left school when he was 14 a gardeners son the RAF nearly turned him down due to his lack of education age 19 he was assigned to fly spit fire fighters with 234 squadron based in Hampshire I was 100% convinced that I was shot down because I always had the feeling I was the worst Palin Scotland I was more scared of calling myself a child anyone else calling me work and that's really what drove me through I wasn't fighting between countries like mad Nam I just didn't want over here I didn't think is right we're sure Bob dough had never fired a shot in anger 1 on August 14th he was ordered into combat along with the 11 other untried pilots in his squadron [Music] he took off it run our first scramble flew in tight formation which is really stupid it means the only person who's looking around the leader if when I was spending the time for mating and we proceeded to do everything wrong that we possibly could do wrong all of a sudden we found herself the Midler couple 100 things the black crosses on I was so surprised thankfully returned unfounded lost three planes they just disappeared and with that stage we will spit up all over the face I found myself with my German bubble and and I thought my shitty skills were kept aside for that farm and he just turned over into the sea and I really thought thrilled because I hadn't made a fool of myself because I had expected to do the drama unfolding over southern England was watched avidly from the ground every day the newspapers and radio kept score as the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought for control of the skies [Music] in a way I think children sausages are not an adventurous game we're really not so concerned about our safety we were more concerned with the thrills Bess Walter lived with her family in Kentish Town North London her school had already been turned into an air-raid shelter had become part of our daily lives we learnt how to distinguish the sound of the Luftwaffe from the sound of the British aircraft one could tell what sort of plane it was dawnia's had us had a special noise they went whereas our aircraft had a much more continuous sound I could reasonably accurately identify the puzzles in the aeroplane spotter as silhouettes they used to give snippets of planes and you had to put a name to that plane so I can remember the Spitfires the Hurricanes the targa moths and to me that was a really extremely interesting we had thousands of cigarette cards on air raid precautions ships aeroplanes and collected those now read those avidly for boys like ten-year-old Alan Francis Britain's fighter pilots soon became idols our heroes were ace flyers the Douglas banners Salem alayan and cat-sized Cunningham I recall eating a lot of carrots having been told and fallen for it that cat-sized Cunningham who was an expert night fighter and he ate a lot of carrots of course it was until after the war that one read that the that was to hide the secret of the radar who that fooled I don't know but it certainly fooled me from the first days of the Battle of Britain radar was the RAF main advantage it gave them early warning of German attacks but with many more planes than the RAF Luftwaffe bombers still frequently reached their targets Britain's fighter bases we knew we were getting short of squadrons Aetna and and pilots but we didn't doubt that they would do it the pilots were protecting our country all our people everybody and so everybody was going to and that includes a fella civilians came to fight right to the bitter end Kendyl be killed in fact volunteer Edith heap was on her way to work at the operations room of RAF Debden near Cambridge when warning came of an enemy attack 8 o'clock in the morning the sirens went so we just set off ran like the clappers to the ops room and just got in before the door shut and then it started raising arms bangs everywhere a terrible noise and we just plotted through that you know because that's what we were there for one girl who was a silly little girl anyway started to get hysterics and she was comforted and that was it and that was the only one in all the time I was there that ever did that and it's a matter of half a minute two minutes something like that because they've gone their cross and gone and so that's it you probably don't have time to register the terror I think that's that's the whole answer because after what you think oh my god you know and I'm still here you have the fire engines and the ambulances screaming all over there at home as well quite chaotic people were very stoical about it everybody set about putting it right in getting as long as they could get the aircraft back in and service and offer game that was all that mattered and that was what was done thousands of civilians were mobilized to help repair damaged planes and patch up the battered fighter basis as the raf struggled to stay in the battle people in southern england feared that their homes would be the next target the immediate war caused quite a sensation in the school because we all had to take home a letter from the school authorities to say did we wish to be evacuated and it was a decision for the parents to take one option was to go to Canada for the war and I'll recall the discussion at home where my brother and I to be sent to Canada for the duration war and the decision thank you this was no we won't we're seeing it out one morning my mother said how would you two like to go to Canada well she nearly dropped the teapot because we both stood up and threw our hands up in the air and said when can we go [Music] in the school what caused the main sensation was the fact that of our school six went to Canada was hundreds of two of them went from all the schools it must have been all the same across languages but the ship has torpedo and there were these in our school six vacant desks in our class there was a Bruce Hilliard and a Henry Spooner [ __ ] my mates who were no longer there and that really hit home to us that there was going to be big trouble we met the train at Euston station it was like a scene from an Italian opera in many ways so highly charged emotionally the parents hugging their children children crying my mother looked at me and said grow up to be a good girl [Music] and I thought the funny why is she saying that my father said to me look after that young man meaning my brother and I said yes I would and I was a bit puzzled why why did she say grow up to be a good girl and I realized then that they thought that maybe they would never see us again [Music] [Applause] [Music] we could hardly wait and the thoughts of Canada filled us with a great joy I was only got 15 just 15 and I imagined Canada right next door to America and America had all the studios and the film stars and my brother was imagined that he was going to the land of free wild west where little cowboys and Indians he was nine [Music] in the first five days of their assault the Luftwaffe destroyed 140 RAF fighters we'd been knocked about we'd lost a lot of pilots and half a dozen new ones are posted there done every six hours flying in space allocation and if you'd imagine them sitting there we had no spare everything spare an airbed learned gently practicing let's see us take off eight thousand seven room come back seven palisade off six come back half today feel I think he must they I think they had Western and I ever had when we lost crows for instance we had what amounted to awake a suppose we used to either to the local pub or the mess and drink to them it was odd quite peculiar because it had an atmosphere of its own that nobody said anything but that's what you were doing you were actually drinking to them and the civilians didn't understand that from among the pilots who survived heroes emerged they were picked out for special treatment by their nations leaders among those honored by King George the sixth was one of Edith heaps colleagues [Music] well it was famous Becky Lee he was a fantastic pilot [Applause] we heard that he was going to give an exhibition and he got into his aircraft and he just made it I've never seen flying like it in my life before or since he had it inverted before he would have thought it possible and he just did the most fantastic show they were standing there open mouths much - I paid denied watching it and when he came back he actually had this wave of grass around his aerial they couldn't believe their eyes and then he got out helped out because he was still lame and and hobbled off as though it was just quite an ordinary thing to do you know he we really a super pilot realizing the importance of American public opinion the British authorities made every effort to promote Britain's resolve to the American press corps based in London [Music] CBS reporter ed Murrow sent back a stream of dramatic daily reports on the war in the air and about life in a country under siege mr. Fowler's flair the noise that you hear at the moment is the sound of the air-raid siren [Music] I'll just who's down in the darkness here along these steps and see if I can pick up the sound of people's feet they walk along but if the strangest sound one can hear in London these days or rather these dark nights just the sound the footsteps walking along the street like ghosts shot with steel shoes one of that murrow's closest friends was fellow broadcaster Larry the sir I remember feeling that I was a sentry for for my fellows in America why was a point man Murrow and I would go up on the roof every night and see where the action was good evening Larry landing in the course which is ready to push to the scene if bombs to drop in this area these ARP men and women are the ones who are standing by to help their fellow Londoners when the air-raid sirens just sent the other eight and a quarter million to the air-raid shelter oh the first time I had ever been under bombing I think I was thrilled by it really had a feeling that I was brewed I was a citizen of London dear old gloomy London back home millions of Americans were soon fascinated by CBS's daily live reports from the embattled city of London I think that was the the moment for an American public opinion gradually began to change page shooter Cooper had just returned from London where she had been working in the American Embassy everyone I knew listened and was horrified at what was going on but on the other on the opposite side to the higher just so immensely proud of what it was the British were doing and I got a letter from a friend in England it's saying the the British flying in the Battle of Britain our flying is if they're 18 years old and crossed in love I thought that was very very dramatic American newspapers in opinion polls began to turn Britain's way one paper that moved strongly in favor of offering firms support for Britain was the New York Herald Tribune owned by the Reed family 26 year-old Whitelaw Reed was working for the paper in London I think I was mostly reporting on what I was saying and I'm trying to develop sympathy of course when the fight that was being carried on but I don't think I got into the area of recommending that we go to war you wouldn't have a very good audience for me at that time if you had been advocating war so the best bet I think was to describe the English in in their finest hour which Churchill turned it really was their finest hour Winston Churchill had been pressing President Roosevelt to let him have 50 old American destroyers to boost the overstretched Royal Navy Churchill did everything he could to encourage American press support frequently inviting reporters like Whitelaw Reed to lunch at Downing Street it was great to see how he remained at the center of things there were not very many people there at lunch mrs. Churchill and Mary Churchill didn't talk too much to the time but afterwards he was really generous in what he had to say about the Herald Tribune it's exciting to be a small cog in the process of of reporting on what was going on and hoping to turn the tide just a little bit maybe in favor of America coming to the rescue at the end at the height of the Battle of Britain Churchill made a speech in which he spoke of a coming alliance between Britain and America likening it to the flowing waters of a great American River ed Murrow described the scene [Music] throwing back his head squaring his shoulders and looking up at the gallery the Prime Minister said like the Mississippi it just keeps rolling along let it roll let it roll on full-blood inexorable irresistible to broader lands and better days [Music] dear mr. Churchill I must send you a brief though belated note of thanks for your delightful luncheon at 10 Downing Street last week the tribute you paid the work of The Herald Tribune was most heartening and should inspire it to ever greater heights I only hope it can succeed in inspiring those destroyers may your Mississippi roll on until it floods the nation yours sincerely sensing that opinion in America was turning his way Churchill cabled Roosevelt offering to trade British military bases for the old American destroyers white law reads families newspaper urged the President to act well we were hoping of course that the deal would go through the destroyer Dion The Tribune had been supportive of that idea but it was a difficult political situation that had to be manipulated very carefully by Roosevelt at the time the presidential election was just three months away if Roosevelt agreed to send the destroyers he risked losing the votes of millions of Americans who were determined not to be drawn into a foreign war Roosevelt called this the most agonizing foreign policy decision of his presidency [Music] fifteen year old best Walter was about to realize her American dream about to cross the Atlantic with her brother Lewis they set off from Liverpool bound for a new life in Canada when we were taken to the docks first thing the next morning there was this magnificent ship lying in the hull and as we walked up the gangplank the most amazing sight met our eyes it was a floating palace 90 children in their adult escorts boarded a cruise liner named the city of Banaras for the 12-day journey and so we sailed out into the pool bay and we heard the sounds of children singing all the way along because we all stood on the deck and sang wish me luck goodbye and all the ships in the harbour hamat and as we sailed off we felt nothing but pleasure [Music] the cameras are on the deck just above the road bathrooms which were set aside for the children and boys were on one side of the ship the girls were on the other so my father's instructions to look after that young man didn't get very far because I really had no idea where he what he was getting up to which was probably just as well [Music] this was a new world for us there was a wonderful play room for the little ones because there were some children as young as four on board there was a beautiful rocking horse that we could see from the outside this beautiful rocking horse had two baskets one each side like huge panniers that took three children you see one riding the horse and two children sitting in the baskets having come from wartime Britain the site of the food that all meals was just unbelievable I was very fond of ham here we had York ham in rolls what impressed me most was the fact that the ham hung over the edges anything we wanted we got we were in seventh heaven we felt as if we stepped into the Arabian Nights [Music] on the morning of August 18th the Luftwaffe launched its largest attack yet on British fighter bases [Music] RAF commanders through every available fighter into the air [Music] we weren't practicing any longer.we Retton we knew it all we was waiting for at twenty years old hurricane pilot Kenley was a veteran known as Hawkeye by his colleagues he had already shot down seven enemy planes you can climb up to five or 8,000 feet and being an engagement and we're back on the ground in 25 minutes refueled and rearmed it off again with Enya [Music] I was keen to get up and get Assam as it were and increase my score if our true tiny hair is that when you've actually seen the menu and you don't need the ground control to tell you any further now you've got them in the eyeball I was greatly bring her straight in bald-headed to the shortest route possible to amend this didn't give him time to think what is going to do while Spitfires took on the fighters that escorted German bomber squadrons hurricanes attempted to strike the Bombers themselves their best chance was to get enough height and dive down from out of the Sun he climbed up and up and up and up 17,000 feet we were struggling for heights all the time forcing and pushing it on your thought to try and get the aircraft to catch up and get within range [Music] you fly the plane through the unsigned consider what you're doing is straight around what happens the players instantly you only got about thirty seconds of fun you can put a little burst there to begin with to liven them up or distract the area guns give her eight guns firing something like 1200 rounds a minute and there's a lot of bullets in two seconds and as we climbing up through a little Brady at the cloud it's all about 40 or 50 the Heinkel it was whole load of Ju 88 remember getting middle occupant immense damage run I was shooting and his side and his tailbone off and the first thing I knew to the back and my lady shot up in the air there's a bullet in the back of the leg and immediately it was smokin and flames coming out from underneath the nametag but was soggy like your wellington you've got waiting in the stream with the blood Film School he will start coming out and pulling their parachutes the last one out pulled his parachute too soon for my soul's parachute burning away as they went down [Music] I was without control and with smoke and flame so that and this time I rolled it on its back and mr. State forward and did my Belton I didn't unplug my oxygen so that nearly pulled me back in the day I fell out the weren't trained in the use of parachutes and only we heard the night before about the theory that you six seconds for a thousand feet so and then my mini Thomas thought were always soft wads been rumors that the Germans were shooting down people in parachutes I didn't send too happy hung up there waiting to be shot so I dropped down to about 5,000 feet I was going round and round around head over heels and tumbling around when I pulled the chute he came up between my legs and I could well have got wrapped up in it like a parcel and then of course I came wafting down in a cornfield and an old chap jumps out from the core with a military cap on and I got which apparently he'd captured in Gallipoli himself from the Turks I wasn't in uniform by resisting shirtsleeves no means of sort of identifying myself so he held me at gunpoint until the London Irish arrived and took me off to the to the local golf club for a refresher by the end of this day many RAF bases had suffered extensive damage but none had been closed the RAF shut down 69 German planes at the cost of fifty one of their own fighters August 18th became known as the hardest day it was the most exciting battle I think you could wish to hear because that's all we could do was hear it but they were falling out of the sky all over the place it was really exciting it was a bittersweet kind of day because we lost quite a few pilots some came back some didn't several of the pilots Edith heap guided into battle that day didn't make it back among them was fighter ace Dickie Lee [Music] he set off after to anyone in owns I think they were across the channel and he hadn't enough petrol and we knew he hadn't enough petrol and he just disappeared obviously into the sea and I think he just didn't care and he was determined to fly into them if necessary colliding and not bend down because that was done more than once not always by accident they were going to get them whatever even if it means your life three days after leaving Liverpool the passengers on board the city of Banaras received warning of a storm ahead the weather deteriorated very fast the captain said there is a gale stay below and in fact the gale blew up into a gale force 8 nobody who has not been on board a ship in the North Atlantic in Gales probably hasn't much idea of how ferocious it can be so we were quite happy to stay below but storms were not the only hazard to travel across the Atlantic from beneath the waves German submarines were attacking commercial ships with increasing success in an attempt to starve the British the Royal Navy had too few ships to give proper protection just when everyone was fast asleep they came the most terrible explosion [Music] the whole boat shuddered the lights went out someone I don't know who came along took me by the hand and said come on with me and led me up onto the boat dead where the scene that met our eyes was one of total chaos to start with the boat deck was now at this position because the ship was sinking the davits the Tonga from the lifeboat cars they were being let down at the same angle as the ship was sinking so they were swinging wildly and the boats themselves were rocking so getting into the boats was a miracle I was picked up bodily and flung into the most of the children did not get into animals some children jumped and were picked up by men on rafts but sometimes it was impossible to retrieve the children I had been told by my father's you know that I had to look after my brother I assumed because I'd seen so many children fail to get into lifeboats that he had failed by this time the ship was sinking fast and a lot of the boats were erected by this downs well that was caused by the solution [Music] we stopped by in the middle of the Atlantic in a lifeboat grossly overcrowded it was rocked environmental side to side and we were pulling away when the light waves as we knew it would turn that time [Music] it was like going down a vast green shiny watery tunnel and then I did in fact feel myself alone and as I came incredibly I had come up close to the upturn life and I stretched out and my hands clutched onto the peel and across from me on the other side of the hole was another young girl about my age her name was Beth the waves seemed like mountains I suddenly saw that wonderful rocking horse that came from the children's nursery rocking up and down on those waves [Music] throughout late August Luftwaffe bombers kept coming but RAF pilots despite their inferior numbers remain defiant we knew we were holding let's put it that way we knew we were taking the bombing and that we were coping with it there's no sense of defeat at all an intense routine of daily sorties taught British pilots that the faster more nimble Spitfire could outmaneuver any German plane the spitfire became part of her it was worth beautiful creature and I fell a bit in love with her I used throttling very gently and also this tremendous powers of missing gears with their fame that is much wonderful feeling you were part of the air you're a bird in the air you didn't have a think about turn you did turn it just automatically went we won't see an airplane you were part of the air this was a dream [Music] in the heat of battle some young pilots surprised themselves it's this Christian ego I suppose you reckoned you were doing all right thank you very much and your ground crew side taking a pride in you too it wasn't so you've got about five or six shot down that you studied them ground crews a painting little sausages on the side you airplane and this was rather nice first time in my life when I began to realize that people were looking at me and grateful for something I'd done I was really a big fan of Biggles was a child who's John's stories of Biggles I used to read a lot of those and I remember that when you got five kills he became an ace I thought good god I'm nice I never said anything about it but I felt really chuffed I had a private celebration I had a pint of beer before I would bit never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many Kentucky in a speech broadcast around the world Churchill paid homage to the courage of RAF pilots the fighter fighters whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day I hope indeed I pray in Washington his words no longer fell on deaf ears President Roosevelt finally acted and pressed Congress to accept Churchill's request for American destroyers it was quite a bitter debate and all the isolationist types didn't want to have it happen because they thought it might lead us further in the war of course but I think a number of leading politicians in the US on both science Democrat and Republican supported it and so the day was carried news of the destroyer deal was greeted with fury in Berlin where Hitler rightly saw it as a move towards American entry into the war but it was announced with delight in London the government of the United States in return for the grant of setting bases in British possessions in the Western Hemisphere will turn over to the Royal Navy 50 American destroyers to be delivered ready for immediate use in the North Atlantic convoys now urgently needed this new help they were under strict orders to keep going in the event of an enemy attack survivors like best Walther were routinely left behind with little hope of rescue we had gone past the stage of feeling pain our faces were swollen our tongues were enormous could hardly see our eyes were beginning to cleanse and we were very near death I wished to return to my parents to explain what had happened and how it was that my brother was no longer alive that's what drove me and I said through my swollen lips to Beth we'll hang on and she said yes its sheer animal instincts to survive because there was two of us weber if you like inextricably linked we've gone that far we were not in the business of giving in [Music] the Battle of Britain was now hanging in the balance even the most experienced pilots were feeling the strain damn it we're on on duty of the airfield from half now before first light until half an hour after last light and in middle of summer that's a long time so we spent more time asleep [Music] luckily we had someone to wake us up a Batman and we wander down to the mess wander down fool the rotten mess where they'd serve you that nos Atos the thing they called batter I don't know what was in her axle grease really everybody on the campus died didn't matter if your cook or what you were you you were tired on the long watch we used to get 20 minutes off in the middle of it and everybody used to fall asleep on everybody else's shoulder sitting around the stinking oil stove it was amazing that they they managed to fight the way they did because they must have been suffering from wrongful exhaustion I think this combination of short and broken periods of sleep and tension - together became very tiring [Music] [Music] the weather was still as bad as ever clouds were studying across the sky gathering ready for nightfall and then suddenly and quite unaccountably I saw something moving on the horizon and this spot larger and larger larger until the shape became that of one of his Majesty's destroyers steaming towards us being battered by the waves going as fast as any ship possibly detached from another convoy HMS hurricane had been given exceptional orders search for the survivors from the city of Banaras having spent all day looking the crew was on the point of giving up when they spotted the upturned lifeboat we were too close to death to make any kind of move we watched a lifeboat being lowered and the men inside it were cheering and shouting and saying hang on hang up we're coming we could hear noises coming from the destroyer and it sounded like a rugby crowd they were the men cheering and shouting the Coxon of the lifeboat stretched his hands out and said to me come on darling let go do you know I couldn't I couldn't let go my hands were stuck tight and he forced my fingers back away from the keel and took me bodily put me inside but and there we were rescued just in the nick of time the Luftwaffe continued to bombard RAF bases in the belief that the British were down to their last few hundred fighters but they were mistaken Britain's aircraft factories were now producing twice as many fighters as Germany's and surviving pilots like Bob Dole had grown in confidence excited you knew the severe rotted the king I said as fear but after a few trips and I realized that I was coping with it they became excitement and eager to get out and it made people grow up quickly as well and then alright 1920 they're very young but they soon became men you could visibly see that happen because when you're going up and and icing with death every five minutes you're going to lose that you found him well in two months I just went from being an immature and rather scared young boy to being a fully grown and very competent firepower after 20 hours in the water Bess Walter was confined to her sickbed on HMS hurricane she was unaware that only 7 children out of 90 had survived the sinking of the city of Banaras when we got on board the destroyer we were looked after like princesses nothing was too good for us we were housed in the officers cabins while they had to sleep in the mess the surgeon left Hamlet said to me Columbus get better quickly well I said it's bit difficult because I'm just thinking now of what to say to my parents and he said don't worry he said they'll be so pleased to have you he said some mummies and daddies won't have anyone and the day after that the captain banged on the cabin and shouted to me sit up miss so because you all did what the captain said you sat her I did he said I've got a present for you and from behind his back he produced my brother my brother had been rescued some time before me and there he was saying to me what are you doing lying there and just like a very cross mother I said where have you been and then of course we had a big hug the kisses which disgusted him [Laughter] best Walter and her brother returned to a country that was being attacked in a new and terrifying way deprived of immediate victory by the RAF unexpected resistance Hitler had changed tactics British air bases were no longer the only target for his bomber fleets now the Luftwaffe were ordered to attack the British people in their cities and their homes the assault began over London on the afternoon of September 7th 900 German aircraft reached the city almost unopposed their target was the biggest commercial center in the world the London Docks was on the saturday afternoon the planes come over and they bombed and bombed and bonded when it started to get in down all you could see over then Surrey docks why I don't if you know it was all a big red glow we didn't know where to go that was no shirt was provided none none no shell was providing my dad said we go under a B Street arch and we went under the arch and we sat on the payment all the way it was coming there in the wall and I remember one woman mrs. Parr she's an old name of Esmond I loved from being there she prayed to hell marry all night I said oh mrs. power for goodness say she died doing a Hail Mary well that's what they believe in and it but other people they just said them I don't think we slept the first couple nights under there I can't see how we could have slipped it was so noisy [Music] Hitler was convinced that once the British people saw their capital city in flames they would lose the will to resist no one knew if he was right never before had the population of a major city faced such a sustained bombing attack on the streets of the burning capitol many of those whose job it was to give assistance found themselves helpless and afraid hello shocked herbs trembling at one time frightened at another time self-preservation I was alive and made sure I was going to be alive that was my first thought I'm going to be alright second thoughts what can I do for others after a while you thought there wasn't much you could do the arrest in the help people and when you saw people here being injured them blintzes couldn't get to people and you had people that were dying while you were looking after them the roads were blocked buildings were down across the roads and when I think about it there was some nightmare all you did was hid when the bombs were coming praying it wasn't going to be you I was more frightened in that 7th of September then there was any time in the lodge watching from the fringes of the East End a shocked ed Murrow reported on the scale of the attack and ins emergency services were overwhelmed firemen were called in from all over the country Ted Wilson a 16 year old volunteer from Coventry had to ask for permission to travel south iWitness mother and she says all go on while I was getting into me uniform my mother she made a great big pile of some I would never forget great big part of sandwiches for us to eat under way and there was only lard pure lard sandwiches with all sprinkle of salt on and away I went and I said to somebody where we going and they did say we're going down to silver town on the docks in London inflating the fire sixteen firemen were killed by high explosive bombs and five by forty walls it was everything you've got the bombs dropping down sometimes in the fires that you're actually trying to put out and the sky didn't exist that was a blackness now seeing walls fall down trapped I saw policemen and you could hear the shrapnel not from the bombs but from the shells Burson up above and sprinkling down just like rain there's no doorway or alleyway for a fireman to go into yes to stand there and take what's coming down Londoners sought refuge anywhere with solid walls in one neighborhood an old billiard hall became a makeshift shelter music and coast all the young people wanted to go they didn't know and now said tomorrow and they did it go into Butler's wolves let's go in the billiard hall we try to go in the billiard hall Betty was pull up and all the people in the villa door was all the girls are in a school with all my age 18 Lily's friends and all that and when we come out the bomb had fallen through in the billiard hall and exploded inside and blue blue altarpieces I mean they didn't even bury the people they couldn't even sort of met they come on shocking I've done if it didn't leave Williams Oh Rosie Williams she got killed and felt bad and another tell what all younger people 17 and I am people would die now all over the place all in the first four days of what soon became known as the Blitz 1,500 civilians died Nazi bombers dominated the skies the RAF made little impression upon them we just did our damndest to stop getting there but we couldn't Salomon really on this first two long-term rates we'd taken off quite late and we tended to be underneath the raid we haven't rata altitude list through this way before that arrived and so we're fighting out disadvantaged you were fighting uphill set it down and the thirds London raid I climbed like stink from when I took off so I managed to get above them and not occasionally got one called happily but for Lazarus I did it really felt sorry for them bombs were also falling on the center of government there was a terrific air raid one night and Churchill had been giving a dinner party and he thought about mrs. land amah his cook in the kitchen with kitchens Lamberton have these vast windows and he went into the kitchen and insisted that mrs. land MA and the assistant cook coming to the shelter with us which was just as well because the next morning that hell kitchen was covered in shattered glass they would have been killed easily the atmosphere inside number 10 was bleak some of Churchill's ministers feared that Hitler was right and that Londoners would break under the strain we went about our business social rather numbed inside not recognizing the danger try not recognize it we certainly felt in our hearts that we were going to be reduced to rubble we felt this is it American reporters were also caught up in the bombing one found his way into the smartest bomb shelter in town and after our place was bombed why I slept in the basement of the Savoy for a while one or two nights I slept next to David Bowie's lion the Queen's brother and he couldn't have been nicer or more friendly I was good to see something of him there was a good barracks behind in the bottom of the Savoy Hotel radio press and newsreel coverage of the bombing of London Unleashed another wave of pro-british sentiment in America as President Roosevelt began his re-election campaign it became clear that if he won Washington would move swiftly to offer Britain unprecedented military and economic support on the oceans Britain needed this help desperately while Hitler's Air Force battered London his submarines intensified their attack on British merchant ships in the North Atlantic they were essential to Britain's survival carrying half of the nation's food and raw materials the Royal Navy heard ships together in two convoys and tried to protect them Ian Nethercott ship had been sunk at Dunkirk four months previously when he had been badly injured still only nineteen he was now on convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic serving on one of the former American destroyers [Music] at that time we could only have that four or five escorts to the con with 40 shares [Music] sometimes in the night would be a little naughty bang in the middle of the convoy you'd see lights and flares and things guy not be could be played on the combos always kept down [Music] just imagine every night when alternative more Buncombe little torpedoes slams they're doing now I'm already trapped down below there's no way up and get out from me and I'll just stay they go down him it done in the morning he'd make a count even I'm the only one missing or two missing you know then you couldn't pick up the who often diamond C's were so rough and if they weren't in boats or anything if they were just in the water you just have to leave them if you got an ass dick ping and neighbor right over the top of it you still went in and dropped your jet charges well a months and blew them all the basis and there was one or two occasions where these poor buggers you know thought that they were going to be picked up and they were all waving when the ship just plowed on straight through them and for their charges you know you've killed all your own ones you've got a sacrifice son for the good of the law you know and they knew it you know if you sweat past it more number there was two or three of these notes and then we were speeding up to get in with the convoy and we had to leave them in the middle and with it they were in they got like built something that they were gonna die [Music] and this bloke realized it and he was sharing it taxi taxi taxi he just tried to make Eli you know he knew he was gonna die I knew we couldn't stop and only good here in the distance was in taxi find it a wine [Music] my old man weep thousands of Londoners were now bombed out of their homes many trekked into the countryside and slept in fields in silver town close to the Royal London Docks local people were gathered together in a school and told to await buses they were to go to South oval school where they would be buses to take him to a safe area right so we all makes our way around to this place well we get there rolled on the corridors and everything we're all sitting there waiting to be shipped it but the promised buses failed to arrive instead the corridors and classrooms quickly filled up as hundreds more homeless people arrived at the school that's lack of experience what they had you see you took people down there thinking there was gonna be safe you left him there for two days and nights the families waited in vain for transport just yards from the docks [Music] they put people it's a factory there as a labs are very good and they see iam the class works there I mean aerial photo they could look down XE there must been some sort of factory or effort that wherever it was you know [Music] no Santa Minister for they was this vivid flesh never seen so many brilliant colors in my life the doors of this school rooms came across in tears all over the top of this pitch screaming women screaming we will fall all I was thinking of my dad my dad with my dad a lot he was sharing it your Heder and then he same older you are that was his stepmother yeah he said where's the old man she said I don't know any team Pico and the teeth weakness of a bear I don't know they came round but these lights they start digging simple in the south we was told it was an aerial torpedo or a mine aerial mine but when I see it it's sliced when off of it and all that whatever is down it's berry doing everybody down in it into the crater I swear they would dose again in that crater [Music] then this woman signed to the label who always Jimmy that's him with the brown jersey let's just go Scout medals on its other documental de cologne no dear me there was so many killed in that Bible School [Music] on the rescue side of it those what weren't in complete part what bits and pieces they could get hold of which was understandable there was what we had but you still have rabble baskets and it was usual in baskets for whatever they put you know wherever they could find pick up [Music] go straight for there [Music] there was a lot more people in with you butcher they said buried in there eventually they they realized that they were the best thing to do was to cover that up you know I think they did there's no telling how many people got buried in the Avett at this time you know mr. Winston Churchill goes down the London River to inspect the situation in Docklands much of the damage has been repaired all facilities are available London and it ducks are still carrying on the Prime Minister's upbeat performance here the intense official concern about morale and Docklands the premier with his wife makes a big tour of inspection and encourages everyone by his inspiring presence not everyone was inspired by Churchill's visits or by his oratory I fell on his Tower no good to get your misses and kids and buried nor knocked out what would you say you've got finest hour wouldn't be prepared a bit more prepared for all this [ __ ] was were disgusting disgusting the show's detaching a dirt and a smell and a stink and and and people scratching their selves with scabies things like that after spending days inside inadequate shelters crowds of Londoners barged their way into the city's underground stations and forced the authorities to keep them open all night wealthier bundlers found other ways to escape the danger of course distinction went on even during a journey the Blitz those who had the money who could get away to you know in the country somewhere winner nosing you know those who had to stick it out that was it you know that was a bundle London suburbs received far fewer bombs than the East End for many children there the war in the air was a source not of fear but of fun I can remember watching dogfights on the way home from school and always hoped I will see a dogfight now there will be good lads putting their lives at risk but to a youngster that really was big stuff did many nights stay with my father outside the back door overlooking this valley where we could see so much as six miles across and either side there were no traffic lights no shop lights no background light of any sort and the whole thing was just pitch black the activity at night was at times intense one could hear that German airplanes droning although they were very heavily laden and the searchlights would try to pick them up and we were willing these searchlights to to do just that and indeed if they did pick up a plane in which they did once or twice it would shine up like a silver light in the searchlights and they would all switch onto pit then all hell relators and they would far these traces for a ten-year-old that was absolutely extraordinary now and again and this is when my father got me back inside you could hear the aware of the shrapnel buckle and it would hit a roof and the tire would slide down and there was a lot of exchange of shrapnel home swaps and a show bass was a prized possession at Shaukat it was a rare bird and I had a good collection after eight days of bombing the RAF changed tactics bringing over 250 Spitfires and hurricanes together to savage a big daylight raid London's embattled inhabitants could at last see their own pilots tearing into the enemy their heavy losses forced the Luftwaffe to stop daytime raids on London the Bombers still came by night but Londoners could now at least go to work in safety and a new spirit began to grow people never moan they never bone they they've gone with what they do they got up and went to work and come home from work and change into a pair of trousers and I'll jump up and went down the shower and got up in this from the shirt and went home and change and win a world it was this kind of Karen I'm not going to give in to Hitler I remember getting across Westminster Bridge once and there was a terrific item and there was just think coming down obviously quite near but you would hear the whistling and loads of people threw themselves on the ground which isn't incredible I mean a sensible thing to do but some of us didn't and they asked you was I'm not gonna stray myself defiance really by refusing to leave London even during the fiercest raids Marion Holmes employer Winston Churchill came to symbolize the British people's resolve in the face of danger despite the bombing and everything cabinets were usually held at 10 Downing Street even when we had moved to the annex for morale purposes and these could go on quietly at night and we would then walk across from 10 Downing Street through the Foreign Office courtyard to King Charles Street in town and one night he was he we'd gone and he was walking over with his detective Thompson and a tremendous bomb was coming down I think it was the one that exploded on some Thomas's Hospital which as the crow flies was relatively near and Thompson threw himself on Winston Churchill to the ground and church was florist shed toast don't you dare do anything like that again and Thompson said well sir they can replace me but nobody can replace you and Church it oh I'm sorry Thomas there's a very concealer tree as I say he had seemed to have an almost almost careless regard for his own safety well he was also amazing exciting it was a tremendous excitement really there was a poem used to recite and I remember he mentioned the words eager hearted and that was what he was eager hearted to see that the British Islands and the bridge Empire didn't go go under this monstrous tyranny of Nazism monstrous tyranny [Music] we had a hell of a scrap of a Portland which about a hundred enemy aircraft the messerschmitt one mono whipped up in a stall turn and I gave him a long burst got him a Messerschmitt one one nose tail and sent it down in flames the bomber crashed in the field I got involved suddenly there was a blinding flash on my port wing and I felt a hell of a blow in my left arm and then blood run down re a fighter pilot still carried the brunt of the war Dennis Whistler was a 20 year old hurricane pilot he had been in combat almost every week since May Whistler served at RAF Debden in Essex when off duty he mixed with the young women who worked on the base the first time I met Dennis I was driving a tractor and he threw some sand in my engine and stopped it and I made him start it and that's the first time remember seeing him I think you stopped it you started so he did he never really smiled properly because he had two teeth that he was ashamed of that you know he should have had them taken out but he had his own way of smiling there was such a handsome lot he never occurred to me till much later and Sunday once said but they were all so handsome I thought yes so they were noticed it you know because they were all all like that I mean there were budding romance is all over the place but we were always silver promised that the girls and the boys you know they was all very proper I mean sometimes they held your hand and that was it you know very exciting [Music] sometimes we went all room dancing both very dignified am I tell you it was a chance to get together and talk and I suppose flirt if you like they were there were lots of flirtations women but we had to be back at quarter past ten sometimes we got an extension to half past ten which was absolutely fantastic I suppose in a way you were afraid to go beyond the bounds but some did in fact when I dunno about but did and she used to pinch everybody's boyfriends and we could never understand how she did it until later I found out a few years later Sunday the 29th of September did nothing during the day but there was the usual band in the mess and when they packed up I completed the party at the sergeants miss met Edith heap and fell in love with her at sight I rather cut Margaret Cameron and I'm not so popular with her as I was apparently he decided that he quite liked me and he said are you coming to the squadron dance because they were going to be moved to martyr ship and they were having a sort of special dance so I said yes we've been asked don't have to worry about it so when we came off duty we all flood in and he's waiting for me and it just went from there and and I never got near the bar and we danced and then he said he wanted to photograph so we went back to my billet and fetched a photograph and they went often tomatoes from the next morning arranged him to write to each other every day and me when we could which is what we did [Music] as Dennis Whistler and Edith heap danced at RAF Debden Hitler's bombers struck at London once again [Music] I went to sleep on the seti underneath this Arnie book and my mother had got some sugar and rhubarb and was going to make some jam the next morning and this was for some reason rather I knew was near me that the this particular canister at about 2:00 in the morning but but here shouting and people calling them bells and the fire brigade others a large sunny realized are looking into the garden and they're no French windows they've gone and I could see through into next door I still couldn't comprehend what had happened because there was a lot of dark and I thought our Arno withers and sugar I'll just have a I didn't hear the bang but obviously was awakened by it and I reach down into this preserving pain to pick up some sugar and picked up a piece of brick and put that in my mouth and spat that out [Music] my father was okay my mother who was lying next to him under the table was hit by the middle wall which came when justjust crushed her [Music] I was carried out by police inspector I remember saying to the inspector that I knew what all this stuff in the road was called it was called debris I felt very proud of the fact that I could use that word and know what it was oh yes he said that's de brie and and we were taken to this house opposite [Music] my father who went to the hospital and was there told my mother and being killed he came back to the house and his hair was standing straight up on him just like it used to in the children's comics with anyone who'd had a shot and he said that she had died now still didn't really comprehend you know the immensity of that where I kept strange as it may seem a stiff upper lip oh I get more upset thinking about it all these years old then I did at the time I pretended that nothing had happened I did not get upset about it although I knew I should've done maybe it would have been better Wednesday the 30th of October Peters took over for me today and I went to meet Edith as soon as possible thank God it seems to be the real thing this time [Music] when we were together it was quite out of this world but literally he was a delight he was funny he was terribly romantic we used to laugh a lot back to go generally it was something you don't see often and perhaps war intensified it abate and every moment you're together as precious you see women were new in the forces and they were worried that things would get out of hand and we get pregnant and all sorts of mayhem and they might've even thought it was bad for the boys because they did say that they didn't like their pilots to get engaged in things because it destroyed their spontaneousness they started to worry too much and I think they were probably right because he started being careful and you can't be careful when you're a fighter pilot you have to go in full throttle and not not be worrying about some woman the left--it base through the fall Hitler extended his night bombing offensive Oh Southampton Liverpool Bristol and Cardiff all suffered on November 14th the Luftwaffe hit Coventry in force teenage fireman Ted Wilson now back from London faced the world's first man-made firestorm the whole place was like bonfire night sparks everywhere and in a short space of time I lost the eyebrows and eyelashes all the hair and immerse still on me that's all gone often I thought about my mom and dad also my sisters and my brother I knew that they would be in me fully lane tunnels underneath the railway I know they thought of me and prayed for me during the night I went to another part of the city to put out a small fire I mean just clearing up when we heard that the Conti Cathedral was on fire and he would burn him pretty bad [Music] and I felt really really terrible at that time because I'd already been on the Cathedral twice per send us off and now I knew that the ascenders had gone in through the roof led and into the rafters which were like matchsticks and there won't be much to save it was at that moment that I did did shed a tear because the cathedral was my city it was a symbol of our city as a child he was never called a coventry kid until he had been a big cathedral spire and had a look around and the station officer he said to me about 20 past seven well we feel like dead as soon as he how you folk are on his way home Ted Wilson learned that the tunnels in which his family were sheltering had been struck by bombs as I was walking down there towards the tunnels there was two gentlemen at the other end of the tunnel one of them he walked towards me and he put his arms around me and said well done son in return I just turn around and said to him many opportunities of the day that it was his birthday and that's a house in Norfolk the devastating attack on Coventry shocked the world Whitelaw Reid traveled there and had to get special permission to inspect the ruins [Music] we cleared all the hurdles and about looking at the piles of rubble and looking the remains of the beautiful Cathedral there I don't remember particularly bodies I think I got there a day or so after the bombing saw the bodies had probably been removed by the [Music] there's a dank smell that finally sort of gets to you and eats into your a little bit and it's sort of ever-present as you walk around the city so it's something that you have to get used to shortly afterwards white law reads time and Britain was over back home in New York he campaigned for more American involvement in the war and in a flurry of articles and speeches did his best to spread the word about the British cars [Music] and I wanted to tell the story of what was happening in England and I found very receptive audiences I tried to give a picture of things as it as it was in London as best I could everyone was very interested in hearing how the English were managing and carrying on and were full of admiration for their bravery and standing up under fire I thought it was a great experience I wanted to project it as best I could [Music] in England men and women have joined in a common effort as never before despite bombs life goes on life has been uplifted not degraded by the battle [Music] we should help the only people in the world who are fighting for our way of life against a bunch of bloody bandits we must send men if in the end that is necessary and help set this sick world strength Roosevelt had won his re-election soon discussions began about a new scheme to offer long-term economic support to Britain the world would soon come to know it as lend-lease but despite the encouraging words in America the war in the Atlantic Ocean was still going badly for the British even with the first American destroyers now coming into service the Royal Navy was seriously overstretched to protect convoys it improvised using liners fitted with 19th century guns 18-year old Sam patience was the quartermaster of one such ship the Jervis Bay Conn - if I wanted to be able to be passenger liner alright passenger line there she was then converted to an armed merchant cruiser and but to me to grab or down and be lying there before master that was it that was good [Music] we were the protector of the convoy and I urge your Bush to get the convoy safely over to England we never anticipated we'd run up against a pocket battleship when she appeared on their eyes and we didn't even know which of what it was there were all kinds of speculation books looking through the sights of their guns way on their horizon could just see the silhouette of it and all of a sudden crash a full salvo come over and that was it we knew then it was a German battleship third Sal roof hit us from about 125 thousand yards must have been 20 to 25 30 another extreme Rangers only 10,000 then the order was given for the coal boy to scatter they went to the right starboard and we went to the left we placed ourselves in between the German warship and the convoy in other words to protect the convoy to take all the fire if whatever came over and let the convoy get away the shells are coming over you could hear the shells of wine of them but you didn't know where they was gonna land first of all the bridge got head down there the radio control room the ship was on fire a bloke standing beside you were getting killed burned alive and all of a sudden heads blown off absolute slaughter it seems a suicidal mission at the time I've heard this said to me before but if we don't run away we'd have been covered I don't object there was to protect that convoy and that's what we did we were just getting smashed to bits and the Navigator shouted to us abandon ship every man for himself [Music] I couldn't swim something I couldn't make a decision here I either go down with the ship or get over the side and I behold of a ship's life boy and I leaned over the side and got away from the ship before she said [Music] while I was sliding over the side nearly severed oh man though all these fingers were hanging off dinner set at that time got in the water and just paddling about full of an era [Music] I saw I was strong enough to survive to the morning with the life point but I would never have survived all night was super cold bitter bloody hole [Music] all of a sudden this little lifeboat came up and it was the only boat they've got away I never even knew there was a boot got away and I said oh you know take us aboard and there was a bit of a hesitancy about me going aboard check that bloody life goodbye a live Delaware I said no fear I'm mine don't do it but they dragged me aboard and life built and all and we were drifting about for about an hour and then all of a sudden as a smoke screen come there Swedish ship the stood whole magnificent survivors of the armed merchant Cruiser Javas Bay were brought to a Canadian pot by this Swedish steamer herself one of the convoy attacked by a Nazi warship these are some of the men who came away from that magnificent sea fight against impossible odds in the suicidal fight to save the convoy the sacrifice was not in vain for 34 ships did escape [Music] up until about 18 months ago I should be fighting the Germans every night me been I was always being cornered or they were always trying to get me somewhere another for a long time I'm fighting for F in German days and all of a sudden [Music] I know lucious to win that talent wake up wake up wake up she's to know she got used to it you know but the dreams you nothing worn off now so I must be married with the ears I said when I liked have some believe could was appended together he seen I said yes if he lied so anyway and we went to Cambridge [Music] and we had dinner and chatted like mad you know like you do and then he said we've got something I want to say to you say any and we went up to my bedroom now you never went into a bedroom with a man it's definitely not allowed I mean society didn't allow it and he sat on the bed and I sort of leant against the dressing table and and he said damn will you murder me so I said of course so he went got a bottle of champagne and the man who ran the read loud brought it up and never said anything I was quite surprised anyway so we drank the champagne and Denis thought so much of me that he wasn't going to compromise me in any way and enough we went to our respective beds [Music] it was showed a great respect which we had for each other on the other hand I could probably being persuaded because if you know that somebody might not come back are you going to miss the opportunity because she never get it again just six months earlier as Hitler's armies stormed through France America thought that Britain faced certain defeat and that Nazism would soon reign unchallenged throughout Europe but the impossible had happened the British people rallied behind a maverick leader whose policy of total defiance had had first appeared suicidal [Applause] I have nothing to offer blood toil tears and Rick for 200 extraordinary days America and the rest of the world saw that Hitler could be resisted and that fear could be overcome to fight on the beaches to fight on the landing grounds we shall never surrender he was dictating and there was a terrific racket going on bombing outside and he said he said mish Holmes sometimes he called me miss Sherlock it was a source of teased you know Sheila playing she's oh you're frightened are you sure you're not frightened and as I said before how could one possibly be frightened in the presence of that man when never was [Music] [Music] as 1940 drew to a close and Britain went on fighting still alone those who had already struggled so hard to frustrate the Nazis continued to risk their lives every day it was amazing that they they managed to fight the way they did because they must have been suffering from woeful exhaustion sometimes an aircraft landed and the pilot just fell asleep over his controls did indeed taxi back just stopped and that was it so the ground crews had to go and rescue him and bring them back and they were that hard and and whenever they they were off and they used to just lie about down at disbursal flat out asleep we went over to North Weald this morning and did three patrols two of which were at 28,000 feet I did five and a half hours and I'm so tired tonight I'm going to bed early but I shall be just as tired tomorrow morning in the operations room Edith heap and the other plotters could hear every detail of the battle in the skies above [Music] there was a Tallyho and then a lot of noise really because they they're all going in and I didn't really hear anything actually until somebody said there's a plane going down and there's no parachute that was all I heard I thought oh my god it's Dennis and I knew it [Music] eventually I went back bill was waiting for me and she said either [Music] No [Music] anyway she said Dennis is missing so I said yes no and they were very kind and [Music] nobody says much but anyway um I was released from duty that night and they gave me a fortnight as compassionately [Music] I do which we've been married that I'd do without you I wouldn't have cared if it was 24 hours or two days or three weeks or five months I do regret that for there to go I think we were very fortunate to meet we wouldn't perhaps a net if there hadn't been them all [Music] you're only a very small cog in in a huge machine really but every little cog has to work doesn't it however little [Music] defeating Nazi Germany would eventually require the huge resources of the Soviet Union and the United States alone Great Britain could never have won the Second World War but in 1940 she refused to lose it [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Texasbiology

Views: 50,526

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: VRoegAE__1c

Length: 108min 47sec (6527 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 21 2019