Eagle Day: Göring's Air Assault On The RAF | Battle of Britain | War Stories

in the summer of 1940 a small group of young men and their aircraft were all that seemed to stand between the british people and invasion by the nazi war machine in the months that followed the few of raf fighter command would engage the luftwaffe in savage aerial combat over southern england in the summer of 1968 some of those aircraft were in the skies again to help film the classic british feature film battle of britain now using unseen footage from the production this series will tell the real story of the battle of britain after fierce fighting over the channel and south coast guring is now ready to launch an overwhelming assault on the aerial defenses of great britain raf fighter command is about to enter a fight for survival [Music] [Music] [Applause] i intend to continue the air war against the english homeland more intensively the german air force is to overcome the british air force with all means at its disposal [Music] german military intelligence estimated that the raf had only 300 fighter aircraft left concentrated in the south of england the luftwaffe seemed on the brink of achieving the air superiority needed for a seabourn invasion of britain it was a grossly over optimistic assessment but it was exactly what goering wanted to hear the luftwaffe was now expected to smash british fighter strength in a series of massive assaults beginning on the 13th of august codenamed adler time eagle day [Music] the day scheduled for the start of the attack dawned with cloud and mist over the channel guring postpones the assault but the order fails to reach some units already in the air they do not receive the recall signal bomber formations fly towards england without their fighter escorts the raf are waiting [Music] [Music] angered by the muddled start of the campaign goring orders the attack to go ahead after all there is heavy fighting over southern england but goring is determined to launch a properly coordinated attack as soon as the weather permits august the 15th dawns fine and clear three vast athletes over 2500 german aircraft prepare to make the attack that will finally wipe out quite a demand for gouring the decisive day of the air campaign was at hand from the high command in berlin to the luftwaffe airfields in france confidence was high but most pilots were unconcerned with grand strategy [Music] [Music] the plan was simple bombers would strike at raf airfields aircraft factories and war essential infrastructure masked fighter escorts would fly high above the bombers attacking with the advantage of height when raf fighters attempted to intercept the bombers [Music] at 11 30 am ju-87 stuka dive bombers with a heavy escort of me109s cross the channel and attack the forward airfields of lymph porkinge and manston 54 squadron spitfires are scrambled alongside hurricanes from the 501 squadron these units will be in almost constant action over the following days but the dive bombers hit buildings and hangers and sever the cables carrying power to three of the radar stations on the kent coast there is now a blind spot in the warning system with the luftwaffe command convinced that british fighter strength is now concentrated in the south it sends air fleet 5 based in norway across the north sea the fleet of heinkel bombers head towards the northeast coast of britain confident there will be no opposition they fly without me 109 fighter escort but the british radar stations that face out across the north sea have registered their approach the information is passed to the fighter squadrons of 13 group [Music] as the german bombers approach the tyneside coast the weather is fine and clear spitfire pilots of 72 squadron vectored into position by ground control spot the heinkel bombers as they approach from a perfect attack position the spitfire strike diving out of the sun hurricanes from 79 and 605 squadrons joined the fray [Music] in desperation the bombers jettison their bombs and turn back towards their distant bases german airgunners fight back desperately hammering away with their 7.9 millimeter machine guns as swarms of british fighters buzz past at 300 miles per hour they could be brutally effective as some were to discover i can recall one bomber interception in this particular instance the bombers were coming in and we were at right angles [Music] i turned in with my flight and told the co i was going ahead on attack and then i'd go round to the rear we knocked down two in the head-on attack and it went around to the rear and i i went in after my third one i went in really close and i went in sort of you know 150 yards or so and of course he got me severely mauled with 30 aircraft lost and many badly damaged air fleet 5's participation in the battle of britain was over groups casualties suffered only three damaged fighters but over southern england meanwhile a more finely balanced battle was raging [Music] as german bombers in the northeast struggled back to their bases more german aircraft gathered over the paddock to launch raid after raid across the channel [Music] bombers escorted by large numbers of 109s strike at targets throughout southeast england 2 4 50 plus speed 4 northwest w for william 2 2 3 9. raf fighters battle to break up incoming bomber formations but cannot penetrate the massive fighter escort [Music] the bombers reach their targets [Music] the airfield at raf martelsham is bombed and put out of action further raids sweep in swamping eleven groups ground controllers two two three nine two two three nine but still each incoming raid is met by heavily outnumbered raf fighters attempting to hit the bomber formations [Music] to the west large formations of aircraft are detected heading for portland and southampton squadrons from 10 group rise to meet them [Applause] nearly 150 fighters throw themselves at the luftwaffe formations as fighting spreads along the english [Music] coast not knowing what the hell was happening in the sky around me i just did not know i hadn't seen anything i didn't know what would happen then all of a sudden the sky was full of things with black crosses on and we exploded like a bomb and went every direction to try and avoid them it became a one to one after all you were attacking an enemy aircraft or he was attacking you in which case you were trying to get out of his way but if you were attacking him you concentrated on him and of course he was going all of the sky trying to evade you and uh you all apart from the two of you you got separated from everybody else i thought this is it and i turned my guns on i fired at him and he turned over and dived down towards the sea this is fantastic because before we went up i was absolutely convinced that i would be killed and when you disposed of the trap you were attacking you looked around and you couldn't see another aircraft in the sky because everybody had scattered off in different directions but a lot of time was spent trying to get into the right evening when you sighted your bombers you didn't want to be below them you wanted to be above you wanted it possible to be into the sun so a lot of time it's spent on following the your squadron commander around the sky trying to get into a favorable position to to attack i always recognize one of the worst pilots in the spot and having shot something down myself i thought this is something as i folded down another one got behind me and started shooting at me but he was a terrible shock and he never hit me at all this man she overshot me so i finished on the same position behind the second one so i settled down behind him and i shot him down as well item mine right the fighting over the soland and portland is fierce two hurricane squadrons scrambled for mexico are heavily engaged losses on all sides are heavy after an afternoon of furious and continual combat the luftwaffe launched their final raids of the day against airfields at croydon and west malling [Music] the luftwaffe had used almost 2 000 aircraft in repeated sorties in their effort to destroy fighter command in the air and on the ground they have caused considerable damage to raf airfields and facilities but have suffered heavily in the process the luftwaffe loss rate was so high on this day that german air crews would refer to it as black thursday a england mary thousand deutsche martinez and this attack had the role of deutsche society either of english society field fellowship our vietnamese foreign the attacks on raf airfields and installations continue raf training manuals with their out-of-date tactical lessons are being torn up pilots replace complex detailed regulations with their own simpler mantras wait until you see the whites of their eyes always turn and face the attack never fly straight and level in the combat area for more than 30 seconds go in quick punch hard get out flight lieutenant james nicholson badly wounded and his aircraft in flames delays bailing out of his blazing machine to pursue and shoot down another enemy fighter that crosses his path badly burnt he wins fighter commands first and only victoria cross the reality of air combat was the swooping ambush the bounce hitting sudden hard and fast many pilots were shot down by an attacker they never saw i joined squadron with a particular pilot and i saw him going down in frames probably about seven days later [Music] so it is a very sobering thought that you are vulnerable to start with in your interests you don't really know you are but it only needed you know half a dozen flights when you came in contact with the enemy that you realize you were in a dangerous game and they were playing for keeps [Music] brought it through my shoulder from the front had a cannon shell came in from behind and exploded on my parachute that i was sitting on uh put a lump through my foot which split my achilles tendon so i had minor's right leg had bullet came through the armor piercing behind and went through my watch which annoyed me into my hand left hand uh a couple skinned my shins in front the engagement initially only lasted a couple of seconds and then you would then break away and then attack them uh individually again until either you were out of ammunition or for one reason another you weren't able to attack anything um don't forget that uh we only had 15 seconds worth of ammunition in both hurricane and spitfire so if you attacked once twice three times most of your ammunition was expended and then the best thing you could do is to get home and rearm refuel get up again [Music] i suddenly saw a lot of black spots i thought there were royal specks on the windscreen but they rapidly turned into 109s going the observation one of which passed so low over me i could see the oil streaks on the fuselage and almost count the rivets in his wings and so on and we we passed in opposite directions there they were pretty smart and experienced of course they turned around quite quickly and dived down to attack us but the chapel attacked me missed and shot past and so i managed to get on his tone and shoot him down rather to my surprise and in fact one got a bit worried you said his chums would have seen that and it will have made them very angry let's get out of here [Music] several large raids target 11 groups airfields and radar stations losses are very heavy on both sides the faster spitfires are being ordered to engage the fighter escort hurricane squadrons go after the bombers some pilots are only now realizing the implications of their actions i shot down this aircraft and the rear gunner bailed out got caught over the tail and i saw the aircraft go in with him right down that was the first time it really got into it that i was shooting at a person up to that point obviously had been vaguely in there but certainly during the battle of britain i was only sure to get aircraft that there were people involved virtually didn't come into it even if someone bailed out it didn't didn't really i was just shooting at aircraft at all [Music] when they had a firster of idli time and again raf fighters were hurriedly refueled re-armed and returned to battle ground controllers attempted to vector them into favorable attacking positions amongst the countless hostile contacts [Applause] [Music] the germans must have been frustrated to the in the extreme in in in in other words they must have said to one another where the hell do they keep coming from and of course we've got them taped [Music] casualty rates amongst the pilots and air crew of both sides were climbing dramatically in the fighting of the 18th of august the raf lost 30 fighters with 10 pilots killed the luftwaffe lost 71 aircraft and 94 aircrew but the british summer was about to intervene bringing a much needed respite for raf pilots and the chance for commanders on both sides to reflect on the campaigns so far on the 19th of august after a week of intense air combat a spell of bad weather prevented major flying operations both sides took advantage of this respite to evaluate their tactics [Music] in spite of goring's boast to hitler the raf had not succumbed guring himself a fighter ace of the first world war rebuked his fighter pilots criticizing what he saw as their lack of aggression he replaced the older commanders with younger more hawkish officers we have reached a decisive period of the air war our first aim is to destroy the enemy fighters if they no longer take to the air we shall attack them on the ground or force them into battle by directing bomber attacks against targets within range of our own fighters in britain dowding commander in chief of fighter command redeployed his battered squadrons principally those of eleven group which had borne the brunt of the fighting exhausted units were rotated with fresh squadrons from quieter sectors in the north and west gentlemen i'm pleased to say that at long last we have 12 keith park commander of 11 group had so far orchestrated a dogged resistance with limited resources red section with sandrovsky and you're protecting us he had ordered controllers to send the minimum of aircraft to attack enemy fighters emphasizing that enemy bombers must be engaged at every opportunity be aware of the hun in the sun interceptions must be made quickly before the bombers reached their targets and he wanted squadrons from 12 group based in the midlands to patrol and protect his airfields while his squadrons were away tackling incoming raids never in the field of human conflict was so much old by so many to so few all our hearts go out to the fighter pilots those brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day i hope indeed i pray that we shall not be found unworthy of our victory if after toil and tribulation it is granted to us for the rest we have to gain the victory that is but the constant challenge of aerial combat was taking its toll on the field [Music] on pilots during 1940 was very great the pilots in squadrons were um scrambling being being scrambled almost all the days through they were really flying their their guts out my overriding memory of the battle of britain is tiredness incredible tiredness because we're on readiness from half an hour before dawn morning and half an hour after dusk at night in dispersal art we had a bunch of camp beds which just threw ourselves on went to sleep as soon as we landed in fact at that stage in my life i went to sleep standing sitting away and we slept in our clothes down a dispersal down we actually slept underneath the wings of our airplanes otherwise we would sleep in dispersal huts next to our airplanes we very seldom slept at the mess the officer's mess of the southeast west wherever we are located and i don't suppose i slept in the mess more than a couple of nights in the whole of the year my batman shook me awake one morning and he'd taken the blackout curtains down off the window and he said i suppose you were awake all night and i said no why and he said look out the window and there was a string of bomb craters across the garden right outside the window and i hadn't had a bomb i hadn't had the anti-aircraft firing or anything i was just asleep and that was it the poor weather persists unable to launch full-scale raids the luftwaffe resort to hit-and-run sorties by small groups of aircraft the luftwaffe pilots too were feeling the strain of daily sorties across the waters of the channel understood [Applause] by the german bomber crews who have suffered heavy losses criticized their fighter escorts for failing to protect them but ordered to escort bombers to targets in land german fighter pilots had to keep a careful eye on their fuel gauges they were accused of avoiding combat to conserve their fuel [Music] [Music] is on the 24th of august the weather began to improve the luftwaffe resumes its attacks against key raf airfields and sector stations the heart of the defense system massive formations of aircraft stream towards their targets for the raf the battle's most critical phase was beginning sheer weight of numbers frustrates the attempts of outnumbered raf pilots to disrupt the raids [Music] dover and the raf base at manston are the first targets [Music] eleven groups airfields and sector stations not for the first time are in the front line [Music] manston its airfield cratered and littered with unexploded bombs has to be abandoned with eleven groups fighter squadrons attempting to intercept several heavy rains across the southeast of england their airfields are left badly exposed [Music] [Music] urgent calls are made to 12 group to provide cover squadrons from duxford scramble but then take precious time to gather in formation before heading to confront the enemy [Music] duxford's big wing as it becomes known arrives too late by the end of the first day of renewed fighting the raf have lost 22 aircraft to the luftwaffe's 38 but one raid was to help escalate the battle and drag the civilian population deeper into the conflict the night of the 24th of august a small formation of heinkels fly up the thames to bomb oil installations at thames haven in the darkness they overfly their target and stray over central london there in direct violation of orders they release their bombs fires rage at the west india dock [Music] by this stage of the battle more than 1 000 british civilians have been killed by the luftwaffe in raids all over the country despite orders to attack only war essential targets it was impossible for the luftwaffe to hit these especially in cities without killing civilians the bombers were not accurate enough but this latest provocation was the last straw now the british war cabinet authorized retaliatory raids on berlin early the next morning large fighter sweeps by german aircraft over sussex are ignored by raf controllers as instructed they save their strength for the bombers that follow northwest [Music] 20 german aircraft have been destroyed for the loss of 16 raf machines and that night the raf bombed berlin for the first time in the days that followed the battles between the raf and the luftwaffe intensified [Music] as another massive raid builds over france and then heads for england keith park officer commanding 11 group orders every squadron he has available into the air raf pilots have been instilled with the importance of getting airborne as quickly as possible every second is vital to gain sufficient altitude once again 12 group is asked to protect the southern airfields again the support arrives too late park was furious at the lack of cooperation from 12 group so there could be no further misunderstandings he instructed his controllers to ensure all future requests for support from 12th group went via fighter command [Music] headquarters tensions were beginning to grow between the british commanders meanwhile losses continued to mount [Music] bigen hill croydon and horn church are all bombed as raf fighters struggle to reach the bombers through a heavy screen of me109s sector stations are put out of action as aircraft clash overhead personnel work desperately on the ground to repair the damage to the command and control system it was the day of the raf's heaviest losses 39 machines destroyed for 41 german aircraft brought down [Music] 14 raf pilots were listed killed or missing since the battle began 205 raf pilots have been injured 222 have been killed it is a rate of loss that is becoming unsustainable as eleven groups airfields come in for yet more punishment their fighter squadrons initiate large dogfights over kent and sussex aircraft factories are also under constantly looked after attack but losses to fighter command's fighter strength are nevertheless being made good by industry mounting pilot losses were the primary concern at the beginning we were losing the best quad pilots you know the more experienced and the ones that had the experience and and then our then our replacements came in and i wouldn't allow them to fly until either myself or my other flight commander i mean i remember i was acting ceo but i was also a flight commander uh one of us kelly or myself would take them up and give them the best camera gun and combat tactics although we've had a lot of new ones posted in how can they cope i mean these chapters come in and they'd sit down they've probably only done seven hours on the pitfalls if that and they watched us taking off everything we got coming back two pilots short and every time we took off their nerves must have been shot at blazes i don't know how they kept i couldn't die dowding was desperately worried deeply concerned of the loss of life amongst the young men of his fighter squadrons he also recognized the reality behind the losses pilots are no longer being produced in sufficient numbers to fill the gaps in the fighting ranks the situation is extremely brave must be realized we are going downhill guring had been humiliated when bombs fell on berlin he had publicly promised such a thing would never happen hitler was furious the landings planned for the british mainland could not take place until guring's luftwaffe had gained control of the air over southern england provoked and enraged hitler removed his restrictions on attacking london [Applause] he announced his intentions in front of a delighted and enthusiastic audience when the british air force drops two or three or four kilograms of bombs then we will in one night drop 150 230 300 or 400 000 kilograms in england they are filled with curiosity and keep asking why doesn't he come be calm be calm he is coming he is coming [Music] the luftwaffe receives new orders german bombers would pulverize the industrial areas of london simultaneously destroying britain's industrial capacity and her will to fight on the remnants of raf fighter command believed to have been decimated in the last three weeks of attacks would be destroyed in the air by fighter escorts forced into the air to defend the nation's capital as day dawned the radar screens remained clear in plotting rooms personnel waited expectantly for reports the familiar sight of enemy aircraft building up over the paddock alley was [Music] absent pilots began to relax at their dispersal points [Music] but on the coast of france there was activity guring had arrived to watch in person his mighty armada of aircraft set off to deliver the death flow to the royal air force and bring death and destruction to the people of london over a thousand aircraft prepared to launch the largest air attack ever made on a city the bombers climbed into the clear skies and met in one fast formation turning for the english coast german fighter pilots had been increasingly accused of abandoning the bombers to their fate now they have new orders to stand by the bombers at all costs next at 4 15 in the afternoon goring enjoying a picnic and champagne watches as the immense fleet of aircraft stream overhead moving as one vast formation between heights and twenty of 1423 feet and twenty miles in length the aerial armada appears invincible impregnable with the english countryside unfolding beneath nazi germany [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, world war ii, battle of britain film, battle of britain documentary, battle of britain documentary youtube, luftwaffe documentary, royal air force wwii, supermarine spitfire, spitfire battle of britain, churchill, adolf hitler, nazi germany, history documentary, world war two, adlertag, adlertag ww2, eagle day ba, eagle day battle of britain, battle of britain movie

Id: G5aEF0NujRE

Length: 47min 19sec (2839 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021