Ewan and Colin McGregor Join Fighter Command | The Battle Of Britain | Timeline

in the summer of 1940 Britain was in terrible danger Nazi Germany was planning to invade our shores only the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force can stop [Music] 70 years ago in these very skies above our head there was a brutal and savage war that was waged the outcome of which determined our very existence as a nation on this island this is my brother Colin who was a fighter pilot in the RAF and who served in some of our modern conflicts and I know from my experience there's a huge network of people supporting our pilots and we want to discover how their contributions combine to give us victory in 1940 and what it was that made the Battle of Britain Britain's finest hour we've always been fascinated by the Battle of Britain now we're going to meet the real-life heroes who inspired us when we were kids these are the last of the 3,000 pilots who saved our country the men Winston Churchill called the few will explore the technology that enabled the RAF to withstand the Nazi attack we'll find out about the dangers the fighter pilots faced and Colin will go through the same training as Battle of Britain airman if he makes the grade he'll fly one of the greatest fighter planes of all time the Spitfire amazing machines extraordinary characters so let us share with you one of the most remarkable stories in our history [Music] June 1940 the leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler was on a victory too Paris was the latest capital to fall to his invincible armies in less than a year almost all of Europe had been overrun only one small and isolated country was left in the war Hitler was convinced that Britain would have to surrender and soon but the Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to continue the fight whatever the cost he rallied his countrymen with one of the few weapons he had words what general vague on had called the Battle of Prague it over the Battle of Britain it about to begin upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire the whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and it's Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years men will still say this was their finest hour [Music] we did expect indignation I mean all the signposts had been taken down and Oh names on stations and things which gave us a sense of something something serious could happen only 20 miles away there was a powerful army and air force in the world so on one or two occasions it was suggested that the invasion bells were gonna be rung and yes so there's a bit harp stopping that that might be the last battle the German invasion was codenamed Operation Sea Lion it had to take place in September before the weather turned bad an English channel became too rough to cross the first step was for the German air force the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF so they could land troops in the south coast only a few fighter pilots could prevent this invasion the fate of our country depended on their skill and their courage you know they were fighting for us the worst all sitting here because of what they did you know we all owe them a great deal of gratitude for that I think in the RAF there's a real camaraderie with the pilots that's very like a brotherhood like the fraternal kind of thing going on there so having a couple of brothers tell the stories maybe not such a bad idea I think we grew up with old planes in that we were always making them we're always building Airfix models of Spitfires and hurricanes and we'd hang them from the ceiling on bits of fishing wire or something so there was a there's a complete romanticism boated a romantic aspect to the planes and the pilots and very kind of gung-ho and chocks away and you know that kind of saw the seat in my head I guess from maybe about the age of nine or ten I used to read command him comics as well and they were just full of stories of spitfire aces and it was kind of started in the early 20 years later I had become a pilot I flew one of the RAF front line fast yes the tornado gr4 it was big heavy but really responsive really comfortable lots of power very nice airplane to fire I was able to fly once with Colin in his tornado they arranged for me to take a ride in the Navigator seat and when we took off the feeling of acceleration and the force of the pushback in to see flying at that speed he was completely relaxed completely in his zone and I was so proud of him I've never felt such pride really before I was able only to see the corner of his helmet down the side of the cockpit if I'd never seen him at work before you know in in flying this extraordinary aircraft this is where my Barry F career began Cranwell in Lincolnshire it's a spiritual home of the Air Force the place where raw recruits have been turned into officers almost since the RAF began when I arrived here 20 years ago I was just the latest in a long line of airmen many Battle of Britain pilots went to Cromwell to my brothers two years older than I am and was always very academic and it was sporting was the captain of the cricket team always had fantastic looking girlfriends of one of whom I was will always be slightly in love with I won't mention any names and then went off and learned to fly very earlier but lichened was 16 or 17 got our flight scholarship from the RAF [Music] coming here or being in the RAF to learn to fly and then went to university and then came here after that and Colin at university it was mainly just drunk all the time really and and then he came here and was mainly drunk here instead officer type drunk here so my pictures up usually I think is quite funny so fury down one two seven one three one is that you right at the end o flight officer CJ McGregor BSC [ __ ] certificate right next to the box I [Music] spent 18 weeks at Krummel before graduating as an RAF officer but it was only then that my flying training began it was another four years before I was sent to the front line in my case Iraq 70 years ago it was very different the RAF was so short of men that training was cut back in experienced pilots had as little as 10 Ursula flying before being sent to the front line I started flying in the autumn of 1938 and in six months I did eight hours flying because we only flew a weekend and the weather was dreadful in 1938 so I didn't have much opportunity to fly and I was continued by flying training on what the Hawks and aqua Furies still biplanes and it go first world war stuff and you know there was no mention of Spitfires or hurricanes anything like that and then in the spring of 1940 I was sent to a fighter squadron I find it amazing that these men can be sent into battle with only a few errors so applying under their belt it's impossible to fully understand what that was like but I want to get some sense of what they went through so I'm going to experience flying training as it was done back in 1940 we're on a way to duck's road start three days of flying 1940 style so I know that I've gotta prove that I can fly these to the aircraft first before they're gonna let me leave some Spitfire and so there's been a pressure get definitely gas sensor that already you're always nervous by flying an aircraft the first time I know you're gonna get on hopefully experience or take over the guy he'll be training me his Air Marshal cliffs pink cliff was a top RAF fighter pilot he's been flying classic planes for the last 20 years I think I'm ready yeah just don't excite me too much so if you wanna get your kid on yeah and then we're going to look at the operational machinery brilliant all right there you go thank you very much we're gonna be flying Jul all the time yeah if we have an emergent Collins obviously an experienced jet pilot but the techniques and skills we've almost got to unlearn him to build him back up so he can fly a prop airplane and one of the biggest problems associated with prop airplanes is the fact that you've got to manage the whole airplane you've got to understand the engine you've got to manage the engine in a way where you prop speed the engine power everything is mechanical there's no concession to computers at all right the machinery yeah we'll start with the Tiger Moths which is entirely appropriate to what was going on in we're sure thousands of those guys cut their teeth here flying yeah on the tiger moth yeah then we'll graduate to the Harvard which was sort of the advanced flying training so we've got quite a tight program yeah in some ways Colin that's not unrealistic because there's a time compression there which was very much time compression in in World War two yeah with those guys were so badly needed at the frontline that they were really being pushed through it really will be even the time compression in his own way with the RAF so shorter pilots that needed to ease his trainees into very fast and potentially dangerous fighter planes like this Spitfire because they were very basic Tiger Moths were perfect for teaching trainees how to fly the first thing to do was learn how to take off and land and it was a very different technique back then in modern planes you have a third wheel at the front of the plane but in these old aircraft it's at the back which is why they're known as tail draggers in a tail dragger you have to land with all three wheels touching down at the same time it's a tricky technique to master and I've only got one day to get it right and these old aircraft you have to use your feet to move the rudder it's the rudder that helps steer the plane I've got to get my feet moving to get the Tiger Moths going in the direction I want as easy as it seems that's right okay [Music] [Music] [Music] Tiger Moths is the ultimate pledge you could do anything you like detangle should you like to fly very light you can loop the loop related or Soulstice they were fed out then and easy to damage but touch would I never actually damage one my tornado has a top speed of 900 miles an hour in a target off is just over a hundred and really is like traveling back in time but I love the freedom you feel in this open cockpit after some practice my feet are getting used to controlling the rudder but I still got the most difficult part head I've got a land that I come off on all three wheels [Music] this is like on bite school again first I told him he's got to keep the wind out of the instructors here he also owes me a beer for bouncing the aeroplane the RAF was on a steep learning curve in 1940 most of its fighter pilots had never been in action before [Music] facing them was a truly formidable enemy the Luftwaffe had been battle hardened by years of war it had fought campaign after campaign across Europe every anime it encountered it had destroyed key to its success was one of the best fighter planes of all time the measure Schmidt 109 the one who nine could cruise at three hundred and fifty miles an hour and was armed with two cannon which could blast enemy planes out of the skies on the eve of battle the German High Command was super confident they outnumbered the RAF by four to one this campaign would be like all the others they would crush the Royal Air Force in a matter of months the RAF faced almost overwhelming odds but it did have one secret weapon which helped level the playing field radar these masts outside Dover are the last survivors of what was in 1940 the most sophisticated air defense system in the world radar worked by sanding our a radial beam if the beams hit enemy aircraft they bounced back radar gave the RAF 20 minutes warning of a German attack it allowed Fighter Command to send the right amount of aircraft to the right place at the right time [Music] in 1940 Britain had a chain of these masts all along the coast but they were just the frontline of the air defense system inland there was also the observer Corps 30,000 plane spotters who tracked each enemy raid information from radar and the observer Corps was sent to Fighter Command headquarters they then alerted the fighter groups who'd scramble their planes the mastermind behind the system was the head of Fighter Command he's a hero of the Battle of Britain though few nowadays would know his name to find out more about him I've dragged Colin away from his training to meet Stephen Bungay a Battle of Britain expert so who was this guy who wasn't in charge of Fighter Command at that time he was a teetotaler who lives with his sister who talks to the dead believes in theories and thinks he is the reincarnation of a 13th century Mongol chieftain so this is the guy in charge a fighter command in 1940 and this was doting Hugh has well tremon here doubting however he had two characteristics along with all this eccentricity that above all others were needed then which was great imagination and great attention to detail and he often paired those in different people he brought them all together and he constructed between the time he took over fights cabal 936 and when war broke out what is by far the most formidable air defense system in the world it's far the most extraordinary intellectual and technological feats of the 20th century it is in fact I mean so far forward-looking what he created in fact was an internet except it was analog saying send emails right you sent something on the telly printer and you didn't grab yep blackberry or whatever it was the telephone same principle a network a command control system which didn't only mean that everybody could talk to everybody but it was extremely robust amazingly an updated version of Dowding system still protects us today I've come to our EFS Campton in Lincolnshire a modern radar station to see how it works so Martin what are we looking at on the screen here okay primarily were looking at the UK airspace really and the number of aircraft are flying within it at one given time there's so every line on the screen there represents a flight absolutely every plot represents a radar return okay and you look in a civilian aircraft and military aircraft the whole raft of them the thing that's there yeah all of them how big an area we're looking at with looks looking a basic a million square miles a million square miles where was my goodness Wow Wow the technology is lightyears ahead of what they had in 1940 but the system is pretty much the same if rogue aircraft are spotted then fighters are scrambled it's something they train for time and time again okay we've got here we've got two aircraft endeavour into the UK airspace they've not met the rules procedures of risk in recognition so what we're doing know is we're getting everyone in including master controller to look at these aircraft and see what favors enter us and then necessary you'll take a tactical action colleagues be operations at QRA this is the scattered master controller acknowledge climb flight level four zero zero set speed back one decibel to yes oh he's coming aircraft now responds to detail on an aircraft in wattage airspace the QRA call sides qy to q2 scrub and scrub will scramble [Music] these typhoons are doing the same job a Spitfire 70 years ago but back then there were no training exercises every scramble was for real by July 1940 the Luftwaffe was ready to launch its air onslaught more than a thousand fighters and 1800 bombers were poised to strike the Battle of Britain was about to begin [Music] for Hitler's invasion to take place the Nazis had to drive the Royal Navy out of the channel then they could ferry tens of thousands of troops across to the south coast it was the job of the Luftwaffe bombers to destroy the British ships one of these attacks was recorded by the BBC three four five six about ten German machines dive-bombing british convoy which is just about to see in the channel this one getting down on his target now on bases across the country Airmen waited for the order to intercept the Bombers Tom Neal was a 20 year old hurricane pilot on his radio he could hear the build-up of each German attack this information would be relayed to us and we'd be sending land and the information could well 20 40 60 80 hundred two hundred three oh my god you know 300 400 and you knew they were coming towards you and you look around there were just 12 of you where do you start to know guarding the bombers were the Messerschmitt 109 tackling these fighters was an almost impossible task for wookie pilots they don't rush out behind this 100 miles an hour faster than us father gone some very close range then disappear I've outward so down which we could navigate because they used to watch us attacking the Bombers and days to come down and attack us from behind surviving the first few dogfights was a lottery for an experienced pilots Toni Iverson had only ten hours on a Spitfire before he was sent to his fighter squadron the first few trips were the most dangerous but you just had to be lucky and I mean that I don't know why one was selected to be lucky but you had to be despite the lack of experienced pilots the RAF put up a good fight German planes were shot down at a rate of two to one but the Nazis still sunk so many ships the than two weeks the Royal Navy stopped sailing through the channel in the Battle of Britain it was round one to the Germans [Music] it's the second stage of my 1940s training regime having learnt the basics of flying on the tiger moth trainee pilots transfers are much more sophisticated american-built plane called the Harvard I'll have a bit more nervousness worried why but I find myself pacing around a little bit more I'm quite conscious of it and then whereas yesterday it was kind of rock up and just go flying in a bit pretty basic a little tiger moth you know but today's the real crunch day I think you know just got to kind of calm down a little bit the Harvard was the next step up from the tiger moth and because it's a monoplane and it's just one wing it handles much more like one of the Arias frontline fighters you ready for this is a very very good trainer I mean the historical context of this is that there were literally thousands and thousands of these built and they were the the standard advanced trainer in the Second World War it's got six hundred horsepower but it's a pretty heavy airplane weighs almost as much as a Spitfire so it pods a bit the Harvard but it does its job the most nerve jangling moments are always the takeoffs and landings and the year leading up to the Battle of Britain more than 200 pilots died in training alone I had a enormous crash my first solo night flight I got into a steep turns I took off that was it said he went up in the air and down again and crashed 200 miles an hour we searched force that the engine jumped off and finished 200 yards away ok this will save me otherwise if the entrance took me there was a caught fire and all that was left to the plane was a little bit of seating where I was sitting and I walked back to the aerodrome and walked into the crew room but everybody thought they were seeing a ghost because they had sent out an ambulance to the body [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I thought it was a wonderful aircraft is so advances for its age or putting American a lot of power and that's a V engine automatic undercarriage which was something we had used to [Music] I mean arrrf fair cost I heard of it been blessed to such modern sanitation it had a tube which fixed to a clip under the seat and so if you got a quote shortened model on a sort of power to strip then you could use this to a beauty but the trouble was that we were doing beh robotics and you did a rail and it wasn't properly clip this thing we'd drop itself and dangle in front of your face you don't know who used it last [Music] as well the closed cockpit and motor controls make me feel much more warm than in the tiger moth the Harvard can creat at 200 miles an hour is powerful and sturdy a really comfortable plane to fly that's a nice that's a nice beat now that's fine it's a little cat that's it now a couple style ready get the power I hate I think has been a pretty successful trip but it's up to cliff to decide if I've done enough to fly the Spitfire we're now going from something which is lively but not overly early you're going to a real thoroughbred yeah it's definitely chocks away tomorrow if that's the right saying I still can't believe that is actually going to happen it's it's just one of the wildest dreams as a pilot and as a kid growing up watching air shows and we're here and you know I've got less than 24 hours and I'm actually going to be doing it so it's just you know fantastic everyone's heard of the Spitfire it's one of the most famous aircraft of all time but there were two British fighters in 1940 [Music] the other often-overlooked aircraft is the hurricane there were 1700 hurricanes and less than 400 Spitfires the hurricane was the workhorse of the Battle of Britain the hurricane was never as eye-catching as its rival it was lumpier and bumpier based on a much older aircraft design chop the top wing off a biplane and you see how the hurricane evolved only the front end had a metal skin the rear section was built out of a wooden frame covered in canvas it sounds primitive but this made the hurricane easy to repair the hurricane had the same Maryland engine as a Spitfire but it was less aerodynamic so it was never as fast to find out more about both of these planes we are meeting up with flight leftenant Anthony Parkinson from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight the BB MF has a unique collection of historic plans so parky we're here with the two leading players in the British side the hurricane and the Spitfire and as I've been thinking about this I've always fancied myself as a hurricane pilot you know more of a hurricane man and a bit of a Spitfire so I got right and he's standing by I realized that I'm um I'd prefer it so what's the difference what's the difference in what could you fly them both I do yeah and they're actually both beautiful to fly you know they're not that different I guess the Spitfire has the edge on performance it's faster the hurricane probably turned slightly better but they're both fabulous aircraft to fly they're easy once you get them airborne you know they're not difficult and you can see why the guys would have not flying them in the war in terms of their handling qualities their performance pretty awesome for that for their time this one was earlier this is this was around before the Spitfire of the hurricane right yeah physically it was an earlier generation you can see the some of the canvas on it the Spitfire is all-metal design it's got a much thinner elliptical beautiful wing you know the spirit flow really was state-of-the-art all-metal construction and it would have been like looking at the Space Shuttle in 1940 you know it's a 400 mile an hour before it was breathtaking 400 mile an hour yeah wow I didn't know it went that fast and what were their roles what were the different roles for them I think they tended if possible for the this big fast to go more for the fighters and the hurricanes more for the bombers and I was just purely based maybe on turnin performs for the yeah it turns out I think the Huracan actually out Turner 109 as well but they it was just more vagueness or top speed the performance is getting more on parity with the one and I and you were saying about the pilots themselves we're gonna meet some of the the men that flew these aircraft but they're that they're quite they downplay it a little bit they do yeah it's one of the the joys of the job you've almost got something in common with these heroes you notice to chat about flying a spin although for us you know the landings are scary bit for them that was just something you did between rearming [Applause] keep it dog baby see over here here without them and without these plans we'd be goose-stepping around if there was one man who confirmed some of those Nazi stereotypes then it was the super-sized head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering Goering was vain and arrogant he was so confident of success that he bought himself a new white suit and a shiny gold baton just to celebrate victory in the Battle of Britain Goering exude confidence but he had a dark secret and one that affected his leadership during the Battle of Britain Goering was a junkie he got wounded in the groin and as a result was treated with morphine and became a morphine addict which has a rather strange effect on people's moods it can make them very pessimistic and then over optimistic it can cloud their judgment he had no understanding of Technology he had no understanding of how to organize a complex modern military organization and there he was in charge of the most sophisticated of Germany's armed forces during put his faith in the German warrior spirit as well as the Luftwaffe superior numbers of planes and men after a month of fighting over the channel he was ready for the next step Goering would take the war to the British mainland the German plan was codenamed Eagle attack it would be the biggest air campaign seen so far in history [Music] Eagle attack began on the 12th of August 1944 the rate along the south coast three radar stations were bombed protective action without the Ras isin here's a huge stretch of southern England with wide open to attack emergency work began to repair the system partial radar coverage was eventually restored the masts have been difficult targets for the Luftwaffe to hit and even when they had been bombed the RAF had got him up and running again Goering concluded that the attacks had been a waste of time he canceled further systematic bombing of the radar Network leaving Britain's air defense system in place was goings first great era when ever the Luftwaffe attacked radar would be watching and the RAF would be waiting [Music] [Music] three days later on the 15th of August the Germans launched the second phase of evil with a massive raid on the Midlands and north Goering believed the RAF was so short of pilots and planes that every one of its fighter squadrons had been sent to defend the southeast he sent more than a hundred bombers to attack northern England with no fighters to protect them when they arrived over the Yorkshire coast they had a nasty surprise we were having lunch and the house caught us at the head of the arty six one six bottles spam both scrambled and we dashed out and because my pleasure took off in all directions and we were sort of four now we was Victor Don to about 80 to 88 and they were under scorching they were a flag information you couldn't miss them [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Luftwaffe had underestimated the strength of the RAF and they were severely punished for it 75 German aircraft were shot down Luftwaffe pilots called it black Thursday one day later the Luftwaffe attacked again more than 400 aircraft pounded targets along the south coast [Music] Keith Park was the commander of a liberal group which covered the southeast the front line in the battle of britain Park was scrambling squadron after squadron to repel the German attack when in the heat of battle the Prime Minister Winston Churchill suddenly showed up Churchill decided to visit fight commands 11 group headquarters in Uxbridge he turned up unannounced to so often and watched events and he said that when he realized that Park had got all his fighters into the sky he felt sick with fear the margins he said was so small one of the pilots Keith parks scrambled was Nigel rose he was only 22 that had never been in combat before we saw his enormous gaggle of aircraft coming in and one who'd never seen a German one single the German aircraft before to see the my squadron commander said there were a hundred about 15 bombers and 50 fighters you see all these in one huge great gaggle of various Heights and so on that was quite impressive so one thoughtful you never tell the gut button to fire and who's going to find a source it will become an to came round firing eight browning machine guns at once I knew and he turned over on his back and we went every vertically downwards I thought gosh this is being a fighter squadron and surely it's one I can claim some planes are fitted with cameras to film these battles in the skies amazingly a few frames survived of the moment Nigel Rose fixed the German plane in his gun sights for Winston Churchill the 16th of August had been a deeply moving day he'd seen for himself that almost impossible odds the re s fighter pilots faced Churchill drove away in the afternoon and he turned round to general Ismay one of his aides in the car as they were driving back to London and said never in the field of human conflict so much you know by so many to so few a few days later of course Churchill wove them into the speech that he gave in the House of Commons the great air battle which has been in progress over this island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity the gratitude of every home in our island in our Empire and indeed throughout the world except in their ports of the guilty goes out to the British area who and we're in their constant challenge and mortal danger are turning the tide of the world war by their promise and by that emotion never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few at the height of the Battle of Britain there were around 1300 fighter pilots it really is the case that our country's fate depended on the few seventy years on their ranks have thinned now only a hundred or so remain so for us it's a privilege to meet two of them Geoffrey Whelan was 17 years old when he joined up he recounted his experiences as a Spitfire pilot in an autobiography called first light it's a classic account of the Battle of Britain Bob Foster was 20 and flew hurricanes in the summer of 1940 he was a crack fighter pilot who shot down seven German planes when he first stepped into your hurricane and you into your Spitfire did he and he landed it successfully in stone you know kind of survived that first experience how much training on the aircraft did you get before you were expected to go up and use it in anger we will post you up to begin in I think September the 7th when the battle was at its height and we replaced 87 squadrons that have been shot up and knocked about a bit and the first time I ever went into real combat was there and I had about 30 hours on a spit so I was lucky a real sense that you are in a battle for Britain survival that's a word we just you're just going up there to do your job yes I mean their invasion alerts the church bells rang at me and they were invade something everybody in the South of England was aware it was possible whether we really knew that we were you know personal survival yes certainly the implications of I suppose we did but it was the least of our worries put it that way it never really registered to me until the first day we were sent off from bigger we were vetted on to a hundred and fifty plus coming in over Dungeness and I saw this mass of airplanes looked like a lot of nets on summer evening and I thought these chaps mean it this is serious it's a that's the first reaction I really had hmm and you know there's a Triple C where do we start on this lot yeah I mean was there any particular day or occasion when you felt that were we're gonna lose it we're gonna lose the battle and one day I do remember and this was must have been mid-september as well as where we were told to be in the cockpits an hour before dawn which was pretty early and something like that and we thought well okay the invasion zone that was the thought of it we got in their airplanes an hour before dawn sat there and I remember sitting on the airfield at Croydon which was a big grass airfield with hares running around and the odd a man sitting on the starter axe I was thinking itself well if twelve little Huracan sitting there if if this is the invasion then god help us can I ask it was six that is sensitive question about your job then and in terms of what it was like to engage with an enemy for the first time and if you're successful and you take down an aircraft then how how it must have felt because I don't know Who am I following yeah I don't think we ever thought about pilots in the other airplane right I didn't know no I mean these chaps are coming over Bobby exactly they started it and so what were they doing over here [Music] dropping these bombs on villages and just this was going on day after day and yeah you must have been bloody knackered you know having to go up you know three four times a day maybe more we were young we were 20 we will enthusiastic yes and we had some beer at night if you've got to 5 o'clock you think right the day thou gavest Lord has ended yeah and then straight off to the White Hart bracelet rubbing shoulders with local people prex a game of darts and suppressing thoughts of mates and generally knocking back the pints and if there's pretty jewelry around trying to their own people - you know people so did you miss your colleagues and I'm well you did but on the other hand I've always said in July I'd never met these chances I mean they were not close friends and I was squadron the great chats and so on on but you couldn't allow you to get you down I had one close chat and he went fairly quickly yeah it it hit me but we went down to the pub that night no well that's it yeah yeah and did it affect you when you got in the cockpit the next day no think about it the waiting was the problem with me I don't know about your thing I hated it but the moment I got in that aeroplane have felt the vibration of the engine and through the seat of my pants and I was strapped in and the ground crew got off the wing and when I felt okay it's up to me yeah for me there's one extra treat Bob knows I've got a thing for hurricanes so he took me off to meet an old comrade-in-arms not a person but a plane the actual hurricane he flew during the Battle of Britain [Music] this is the only surviving hurricane which fought in the Battle of Britain that are still flying today sigh isn't it when it's coming straight now you do if you wanna run [Music] and must take it right back now as a head of state [Music] baabs hurricane came into service at a crucial moment just a day after it joined his squadron the Luftwaffe launched the bloodiest attack of the Battle of Britain [Music] [Music] a month into the Battle of Britain and Goering was under pressure his strategy for the destruction of Fighter Command was not going to plan Goering had assumed that the Luftwaffe would crush the RAF just as it crossed every other enemy by shooting his planes out of the sky [Music] but the radar never and the RAS pilots and plays have proved a match for the Germans after weeks of air combat the RAF was holding his own currents new strategy was to destroy the area not in the air but on the ground if fighter stations were bombed it would be difficult to take off and land exhausted pilots would be unable to rest a key target was the RAF base which covered the main attack route to London they can Hill in its heyday Biggin Hill was most famous and important airbase in the country its Spitfires and hurricanes shot down 1600 Luftwaffe planes those glory days are long gone night the Air Force left begin Hill 20 years ago I visited the base just before it shut down I came here in 1987 and this was my first experience at the RAF this is where I went through my selection to join the Air Force so there's a before camel and it's I had no concept at the time as to how important the base this was in the overall campaign your June 1940 but walking around these buildings now and you would get a real sense of the of the past and of the ghosts because this place took a real painting by the Luftwaffe and it was it was right on the front line to find out more about what happened on the 18th of August I joined Patrick Bishop who is a writer and historian he showed me the woods which have swallowed up much of the old fighter base I wanted to show you this column this is a pillbox built in 1940 yeah I think it gives you an indication of how serious the fears were of an invasion this was put here to protect the airfield against paratroopers or an invading force there was a real feeling at this point that that an invasion was inevitable yeah so picking Hill was right on the front line and it took a real pounding on that on 18th August 1940 that's right this was the day when they gorged attacks on these on these big significant bases begin Hill of course being one of them it was a Sunday morning so you can sort of picture the scene in fact we know what was going on so this was a rural area suit have people going off to church locally the cooks in the canteen will be making Sunday lunch and then the first reports come through that Kenny's being bombed and then Croydon being bombed so it's natural to assume that Biggin Hill is going to be next which indeed it was everyone around here would have would have seen it they would have been looking up at what was going on they would have been hearing the Crump of the bombs yeah I mean the everyone knew they were on the front line at this point Megan Hill was attacked twice on the hardest day 80 tons of bombs fell on the base the runways are peppered with craters but the hardest day was just the beginning of weeks of bombing 12 days later 40 people died when their air-raid shelter took a direct hit [Music] this is one of the places where those days of fear yeah must've been horrendous so you know conditions to live in day after day well I suppose it's that feeling that there's no line that you can retreat behind where you're going to be safe which must have had a pretty wearing effect on the nerves there was no just you named Daniel fighting you land and then that's basically you've done for the day mmm I think that began to tell very much in that period when reading the men was you get a very strong sense of people getting to the end of their tether yeah because they're kind of living here 24 hours a day you know they're that constant fear not only when they're flying but on the ground as well gonna get a call hey that must have been that yeah must be pretty horrendous the seeing these sleeping quarters and the dispersal areas here Biggin Hill has really brought to home to me just how intense that period was the guys weren't just fighting for the ladies in the air you know four or five sorties a day but they were fighting for the lives on the ground as well and they were living under the constant threat of bombings and I mean I'm used to combat sorties where you can come back at the end of a day and albeit is turning a condition tent somewhere in the desert but at least it's cut up home and you've got good food and you can sleep undisturbed but for these these guys it was it was just constant and the stress must have been incredible and they must have wondered how just how long the kids keep that up you know how much more they could take with the Battle of Britain now in its seventh week combat stress was beginning to tell many pilots were being scrambled into action four or five times a day I found the waiting period difficult all the minutes probably the most difficult because then you almost felt like going inside outside and throwing up you know sitting around waiting for that telephone always had a certain ring and the corporal would pick it up there stick his head out the window said scrambled and you'll be honored feet pressing to the airplane waiting for that to happen I think many people would say I finally very you know very well unsettling is it were you who couldn't you're apprehensive and probably let's face it but this scared stiff ready the strain of weeks of intense fighting wasn't just affecting the pilots it had also begun to tear the leadership of Fighter Command apart war had broken out amongst the RAF top brass about the way the battle was being fought it pitted Keith Park the commander of eleven group which covered the southeast against one of the raf rising stars Douglas Bader was already a legend when war began he had lost his legs in a plane crash but went back to flying in 1940 he led 12 group which defended the Midlands and the East Coast an area which was less involved in the battle he was itching to get into action he's the sort of guy who wanted to be out there leading the pack he wanted to be number one and the backseat role that 12 groups seemed to be playing in the battle didn't really appeal to him badda had his own theory on how the Battle of Britain should be fought which he called the big wing the idea was to get dozens of planes in the air at once in one huge battle the big wing would deal the Luftwaffe killer blow but there were practical problems with the big wing getting 50 fighters in the air took time the Luftwaffe was often halfway home by the time Douglas Bader arrived for peeth Park who knew just how short of men the RAF was the big wing was a dangerous gamble risking dozens of pilots in a single battle threatened to fatally weakened Fighter Command this shortage of pilots was the critical issue as the Battle of Britain reached a decisive point [Music] airman were not just being shot up by the Luftwaffe many we're falling prey to a merciless killer in less than a month the RAF lost more than 200 Airmen almost all over the sea as I know for my RAF trading if you ditch into the ocean these days you're pretty confident you'll survive we've immersion suits lifeboats and emergency supplies so I want to know what was so different in 1940 what made the siege such a killing zone I'm only wearing a simple flying suit just as pilots would have done in 1940 what I'm experiencing is known as cold shock hyperventilating was one of the signs of cold shock breathing became more frantic and pilots would swallow more and more water most died from cold shock within five minutes anyone who did survive the first few minutes still had little chance of getting out alive because during the Battle of Britain there was no system to rescue pilots lost at sea and they're just kind of looking around me and just quite choppy and I can't see anything I can't see any you see the old ship you'd be known again or them pop it off and down perfmatters just just nothing well it must have been absolutely hell you think you guys to survive getting out of your burning Spitfire and suddenly this is gonna be a fatal so resting-place surrenders come you guys the thing you probably just want to drain get it over with cuz it's just no no hope really have anybody coming to see you must be horrible if you're lost at sea or stuck up on a punt you'll be lucky and these guys will come again you they said up to 2,000 people a year but it's because of the people their pilots that dish the sea during the Battle of Britain we have search and rescue today with so many experienced Airmen being lost search and rescue began its main task was to pick up Airmen lost a scene [Music] [Laughter] you see that yellow coats coming in this step it's just fantastic so you know yeah my god they're here the new job I'm gonna do this in my room I let's take search-and-rescue was set up in August 1940 in the years to come it would save thousands of lives but it came too late to stem the losses which were seriously weakened in Fighter Command [Music] [Music] by early September the RF had reached its lowest ad they were losing far more pilots to make a good case it was a war of attrition and Fighter Command was bleeding men it seemed that only a miracle could save the raf from extinction and Britain from invasion then on the seventh of September something remarkable happened the Germans launched another huge attack 750 Luftwaffe planes flew towards the RAF fighter stations just as they had done for the last few weeks but this time they passed right over the airfields and carried on towards London the game had changed it was now no longer about two air forces confronting each other but it was about two nations confronting each other because they came back to locked London that night and the night September the 7th can be counted as the first day in what we now call the Blitz a week earlier the RAF had bombed Berlin Goering had publicly declared that the German capital was safe from attack so the bombing was a personal humiliation he ordered a revenge raid on London the Blitz would prove traumatic but during the first week in which London was targeted no bombs fell on air bases Goering had eased the pressure on the RAF squadrons were reacquired with new Spitfires fresh pilots were drafted in Fighter Command was overhauled in anticipation of the next great challenge [Music] finally my big days arrived I'm gonna fly the Spitfire and with this flight my flying career comes full circle because I'll sit in the same cockpit as a heroes who inspired me to become an RAF pilot excited out it's just like you kind of dreamt about this moment since you're a kid in them and suddenly these arrived you know artists this year I'm going to do it as a beautiful day and there's puffy blue white clouds around and blue sky it just couldn't be any pet more perfect so I just can't really believe it's gonna happen you know it's fantastic absolutely amazing no I'm not nervous not nervous I'm am I'm really not I've sat in the cockpit had to look around and I haven't read through my notes and everything's the air and I'm and I think that's because I've I've had a bit of training you know I've gone through the training and I've done the tiger moth I've done the Harvard and it's the logical next step and I'm really not nervous I'm just I'm just well you can tell I'm contact okay contacts - bit far I won't be easy at 350 miles an hour she's really fast the Spitfires a thoroughbred who needs handling with care [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] just sitting in the cockpit as an overwhelming experience from Maryland engines roaring away and there's that unforgettable smell of leather and oil and grease I'm amazed to highlight a Nigel spit virus it's really responsive to the touch now I understand why so many pilots have fallen and lovely [Music] it was a real ladies but fire I mean a beautiful aircraft not just look at it to fly when you had a fence more cockpit so that when he was sitting in it she was very much part of the plane you and the plane were together oh it's beautiful so smooth almost like a rhythm of it he's had all the right characteristics oh did was behave so beautifully and was beautiful to look at so everyone walk in respect [Music] it's been wonderful in the air down the grind is a real beast to handle Blandings the most difficult part the Spitfires along those so it's hard to see over it to work out how close I am to the ground [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] sorry summer woman yeah yeah when the heartbeats come back do something which is not on danger level wow that's amazing amazing can't believe it's done that it's really incredible that was I don't think I've ever had an experience like that in my life it's just a most a classical thing to do no problem yeah it is well really emotional yeah yeah I wasn't really sure at Whitby but is I mean there he was on a bright blue day over a green fields of England doing aerobatics in a Spitfire doesn't get much better than that [Music] a week of foul weather followed the first day of the Blitz Fighter Command pilots were confined to base Luftwaffe squadrons flying over Britain encountered very few RAF aircraft their reports convinced Goering The Fighter Command was down to its last 200 planes time was running out he had only a few days left to destroy the RAF before Hitler's invasion had to begin Goering believed that one more blow would crush Fighter Command and with the bad weather breaking the day of reckoning had arrived [Music] [Music] so this went down to the command center yeah this is the headquarters of living group they're all true right I think it was secretly the Germans are very nearby this place no it's just kept completely under wraps our EF Oxbridge was the nerve center on the 15th of september the decisive day of the Battle of Britain golbez 70 years on the room has been preserved just as Keith Park would have known it on the day he scrambled his squadrons to meet the great Luftwaffe attack the first few hours were crucial for the outcome of the Battle of Britain for the very first time we've pieced together the records for each phase of the German attack these RAF personnel will help us plot the raid moment by moment they'll be doing exactly what their predecessors did 70 years ago and Steven Bungay is on hand to take us through the key moments of the 15th of September 1940 the weather reports are good the day is fine there's a haze on the ground visibility on the grounds about four miles is about 14 degrees centigrade beautiful late summer day it's great weather for strolling to the park reading the newspapers the garden and launching major air attacks and guess what choice they make right right so on they come and park Keith Park didn't have to wait long at 10 past 10 the Germans took off from their bases on the French coast the Bombers circled over the English Channel as they waited for their fighter escorts to arrive then Goering scurried near our mother began his attack run back in London the Prime Minister Winston Churchill had noticed a fine whether he sensed it would be another big day he drove to Oxbridge and arrived at 10:30 as the drama began to unfold part went up met him reminded them that he couldn't light his cigar because the air-conditioning and here we're cope with it he was in here and so he was just up there with an unlit cigar clinched between his teeth throughout the day standby for near a hostile zero for William x-ray zero six at 10:51 the first marker went on the board 30 hostile aircraft had been detected by Britain's air defense system it was the spearhead of the German attack at three minutes past 11:00 Park scrambled the first fighter squadrons he sent out the Biggin Hill wing of Spitfires to Spitfire squadron 72 and 92 up high to patrol Canterbury to hit them over the coast he sent them up to about 25,000 feet when they arrived they removed the German top cover park had laid an ambush when the German bombers and a fighter escorts arrived over the south coast the RAF was waiting high above park strategy was to sendai Spitfires to engage the Messerschmitt 109 109 to be forced to fight that would strip the Bombers of their protective shield that's 11:40 the first dog place began park strategy was going to plan while the dogfights raged the German bombers pressed on for London but now another unforeseen problem arose [Music] a 90 mile-an-hour head wind had blown up which cut the grown speed of the Bombers in half it would take them twice as long to reach their target rate hostel 0 for rabbit 7 Goering had promised the fighter command was finished but German aircrew had endured a terrible ordeal they'd been attacked on all sites since they crossed the south coast and it was about to get even worse Keith Park now delivered his master stroke he'd always been skeptical about the big wing and the value of a risky all-out attack but it was time for the RAF hammer blow so he'd summoned his great rival Douglas bada to lead the charge at nine minutes past 12:00 the German bombers arrived over London to their horror 60 big winged fighters were waiting for them bada launched an all-out attack [Music] there were so many British aircraft that they got in each other's way only six German bombers and 12 fighters were shot down but the appearance of so many RAF planes shattered Luftwaffe morale the psychological impact of this on the German Flyers of course was shocked but on the commander's it was an sudden realization of what had actually been going on for the previous month yeah we thought we got them on their knees oh my god we've been getting nowhere yeah we've no time left what can we do when the Luftwaffe finally tallied up their losses the 15th of September had cost them 56 planes they'd experienced far worse days the real significance was what the battle revealed after two months of fighting the RAF was even stronger than before with Fighter Command controlling the skies the invasion couldn't take place two days later Hitler postponed operation sea lion [Music] there's one more flight left and it's the most amazing flight of all there's a chance to go up in a Spitfire once more but this time I'd be flying information with a hurricane and Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flying alongside other Battle of Britain the aircraft is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but can i really take two trips in a spitfire when my brother Ewan has had none no of course I'm not gonna go today you're good you're gonna do what you're gonna corner I mean I thought you were going to cheat you're gonna I'm going unique seriously that's why you were telling to bring a flying suit this morning isn't it yeah that's fantastic okay is quite a nice time oh my god that's gonna be amazing [Music] there's a hurricane than a Spitfire then at the far side of the formation I'm in the back of the two-seat spit [Music] they're so close I feel like I could reach out and touch them our wind tips are only feet apart [Music] we are retracing the route the Battle of Britain pilots would have taken as they patrolled the south coast [Music] the skill of the pilots is awesome but flying information is just the start they're going to show me what these warbirds can really do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] noise [Music] [Music] I think it's a smiler to me that was believable thank something clip that was amazing yeah I I had more oh wow and oh my so close together you are so close that's the one thing that I I hadn't hadn't hadn't really fully entertained in my mind you are like literally on each other's wing and you're looking over there it's another aeroplane in the sky and you think and it's bumpy sometimes you know oh yeah and when it moves you I was like I didn't say because I knew he'd hear me I love the peel offs I love that and I wish that a camera here looking so you could see what I saw cuz it was nuts how close we were so the next trick you scramble the McGregor bigwig it's been wonderful to fly these planes but it's been an even greater privilege to meet the heroes that fought in them what we've learned about the Battle of Britain has brought home to us the significance of their victory it was a battle that turned the tide of world history but it took place over our green fields that's what makes it unique to me is that was happening right here right right in you know above us and it involved everyone involved everybody you know so everybody had to kind of pull together yes I think it's just almost incomprehensible I don't think you can understand what it would have been like if gone the other way yeah I think it's true I mean I think that this war that happened in the skies here you know has enabled us all to have the lives that we've had and will continue for our children and our children is really extraordinary our journey ends here at Capel affarin on the Kent coast this is the memorial to the 3,000 Airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain [Music] most of the more British but hundreds came from overseas to defend our shores was Czech and polish there are those who died 70 years ago and those who survived men we've been privileged to meet oh yeah yeah that's what I like about it is that it's it's for the pilots who died and the pilots that lived it's not just yeah more of the dead policies later in the two-part yeah 544 RAF Airmen were killed their average age was just 22 we'd like the last word to go to Spitfire pilot William Walker at 97 he's one of the oldest survivors of the Battle of Britain remember there's not here today there's unwell far away there's who never lived to see the end of war and victory than every friend who lost our way remembered as of yesterday his absent friends we missed the most to all just drink a loving toast [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 718,323

Rating: 4.8281417 out of 5

Keywords: history documentary, the battle of britain, BBC documentary, ewan mcgregor, History, royal air force documentary, adolf hitler, royal air force ww2, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, Full Documentary, ww2 documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, documentary history, battle of britain, stories, real, 2017 documentary, world war 2 documentary, Documentaries, wwii in hd

Id: bRPmFXcL7mU

Length: 88min 34sec (5314 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018

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It’s over Goering, I have the high altitude