The Battle of Britain Page #2

Spitfire!"

And Hitler paid off with 180 more planes.

Then the Luftwaffe battered

the great towns of Southampton,

..Plymouth....

..trying for a knockout, before the flow

of supplies from overseas reached port.

The ports took a terrible pounding,

but they couldn't be knocked out.

Cargos went on being unloaded, with

the protection of the RAF overhead.

Battling the Spitfires and Hurricanes

in the air wasn't panning out.

So Gring switched his main attacks to the fighter

airfields, Dover,

Deal, Bucking.

Maybe he could destroy the planes

on the ground.

He bombed the air fields, and

the fields were hit...

..but the planes were saved.

For Britain, unlike Poland and

the low countries,

didn't make the mistake of bunching its planes on the

runways.

The planes of the RAF were scattered

and hidden.

Only a few on any one field, and those

in the far corners.

The Spitfires still went up to meet the enemy

In the first 10 days of the Battle of Britain, Gring

launched 26 major attacks to get command of the air

And lost 697 aircraft. The British lost 153.

And 60 British pilots bailed out.

Valuable trained men were saved,

and ready to fight again,

..but the crews to Gring's planes,

were lost to him forever.

The pace was too hot.

Something was going haywire.

The Nazis had to call "timeout".

On a 2000 mile front, from Norway to France,

..the whole Nazi blitz program was being stalled,

because the RAF was still in the air.

The long-range German guns were getting hot,

..from throwing shells across the channel.

In public, Hitler assured the Germans,

Mr. Churchill tells his people

that England will win...

..but I tell you victory

will belong to Germany"

But in private, he sent for Gring,

the boss of the Luftwaffe,

and put him on the hot seat.

Gring was told to do something

and do it quick.

So on August 30th, he ordered all out attacks on

inland air drones and industrial centers.

Maybe he could knock out the RAF on the assembly

line.

And he adopted new tactics too.

More fighters and fewer bombers, or maybe he just

had fewer bombers to send.

Anyway, those he did send were well protected.

Fighters above at high altitudes.

Fighters on both sides.

Fighters in the front and in the rear Fighters weaving

in and out of the bomber formations.

Fighters in the front and in the rear Fighters weaving

in and out of the bomber formations.

Britain, winner of the first round, was ready

With higher morale and sharper defense.

Improved listening posts were set up all along the

coast.

And warned of the enemy's approach, before he left

the continent.

A quick flash from the control station

to the fighter station.

And pilots were on their way to meet the enemy while

he was still over the channel.

Day after day, out of sight, an almost out of sound of

the watchers on the cliffs.

Four, five and six miles above, the battles raged over

the Dover area.

The Dover area became known as Hell's Corner.

By sheer weigh of numbers, the enemy again and

again broke through the coastal defenses.

And reached inland to the air drone.

Aircraft plants.

Munitions, factories and machine shops.

Hello, gunfire in the southeast. Right."

But the workers kept on working.

And the RAF kept on flying.

These few men with wings, alone in the sky

..behind their motors and machine guns,

..were shooting down more than the Luftwaffe.

They were smashing the whole Nazi plan

of world conquest.

Any claims Johnny??'

109 destroyed, yes."

-"Oh, good show!"

How did you get on sir??'

-"Oh, I had a wonderful party, thanks."

Are you all right?. Have you hit any of the batters??'

-"Yes, I got a Messerschmitt 109."

Between August 24th and September 5,

35 major attacks were launched.

They cost the Germans 562 planes, while the British

lost only 219 planes and...

..and saved 132 pilots.

Invasion plans were going completely haywire.

Berchtesgaden

The Nazis were blind with rage.

The German mind has never understood why free

people fight on against overwhelming odds.

Hitler knew he was now superior in every weapon,

expect the weapon of spirit.

So he told Gring, break that spirit, crush the people,

crush the spirit of democratic life itself.

Invasion now, would have to wait.

The Nazis would avoid the RAF and smash

the great city of London,

..into the rubble heap they had made

of Warsaw and Rotterdam.

Could London take it?. Even the people themselves

didn't know the answer.

The defenses they trusted in, were London's hastily

assembled anti-aircraft.

The Ack-Ack guns. The balloon barrages which kept

the raiders at high altitude.

The Royal Air force, now down to its last reserves.

And the plain down-right guts of people.

They sent more children out of the city

Tightened air-raid precautions.

Stationed more aero plane spotters.

Rehearsed firefighters.

Moved into bomb shelters.

They blacked out their city, and carried on.

The first blow, aimed to crush

the British spirit,

..came on September 7th.

Control room speaking."

-"Customers and staff, will now take cover...

.. in the basement. Please do not run,

keep moving."

Down the stairs or you can use

the escalator."

Third floor clear. Second floor clear.

First floor, clear."

That day when 375 German planes

came roaring up theThames River,

The battle of Britain, became

the Battle of London.

The German's broke through the charge of Spitfires

and Hurricanes that went out to meet them.

Gone was any pretence of aiming at military

objectives.

This was just savage destruction.

Bombs fell alike on the homes of

the east-end poor,

..and the Mayfair rich.

On shops.

Hospitals.

Churches.

For 28 days the Nazis were to drop everything in the

book on the city of London.

Tons upon tons of high explosives.

Delayed action bombs had exploded days later

Torpedo that had sheered away whole buildings.

And underneath the war in the air the war of the man

in the street went on.

He learned to exist with very little food.

He forgot what it meant to have a night's sleep.

Spending most of his time underground,

in the damp, dark and cold.

Good-evening folks."

-"You're in early tonight."

Well, I quite a sight, aren't l??'

I think that will be all right now."

-"Yes, that's grand."

How are we going to get you up there??'

-"Get the young man to lift you up."

Brady!"

-"Hello."

Come give this young lady a lift up."

-"Right you are."

The air-raid wardens stayed at their posts.

Doctors and nurses worked on steadily, as the

bombs crashed around them.

Rescue squads labored night and day

Hey Warden, I found one."

Is she dead??'

-"Quite dead."

Firemen said, nuts to the bombs,

and battled to put out the fires.

This was life in the blitz.

Against all the rules of Nazi warfare,

Britain was refusing to crumple up.

Across the Channel, the enraged Gring took

personal command of the operations.

And on September 15, he sent the Luftwaffe

into one of its greatest attacks.

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