All language subtitles for World War II Secrets From Above - Season 2 - EP-01 - Battle Of Britain

September, 1940.

A colossal dogfight erupts in
the skies over Southern England.

Hundreds of British and German
planes engage in a duel to the death.

As wave after wave of Nazi
bombers head for London,

they are met by the spitfires and
hurricanes of the Royal Air Force.

The young RAF pilots
are outnumbered five to

one, but know that
defeat will spell disaster.

Invasion by Hitler's armies
and occupation under Nazi rule.

This is the Battle of Britain.

In this series, we investigate
the most extraordinary events

of World War II from a
brand new perspective.

Matching rarely seen archive
film, photography from the front line,

and declassified aerial reconnaissance
images to their original locations.

We reconstruct the crucial
battles, daring bombing raids, and

deadly terror weapons, which
changed the course of history.

Soaring over the battlefields, we reveal
the secrets of World War II from above.

14th of June, 1940.

A lone RAF reconnaissance plane

flies over the English Channel
and into occupied France.

Its target is the Merville Aerodrome,

south of Calais, recently
seized by Hitler's forces.

The onboard camera
reveals a horrifying new threat.

More than 40 German bombers, all
now within striking distance of England.

In the spring of 1940, Hitler's forces
steamroll through Western Europe.

They capture and occupy the Netherlands,

Belgium, and Luxembourg
before overrunning France.

The Germans nearly wipe out the
British Army on the beaches of Dunkirk,

but Britain refuses to surrender, and
by July, stands alone against the Nazis.

Hitler is enraged and orders his generals
to draw up plans for an invasion of the UK.

Codenamed Operation Sea Lion.

If it succeeds, the whole of Britain

could fall under Nazi rule.

England's exposed south
coast is ill-prepared for invasion.

Newly elected Prime Minister
Winston Churchill is publicly defiant.

- The Battle of France, you know,

I expect that the Battle
of Britain is about to begin.

- But on many beaches,
a handful of Home

Guard soldiers, mines,
and flimsy barbed wire

are all that stand in the way
of a German seaborne landing.

The town of Dover in Kent
is particularly vulnerable.

It's the closest port to France and a
key objective for the Nazi invaders.

A German aircraft takes this
rare reconnaissance photograph.

It reveals how a series
of coastal gun batteries

are rapidly built up along
Dover's famous white cliffs.

Here, historian Robert Hall
and a team of volunteers

rediscover a lost anti-aircraft battery
buried for nearly seven decades.

The site that you can
see today was constructed

just before the Battle
of Britain really took off.

This was the nearest heavy anti-aircraft
gun site to the occupied French coast.

And it was inevitably very busy all
the way through the Battle of Britain.

The German high
command knows that it needs

air superiority over the English Channel
before launching any invasion of Britain.

So Hitler orders the
German Air Force, the

Luftwaffe, to test
Britain's coastal defenses.

The first daylight raids
take place at the start of July.

Dover and its batteries are
now right on the front line.

The guns at Wanstone are
eight ton Vickers anti-aircraft guns.

Their four and a half meter barrels

can fire explosive shells over
seven kilometers into the sky.

Over the next few months, these
guns will be among the busiest in Britain,

defending what becomes
known as Hell's Corner.

Firing just a single gun
here is a huge team effort.

At the command post, skilled personnel

use the latest technology
to pinpoint aircraft

in the sky and anticipate
their onward path.

While others calculate the
exact trajectory that the shells

need to take in order to
hit the fast moving targets.

And at the sharp end, each
gun has a team of 11 men

who can aim and fire up
to 10 rounds per minute.

- The noise would have been
incredible coming through from there.

The ground would have shaken.

You would have felt the
vibration as the gun was firing.

So quite an intense process.

- Among the men who are
posted here to defend Britain

from invasion is gunner
Edward George Lawrence.

- We saw plenty of action there.

They were dive bombing Dover
Harbor almost continuously.

And we were firing barrages
of 30 and 40 rounds at a time.

I was very frightened at times.

Like everybody was.

The man isn't alive that
wasn't frightened in action.

- Edward and his comrades
are Britain's first line of defense.

Deep inside this bunker, Robert discovers
how they play another more desperate role.

- What we have here is some of the
record keeping by the quartermaster.

We've got a record here of 120
grenades that have been primed.

The men here weren't just
trained to fire the guns themselves.

They also potentially needed to act as ground
soldiers in the event of a German raid.

- The scale of the threat facing
Britain's defenders is formidable.

By July of 1940,
Germany controls all the air

bases in France, Belgium
and the Netherlands.

From there, 1,700
bombers and 1,100 fighters

are gearing up to strike the
ports of Southern England.

At this time, German planes outnumber British
fighter aircraft by nearly four to one.

This is the aircraft at the core of the
German bomber fleet, the mighty Heinkel 111.

The plane is developed in the early
1930s and has an unusual design.

Historian Natasha Bilson investigates
how its engineering evolved in secret.

- When you start to take a
closer look and you really

see the shape of the
body, it looks quite beautiful.

It doesn't look like a
standard bomber and that's

because, wow, it wasn't
built to be from the outside.

It was built to be a civilian aircraft
as the Germans were not allowed

to have their own air
force following World War I.

This is a fine example of
a wolf in sheep's clothing.

- The Heinkel begins life disguised
as a high-speed mail plane.

Engineers reconfigure the aircraft for
combat once Germany rearms under the Nazis.

The aircraft's nose is made
almost entirely of Perspex.

This gives the crew a perfect
bird's eye view of their target.

Six 7.9 millimeter machine
guns defend against incoming

enemy fighters and it's armed
with a devastating payload.

The former mail compartment
now becomes a bomb bay.

Instead of parcels and letters,

each Heinkel can carry up
to two tons of high explosives.

At the start of the Battle of Britain,

the Luftwaffe has more
than 600 armed and ready.

The German air force begins its campaign

with small raids designed to test the British
defenses, but it soon steps up a gear.

On the 10th of July, 1940, the
official start of the Battle of Britain,

Hitler's bombing
campaign begins in earnest.

On the 11th of July, a dozen Heinkels

from an air base in France
cross the English Channel.

They are on a mission to
bomb Portsmouth Dockyard.

Shortly after 10 past six in the evening,

one of the aircraft is shot
down and crashes onto a beach.

It's the first German plane to come down
on UK soil during the Battle of Britain.

Despite these early casualties,
German morale is high.

Many believe that Britain is doomed.

- Coming into the Battle of Britain,
the Heinkel crews are battle hardened

and buoyed by this lightning fast
sweep through France and Poland.

They have the combat
experience that the RAF crews lack.

This is vital.

- But the UK is determined
to fight the Nazi war machine.

And a key factor behind
its stubborn resistance

lies here in the most
unlikely of places.

This is Bentley Priory, a grand stately home
in Stanmore on the edge of North London.

In 1940, this is the
headquarters of Fighter Command

where the RAF directs
the Battle of Britain.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding is
Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command.

He knows that his pilots are brave,
but outnumbered and outgunned.

So to even the odds, he
transforms Bentley Priory's ballrooms

into the nerve center of the
world's first air defense network.

Across Southern England,
more than 5,000 civilian

observers keep a watch
for incoming German aircraft.

They have direct telephone
links to local reporting centers

which gather the information
and relay it to Bentley

Priory, the central hub
of the Dowding system.

From there, progress of the raids is phoned
through to regional group headquarters.

They then alert the
nearest airfields to

scramble fighters and
intercept the enemy planes.

Many of the young pilots
who receive the call to arms

are based in small airfields
across Southern England.

Most climb into this single-seat fighter,

the Hawker Hurricane.

Pilot and former Royal Marine
Commando Arthur Williams

believes that this plane is one of the
unsung heroes of the Second World War.

- There's no doubt that
without the Hurricane,

the Battle of Britain would
have been lost by the Allies.

The more glamorous
Spitfire takes the limelight,

but the Hurricane did its
part and it did incredibly well.

- The RAF has more Hurricanes
than any other fighter plane.

This aircraft is rushed
into production in the 1930s

to counter the growing
threat of Nazi Germany.

Under the hood is a 900-horsepower
Rolls-Royce Merlin engine,

giving it a top speed of
505 kilometers per hour.

Within the wings, eight
7.7-millimeter Browning machine guns

spit out a total of 152
bullets every second.

This aircraft may not
win any beauty contests,

but it is tough, easy to
build, and dependable.

- If we come up really close to the fuselage,
you can see these zigzaggy lines on it.

Now, these tell us that
it's a fabric airplane,

it's canvassed, and although
this was an older technology,

it did come with its advantages,
particularly in wartime,

because if we're to shoot
through this with a bullet,

it's very easy for field
engineers and aircraft mechanics

to simply put a canvas patch
over the top of it very quick.

- The RAF can call on more
than 340 operational Hurricanes

at the start of July, 1940.

Unfortunately for the
British pilots, they must do

battle with the most advanced
fighter plane in the world,

the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

- The Messerschmitt
109, I love this airplane.

I know I'll be told off for saying that,

but it's such a beautiful-looking aircraft.

- This is one of the last
operational Bf 109s in the world.

Unveiled during the 1936 Olympic Games,

the Messerschmitt trumps the
Hurricane in almost every way.

Sporting an 1,100-horsepower
Daimler-Benz engine, it can

fly 45 kilometers per hour
faster than the British fighter.

As well as machine guns, it has a
20-millimeter cannon in each wing,

firing explosive shells that
are devastating in combat.

- The pilots of these
things would only need

to land a couple of those shells on
target to decimate their opponent.

It's small, it's nimble, it's agile,
bags of power, bags of firepower.

- The Messerschmitt could
outperform the Hurricane

in combat, making it the
perfect aircraft to spearhead

the next phase of Germany's
aerial assault on Britain.

On the 1st of August, 1940, Hitler orders
Hermann Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe,

to target more than just Britain's
dockyards and wipe out the RAF.

Goering plans Operation Eagle and
boasts that his men will sweep the RAF

from the skies of southern
England in just a few days.

But Goering's confidence is misplaced.

Britain's aerial defense
network doesn't just rely on the

bravery of its pilots or the
sharp eyes of the spotters.

The RAF has a secret weapon, and
it lies deep in the English countryside.

Flying over the fields of Great Badeaux in
Essex reveals a mysterious steel obelisk.

At first sight, it looks
like an electricity

pylon, but it is not
connected to any others.

Military historian Lynette
Nussbacher discovers how

this tower is, in fact, a
1930s radio transmitter.

The last complete example
of an ingenious weapon

which the RAF hopes
will win the Battle of Britain.

Radar.

- In 1940, radar is a new technology.

This is the beginning
of electronic warfare.

- In the 1930s, the RAF realizes

that it is unprepared to fight
a war against Nazi Germany.

So it develops an early warning system to
compensate for its lack of fighter planes.

Two scientists, Robert Watson
Watt and his assistant Arnold Wilkins,

discover that they can
detect incoming enemy

airplanes by bombarding
them with radio waves.

The two men devise a
network of radio stations.

Multiple transmitter beacons, suspended
between steel towers over 100 meters high,

send out powerful beams of radio waves.

And on nearby wooden
towers, highly sensitive radio

receivers pick up any echoes
bouncing back from the planes.

The system is a world
first and extremely powerful.

Each station can detect
enemy aircraft up to 160

kilometers away before they
have even left the continent.

The British build 25
of these radar beacons,

a chain covering 2000
kilometers of coastline

and integrate them into
the aerial defense network.

With direct phone lines to fighter command,

the RAF hopes this will buy them
the extra time it so desperately needs.

- Tiny advantages make a
huge difference in this battle.

Radar enables the Royal Air
Force to focus their resources

and their efforts on exactly
where the Germans are.

And once they're there, they're
in the right place at the right

time to do their job, which is
to shoot down German planes.

- Many of the radar operators are women.

They are sworn to
secrecy, not even telling

their families about
Britain's new wonder weapon.

The system proves its worth
on the 8th of August, 1940.

RAF squadrons are ready and waiting

as the Germans launch one
of their biggest raids so far.

They down 31 German planes in a single day.

The effectiveness of the defense
infuriates Goering and stuns German pilots.

The Germans realize they
need to take out Britain's

radar sites first to pave
the way for Operation Eagle.

On the 12th of August,
eight Nazi Messerschmitts

from Calais head
towards the English coast.

Each aircraft carries a 250-kilogram
bomb on its undercarriage.

Their target is the closest radar
station to France just outside Dover.

The Messerschmitts
drop their bombs over the

towers but struggle
to score a clean hit.

When the dust settles,
the station is still standing.

- If you look at this
thing, it's mostly air.

It's really hard to hit any part of
this that's gonna bring it down.

If you break one of the girders,
you just replace the girders.

This is a robust system.

It's really hard to break with a bomb.

- The initial attacks fail to wipe out
Britain's trailblazing radar network.

But instead of trying again, Goering
is impatient to win air supremacy.

He moves on to the next
phase of the operation,

the destruction of the RAF's
airfields and its planes on the ground.

The decision to leave Britain's
radar system intact is a critical mistake.

- The Germans don't really understand
what the British are doing with radar.

The German Air Force is designed
to support the German Army

in invading countries
and taking over the world.

They want to drop a big bomb
onto a tank, go boom, and go home.

The Luftwaffe has not
got the cultural orientation

to understand that what
they need to do is attack

the RAF as a system
rather than to attack a target.

- Britain's radar is still active

and the Luftwaffe starts to
lose planes at an alarming rate.

This Messerschmitt is one of the hundreds

of German aircraft shot
down over the next two weeks.

But despite these losses,
Nazi invasion plans gather pace.

Germany's 16th Army identifies a swathe
of landing beaches from Dover to Dorset.

The Battle of Britain is about to
enter a new and deadly phase.

By mid-August, people living near Britain's
airfields have got used to German raids.

Until now, most have
hit mainly military targets.

But shortly before
midnight on the 24th of

August, the first bombs
fall on central London

when a German flight
supposedly veers off course.

The bombing destroys shops
and offices in the city and

the West End, and it
triggers a terrible escalation.

In retaliation, Churchill orders
a series of raids on Berlin.

The attacks enrage Hitler, who now gives
the Luftwaffe freedom to target London.

RAF Biggin Hill in Kent is one of several
fighter bases defending the capital.

To protect the base, engineers
camouflage its runway.

They paint streaks of tar on
the grass to resemble hedgerows.

This makes it almost
invisible from the air.

Arthur Williams
investigates how Biggin Hill

now becomes the
Luftwaffe's number one target.

- RAF Biggin Hill is one of the most
symbolic airfields of the Battle of Britain.

It was on this very location that
so much of the fighting took place.

- On the 30th of August,
the Luftwaffe tries

a new tactic to fool
the British radar teams.

Instead of aircraft
approaching on a broad front,

the Germans attack in
multiple smaller groups.

Launched at half-hour intervals,
these raids are designed to saturate

the British early warning
system, keeping the

defenders guessing with
too many fires to put out.

The young pilots from 610 Squadron, based
at Biggin Hill, know they are outnumbered.

But here, they fly the
RAF's most advanced fighter.

A true icon of British history,
the Supermarine Spitfire.

- Oh, the Spitfire.

How many millions of hours have
we spent appreciating this design?

It's very, very slick, smooth lines.

- The Spitfire is a
revolutionary new design.

Elliptical wings allow the aircraft

to turn in a tight circle and
climb faster than a hurricane.

It can outpace even the
formidable Messerschmitt.

- This is a thoroughbred
racing/fighting machine.

And when compared to the Hurricane,

which if you think was kind of historically
rooted in its aeronautical design theory,

the Spitfire was very forward-thinking.

It was cutting edge.

It was thinking about the future.

- In the Spitfire, the RAF
has a machine that can

finally take on the
Messerschmitt on its own terms.

In a one-on-one aerial
battle known as a dogfight.

- So the Spitfire and the Messerschmitt
were very equally matched.

It really boils down to
luck and the experience

and skill of the pilot
behind the control.

Typically, a dogfight would
only last about 90 seconds.

I'd imagine to the
pilots that were involved

in it, it would have
felt like an eternity.

- The RAF pilots have
less combat experience

going into the battle,
but they are well-trained.

Among them is Ginger
Lacey, one of the highest

scoring RAF aces
of the Battle of Britain.

On the 30th of August, he is in the skies

over Southern England,
not far from Biggin Hill.

To beat the raw power
of the Messerschmitts in a

dogfight, pilots like Ginger
have to outmaneuver them

to get on their tail
and blow them out of

the sky before they
even know what hit them.

- I much preferred to kill someone
without him even knowing I was there.

His first indication that
he was being shot at

was when bullets started
coming out of his chest.

You didn't give a chap an even break.

You were firing at a man.

You were firing at an
airplane of the wrong kind,

wearing the wrong
markings and flying in our sky.

- Ginger Lacey alone is credited
with downing 28 enemy aircraft.

But the statistics still
tell a shocking story.

About one in six RAF pilots are
killed during the Battle of Britain.

The life expectancy of a
Spitfire pilot is just four weeks.

- You've got young men
who are in their early 20s,

full of ego, capable, competent,
intelligent, very skilled,

great judgment, going head
to head against their rivals.

There would have been a
mutual respect for that, I think.

But let's not forget
that they're doing a job

and their job is to be
killed or kill each other.

- Biggin Hill's pilots put
up a spirited defense,

but there are too many Luftwaffe
bombers for them to stop.

Fire crews battle to put out the
flames from burning buildings.

This astonishing aerial
photograph, taken by the Luftwaffe

during one raid, reveals
the intensity of the attack.

Explosion clouds spread out across the
airfield, leaving a trail of destruction.

The Germans now deploy
the same relentless wave tactics

against other airfields
with increasing success.

Britain's radar system struggles to cope.

And by the end of August, 1940,
the Nazis appear perilously close

to winning the air superiority
they need to launch an invasion.

In early September, Britain's
worst fears seem to come true.

At Dunkirk in Northern France,

German barges and
amphibious landing craft line

up, ready and waiting
for the order to invade.

The Air Ministry prepares to issue
invasion alert number one, attack imminent.

But one event will change
the course of the war.

Saturday, the 7th of September, 1940,
begins more quietly than previous days.

By mid-afternoon, the plotting table

at Bentley Priory lies empty.

The uneasy calm troubles fighter command.

Many wonder if this is
the lull before the invasion.

Then at 4 p.m., Britain's ingenious
radar network picks up a signal.

German bombers over the channel.

It's a massive attack.

The Luftwaffe use what they
call the Valhalla Formation,

a gigantic swarm of bombers and
fighters stacked 1.5 kilometers high.

Almost 1,000 aircraft are
now just off the English coast.

Fighter command believes
London's airfields must be the target.

But to their horror, the
German aircraft carry straight on

and a second huge formation
approaches from a different direction.

In a pincer move, they
converge on the capital itself.

It is the beginning of the Blitz, the
darkest chapter in the Battle of Britain.

The first bombs fall on London's
Royal Docks and Woolwich Arsenal.

Soon the whole of the East End is ablaze.

Pillars of smoke reach
hundreds of meters into the sky.

Historian Alexandra Churchill explores
the impact of that devastating night.

Today, gleaming skyscrapers
rise above London's Docklands,

but in 1940, these quays
looked very different.

The Docklands would have been
absolutely rammed with shipping.

It's just so absolutely critical,
not only to Britain's war effort,

but Britain's economy and keeping
British people alive during a war.

On the night of the 7th of September, London's
dockyards are full of flammable goods,

which easily go up in flames
when the bombs explode.

This incredible image shows warehouses
on fire at Surrey Docks in Rotherhithe.

The intense heat turns the
Victorian buildings into raging infernos.

But it's not just London's
industry that suffers.

For the thousands of people
living nearby, it is hell on earth.

The thing about Docklands
is that it's haphazard,

so it's been evolving as the center
of commerce in Britain for centuries,

which means that not only have
you got factories everywhere,

but you've got houses crammed in, so it's
really crowded, really densely populated.

As dawn breaks, and the
sun rises behind Tower Bridge,

London still burns.

More than 430 people are
dead, and 1,600 others injured.

But this is just the start of a new
and terrifying Nazi bombardment.

24 hours later, the bombs
fall again across London.

11 people die at Harrington Square,

where an explosion throws
a bus against a terrace.

Not even the capital's most
exclusive districts are safe.

This is Mayfair.

Palmau.

And Monument.

Half a dozen bombs
even fall on Buckingham Palace,

while the royal
family are in residence.

The next day, Queen
Elizabeth, the wife of George VI,

says that she can finally
look the East End in the face.

The Nazis hope that the
blitz will shatter British morale,

but their plan is not just to sow terror.

German intelligence believes that
the RAF is down to its last 50 fighters,

which the Luftwaffe wants to
destroy in a titanic battle over London.

In fact, Britain's losses are nowhere
near as bad as the Nazis think.

The decision to stop bombing Fighter
Command's airfields gives it time to rebuild.

As horrible as the blitz is for Londoners,

you can make an argument
that it helps the Battle of Britain.

They get time to repair airfields, you
get time to bring new pilots through.

So had they not done that, it
might have ended up differently.

The RAF is far from finished, but
victory or defeat rests on a knife edge.

The next few days will decide
the outcome of the battle.

48 hours after the start of the blitz,

the Germans fix a date
for their invasion of Britain,

the 20th of September, 1940.

But for Hitler, time is running out.

The Nazis know that they
only have a short window left

to launch an invasion
before winter sets in.

And they still do not have
the air superiority they need.

So on the 15th of September, both
sides make one final roll of the dice.

100 German bombers attack the Kent coast.

The RAF meets them with a
new formation, the Big Wing.

Five squadrons of tightly
packed fighters attacking together.

The Big Wing repels the German attack,

but the Nazis aren't finished yet.

They send a second wave, hurling
even more bombers at the capital.

The RAF scrambles
every plane and pilot it can

find and what will become
Battle of Britain Day.

Sunday, the 15th of September
was another ordinary sunny day.

It was perfect flying conditions
and RAF fighter command

were expecting another very
busy, intense day of fighting.

But nobody could predict just how pivotal

that day would prove to
be in the overall outcome

of the Battle of Britain and
ultimately the Second World War.

The people of London and Kent watch as
an enormous aerial battle rages above them.

The vapor trails of spitfires, Hurricanes
and Messerschmitts fill the sky.

Over London, Hurricane pilot
Ray Holmes attacks a damaged

German bomber heading
straight for Buckingham Palace.

Fresh out of ammunition,
Holmes goes for broke.

He decides to ram the
Nazi plane and slams his left

wing into the enemy's tail
before bailing out to safety.

This incredible photograph
captures the moment

the German plane plunges
to the ground, minus its tail fin.

The aircraft crashes into the
forecourt of Victoria Station,

just a few hundred meters
away from the palace.

The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,

follows the progress of
the battle in West London.

He asks his commanders how
many reserves are available.

The answer he receives is there are none.

Shortly after 2.15pm,
more than 170 RAF fighters

attack a second wave of
German bombers over Kent.

It stuns German high command
and shatters their illusion

that the RAF is down
to a handful of planes.

The 15th of September is a day
where everything rested on a knife edge.

The Luftwaffe launched
one of its greatest offences

during the battle, and the RAF put
up everything they had in defence.

On that day, the Luftwaffe
suffered unsustainable losses,

and they realised that their
strategy had failed badly.

The 15th of September is a turning point.

It is the moment when
the Luftwaffe accepts that it

has failed to crush the
RAF and gain air superiority.

The German Air Force
has lost up to 1,800 aircraft,

and more than 2,000 men
in a costly battle of attrition.

The RAF's losses, though
heavy, are far fewer in number.

Over 900 aircraft and more than 400 men.

Britain's ingenious defence network
has proved a stunning success.

Radar has allowed a small number of brave
pilots to take on and defeat superior odds.

Hitler's blitz will continue
for another eight months,

and kill 43,500 civilians across the UK.

But the Battle of Britain has been won.

Without mastery of the skies,
the Nazi invasion cannot succeed.

Hitler calls off the operation and
turns his attention east, towards Russia.

One speech by Churchill
sums up the national mood.

- The gratitude of every
home in our islands,

in our empire, and indeed
throughout the world, except in

the abodes of the guilty,
goes out to the British airmen.

Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.

- Today, a memorial to
the fallen in the shape of

a huge propeller is
carved into the cliffs of Kent.

The Battle of Britain is a
story of incredible bravery

and sacrifice, and a
determination to never surrender.