All language subtitles for RAF.At.100.With.Ewan.And.Colin.McGregor.2018.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].eng

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(dramatic music)

- Shall we go and do it?

- Yeah, let's do it.

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- 2018 marks the centenary
of the Royal Air Force.

In a hundred years, it's
evolved from primitive planes

of wood and string

to flying at twice the speed of sound.

My name's Ewan McGregor and
this is my brother, Colin,

and, since we were kids,
we've been fascinated

by the Royal Air Force.

- I went on to become one of its pilots

and now I train the next
generation of the RAF's top guns.

- We've always had a passion for the role

of the RAF in World War II.

Whoa!

But now, we're going
to tell the whole story

of the Royal Air Force's first 100 years

by actually flying in some
of its greatest aeroplanes

and recreating some of
its most iconic missions.

We'll explore how planes
became fighting machines

in World War I.

It's right on our tail!

Oh, my God!

And the classic dogfight
from the Battle of Britain

between the Spitfire and
the Messerschmitt 109.

We'll meet the people who made the RAF,

from the ground crew
to the fighter pilots,

the few who saved the country in 1940.

- I had to fight for self-control

because their cockpits
were full of ghosts.

- We'll explore how the Royal
Air Force waged secret wars.

Oh, my God!

- Can you see it?
- Yeah.

And how it became a
vehicle for social change.

- And I said, I am the pilot!

- [Ewan] We'll meet the Cold
War flyers prepared to launch

nuclear Armageddon.

- We all knew there'd be
nothing to come back to.

- And finally, I'll dogfight
at supersonic speeds

in one of the RAF's latest
and most advanced jets.

It's going to be quite an adventure.

(plane engine roaring)

This is RAF Lossiemouth
in the north of Scotland.

It's where Colin was based

for much of his 20 years in the RAF.

He saw active service in Iraq

and is now a civilian instructor here,

using simulators to train
the RAF's front-line pilots.

- [Colin] The RAF is giving
Ewan the chance to go up

in one of their latest
supersonic jets, the Typhoon.

So, first, I want to introduce him

to this incredible machine.

Built with European partners,

it's the RAF's front-line combat aircraft.

It intercepts planes
encroaching UK airspace

and is currently in action
over Iraq and Syria.

- [Ewan] Oh, my God, look at that.

- [Colin] So, obviously,
this is a two-seat version

of the Typhoon.

- It costs a tidy 60 million
pounds, flies at almost twice

the speed of sound, and
uses 200 state-of-the-art

onboard computers to make it
a fearsome killing machine.

They're weapons, they're flying weapons,

and there's something a bit sobering

about that I suppose.

Also, there's black and
yellow levers and buttons

that you're not meant to touch

and there's that sort
of feeling, you know,

when people talk about
standing on the edge

of a great height and they
feel like they want to jump,

there is a sort of feeling like that.

You know, don't pull that handle

and then you think, what if
I pull it, what if I pull it?

That's the button that
you don't want to press

and they're just quite close together.

I just feel a bit serious about it

and I feel responsible about
it and I feel very lucky

to be given the opportunity to do it

and I don't want to barf.

That's a summary of my feelings.

(plane engine roaring)

But before I get my hands on the Typhoon,

we're going back to the very beginning,

to when the Royal Flying
Corps was the newest branch

of the Army and there's
not a computer in sight.

Wow!

(dramatic music)

The Great War of 1914 to 1918

was the most destructive
conflict the world had ever seen.

It claimed 30 million
lives and became infamous

for industrial slaughter in the trenches.

It also marked the birth of
flying as a weapon of war.

But just six years before
the start of the conflict,

no-one in Britain had
experienced powered flight.

This is Army Aeroplane No 1,

the first plane ever to fly in Britain.

In October 1908, it remained
airborne for 400 meters.

Few saw the military potential of flying.

French General Ferdinand Foch said,

aeroplanes are interesting
toys, but of no military value.

To explore how the Air
Force proved him wrong,

Colin and I are meeting
former RAF pilot Dave Linney

of the Great War Display Team.

He's showing us a replica

of one of Britain's first warplanes.

The BE2 was designed
purely for reconnaissance,

to help the Army see beyond the horizon.

It was unarmed and
flown from the back seat

with an observer in the front.

- [Colin] Just don't put
your foot through there.

- No, I'm trying not to put
my foot through anything.

Oh.

- [Colin] Stand on the
seat, probably, first.

- Oh, yeah, okay.
- Sit yourself down.

If you jump in the back.
- Right, okay.

- And then just swing your leg over.

- [Ewan] Reconnaissance was soon improved

by aerial photography.

- [Dave] I'll show you
a very early camera.

- Oh, my God.

Look at the size of it though.

It's the first generation

GoPro, that is.

You'd have to take the slides out.

- [Dave] Take the plates
out, change the plates.

- It's so clumsy.
- They got good results.

- Right.

- And later in the war
the photographic results

were phenomenal.

Most of the major battles were planned

using the trench pictures that
they got with these things.

- But it is extraordinary to
think that it's like a matter

of six to eight years since flying started

that they were using
aeroplanes in warfare.

It's crazy, isn't it?

But it wasn't long before
these unarmed sitting ducks

were forced to protect themselves.

- [Dave] The initial weapon was that.

- [Ewan] Oh, yeah?

- [Dave] I mean, trying
to shoot another aeroplane

with that, when you're passing--

- I'd take out a strut
or a wire or something.

The engine.

- I mean, thoroughly impractical.

But they tried.

But of course now, with this, they can...

If you just slot that into that there.

Now, you've got a pretty
good field of fire

and you've got a machine gun.

- Right.
- So, you're starting

to become more effective.

- Yeah.

Flying offered an escape from
the horror of the trenches.

Watch your head.

But pilots soon confronted a new reality.

Slaughter in the skies.

- If you made the first
two weeks on a squad

and you survived the first two weeks,

then you stood a chance
of surviving longer,

but up until then, it could be days,

it could be your first mission.

It was very, very poor.

- Yeah.

Pilots faced the enemy's lethal firepower

but they also froze in open cockpits

and flew without parachutes.

- There's a big chance of fire in the air

and that was probably the
biggest fear for these guys

and I notice you've still
got the revolver in there.

- I have, yeah.

- A surprising number of
pilots would carry a revolver

in the aeroplane, not to
shoot at other aircraft,

but to finish it if they
were going down in flames.

- Oh, my God.
- Horrific.

- [Ewan] It's now time to get a sense

of what it was like to fight

in those rickety machines.

I'll be in the observer seat

in the front of the primitive BE2.

Colin will do his observing
from a Tiger Moth.

Our adversaries are
German Fokker triplanes.

Agile and fast, the Fokker
changed aerial warfare forever.

Dave will be in an SE5, the
Spitfire of World War I.

The one thing these planes had in common

was that they were incredibly hard to fly.

More pilots died in
training than in combat.

It's 1916.

With each side vying for air supremacy,

fighter aces dueled with the
enemy above the trenches.

Whoo-hoo!

This was the dawn of the dogfight.

(dramatic music)

- Oh, it's great, so good
to be airborne again.

Brilliant.

- Ah, so beautiful, the view is amazing!

- [Colin] Great, isn't it?

- Yeah, it's got good
visibility everywhere.

Except directly ahead, of course.

In the BE2, we've
reached its maximum speed

of 70 miles an hour and it's clear to me

how vulnerable and unprotected
the pilots and observers

must have felt.

And then, we spot the Fokkers.

Here they come.

They close in at a 110 miles an hour.

We've fallen victim to
one of the classic tactics

of dog-fighting, a surprise
attack from behind.

Oh, my God!

I can see them coming in
from behind, it's amazing.

The Fokker had the new
weapon that revolutionized

aerial warfare, the synchronized gun.

It fired 500 rounds a
minute through the propeller

without hitting it.

All the pilot had to do was get the enemy

in the cross hairs and fire.

He's right on our tail.

Oh, my God!

In 1916, German dominance
of the air was so great

that the BE2 was withdrawn
after 60 were shot down

in one month.

But the Fokkers didn't
rule the skies for long.

In 1917, a new British plane,

the SE5, changed the game again.

At a 140 miles an hour, it
was faster, more maneuverable

and it also had a synchronized gun.

This one is in the colors

of British flying ace Mick Mannock.

Mannock went on to become
the archetypal fighter ace,

shooting down 61 enemy planes.

But he also broke the mold.

Most recruits were rich cavalrymen

who could afford to buy a pilot's license.

He was working-class and Irish,

with Republican sympathies.

His diaries also revealed
the strain on this new breed

of warrior, the fighter pilot.

Over the lines today,
engine cut out three times.

Wind up.

Now I can understand
what a tremendous strain

to the nervous system flying is.

This one's from the 20th of July 1917.

I had the good fortune to
bring a Hun two-seater down

in our lines a few days ago.

Luckily, my first few
shots killed the pilot

and wounded the observer, a captain,

besides breaking his gun.

I hurried out at the first opportunity

and I found the observer
being tended by the local MO.

The journey to the trenches
was rather nauseating.

Bits of bones and skulls
with the hair peeling off

and tons of equipment
and clothes lying about.

This sort of thing,
together with the strong

graveyard stench and the
dead and mangled body

of the pilot and NCO, combined
to upset me for a few days.

- I think that's the thing about it,

it was so close up as well and personal,

you know, so he actually
saw that he killed the pilot

and injured the observer so
you're not detached from it.

You're totally eyeball to eyeball

almost as if you're on the battlefield.

My experience is, I suppose,
in modern sort of warfare,

certainly in the RAF, you're so detached

from what you're doing and
you certainly don't land

and go and have a look at the
results of what you've done.

- No.

It combined to upset me for a few days.

I bet it upset him for
a lot longer than that.

- [Colin] Yeah.

- Like many Great War pilots,
Mannock paid a terrible price.

He was suffering from what we
now recognize as combat stress

and was haunted by nightmares
of his aircraft in flames.

In July 1918, he went down
with his burning plane.

Pilots could soar through the skies,

but they couldn't escape
the horrors of warfare.

One in four of them did not survive.

We walked off the playing
fields into the lines.

We lived supremely in the moment.

Our preoccupation was the next patrol,

Our horizon, the next leave.

We were trained in one subject, to kill.

We had one hope, to live.

And when it was all over,
we had to start again.

(footsteps echoing)

The Royal Air Force
was born in April 1918.

By the end of the war, it had grown

from just 60 aeroplanes to 22,000.

From the beginning, the
RAF was at the forefront

of innovations in aviation.

(marching band music)

But in peacetime, the Army
and Navy wanted to kill off

the new upstart rival service.

One man was to save the infant RAF

and shape it into a modern,
forward-thinking force.

- [Colin] Hugh Trenchard, known as Boom

because of his loud voice,
founded the air academy

I attended at Cranwell.

It became the RAF equivalent of Sandhurst,

the home of Army officer training.

But Trenchard also realized the
pyramid of technical support

needed to get a pilot in the air

deserved the best training too.

I've come to RAF Halton
to explore this legacy.

In 1920, Trenchard introduced
an apprentice scheme here

that encouraged ground crew cadets

to rise to the top of the
service on merit alone.

Ground crew are still trained here today.

I'm meeting an old friend,
Air Marshal Cliff Spink,

who trained me to fly the Spitfire.

He was apprenticed here in 1963, aged 16,

and benefited from the
systems set up by Trenchard.

- Being, in my case, a farmer's boy

and suddenly being thrust
in amongst young lads

from all parts of the country,

from all sorts of backgrounds

and so, yes, I can remember
suddenly the enormity of it all

and almost saying to myself,
my goodness, what have I done?

But it happened to be the
best thing I ever did.

- Yeah.
- Partner!

Last bit's a sprint!

Let's go!

Find your partner!

- [Cliff] Something that
the Air Force always did,

it really brought you into the fold.

Sometimes it had to knock you
down before it built you up.

And we weren't all of the same mold,

but they brought you
into a corporate entity

and teamwork and leadership.

They seem like cliches but they're not.

They were real building blocks

and Halton did it really well.

- [Colin] Thousands who
passed through Halton

owe a debt to Trenchard.

Cliff himself went on to
rise to the top of the RAF.

- Having a vision for an Air
Force in the first place,

an independent Air Force, was fundamental

but he saw the building
blocks associated with that,

yes, the officers
associated with Cranwell,

but Trenchard could see
the need for that core

who were so well technically
trained to be able to take

the Air Force forward.

- In the class-ridden society

of the 1920s, Halton was unique.

Any apprentice who did well
enough could then go on

to train as a pilot.

It was a sort of meritocracy,

I guess, wasn't it?

- I think that's something
that the Air Force

has prided itself on,

that you come from any walk of life

and if you've got the
skill and the dedication

you can make a success of it,

at whatever level you want to go to.

And I think that meritocracy
has been the lifeblood

of the Royal Air Force.

(marching band music)

- [Colin] Trenchard's
innovations in the 1920s

helped the RAF survive.

But just a few years later,

they would be tested to the limit

when Britain went to war
once again with Germany.

(dramatic music)

When the Second World War began,

the RAF faced, in the German Luftwaffe,

the largest and most
technologically advanced air force

the world had ever seen.

In 1940, with the British Army routed

and the Germans now only 20
miles away across the Channel,

Adolf Hitler launched an
all-out aerial assault

to prepare the way for invasion.

Only the RAF stood in his way.

Whoa!

When the Battle of
Britain started in June,

just 640 RAF fighters
faced 2,600 German planes.

But even though it was outnumbered,

this was a battle the RAF
had been built to fight.

Its revolutionary air defense system

used radar to detect
incoming enemy planes.

It was then down to
its new fighter planes,

the Hurricane and Spitfire,

to scramble and intercept the enemy.

On the 13th of August,
the Luftwaffe launched

its main offensive to
smash the RAF on the ground

and in the air.

As the Germans crossed the coastline,

dogfights on a scale never seen before

raged above southern England.

There are just a handful
of pilots alive today

who fought in the battle
and I'm privileged to meet

the youngest of them all.

Geoffrey Wellum was just 18 at the time.

- I suppose the first
time I flew a Spitfire,

the thing flew me more or less.

It seemed to flow around the sky.

It slipped through the air.

The mere thought that you
wanted to do something

conveyed thought to your hands and feet

and the Spitfire seemed to do it.

And it's just a wonderful feeling of,

this is what I've always wanted to do,

this is where I want to be.

- Up, up the long, delirious burning blue.

I've topped the windswept
heights with easy grace.

Where never lark or even eagle flew.

And while with silent
lifting mind I've trod,

the high untrespassed sanctity of space,

put out my hand and
touched the face of God.

In the summer of 1940,
there was little time

for playing with the clouds.

By the end of August, the
RAF was in big trouble.

On the 31st, they
suffered their worst day.

41 planes were lost.

At this low point, Geoffrey found himself

thrown into the battle.

On his first sortie, he ran into a force

of 150 enemy planes.

- I'd never seen so many aeroplanes.

It was a mass coming towards us.

And I remember thinking,

good God, where do you
start in on this lot?

I was spraying bullets all over Kent.

We went straight through
the middle of them,

one passed straight over
the top of my head about...

Well, I don't know, but I
imagined I heard his engines

and I thought, this is dangerous,

and I broke away and I thought,

well, now go back and have another go.

- [Ewan] The deadliest enemy of all

was the Messerschmitt 109.

It's impossible to know how
frightening it must've been

to fight for one's life in the skies.

But today, I'm going up
in a two-seat Spitfire

to try and get a sense of what it was like

to take on an ME109.

What a feeling, taking off with two

of the most iconic fighter
planes of all time.

The 109 had superior firepower

and its battle-hardened pilots

used surprise to deadly effect.

- And in comes Jerry and
he just comes straight

slashing past us, firing
his guns about there,

about 50 to 100 yards.

We wouldn't even have known he was there.

- Whoo!

Already I'm getting a real sense

of just how different
this is from World War I.

The planes are so much faster.

The reaction time just
has to be so much quicker.

Both planes had a maximum
speed of 350 miles an hour,

but the Spitfire had one great advantage,

in a dogfight it could turn
tighter than the Messerschmitt

to shake it off or get on
its tail to shoot it down.

- [Pilot] We're gaining on him.

He's not getting away.

- Flying up to five sorties a day,

pilots like Geoffrey had to learn quickly

how to outwit this formidable foe.

- Never, ever fly straight and level

for more than 20 seconds
in the combat area

because it was always the 109,

the German that you did
not see that shot you down.

Because I always felt
that, rightly or wrongly,

if I could see my antagonist,

I always felt that I had the ability

to outfly him in a Spitfire.

- [Ewan] In the air, the
Germans were losing two planes

to every one of the RAF's
but constant attacks

on British airfields had put RAF crews

under intense pressure.

- The worst part was sitting
in dispersal, waiting.

The phone went, scramble base, 12 thou.

From there on, you ran
like mad for your aeroplane

and you're supposed to be
airborne within four minutes.

The ground crew had
already started the engine,

your parachute was on the
wing, waiting for you.

You put it on, they helped
you into the cockpit.

You were too busy and
dashing around too much

to be all that apprehensive.

- Did you recognize how
fatiguing, how tiring it was?

- Not at the time.

You just carried on.

You became an automaton.

You managed to get into the mess

or wherever you were after a heavy day

and feel totally exhausted, drained,

but then, you know, you
had a couple of pints

and you had to snap out of it.

- [Ewan] But just when it looked
like the RAF might buckle,

the Germans switched to bombing cities.

It was a tactical blunder
that allowed the RAF to rearm.

So, when the Germans
launched a massive attack

on September the 15th to
finally break the RAF,

they suffered some of
their heaviest losses.

(guns firing)

German high command had
failed to gain air supremacy.

Attacks continued into October,

but invasion was now no longer possible.

Geoffrey's squadron suffered
some of the highest losses.

- You were always aware of absent friends

but you put it behind you.

You'd go to the White Hart and
have a few pints and think,

well, last night John was here.

He's not now.

- Yeah.

- And I can see it now, clearly.

In the evening, all the boys
there in their best blue,

smoke rising to the ceiling,
pints knocking back.

A fighter squadron.

Survivors trying to relax.

And the boys enjoying and very much aware

of one another's company.

- Yeah.

- It was almost a love affair, really.

A love affair with one's fellow man.

You know.

And I think it took more out of us

than we realized at the time.

And, of course, at the
end of my second tour

I had a bit of a breakdown in health

and was invalided home, as it were.

- [Ewan] Recently, Geoffrey
was invited to witness

a Spitfire display.

- Watching those Spits getting
airborne and forming up

into a battle formation,
a lump came into my throat

and I had to fight for self-control

because their cockpits are full of ghosts.

(somber music)

- [Ewan] The Royal Air Force
had won the Battle of Britain,

the country's first
real victory of the war.

It supercharged morale and
turned the atmosphere of defeat

into the potential for ultimate victory.

But the cost was high.

Of the 3,000 RAF pilots
who fought in the battle,

544 lost their lives.

The young pilots' heroism was immortalized

by Winston Churchill when he
stated that never in the field

of human conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few.

(energetic music)

Without the help of one
little-known organization,

the battle might never have been won.

Pilots were in such short supply

that the Air Transport
Auxiliary was created

to deliver combat aircraft
to front-line bases.

We've tracked down two
of the first women pilots

to fly in World War II.

Mary Ellis and Joy Lofthouse.

When filming took place,
Mary was 100 years old,

and Joy, 94.

The ATA's air taxi was
the de Havilland Rapide.

- Art Deco.

Yeah, the '30s.

Everything looked beautiful in the '30s.

There's the crosswind again.

Oh.

Their organization was made
up of a thousand pilots.

In a remarkable breakthrough for equality,

born of necessity, 166 of them were women.

Hello, ladies!

- [Woman] I'm dying to go to the loo.

- [Ewan] Okay.

Look at you.

You'd get in there in
a flash, wouldn't you?

- [Mary] I'd better not get in.

- [Ewan] You'd love it,
though, if you could.

- I would not like to get in that,

even with a pair of steps.

- Oh.

- [Joy] I'd rather hang onto my toy boy.

- You said you didn't like toy boys.

- [Ewan] Well, he's quite a
mature toy boy, let's be honest.

- [Joy] Who is my favorite toy boy?

- Oh, Martin.
- Martin.

- [Joy] Martin Shaw.

- Shaw.
- Oh, yeah.

- He's a very, very good actor as well.

- [Ewan] He wasn't available today, sadly.

Anyway.

- [Joy] He wasn't available.

- He wasn't available today, no.

Martin Shaw.

Sadly.

- [Joy] So, you're his stand-in.

- [Colin] I'm his stand-in, yeah.

I'm the stand-in.

Exactly.

Mary and joy share my passion for flying.

- It's so wonderful.

It's freedom, and you can more or less

do what you want.

- It's the next best thing

to having wings yourself, you know?

You might just as well have wings.

You're up there, nobody can tell you

what to do or where to go.

- [Colin] Yeah.

- [Ewan] Joy had never flown before.

Mary was an experienced pilot.

She'd learned before the
war when flying was largely

the glamorous hobby of wealthy men.

- I flew 76 different
types and I flew a Meteor

without any instructions at all.

- [Ewan] Throughout the war,
the ATA delivered a total

of 309,000 planes.

Mary alone delivered 1,000 of them.

Summary for July 1945.

Argus, Spitfire, Corsair,
Barracuda, Sea Otter,

Vengeance, Tempest, Firefly,
Wildcat, Anson, Wellington,

Ventura and Mitchell.

- [Colin] And that's in one month?

- That's in, yeah, one month.

Flying planes straight from the factory

that had yet to be fitted
with navigational aids

made this one of the most
dangerous jobs in the war.

One in 10 of the ATA pilots were killed.

One of their colleagues, Joan Hughes,

was just five feet tall.

She had to wear wooden
platforms to reach the pedals.

And what reaction would
you get when you landed,

as a female pilot stepping out

of a Wellington bomber on your own?

- I opened the door, you know,

put down the steps and got out

and I waited at the bottom
for the crowd of RAF people

with a car to take me to the control

and I stood there for
some time and I said,

can we go to control, please?

And they said, we're
waiting for the pilot.

And I said, I am the pilot!

(Ewan laughs)

They wouldn't believe me
and two of them were ordered

to go up in the Wellington and search it.

So, finally, they came out and said, no,

there's nobody else there.

- [Ewan] The ATA girls were
the first women in Britain

to gain equal pay.

They led the way for female pilots.

They became known as the
glamour girls of World War II.

- We were never without an escort.

- [Colin] Really?

- Some girls used to have racy
parties with Naval officers.

- Boyfriends.

- [Joy] Yes.

- [Ewan] Ah, really?

That sounds interesting.

- I was taken to it once and she said,

I think you'd better go home now, Joy,

whoever took me to the party.

She thought I was too young
to get too involved in it

by the time they started
chucking the keys on the table.

- [Ewan] I found the courage
of these woman very inspiring.

75 years on, I'm about
to take my first flight

in the Typhoon and I'm really nervous.

It's so maneuverable and
exerts such huge stresses

on the body that I have
to pass a strict medical

to prove that I'm fit to fly.

- Have you been up before?

- I was up in a Tornado
once with my brother.

- Okay.
- But some years ago.

So, that's my only similar experience.

- [Iona] Yup.

- And I was sick.

- Yeah, you'll definitely
be sick, then, in a Typhoon.

- Oh, do you think?

- Yeah!

- [Ewan] Corporal Iona
McDonald is checking

that I can get out of the plane intact

if I'm forced to eject.

- This one here is buttock to knee,

so if you just keep your bum
right up against the wall again

and put your knees together.

- So, if I can just get
you to lift up your T-shirt

at the front for me.

- [Ewan] Next, a thorough checkup

from Wing Commander Joanne Collins.

- Just literally just going to have

a listen to your heart sounds.

When you're ready.

- [Ewan] Because of the
rapid pressure changes

in the Typhoon, my sinuses
and ears have to be clear.

- And relax.

Did you feel that pop?

- Yeah.

I'm also given help on how to combat

the G-forces I'll experience.

- [Joanne] Breathe in for one second.

And then.

And out.

- [Ewan] The Typhoon can exert a force

the equivalent of nine
times normal gravity.

- [Joanne] And that in
itself will make sure

that you get enough blood
and oxygen to the brain

and will reduce any chances of you

losing consciousness up there.

- Okay.

- [Joanne] This one here
you'll need to just hand

to the pilot that's going to be flying you

just to confirm that
we've done the medical

and that you're fit to fly.

- Okay.

So, you're letting me go?

- Gonna let you fly.

- Great.

Damn.

In World War II, after
the Battle of Britain,

thousands of new recruits were undergoing

slightly less rigorous medicals.

If the few had saved the country in 1940,

it was the many who would
now take the war to Germany

and bomb it into submission.

The man behind this campaign
was the head of Bomber Command.

Arthur Harris was ruthless, relentless,

and convinced he was right.

He believed that under the
weight of high explosive

and incendiary bombs, German
morale would collapse.

- There are a lot of
people who say that bombing

can never win a war.

Well, my answer to that is that
it has never been tried yet,

and we shall see.

- [Ewan] In 1942, Harris
put together the first

of the thousand-bomber raids.

Its target was the
industrial city of Cologne.

For the next three years,
RAF crews would wage

a new and terrible form of warfare.

Night after night, raids
targeted German cities.

The seven-man crews in the
new four-engined bombers,

like the Lancaster, faced
formidable German defenses.

- We were caught in searchlights,

and they had us for 35 minutes.

Now, you can guarantee, basically,

that if you were caught in searchlights,

you could say, goodnight, nurse.

That was your lot.

(plane engines roaring)

(explosion booming)

- You can view the target on flames

and surrounded by
millions of shell bursts.

It looks like hell.

And you really think that
this is going to be it.

- [Ewan] To cope with the strain,

many nurtured a live-for-the-day attitude.

It led to an unexpected medical problem

that almost derailed the bomber campaign.

- [Colin] I'm meeting
author Patrick Bishop,

who's just uncovered this secret story.

- I came across this extraordinary file

in the National Archives.

In amongst this bundle of papers,

someone's written on the
margin of one document,

this is an extraordinary story!

And it really is.

It's about this outbreak of VD in the RAF,

towards the end of 1942.

And it's particularly
marked in Bomber Command.

The Bomber Command incidence,

I think, it's four times
higher than it is in the other

branches of the RAF.

- [Colin] Veterans of Bomber Command

told us about the warnings
they'd received on the dangers

of sexually transmitted diseases.

The late Squadron Leader Tony Iveson

relished recounting a dirty ditty.

- If she's easy, she's got it.

If she's got it, you'll get it.

And remember, a blob on
the knob slows demob.

(men laughing)

- I haven't heard that one before.

- [Colin] Arthur Harris offered

a typically blunt response to the problem.

- Normally, Harris was quite
indulgent about hijinks

and, you know, booze-ups
and all the rest of it.

But in this case, he
was far from indulgent

and his response is quite chilling.

He issues this instruction
that anyone who is discovered

to have contracted VD
will be made to start

their whole tour of operations over again

no matter what point
they've actually reached.

As you know, a tour is 30
ops, so what he's saying is,

even if you're on your 29th op,

and you've caught a dose of the clap,

you have to go back to square one.

- Back to square one.

- At this time, you've
got a one-in-five chance

of surviving your tour of 30 ops,

so what this amounts to really,

if you're in this situation,
at the end of your tour,

and you have to start all over again,

it's more or less a sentence of death.

- Wow, that's pretty horrendous.

- [Ewan] The grueling
tours of 30 operations

in highly vulnerable
bombers meant the campaign

produced the highest British
casualty rates of the war.

Out of a force of 125,000
men, 55,000 never came home.

- No, I had never flown before.

Hadn't even driven a motor car before.

- Never ever, ever was I ever comfortable.

No.

No.

Frightened to death.

And anybody who says he wasn't,
well, he's a bloody liar.

- [Man] Fire!

- [Man] He's right in there, isn't he?

- [Man] He's very quick, isn't he?

- [Ewan] For us, no-one
better represented the courage

of this band of brothers in the air

than tailgunner Dave Fellows.

When we met him a few years
ago, he even showed us

how a gunner got target practice,

clay pigeon shooting.

- We winged it.
- You winged it.

You definitely winged the last one there.

He was once asked to
bail out of his Lancaster

after a mid-air collision.

- The skipper said to me, David,

you can bail out if you wish.

But we could have still been
attacked by enemy aircraft.

My turret was still operational.

So, why should I jump out?

What, leave my mates?

- [Ewan] We'd been looking forward

to catching up with Dave.

But, sadly, he passed away

a few days before we began filming.

The plane Dave flew, and
the most potent symbol

of the bomber campaign, is the Lancaster.

Britain's last flying Lancaster

has just undergone a major service.

We're being shown round the plane

by its present-day guardian,

Squadron Leader Andrew Millican.

- Wow.
- Wow, wow.

- Look at that.

So, this is painted up in
the colors of 460 Squadron,

which was a Royal Australian
Air Force squadron aeroplane.

- [Colin] Okay, all right.

- And the reason we wanted
to paint it up in 460

was to commemorate not only
what the Australians did,

'cause of course young men from all round

the dominions came to join Bomber Command,

but also it was Dave Fellows' squadron,

who sadly passed away just
a couple of weeks ago.

- Yeah, yeah.

We loved hanging out with David.

- He was a lovely, lovely man.

But he got a chance to see
it before he passed away?

- He did, yeah.

He did see the aeroplane
before he passed away,

so he saw it in his colours,
which is absolutely brilliant.

Yeah.

- [Ewan] The bomber campaign
and the Battle of Britain

are defining episodes in
the history of the RAF.

But one largely unsung effort
made perhaps just as great

a contribution to the defeat of Hitler.

To uncover how the
humble aerial photograph,

first used in World War I,

became a formidable secret weapon,

I'm meeting Wing Commander Mike Mockford.

So, Mike, what are we looking at here?

- Well, have a look at that,
because that is a typical

three-dimensional image,
which was absolutely vital

to the gathering of intelligence

during the Second World War,

and all the way up to today, actually.

- [Ewan] Oh, my God!

- Can you see it?

- Yeah!
- Yeah, well, if you say,

oh, my God, I know you can.

- Yeah.
- Because that means--

- [Ewan] The two flat images?

- Yeah, you're seeing...

You're merging the images
and you're seeing buildings

have height, hills and
valleys have height and holes,

as they say.

'Cause you improve your
intelligence collection

from 3-D photography
by probably 17% or 20%.

- [Ewan] The photographs were taken

by specially adapted
Spitfires like this one.

Unarmed, and carrying extra fuel,

they could conduct seven-hour
sorties at heights and speeds

that outstripped any enemy plane.

They carried two cameras that took photos

that were slightly offset from each other.

Combining the two made the 3-D image.

- [Mike] That's what you've got there.

- [Ewan] And then?

- [Mike] You're looking at Colditz.

- Oh, is that right?
- Colditz Castle.

- [Ewan] The HQ for this
top secret operation

was a country house on
the Thames, RAF Medmenham.

The highly-skilled
photographic interpreters

identified some of the greatest threats

to the Allied war effort.

- There is an interesting
story of a professor

at RAF Medmenham, who'd
been working all night,

and he came running down the stairs

at breakfast time in the
morning, and said, I've done it!

I've done it, I know what it is,

in his underpants.

He'd forgotten to dress.

- Fantastic.
- And then they said to him,

you'd better get back and get dressed

before you go and tell everyone.

- Such passion, it's great.
- Absolutely, yeah.

I mean, they were...

I think that's a good word.

They were passionate about what they did.

- [Ewan] RAF Medmenham's
greatest intelligence coup

was uncovering the secret
V weapons that Hitler

hoped would turn the tide of
war back in Germany's favor.

The most dangerous was
the V1, the doodlebug,

a pilotless drone that
started to rain down

on London in 1944.

The first of the V1s was
spotted in this photograph.

A tiny cross on a launch ramp.

Their launch sites were
notoriously difficult to find.

Mike is putting me to the test
by getting me to find one.

- This is a Dutch sugar
factory on the Dutch coast.

You're looking for a ramp.

- A ramp, like a ski-shaped thing?

Yeah, slope ramp.

Yeah, because they were
launched from a ramp.

- [Ewan] For the photo
interpreters, it was like looking

for a deadly needle in a haystack.

They became masters at spotting the clues

that were as small as a millimeter

across on the photographic prints.

- Telltale signs.

In the open ground here
is ground scarring.

- [Ewan] Yes.

- Now, that is where the
V1, when it was launched,

carried a booster motor,
which was a small rocket.

When it got airborne, the
booster motor dropped off.

And that ground scarring is
where they fell to the ground.

- I see.
- Follow that back,

on the roof of that building,

is some light toned damage
where bits have hit the roof.

The ramp is just alongside
the building, there.

See that dark shape alongside of it?

Have a look.

- The dark shape here?

- It's a dark line alongside the building.

Yes, just there.

- Oh, I see it.
- Yeah, see it?

And they had 238 sites, I think it was.

Had they ever launched 2,000
V1s in every 24-hour period,

they would probably have destroyed London.

- [Ewan] Yeah, yeah.

Once the target was identified,

the RAF was able to put their
bombing skills into action.

- [Announcer] Day and night,
many targets are being hit.

In the occupied countries,
in the Nazi Reich itself.

- [Ewan] Throughout the war,

more than 30 million
photographs were taken.

3-D photography provided as much as 80%

of British intelligence.

- The general intelligence
gathered by Medmenham

was, beyond question, a huge
contribution to our victory

at the end of the war.

- Yeah, yeah.

The RAF's role had now grown
beyond fighters, bombers

and secret intelligence gathering.

It was also crucial to
the clandestine work

of the Special Operations Executive,

working behind enemy lines,

and they had the perfect tool for the job.

The Westland Lysander is
one of my favorite planes.

It's slow and unarmed, but
an ideal covert air taxi.

It could land in a rough
field just 150 yards long.

It's the 16th of April, 1943.

I'm playing the agent Nick Boddington,

waiting to be picked up
from occupied France.

My first job is to lay a flare path,

three torches in a prearranged pattern,

so the Lysander can find our
temporary runway in the dark.

- [Colin] Up in the Lysander,

I'm playing Ewan's replacement.

It's giving me a sense of
just how brave they were.

Flights could last seven
hours and penetrate 600 miles

into the heart of occupied France.

I'm in good hands.

The pilot that night was Hugh Verity,

who flew 30 clandestine
missions behind enemy lines.

- [Ewan] Okay, I think I hear them, now.

The golden rule was just
three minutes on the ground,

because, at any moment, this
field could be full of Germans,

so every second counted.

- [Ewan] I've got to Morse code
a letter that's prearranged,

and the plane sees that Morse code letter,

and if it's the right Morse
code letter, he replies one.

- [Man] Right.

- [Ewan] And if those letters
are not the right letters,

the game's off.

He buggers off and we bugger off.

There, look, the red light.

Yep.

Quite a brilliant sight, isn't it?

Look at that.

Boddington wasn't just any old
agent, he was an SOE chief,

returning with valuable intelligence

about compromised agent networks.

He was relieved to be rescued,
as the Gestapo were onto him.

Three hours later, Boddington
was safely back in Britain

with his invaluable intelligence.

The Lysander didn't just
ferry hundreds of agents

in and out of enemy territory in Europe.

It also played a vital role
in the war in Southeast Asia.

Fred Bailey, now aged 96,
was a wireless operator.

In 1945, he was dropped behind enemy lines

in the Burmese jungle, to
harass the Japanese army.

Fred's job was to call in air strikes

and to get the local tribes people

to revolt against their
Japanese oppressors.

- We had to carry all the food we needed,

and explosives and ammunition.

And, in fact, we got fed up
carrying it around in the jungle

and we bought an elephant.

- Oh, really?
- Yes.

And we loaded all the
gear onto the elephant.

But what we didn't know was that elephants

needed a day's rest after
about three days' walk.

- I'm a bit like that.

- Yeah.

Well, there was no way we could rest.

We had to keep on the move

because the Japs were
after us, and in the end

the elephant got fed up and pushed off.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

- [Ewan] Fred looks friendly enough now,

but back in the day,
he was trained to kill.

Is that what your were?

- Yeah, a fighting knife, yeah.

- [Ewan] That's from the front

of the Commando magazine, isn't it?

- Yes, that's right, yeah.

Yes, I had one of those.

- Were you quite tasty with one of these?

- Yes, yes.

Do you want a demonstration?

- Yes, go on.

Yes.

- Well.

- [Ewan] Not a real one.

With the Japanese closing
in, Fred and his team needed

to be rescued fast so
they called in a Lysander.

- Very relieved to see it.
- I'll bet, yeah.

- There were five of us
crammed in it, with the pilot.

- [Colin] Five?

- We had a Burmese agent with us.

And he was a little fella.

He sat in the front with the pilot.

And we three crammed
ourselves in the rear cockpit.

I was on the floor.

I didn't see much.

But it was quite a tight, tight fix.

- [Colin] But I guess
you didn't really care?

- No, no.

- [Colin] You were desperate to get out.

- No, we had to get out, yeah.

And I always think it's an
amazing credit to the pilot

that, in the middle of the
jungle, in this tiny airstrip,

he could find it from
just a map reference.

But find it, he did.

And he came down and in about 10 minutes

we were airborne again.

(dramatic music)

- [Ewan] By the time
of the Allied invasion

of mainland Europe on D-Day

the RAF with the US Air
Force had achieved dominance

of the skies of Western Europe.

With 1.2 million personnel
on the ground and in the air,

it was proving a highly
effective organization.

It was capable of carrying
out precision attacks,

like the legendary bouncing bomb

used in the Dam Busters raid.

But the vast majority of bomber crews

were still relentlessly
attacking German cities

night after night.

And final victory left the RAF

facing its greatest controversy.

Throughout the bombing campaign,

it dropped more than a million
tons of bombs on Germany.

But the firestorms created
by the carpet bombing

of cities like Hamburg and Cologne

killed thousands of civilians.

Even Churchill described
the bombing of Dresden

in February 1945 as a step too far.

Questions about the morality
of bombing whole cities

still echo today and have overshadowed

the sacrifice of the bomber crews.

It took 75 years for the bomber
boys to receive a memorial.

But for many, the RAF made
an extraordinary contribution

to victory over the enemy.

Historian Patrick Bishop
has been weighing up

its achievements.

- I think it's fair to say that
the RAF was the pre-eminent

of the three services
during the Second World War.

It saved Britain in 1940,

it took the war to the Germans

when we had no other means of doing it

and you can see that in the respect

it's held in by our allies,
particularly by the Americans.

They're the people you
really had to impress,

and they were more impressed by the RAF

than they were by the Army and the Navy.

They made the best use of technology.

They were modern minded.

They were forward-looking.

The ethos of the thing was
meritocratic and egalitarian.

So, it was very much a
reflection of Britain

as it was going to be
or how it wanted to be

rather than Britain as it had been.

So, I think that the RAF and
its achievements during the war

did quite a lot to shape the attitudes

and, indeed, the politics
of post-war Britain.

(dramatic music)

- [Ewan] Post-war peace meant
facing an unfamiliar world

and unfamiliar roles.

In 1948, the RAF took on a
massive and unexpected mission

that arose from the new
world order, the Cold War.

After the war, the four victorious
powers divided up Germany

and its former capital, Berlin.

With the Russians determined
to dominate Eastern Europe,

Berlin found itself surrounded by hostile

Soviet-controlled territory.

In 1948, the Russians cut off
all land access to Berlin.

The only option left
was to fly in supplies

along three air corridors.

- [Announcer] As the red
noose is drawn closer

about the western sector of the capital,

switches are pulled on generators

and the fuel famine
forces drastic power cuts.

Berlin becomes a city of darkness.

- [Ewan] This is the Dakota,

one of the workhorses of the airlift.

Two million West Berliners
had to be kept alive.

Supplies ranging from
powdered milk to coal

had to be flown in.

At the height of the mission,

planes were landing every 90 seconds.

- To get a sense of what RAF ground crews

were up against, we're
going to unload a Dakota.

So, we're going to have three
and a half tons of supplies

we're going to have to move.

- Three and half tons?

- Three and half tons in 10 minutes.

- All right, cool.
- So, we're up for it?

- Yeah.
Excellent, let's give it a go.

- [Ewan] Good luck.

Over the 12 months of the
airlift, the RAF delivered

a total of 394,000 tons of
cargo in 66,000 sorties.

That's us.

- [Colin] Geoff Smith worked

at Gatow Airfield during the airlift.

It backed onto a Russian base

and they weren't overly friendly.

- Used to come on the
airfield at night initially

and start putting rocks on the
runway and things like that.

- Really, really?
- Yeah.

They used to try and flash
searchlights in the pilots' eyes

as they were coming in.

All sorts of tricks like that.

- [Colin] I'll get the next one.

10 minutes to empty a full Dakota

shouldn't be too tricky for Ewan.

He used to have a proper job
in a potato packing shed.

- It's good, there's
lots more, isn't there?

Oh, my God, there's ties all the way up.

Four minutes.

Six minutes left, lads.

So, we were trying to do our exercise,

unloading the Dakota in 10 minutes.

Is that a sort of accurate?

- That was the sort of target
that we aimed for, yes.

- Right, 10 minutes to unload.

- [Geoff] And then we would back load

if there was a load going back
down into the British zone.

- [Colin] And then you'd be
straight onto the next aircraft

after that, would you?

- Well, there'd be a queue.

- A queue.
- A queue of aircraft.

- [Colin] Are you proud
of the part you played?

- Absolutely.

We've always considered that
we did help a lot of people,

people who were in desperate need as well.

- Oh, shit.

That's going everywhere.

Well done.

Okay, that's it.

Oh, yes, nine minutes!

Whoo!

I had nine minutes on my watch.

I don't know what the
official timekeepers say,

but I had nine.

- Good job.

You're absolutely dripping.

- I tell you what, 'cause
you're stooped over,

everything's right in
the small of your back.

I lifted all of those
bags badly, you know?

- Should have gone back to
your days in the tattie shed.

- I know.

I know but we had a hydraulic lift

that put them on your shoulder.

I think this is 'cause
everything's like that

so all the weight's there.

That's really sore.

- We've got another aircraft
coming in in a minute, though,

that's the other thing.

- Yeah.

Look at all the spuds under the plane.

Spuds everywhere.

(explosion booming)

The Cold War was made
all the more chilling

by the advent of the atomic bomb.

By 1949, both the US and
Russia possessed weaponry

capable of wiping
humanity from the planet.

When the RAF tested hydrogen bombs

on Christmas Island in 1956,

it announced Britain's
membership of the nuclear club.

- [Announcer] Like a man-made
sun, the fireball glows high

above the Pacific Ocean.

- [Ewan] The RAF was now
primed to drop nuclear weapons

on the Eastern Bloc, a role
that continued until the 1980s.

- [Colin] This is the Avro Vulcan,

made by the same company
that built the Lancaster.

It entered service just 14 years

after its iconic predecessor
and became the linchpin

of Britain's nuclear bomber force.

I'm really excited to meet
two veteran Vulcan pilots,

Jonny Tye and Martin Withers.

Jonny joined in 1962 and Martin in 1971.

The Vulcan was a bomber but had something

of the Spitfire about it.

- It certainly could outmaneuver
any fighter of its era.

The early missiles, heat-seeking missiles,

all they had to slow down and
turn and it would lose its...

It really was superb.

So, yeah, and it's a joy to fly.

- [Colin] The Vulcan was
armed with a nuclear missile

60 times more powerful than
the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It was called Blue Steel.

- They were not pleasant times then.

- Mm-hm.
- Yeah.

- And the Blue Steel was a pretty nasty

bit of kit, wasn't it?

- Oh, it was a horrid thing.
- To be sitting on top of?

- [Colin] Yeah, yeah.

Deterrence relied on
letting the Russians know

that if they launched a nuclear strike,

the RAF was immediately ready to hit back.

- We'd go from 15-minute readiness
to five-minutes readiness

and then, on occasions, we'd
go to three minutes' readiness

and we'd start the engines
and actually taxi these things

and in the middle of
the night in the winter,

when we taxied them, you
know, you began to wonder

whether it was for real or
whether it was an exercise.

- All right, so you didn't know

it was going to be an exercise?

You were scrambled, in effect?

- [Jonny] They were the nervous times,

when you actually fired the
old bomber up and taxied it.

- [Colin] Each crew
had two secret targets,

usually airfields and towns
within the Soviet bloc.

- I did meet a girl from one
of those towns on holiday

and that did shake me.

- Really?
- Yeah, it really shook me.

I couldn't continue to talk to her.

- Wow.

Were you fully expecting
it to be a one-way mission?

- Well, I think we knew that.

We hadn't the fuel to get back.

We had alternate airfields
proposed in Norway

but they probably
wouldn't have been there.

But it was just one of those things,

you had to accept it.

- But we all knew there'd
be nothing to come back to.

We never wanted it to happen, obviously,

but there was no doubt that
we would have carried out

this mission in the knowledge

that there was going to be
nothing to come home to.

- I always felt that the
UK would never go to war

on its own without...

It would only be a
retaliation, if you like.

So, I had to put that in my mind

and just think that way
and that way I was able

to cope with the stress.

- [Colin] Yeah, yeah.

- [Ewan] It was a grim business.

Pilots were issued with an eye patch

so even though they might be
blinded by the nuclear flash,

they would still have one good eye.

The moment when the Cold War
got closest to boiling over

was the Cuban Missile
Crisis in October 1962.

The US demanded that Russia
remove newly installed

nuclear missiles from Cuba.

The Soviets refused.

When the crisis reached its
peak on the 27th of October,

the threat of nuclear Armageddon

put the bombers on a three-minute warning.

- I think there was
something like 160 warheads

at that sort of time in the early '60s.

So, there could've been 160 V
bombers, Victors and Vulcans,

taking off, carrying
this huge hydrogen bomb.

- Yeah, they were ready to go.

- [Colin] Both sides
eventually backed down

from the nuclear endgame.

For the V-force pilots, it
justified nuclear deterrence.

- It was very important.

Certainly, I'm proud to
have been part of that,

even though I might not have
been terribly keen on it

at the time.

But, in retrospect, I'm extremely proud

of what the aircraft and what the RAF did

to keep the country safe.

- [Colin] Throughout its
history, the RAF has adapted

to changing roles and technologies.

Today, the Chinook helicopter

is its most versatile workhorse,

ferrying troops and
heavy loads, of course,

but also dropping special
forces behind enemy lines.

I'm going on a training flight with

Squadron Leader Iain MacFarlane,

the most decorated of
all post-war RAF pilots.

What is it actually like to fly?

- [Iain] It's like a sports car.

It looks big and cumbersome

but actually it is like a sports car.

- [Colin] So, Iain, we're
dropping into low level now.

This is a skill you guys
obviously had to practice a lot.

It was your bread and butter, wasn't it?

- [Iain] This was where we felt safest.

We regularly would train down to 50 feet

and that's what kept us safe

throughout a number of campaigns, really.

- [Colin] Iain undertook
special operations

in the Gulf War and Afghanistan.

But perhaps his most dangerous mission

was in Sierra Leone in West Africa.

In 2000, special forces
were tasked with rescuing

six British soldiers
held by a rebel group,

the West Side Boys.

The RAF was called in to help.

Surprise was essential, as
the rebels had threatened

to kill the hostages if they
heard approaching helicopters.

- The preferred option
was a silent approach

by the SAS on foot and the most
definite bottom of the pile

was an all-out helicopter assault

to the front door of the enemy.

But because of the terrain involved

and the difficulties that
the reconnaissance patrols

had getting into position,
that's exactly how it turned out.

We expected to lose my aircraft

and that went to ministerial level

for permission to mount the assault,

based on that assumption,

and I selected my crew based
on people that were not married

or didn't have any children,
with the exception of myself.

- Wow, that's some decision to make.

Yeah.

The Chinook's 100 mile
an hour down draught

is normally seen as a disadvantage,

but not in this operation.

- We decided to use down
draught as a weapon.

I sat in as steady a
hover as I could manage

under the circumstances and
watched the roof of the building

peel off from front to back.

- And that was due to your
downwash that you'd planned?

- Exactly, exactly that.

And watched one chap get out of bed,

pick up his AK-47 assault rifle,

run out into the corridor,
run down the corridor,

run out of his front door
and raise the weapon,

point it straight at me.

And at that point, the
decision to remove the windows

on the side of the aircraft was vindicated

'cause a small hole appeared
in the middle of his forehead

and he went down like a sack of potatoes.

- So, he was shot from the Chinook itself?

- [Iain] Yeah.

- Before the guy's had a chance...

Wow, that's amazing.

Iain had a lucky escape,

but one SAS soldier lost his life.

- And within 19 seconds of the first troop

hitting the ground, all but
one of the hostages were safe.

- 19 seconds?

- [Iain] Yeah.

So, they didn't waste any time.

- Wow.

The Chinook has already
been in service with the RAF

for 50 years and will
probably serve another 50.

- If ever you have to go
to war in a flying machine,

this is the flying machine
that I'd want to go to war in.

It's just so capable and
looks after its crew so well.

- [Ewan] It's the morning
I've been waiting for.

Today is my Typhoon flight
and I'm incredibly nervous.

Having breakfast at Colin's
house with our mum and dad,

I can't help but feel disappointed
Colin's not coming too.

Well, I won't be flying with
Colin, so that's a shame.

But the other two were...

He made me barf on both of them.

- [Colin] Ewan thinks
he's leaving me behind,

but I've got a surprise for him.

- Sort of talking myself into it, almost.

- [Mrs McGregor] Oh you'll be fine.

- The truth is it's the most
extraordinary opportunity.

- [Mrs McGregor] Of course.

Yeah, quite amazing.

Oh, oh!

- [Ewan] What are you up to?

- You know you said it
was a bit of a shame

that we weren't going
to be flying together

in this program?

- [Ewan] Yeah.

- Well, we are, 'cause I'm going to be up

in another Typhoon next to you.

- Are you going to be up as well?

- Yeah.
- Oh, fantastic!

- Two such different professions

and you're both top of each profession,

I think, to be able to work
together, to me, is amazing.

- You are, obviously, going to be that.

That's your call sign today.

- [Mrs McGregor] Oh!

Oh, that's very funny.

- [Colin] And I'm going
to be your wingman.

- [Ewan] Like any other RAF mission,

the next step is the briefing.

Colin's pilot, Wing Commander
Chris Hoyle of 1 Squadron,

takes us through the sortie.

- Some of the quick reaction alert.

- [Ewan] His squadron
is about to be deployed

in the Middle East.

- I want to give you a sense
of the performance of Typhoon

'cause that's the bedrock
of its capability.

On most sorties, we would
look, where possible,

to use a tanker just to
extend our ability to train.

- [Colin] My pilot is
Group Captain Paul Godfrey,

the station commander.

Even the boss needs to
keep up his flying hours.

- We might get a little bit more.

- [Ewan] We'll refuel, simulate a dogfight

and experience some pretty
uncomfortable G-forces.

- It's not a particularly
pleasant environment often

and it's quite claustrophobic.

- Then it's time to put
on our survival equipment.

The most important part
are the hi-tech suits

that combat the dreaded G-forces.

So, now what I'm doing is I'm
putting a set of G trousers on

and they'll be connected to the aircraft.

So, air supply.

And whenever we pull any
G, they'll inflate around

all my major muscle groups

and force the blood up into my head.

Without the hi-tech suits,

our brains would be starved
of oxygen and we'd pass out.

- [Ewan] Relationship, mum.

- [Man] And then there's
just two signatures.

So, the first one is.

You've already had your medical anyway,

but you haven't got a
cold, I can hear that.

So, if you sign there and then.

- [Ewan] I'm not sure who's
more nervous, me or my mum.

Thank you very much.

- [Man] Right, won't
prolong the pain any more.

- [Ewan] Yeah, let's do it.

- [Man] How are you feeling, Ewan?

- Good.

Yeah, I'm excited, sort
of excited about it.

I'm glad it's, like, we're doing it now

and, you know, we're
almost about to get going,

which is good.

The hanging around is less comfortable

than the just about to do it bit.

- Ready?
- Yeah.

Okay.

See you later.

- I think we to come out as well

- [Ewan] I'm just saying goodbye.

- It is my day job but, hey.

All right?

(dramatic music)

Although I train a lot of
Typhoon pilots in the simulator,

this amazing plane was
introduced after I left the RAF

so I've never flown in one.

I can't wait to get up there.

- Ready in the back, Colin?
- Yeah, I'm ready

for this, mate.

Here we go.

I'm first to experience

the Typhoon's near-vertical take-off.

10 seconds.

- [Ewan] It looks like such a steep climb.

Even on take-off, the
G-forces are immense.

- Happy in the back, Ewan?
- Yes.

Let's hope my trousers work.

(dramatic music)

- [Pilot] Head up, head down, 135.

- [Ewan] The reality is astonishing,

like nothing I have ever felt before.

It's so smooth.

(Ewan laughing)

(chattering on radio)

- All good in the back?
- Yes.

- [Computer] Bingo one.

- [Man] Bingo.

- [Man] Bingo one.

- [Ewan] That was just so smooth!

(chattering on radio)

And before we know it, we've
broken the sound barrier.

We're travelling at 1,000 miles an hour

and it feels like I'm in a bubble.

- [Colin] Our first rendezvous

is with a tanker over the North Sea.

- [Ewan] At 20,000 feet, we
have to connect with the tanker

to refuel at a speed of 500 miles an hour.

For Typhoon pilots, this
has to become second nature.

First up is Colin's plane.

- [Colin] Once we've attached
ourselves to the fuel hose,

taking on 1,200 litres of fuel
a minute, it's Ewan's turn.

- [Ewan] The Typhoon has a
maximum range of 3,300 miles

but, with refueling, that can be extended.

(chattering on radio)

- [Man] Are you able to take
them to Delta 613 Alpha?

- [Man] We can head down that way, yeah.

The weather's okay.

As you head further
south, it starts to build.

- [Colin] And now the moment
I've been waiting for,

I'm handed the controls of a military jet

for the first time since I
left the RAF 10 years ago.

It's good.

The planes I flew were from a completely

different generation.

They did the job, but they
were heavy and cumbersome.

This is just so light and agile.

- [Ewan] Then it's my turn
to take over the controls

of this awesome, cutting-edge aeroplane.

- [Man] Now you have control.

- Okay.

- [Man] Just confirm
you've got control, Ewan.

- I do have control.
- Excellent.

- [Ewan] I know 200 computers and Paul

can take over at any moment,
but this is astonishing.

(dramatic music)

And what I can't believe
is it's all happening

at supersonic speed.

Can I tell my mates I
flew a Typhoon, then?

- [Man] Of course you can.

It's not me.

- [Ewan] Now, we're ready to
practice air-to-air combat.

These days the enemy is
usually over the horizon

but the RAF still has to
train for close-up dogfights.

(dramatic music)

Who'd have thought it?

My brother and I taking each
other on at 20,000 feet.

The technology may have changed,

but the techniques would be familiar

to Mick Mannock in World War I

and Geoffrey Wellum in World War II.

That was pretty good.

The last time an RAF pilot
took part in a dogfight

was during the Falklands conflict.

In 1982, Argentina invaded
the Falkland Islands,

a British territory in the South Atlantic.

The British sent a force
to recapture the islands

and when the troops from the task force

landed to reclaim the territory,

they found themselves under attack

from the Argentinian Air Force.

RAF pilot David Morgan was
patrolling in a Sea Harrier

when he saw Skyhawks
attacking a landing craft.

- I saw the first Skyhawk hit the back

of the landing craft with a bomb.

A large explosion, and I knew
that some of the guys there

had died and that made me more angry

than I've ever been in my life

and I decided, at that stage,
that guy was going to die.

I wasn't shooting down aeroplanes.

You know, people say it's just
shooting down bits of metal.

It wasn't on this occasion.

I was going to kill
the guy in the cockpit.

As I was converting onto him,
out of the corner of my eye

I saw another aircraft to the south of me

by a couple of hundred yards.

So, I locked my missile onto him

and fired it right in at minimum range,

300-400 yards with a lot of overtake,

and the missile came off the port wing

and went straight up his jet pipe.

I can remember seeing it actually
disappear up the jet pipe

before the thing vaporized,

the whole aircraft just vaporized.

- [Colin] David's speed
of 700 miles an hour

and the force of the missile
flipped his Harrier on its back

at 50 feet above the ground.

- Wrenched the aircraft back up again

and found myself pointing at the guy

I'd seen actually hit the landing craft.

Locked the second Sidewinder onto him.

The missile came off the starboard wing,

took a big lead to the left across my nose

and took him out at 90 degrees,

went bang just behind the cockpit

and the whole of the back-end
of the aircraft disappeared,

just left the cockpit and
about two foot of wing stub,

I suppose, and that was it,

when, all of a sudden, a parachute opened

right in front of my face
and it was the second guy

who'd actually managed to eject

before the cockpit hit the water.

And I went underneath him so close

that I actually instinctively ducked.

And my hatred then flipped completely to,

this is another pilot.

- Yeah.

- Huge empathy with him.

And then flipped right back again

to engaging the next guy with guns.

- [Colin] When he returned
to his aircraft carrier,

David wrote out a poem by a
pilot from the Second World War.

- Did Michelangelo aspire
painting the laughing cumulus

to ride the majesty of air?

He was a trier, I'll give this Jerry that.

I let him have a sharp four-second squirt,

closing to 50 yards, he went on fire.

Your deadly petals painted.

You exist, a simple stature.

Man high without pride.

You pick your way through
the heaven and the dirt

He burnt out in the air.

That's how the poor sod died.

I thought that was particularly apt.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

- And it screwed me up for a long time.

I had classic symptoms of PTSD

and I'm sure I can pin it down
to those couple of minutes

of incredibly, incredibly intense emotions

switching 180 degrees two or three times.

(somber music)

- [Ewan] David's story has so
many echoes of the dogfights

of World War I and II.

The immense bravery and
the terrible personal cost.

- [Man] Yeah, we'll probably
go out to the West Coast,

then pull up and do some of that G8.

- [Ewan] Okay.

Wow.

Bonnie Scotland.

On the way back, we're
going on a high-speed trip

down memory lane through the Highlands.

My parents used to live in Ullapool.

Colin was conceived in Ullapool!

- Oh, my good God!
- Yeah!

- [Colin] Bit too much information.

- [Ewan] Flying in the Typhoon
has been such a privilege.

It's brought together all
we've learnt about the RAF.

- [Colin] That was astonishing.

That was just really, really beautiful.

- [Ewan] The Typhoon and its pilots

feel like worthy
successors to the Spitfire,

the Lancaster and their crews.

There he goes.

Oh-ho-ho!

Oh, my God!

- The Royal Air Force has always been

at the cutting edge of
technology and innovation,

but you've always got to
come back to the people

'cause that's what the
RAF's all about, really.

It's about the people.

And you find a commonality
between all of them

that ties everybody together.

You know, it's that ethos
and spirit of the RAF

that lasted throughout
its 100-year history

and everybody's got a chunk
of that in them that's served.

- Cheers.
- Yeah, cheers, cheers.

- Couple of weeks have been, yeah,

a real journey of understanding

about this incredible organization,

starting at the very beginning

with those amazingly beautiful and iconic

paper airplanes.

They look like, don't they?

Little, rickety little machines.

Right through to flying the Typhoon

and meeting all the people
we've met along the way

who've been involved in
this Royal Air Force.

It's a special organization
and, you know, ultimately

saved our lives from invasion
in the Second World War

and still protect us to this day.

(dramatic music)