Eng Spitfire (2018)

1
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You can't fly a Spitfire and forget
about it. It stays with you forever.

2
00:02:23,477 --> 00:02:25,195
It stays with you forever.

3
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(new speaker) The Spitfire
was just like a dancing fairy.

4
00:02:46,458 --> 00:02:48,881
It was gorgeous.

5
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I can't really explain it.
It was absolutely wonderful.

6
00:03:00,138 --> 00:03:03,108
(new speaker)
It was childishly simple to fly.

7
00:03:03,183 --> 00:03:06,027
Before I could say "nada",
I was up at 8,000 feet

8
00:03:06,061 --> 00:03:09,486
in an aircraft that was doing 400 mph.

9
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I'd never been at that speed ever.

10
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(new speaker) It was the nearest thing
to having wings and flying oneself.

11
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You only had to blow
on the control stick

12
00:03:30,502 --> 00:03:33,221
and it seemed to do what you wanted.

13
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(new speaker) It's so beautiful.
It is a work of art.

14
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But at the same time, you are aware that

15
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the purpose of this plane
was to shoot and kill.

16
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It's a killing machine.

17
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<i>(new</i> speaker)
But it's a weapon of war, a Spitfire.

18
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It's a weapon of war, and you've got to
learn how to use it as a weapon of war.

19
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<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

20
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<i>(narrator) Coningsby is home
to three squadrons of RAF jet fighters.</i>

21
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<i>On the shoulders of these men and women
rests the air defence of Great Britain.</i>

22
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<i>But it is also home to
the most revered aircraft of all time:</i>

23
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<i>the Spitfire.</i>

24
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<i>And this was the last ever
to see service.</i>

25
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(newsreel) A few of these famous
aircraft have been operated

26
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on daily met flights, helping
in the task of weather forecasting.

27
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But now, 21 years
after the prototype first flew,

28
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the last of the Spitfires
are to be retired.

29
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Their day is done,

30
00:06:18,503 --> 00:06:22,303
though three Spits will be kept by
the RAF for Battle of Britain flypasts,

31
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commemorating the battle
they did so much to win.

32
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<i>(new speaker) For me,
and</i> I <i>think the British people,</i>

33
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these aeroplanes represent innovation,
ingenuity, determination,

34
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and an unwillingness to be bullied.

35
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And really, the Spitfire
is emblematic of that.

36
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This beautiful machine
is our Mark ll Spitfire,

37
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and, in my opinion,

38
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this is the most
precious flying machine on the planet,

39
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bar maybe the Apollo 11 Command Capsule

40
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which brought the boys back

41
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from the first trip to the moon,
the first landing on the moon.

42
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And the reason I say that is,

43
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this is the only Spitfire in the world
still flying today

44
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that actually fought
in the Battle of Britain.

45
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So it's a truly, truly priceless
flying machine.

46
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And it also happens to be
one of the most,

47
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if not the most beautiful machine
that man has ever made, in my opinion.

48
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I think, for most of the pilots
on the flight,

49
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this one holds a particular place
in their hearts

50
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because, of course, we grew up with
the legend of the Battle of Britain.

51
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For people who joined the Royal
Air Force, it's part of our core ethos.

52
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So to then be able to sit
in this machine, or to even fly it,

53
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is an incredible privilege.

54
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<i>These are the planes that saved Britain
and Europe in its darkest hour.</i>

55
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<i>At the height of the Second World War,
a film was produced</i>

56
00:07:59,938 --> 00:08:03,693
<i>which would forever fix the Spitfire
in the public's imagination.</i>

57
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<i>"The First of the Few" told the story
of the famous fighter aircraft</i>

58
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<i>and its creator, RJ Mitchell.</i>

59
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(woman on film)
What have you been up to?

60
00:08:16,496 --> 00:08:17,964
- Thinking.
- Great thoughts?

61
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- Oh, terrific.
- (woman) Such as?

62
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- The birds fly a lot better than we do.
<i>- (gulls</i> cry)

63
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You don't say!

64
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I do, but then they've been at it
some millions of years.

65
00:08:27,757 --> 00:08:30,180
We've got to learn from them
if we ever want to fly properly.

66
00:08:30,844 --> 00:08:32,846
<i>The film had a huge impact</i>

67
00:08:32,929 --> 00:08:37,400
<i>and turned a weapon of war
into an international icon.</i>

68
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(man <i>on</i> film) See how
they wheel and bank and glide?

69
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Perfect.

70
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And all in one;
wings, body, tail, all in one.

71
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- <i>But you wait.
- (gulls cry)</i>

72
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Someday I'm going to build a plane
that'll be just like a bird.

73
00:08:54,117 --> 00:08:55,869
Why, it is like a bird.

74
00:08:55,952 --> 00:08:58,421
What a strange-looking machine.

75
00:09:08,506 --> 00:09:12,056
(new speaker) As a child, for me,
running around this place was magical.

76
00:09:14,054 --> 00:09:15,601
If we were to come down at the weekend,

77
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my father would be doing
a particular job on one of the aircraft.

78
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I was left to roam.

79
00:09:20,769 --> 00:09:23,693
And it gave me a great sense
of what these aircraft were about,

80
00:09:23,772 --> 00:09:25,740
even at an early age.

81
00:09:26,858 --> 00:09:29,862
So, looking at what it means
to aviation,

82
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and what it means
to the story of the Spitfire,

83
00:09:33,865 --> 00:09:36,539
this aircraft, the Supermarine S.6,

84
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I think it's the most important aircraft
we've got here.

85
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What gets me is it's so narrow.

86
00:09:43,666 --> 00:09:46,340
Even after all this time
of knowing the aircraft, it's so narrow.

87
00:09:46,419 --> 00:09:49,389
You appreciate, of course, they
went in sideways and then turned round

88
00:09:49,422 --> 00:09:52,096
so they got their shoulders
under the coaming here.

89
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Head back on here.
And a very thin cushion to sit on.

90
00:10:00,683 --> 00:10:05,405
(Andy Jones) So N248 was built for
the Schneider Trophy Contest in 1929.

91
00:10:06,648 --> 00:10:09,868
The Schneider Trophy
was a race for seaplanes.

92
00:10:09,943 --> 00:10:14,244
It started before the First World War
as a fairly small event in Monaco.

93
00:10:14,322 --> 00:10:17,952
By 1931 it was
an international spectacle.

94
00:10:25,667 --> 00:10:27,169
At the last race, in 1931,

95
00:10:27,252 --> 00:10:30,131
a million people came down
to the shores of the Solent

96
00:10:30,213 --> 00:10:32,432
to watch the race happen.

97
00:10:32,507 --> 00:10:33,884
These machines,

98
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like N248, and the Italian machines
and the American machines that entered

99
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were the fastest machines on Earth.

100
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And the pilots who flew them
were the fastest men on Earth.

101
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Fire!

102
00:10:52,610 --> 00:10:54,533
<i>(Alan Jones) When this
competition started,</i>

103
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the speeds were around about 40 mph.

104
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By the time it finished,
they were 400 mph.

105
00:11:09,919 --> 00:11:12,843
Well done indeed. Well done indeed.

106
00:11:27,645 --> 00:11:33,118
(newsreel) Mr RJ Mitchell, of
Southampton, England, will talk to you

107
00:11:33,193 --> 00:11:36,618
on the design
of the Schneider Trophy seaplane.

108
00:11:38,489 --> 00:11:40,787
(Mitchell) In the design
of a seaplane of this type,

109
00:11:40,867 --> 00:11:44,462
the one outstanding
and all-important requirement is speed.

110
00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:48,675
Every feature has to be sacrificed
to this demand.

111
00:11:49,792 --> 00:11:53,672
It is not good enough to follow
conventional methods of design.

112
00:11:53,755 --> 00:11:55,803
It is essential to break new ground

113
00:11:55,882 --> 00:11:59,682
and to invent and evolve new methods
and new ideas.

114
00:12:00,970 --> 00:12:03,064
<i>(Andy</i> Jones) There is the myth
around Mitchell

115
00:12:03,139 --> 00:12:06,734
of being a genius who designed
all these aircraft on his own,

116
00:12:06,809 --> 00:12:09,062
with a little notebook and a pencil.

117
00:12:09,896 --> 00:12:13,321
In fact there was an enormous
design team for a Supermarine.

118
00:12:13,775 --> 00:12:19,373
He had around him people who had
superior knowledge on high-speed flight.

119
00:12:19,447 --> 00:12:22,826
And that was invaluable
when they went back to the drawing board

120
00:12:22,909 --> 00:12:26,209
after the race in 1931
and started on the Spitfire.

121
00:12:32,752 --> 00:12:36,507
<i>It wasn't just Britain
making strides in aviation.</i>

122
00:12:38,216 --> 00:12:42,471
<i>In Germany, a new and increasingly
sinister political force</i>

123
00:12:42,553 --> 00:12:45,978
<i>was using aircraft
to spread its influence.</i>

124
00:12:47,725 --> 00:12:52,572
<i>These new developments became
a powerful symbol of Nazi ambition.</i>

125
00:12:53,648 --> 00:12:58,279
<i>By 1933,
this could no longer be ignored.</i>

126
00:13:00,947 --> 00:13:03,700
For months, some of us have been
trying to impress on the government

127
00:13:03,783 --> 00:13:05,080
that the danger is growing.

128
00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:07,537
But this is a democratic country.

129
00:13:07,620 --> 00:13:09,964
The policy of the government
is the will of the people.

130
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:11,791
Or it's supposed to be.

131
00:13:11,874 --> 00:13:15,674
And the passionate desire of every
sane, thinking person is for peace.

132
00:13:17,046 --> 00:13:19,344
Well, Mitchell, what do you propose?

133
00:13:20,425 --> 00:13:22,018
I want to build a fighter.

134
00:13:22,093 --> 00:13:25,063
The fastest and deadliest
fighting aeroplane in the world.

135
00:13:30,018 --> 00:13:33,568
It's got to do 400 mph,
turn on a sixpence,

136
00:13:33,646 --> 00:13:35,990
climb 10,000 feet in a few minutes,

137
00:13:36,065 --> 00:13:38,944
dive at 500
without the wings coming off,

138
00:13:39,027 --> 00:13:40,825
carry eight machine guns.

139
00:14:02,633 --> 00:14:04,510
<i>(new</i> speaker) As far as
aeroplane design goes,

140
00:14:04,594 --> 00:14:07,814
everybody's looking for
those few percent improvements.

141
00:14:10,975 --> 00:14:13,194
That slight edge in performance.

142
00:14:17,774 --> 00:14:22,530
Aerodynamics, engines, structures,
this type of thing.

143
00:14:25,907 --> 00:14:30,413
This is the old 24-foot wind tunnel
at Farnborough.

144
00:14:35,249 --> 00:14:41,382
It was used basically to wind-tunnel
test full-scale aeroplanes.

145
00:14:47,387 --> 00:14:51,688
Various countries, particularly Germany,
were heading towards a war situation,

146
00:14:51,766 --> 00:14:54,610
were developing fast bombers.

147
00:14:55,103 --> 00:14:58,778
So fighters had to
become faster as well.

148
00:14:59,190 --> 00:15:01,363
We were terribly behind.

149
00:15:02,693 --> 00:15:05,162
But there was this constant
cross-fertilisation

150
00:15:05,238 --> 00:15:09,960
between what the Germans were doing and
what we were doing here at Farnborough.

151
00:15:11,244 --> 00:15:15,465
And this is the key to the whole story
of the Spitfire's wing.

152
00:15:20,878 --> 00:15:24,678
Beverley Shenstone was a young Canadian
aeronautical engineering graduate

153
00:15:24,757 --> 00:15:26,304
who came over to Britain

154
00:15:26,342 --> 00:15:29,596
and then immediately got himself
a job with Junkers in Germany

155
00:15:29,679 --> 00:15:32,808
to try and find out what the Germans
were doing in this area.

156
00:15:36,602 --> 00:15:39,071
I think it has been suggested
that he might have been a spy,

157
00:15:39,147 --> 00:15:42,822
but I don't know
about that side of things. (laughs)

158
00:15:43,985 --> 00:15:48,081
He met one of the great names
in aerodynamics, Ludwig Prandtl.

159
00:15:50,700 --> 00:15:54,830
And it turned out that in 1918,
Prandtl had published

160
00:15:54,912 --> 00:15:58,416
the description of all their work
during the First World War,

161
00:15:59,125 --> 00:16:02,720
including a wing plan form
shaped as an ellipse.

162
00:16:07,175 --> 00:16:10,805
But he didn't just draw
a simple ellipse,

163
00:16:10,887 --> 00:16:14,562
he drew two halves of two ellipses.

164
00:16:15,850 --> 00:16:19,696
A bluntish ellipse here,
and a much deeper ellipse there.

165
00:16:19,770 --> 00:16:24,947
And that, I have to say,
is not only like, similar to,

166
00:16:25,026 --> 00:16:30,624
it's damn well geometrically identical
to what emerged on the Spitfire.

167
00:16:31,824 --> 00:16:36,204
And I think Shenstone picked up
that idea and brought it back

168
00:16:36,287 --> 00:16:41,794
when he came to work for Supermarine
in 1933, and suggested it to Mitchell.

169
00:16:42,376 --> 00:16:45,755
So, basically,
the Spitfire had a German wing.

170
00:16:46,631 --> 00:16:48,349
And I suspect that a lot of people

171
00:16:48,382 --> 00:16:50,760
have been too embarrassed
to say anything about it.

172
00:16:56,807 --> 00:17:00,186
(newsreel) In the aircraft factories
of Britain, our workmen are trained

173
00:17:00,269 --> 00:17:03,944
to build to the most severe standards
of accuracy in the world.

174
00:17:06,901 --> 00:17:12,908
Every part has been tested and re-tested
until human ingenuity can do no more.

175
00:17:18,663 --> 00:17:21,837
(newsreel) There are over 11,000 parts
in a Merlin engine.

176
00:17:24,418 --> 00:17:27,137
Over 140 separate machining operations
are needed

177
00:17:27,213 --> 00:17:29,341
to produce the Merlin crankshaft.

178
00:17:30,883 --> 00:17:33,011
Women prove themselves
to be particularly adept

179
00:17:33,094 --> 00:17:34,562
at this exacting work.

180
00:17:36,556 --> 00:17:40,356
At each station, a sub-assembly,
or component, is added to the engine.

181
00:17:42,270 --> 00:17:46,150
At the end of the line, the completed
engine is vetted by an inspector

182
00:17:46,232 --> 00:17:48,860
who notes the numbers
of individual components

183
00:17:48,901 --> 00:17:51,654
and assigns a new number
to the whole engine.

184
00:17:51,737 --> 00:17:54,115
From now on, it has an identity.

185
00:18:00,580 --> 00:18:03,208
<i>On March the 5th, 1936,</i>

186
00:18:03,291 --> 00:18:06,591
<i>the new fighter's prototype
was ready for testing.</i>

187
00:18:11,048 --> 00:18:13,221
<i>There is only one person alive today</i>

188
00:18:13,301 --> 00:18:16,931
<i>who remembers
the Spitfire's first test flight.</i>

189
00:18:19,140 --> 00:18:21,108
(new speaker)
Well, I was four and a half.

190
00:18:22,059 --> 00:18:26,485
My father worked at Supermarine
for RJ Mitchell.

191
00:18:26,939 --> 00:18:29,943
So we grew up with the aeroplanes
and the Spitfire especially,

192
00:18:30,026 --> 00:18:33,701
because Father was looking after
the development of that.

193
00:18:34,864 --> 00:18:36,787
One day he said to Mother,

194
00:18:36,866 --> 00:18:39,710
"Do you want to come and see
the first flight of our new aeroplane?"

195
00:18:41,203 --> 00:18:45,253
So we got in the back of the car
and off we all went to Eastleigh.

196
00:18:47,918 --> 00:18:50,216
<i>(engine fires up)</i>

197
00:18:56,510 --> 00:18:58,183
The pilot came out and got in.

198
00:18:59,221 --> 00:19:00,814
And then off he went.

199
00:19:37,218 --> 00:19:39,812
(newsreel) This is the latest type
of single-seater fighter,

200
00:19:39,887 --> 00:19:41,480
and as you can see, a monoplane.

201
00:19:41,847 --> 00:19:46,227
In design and construction, she is not
unlike the last Schneider Trophy winner.

202
00:19:48,104 --> 00:19:51,358
We are flying along in our own plane
at about 175.

203
00:19:52,233 --> 00:19:53,655
So, what speed she is capable of

204
00:19:53,734 --> 00:19:56,362
you may judge from the pace
at which she overtakes us.

205
00:20:06,622 --> 00:20:09,922
And she's going to be a great asset
to the RAF, it's pretty obvious.

206
00:20:34,900 --> 00:20:38,530
<i>(Judy</i> Monger) Father was very pleased
that it had taken off all right

207
00:20:38,612 --> 00:20:40,489
and flown and come back.

208
00:20:40,573 --> 00:20:43,122
"Oh, that was all right, that was good,"
or something.

209
00:20:44,660 --> 00:20:48,665
And that was the first flight
of the Spitfire. (laughs)

210
00:20:59,550 --> 00:21:02,850
<i>(thunder)</i>

211
00:21:05,556 --> 00:21:09,527
<i>Just two days later,
on March the 7th, 1936,</i>

212
00:21:09,602 --> 00:21:12,651
<i>Hitler's troops marched
into the Rhineland.</i>

213
00:21:14,231 --> 00:21:17,906
<i>It was an ominous moment
for the future of Europe.</i>

214
00:21:17,985 --> 00:21:21,080
<i>(archive recordings of Hitler)</i>

215
00:21:34,043 --> 00:21:36,216
(new speaker)
We knew perfectly well it was coming.

216
00:21:37,630 --> 00:21:44,138
The rise of Hitler and all this business
about occupying the Rhine

217
00:21:44,595 --> 00:21:49,772
was the time that we realised
that there was a war on the way.

218
00:21:49,850 --> 00:21:54,276
Churchill had been warning us, kept
warning us and warning us all the time,

219
00:21:54,355 --> 00:21:56,574
about what was going to happen.

220
00:21:56,649 --> 00:21:59,402
But at that age,
you don't worry about the future.

221
00:22:01,779 --> 00:22:04,328
(new speaker) I don't think
I had any specific feelings.

222
00:22:04,406 --> 00:22:07,034
The average 18-, 19-year-old

223
00:22:07,117 --> 00:22:11,042
is not terribly interested in
what's happening in the future.

224
00:22:12,540 --> 00:22:16,545
I certainly don't remember thinking,
"Oh, my goodness," you know.

225
00:22:16,627 --> 00:22:18,721
"We've got a war possibly coming."

226
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:26,020
<i>With the threat growing by the day,
and time running out,</i>

227
00:22:26,095 --> 00:22:28,314
<i>Britain needed the Spitfire.</i>

228
00:22:29,390 --> 00:22:33,816
<i>But in June 1937
came a terrible setback.</i>

229
00:22:39,984 --> 00:22:42,203
Well, I suppose you know
something of the trouble

230
00:22:42,278 --> 00:22:44,155
or you wouldn't have come to me.

231
00:22:44,238 --> 00:22:46,081
I had an idea of it, yes.

232
00:22:46,657 --> 00:22:49,501
I'm afraid you're a rather sick man,
Mr Mitchell.

233
00:22:49,952 --> 00:22:52,046
I had an idea of that, too.

234
00:23:08,846 --> 00:23:10,814
(Judy Monger)
Well, he'd been ill for some time.

235
00:23:12,641 --> 00:23:16,987
We weren't aware of it, being children,
but obviously Father would've been.

236
00:23:18,647 --> 00:23:23,824
Because we used to go to his house
at weekends if there was something,

237
00:23:23,861 --> 00:23:27,206
information that Father had
that he had to discuss with him.

238
00:23:29,450 --> 00:23:32,044
And we just stopped doing that.

239
00:23:32,786 --> 00:23:36,086
Father all dressed up in black one day
and went off and...

240
00:23:36,999 --> 00:23:38,421
that was it.

241
00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:45,808
It was very sad, obviously,
for everybody, especially in the team,

242
00:23:45,883 --> 00:23:47,806
when their leader's gone.

243
00:23:57,561 --> 00:23:59,814
<i>In its hour of greatest need,</i>

244
00:23:59,897 --> 00:24:03,572
<i>the country had lost
its greatest aircraft designer</i>

245
00:24:03,651 --> 00:24:05,779
<i>at the age of 42.</i>

246
00:24:07,404 --> 00:24:11,625
<i>It was now a race against time
to get the Spitfire finished.</i>

247
00:24:13,494 --> 00:24:17,840
<i>It would join Britain's other
new fighter, the Hawker Hurricane.</i>

248
00:24:18,290 --> 00:24:21,965
<i>Both would prove vital
in the coming conflict.</i>

249
00:24:24,129 --> 00:24:27,099
(newsreel) A welcome sight
in the Vickers works at Eastleigh,

250
00:24:27,174 --> 00:24:29,518
one of the factories
where the production of Spitfires

251
00:24:29,593 --> 00:24:30,936
is rapidly going ahead.

252
00:24:31,011 --> 00:24:32,388
In the present state of Europe,

253
00:24:32,471 --> 00:24:35,065
the country couldn't possibly have
too many of these fighters,

254
00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:37,393
which claim to be
the fastest in the world.

255
00:24:40,145 --> 00:24:42,694
Their powerful engines are lined up
ready for installation,

256
00:24:42,773 --> 00:24:45,868
and every operation of manufacture
and assembly is carried out

257
00:24:45,901 --> 00:24:48,825
with that delicate precision for which
British workmanship is famous.

258
00:24:50,072 --> 00:24:52,450
On completion the machines
are given a thorough try-out.

259
00:24:52,533 --> 00:24:53,785
You'll be pleased to notice

260
00:24:53,867 --> 00:24:56,711
the rapidity of their climb
and their handiness in the air.

261
00:25:10,050 --> 00:25:12,803
(new speaker)
I'd reached the dizzy age of 19,

262
00:25:12,886 --> 00:25:19,610
and it was a time when everybody
was beginning to think of joining up.

263
00:25:20,144 --> 00:25:23,990
And I decided the best thing to do

264
00:25:24,064 --> 00:25:28,365
was to join the RAFVR,
volunteer reserve.

265
00:25:29,111 --> 00:25:33,912
And, in due course,
I did get called up for flying training.

266
00:25:35,701 --> 00:25:39,422
And so my flying career
started in a Tiger Moth.

267
00:25:42,332 --> 00:25:46,053
(new speaker) I wanted to fly
but it was an expensive business.

268
00:25:46,503 --> 00:25:49,222
So I thought, "The cheapest way
is join the Air Force."

269
00:25:49,298 --> 00:25:52,222
"They probably pay you to learn to fly."

270
00:25:53,552 --> 00:25:55,680
I wrote off to Air Ministry saying that,

271
00:25:55,763 --> 00:25:58,937
basically, I was leaving school within
a year and wanted to fly an aeroplane

272
00:25:59,016 --> 00:26:01,110
and could they give me a job, really.

273
00:26:13,655 --> 00:26:18,752
<i>In August 1938,
the Spitfire entered RAF service.</i>

274
00:26:20,370 --> 00:26:22,839
<i>It was not a moment too soon.</i>

275
00:26:46,730 --> 00:26:50,075
(Chamberlain) This morning,
the British ambassador in Berlin

276
00:26:50,943 --> 00:26:54,789
handed the German government
a final note,

277
00:26:55,364 --> 00:26:58,584
stating that unless we heard from them

278
00:26:58,659 --> 00:27:02,289
by 11 o'clock, that they were prepared,

279
00:27:02,371 --> 00:27:05,966
at once,
to withdraw their troops from Poland,

280
00:27:06,041 --> 00:27:09,591
a state of war would exist between us.

281
00:27:11,171 --> 00:27:16,473
I have to tell you now that no such
undertaking has been received,

282
00:27:17,177 --> 00:27:22,809
and that, consequently,
this country is at war with Germany.

283
00:27:31,567 --> 00:27:35,037
<i>(Paul</i> Farnes) It came over the radio
that we were at war.

284
00:27:36,947 --> 00:27:40,622
Had half a mug of wine each
and wished each other good luck.

285
00:27:41,076 --> 00:27:42,328
And that was it.

286
00:27:42,411 --> 00:27:45,130
It was quite emotional at the time.

287
00:27:50,002 --> 00:27:52,425
We discussed it with each other and...

288
00:27:53,255 --> 00:27:56,475
Well, it's the sort of thing I think
anyone would find a bit emotional

289
00:27:56,550 --> 00:28:02,307
if you're suddenly told
that war had already been declared.

290
00:28:03,056 --> 00:28:04,649
You knew you were in it.

291
00:28:05,184 --> 00:28:08,108
Because after all,
it was what you were being trained for.

292
00:28:10,647 --> 00:28:12,775
<i>(new</i> speaker) It was exciting, exciting.

293
00:28:12,858 --> 00:28:16,362
We wanted the war to start, you know,
and wanted to be in it.

294
00:28:16,445 --> 00:28:18,197
Didn't want to be left behind.

295
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,624
And don't forget, I was 18, 19.

296
00:28:20,699 --> 00:28:23,669
Very enthusiastic about everything
in those days.

297
00:28:25,662 --> 00:28:27,960
<i>(new</i> speaker) What went
through my mind was

298
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,919
how long would it be
before I got on a squadron?

299
00:28:31,752 --> 00:28:35,802
I went first of all
I think it was to Biggin Hill.

300
00:28:35,881 --> 00:28:37,599
And the CO looked at me and said,

301
00:28:37,674 --> 00:28:40,894
"How many hours have you done
on Hurricanes, Pickering?"

302
00:28:40,969 --> 00:28:43,392
I said, "I've never even seen one, sir."

303
00:28:43,472 --> 00:28:48,103
So, he said, "Well, go on out there,
go and have a look at it." (laughs)

304
00:28:50,771 --> 00:28:52,614
(new speaker)
Towards the end of my training,

305
00:28:52,689 --> 00:28:55,317
I think the war was getting
a bit worrying to everybody

306
00:28:55,400 --> 00:29:00,531
and I was taken out of practice camp
and I ended up in a Spitfire squadron.

307
00:29:02,324 --> 00:29:06,670
When I first saw the Spitfire I thought,
"My gosh, this is quite something."

308
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:10,958
The ground crew had strapped me in

309
00:29:11,041 --> 00:29:14,295
and it was all a bit intimidating,
you know. Even the start-up.

310
00:29:14,378 --> 00:29:17,382
<i>(engine roars)</i>

311
00:29:21,593 --> 00:29:24,221
Smoke coming right back...
I can see it now.

312
00:29:40,529 --> 00:29:43,123
I remember taxiing out
and being very careful.

313
00:30:33,623 --> 00:30:35,921
It seemed to hurtle itself in the air

314
00:30:36,001 --> 00:30:38,925
with me hanging on
to the stick and the throttle,

315
00:30:39,004 --> 00:30:40,881
dragging me along with it, you know.

316
00:31:23,382 --> 00:31:28,058
<i>In the spring of 1940,
Hitler's attack in the west began.</i>

317
00:31:29,888 --> 00:31:31,890
<i>Europe crumbled.</i>

318
00:31:33,517 --> 00:31:37,192
<i>When France fell,
the British army retreated to Dunkirk</i>

319
00:31:38,271 --> 00:31:40,990
<i>and by a miracle return home.</i>

320
00:31:42,526 --> 00:31:46,576
<i>Now just one country remained
in Hitler's sights.</i>

321
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:57,921
What General Weygand has called
the Battle of France is over.

322
00:31:58,750 --> 00:32:01,378
The Battle of Britain is about to begin.

323
00:32:05,257 --> 00:32:10,809
Hitler knows that he will have to
break us in this island or lose the war.

324
00:32:11,304 --> 00:32:15,400
If we can stand up to him,
all Europe may be free

325
00:32:15,767 --> 00:32:22,241
and the life of the world may
move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

326
00:32:25,152 --> 00:32:28,247
(Tom <i>Neil)</i> The Germans were going to
land with a quarter of a million people

327
00:32:28,321 --> 00:32:31,825
on the south coast of Britain
between Brighton and Dover.

328
00:32:33,785 --> 00:32:36,914
Had they landed, they would have won,
without a doubt.

329
00:32:37,289 --> 00:32:40,884
And the course of world history
would've been changed.

330
00:32:45,297 --> 00:32:47,720
(Tony Pickering) We fully realised

331
00:32:47,799 --> 00:32:50,848
that we'd got to stop the Hun
from getting over.

332
00:32:51,511 --> 00:32:57,109
And we knew that we were
an important line in the defence,

333
00:32:57,601 --> 00:32:59,603
being fighter pilots.

334
00:33:00,854 --> 00:33:06,236
If he ever landed and secured
a foothold, we'd never get him out.

335
00:33:10,030 --> 00:33:15,582
(Ken <i>Wilkinson)</i> There was never ever
any thought of defeat. Never.

336
00:33:17,370 --> 00:33:20,249
We were cocky. We were the bee's knees.

337
00:33:20,332 --> 00:33:23,302
After all,
we'd got wonderful aircraft to fly.

338
00:33:25,420 --> 00:33:29,345
We were very fortunate,
in spite of the Treasury,

339
00:33:29,382 --> 00:33:32,261
that we had Spitfires and Hurricanes.

340
00:34:03,708 --> 00:34:06,382
<i>For a German invasion to succeed,</i>

341
00:34:06,419 --> 00:34:10,595
<i>Hitler needed to destroy
the Royal Air Force and its airfields</i>

342
00:34:10,674 --> 00:34:13,644
<i>and secure mastery of the skies.</i>

343
00:34:18,932 --> 00:34:22,357
<i>The Luftwaffe had 2,600 aircraft.</i>

344
00:34:23,436 --> 00:34:27,782
<i>They outnumbered RAF Fighter Command
by four to one.</i>

345
00:34:30,068 --> 00:34:34,699
<i>For most of the young pilots,
it would be their first time in action.</i>

346
00:34:35,407 --> 00:34:38,661
<i>If they failed, the country would fall.</i>

347
00:34:39,995 --> 00:34:42,373
(Geoffrey Wellum) Obviously
we were going to be involved

348
00:34:42,455 --> 00:34:44,128
in a pretty serious business.

349
00:34:45,208 --> 00:34:48,428
Being shot down didn't appeal to me.

350
00:34:49,921 --> 00:34:51,923
So I thought, "How do I avoid it?"

351
00:34:53,216 --> 00:34:55,810
Make yourself a difficult target.
How do you do that?

352
00:34:55,885 --> 00:34:58,764
Never fly straight and level
for more than ten seconds.

353
00:35:00,140 --> 00:35:03,144
It's always the German you did not see
that shot you down.

354
00:35:11,985 --> 00:35:16,161
<i>(Paul</i> Farnes) My thoughts never went
to what the future might hold

355
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,493
or whether we were going to get
through it or what was going to happen.

356
00:35:20,243 --> 00:35:26,091
After all, we were only
about 19 or 20, 21, you know.

357
00:35:27,292 --> 00:35:29,010
We were pretty young.

358
00:35:40,096 --> 00:35:43,100
(Ken Wilkinson)
We were all pals together.

359
00:35:43,141 --> 00:35:45,143
The camaraderie was great.

360
00:35:45,226 --> 00:35:48,230
We knew we depended upon each other.

361
00:35:48,313 --> 00:35:54,116
We knew that we were sure of
getting support, wherever we were.

362
00:35:58,365 --> 00:36:03,041
(new speaker) I was sent to Uxbridge,
which is 11 Group headquarters,

363
00:36:03,119 --> 00:36:05,292
into the operations room.

364
00:36:06,539 --> 00:36:09,418
I don't want to blow my own trumpet,
but I was a good plotter.

365
00:36:09,501 --> 00:36:11,503
(laughs) I shouldn't say that.

366
00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:15,591
But that was why I was always
on the southeast corner,

367
00:36:15,674 --> 00:36:17,426
which was the busy corner.

368
00:36:28,561 --> 00:36:31,531
Enemy aircraft was picked up
on the radar.

369
00:36:35,026 --> 00:36:38,405
All that information
was sent to fight command.

370
00:36:40,198 --> 00:36:44,578
They sorted it out, and then sent
the plots out to the groups.

371
00:36:45,453 --> 00:36:46,875
<i>(bell rings)</i>

372
00:36:46,955 --> 00:36:49,925
So we'd say "scramble" and they would
have to get up in the air.

373
00:36:58,967 --> 00:37:02,767
As the plots kept coming through,
we would put the arrows on the table

374
00:37:02,846 --> 00:37:05,440
so that the controller
could see what was going on.

375
00:37:18,278 --> 00:37:23,751
The controller had the information
and was able to pass it on to the pilot.

376
00:37:29,622 --> 00:37:33,593
(Tom Neil) I remember climbing up,
struggling for height, and looking up.

377
00:37:34,252 --> 00:37:38,849
And this one went out.
One of 20 to 30 above my head.

378
00:37:39,549 --> 00:37:44,020
And there's this fascination
of seeing the enemy close at hand.

379
00:37:45,889 --> 00:37:48,312
Seeing the black crosses and things
on the aeroplanes.

380
00:37:48,391 --> 00:37:52,521
And you know that it's going
to attack you in a moment or two.

381
00:37:56,775 --> 00:37:59,119
You had 15 seconds of ammunition.

382
00:37:59,486 --> 00:38:01,784
Three hundred rounds per gun.

383
00:38:02,781 --> 00:38:06,877
Our advice was to go in head-on attack,
and go straight through.

384
00:38:09,913 --> 00:38:11,335
And don't hang around.

385
00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:15,885
'Cause their fighters would come
and pick you off if they could.

386
00:38:16,711 --> 00:38:19,840
You went straight through them,
fired your guns,

387
00:38:19,923 --> 00:38:22,392
closed your eyes and fired your guns.

388
00:38:23,676 --> 00:38:26,475
(Geoffrey Wellum) Then, providing
you weren't hit by return fire,

389
00:38:26,554 --> 00:38:27,897
you were through the other side.

390
00:38:27,972 --> 00:38:29,349
In seconds, in seconds.

391
00:38:29,432 --> 00:38:30,854
Phew, got away with that.

392
00:38:30,934 --> 00:38:35,360
<i>(laughs)</i> Yeah.

393
00:38:45,198 --> 00:38:50,750
<i>(Paul</i> Farnes) You got 109s, Spitfires
and Hurricanes screaming round.

394
00:38:50,829 --> 00:38:52,456
You wouldn't know who was who
half the time.

395
00:38:54,207 --> 00:38:57,256
We were up here in the Spitfires.

396
00:38:57,335 --> 00:38:59,588
But you could see
what the Hurricanes were doing.

397
00:39:00,213 --> 00:39:05,811
I can remember three Hurricanes
diving in to 500 Heinkels.

398
00:39:05,885 --> 00:39:07,102
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

399
00:39:07,178 --> 00:39:09,180
And the Heinkels scattering.

400
00:39:14,602 --> 00:39:17,981
You see the enemy,
you're within feet of them.

401
00:39:18,815 --> 00:39:20,692
Close enough to touch.

402
00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:23,619
I remember firing at an aircraft
directly in front of me

403
00:39:24,571 --> 00:39:28,701
Two people came out so close with
their parachutes still undeveloped.

404
00:39:28,741 --> 00:39:31,290
They came straight at me,
and I thought he was going to hit me.

405
00:39:34,289 --> 00:39:35,836
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

406
00:39:42,130 --> 00:39:44,508
(Geoffrey Wellum) There was this bang.

407
00:39:44,591 --> 00:39:48,061
I suddenly realised
it was a 109 right behind me.

408
00:39:48,136 --> 00:39:50,810
He had his goggles down
and I could see his head.

409
00:39:50,889 --> 00:39:54,314
Oh, yeah, he was close.
He was real close.

410
00:39:54,893 --> 00:39:57,646
And I looked up
and I could see him looking at me.

411
00:40:01,649 --> 00:40:03,902
(Tony Pickering)
You learnt the hard way.

412
00:40:03,985 --> 00:40:05,908
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

413
00:40:06,654 --> 00:40:10,454
Once you saw flames,
you didn't stop on board an aircraft.

414
00:40:10,533 --> 00:40:12,786
It could easily just blow like that.

415
00:40:13,369 --> 00:40:15,622
And it wouldn't give you a chance
to get out.

416
00:40:15,705 --> 00:40:19,630
Release that pin and out you came,
like a cork out of a bottle.

417
00:40:23,004 --> 00:40:27,510
I remember landing by parachute
in the guards depot at Caterham.

418
00:40:27,592 --> 00:40:31,813
They took me to the colonel, who very
quickly opened a bottle of whisky.

419
00:40:31,888 --> 00:40:35,392
<i>Waugh-S) "Have</i> a <i>sip!"</i>

420
00:40:47,362 --> 00:40:50,491
<i>(Paul Farnes) So</i> I <i>saw the Stukas.</i>

421
00:40:51,449 --> 00:40:54,544
Once they'd finished their dive,
they didn't climb up again.

422
00:40:54,619 --> 00:40:57,964
They stayed low
and headed out towards France.

423
00:40:58,414 --> 00:41:04,262
And, so... it made it easy for us.

424
00:41:08,508 --> 00:41:10,101
(newsreel) In recent operations,

425
00:41:10,176 --> 00:41:14,147
RAF automatic cameras, taking film
of the small home-movie type,

426
00:41:14,180 --> 00:41:16,649
were attached
to Hurricanes and Spitfires.

427
00:41:16,724 --> 00:41:18,852
Built for the job,
the camera fits into the wing.

428
00:41:19,394 --> 00:41:22,773
It automatically takes pictures
when the pilot fires his machine gun

429
00:41:22,855 --> 00:41:24,402
and stops when the gun stops.

430
00:41:27,944 --> 00:41:32,290
<i>(Paul</i> Farnes) I attacked one of them,
I think, and it was shot down.

431
00:41:34,909 --> 00:41:37,628
The other one went into the sea.

432
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,088
You don't have any feelings about it.

433
00:41:44,168 --> 00:41:47,843
All you think about is trying to get
a decent shot at it.

434
00:41:52,176 --> 00:41:55,771
I can't help it, but I did enjoy it.

435
00:41:56,347 --> 00:41:58,975
I think probably quite rightly,

436
00:41:59,058 --> 00:42:03,313
from the human point of view I suppose
you shouldn't say you enjoyed it,

437
00:42:03,396 --> 00:42:06,320
when other people alongside you
were being killed.

438
00:42:06,399 --> 00:42:12,202
But I'm afraid I... I probably did.

439
00:42:40,391 --> 00:42:46,945
It's extraordinarily difficult to put
an easy story on it, it really is.

440
00:42:49,734 --> 00:42:54,661
There certainly were times when one was
quite frightened of what was going on.

441
00:42:59,327 --> 00:43:02,706
We, all three, got on his tail

442
00:43:02,789 --> 00:43:06,510
and I can remember, after firing at him,

443
00:43:06,584 --> 00:43:10,339
he was just more or less skimming along
in the water.

444
00:43:11,964 --> 00:43:14,968
And although I didn't knock him
into the sea,

445
00:43:15,051 --> 00:43:19,227
the chap following me certainly got him
and he burst into flames

446
00:43:19,305 --> 00:43:21,683
and went into the sea.

447
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,590
(Geoffrey Wellum) We were told
there were 109s over Broadstairs.

448
00:43:46,707 --> 00:43:51,929
And I happened to look down and I saw
these two chaps right on the water

449
00:43:52,004 --> 00:43:54,052
going out from the coast.

450
00:44:03,015 --> 00:44:05,768
And we quite clinically got behind them.

451
00:44:05,852 --> 00:44:08,025
Right on the deck, they hadn't seen us.

452
00:44:08,062 --> 00:44:09,735
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

453
00:44:12,859 --> 00:44:14,327
We shot them both dead.

454
00:44:19,782 --> 00:44:21,534
Just a "born-bond" .

455
00:44:28,499 --> 00:44:32,504
You've got to remember,
we're talking about total war.

456
00:44:34,672 --> 00:44:38,097
And we were up against it, because
there was nobody else helping us.

457
00:44:38,176 --> 00:44:42,852
All the Continent had fallen down
and it was us against this monster.

458
00:44:59,739 --> 00:45:02,583
<i>By the end of August 1940,</i>

459
00:45:02,658 --> 00:45:05,958
<i>the Luftwaffe's daily assaults
on the airfields</i>

460
00:45:06,037 --> 00:45:09,166
<i>were stretching RAF resources
to the limit.</i>

461
00:45:10,249 --> 00:45:14,004
<i>Pilots and ground crews were exhausted.</i>

462
00:45:17,340 --> 00:45:19,809
(Tom <i>Neil)</i> You never thought
you were going to be killed.

463
00:45:20,426 --> 00:45:24,351
And it's only in retrospect,
when you're lying in bed at night,

464
00:45:24,430 --> 00:45:28,776
and the bed alongside you
is suddenly empty.

465
00:45:28,851 --> 00:45:33,027
The fact that they were killed
20, 30, 40 miles away

466
00:45:33,105 --> 00:45:37,861
means that you wiped them
from your memory.

467
00:45:41,364 --> 00:45:43,708
<i>(Tony Pickering)
You never got too dose.</i>

468
00:45:45,117 --> 00:45:47,996
You kept yourself at a certain distance.

469
00:45:48,663 --> 00:45:54,011
'Cause inevitably, you would lose
friends, there was no doubt about it.

470
00:46:00,007 --> 00:46:03,762
(Paul Farnes) The damage that was being
done to the country was very worrying,

471
00:46:03,844 --> 00:46:06,438
I think one was conscious of that.

472
00:46:06,973 --> 00:46:10,318
I think in many ways
it made one even more determined

473
00:46:10,393 --> 00:46:13,146
to stop the German invasion.

474
00:46:13,229 --> 00:46:15,448
<i>(air-raid siren)</i>

475
00:46:15,523 --> 00:46:19,824
<i>On September the 7th,
the Luftwaffe changed tactics.</i>

476
00:46:20,486 --> 00:46:24,411
<i>Hitler's new target was London,
not the airfields.</i>

477
00:46:25,491 --> 00:46:28,415
<i>The Blitz would bring misery
to Londoners.</i>

478
00:46:29,036 --> 00:46:32,540
<i>But it bought valuable time for the RAF.</i>

479
00:46:36,711 --> 00:46:39,760
<i>At last, the pilots could rest.</i>

480
00:46:39,839 --> 00:46:44,140
<i>The runways could be repaired
and aircraft could be serviced.</i>

481
00:46:51,183 --> 00:46:53,686
<i>But the day of reckoning
was approaching.</i>

482
00:46:56,397 --> 00:46:58,616
I can remember looking up
at the sky and thinking,

483
00:46:58,691 --> 00:47:01,285
"It's going to be a lovely day again,"
you know. "Oh, God."

484
00:47:03,612 --> 00:47:05,205
And I offered up a little prayer.

485
00:47:07,325 --> 00:47:08,952
"It's going to be a very busy day,
O Lord,

486
00:47:09,035 --> 00:47:11,208
and if I forget you,
don't you forget me."

487
00:47:11,996 --> 00:47:16,092
"Give me this day, please.
Please, give me this day."

488
00:47:23,632 --> 00:47:26,306
(Tom <i>Neil)</i>
According to the German plans,

489
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:29,013
if things were going right for them,

490
00:47:29,096 --> 00:47:32,475
they would invade
on the 15th of September.

491
00:47:33,559 --> 00:47:35,607
Der <i>Tag.</i> This is the day
they were going to invade.

492
00:47:42,568 --> 00:47:44,912
(Joan Fanshawe) That was the day
that Churchill came down

493
00:47:44,987 --> 00:47:47,911
and I was actually on duty that day.

494
00:47:48,366 --> 00:47:53,088
But we were not ever allowed to look,
turn around and look up there at all.

495
00:47:53,162 --> 00:47:55,506
We always had to keep our heads down
and look at our plot.

496
00:48:01,712 --> 00:48:06,183
<i>In the plotting room, Churchill
watched the enemy attacks building.</i>

497
00:48:06,258 --> 00:48:09,387
<i>He asked if fighter command
had any reserves.</i>

498
00:48:10,054 --> 00:48:12,773
<i>The answer was none.</i>

499
00:48:13,641 --> 00:48:18,647
(Tom <i>Neil)</i> Two thousand people in action
over Kent and Sussex.

500
00:48:20,940 --> 00:48:25,070
I flew four times that day.

501
00:48:37,248 --> 00:48:40,252
(Geoffrey Wellum) We were in
a vast panorama of blue sky

502
00:48:40,334 --> 00:48:43,554
with the green contrasting fields
of England below.

503
00:48:43,629 --> 00:48:46,257
And it was that that helped you.

504
00:48:48,509 --> 00:48:50,261
I can hear him to this day,

505
00:48:50,344 --> 00:48:53,018
the controller coming up and saying,

506
00:48:53,097 --> 00:48:56,146
"A hundred and fifty plus
approaching Dungeness."

507
00:48:57,226 --> 00:48:59,900
And Brian said,
"Tally ho, I can see them."

508
00:49:01,105 --> 00:49:02,732
Well, I looked ahead,

509
00:49:02,815 --> 00:49:06,865
and there was this great big cloud
of gnats on a summer evening.

510
00:49:07,236 --> 00:49:11,491
109s above, Heinkels, and I thought,
"Oh, gosh," you know.

511
00:49:11,574 --> 00:49:13,622
"Where do we start on this lot?"

512
00:49:20,332 --> 00:49:25,634
I kept a diary.
I was not allowed to keep a diary.

513
00:49:26,422 --> 00:49:31,144
I mean, it was
a court-martial offence to keep a diary.

514
00:49:31,844 --> 00:49:34,188
"We had an absolutely frantic watch."

515
00:49:34,263 --> 00:49:37,608
"We were almost driven potty
we were so busy."

516
00:49:37,683 --> 00:49:40,527
"There were air raids
all over the country."

517
00:49:40,603 --> 00:49:44,403
"We hardly had any relief at all,
did our best to sleep,

518
00:49:44,482 --> 00:49:46,985
but in any case, it was rather fitful."

519
00:49:55,784 --> 00:49:57,957
<i>(Tom Neil) On the 15th of September,</i>

520
00:49:58,037 --> 00:50:00,586
enemy aircraft
were falling like confetti

521
00:50:00,664 --> 00:50:02,917
all over the Southern counties.

522
00:50:03,959 --> 00:50:05,552
We were cock-a-hoop.

523
00:50:28,734 --> 00:50:32,910
<i>September the 15th
marked the turning point of the battle.</i>

524
00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:36,208
<i>When it ended, six weeks later,</i>

525
00:50:36,283 --> 00:50:40,163
<i>it would become the first defeat
of Hitler's forces.</i>

526
00:50:40,955 --> 00:50:44,209
<i>The first victory
in the fight for freedom.</i>

527
00:50:48,796 --> 00:50:51,470
(Tony Pickering) I think we realised
that we were there,

528
00:50:51,549 --> 00:50:54,143
and we'd got a job to do,
and we had to do it.

529
00:50:55,219 --> 00:50:56,937
And we did it

530
00:50:57,012 --> 00:50:59,140
to the best of our ability.

531
00:51:05,980 --> 00:51:10,486
I always remember the elderly ladies
in the East End of London

532
00:51:10,568 --> 00:51:13,742
come putting their arms around you
and giving you a kiss and saying,

533
00:51:13,821 --> 00:51:16,825
"Keep 'em away, boys, keep 'em away."

534
00:51:18,242 --> 00:51:21,086
It meant a lot to us, really, that.

535
00:51:28,419 --> 00:51:32,049
<i>(Big Ben chimes)</i>

536
00:51:34,758 --> 00:51:39,264
(Churchill) The gratitude of every home
in our island, in our empire,

537
00:51:39,346 --> 00:51:41,769
and indeed throughout the world,

538
00:51:41,849 --> 00:51:44,068
except in the abodes of the guilty,

539
00:51:44,143 --> 00:51:48,444
goes out to the British airmen
who, undaunted by odds,

540
00:51:48,522 --> 00:51:53,323
unwearied in their constant challenge
and mortal danger,

541
00:51:53,402 --> 00:51:58,624
are turning the tide of the world war
by their prowess and by their devotion.

542
00:52:00,618 --> 00:52:07,877
Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.

543
00:52:25,017 --> 00:52:27,941
(newsreel) The constant drone
of machinery in our aircraft factories

544
00:52:28,020 --> 00:52:29,442
is the music of victory.

545
00:52:31,065 --> 00:52:32,533
Over acres of floor space,

546
00:52:32,608 --> 00:52:35,987
men and women are turning the money
from the thousands of Spitfire funds

547
00:52:36,070 --> 00:52:37,572
into machines for the RAF.

548
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:45,706
<i>Despite heavy bombing, the two factories
in Southampton and Birmingham</i>

549
00:52:45,788 --> 00:52:49,258
<i>continued to build Spitfires
in large numbers.</i>

550
00:52:51,460 --> 00:52:54,714
<i>Women now played a key role
in their manufacture,</i>

551
00:52:54,797 --> 00:52:59,553
<i>and, as the Spitfire evolved,
in their design.</i>

552
00:53:01,220 --> 00:53:06,351
<i>Women were also recruited to fly them
from the factories to the airfields.</i>

553
00:53:06,433 --> 00:53:08,561
(newsreel) These women
are in the news at home

554
00:53:08,644 --> 00:53:11,523
because they've undertaken
a somewhat unusual war job.

555
00:53:11,605 --> 00:53:15,701
All these women of the Air Transport
Auxiliary are most experienced pilots,

556
00:53:15,776 --> 00:53:18,905
each with a record of about
a thousand flying hours to her credit.

557
00:53:20,114 --> 00:53:27,589
(new speaker) In 1941, I joined
the Air Transport Auxiliary as a pilot.

558
00:53:27,621 --> 00:53:30,875
(newsreel) By carrying out this duty,
they're relieving the pressure of work

559
00:53:30,958 --> 00:53:33,336
that would otherwise fall to RAF pilots.

560
00:53:33,627 --> 00:53:35,880
Oh, that was great.

561
00:53:35,963 --> 00:53:42,596
I was with 16 other girls
that had already joined.

562
00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:45,188
So that was wonderful.

563
00:53:50,352 --> 00:53:54,198
And at that time,
I think I was one of the youngest ones,

564
00:53:54,273 --> 00:53:57,527
and so I had to behave myself.

565
00:53:57,609 --> 00:53:59,236
<i>(laughs)</i>

566
00:54:02,406 --> 00:54:04,124
(new speaker) We were all very young.

567
00:54:04,199 --> 00:54:07,920
We weren't in the services
so we didn't have to have our hair cut.

568
00:54:07,995 --> 00:54:11,124
And we did look very glamorous,
with our gold wings

569
00:54:11,206 --> 00:54:14,756
and our gold badges of rank
on the shoulder.

570
00:54:16,754 --> 00:54:19,598
Whenever you went into an RAF mess,
you know,

571
00:54:19,673 --> 00:54:22,096
they were always anxious to talk to you.

572
00:54:22,676 --> 00:54:24,349
It was a very glamorous life

573
00:54:24,428 --> 00:54:27,523
and it was very difficult
not to be spoiled, I guess.

574
00:54:29,683 --> 00:54:34,735
(Mary Ellis) Well, I did have
lots of boyfriends. (laughs)

575
00:54:34,813 --> 00:54:37,987
It takes me back about 50 years,
doesn't it?

576
00:54:42,404 --> 00:54:44,907
(newsreel) But to keep
the Royal Air Force on the offensive,

577
00:54:44,990 --> 00:54:46,867
hundreds of aircraft
must be flown each day

578
00:54:46,950 --> 00:54:49,920
between the factories, the maintenance
depots and the aerodromes.

579
00:54:51,079 --> 00:54:55,505
<i>(Mary</i> Ellis) I saw these Spitfires.
I hadn't seen a Spitfire before.

580
00:54:55,584 --> 00:54:59,259
I'm sure my heart was beating
hundreds to the dozen. (laughs)

581
00:55:01,673 --> 00:55:03,721
<i>(Joy</i> Lofthouse)
When you actually were told

582
00:55:03,801 --> 00:55:06,054
you're going to fly in a Spitfire,

583
00:55:06,136 --> 00:55:08,264
I suppose it's almost breath-taking.

584
00:55:08,347 --> 00:55:12,693
It's partly nervousness,
"Will I do it properly?"

585
00:55:12,768 --> 00:55:16,648
And partly elation
that you have finally made it.

586
00:55:18,148 --> 00:55:22,198
<i>(Mary Ellis)</i> I got in the aircraft
and the chappie said,

587
00:55:22,277 --> 00:55:25,372
"How many of these
have you flown, miss?"

588
00:55:25,447 --> 00:55:30,954
And I said, "I haven't flown one at all
yet, this is the first one."

589
00:55:31,036 --> 00:55:37,510
And he promptly went... (gasps)
...and fell off the aeroplane. (laughs)

590
00:55:42,130 --> 00:55:46,556
I was excited, and I started
the aeroplane, taxied out.

591
00:55:48,053 --> 00:55:50,806
Fortunately, made the perfect take-off.

592
00:55:52,808 --> 00:55:56,108
Up in the air, I thought,
"I'm here, I must do something."

593
00:55:56,186 --> 00:55:58,939
So I went round and round
and up and down.

594
00:56:06,488 --> 00:56:09,458
It was so delightful.

595
00:56:14,580 --> 00:56:19,177
I had a lovely time
before I had to land it.

596
00:56:20,836 --> 00:56:23,305
I thought, "Oh, my goodness."

597
00:56:24,381 --> 00:56:26,804
<i>(Joy Lofthouse)</i>
A test <i>pilot once said</i>

598
00:56:26,884 --> 00:56:30,559
that she was a lady in the air,
but a bitch on the ground.

599
00:56:35,309 --> 00:56:40,816
Now this was because she had a much
narrower undercart than the Hurricane.

600
00:56:40,898 --> 00:56:44,118
So you had to be very careful
in landing.

601
00:56:50,741 --> 00:56:54,621
<i>(Mary</i> Ellis) It was quite often
very dangerous.

602
00:56:56,747 --> 00:56:59,967
We had no radio at any time.

603
00:57:00,042 --> 00:57:02,841
No aids whatsoever.

604
00:57:04,171 --> 00:57:08,847
In between this, there was
the hazards of the bad weather

605
00:57:08,926 --> 00:57:11,600
and the balloons which would pop up.

606
00:57:12,721 --> 00:57:15,520
And people did get killed.

607
00:57:20,729 --> 00:57:24,074
<i>(Joy</i> Lofthouse) There were casualties.
One heard of them all the time.

608
00:57:24,775 --> 00:57:28,075
But I think
the thought of what was happening,

609
00:57:28,153 --> 00:57:31,908
the war as a whole,
was always in the back of our minds.

610
00:57:32,532 --> 00:57:38,756
There was always news coming through
of either defeats or setbacks.

611
00:57:38,830 --> 00:57:41,549
And it was a nice feeling,
however modest,

612
00:57:41,625 --> 00:57:44,299
that you were doing something
to help the war.

613
00:57:55,430 --> 00:57:58,934
<i>In 1941, with Britain beyond his reach,</i>

614
00:57:59,017 --> 00:58:02,237
<i>Hitler turned his attention
to North Africa.</i>

615
00:58:03,271 --> 00:58:08,744
<i>The prize was control of the
Mediterranean and the Arabian oilfields.</i>

616
00:58:10,821 --> 00:58:15,577
<i>As battle raged in the desert, his
supply lines were under constant attack</i>

617
00:58:15,659 --> 00:58:18,629
<i>by British aircraft based on Malta.</i>

618
00:58:19,705 --> 00:58:24,302
<i>The tiny island was subjected to
a massive bombing campaign.</i>

619
00:58:25,043 --> 00:58:27,546
<i>(ship's horn)</i>

620
00:58:27,629 --> 00:58:30,883
<i>It had to be defended at all costs.</i>

621
00:58:34,428 --> 00:58:37,523
<i>With Spitfires being held back
in Britain,</i>

622
00:58:37,597 --> 00:58:41,318
<i>Hurricanes were sent
on aircraft carriers to do the job.</i>

623
00:58:44,521 --> 00:58:48,947
<i>The young pilots would face
a new challenge, fraught with risk.</i>

624
00:58:51,153 --> 00:58:55,078
(Tom <i>Neil)</i> None of us had taken off
from a carrier or landed on a carrier.

625
00:58:56,324 --> 00:59:01,296
So the day arrived,
and we were going to fly off at dawn.

626
00:59:01,371 --> 00:59:04,966
Now, I hated flying off at dawn.

627
00:59:05,584 --> 00:59:06,585
I used to think,

628
00:59:06,668 --> 00:59:10,514
"Why in God's name don't we take off
at lunchtime after a good lunch?"

629
00:59:10,589 --> 00:59:12,216
You always had to do it at dawn.

630
00:59:18,263 --> 00:59:23,019
So there I was, one of 23 aircraft,
lined up waiting to take off.

631
00:59:29,274 --> 00:59:31,447
We were being led by a Fulmar.

632
00:59:34,321 --> 00:59:37,746
Now if there was one thing that was
worse than a Hurricane, it was a Fulmar.

633
00:59:38,283 --> 00:59:40,957
It was a useless, useless aeroplane.

634
00:59:43,121 --> 00:59:47,547
And we were going to follow the Fulmar
all the way to Malta.

635
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:52,264
And everything was radio silence.

636
00:59:52,339 --> 00:59:54,683
We weren't supposed to utter a word

637
00:59:54,758 --> 00:59:57,102
in case we gave the whereabouts
to the fleet.

638
00:59:58,762 --> 01:00:03,518
And we did go for an hour, and suddenly
the Fulmar which is leading us

639
01:00:03,600 --> 01:00:07,025
had an engine problem
and disappeared into cloud.

640
01:00:07,062 --> 01:00:08,735
So I was left there.

641
01:00:09,731 --> 01:00:14,157
I didn't have any maps.
I didn't know where Malta was.

642
01:00:14,236 --> 01:00:17,365
All I knew was
I was surrounded by the enemy.

643
01:00:17,447 --> 01:00:20,667
And I was just 20 years of age.

644
01:00:21,243 --> 01:00:23,245
I didn't know what to do.

645
01:00:23,328 --> 01:00:28,050
And I flew round in circles with ten
people following me around in circles,

646
01:00:28,125 --> 01:00:32,346
them looking at me as a leader,
and me not knowing what to do.

647
01:00:32,420 --> 01:00:37,551
And I can tell you, I prayed, I prayed.
I didn't know what to do, what to do.

648
01:00:44,266 --> 01:00:45,859
And God answered.

649
01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:49,313
He doesn't answer you
with a flash of lightning,

650
01:00:49,396 --> 01:00:52,525
he puts something in your head
that you never thought of before.

651
01:00:53,692 --> 01:00:59,745
And I thought, "What I'd better do now
is fly all the way back to Gibraltar,"

652
01:00:59,781 --> 01:01:03,502
which was 850 miles
in the opposite direction.

653
01:01:07,205 --> 01:01:10,334
So I set off. By the grace of God,

654
01:01:10,417 --> 01:01:13,591
I came across the wake of the Navy

655
01:01:15,755 --> 01:01:20,977
and found the Ark Royal
and all the fleet, 20, 25 ships.

656
01:01:21,344 --> 01:01:23,267
I thought,
"What are they going to do with me?"

657
01:01:26,183 --> 01:01:29,153
"They're going to shoot at me.
They'll think I'm the enemy."

658
01:01:29,227 --> 01:01:32,151
"How do I let them know
that I'm a friend?"

659
01:01:36,943 --> 01:01:41,824
So then they found another Fulmar,
they scrambled it,

660
01:01:41,907 --> 01:01:46,253
and we began to follow it again,
20 feet above the waves.

661
01:02:01,885 --> 01:02:04,434
We'd been in the air several hours.

662
01:02:05,597 --> 01:02:06,598
We had no fuel.

663
01:02:08,183 --> 01:02:09,651
No fuel at all.

664
01:02:12,020 --> 01:02:14,318
And Malta suddenly appeared.

665
01:02:16,358 --> 01:02:18,861
And I remember going over the cliffs.

666
01:02:20,487 --> 01:02:25,869
And I was approaching Luqa,
and the airfield in front of me rose up.

667
01:02:30,288 --> 01:02:33,258
Bomb blasts and craters.

668
01:02:33,667 --> 01:02:35,419
All the time I'd been looking down

669
01:02:35,460 --> 01:02:37,303
to see if I was going to land
on the ground.

670
01:02:37,379 --> 01:02:41,304
I looked up, and the air
was filled with Germans.

671
01:02:41,341 --> 01:02:43,184
About 50 or a hundred of them.

672
01:02:45,011 --> 01:02:47,935
I said, "Sod it, no matter what I do,
I'm going to land her."

673
01:02:48,014 --> 01:02:49,891
So I landed between all the bomb holes.

674
01:02:54,354 --> 01:02:56,948
And two days later...

675
01:02:57,023 --> 01:02:59,446
<i>(siren wails)</i>

676
01:02:59,526 --> 01:03:03,281
...we heard the air-raid sirens going

677
01:03:03,363 --> 01:03:08,085
and then these three 109s appeared
20 feet above the ground, firing.

678
01:03:09,160 --> 01:03:11,754
And the bullets were going through
the tent above my head.

679
01:03:13,832 --> 01:03:16,961
They wrote us all off
before we'd even taken off.

680
01:03:18,670 --> 01:03:20,718
So we didn't have aeroplanes to fly.

681
01:03:23,425 --> 01:03:27,396
And suddenly,
the Spitfires arrived in March 1942,

682
01:03:27,470 --> 01:03:29,188
by the grace of God.

683
01:03:50,243 --> 01:03:52,541
<i>With the fate of Malta in the balance,</i>

684
01:03:52,620 --> 01:03:56,591
<i>the arrival of the Spitfires
came just in time.</i>

685
01:03:58,251 --> 01:04:01,175
(new speaker) And that's 124 Squadron,
the first squadron

686
01:04:01,254 --> 01:04:02,847
that I joined.

687
01:04:02,922 --> 01:04:05,300
In those days I was a sergeant pilot.

688
01:04:05,383 --> 01:04:10,355
And there I am,
one, two in from the right, there.

689
01:04:10,430 --> 01:04:13,980
A very young 18-year-old.

690
01:04:14,851 --> 01:04:20,904
Now, I was posted to Malta. The Eagle.
And that's the one we flew off.

691
01:04:21,733 --> 01:04:25,988
They took us a thousand miles
down the Med, and we had the rest to do.

692
01:04:28,740 --> 01:04:33,587
You just had enough fuel to make it
comfortable to get into Malta.

693
01:04:38,708 --> 01:04:42,463
It was just a matter of getting in
as well as you could,

694
01:04:42,545 --> 01:04:45,924
missing the potholes
and getting into a pen.

695
01:04:48,093 --> 01:04:52,189
Within minutes,
my Spitfire was being refuelled

696
01:04:52,263 --> 01:04:58,691
by swarms of airmen passing petrol cans
to one another to fill it up.

697
01:04:59,354 --> 01:05:04,076
Amazing. I mean, you'd only just arrived
there and your Spit was ready to fly.

698
01:05:05,276 --> 01:05:06,869
Welcome to Malta.

699
01:05:15,578 --> 01:05:18,252
Our job was to get the bombers,
not the fighters.

700
01:05:23,086 --> 01:05:25,805
We had to get as much height as we could

701
01:05:25,880 --> 01:05:28,303
because then you had
the advantage of coming down.

702
01:05:30,468 --> 01:05:34,018
You didn't aim to get into a dogfight
with Messerschmitts

703
01:05:34,097 --> 01:05:37,522
because we were too short of Spitfires
to lose one.

704
01:05:38,518 --> 01:05:39,644
Hit the bomber.

705
01:05:39,727 --> 01:05:44,984
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

706
01:05:45,066 --> 01:05:46,693
Make sure that they'd clobbered him

707
01:05:48,319 --> 01:05:52,369
and then spiral down to the sea
and try and escape.

708
01:05:54,492 --> 01:05:58,167
But Messerschmitts soon cottoned on
to this and they followed down.

709
01:06:01,583 --> 01:06:04,587
So we ended up with a dogfight anyway,
at sea level.

710
01:06:04,669 --> 01:06:05,761
Fighting for my life.

711
01:06:08,173 --> 01:06:14,351
When two of them attack you,
you get your sights on one, quickly,

712
01:06:14,971 --> 01:06:18,646
and keep your eye on the other one
coming down behind you.

713
01:06:18,725 --> 01:06:20,898
- <i>You get</i> a <i>quick squirt.</i>
- <i>(machine gun fire)</i>

714
01:06:21,936 --> 01:06:25,941
And then always your eyes are flicking
towards number two coming down.

715
01:06:27,567 --> 01:06:30,411
You've got to outwit him,
you've got to out-fly him.

716
01:06:32,739 --> 01:06:34,867
You sweat profusely.

717
01:06:35,158 --> 01:06:39,334
You're not sweating because you're hot,
you're sweating fear.

718
01:06:42,540 --> 01:06:44,508
And it trickles down your forehead

719
01:06:44,542 --> 01:06:48,672
and then from the eyes, it trickles down
into the mouth, and it's salty.

720
01:06:49,547 --> 01:06:53,268
That's fear. It's a salty taste.

721
01:07:06,648 --> 01:07:08,867
You always put these swastikas in.

722
01:07:08,900 --> 01:07:12,029
That was the first one in Malta
that I got.

723
01:07:12,820 --> 01:07:16,450
And that was the three
in one fight, here.

724
01:07:18,201 --> 01:07:19,999
I think six of us claimed that one.

725
01:07:20,870 --> 01:07:24,215
It shows you the actual
Junkers 88 down there.

726
01:07:24,290 --> 01:07:25,837
The poor old pilot was there.

727
01:07:27,502 --> 01:07:33,430
You become an ace when you shot
five or more aircraft down.

728
01:07:33,508 --> 01:07:35,602
And funnily enough,
it's rather strange, that,

729
01:07:35,677 --> 01:07:42,151
but I am the last surviving ace
from Malta living today, the last one.

730
01:07:42,225 --> 01:07:43,522
Isn't that amazing?

731
01:07:54,070 --> 01:07:56,493
<i>The Spitfires have done the job.</i>

732
01:07:57,156 --> 01:08:01,036
<i>By November 1942, the island was safe.</i>

733
01:08:04,330 --> 01:08:06,924
<i>The tide of the war was turning.</i>

734
01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:11,847
<i>The United States and the Soviet Union
were now fighting on the Allied side.</i>

735
01:08:14,048 --> 01:08:16,096
<i>With the constant need for pilots,</i>

736
01:08:16,175 --> 01:08:20,351
<i>the RAF became a truly multinational
fighting force.</i>

737
01:08:21,723 --> 01:08:26,399
<i>They came from all over the world and
from the conquered countries of Europe.</i>

738
01:08:27,478 --> 01:08:30,778
<i>And they all wanted to fly Spitfires.</i>

739
01:08:32,150 --> 01:08:36,246
(new speaker) I remember
first flight from the Polish wing.

740
01:08:36,321 --> 01:08:40,371
Three squadrons of Spitfires
over France.

741
01:08:43,661 --> 01:08:48,792
The object was to throw the gauntlet:
come and fight!

742
01:08:48,875 --> 01:08:50,843
And by gum, they did.

743
01:09:05,350 --> 01:09:09,730
<i>(Franciszek Kornicki)</i>
A <i>lot of blood was spilt over France.</i>

744
01:09:09,812 --> 01:09:11,985
Ours and theirs.

745
01:09:12,065 --> 01:09:14,568
It was hard fight all the time.

746
01:09:17,612 --> 01:09:20,081
<i>(Tom Neil) We had Spitfire</i> Vs

747
01:09:20,156 --> 01:09:24,502
and suddenly a new enemy aircraft
arrived on the scene

748
01:09:24,577 --> 01:09:26,875
called a Focke-Wulf 190.

749
01:09:26,954 --> 01:09:29,127
And it made rings around us.

750
01:09:33,544 --> 01:09:36,764
They would come up above and then just
dive straight down, pick somebody off.

751
01:09:36,839 --> 01:09:40,184
We'd lost...
Oh, we lost several pilots.

752
01:09:41,135 --> 01:09:43,229
So that wasn't a very happy time.

753
01:09:48,393 --> 01:09:50,316
(newsreel) Very interesting indeed.

754
01:09:50,395 --> 01:09:54,241
Something we've been wanting to examine
for some time: the Focke-Wulf 190.

755
01:09:55,024 --> 01:09:57,652
The RAF forced it down
on the south coast of England,

756
01:09:57,735 --> 01:10:01,330
where an armed patrol promptly grabbed
the pilot before he could do any damage.

757
01:10:01,406 --> 01:10:03,249
Now it's in the RAF.

758
01:10:04,367 --> 01:10:07,917
(Geoffrey Wellum)
The 190 was a very potent aeroplane.

759
01:10:07,995 --> 01:10:09,497
So we had to respond.

760
01:10:11,499 --> 01:10:15,504
The Spitfire loaned itself
to development.

761
01:10:15,586 --> 01:10:17,805
And almost overnight,

762
01:10:17,880 --> 01:10:22,636
Rolls-Royce took the engine out, stuck
a great big blower on the back of it.

763
01:10:22,719 --> 01:10:25,643
And there was a difference
in performance. Incredible.

764
01:10:26,055 --> 01:10:28,979
<i>(engine roars)</i>

765
01:10:37,859 --> 01:10:42,035
(Franciszek Kornick/) Spitfire IX
was a really very, very good machine.

766
01:10:42,113 --> 01:10:45,117
It's got a lot of power.
And that's what was needed.

767
01:11:13,853 --> 01:11:16,777
(Ken French) When you got
to a height of about 10,000 feet,

768
01:11:16,856 --> 01:11:20,611
it would suddenly whoosh
and the supercharger came in,

769
01:11:20,693 --> 01:11:23,537
which gave us an extra bit of life
to go higher.

770
01:11:24,989 --> 01:11:31,338
And after that, the FW190s,
they were no fear for us.

771
01:11:31,412 --> 01:11:33,085
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

772
01:11:33,164 --> 01:11:34,541
Any time we met them...

773
01:11:34,624 --> 01:11:36,092
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

774
01:11:36,167 --> 01:11:37,794
...we got the better of it.

775
01:11:46,761 --> 01:11:51,141
<i>The new Spitfire
had helped to secure aerial supremacy.</i>

776
01:11:52,517 --> 01:11:55,737
<i>The liberation of Europe
could now begin.</i>

777
01:12:04,737 --> 01:12:07,957
(Ken French) In 1944, we were stationed

778
01:12:08,032 --> 01:12:11,662
down at Bognor Regis
for the forthcoming invasion.

779
01:12:14,038 --> 01:12:17,042
We saw them
painting black and white strips

780
01:12:17,124 --> 01:12:20,628
under the wings of our planes
for identification,

781
01:12:20,711 --> 01:12:22,713
and we knew what that must mean.

782
01:12:23,422 --> 01:12:26,767
But we still didn't know
where or when we were going.

783
01:12:28,761 --> 01:12:34,359
And on the evening of the 5th of June,

784
01:12:34,433 --> 01:12:37,778
we were all called over to a briefing.

785
01:12:37,854 --> 01:12:43,111
When we got into the tent there,
we saw a big map of Normandy.

786
01:12:43,192 --> 01:12:47,823
And that was our first knowledge that
that was where it was going to be.

787
01:12:49,240 --> 01:12:53,666
And, of course, this was June
when dawn came early

788
01:12:53,744 --> 01:12:55,963
and we didn't get any sleep.

789
01:12:56,038 --> 01:13:02,262
But I do remember that we were all
sitting round in little groups talking.

790
01:13:02,336 --> 01:13:06,512
Because we knew that this was going
to be the biggest day of our lives.

791
01:13:12,346 --> 01:13:15,020
(newsreel) Four years ago,
Europe was Hitler's.

792
01:13:15,099 --> 01:13:17,022
The lights of freedom went out.

793
01:13:17,059 --> 01:13:20,654
Now the world of free men
strikes in all its assembled might

794
01:13:20,730 --> 01:13:23,108
at the weakening chains of bondage.

795
01:13:23,900 --> 01:13:26,699
Here are the first pictures
of the opening of the second front;

796
01:13:26,777 --> 01:13:30,327
pictures which security demands
should be meagre at this stage,

797
01:13:30,406 --> 01:13:33,660
yet thrilling because they carry
the first flush of excitement

798
01:13:33,743 --> 01:13:36,417
as the mammoth task gets underway.

799
01:13:51,636 --> 01:13:55,391
(Ken French) We could see the landing
craft running up on the beaches.

800
01:13:56,098 --> 01:13:58,396
It must have been absolute hell,
you know.

801
01:13:58,768 --> 01:14:01,738
We were completely detached from it.

802
01:14:03,898 --> 01:14:08,153
On D-Day, I went over there three times.

803
01:14:08,235 --> 01:14:11,239
It was quiet all the time.

804
01:14:14,867 --> 01:14:17,586
We never saw the German air force.

805
01:14:18,996 --> 01:14:21,374
Quite honestly, if they had turned up,

806
01:14:21,457 --> 01:14:23,880
they would have had
a very, very hard time

807
01:14:23,960 --> 01:14:29,012
because not only the RAF, but all the
American fighters were up there as well.

808
01:14:30,383 --> 01:14:31,805
Very, very successful actually,

809
01:14:31,884 --> 01:14:37,641
because the whole of northern France
air was covered with fighters.

810
01:14:40,851 --> 01:14:42,774
(newsreel)
While civilian Britain sleeps,

811
01:14:42,853 --> 01:14:44,947
history's greatest story
is being written.

812
01:14:44,981 --> 01:14:48,281
Between midnight and breakfast,
the D-Day plan is launched.

813
01:14:48,359 --> 01:14:51,829
And when the news breaks,
the people at home rush to buy it.

814
01:14:51,904 --> 01:14:54,953
Eagerly, they absorb every line
of the rationed information

815
01:14:55,032 --> 01:14:56,033
as it comes to hand.

816
01:14:56,117 --> 01:14:59,667
The news is good,
far better than they'd dared to hope.

817
01:14:59,745 --> 01:15:02,339
Bridgeheads are won,
we penetrate inland.

818
01:15:02,415 --> 01:15:07,091
Airstrips are under construction and,
best of all, casualties amazingly light.

819
01:15:15,302 --> 01:15:17,680
(Ken French) We used to escort bombers.

820
01:15:19,348 --> 01:15:23,979
And they were dropping bombs on woods.
And we never knew why.

821
01:15:26,981 --> 01:15:31,111
We did know that the Germans had
some sort of a secret weapon coming.

822
01:15:40,161 --> 01:15:41,333
<i>(Ken French) Doodlebugs.</i>

823
01:15:42,663 --> 01:15:46,088
They were pretty fast,
they were over 400 mph they travelled.

824
01:15:48,252 --> 01:15:54,760
I chased one once, across the Channel,
but it was too fast for me.

825
01:15:54,842 --> 01:15:56,344
<i>(engine roars)</i>

826
01:15:56,427 --> 01:16:02,685
<i>The jet-propelled V-1 was taking warfare
in a new and frightening direction.</i>

827
01:16:02,767 --> 01:16:03,939
<i>(engine falls silent)</i>

828
01:16:10,858 --> 01:16:12,860
<i>The country needed an answer.</i>

829
01:16:14,403 --> 01:16:17,907
<i>And once again, it was the Spitfire.</i>

830
01:16:19,241 --> 01:16:20,618
<i>(newsreel)</i> Mark <i>XIV.</i>

831
01:16:22,161 --> 01:16:25,256
She's slightly larger and even faster
than her predecessors

832
01:16:25,331 --> 01:16:28,756
and was designed to meet
the constant demand for more speed.

833
01:16:30,419 --> 01:16:34,549
The wings are clipped to give
better manoeuvrability at low altitudes.

834
01:16:44,308 --> 01:16:48,529
A completely redesigned fin and rudder
was essential for the Mark XIV

835
01:16:48,604 --> 01:16:51,574
and an even more powerful
Rolls-Griffon engine.

836
01:16:56,654 --> 01:16:59,578
To accommodate this new engine,
the nose was lengthened again

837
01:16:59,657 --> 01:17:01,830
and a bigger spinner was needed.

838
01:17:16,799 --> 01:17:19,518
(Geoffrey Wellum)
Spit XIV was a Griffon engine.

839
01:17:19,593 --> 01:17:20,970
It was no slouch.

840
01:17:21,804 --> 01:17:25,684
The acceleration was something
like I'd never experienced before.

841
01:17:26,308 --> 01:17:27,730
That was a real Spitfire.

842
01:17:47,204 --> 01:17:49,957
(newsreel) A Spitfire pilot
gets in a successful burst.

843
01:17:50,040 --> 01:17:51,417
<i>(machine gun fire)</i>

844
01:18:21,280 --> 01:18:25,285
(Geoffrey Wellum) The Spitfire
was built as an interceptor fighter.

845
01:18:28,120 --> 01:18:31,374
Get up there, have a go, come down,
refuel, up. That sort of thing.

846
01:18:36,086 --> 01:18:39,556
But it went on to be developed
into 24 marks,

847
01:18:42,176 --> 01:18:45,350
with a speed over the initial one
of over 100 mph,

848
01:18:45,429 --> 01:18:48,979
carrying twice or three times
the weapon load.

849
01:18:51,602 --> 01:18:53,980
It was a design which was brilliant.

850
01:18:57,358 --> 01:19:01,909
(Tom <i>Neil)</i> By the end of the war
in 1945, I flew pretty well all of them.

851
01:19:01,987 --> 01:19:03,580
All 24 marks.

852
01:19:04,448 --> 01:19:06,701
We used to appeal to Supermarine.
We used to say,

853
01:19:06,784 --> 01:19:09,833
"For God's sake,
try and design something else."

854
01:19:15,876 --> 01:19:18,004
You got to the stage
where the engine was so powerful,

855
01:19:18,087 --> 01:19:20,306
that the aircraft was turning
around the propeller,

856
01:19:20,381 --> 01:19:22,304
rather than the propeller
around the aircraft.

857
01:19:26,887 --> 01:19:29,891
It had had two-bladed propeller,
three-bladed, four-bladed,

858
01:19:29,974 --> 01:19:32,193
five-bladed, six-bladed propeller.

859
01:19:32,268 --> 01:19:34,487
It had outlived its life.

860
01:19:44,113 --> 01:19:47,538
<i>Twenty-two thousand Spitfires were built</i>

861
01:19:47,616 --> 01:19:50,870
<i>before the jet engine
brought its life to an end.</i>

862
01:19:56,041 --> 01:20:02,424
<i>But 75 years after the end of the war,
over 50 of these planes still fly.</i>

863
01:20:03,590 --> 01:20:07,390
<i>And more are being returned to the air
every year.</i>

864
01:20:07,469 --> 01:20:09,722
(Ken Wilkinson)
Well, it's the extraordinary thing

865
01:20:09,805 --> 01:20:11,807
about public opinion, isn't it?

866
01:20:12,266 --> 01:20:14,519
It does funny things.

867
01:20:16,895 --> 01:20:21,776
I mean, the Spitfire did fly
all the way through the war,

868
01:20:24,320 --> 01:20:28,450
and a lot of people
like to see them nowadays.

869
01:20:29,408 --> 01:20:30,830
They're so precious.

870
01:20:34,663 --> 01:20:39,009
It brings back all sorts of memories.
All sorts.

871
01:20:44,631 --> 01:20:50,809
(Allan Scott) I am amazed to this clay
at the reputation that the Spitfire has.

872
01:20:51,138 --> 01:20:53,812
And especially the pilots.

873
01:20:53,891 --> 01:20:58,317
Amazing how people
have got onto this Spitfire business.

874
01:21:11,825 --> 01:21:16,126
<i>(Joy Lofthouse) The fact
that people</i> revel <i>in the Spitfire</i>

875
01:21:16,205 --> 01:21:22,178
and the iconic feel it has,
I can't really explain it.

876
01:21:24,046 --> 01:21:26,765
There are some who would
rather have a flight in a Spitfire

877
01:21:26,840 --> 01:21:31,095
than spend their pension money
on a Jag or something, I think.

878
01:21:32,054 --> 01:21:33,727
That must tell you something.

879
01:21:38,185 --> 01:21:42,656
But the aura surrounding the Spitfire

880
01:21:42,731 --> 01:21:46,781
is more a post-war phenomenon
than a wartime thing.

881
01:21:47,986 --> 01:21:51,160
It was just an instrument of war then.

882
01:22:39,329 --> 01:22:43,050
(Tony Pickering) I don't know why
human nature is such

883
01:22:43,125 --> 01:22:46,425
that we have to fight each other
and destroy each other.

884
01:22:50,257 --> 01:22:53,386
Well, it was something
which I was asked to do.

885
01:22:54,470 --> 01:22:56,893
And I did.

886
01:23:00,517 --> 01:23:02,235
But life's very strange.

887
01:23:02,311 --> 01:23:07,784
One gets tested and checked
and things like that.

888
01:23:11,778 --> 01:23:17,456
You've got to try and live a life where
you try and not upset other people.

889
01:23:24,875 --> 01:23:28,470
I don't know whether
it's a good thing or a bad thing,

890
01:23:28,545 --> 01:23:32,721
but I don't know
whether we should forget it.

891
01:23:33,258 --> 01:23:36,808
But we've got to always remember
those who didn't come back.

892
01:23:37,137 --> 01:23:39,231
You've always got to remember them.

893
01:23:51,193 --> 01:23:54,037
<i>(Paul</i> Farnes) At the time,
one didn't think anything of it at all.

894
01:23:56,740 --> 01:23:59,243
I'm very proud to have taken part in it.

895
01:24:02,037 --> 01:24:04,916
I think all those who took part are.

896
01:24:04,998 --> 01:24:11,802
I think the chaps who are still alive,
I think they have a certain pride in it.

897
01:24:13,340 --> 01:24:16,014
There aren't many of us left alive,
you know.

898
01:24:17,427 --> 01:24:19,521
I'm not getting any younger.

899
01:24:20,889 --> 01:24:25,395
I suppose in another five years,
I doubt if there'll be any of us.

900
01:24:34,236 --> 01:24:36,705
<i>(Ken Wilkinson)</i> It <i>never goes</i> away.

901
01:24:37,155 --> 01:24:42,127
It never goes away,
this threat of warfare.

902
01:24:43,203 --> 01:24:46,548
The generation before us
had been through a war.

903
01:24:47,499 --> 01:24:51,299
The generations after us
have been through wars.

904
01:24:52,754 --> 01:24:55,132
In all conscience,

905
01:24:55,215 --> 01:25:01,018
the world needs a change
from all this hostility and warfare.

906
01:25:01,847 --> 01:25:04,475
The world needs a change.

907
01:25:15,527 --> 01:25:17,245
<i>(Geoffrey Wellum)</i> It's <i>not about medals.</i>

908
01:25:19,781 --> 01:25:22,125
It's not about who shot down what.

909
01:25:22,659 --> 01:25:24,787
It's not about the thank yous.

910
01:25:25,662 --> 01:25:27,460
But it is nice to be remembered

911
01:25:27,539 --> 01:25:31,214
because being remembered
covers everybody

912
01:25:31,293 --> 01:25:36,220
who served, flew and fought in the war.

913
01:26:01,448 --> 01:26:06,545
(new speaker) She's original,
98 percent of her.

914
01:26:06,620 --> 01:26:12,047
All the skin panels and all
the inner parts, they are original 1944.

915
01:26:12,793 --> 01:26:15,421
The reason for it is that
she never saw combat.

916
01:26:17,547 --> 01:26:22,178
She was actually delivered
from the factory by Mary Ellis

917
01:26:22,260 --> 01:26:26,265
who was one of these ATA girls,
the Air Transport Auxiliaries.

918
01:26:27,182 --> 01:26:30,152
Mary Ellis was a slip of a girl,
but I know

919
01:26:30,227 --> 01:26:37,736
that she flew 1,000 aircraft during
the war, of which 400 were Spitfires.

920
01:26:37,818 --> 01:26:42,073
And for some reason,
she decided, on a whim,

921
01:26:42,155 --> 01:26:46,661
to sign her name
on this aeroplane in 1944,

922
01:26:47,536 --> 01:26:50,415
which was then Mary Wilkins.

923
01:26:50,497 --> 01:26:54,047
And you can still see the signature,
very faded,

924
01:26:54,126 --> 01:26:58,802
"Mary Wilkins, ATA
for Air Transport Auxiliary".

925
01:26:58,880 --> 01:27:01,679
But the most wonderful thing
is that she is still alive

926
01:27:01,758 --> 01:27:06,810
and she's going to be 100
in two or three months' time.

927
01:27:17,858 --> 01:27:24,867
<i>(Mary</i> Ellis) This wonderful Spitfire
that I flew in 1944

928
01:27:24,948 --> 01:27:31,297
on a delivery flight from the factory
is coming in this afternoon.

929
01:27:31,371 --> 01:27:33,089
<i>I can't wait. (laughs)</i>

930
01:27:46,720 --> 01:27:47,721
Here he is.

931
01:27:49,431 --> 01:27:52,480
Wow! <i>(laughs)</i>

932
01:27:54,478 --> 01:27:56,355
Oh, how lovely.

933
01:27:57,647 --> 01:27:59,069
How very super.

934
01:27:59,149 --> 01:28:00,651
<i>(laughs)</i>

935
01:28:04,196 --> 01:28:09,669
It seems so small now,
doesn't it, the Spitfire?

936
01:28:15,332 --> 01:28:16,754
<i>(laughs)</i>

937
01:28:20,212 --> 01:28:21,213
Fantastic.

938
01:28:27,677 --> 01:28:30,021
- Oh, so great!
- Dear Mary.

939
01:28:30,096 --> 01:28:34,146
- <i>(Mary Ellis)</i> It is so great.
- So good to see you.

940
01:28:34,851 --> 01:28:37,070
- How are you?
- I'm very well, thank you.

941
01:28:37,145 --> 01:28:40,115
- Always excited about this one?
- Yes, of course.

942
01:28:40,190 --> 01:28:43,694
I flew about 1,000 aeroplanes
during the war.

943
01:28:43,777 --> 01:28:47,623
- Yes.
- That's the only one I signed.

944
01:28:47,948 --> 01:28:49,621
- The only one.
- That's magical.

945
01:28:49,699 --> 01:28:51,292
It's fabulous.

946
01:28:51,368 --> 01:28:56,215
And what came over you,
that you decided to sign this one?

947
01:28:56,540 --> 01:29:00,511
- I suppose it was a romantic mood.
- <i>(both</i> laugh)

948
01:29:02,087 --> 01:29:08,515
Thinking that some handsome RAF chap
might be fighting, you know,

949
01:29:08,593 --> 01:29:11,972
and suddenly see my name and contact me.

950
01:29:12,055 --> 01:29:13,932
- And look you up.
- It never happened.

951
01:29:14,015 --> 01:29:16,234
- It never happened?
- <i>(Mary</i> Ellis) No, until now.

952
01:29:16,309 --> 01:29:17,686
<i>(both laugh)</i>

953
01:29:17,769 --> 01:29:20,943
Don't tell your wife I said that.
(laughs)

954
01:29:20,981 --> 01:29:24,235
I won't.
This is between us and all the cameras.

955
01:29:24,317 --> 01:29:25,864
- Yes.
- Yes.

956
01:29:25,902 --> 01:29:29,782
Would you mind stepping inside again

957
01:29:29,865 --> 01:29:33,165
and signing the aeroplane again
for this day?

958
01:29:38,999 --> 01:29:40,922
- <i>(Mary</i> Ellis) Is that all right?
- That's right.

959
01:29:41,001 --> 01:29:46,883
Thank you for allowing me
to write on your aeroplane. (laughs)

960
01:29:46,965 --> 01:29:48,888
Delighted and honoured.

961
01:29:55,807 --> 01:29:58,936
<i>(Maxi</i> Gainza) When I was a child,
I read about Spitfires

962
01:29:59,019 --> 01:30:00,521
and the Battle of Britain.

963
01:30:02,105 --> 01:30:04,824
This aeroplane stands for so much.

964
01:30:04,900 --> 01:30:06,777
Grace and gallantry.

965
01:30:16,411 --> 01:30:18,584
She's a symbol of freedom.

966
01:30:21,207 --> 01:30:24,177
Here he comes. Here he is.