When I saw this movie in 1969, I was a flying instructor in the RCAF on jets. The majority of the older pilots I worked with were WWII veterans. Over the years, I got to know a couple of Spitfire pilots, one of whom (Duke Warren), flew in the Battle of Britain, as well as the raid on Dieppe. His twin brother, Bruce, was killed in 1959, while testing a CF-100. In the late 1970s, Duke, retired as a Wing Commander, and was my neighbour for many years. The only time he would talk about the war, was after the Remembrance Day parade every year, after a few libations while at the Mess. The other veterans I worked with, and for, flew everything from Hurricanes, Tempests, Mosquitoes, to bombers ( Wellington, Halifax, and Lancaster). It was an amazing time. The RCAF Hurricane ace Stocky Edwards, also lived a long life in Comox, after retirement, and passed on in 2022. I got to see a few of the ME-109s, that were used in this movie, fly at the Confederate Air Force field In Harlingen TX. ( in 1972.) While I was on exchange with the USAF, and based in Laredo, I was flying one of the 4 T-38s from our squadron that did the opening flypast at one of their big celebrations. Afterwards, we got the cooks tour of the museum, and watched the flying displays over the weekend. It was a once in a lifetime experience, getting to see all the old warbirds most of them in flying condition. Sorry, for prattling on, but this video, brought back a lot of memories.. .
Yes we owe the Canadians soldiers sailors and airman so much, to come all this way, from a safe Canada, God bless them. My wife,,, Londoner, uncle Reg Charlton, die with them on the Dieppe raid, he was 20, he is on the Portsmouth war memorial
@@ukqwerty999 Yes, and a lot of the time, it was just luck that got them through the first missions. My father in law, was shot down in North Africa in a Wellington, and was the only survivor. He was terribly burned, and it was a miracle he survived. It wasn't all glory.
I have watched this movie over and over 150 times plus over the years now being 60 years old I first watched it on a little black and white screen in the kitchen as a little boy and ever since love it and find something I missed , Thank you for the movie 👏👏🇦🇺
It was pleasing to see how accurate it is. Last week I watched the series "World on Fire" which wasn't too bad except the Hurricane pilots were taking off without their helmets and oxygen on while talking to each other! Those making movies and television series often have no idea how basic inaccuracies like that damage the reputation of the show. Bit like all the sprinkler heads going off in a building at the same time even though there's a fire only under one sprinkler.
@@thegoat11111 WW2 ended in 1945, but the Battle of Britain was 1940, so the film was actually 29 years later. Basically 30 years unless you’re a massive pedant.
@@thegoat11111 Whether he meant the battle or the war, or whether it was 25 or 30 years he still made a valid point which didn’t warrant your sarcastic reply.
There is a graveyard near my parents house in Buckinghamshire, where my father is buried. At the top of the hill there are some graves from the war. I noticed two graves next to each other sharing a surname, father and son. Don't recall the names. Son was a pilot officer, father was a squadron leader. No idea if they were in the same unit. I hope not. Both died in Summer 1940, the father a couple of months after his son.
Sad to see that even employees of the US Embassy, half a century ago, didn't know the difference between Britain and England - or that the USA didn't join WW2 until nearly a year and a half later. (Yes, some Americans did join the RAF and fight - but they mostly had to pretend to be Canadian.)
This was very special to view. I was just 8 years old when my Uncle took me to see this when it came out. Some of its scenes really haunted me. This film was epic for my elder's generation. When I began my military career in 1979 with the Canadian armed forces; "Battle of Britain day" was still an annually celebrated parade event. Together with this film and the Thame's television series "The World at War" which came out not long after, really propelled forward my interest in military history. Thanks to clips like this, that is sure to continue.
@@LadyBlanche.888 The Battle of Britain was completely irrelevant as Hitler never intended to invade the UK. As soon as Stalin broke the pact on 28 June 1940 the OKW started preparing for Barbarossa. The film received terrible reviews and lost $10 million worldwide, bankrupting Herschel Saltzman.
I remember hearing an RAF veteran saying that a month after joining his squadron as a pilot officer, he was squadron commander as all his superiors had been killed.
The Battle of Britain often seems to be remembered with more reverance and emotion in 2024 than it was years ago, perhaps owing to our better knowledge and understanding of the historical context.
An absolutely brilliant film. I remember going to the cinema with my parents when it was first released and still love watching it when it is aired on TV - although I do have my own copy, as well!! At the time the film was being made I was a teenager living near East Dean in Sussex, close to Beachy Head. On a number of occasions we were treated to flights of Spitfires overhead as they were filmed re-enacting the battle as the East Dean area was, back then, almost totally unchanged from how it was in the 1940s. Too many modern films are made using CGI planes and, however clever the technology is, they don't come close to the realism portrayed by those skilled pilots who flew Spits., Hurricanes, Messerschmitts and Heinkels in this great film. Never forget the heros on both sides who gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy today.
As a schoolboy living in Kent at the time of filming, we kids who's parents had lived through the war got really excited as aircraft from the film flew over our junior school. As they regularly did. One day we were out playing cricket and planes were flying over, distracting us from our game, to the point where the teacher abandoned the game and all just watched the action. We all thought it was fantastic. Best sports lesson ever.
@@denishoulan1491 I live in Kent now, the sound and sight of a single Spitfire flying overhead is still as thrilling and moving as the first time I saw one. Thanks for sharing your memory!
One of my favorites ever since its release. It could not ever be recreated in what is now the 21st century. One of the reasons I only watch older movies.
I remember the first time the film was shown on British TV - some time in 1976 or 1977. I was only six or seven years old and my dad let me stay up late to see it. It was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen - and Star Wars, which I saw about a year later, paled slightly in comparison. Also, how good it is to see Mike in his prime.
The star wars battle scenes were based on Battle of Britain dogfights and the run down the trench to torpedo the death stars reactor was taken from the dam busters
My favourite war film. Thanks for posting. Taken to the 'Pictures' to see it around 1970 with my dad. Had the pleasure of meeting and doing some work with John Richardson who worked on this as his first film with his dad Cliff on the SfX. He Went on to win an Oscar for SfX on Aliens and multiple nominations for the Harry Potter franchise.. Lovely gentleman.
I love this film, when it came out i went to the cinema every day for the 1st showing every day and stayed it end of the last showing ( you could in them days).I've got this film on video, DVD, and saved on my sky box, i watch it about 4 times a year. I've seen the film so many times that i says the words before the actor's do drives my wife mad. Rip all the young men OF BOTH SIDES,
Love it. So close to home. Two of my New Zealand Uncles flew in the Battle of Britain. Both were Squadron Leaders. Of course No 2 was Air Vice Marshall Parkes. My third Uncle, Matt, joined in 1943. He was killed in March 1944 over Italy. NZ made a huge contribution, considering we were a tiny country and so far away.
Commentary spoken by Michael Caine. What more can you say. 28:05 In 1968 - 9, I was living in Kent and remember (vaguely) an item on Scene South East (the Friday night local news programme), or in the paper, about explosions up on the Dover cliffs at RAF Swingate made for the purposes of filming. In those days they still had all four of Chain Home's 350 foot steel towers and apparently the 240 foot high wooden ones too, although the exact location shown isn't clear. In the film Ventnor is mentioned of course. Readers may not be aware that one of the results of the film was the beginning of the restoration of WW2 military aircraft, which has since developed into a multi-million pound industry.
The pylon scene was shot at the old wartime emplacement access road up the end of the Old Folkestone Road just before the Lydden Spout Ranges .It is still there and it became the access road for the main road to the tunnel site.
As the son of a post-war fighter pilot, like many of you commenting here I have had such a fascination and love for this wonderful movie and document. The dedication to historical accuracy and detail is extraordinary. Forgive me if already mentioned, but looking back on a movie-making age where CGI didn’t exist, seeing EVERYTHING done practically and in real life, on such a huge scale, is a thing of wonder and wow what an extraordinary feat of determination and organisation! That the film stands up so well in 2024, in the wake of effects-laden modern blockbusters that attempt to create/re-create aerial combat of the time (I’m thinking the likes of ‘Red Tails’, ‘Masters Of The Air’ and others), is just such a testament to Guy Hamilton’s vision and the dedication of the craftspeople and pilots that made ‘The Battle Of Britain’ all those years ago.
The cameraman for the second film unit, Jack, gave a talk some years ago to amateur film makers in Gloucester. The full sized mock up of a German bomber was suspended on a cable and then slid down to crash into the radar tower. The mock up was destroyed and could not be used for any other shots. A helicopter, with side door open, for another cameraman filming out of the open door provided the shot from the bomber point of view which could then be intercut. Apparently that cameraman insisted that he would not be strapped in.
Let us not forget the Germans were veterans who took part in the war in Europe. The Air Force lads who went up against these Germans were young lads 20 years old maybe and barely out of flying training. I cannot imagine the fear these young lads went through the real chance of being shot to pieces at any moment your plane bursting into flames . Death coming from any angle closing speeds of 800 mph it is impossible to know what they went through. I hope they are all in heaven at rest God bless them all. Real Hero's. I know the army and navy lads went through the same thing but they were surrounded by their mates. These young pilots were alone in a cockpit facing death at any moment. Brave young lads.
No...Germans had it worse. They HAD a trained corps of pilots, but the new ones were just as unprepared as the Allies, and there weren't as many, and they weren't being replaced. 109s had 10 minutes over London, before abandoning the bombers to their fate. I'm not defending N@zism; I'm thrilled they lost utterly, but I can't stand rampant Hyperbole. Check your facts.
I totally disagree.The british were low on pilots and fighters.By the way,the bombers had escorts to,which made it ever harder to shoot down the bombers.That is the FACTS.
Life expectancy of an RAF Battle of Britain pilot was 4 weeks. It took six months to train a pilot in the early days of the war and we were losing them at an unsustainable rate. Despite that there was never a shortage of volunteers. The Germans too were increasingly reliant on replacement crews, the experienced crews being killed relatively early on in the Battle of Britain (and, of course, operating at the limits of their range over enemy territory).
I am Brittas boyfriend, and german. In 1930s Germany the Gouvernement supported glider sport with much money, to win young men/ teenagers for Luftwaffe. In my homeregion glider sport has a long tradition, glider sport pioneer Wolf Hirth lived here. At Teck mountain you still can see the relicts of a glider lift !
" I want to be one of the few!", "Sorry, we have far too many" Only the English would dare say that joke, with reverence. It also set the course for today's aircraft. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I was born in late September 1940 and, by the end of the war, I was going to school. My Dad joined up the day after war was declared, He brought an indoor Andersen shelter into our front room, placed two mattresses inside, and there we slept at night, we three brothers, my Mother and my Grandma, for nearly four years. I can remember the barrage balloons, and think I can recall a bombing raid on Newcastle, but cannot be certain. I reckon the film producer and director did more than a first class job, and the Battle was real, and we came through. Looking back, I reckon we have been betrayed by lousy, gutless politicians of al colours, because the Britain I knew is definitely not the Britain of today.
I am german. I had a coworker born in 1945 Ruhrgebiet. He , I don' t know If he is still allive. He was angry about Allied pilots- they tried to kill him.
@@Grandpa600 :He not. And: There was a warcriminals trial at Nürnberg. Strangely no Allied soldier , politician etc. was punished. Who created Versailles Treaty and gave Hitler his best Propaganda tool? You have forgotten something. The switch to Democraty 1918/19 gave the german people no better life than before 1914. The people stayed as poor as they had been before. There had been from 1919 to 1923: Hitlerputsch, Communist uprisings in Saxony, Ruhrgebiet, in Silesia polish insurgents tried to terrorize German Population to grab land and use the weakness of Germany for making Poland greater. In 1923 a Hyperinflation stole away the few saved Money the mostly poor German people Had. Well, then came , Golden Twenties '- golden for whom? Upperclass! Then in 1929 economic crisis starting in USA, causing a terrible situation here. My grandmother ( 1910 to 1995) allways told me, when she spoke of her life before late 1950: We allways had No Money! And how poor Life was. To the time of late 1920s/ early 1930s, she was about 20 then , she told me, it was a bad time. Lots of beggars went throug the village , her mother Had been dead ( stroke) , her father Had nearly No income, but helped the beggars when possible - until she was nearly raped by such a beggar. My grandmother often said , that she didn't liked violence, but there had been Lot of violence between the supporters of different political Parties, not only the Nsdap with their SA had an ,armed wing', for example the communists had their,Roter Frontkämpferbund' ( Red Frontfighters Federation). Most of the villages Had been Lutheran/ Protestant, but for historical reason, there was a single catholic Village, so there was violence for religious reason too. So If german Democraty would have had a better start ( not the uprisings in early Years, not the reparations which among other things caused the noed hyperinflation, and Not the Hate Treaty of Versailles ( the french Had after Napoleon No loss of territory, colonies, reparations and demillitarisation, and Napoleon caused German nationalsm), a person Like Hitler would have been Not sucessfull. Currently we have again the rise of a right party here- but the other Parties claim: The rise of this party is not our fault! Realy? Who governed the country for the last decades?
@@brittakriep2938 We have a saying in England which goes "Methinks he doth protest too much". That saying is partially taken from one of Shakespeare's plays; but I believe that it applies to the previous commenter. The claim is that all German troubles started when the Allies dropped the Versailles Treaty on Germany after the war which Germany had started, and of course, had lost. The reparations did damage Germany, but is Britta seriously alleging that six million Jews had to die because of a Treaty which punished Germany? That Germany was pushed into invading all of Western Europe because the Versailles Treaty was just plain nasty? Is Britta claiming that Germany was forced into bombing London for fifty-three consecutive days because the Treaty was too, harsh? Is Britta claiming that Hitler was forced to send an Army of twenty divisions into Russia, burning and raping as they moved, because of a Reparations Treaty. There were only Germans on trial at Nuremberg, because the Germans had done their very best to wipe out the Jews within Continental Europe.; amongst many other crimes too numerous to list.
@@brittakriep2938 "Silesia polish insurgents tried to terrorize German Population to grab land and use the weakness of Germany for making Poland greater." POLISH freedom fighters against the ratbag German expansionist thieving tyrants. Between the 11th and 17th centuries, Silesia was in turn a province of Poland, a series of independent duchies, a land of the crown of Bohemia, and part of the Habsburg monarchy. Silesia entered the historical record as a province of the kingdom of Poland, in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession and subsequently made the Prussian Province of Silesia. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany invaded Polish parts of Upper Silesia. Jews were subject to genocide in the Holocaust, while German plans towards Poles involved ethnic cleansing and biological extermination. My fathers older brother was conscripted by the evil German aggressor and died in bloody Russia. Farther after fighting the rear guard at Dunkirk joined RAF Polish bomber squadron and bombed the crap out of you lot. Every one suffered in the 20’s and 30’s, rich sods aside, you were not alone. Starting a war over land that you lost which was NOT yours was STUPID. You can’t deny that.
Ive been in the presence of a few of these young heroes, even the German ace Gunther Rall. All i know is i just felt overwhelmed with respect. I was at Capel-le-Ferne 2017 for a Battle of Britain service, my wife and i huddled against a marquee type tent sheltering against the wind and rain. Inside the tent was a few voices having a great time, laughing and chattering. Then the tent opened an half a dozen or so veterans appeared. Hiding there faces from the rain they looked directly at me, i hesitantly said " good morning " to which one replied " yes wonderful, bloody weather ". The rest of them walked off chuckling haha, Honestly it made my day! So if you ever get the chance to visit Capel-le-Ferne now, its a wonderful memorial.
^^^ On the day I went there I took my Wife & kids - Not much for them to see or do, yet, they were VERY respectful. I remarked to my wife that 'they' also had a copy of (my) "Duel of Eagles" print, which my Mum paid £7.95 for (!) Also I was impressed by the Stuka being chased by a Hurricane "Weather Vane" - wish I had one like it, too I love Kent, always have, always will : But it's been "destroyed" now by immigrants in a turn of sour irony I do SO wish I could go back to the days of 1960's-2000ad before it all went so rapidly downhill Used to pass Capel Le Ferne dozens & dozens of times, coming back from the Channel in a Scania H.G.V But even mass immigrants "ruined that", trying to perpetually climb on board OUR truck (£2,000 fine per man) In 2001 I even had to physically fight-off a group of 14-20 who tried to pull the same stunt, refuelling @ Calais Lastly : I saw THIS 1968 Film TWICE during it's cinematic release = The queues WERE so horrendous during the first 2,3,4 days, that we drove home 2-nights in succession & waited till the following week, until the queues calmed down & I have NEVER seen or witnessed anything like that in my entire life, either before or since. I still do have the 1968 Film annual AND the magazine that was sold INSIDE the cinema screen theatre itself** ** ( sold INSIDE by the usherette rather than outside in the Foyer, where you'd usually expect it to be )
I was lucky enough to be learning to fly at Cambridge on an ATC Flying Scholarship in 1968 when this was being made. At the time they were using Duxford as a base and as we were getting the planes out each morning we would often see squadrons passing overhead, it used to make your hair stand on end! Sometimes during the day you would find a 109 on your tail as they had got lost and used us to get a bearing on Cambridge as Duxford was only about 5mins away. The best summer of my life! Geoff Smythe was the CFI if anyone remembers him?
lol. Makes you jump when you're not expecting them. They used to fly really close, once they got the bearing they put on full power and waggled their wings as a "thank you" as they passed.@@Gunit-_-69
Thanks for this upload born in 88 and grew up watching this film daily never seen this doc before and the work to go into one of the finest war films ever to be priduced
So much better than CGI, the 109s with Merlins look a little goofy but still better than the CGI WWII planes going 1200 MPH and shooting 15000 rounds of ammunition.
Such replication today is not possible. We only have to deal with computer generated effects. I have a difficult time watching today’s movies with artificial effects.😢
My grandmother and toddler age mother lived through the Blitz in north London. After blitz period ended they moved out, renting out the house to a couple. A few months after the war ended my MIA grandfather returned they had to go through the courts to repossess the house when the tenants refused to vacate.
Good evening. I came across this today looking for the 16mm film my father shot for the documentary of the making of the BoB film. This is it, cameraman Pat Wood was my father. It was shot on Kodachrome stock on Arriflex cameras with Zeiss lenses. As a child I went with him to some of the shoots at Pinewood to watch the filming of the BoB film. I was given the balsa wood beams from the aircraft movement sequences for model making at home. The "beams" were about 4" section balsa painted brown! The shots of the bombers over London I watched as models on wires against an ariel shot of London and the stuka aircraft on wires attacking the radio stations. The full size models at Pinewood were impressive and I have the still photographs he shot of the lines of RAF and German aircraft aligned against each other at, I think, Duxford? He always enjoyed working with Michael Caine. So pleased to have found this. Simon Wood
Its interesting to 'look into' the background of the BoB film through this documentary. I've often wondered how the Confederate (Commemorative) Air Force got involved in the film. Well the late Connie Edwards and a few of his buddies wanted a few (actually 7-8) Hispano Buchons and ended up as extra pilots. Connie also picked up a Spit and a pile of parts. The actors were amazing. One minor actor that gained fame later uttered a famous line "Where have you been" "Swimming (in the Channel). Does anyone remember the saloon owner in TV series 'Deadwood' Ian McShane? This film is often attributed as the kickstarter to flying preservation of airceraft.
Fun fact. The Hurricane in the opening scene performing the victory roll to “ buck up the civilians” was owned by a man called Walter Deemer. The movie makers were desperate to find Hurricanes as much fewer were preserved compared to Spitfires. So they found Walt and his Hurricane out in farm country near Carman Manitoba, Canada. He refused to lend it unless he was allowed to fly it in the movie. So the Canadian military loaded the Hurricane into a C130 and flew it to England, and Walt got his wish. Or that’s how I remember it anyway.
I was born and raised in North Weald, an important sector base in 1940 and used as a location in the film. I remember my Dad - stationed at North Weald in the 50’s who married a local girl, my mum - taking me over to the airfield perimeter to watch the explosions. I was 6 and it’s a very vivid memory. Unsurprisingly, it’s my favourite film!
Such a remarkable film-the most realistic air war film and among the very best of all war films. As the son of a USAF fighter pilot, I was extremely interested in the air war of WW2, esp. the Battle and had read everything I could find about it in the late 1960s. I remember standing in line to see it after release in the summer of 1970 with my uncle while my dad was still in Vietnam. We soon moved to England for 3 years where I saw it several more times and could visit the Imperial War Museum. Over the years I have prob seen this film 40-50 times and have managed to bore my kids singing its praises -i.e. real planes and pilots, none of this CGI B.S. we have now with its inaccuracies and artificiality. Especially with the opening scene with the 109s attacking the French airfield- imagine a real fighter screaming across at 12 feet off the ground-unbelievable. I can't watch a current/recent air war film as a result-just too fake looking. Timing is everything- having the Spanish air force able to supply soon to be decommissioned 109s and 111s- albeit updated versions. Would have been nice to have a few Flying Pencils and Ju-88s, as well as real Stukas but the models were nice, and one can't really be too greedy or complain given what we ended up with! Thanks so much for sharing and bringing back the memories.
This documentary was first shown by ITV in the UK in 1968 the same year it was made..I first saw it when I hired it on 16mm from FDA's film library..The documentary was shot on 16mm film..
Back then the Brits understood what two world war was all about. The USA was never bomb and lots of people were against involvement. Same is happening today in the 21st century!
@@Gunit-_-69GREAT POINT.What must be understood is this.When satan whispers in mens ears and evil spirits are among and in and controlling people,he convinces men to do his bidding.He wants nothing but total destruction of the human race.Use hitler for a perfect example.For we dont fight against flesh and blood,but against principalities,against the evil in high places.When,and only when CHRIST comes back to reclaim the earth,will their be peace.The earth is in a holy war,and mankind is caught in the middle,but not for much longer.😊😊😊
20:20 - a Spaniard who fought alongside the Nazis, reminiscent of that recent debacle in the Canadian Parliament with the Ukrainian who also fought alongside the Nazis.
It's remarkable that when the film was released, it was generally panned by critics as being mediocre at best, and general sentiment in 1969 was not the most welcome time to release a war film. It was something like a $10 million loss. only in the last couple of decades has it become beloved as a feat of filmaking and passion for authenticity and getting the respect it deserves.
For so many aircraft to be assembled for the making of this film was an amazing achievement maybe never to be repeated. This gives a tremendous feeling of authenticity to it despite the compromises that had to be made. Ironically there are many more airworthy WW2 aircraft now than in 1968 with the exception of the Casa 2.111, Heinkel 111 stand in.
Absolutly brilliant upload. In 60 years i have missed this gem. I can't remember who, a german squadran leader and ace said to his men "If i hear of any of you shooting a parachutist i will shoot you myself." Unfortunatly a lot of pilots were more ss than german warriors who still had high morals.
No Hurricanes or Spitfires were damaged, hurt or destroyed making this film. I would have been 15 years old when taken to the cinema to watch the film. Which means I was born only 15 years after that war won. Nearly all the adults around me had some experience of the conflict; many still raw with the experience. Indeed, my mum's father was killed during the first weeks of the 'Phony War', well before the events depicted here. The film became quite cathartic for many who up until then had kept their wartime experiences quiet, unspoken. In some ways the film changed how the British regarded their own recent history. I recall my school hired the local 'flea pit' cinema each afternoon for a week so all the children got to see the movie. No popcorn in those days! Somehow I've never seen this excellent documentary. Fascinating to see many actors, so young at the time, mostly not with us now. A reminder that we don't need wars making people suffer and die. Time alone is the great leveler. That's a sad fact which eludes many, until they and their loved ones begin to fail and fall. Eventually we all try to make sure we don't trip and 'kick the bucket'. Do be kind and share your love with all you meet.
I was at school when they made the film, one day as we sat in a first story classroom, we heard a lot of aircraft looking up a formation of aircraft from the film flew over lowestoft. When the Film was released I went with my Father, ex RAF air gunner , to watch the film. the following year I joined the RAF, Two years later I joined the BBMF as ground crew. Taking my father to see some of the Spitfires and Hurricanes we sat and watched in the Film.
A RAF pilot who took part in the battle of Britain said about the battle after it was over "They lost it , we didn't win it" The Luftwaffe had them beaten and then eased off bombing airfields and started daylight raids over London costing them the battle
The Hurricane is such a beautiful aircraft! We must thank the fear Goering had for hitler.... and the very arrogance of hilter for not listening to Milch. BoB is an outstanding film!
Thanks for this.. the BoB film is one of my all time faves. As a Spitfire nut I have watched it countless times and know most of the dialogue by heart 😄 Getting all the aircraft together was an incredible achievement.. but I’m sure the battle would have been slightly different had they had MkIX Spits 😄👏🏼
I had a book about the making of the film The Battle of Britain, pretty much what this video is about, given to me by my sister for Christmas 1968. Sadly I got rid of it when I was travelling from Britain to overseas some 9 years later
One has to wonder, had this fim not been made, how those few desperate months would be remembered today. All the way back in September 1962, Noel Coward wrote this: "I have just come back from the Battle of Britain dinner given In the Shelbourne Hotel at 37th Street and Lexington Avenue in remembrance of those young men who saved, temporarily, the world. It was simple, dignified, sparsely attended and, to me, almost intolerably sad. Air Vice-Marshal Esplin made an excellent, British throwaway speech. The atmosphere for me, was thick with dreadful nostalgia. Those young men, so many of whom I knew, flew up into the air and died for us, and all we believed in has so changed that they really needn’t have died at all. It was all a nonsense. So incredibly brave, so beautiful and true and now 23 years later, it is remembered for one night in the year by a handful of people assembled in a New York hotel."
Very good doco on a great film I first saw in 1969 as a ten year old. It fired my imagination helped by my dad who spoke about his experiences being 14 year old teenager in Kent in 1940 watching the aerial battles overhead. He was machine gunned by an He 115 floatplane on a beach in 1940 and luckily only received a light wound to a foot. Four years later at 18 he joined the RAF as a trainee pilot commencing some training at Hawkinge, a well known BoB airfield - but with the war coming to an end, the powers at be realised they already had enough pilots in the system and his training came to an end along with everyone else on his course.
I lived in UK for many years and went to that excellent museum a number of times. Know doubt you have also been to Geoff Nutkins excellent Shoreham Aircraft Museum in Shoreham (not Shoreham-by-Sea which also has a museum/airshow).
My mother was plotter at Bentley Priory in 1940. In 2000 I was working at Marconi, might have been BAES by then at that Grove just around the corner. The local RAF association arranged a visit to the House and Dowding's office. Unfortunately not the bunker as then it was still in use. I went on the visit and took my mother a long and my father who was a Dunkerque evacuee. The famous letter from Dowding to Churchill is framed in Dowding' office, laid out as it was in 1940. Eighteen years later I took my mother to the Uxbridge Bunker and although not where she worked the staff were interested to meet a actual plotter from the Battle of Britain.
My God! I just re-watched The Battle of Britain last night, and was wondering if anyone had ever produced a "Making of..." about that movie. The aerial scenes were magnificent, something we will never again see in our lifetimes.
@@Gunit-_-69 Thank you for posting this. I know you can appreciate that "The Battle of Britain" is one of the finest WWII films ever produced, and your uploading this "Making of" video has gained you much admiration and appreciation!!!!
It was partly due to my seeing this film and the Dambusters when I was 10 that made my mind up to join the RAF as an aircraft fitter. I later also became a pilot. We owe so much to 'The Few'. Thank you to all those brave people and the fallen. " Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many - to so few" Winston Churchill.
Thank you so much for posting this. However did you get such a good copy. Watched over this recent Christmas 23/24 more by accident than design, this is just wonderful. Takes me back to going with a friend when this came out, so I guess 1970, 71 latest … only I’m onto old enough for that possibly to have happened 😮
I was at the site of the Stuka crash into the pylon, I was in the GPO and was up there and stayed whilst the scene took place, it was only a model dropping along a cable, the camera man was sitting in a cut back wooden crate with the explosion the other side. I was also at Hawkinge to see the spitfires there . I was 19 at the time.
For me, b o b is the most pivotal point of ww2, our army was still outmatched since Dunkirk, The royal Navy was still a formidable force, without the Allies gaining Air superiority, D day would have been even more of a challenge. Honour the few. 🇬🇧 🇳🇿 🇦🇺 🇨🇦 🇵🇱 🇫🇷
Got a right bolloking at the age of 10, for bunking school to bike up to Jersey Airport to watch some of the aircraft stage through from Spain. Worth it though !😆
Great choice of Michael Caine to do the narration but did anyone spot Anthony Armstrong Jones taking photos in the tube station? 44:00. He was princess Margarete's husband. Before that Group Captain Peter Townsend might have been her husband. A bit of a coincidence in this doc. 45:32
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Adolf Galland, the German ace served as advisor during the filming.
The late Prince William of Gloucester was photographed on the set and was supposed to have taken video if the on-set activities. Has anyone ever seen it?
Does anyone know if the ME109s at 5:20-5:32 actually flew that low?! Or any of the combat fighters back then actually flew that low? Or was that for dramatic effect for the movie? Cheers
Technical and military advisors fom the German side of the film were Lieutenant General Adolf Galland, Oberst Hans Brustellin and Major Franz Frodel. I miss them in this making of.. but i know whey they not there 🙊
My uncle was a Battle of Britain Pilot DFC who was one of the few. He was shot down and killed later in the war aged 22. When you think what they fought for and what we're now facing,and not a shot was fired and you'll know what I'm referring to.. R.I.P. to my uncle and all those brave Fighter Boys! 💐 ❤
When this was being filmed in the mid-60s I was actually in hospital close to North Weald air drome and the summer was like that of 1940 . I was undergoing physiotherapy , which we did outside , and I was laying on my back looking up at the skies with Allied and German aircraft practising their dog fights . Some years later I was lucky enough to fly in a glider with one of the Polish fighter pilots and a few years after that to fly , in Yorkshire , with one of the British fighter pilots , previously Squadron leader , James Lacy . Oh and by the way when my father was too young to serve in the Armed Forces he was in the home guard at North Weald air drome when it was severely bombed fortunately he managed to survive .
Seeing this and knowing the full story of World War II and World War 1 . Sad to see the state of Britain 🇬🇧 right now . Loved this film when I first say it , remembering in a mumbles junior school, playing in a playground with others , being a human spitfire 😂and it was bloody fun.
It would be interesting to see a remake of the film, but also include what preparation went on priory to the battle as that would make it a really exciting film to watch. Also W/C Clara Legge's comments about Uxbridge being the nerve centre of the operation for the battle is completely wrong, it was only the nerve centre for 11 Group, which patrolled the South East. The operational nerve centre for the RAF's Battle of Britain fight against the Germans, was at their Fighter Command HQ at Bentley Priory, which is now a museum telling the story of what "The One" Sir Hugh Dowding did upon becoming ACM, "The Few" and "The Many" including the WAAF's in the Filter & Operation rooms during the Battle of Britain.
Ironically this fine chap doing the narration also saw war, yes sir michael caine served in Korea 1952-54 he was called up for national service he served in a infantry regiment the Royal Fusiliers sent to germany and then sent to korea where he was station at the front line at this point the chinese had made their presence felt all along the front line by getting involved in the united nations peacekeeping mission a police mission, but it was a war in every sense of the word a brutally savage confrontation in a unforgening country in winter. michael caine years later in a podcast on ( Utube ) shares his experience when [he] for the first time was facing the Chinese soldiers in combat , when, the chinese army launched a massive night attack all along the front line he witnessed the mass killings of tremendously brave chinese, attack their position being cut down by british machine guns ,rifles , and artillery fire sweeping across the chinese soldiers trying to get passed british defences like barbed wire and Scythe down in huge numbers getting caught in the barbed wire entanglements and killed this like all wars affected him profoundly and has left its scars
Totally agree..........I was lucky enough to see some of the aerial shots being filmed. I lived near Haverhill, Suffolk and worked at Cambridge. My transport was a motor bike..........I parked up in a layby on what was then the A604, near Linton By-Pass, as I saw a Mitchell Bomber fly overhead...and then saw a lot of fighters.........quite a sight.
Leigh-Mallory (with Douglas Bader) and his Big Wings were a joke - took far too long to form up and hit the Germans as needed. Dowding was never given the credit and rewards he deserved for commanding the Battle of Britain, which was to Churchill's eternal shame.
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Dowding saved England but was dismissed thereafter. A shame.
Both he and Park were badly treated by the Whitehall establishment. Dowding was past retirement age so was "put out to pasture". Park was dumped in Malta.
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@@michaelmazowiecki9195 and the Polish pilots who fought so bravely and doggedly during the Battle of Britain were largely forgotten..... bloody foreigners ...
145 of them, 68 serving in British squadrons and 77 in the two Polish squadrons, 303 in 11 Group out of Northolt and 302 in 12 Group out of Duxford (part of Bader's Big Wing)
HE HAD TO KNOCK THE BRITISH OUT OF THE WAR ONE WAY OR THE OTHER , SO HE COULD MOPPED UP RUSSIA AND NORTH AFRICA, THE FAILURE WAS LOOSING THE BATTLE OF BRITTAN, OPERATION SEA LION WAS CANCELLED ,WERE WE WOULD OF SOON FALLEN BECAUSE HOW PATHETIC AND LOW MORAL OF THE TROOPS WOULD SOON BE OUT OF WEAPONS AND THE NATION LEFT TO GORILLA WARFARE, INSTEAD THEY LOST, SUPPLIES WERE BEING SENT TO RUSSIA, OUR PLANES AND TANKS DID HELP TO HARASS THE GERMAN TROOPS, UNTIL THE RUSSIAN GOT THE T34 AND KV1 DEVELOPED, THEN THEY LOST THE ATLANTIC SO NOW .UK WAS BEING USED TO SUPPLY MORE TO RUSSIA, NORTH AFRICA KICKING GERMANY OUT OF N.AFRICA, ITALY WHAT A SLOG THAT WAS AND NORMANDY NOE OF THIS WOULD OF HAPPENED IF THE POLS, BRITS ,CANADIANS, ECT DID NOT WIN THE AIR BATTLE
This documentory is better than the film. The special effect noises are better than the awful bomb sounds in the film itself, and just feels gritier. The flying is fantastic, and this documentory shows lots of quality sequences that were not in the film. Too much music in the film which is another reason this documentory seems more real. I feel this film could have been so much better. Its also interesting to see the terrible 1960s so called slum clearance scheme..Great for the blitz sequence, but they pulled streets and streets of good quality victorian and slightly later period houses down. . The ones that did survive are now worth a fortune. They was replaced by disastrous tower blocks, which have now been pulled down themselves..
When I saw this movie in 1969, I was a flying instructor in the RCAF on jets. The majority of the older pilots I worked with were WWII veterans. Over the years, I got to know a couple of Spitfire pilots, one of whom (Duke Warren), flew in the Battle of Britain, as well as the raid on Dieppe. His twin brother, Bruce, was killed in 1959, while testing a CF-100. In the late 1970s, Duke, retired as a Wing Commander, and was my neighbour for many years. The only time he would talk about the war, was after the Remembrance Day parade every year, after a few libations while at the Mess. The other veterans I worked with, and for, flew everything from Hurricanes, Tempests, Mosquitoes, to bombers ( Wellington, Halifax, and Lancaster). It was an amazing time. The RCAF Hurricane ace Stocky Edwards, also lived a long life in Comox, after retirement, and passed on in 2022.
I got to see a few of the ME-109s, that were used in this movie, fly at the Confederate Air Force field In Harlingen TX. ( in 1972.) While I was on exchange with the USAF, and based in Laredo, I was flying one of the 4 T-38s from our squadron that did the opening flypast at one of their big celebrations. Afterwards, we got the cooks tour of the museum, and watched the flying displays over the weekend. It was a once in a lifetime experience, getting to see all the old warbirds most of them in flying condition.
Sorry, for prattling on, but this video, brought back a lot of memories.. .
Great memories for you, thanks for sharing them!
Yes we owe the Canadians soldiers sailors and airman so much, to come all this way, from a safe Canada, God bless them. My wife,,, Londoner, uncle Reg Charlton, die with them on the Dieppe raid, he was 20, he is on the Portsmouth war memorial
I enjoyed reading your post Jock, Great men ❤
@@bryanbufton4358 Thanks for sharing.
@@ukqwerty999 Yes, and a lot of the time, it was just luck that got them through the first missions. My father in law, was shot down in North Africa in a Wellington, and was the only survivor. He was terribly burned, and it was a miracle he survived. It wasn't all glory.
I have watched this movie over and over 150 times plus over the years now being 60 years old I first watched it on a little black and white screen in the kitchen as a little boy and ever since love it and find something I missed , Thank you for the movie 👏👏🇦🇺
It was pleasing to see how accurate it is. Last week I watched the series "World on Fire" which wasn't too bad except the Hurricane pilots were taking off without their helmets and oxygen on while talking to each other! Those making movies and television series often have no idea how basic inaccuracies like that damage the reputation of the show. Bit like all the sprinkler heads going off in a building at the same time even though there's a fire only under one sprinkler.
To obtain all those aircraft for filming, thirty years after the war, was nothing short of miraculous. It is, quite literally an incredible spectacle.
The Messerschmidts 109 were Spanish aircraft made after the war according to German design.
They flew right over my house,I was 9 years old. What a sight!
@@thegoat11111 WW2 ended in 1945, but the Battle of Britain was 1940, so the film was actually 29 years later. Basically 30 years unless you’re a massive pedant.
@@thegoat11111 Whether he meant the battle or the war, or whether it was 25 or 30 years he still made a valid point which didn’t warrant your sarcastic reply.
@@Tony-yp7ok I will be the judge of whether or not a comment warrents my sarcastic reply. 🤡
There is a graveyard near my parents house in Buckinghamshire, where my father is buried. At the top of the hill there are some graves from the war. I noticed two graves next to each other sharing a surname, father and son. Don't recall the names. Son was a pilot officer, father was a squadron leader. No idea if they were in the same unit. I hope not. Both died in Summer 1940, the father a couple of months after his son.
Sad to see that even employees of the US Embassy, half a century ago, didn't know the difference between Britain and England - or that the USA didn't join WW2 until nearly a year and a half later.
(Yes, some Americans did join the RAF and fight - but they mostly had to pretend to be Canadian.)
It is nice that Dowding was alive when the film was made. His efforts deserved recognition.
Churchill treated him dreadfully - shame on Churchill.
@@lorenzbroll101 Churchill was a traitor.
@@Jeremy-y1t seek help.
@@alasdairblack393 Churchill was bribed by Cassel and Strakosch.
And it paints Leigh-Mallory as a backstabbing glory-grabbing arsehole which is, if anything, an understatement.
This was very special to view. I was just 8 years old when my Uncle took me to see this when it came out. Some of its scenes really haunted me. This film was epic for my elder's generation. When I began my military career in 1979 with the Canadian armed forces; "Battle of Britain day" was still an annually celebrated parade event. Together with this film and the Thame's television series "The World at War" which came out not long after, really propelled forward my interest in military history. Thanks to clips like this, that is sure to continue.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have The world at War series, ill see if i can upload it. Its been years since i last watched it.
Where has this gem been hiding since 1969? Battle of Britain is one of my favourite war films. Very authentic except for that doorbell!!
The Battle of Britain is an incredible Aerial battle and a classic movie.
The battle was irrelevant, and the film was a huge flop.
@Jeremy-y1t I'm a Historian how was the Battle of Britain irrelevant? Actually the film was a huge success.
@@LadyBlanche.888 The Battle of Britain was completely irrelevant as Hitler never intended to invade the UK. As soon as Stalin broke the pact on 28 June 1940 the OKW started preparing for Barbarossa.
The film received terrible reviews and lost $10 million worldwide, bankrupting Herschel Saltzman.
Also, the last of so many Spitfires and Hurricanes with real , although Spanish Merlin-engined Me-109s. Best War Movie ever.
I remember hearing an RAF veteran saying that a month after joining his squadron as a pilot officer, he was squadron commander as all his superiors had been killed.
Wow 🇦🇺🥹
How come he was still alive?
Better spacial awareness.@@marcelbork92
Quick promotion, but not in the way you would want it.
The Battle of Britain often seems to be remembered with more reverance and emotion in 2024 than it was years ago, perhaps owing to our better knowledge and understanding of the historical context.
An absolutely brilliant film. I remember going to the cinema with my parents when it was first released and still love watching it when it is aired on TV - although I do have my own copy, as well!! At the time the film was being made I was a teenager living near East Dean in Sussex, close to Beachy Head. On a number of occasions we were treated to flights of Spitfires overhead as they were filmed re-enacting the battle as the East Dean area was, back then, almost totally unchanged from how it was in the 1940s. Too many modern films are made using CGI planes and, however clever the technology is, they don't come close to the realism portrayed by those skilled pilots who flew Spits., Hurricanes, Messerschmitts and Heinkels in this great film. Never forget the heros on both sides who gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy today.
The Spitfires in the newest Dunkirk movie, how good do they look.
Absolutely correct 🇦🇺🇦🇺👏
the use of Spitfires mk1 was good to see especially as one had been rescued from the sands of Dunkirk.
The Germans didn't die for anyone's freedom
As a schoolboy living in Kent at the time of filming, we kids who's parents had lived through the war got really excited as aircraft from the film flew over our junior school. As they regularly did.
One day we were out playing cricket and planes were flying over, distracting us from our game, to the point where the teacher abandoned the game and all just watched the action.
We all thought it was fantastic. Best sports lesson ever.
@@denishoulan1491 I live in Kent now, the sound and sight of a single Spitfire flying overhead is still as thrilling and moving as the first time I saw one. Thanks for sharing your memory!
One of my favorites ever since its release. It could not ever be recreated in what is now the 21st century. One of the reasons I only watch older movies.
I remember the first time the film was shown on British TV - some time in 1976 or 1977. I was only six or seven years old and my dad let me stay up late to see it. It was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen - and Star Wars, which I saw about a year later, paled slightly in comparison. Also, how good it is to see Mike in his prime.
The star wars battle scenes were based on Battle of Britain dogfights and the run down the trench to torpedo the death stars reactor was taken from the dam busters
@@geoffrennox1840some of it for the trench run was 633 squadron flying down the flood with the guns I the rock walls echoing the trench run.
My favourite war film. Thanks for posting. Taken to the 'Pictures' to see it around 1970 with my dad. Had the pleasure of meeting and doing some work with John Richardson who worked on this as his first film with his dad Cliff on the SfX. He Went on to win an Oscar for SfX on Aliens and multiple nominations for the Harry Potter franchise.. Lovely gentleman.
I love this film, when it came out i went to the cinema every day for the 1st showing every day and stayed it end of the last showing ( you could in them days).I've got this film on video, DVD, and saved on my sky box, i watch it about 4 times a year.
I've seen the film so many times that i says the words before the actor's do drives my wife mad. Rip all the young men OF BOTH SIDES,
Love it. So close to home. Two of my New Zealand Uncles flew in the Battle of Britain. Both were Squadron Leaders. Of course No 2 was Air Vice Marshall Parkes. My third Uncle, Matt, joined in 1943. He was killed in March 1944 over Italy. NZ made a huge contribution, considering we were a tiny country and so far away.
@@francescahamilton6856 Great Post, you must be very proud as we all are...Gunit
@@Gunit-_-69 thanku we are.
Commentary spoken by Michael Caine. What more can you say.
28:05 In 1968 - 9, I was living in Kent and remember (vaguely) an item on Scene South East (the Friday night local news programme), or in the paper, about explosions up on the Dover cliffs at RAF Swingate made for the purposes of filming. In those days they still had all four of Chain Home's 350 foot steel towers and apparently the 240 foot high wooden ones too, although the exact location shown isn't clear. In the film Ventnor is mentioned of course.
Readers may not be aware that one of the results of the film was the beginning of the restoration of WW2 military aircraft, which has since developed into a multi-million pound industry.
The pylon scene was shot at the old wartime emplacement access road up the end of the Old Folkestone Road just before the Lydden Spout Ranges .It is still there and it became the access road for the main road to the tunnel site.
As the son of a post-war fighter pilot, like many of you commenting here I have had such a fascination and love for this wonderful movie and document.
The dedication to historical accuracy and detail is extraordinary. Forgive me if already mentioned, but looking back on a movie-making age where CGI didn’t exist, seeing EVERYTHING done practically and in real life, on such a huge scale, is a thing of wonder and wow what an extraordinary feat of determination and organisation!
That the film stands up so well in 2024, in the wake of effects-laden modern blockbusters that attempt to create/re-create aerial combat of the time (I’m thinking the likes of ‘Red Tails’, ‘Masters Of The Air’ and others), is just such a testament to Guy Hamilton’s vision and the dedication of the craftspeople and pilots that made ‘The Battle Of Britain’ all those years ago.
I never tire of watching the movie, as i never tire of people, taking the time to write a comment as yours. Thanks Tim!
The cameraman for the second film unit, Jack, gave a talk some years ago to amateur film makers in Gloucester. The full sized mock up of a German bomber was suspended on a cable and then slid down to crash into the radar tower. The mock up was destroyed and could not be used for any other shots. A helicopter, with side door open, for another cameraman filming out of the open door provided the shot from the bomber point of view which could then be intercut. Apparently that cameraman insisted that he would not be strapped in.
That was probably Skeets Kelly.
Let us not forget the Germans were veterans who took part in the war in Europe.
The Air Force lads who went up against these Germans were young lads 20 years old maybe and barely out of flying training.
I cannot imagine the fear these young lads went through the real chance of being shot to pieces at any moment your plane bursting into flames .
Death coming from any angle closing speeds of 800 mph it is impossible to know what they went through.
I hope they are all in heaven at rest God bless them all.
Real Hero's.
I know the army and navy lads went through the same thing but they were surrounded by their mates.
These young pilots were alone in a cockpit facing death at any moment.
Brave young lads.
No...Germans had it worse. They HAD a trained corps of pilots, but the new ones were just as unprepared as the Allies, and there weren't as many, and they weren't being replaced. 109s had 10 minutes over London, before abandoning the bombers to their fate. I'm not defending N@zism; I'm thrilled they lost utterly, but I can't stand rampant Hyperbole. Check your facts.
I totally disagree.The british were low on pilots and fighters.By the way,the bombers had escorts to,which made it ever harder to shoot down the bombers.That is the FACTS.
Life expectancy of an RAF Battle of Britain pilot was 4 weeks. It took six months to train a pilot in the early days of the war and we were losing them at an unsustainable rate. Despite that there was never a shortage of volunteers. The Germans too were increasingly reliant on replacement crews, the experienced crews being killed relatively early on in the Battle of Britain (and, of course, operating at the limits of their range over enemy territory).
I am Brittas boyfriend, and german. In 1930s Germany the Gouvernement supported glider sport with much money, to win young men/ teenagers for Luftwaffe. In my homeregion glider sport has a long tradition, glider sport pioneer Wolf Hirth lived here. At Teck mountain you still can see the relicts of a glider lift !
@@markpaul-ym5wg British fighter production overtook German production by June '40. Where are you getting YOUR facts?
" I want to be one of the few!", "Sorry, we have far too many" Only the English would dare say that joke, with reverence. It also set the course for today's aircraft. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I was born in late September 1940 and, by the end of the war, I was going to school. My Dad joined up the day after war was declared, He brought an indoor Andersen shelter into our front room, placed two mattresses inside, and there we slept at night, we three brothers, my Mother and my Grandma, for nearly four years. I can remember the barrage balloons, and think I can recall a bombing raid on Newcastle, but cannot be certain. I reckon the film producer and director did more than a first class job, and the Battle was real, and we came through. Looking back, I reckon we have been betrayed by lousy, gutless politicians of al colours, because the Britain I knew is definitely not the Britain of today.
I am german. I had a coworker born in 1945 Ruhrgebiet. He , I don' t know If he is still allive. He was angry about Allied pilots- they tried to kill him.
He should maybe remember who started that bloody war, and who bombed who first, before getting annoyed about Allied pilots trying to kill him.
@@Grandpa600 :He not. And: There was a warcriminals trial at Nürnberg. Strangely no Allied soldier , politician etc. was punished. Who created Versailles Treaty and gave Hitler his best Propaganda tool?
You have forgotten something. The switch to Democraty 1918/19 gave the german people no better life than before 1914. The people stayed as poor as they had been before. There had been from 1919 to 1923: Hitlerputsch, Communist uprisings in Saxony, Ruhrgebiet, in Silesia polish insurgents tried to terrorize German Population to grab land and use the weakness of Germany for making Poland greater. In 1923 a Hyperinflation stole away the few saved Money the mostly poor German people Had. Well, then came , Golden Twenties '- golden for whom? Upperclass! Then in 1929 economic crisis starting in USA, causing a terrible situation here. My grandmother ( 1910 to 1995) allways told me, when she spoke of her life before late 1950: We allways had No Money! And how poor Life was. To the time of late 1920s/ early 1930s, she was about 20 then , she told me, it was a bad time. Lots of beggars went throug the village , her mother Had been dead ( stroke) , her father Had nearly No income, but helped the beggars when possible - until she was nearly raped by such a beggar. My grandmother often said , that she didn't liked violence, but there had been Lot of violence between the supporters of different political Parties, not only the Nsdap with their SA had an ,armed wing', for example the communists had their,Roter Frontkämpferbund' ( Red Frontfighters Federation). Most of the villages Had been Lutheran/ Protestant, but for historical reason, there was a single catholic Village, so there was violence for religious reason too.
So If german Democraty would have had a better start ( not the uprisings in early Years, not the reparations which among other things caused the noed hyperinflation, and Not the Hate Treaty of Versailles ( the french Had after Napoleon No loss of territory, colonies, reparations and demillitarisation, and Napoleon caused German nationalsm), a person Like Hitler would have been Not sucessfull. Currently we have again the rise of a right party here- but the other Parties claim: The rise of this party is not our fault! Realy? Who governed the country for the last decades?
@@brittakriep2938 We have a saying in England which goes "Methinks he doth protest too much". That saying is partially taken from one of Shakespeare's plays; but I believe that it applies to the previous commenter. The claim is that all German troubles started when the Allies dropped the Versailles Treaty on Germany after the war which Germany had started, and of course, had lost. The reparations did damage Germany, but is Britta seriously alleging that six million Jews had to die because of a Treaty which punished Germany? That Germany was pushed into invading all of Western Europe because the Versailles Treaty was just plain nasty? Is Britta claiming that Germany was forced into bombing London for fifty-three consecutive days because the Treaty was too, harsh? Is Britta claiming that Hitler was forced to send an Army of twenty divisions into Russia, burning and raping as they moved, because of a Reparations Treaty. There were only Germans on trial at Nuremberg, because the Germans had done their very best to wipe out the Jews within Continental Europe.; amongst many other crimes too numerous to list.
@@brittakriep2938 "Silesia polish insurgents tried to terrorize German Population to grab land and use the weakness of Germany for making Poland greater."
POLISH freedom fighters against the ratbag German expansionist thieving tyrants.
Between the 11th and 17th centuries, Silesia was in turn a province of Poland, a series of independent duchies, a land of the crown of Bohemia, and part of the Habsburg monarchy. Silesia entered the historical record as a province of the kingdom of Poland, in the 11th and 12th centuries.
In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession and subsequently made the Prussian Province of Silesia.
During the Second World War, Nazi Germany invaded Polish parts of Upper Silesia. Jews were subject to genocide in the Holocaust, while German plans towards Poles involved ethnic cleansing and biological extermination.
My fathers older brother was conscripted by the evil German aggressor and died in bloody Russia.
Farther after fighting the rear guard at Dunkirk joined RAF Polish bomber squadron and bombed the crap out of you lot.
Every one suffered in the 20’s and 30’s, rich sods aside, you were not alone.
Starting a war over land that you lost which was NOT yours was STUPID.
You can’t deny that.
Ive been in the presence of a few of these young heroes, even the German ace Gunther Rall. All i know is i just felt overwhelmed with respect.
I was at Capel-le-Ferne 2017 for a Battle of Britain service, my wife and i huddled against a marquee type tent sheltering against the wind and rain. Inside the tent was a few voices having a great time, laughing and chattering. Then the tent opened an half a dozen or so veterans appeared. Hiding there faces from the rain they looked directly at me, i hesitantly said " good morning " to which one replied " yes wonderful, bloody weather ". The rest of them walked off chuckling haha, Honestly it made my day!
So if you ever get the chance to visit Capel-le-Ferne now, its a wonderful memorial.
^^^
On the day I went there I took my Wife & kids - Not much for them to see or do, yet, they were VERY respectful.
I remarked to my wife that 'they' also had a copy of (my) "Duel of Eagles" print, which my Mum paid £7.95 for (!)
Also I was impressed by the Stuka being chased by a Hurricane "Weather Vane" - wish I had one like it, too
I love Kent, always have, always will : But it's been "destroyed" now by immigrants in a turn of sour irony
I do SO wish I could go back to the days of 1960's-2000ad before it all went so rapidly downhill
Used to pass Capel Le Ferne dozens & dozens of times, coming back from the Channel in a Scania H.G.V
But even mass immigrants "ruined that", trying to perpetually climb on board OUR truck (£2,000 fine per man)
In 2001 I even had to physically fight-off a group of 14-20 who tried to pull the same stunt, refuelling @ Calais
Lastly : I saw THIS 1968 Film TWICE during it's cinematic release = The queues WERE so horrendous during the first 2,3,4 days, that we drove home 2-nights in succession & waited till the following week, until the queues calmed down & I have NEVER seen or witnessed anything like that in my entire life, either before or since.
I still do have the 1968 Film annual AND the magazine that was sold INSIDE the cinema screen theatre itself**
** ( sold INSIDE by the usherette rather than outside in the Foyer, where you'd usually expect it to be )
No aerial combat because of bad weather, which gave the pilots a breather.
I was lucky enough to be learning to fly at Cambridge on an ATC Flying Scholarship in 1968 when this was being made. At the time they were using Duxford as a base and as we were getting the planes out each morning we would often see squadrons passing overhead, it used to make your hair stand on end! Sometimes during the day you would find a 109 on your tail as they had got lost and used us to get a bearing on Cambridge as Duxford was only about 5mins away. The best summer of my life! Geoff Smythe was the CFI if anyone remembers him?
Im reminded of the Stan Boardman joke, are you sure they werent Fockers on your tail?😂
@@Gunit-_-69 No these fockers were in Messerschmitts
I remember reading that the production's fleet was reckoned to be something like the twentieth biggest air force in the world at the time of filming.
The 32nd I think but, either way, it was impressive! must have been terrifying in real life!@@chrisst8922
lol. Makes you jump when you're not expecting them. They used to fly really close, once they got the bearing they put on full power and waggled their wings as a "thank you" as they passed.@@Gunit-_-69
One of the greatest movies ever made about WW2, aviation and history.
I've just watched your video on the movie, great job!
Seen the film hundreds of times, fantastic upload. Than you!
Thanks for this upload born in 88 and grew up watching this film daily never seen this doc before and the work to go into one of the finest war films ever to be priduced
So much better than CGI, the 109s with Merlins look a little goofy but still better than the CGI WWII planes going 1200 MPH and shooting 15000 rounds of ammunition.
Such replication today is not possible. We only have to deal with computer generated effects. I have a difficult time watching today’s movies with artificial effects.😢
My grandmother and toddler age mother lived through the Blitz in north London. After blitz period ended they moved out, renting out the house to a couple. A few months after the war ended my MIA grandfather returned they had to go through the courts to repossess the house when the tenants refused to vacate.
Thankful to have a house intact no doubt...
Good evening. I came across this today looking for the 16mm film my father shot for the documentary of the making of the BoB film. This is it, cameraman Pat Wood was my father.
It was shot on Kodachrome stock on Arriflex cameras with Zeiss lenses.
As a child I went with him to some of the shoots at Pinewood to watch the filming of the BoB film.
I was given the balsa wood beams from the aircraft movement sequences for model making at home. The "beams" were about 4" section balsa painted brown!
The shots of the bombers over London I watched as models on wires against an ariel shot of London and the stuka aircraft on wires attacking the radio stations.
The full size models at Pinewood were impressive and I have the still photographs he shot of the lines of RAF and German aircraft aligned against each other at, I think, Duxford?
He always enjoyed working with Michael Caine.
So pleased to have found this.
Simon Wood
Great post and a wonderful connection to the movie, thank you Simon!....Gunit
Its interesting to 'look into' the background of the BoB film through this documentary.
I've often wondered how the Confederate (Commemorative) Air Force got involved in the film. Well the late Connie Edwards and a few of his buddies wanted a few (actually 7-8) Hispano Buchons and ended up as extra pilots. Connie also picked up a Spit and a pile of parts.
The actors were amazing. One minor actor that gained fame later uttered a famous line "Where have you been" "Swimming (in the Channel). Does anyone remember the saloon owner in TV series 'Deadwood' Ian McShane?
This film is often attributed as the kickstarter to flying preservation of airceraft.
Fun fact.
The Hurricane in the opening scene performing the victory roll to “ buck up the civilians” was owned by a man called Walter Deemer. The movie makers were desperate to find Hurricanes as much fewer were preserved compared to Spitfires. So they found Walt and his Hurricane out in farm country near Carman Manitoba, Canada. He refused to lend it unless he was allowed to fly it in the movie. So the Canadian military loaded the Hurricane into a C130 and flew it to England, and Walt got his wish.
Or that’s how I remember it anyway.
I remember that line also 🇦🇺👏
@@rob6543
Read the book First Light, or watch the mini movie of it.
Clips on RUclips.
I was born and raised in North Weald, an important sector base in 1940 and used as a location in the film. I remember my Dad - stationed at North Weald in the 50’s who married a local girl, my mum - taking me over to the airfield perimeter to watch the explosions. I was 6 and it’s a very vivid memory. Unsurprisingly, it’s my favourite film!
Very interesting documentary, if only to see a lot of the footage in the doco that did not make it into the cinema release.
I would love to see a restoration of this film with some of the deleted footage restored.
loved the movie and applaud the efforts behind the making of it, both action and film scores. And, most of all, thanks for the upload.
@@少川靖男 Thanks for your comment 👍
Such a remarkable film-the most realistic air war film and among the very best of all war films. As the son of a USAF fighter pilot, I was extremely interested in the air war of WW2, esp. the Battle and had read everything I could find about it in the late 1960s. I remember standing in line to see it after release in the summer of 1970 with my uncle while my dad was still in Vietnam. We soon moved to England for 3 years where I saw it several more times and could visit the Imperial War Museum. Over the years I have prob seen this film 40-50 times and have managed to bore my kids singing its praises -i.e. real planes and pilots, none of this CGI B.S. we have now with its inaccuracies and artificiality. Especially with the opening scene with the 109s attacking the French airfield- imagine a real fighter screaming across at 12 feet off the ground-unbelievable. I can't watch a current/recent air war film as a result-just too fake looking. Timing is everything- having the Spanish air force able to supply soon to be decommissioned 109s and 111s- albeit updated versions. Would have been nice to have a few Flying Pencils and Ju-88s, as well as real Stukas but the models were nice, and one can't really be too greedy or complain given what we ended up with! Thanks so much for sharing and bringing back the memories.
Thanks for the upload. I read the book some years ago which was brilliant.
Glad you enjoyed the video
This documentary was first shown by ITV in the UK in 1968 the same year it was made..I first saw it when I hired it on 16mm from FDA's film library..The documentary was shot on 16mm film..
Back then the Brits understood what two world war was all about. The USA was never bomb and lots of people were against involvement. Same is happening today in the 21st century!
What good is history if we dont learn from it.
@@Gunit-_-69GREAT POINT.What must be understood is this.When satan whispers in mens ears and evil spirits are among and in and controlling people,he convinces men to do his bidding.He wants nothing but total destruction of the human race.Use hitler for a perfect example.For we dont fight against flesh and blood,but against principalities,against the evil in high places.When,and only when CHRIST comes back to reclaim the earth,will their be peace.The earth is in a holy war,and mankind is caught in the middle,but not for much longer.😊😊😊
Tokyo fire-bombing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, plus countless others. Yup, Americans sure hate bombing people
20:20 - a Spaniard who fought alongside the Nazis, reminiscent of that recent debacle in the Canadian Parliament with the Ukrainian who also fought alongside the Nazis.
The moment they realised what fighting against the Russians in WW2 ment, priceless.
It's remarkable that when the film was released, it was generally panned by critics as being mediocre at best, and general sentiment in 1969 was not the most welcome time to release a war film. It was something like a $10 million loss. only in the last couple of decades has it become beloved as a feat of filmaking and passion for authenticity and getting the respect it deserves.
Another great point about this fantastic movie, thanks for your comment!....Gunit
For so many aircraft to be assembled for the making of this film was an amazing achievement maybe never to be repeated. This gives a tremendous feeling of authenticity to it despite the compromises that had to be made. Ironically there are many more airworthy WW2 aircraft now than in 1968 with the exception of the Casa 2.111, Heinkel 111 stand in.
Totally agree, thanks for taking time to comment!
Absolutly brilliant upload. In 60 years i have missed this gem. I can't remember who, a german squadran leader and ace said to his men "If i hear of any of you shooting a parachutist i will shoot you myself." Unfortunatly a lot of pilots were more ss than german warriors who still had high morals.
I could only suggest that it was Adolf Galland who said this, ill do some research when i have some time. Or maybe another viewer has the answer.
Im seeing it was Lt. Gustav Roedel.
Tell that to the Poles and Czechs(not that they didn't have good reasons to feel that way).
No Hurricanes or Spitfires were damaged, hurt or destroyed making this film.
I would have been 15 years old when taken to the cinema to watch the film.
Which means I was born only 15 years after that war won.
Nearly all the adults around me had some experience of the conflict; many still raw with the experience.
Indeed, my mum's father was killed during the first weeks of the 'Phony War', well before the events depicted here.
The film became quite cathartic for many who up until then had kept their wartime experiences quiet, unspoken.
In some ways the film changed how the British regarded their own recent history.
I recall my school hired the local 'flea pit' cinema each afternoon for a week so all the children got to see the movie. No popcorn in those days!
Somehow I've never seen this excellent documentary.
Fascinating to see many actors, so young at the time, mostly not with us now.
A reminder that we don't need wars making people suffer and die. Time alone is the great leveler.
That's a sad fact which eludes many, until they and their loved ones begin to fail and fall.
Eventually we all try to make sure we don't trip and 'kick the bucket'.
Do be kind and share your love with all you meet.
@@doronron7323 thanks for your great coment!
I was at school when they made the film, one day as we sat in a first story classroom, we heard a lot of aircraft looking up a formation of aircraft from the film flew over lowestoft. When the Film was released I went with my Father, ex RAF air gunner , to watch the film. the following year I joined the RAF, Two years later I joined the BBMF as ground crew. Taking my father to see some of the Spitfires and Hurricanes we sat and watched in the Film.
A RAF pilot who took part in the battle of Britain said about the battle after it was over "They lost it , we didn't win it" The Luftwaffe had them beaten and then eased off bombing airfields and started daylight raids over London costing them the battle
The Hurricane is such a beautiful aircraft!
We must thank the fear Goering had for hitler.... and the very arrogance of hilter for not listening to Milch.
BoB is an outstanding film!
dozy yanks.... "I work for the Embassy and can't comment"....!!!!
I was 10yrs old ,and lived at saffron walden ,nr to duxford so watched the film being made.its my favorite film.
I stayed in Saffron Walden 20 years ago, Flying Legends weekend
This is amazing footage. Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@freedomzvision Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for this.. the BoB film is one of my all time faves. As a Spitfire nut I have watched it countless times and know most of the dialogue by heart 😄
Getting all the aircraft together was an incredible achievement.. but I’m sure the battle would have been slightly different had they had MkIX Spits 😄👏🏼
I had a book about the making of the film The Battle of Britain, pretty much what this video is about, given to me by my sister for Christmas 1968. Sadly I got rid of it when I was travelling from Britain to overseas some 9 years later
You never lost the memorie of that book! Thanks for your comment 👍
One has to wonder, had this fim not been made, how those few desperate months would be remembered today.
All the way back in September 1962, Noel Coward wrote this:
"I have just come back from the Battle of Britain dinner given In the Shelbourne Hotel at 37th Street and Lexington Avenue in remembrance of those young men who saved, temporarily, the world. It was simple, dignified, sparsely attended and, to me, almost intolerably sad. Air Vice-Marshal Esplin made an excellent, British throwaway speech. The atmosphere for me, was thick with dreadful nostalgia. Those young men, so many of whom I knew, flew up into the air and died for us, and all we believed in has so changed that they really needn’t have died at all. It was all a nonsense. So incredibly brave, so beautiful and true and now 23 years later, it is remembered for one night in the year by a handful of people assembled in a New York hotel."
Very good doco on a great film I first saw in 1969 as a ten year old. It fired my imagination helped by my dad who spoke about his experiences being 14 year old teenager in Kent in 1940 watching the aerial battles overhead. He was machine gunned by an He 115 floatplane on a beach in 1940 and luckily only received a light wound to a foot. Four years later at 18 he joined the RAF as a trainee pilot commencing some training at Hawkinge, a well known BoB airfield - but with the war coming to an end, the powers at be realised they already had enough pilots in the system and his training came to an end along with everyone else on his course.
@@marknelson5929 Hawkinge has a great museum, I now live in Kent and its one of my yearly days out. Thanks for sharing your memories.
I lived in UK for many years and went to that excellent museum a number of times. Know doubt you have also been to Geoff Nutkins excellent Shoreham Aircraft Museum in Shoreham (not Shoreham-by-Sea which also has a museum/airshow).
My mother was plotter at Bentley Priory in 1940. In 2000 I was working at Marconi, might have been BAES by then at that Grove just around the corner. The local RAF association arranged a visit to the House and Dowding's office. Unfortunately not the bunker as then it was still in use. I went on the visit and took my mother a long and my father who was a Dunkerque evacuee. The famous letter from Dowding to Churchill is framed in Dowding' office, laid out as it was in 1940. Eighteen years later I took my mother to the Uxbridge Bunker and although not where she worked the staff were interested to meet a actual plotter from the Battle of Britain.
My God! I just re-watched The Battle of Britain last night, and was wondering if anyone had ever produced a "Making of..." about that movie. The aerial scenes were magnificent, something we will never again see in our lifetimes.
@@nobodyknows3180 glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching.
@@Gunit-_-69 Thank you for posting this. I know you can appreciate that "The Battle of Britain" is one of the finest WWII films ever produced, and your uploading this "Making of" video has gained you much admiration and appreciation!!!!
@@nobodyknows3180 thanks for your kind words :)
It was partly due to my seeing this film and the Dambusters when I was 10 that made my mind up to join the RAF as an aircraft fitter. I later also became a pilot. We owe so much to 'The Few'. Thank you to all those brave people and the fallen. " Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many - to so few" Winston Churchill.
Thank you so much for posting this. However did you get such a good copy. Watched over this recent Christmas 23/24 more by accident than design, this is just wonderful. Takes me back to going with a friend when this came out, so I guess 1970, 71 latest … only I’m onto old enough for that possibly to have happened 😮
I was at the site of the Stuka crash into the pylon, I was in the GPO and was up there and stayed whilst the scene took place, it was only a model dropping along a cable, the camera man was sitting in a cut back wooden crate with the explosion the other side. I was also at Hawkinge to see the spitfires there . I was 19 at the time.
What a memory! in fact 2 !!
My dad worked for Fords and remembers seeing loads of aircraft flying up the Thames during filming.
@@Cyberdyne-kg8ku lucky dad !
And Susanah York delivers the ultimate line " Dont shout at me Mr York"
Mine is "flood the cowling, plenty of it" every time i make a sandwich :)
@@Gunit-_-69 yep I understand that.
For me, b o b is the most pivotal point of ww2, our army was still outmatched since Dunkirk, The royal Navy was still a formidable force, without the Allies gaining Air superiority, D day would have been even more of a challenge. Honour the few. 🇬🇧 🇳🇿 🇦🇺
🇨🇦 🇵🇱 🇫🇷
Hitler said (probably after Dunkirk but before the Battle of Britain) "The British have lost the war but they haven't yet noticed it".
Very interesting. Thanks for the vid
@@Stannington your welcome.
Got a right bolloking at the age of 10, for bunking school to bike up to Jersey Airport to watch some of the aircraft stage through from Spain. Worth it though !😆
Some things just need doing! 😅.... Gunit
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Fascinating thank's for sharing 🙏❤️
Great choice of Michael Caine to do the narration but did anyone spot Anthony Armstrong Jones taking photos in the tube station? 44:00. He was princess Margarete's husband. Before that Group Captain Peter Townsend might have been her husband. A bit of a coincidence in this doc. 45:32
Adolf Galland, the German ace served as advisor during the filming.
The late Prince William of Gloucester was photographed on the set and was supposed to have taken video if the on-set activities. Has anyone ever seen it?
Does anyone know if the ME109s at 5:20-5:32 actually flew that low?! Or any of the combat fighters back then actually flew that low? Or was that for dramatic effect for the movie? Cheers
@@brookt3497 yup, they did fly that low. I believe the pilots were from the Confederate Air Force, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
" The 35th largest air force in the World had been assembled for the film"..
Wow a 1000 views, Happy New year and thank you 😊
Technical and military advisors fom the German side of the film were Lieutenant General Adolf Galland, Oberst Hans Brustellin and Major Franz Frodel. I miss them in this making of.. but i know whey they not there 🙊
Remember laying on the playing field at Bottisham village college watching the simulated dog fights
Great review of the1969 film.
My uncle was a Battle of Britain Pilot DFC who was one of the few. He was shot down and killed later in the war aged 22. When you think what they fought for and what we're now facing,and not a shot was fired and you'll know what I'm referring to.. R.I.P. to my uncle and all those brave Fighter Boys! 💐 ❤
Yup, we all know what you mean. Thanks for sharing your personal story, R.I.P. Your Uncle x
@@Gunit-_-69 Thank you! ❤️
When this was being filmed in the mid-60s I was actually in hospital close to North Weald air drome and the summer was like that of 1940 .
I was undergoing physiotherapy , which we did outside , and I was laying on my back looking up at the skies with Allied and German aircraft practising their dog fights .
Some years later I was lucky enough to fly in a glider with one of the Polish fighter pilots and a few years after that to fly , in Yorkshire , with one of the British fighter pilots , previously Squadron leader , James Lacy .
Oh and by the way when my father was too young to serve in the Armed Forces he was in the home guard at North Weald air drome when it was severely bombed fortunately he managed to survive .
Great to watch behind the scenes!
Thanks once again for viewers, the thumbs up, and to the people who have subscribed!
Got a chuckle from the four older ladies with their glasses of tea (grins)
Seeing this and knowing the full story of World War II and World War 1 . Sad to see the state of Britain 🇬🇧 right now . Loved this film when I first say it , remembering in a mumbles junior school, playing in a playground with others , being a human spitfire 😂and it was bloody fun.
I can hear the school boy machine gun now haha, nice memories 👌
Superb film
It would be interesting to see a remake of the film, but also include what preparation went on priory to the battle as that would make it a really exciting film to watch. Also W/C Clara Legge's comments about Uxbridge being the nerve centre of the operation for the battle is completely wrong, it was only the nerve centre for 11 Group, which patrolled the South East. The operational nerve centre for the RAF's Battle of Britain fight against the Germans, was at their Fighter Command HQ at Bentley Priory, which is now a museum telling the story of what "The One" Sir Hugh Dowding did upon becoming ACM, "The Few" and "The Many" including the WAAF's in the Filter & Operation rooms during the Battle of Britain.
Cool find!
Ive had this 25 years, im going through my collection and will upload some more unique content.
Ironically this fine chap doing the narration also saw war, yes sir michael caine served in Korea 1952-54 he was called up for national service he served in a infantry regiment the Royal Fusiliers sent to germany and then sent to korea where he was station at the front line at this point the chinese had made their presence felt all along the front line by getting involved in the united nations peacekeeping mission a police mission, but it was a war in every sense of the word a brutally savage confrontation in a unforgening country in winter.
michael caine years later in a podcast on ( Utube ) shares his experience when [he] for the first time was facing the Chinese soldiers in combat ,
when, the chinese army launched a massive night attack all along the front line he witnessed the mass killings of tremendously brave chinese, attack their position being cut down by british machine guns ,rifles , and artillery fire sweeping across the chinese soldiers trying to get passed british defences like barbed wire and Scythe down in huge numbers getting caught in the barbed wire entanglements and killed
this like all wars affected him profoundly and has left its scars
Great post, thanks for taking the time!
Camping on the cliff tops at st magarets bay kent when several me 109s flew over low chased by some hurricanes or spitfires.
where did Quartermass and the Pit come in to it?. Read "Spitfire on my Tail" by Ulrich Steinhilper- He didn't seem to like Galland.
One of the greatest film ever made
Totally agree..........I was lucky enough to see some of the aerial shots being filmed. I lived near Haverhill, Suffolk and worked at Cambridge. My transport was a motor bike..........I parked up in a layby on what was then the A604, near Linton By-Pass, as I saw a Mitchell Bomber fly overhead...and then saw a lot of fighters.........quite a sight.
A stirring speech by Churchill at 6:33 ............. compare/contrast with the state of Britain today in 2024?
Old Micheal Caine didn't switch on vsync for his filming.
My last summer at school, we saw the batter battle of Britain at the cinema that was last day at school. It was my last summer before I left school.
Leigh-Mallory (with Douglas Bader) and his Big Wings were a joke - took far too long to form up and hit the Germans as needed. Dowding was never given the credit and rewards he deserved for commanding the Battle of Britain, which was to Churchill's eternal shame.
Dowding saved England but was dismissed thereafter. A shame.
Both he and Park were badly treated by the Whitehall establishment. Dowding was past retirement age so was "put out to pasture". Park was dumped in Malta.
@@michaelmazowiecki9195 and the Polish pilots who fought so bravely and doggedly during the Battle of Britain were largely forgotten..... bloody foreigners ...
145 of them, 68 serving in British squadrons and 77 in the two Polish squadrons, 303 in 11 Group out of Northolt and 302 in 12 Group out of Duxford (part of Bader's Big Wing)
what would they think of today strangers in boats landing in kent we dont know who they are
WE THANK THOSE WHO TOOK PART AND DIED DOING SO FOR KEEPING US IN THE FIGHT AND ALIVE
@@THEFORBIDDENMAN-lk7of Amen
THANK YOU
@@THEFORBIDDENMAN-lk7of The battle was irrelevant as Hitler never intended to invade the UK.
HE HAD TO KNOCK THE BRITISH OUT OF THE WAR ONE WAY OR THE OTHER , SO HE COULD MOPPED UP RUSSIA AND NORTH AFRICA, THE FAILURE WAS LOOSING THE BATTLE OF BRITTAN, OPERATION SEA LION WAS CANCELLED ,WERE WE WOULD OF SOON FALLEN BECAUSE HOW PATHETIC AND LOW MORAL OF THE TROOPS WOULD SOON BE OUT OF WEAPONS AND THE NATION LEFT TO GORILLA WARFARE, INSTEAD THEY LOST, SUPPLIES WERE BEING SENT TO RUSSIA, OUR PLANES AND TANKS DID HELP TO HARASS THE GERMAN TROOPS, UNTIL THE RUSSIAN GOT THE T34 AND KV1 DEVELOPED, THEN THEY LOST THE ATLANTIC SO NOW .UK WAS BEING USED TO SUPPLY MORE TO RUSSIA, NORTH AFRICA KICKING GERMANY OUT OF N.AFRICA, ITALY WHAT A SLOG THAT WAS AND NORMANDY NOE OF THIS WOULD OF HAPPENED IF THE POLS, BRITS ,CANADIANS, ECT DID NOT WIN THE AIR BATTLE
This documentory is better than the film. The special effect noises are better than the awful bomb sounds in the film itself, and just feels gritier. The flying is fantastic, and this documentory shows lots of quality sequences that were not in the film. Too much music in the film which is another reason this documentory seems more real. I feel this film could have been so much better. Its also interesting to see the terrible 1960s so called slum clearance scheme..Great for the blitz sequence, but they pulled streets and streets of good quality victorian and slightly later period houses down.
. The ones that did survive are now worth a fortune. They was replaced by disastrous tower blocks, which have now been pulled down themselves..
Interesting thoughts, thanks for taking the time to write your post!