13 Hours That Saved Britain

On one day in September, 1940,

the Battle of Britain reached its decisive moment.

Throughout the summer months,

Britain's Fighter Command had fought a desperate battle against the Luftwaffe.

As far as the planes were concerned,

we'd never seen anything like it.

It was just awesome.

It was… They were overhead. There were masses of them.

They had only got to come across the water, and they were here.

Everybody was in the front line. The civilians were in the front line.

Beneath the battle-ridden skies,

people from all walks of life became involved in the defence of Britain.

Age, situation, or circumstance was no barrier.

It was a time that this country was actually welded together

with one aim in mind, to defeat the aggressor.

Each day, they faced the grim realities of war.

The next thing he said, "Now I'm standing on me own."

"The other man's on the floor. He'd been bombed."

To me, as a child, it seemed extraordinary fun.

And then I glanced to the right,

and I saw this huge formation

of Spitfires and Hurricanes

making their way directly towards the formation of the bombers.

And it was just unbelievable to see so many aircraft.

Never seen so many aircraft.

One day of dramatic aerial combat

would now decide the fate of the nation.

The role of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain

was to destroy Fighter Command,

to gain air superiority to enable the invasion to take place,

to occupy Britain,

or to force us out of the war on Nazi terms.

This is the story of that day, 15th September, 1940,

and 13 hours that saved Britain.

Hitler's Nazi Germany dominates Europe.

His armed forces have swept across the continent,

crushing all opposition.

Of his enemies, only Britain remains undefeated.

The rest of Europe

was either in thrall to Nazi Germany

or had been conquered.

Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg.

These countries had fallen.

So, Germany was at the peak of his powers.

Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe,

believes that attacks by German Air Force alone

can bring Britain to its knees.

He has promised the Führer

that the Royal Air Force will be swept from the skies.

The German Air Force had concentrated on the Royal Air Force,

both in the air and on the ground, the fighter airfields.

Germans were flying what they term "free hunts",

A hundred, 150 fighters sweeping over southern Britain,

hunting out the Hurricane and Spitfires.

An instruction went out to our pilots not to engage these fighters

unless they were escorting bombers.

So, the myth started to grow

that the Royal Air Force was being depleted and defeated.

The following events take place between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.,

13 hours that proved a turning point in the war with Germany.

6:34 a.m.

Sunday dawns for a country that has lived in fear of invasion

for more than three months.

We had the Germans knocking at the door.

The Air Force had been overwhelmed.

They would have been in London within a week or so.

We couldn't have stopped it.

When France fell, we didn't think we had a chance.

I mean, they had only got to come across the water, and they were here.

We were very conscious of the fact that if we lost it…

I won't say the game was up,

but the battle, the war would have been fought on our territory.

I think to any outside observer, you'd think…

"Well, how can that small country survive against this might…"

"Organised might?"

I said to this old soldier…

"Tell me, what are we gonna do if the Germans come?"

He said, "If the Germans come, son, you will do what you're told."

Our sort of captain, Mainwaring Captain, was replaced,

and he used to finish each parade,

"Before I dismiss you, remember, boys, take no prisoners, shoot the bastards."

And your motto is: Kill the bosh!

And then, he'd go, with his revolver, "Kill, kill, kill."

It encapsulates the exact attitude of the British people at that time.

Britain's Air Defence network prepares itself for the 13 hours ahead.

The Air Defence of Great Britain was divided up into four fighter groups,

10 Group covering the Southwest,

11 Group, London and the South East,

12 Group, the Midlands, the East Coast,

and Number 13 Group, defending parts

of North East Scotland and Northern Ireland.

As the day begins, one squadron from each sector is brought to readiness.

The integrated Air Defence of the United Kingdom

is all down to the foresight of Sir Hugh Dowding.

When he took over Fighter Command,

he reorganised the Air Defence of the United Kingdom

into the group system.

The Germans had nothing like it,

and in fact, they just did not realise what they were up against.

8:02 a.m.

A lone German Heinkel bomber on a weather reconnaissance flight

flies westward along the English Channel.

Out of range of British fighters, its progress is monitored

by an innovation that is the cornerstone of Dowding's air defence system.

We had radar, which, of course, gave us eyes into the continent,

so we could see the build-up of aircraft,

and we could see the aircraft coming across, uh, towards the UK.

This would give us time to get the aircraft up off the ground

and into position to meet any given threat.

This information would go from the, uh, radar stations,

uh, to headquarters, Fighter Command.

It was filtered, passed to their operations room,

and then passed direct to the group.

They would place the plots on the table, and these were being tracked in by radar.

CH radar was entirely in the business of defence.

In other words, picking up bombers at 90 miles' range

before they ever started crossing the channel

or heading in our direction.

They were seen on the screen the moment they got up in the air.

The course flown by the lone Heinkel

eventually brings it within range of British fighters.

The controller of the day would watch this,

he would then alert whichever sector station he wanted.

The sector controller's job was to get his aircraft off the ground

to vector them towards the enemy formations.

The sector controller scrambles two Hurricanes from Exeter

to intercept the intruder.

None of its five-man crew survives.

They are the first casualties of the day.

For the people of South East England, increasingly accustomed

to living in the shadow of war,

it's a Sunday morning like many others.

But it will not be a day of rest for many.

…for hop-picking is around again,

and the family is setting out on its pilgrimage

to the green fields of Kent.

For some children,

it is the start of another day of a working holiday in the countryside,

far from the dangers of war.

We used to go to hop-picking the same farm every year in September.

Now, it was traditional to wait for…

We used to have two notifications,

about ten days before we actually went,

when Mum and Dad used to get a card saying, "We booked a bin and hut for you."

'Cause if you was agricultural workers,

at that time, 1940, you got extra rations.

Summer term of 1940,

attending Dartford Junior Technical College,

uh, and a notice came 'round

asking for volunteers to go fruit-picking in the coming autumn. Um…

Apparently, um, all accommodation, food would be provided, free of charge,

and we'd be paid for the work we did.

In the East End of London,

Mary Sterry is looking forward to a big family occasion.

My uncle was getting married.

We didn't know the girl he was getting married,

but we were told that she was a young actress.

We had been invited to the wedding.

My father, all us kids…

The one getting married, Uncle Tom, was only, um…

Was younger than my dad.

And they didn't want us to go, did they? But, oh, we went.

Herbert Hurry is getting ready to join his workmates

for a fund-raising football match.

I played a lot of football.

And, uh, in me time, I played at one or two decent grounds, but, uh,

yeah, they knew that at work.

But my foreman was a decent type,

and, uh, he said, "If you clean my car,

I'll let you off to play football."

We used to play down by Wormwood Scrubs

and attract a thousand people on a Sunday.

9:00 a.m.

While London stirs into life,

at bases in Occupied France,

Luftwaffe aircrews prepare their aircraft for a major attack,

one they expect to be decisive.

There was a meeting in The Hague in Holland headed by Hermann Goering.

At this meeting, the state of the Royal Air Force,

in particular, Fighter Command, was discussed.

German pilots were going back

claiming maybe they'd shot down 10, 20 Hurricanes and Spitfires.

In reality, only five.

The Germans believed that the Royal Air Force

was now on the verge of defeat,

and they mounted two major raids.

10:30 a.m.

Britain's air defences are on full alert.

But now, Air Vice Marshal Keith Park, commander of 11 Group,

receives unexpected news.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill has chosen today

to visit 11 Group's Command Centre.

In full view of the controller here at Uxbridge,

he could see the German forces assembling over the continent

before they cross the channel.

Churchill watches markers appear on the table,

indicating a build up of German bomber squadrons

making their way to rendezvous points over the French coast.

Starting from a few aircraft coming over the…

Or near England and the south and east coast,