Original subtitles

Narrator: It flies like an angel and fights like the devil.

Man: The spitfire is a combination of grace, beauty,

And yet potent killing power.

Narrator: It appears when the world needs a hero.

Man: People were very much prepared

To fight to the death.

Hitler had to be stopped at all costs.

Narrator: The spitfire charges into the breach

At britain's darkest hour.

Man: This is a desperate struggle for survival.

Narrator: It's a merciless fight with freedom in the balance.

Woman: By the summer of 1940,

This is a battle between good and evil.

And the spitfire is on the side of good.

Narrator: The spitfire soars to become a nation's champion

And the plane that saves the free world.

♪

[airplane roaring]

♪

May 1940, dunkirk, France.

[airplane roaring]

300,000 allied troops are trapped between german tanks

And the english channel.

[gunfire]

To save its army, the british have a single goal:

Rescue as many men as possible by sea.

With few trained pilots, the royal air force, or raf,

Faces a life-or-death challenge.

Steve darlow: The situation for the british troops

At dunkirk is dire.

Narrator: Steve darlow is an author and authority

On british air power in world war ii.

Darlow: The raf's mission at dunkirk

Is to protect their service colleagues

Congregating on the beaches,

Try and keep the luftwaffe outside of that perimeter.

If an enemy bomber gets to the beaches

And able to drop its ordnance, it's too late.

So, the raf have got to stop the luftwaffe

Getting there where men are congregating,

Where men are trying to get onto the ships.

Narrator: The germans and their air force, or luftwaffe,

Have steamrolled all opposition.

Darlow: In the two weeks prior to the evacuation at dunkirk,

The luftwaffe was having

Pretty much free rein of the skies.

But now they were coming up against a new adversary

In the spitfire.

The supermarine spitfire, historic and iconic aircraft.

Streamlined fuselage, the gracious lines,

The small tailfin, and the elliptical wing.

A beautiful design, but one of the deadliest aircraft

In the history of warfare.

[boom]

Narrator: The crisis had begun just two weeks earlier.

German troops blast through allied defenses,

Storming into northern France.

John mcmanus: May 10th to 20th, 1940,

Is a crucial period in the history of world war ii.

Narrator: John mcmanus is a professor of military history

At missouri university of science and technology.

Mcmanus: The germans succeeded

In slashing behind the allied front.

Narrator: The british army in France,

Known as the expeditionary force, retreats,

And the germans are on the verge of destroying them.

Mcmanus: So by the end of the day on may 20th,

There's the very strong possibility

That the entire british expeditionary force

Are gonna be cut off behind that german armored front.

Narrator: Leading the charge, germany's air force.

Mcmanus: One of the advantages the germans have

In the battle of France is certainly numbers of airplanes,

But also the qualitative edge of their pilots,

The experience many of them had had.

So it almost seemed as if the germans had cornered the market

On what was a cutting-edge aspect of warfare, air power.

Narrator: German dive bombers

Savage retreating british troops,

While their fighters, especially me 109s,

Blast allied planes from the sky.

The spitfire enters combat when britain needs her most.

Mcmanus: If the british expeditionary force

Is lost on the continent,

Britain will be more or less defenseless

Against any ground invasion.

Narrator: In late may, spitfire pilot robert stanford tuck

Has never been in combat,

But he's thrown into the heart of the fight.

Stanford tuck's mission:

Destroy any and all german planes near dunkirk.

Willy hackett: The morning of the 23rd of may,

Bob stanford tuck took off with his squadron

And headed to an area between dunkirk and boulogne

To set up a combat air patrol looking for enemy airplanes.

Narrator: Willy hackett is a test pilot

For the royal air force and an experienced spitfire pilot.

Hackett: They quickly sighted 50-plus enemy airplanes

And decided they were going to attack.

Whilst he was getting ready to make that attack, though,

He was taken by surprise

By some enemy messerschmitt 109 fighters.

Narrator: The germans have set a trap

And pounce on stanford tuck.

Hackett: He's got a messerschmitt behind him,

He needs to quickly turn the tables

On those german fighter pilots and try and gain advantage.

He flew his airplane hard,

He used the performance of the spitfire to turn tightly.

Narrator: In the hands of a skilled pilot

Like stanford tuck,

The agile spitfire has a tighter turning radius

Than the me 109.

Hackett: He quickly split up his formation,

Started to turn tightly,

And managed to get on the tail of the german messerschmitts

And shoot one down.

So what you're seeing here is the fighter pilot,

An aggressive fighter pilot

Who could quickly turn the tables on those messerschmitts,

Sat in a wonderful airplane, the spitfire,

That enabled him to do that.

Narrator: Stanford tuck makes his first kill

Against the luftwaffe's top fighter plane.

And that afternoon, he's racing back into the fray over dunkirk.

Hackett: So, bob stanford tuck is leading his airplanes

In formation at about 4,000 feet heading south near boulogne.

He looks up and sees three me 110s, 9,000 feet,

So above him already,

They already have the tactical advantage,

They're on the high ground, so to speak.

He starts climbing his formation up to meet these messerschmitts.

They come down to meet him, but he quickly sizes them up,

Flies his airplane very aggressively,

And swiftly gets behind a 110,

Manages to very quickly have a burst,

A quick short burst of gunfire,

Bits are seen to fly off the 110.

He sees that airplane diving down towards the ground.

He's then focusing on the second messerschmitt 110.

[gunfire]

Narrator: The german skims his plane

Just over the trees and hedges, hoping to shake stanford tuck.

Hackett: He's trying to fly that spitfire into the ground

Hoping he's inexperienced and will make a mistake,

Hit a tree or a high-tension cable or something like that.

But stanford tuck's not having any of it,

He can manage to focus on the enemy airplane,

And flying that close to the ground,

Line up a good shoot,

Take more shoots on that airplane and bring it down.

He gets his third kill.

Narrator: Three kills on his first day of combat,

And stanford tuck keeps his streak going the next day.

Hackett: So on the afternoon of the 24th of may,

Bob stanford tuck is again in the thick of it.

He's leading his formation when he comes across dornier 17s.

Now, they're light bombers, and their main aim

Is to bomb our ground forces around dunkirk.

So they're a real threat to the british expeditionary force

On the continent.

He aggressively maneuvers his airplanes

And quickly achieves two further kills,

Making him the first spitfire ace of world war ii.

Narrator: He's the first of what will be scores

Of spitfire aces.

From late may to June 4th,

Stanford tuck and the allied air forces

Fight a rear-guard action.

Often outnumbered and outgunned, they suffer heavy losses,

But disrupt the german air attacks.

Mcmanus: The two air forces, allied and german air force,

Just begin to maul each other.

So losses are pretty high on both sides.

In this case, you know, talking about the british pilots,

Many of them were highly inexperienced

And were learning as they went,

And of course combat is a tough place

To learn your job.

It's pretty unforgiving.

Narrator: The ground troops often have no idea

Of the brutal fight taking place out of sight.

Darlow: The royal air force were not popular

With the men on the beaches

'cause usually they couldn't see the actual air battles

That were taking place

'cause they were taking place inland,

Preventing the enemy bombers reaching the beaches.

The raf was certainly taking its toll inland.

Narrator: While robert stanford tuck and the raf

Trade deadly blows with the luftwaffe in the sky,

A flotilla of every imaginable british boat steams to dunkirk.

Hoping to evacuate just 45,000 of 300,000 troops

Trapped on the beaches,

The british manage to rescue almost every single soldier.

Darlow: The fact that 300,000 men were brought back

From the beaches of dunkirk

Meant that they could fight on another day.

Britain was not defeated.

Hackett: I think the air force was as successful

As it could be over dunkirk.

We managed to extract over 300,000 troops from dunkirk.

And that never would have happened

If the luftwaffe had had free rein at dunkirk

And had the ability to truly bring bombers in

And air power in

To harry and destroy those troops on the ground.

That was considered an absolute miracle at the time.

Narrator: Most of western europe is now in nazi hands.

Britain is still in the fight,

But is now alone in hitler's crosshairs,

As british prime minister winston churchill warns...

Winston churchill: The battle of France is over.

The battle of britain is about to begin.

Upon this battle depends the survival

Of christian civilization.

Darlow: Most of europe was being overrun by the nazis.

Britain is now standing alone.

Freedom, democracy, the western world is at stake.

Hitler is going to look to prepare to cross the channel

To invade britain.

He needs to defeat britain,

But before they can cross the sea,

They need to defeat the royal air force,

So that the luftwaffe has the opportunity

To protect the seaborne assault,

And it can also attack the royal navy,

Should that become involved.

Narrator: Hitler plans to invade and conquer britain

With operation sea lion.

Darlow: If the luftwaffe can gain air superiority

And defeat the royal air force,

Their seaborne assault is going to be unchecked.

They're going to be able to land troops

On the southern coast of England.

They're going to be able to advance,

And they're going to win.

[bell ringing]

Narrator: The only thing holding back a german invasion--

The raf and its handful of fighter planes.

[bell ringing]

July 1940.

The battle of britain begins.

After hammering british shipping and ports,

The luftwaffe turns its attention on the raf.

Now hitler's bombers aim to pound them into oblivion.

July 1940.

German bombers pummel british airstrips and command centers.

Rebecca grant: In the summer of 1940,

Everything is at stake for britain.

Narrator: Dr. Rebecca grant is one of the foremost

Civilian experts on air force history and aircraft.

Grant: Operation sea lion was the german army's plan

To invade britain.

It was a fully fleshed-out plan with nine divisions

Scheduled to land somewhere between sussex and kent.

Hitler hoped that he could land that force

By the autumn of 1940,

But the one thing he needed was control of the air.

The luftwaffe's strategy is to target raf fighter bases

And raf fighter command centers,

Hoping to knock the raf out of the war.

Hackett: The luftwaffe was very confident they could do this.

Their leader goering had convinced hitler

It would be an easy task to do and it was just a matter of time

Before he delivered air superiority

Over the south of England.

Narrator: The raf is outnumbered roughly two to one.

And the hawker hurricane

Forms the bulk of their fighting force.

Hackett: During the battle of britain,

The air force had two airplanes to choose from:

The spitfire and the hurricane.

The hurricane was a very rugged airplane.

It took a lot of battle damage.

It was a very stable platform,

Meaning when the pilot pushed the trigger,

The guns would keep pointing at the enemy,

So it was very easy to employ your weapons

Once you were in an advantageous position.

It was a slightly slower airplane than the opposition.

It's fair to say, though, that in the battle of britain

We needed both airframes.

We couldn't have done without either.

Narrator: Rushed into battle,

Many pilots have little training,

And few have seen combat.

Hackett: When you go into combat,

That is the true test of a fighter pilot.

And so it was very critical

That we could get guys to the front line,

Get them through their first early combats

Where they experienced what it was going to be like,

Keep them alive during that phase,

And then start to capitalize on their experience

As they got more skilled and more versed

In the tactics of war.

Narrator: Losses mount at a shocking rate on both sides.

And the germans are confident

The british can't build spitfires

As fast as the luftwaffe is shooting them down.

The spitfire's manufacturer, supermarine,

Has struggled with the plane from the start.

Hackett: So the supermarine aircraft company

Primarily designed seaplanes, floatplanes,

That captivated the imagination of the world at the time,

From the late 1920s to the early 1930s.

Narrator: In the mid-1930s,

The raf struggles to improve its aging fleet of planes,

While its clearest rival, germany, develops and builds

The fastest and deadliest planes in the world.

To close the gap, the raf forms a competition for a plane

That can intercept the speedy german bombers.

Hackett: R.J. Mitchell was a chief designer

Of the supermarine aviation company.

He was, um, a very direct man, a very talented man.

He designed superb airplanes

That were really quite fast and maneuverable.

So, he was used to working with new technology,

But more than that, he saw the storm clouds of war

Rising within germany,

And he knew europe would be at war.

He was a very sick man.

He was dying of cancer, and he knew that.

But he felt he was keen to ensure that the royal air force

Had the best airplane that they could have

Before he passed away.

His first few attempts to design an airplane

To meet that specification

Were not particularly successful,

But he kept going.

Narrator: Mitchell and his design team

Hit on a radical idea:

Giving the plane a thin, elliptical-shaped wing.

Darlow: The problem the design team had

Was to combine power with speed and agility

And have a formidable weaponry

To down the enemy fighters and bombers.

The solution the design team came up with

Was this thin elliptical wing

That met the performance requirements

But could allow a retractable landing gear

And an array of weaponry.

Four machine guns per wing

That could be adapted to accommodate cannon.

Narrator: Mitchell and his design team create the airframe,

And rolls-royce builds its heart:

A new super-powered engine called the merlin.

Darlow: Marrying mitchell's designs

With the rolls-royce merlin is going to create

One of the greatest aircraft in the history of warfare.

Narrator: Racing at speeds over 350 miles per hour,

Climbing 2,500 feet per minute,

And able to out-turn most german planes,

The spitfire is a pilot's dream.

Hackett: So the spitfire first and foremost

Is a graceful-looking airplane.

That doesn't hide the fact, though,

That it's a sleek killing machine.

It fits you well, you sit in the airplane,

You feel like you wear the airplane,

You feel like you're part of it.

She smells good, you know.

She's quite hot, that big rolls-royce merlin engine,

It's only a few feet in front of your feet.

You just have to think, "I want to go in that direction,"

And you just gently move the stick,

And she responds beautifully for you.

She gives you confidence.

And that's one of the key things

As somebody going into war in an airplane,

You've got to be at one with your machine,

You've got to be confident in that machine,

Your ability to operate it.

Narrator: The spitfire's unique silhouette

And the rolls-royce merlin engine's distinctive growl

Become the symbol of british resistance.

While the spitfire is revolutionary in design,

It's also a challenge to build.

Hackett: Those curves are beautiful to the eye,

But they're very difficult to mass produce in times of war.

So, each airplane was effectively almost handmade.

From a production perspective, it was quite a challenge

To churn them out in the numbers that we needed them churned out.

Narrator: The raf orders as many spitfires

As supermarine can make,

But can this pretty plane

Really duke it out with the mighty german air force?

They're about to find out.

Early September 1940.

Hitler believes he has broken the raf,

And his bombers are free to focus on a new target.

Darlow: So, in September 1940 the luftwaffe changes direction

And begins an assault upon london,

Trying to force terror upon the british people,

Maybe even force a surrender.

Narrator: September 15, 1940.

Hitler aims for a knock-out blow against the british capital.

Darlow: September the 15th is a pivotal day

In the battle of britain;

Mass numbers of enemy aircraft

Are going to come and assault london.

There is the belief with german intelligence

That the raf fighter command is on the verge of defeat.

Narrator: Hitler throws two huge waves of bombers at london.

In the coming fight,

The germans will outnumber the raf two to one.

Darlow: The royal air force pilots

Were defending their homeland,

They were defending their country now.

They were defending their families.

As one raf pilot famously said,

He didn't want the bastards dropping bombs on his mum.

It's a fight for survival now.

Narrator: If the german bombers break through,

They could lay waste to london

And drive britain out of the war.

September 15, 1940.

Hundreds of german bombers zero in on london.

The first wave hits the british skies

Late that morning.

Flying cover for the bombers: German me 109s.

And rising up to meet them,

British hurricanes and spitfires.

The plan is for the hurricanes to focus on the bombers,

While the spitfires engage and take out the me 109s.

This battle pits two very different

But equally matched planes against each other.

Built for speed, the me 109

Is all sharp edges and squared corners,

Able to reach 340 miles per hour.

Early versions carry two machine guns

Mounted above the engine,

And two cannons in the wings.

In contrast, the spitfire is rounded,

With its unique elliptical wings.

But it's just as fast as the me 109,

And has a tighter turning radius.

It can also deliver a deadly punch,

With four machine guns in each wing.

The spitfire units are now led by experienced pilots

Like brian "sandy" lane.

Darlow: Brian lane was a regular in the royal air force,

And he distinguished himself at dunkirk,

And he was awarded a distinguished flying cross.

And he was clearly respected highly

By the men who flew with him

As a leader,

And it was something that he would show

By example in battle.

Narrator: Against the first wave of germans,

Lane chases and strafes bombers, helping to break up the attack.

[gunfire]

But it's the second wave, almost 500 german planes,

That poses the greatest danger.

And lane is on the ground,

Refueling and re-arming when the attack begins.

Darlow: On September the 15th, 1940,

The sky is full of aircraft, swarms of enemy aircraft

Coming towards london, hundreds of them.

And the various royal air force fighter command squadrons

Are trying to get in amongst them to break up the bombers.

There's a melee going on above london.

Narrator: Lane describes the sky

As filled with more german planes than he's ever seen.

He needs to head them off,

But he's starting at a disadvantage.

Darlow: The three advantages that the fighter pilot seeks

Is that he can come out of the sun

So that his opponent is blinded;

Also that he can come from altitude.

He has the height where he can get speed

To come down on his opponent.

And then he can get in behind to that killing position

So he can train his sights on his enemy

And shoot him from the sky.

[gunfire]

Narrator: Joining the fight late,

Lane has to climb to reach the raiders

At 20,000 feet and higher.

Darlow: On September the 15th, as lane is rising,

He's having to give up every advantage.

He's not going to be coming out of the sun.

He's not going to be coming in from height.

But yet he still has the skill to be able to maneuver

And get in behind a 109.

Narrator: High over the outskirts of london,

Lane gets on the tail of an me 109.

With the german in his sights, this should be an easy kill.

Darlow: But he's not up against a fool.

That 109 pilot is an accomplished pilot,

And he's able to reverse the tables.

Narrator: The me 109 pilot gets behind lane,

And the duel is on.

Darlow: And they carry out what lane describes

As a hell of a dance as they're trying to turn their aircraft

To getting behind, to getting to that killing position.

Narrator: If the 109 latches on to the spitfire's tail,

Lane is dead.

He whips his spitfire into a tight turn.

Lane again comes around on the 109,

Showing just what the spitfire can do.

Lane maneuvers to get off a killing shot,

And the 109 pilot decides he's met his match.

Darlow: So, the 109 inverts, lane lets off a short burst,

But he doesn't know if he shut it down

And he can't follow it down.

Narrator: The me 109 can dive more quickly than the spitfire.

So lane gives up the chase.

He's already pushed himself to the brink.

Darlow: It's been about a minute of combat,

But sweat is just pouring out of his body.

Narrator: Lane has out-dueled one germany's top pilots,

But he can't pause to catch his breath.

Until he runs out of ammunition,

He throws his spitfire at every german plane he sees.

It's a chaotic breakneck brawl.

Hackett: So when you meet an enemy airplane in the sky,

Closing speeds at up to 600, 700, 800 miles an hour

Can happen.

You see this little speck on the horizon

Growing very quickly at you.

As you're pointing at them, they come rushing past you.

Narrator: In the skies around lane,

German bombers fight their way to london,

And slam up against almost suicidal resistance.

Hackett: There's one particular instance,

Ray holmes trying to shoot down a dornier bomber

As it made its way over london,

On the face of it heading towards buckingham palace.

Narrator: In his hurricane,

Holmes empties all of his ammunition into the bomber,

But still, it flies on toward buckingham palace.

Eyewitnesses gather to watch the fight,

And can't believe holmes' next desperate move.

Hackett: And with nothing left to do

Other than watch this airplane soldier on

And bomb our royal family,

He took the decision to ram that airplane

And knock the tail of it.

Narrator: The german bomber spirals to the ground;

A feat almost too incredible to believe,

Except that it's captured on film.

Holmes loses control of his own plane

And parachutes to safety.

His damaged hurricane crashes into a london street.

Hackett: I think that just gives you a feeling for how focused

Our pilots were for defending their homeland.

They were gonna fight to the very last inch,

Never thought defeat was an option.

Narrator: By day's end, the raf loses roughly 29 planes,

But the cost is much steeper for the luftwaffe.

Darlow: And by the end of the day, claims come in

That about 180 aircraft had been shot down

By the royal air force.

In fact, history is now showing that the number is more like 70,

But a lot of returning german aircraft would have had

Wounded airmen on board, killed airmen on board.

And it was clear at that point, on that day,

To the german high command,

The luftwaffe had not got air superiority

And fighter command was not defeated,

And the invasion was going to be too perilous.

Narrator: September 17th,

Hitler calls off his plan to invade britain.

The raf and its spitfire

Have won the greatest air battle in history,

Scoring a key victory for freedom.

Darlow: There's a heroic aspect about the whole story

Of britain was standing alone.

But just this group of young, determined, enthusiastic airmen

Were able to check the hordes of germans.

Narrator: Britain's few have saved the nation.

But hitler isn't done.

To punish london,

He orders the luftwaffe to conduct night bombing raids

In the blitz.

Darlow: Around about 40,000 civilians

Lose their lives during that period.

It was a desperate time for the british people.

During the blitz, areas of london were turned into rubble.

Coventry was turned into rubble.

It was destroyed.

The devastation was all around.

But instead of actually making the british people weaker,

It actually made them stronger,

And they came together more in defiance

Against what was being done to them.

Narrator: With the failure of the blitz,

Hitler's attention shifts east to the soviet union,

And south, to malta, a british-held island fortress

In the middle of the mediterranean.

The german air force and navy have cut off malta

And aim to starve or bomb it into submission.

Grant: Malta was important because of its location.

It's a fantastic base.

You can't ship anything north, east, south, or west

Without going past malta.

Narrator: Italy and germany need to ship food and fuel

To their armies in north africa,

And malta threatens their supply lines.

Mcmanus: So this little rock island

Out there in the middle of the mediterranean

Becomes so strategically important,

So pretty quickly, this becomes a major battleground

Of here come these axis air raids against malta.

Narrator: Every day, as many as 170 bombers pound the island,

Dropping over a million pounds of explosives in April alone.

Grant: By early 1942, malta was the most bombed location

In the european theater.

It had been bombed more than london.

It was almost like the germans were trying to sink the island.

Mcmanus: Malta has to be defended by air power.

I mean, it has to be defended by fighters in particular,

Otherwise it's going to be defenseless.

The spitfire takes a leading role

Because it is the number one fighter in the british forces

At this point in time.

Narrator: June 9, 1942.

Spitfires take off from an aircraft carrier

And head to malta.

Among them, canadian pilot george beurling.

Darlow: Into the battle of malta comes george beurling,

A maverick, a lone wolf,

Does not really respect authority,

But a very, very accomplished fighter pilot.

He has the ability to pick out enemy aircraft

Before anyone else in the sky.

And he has no hesitation in peeling away and engaging them.

He's a fighter.

He wants to get into the battle.

He wants to shoot down germans.

Narrator: Beurling hits the skies over malta

Like a human wrecking ball.

Darlow: You take a spitfire

And all its potential as a fighter aircraft,

And you put it in the hands of someone like george beurling

Who's becoming a master of the craft of aerial combat,

And they're going to be able to shoot anything down.

The luftwaffe does not have anything

That's going to be able to counter something like that.

Narrator: July 1942,

In beurling's own words, "hell lets loose."

[gunfire]

The germans attack almost every day,

And beurling shoots down 15 planes in quick succession.

[gunfire]

But on August 9th, he tackles more than even he can handle.

Dueling with 15 me 109s, he peppers one, and it drops.

Then, when three germans attack from out of the sun,

His spitfire takes two hits to the engine

And seizes up.

Beurling glides without power toward malta.

But there's no way he can make it to an airfield in time.

August 9, 1942.

George beurling maneuvers his damaged spitfire

Toward the besieged island of malta.

He crashes, but walks away from the wreck.

The following day, he's back in another spitfire.

Malta needs fighters like beurling.

He's a crack shot who's mastered

The art of hitting an enemy plane as it turns.

It's called a deflection shot.

Hackett: So when you take in deflection,

There are many things you need to take into account,

And one of them is the gravity drop of the bullet.

If you're a long, long way away, something akin to 800 yards,

The drop of that bullet can be quite marked,

So not only do you have to predict

Where the airplane will be in the sky

When your bullets get there,

You've got to predict how much those bullets are gonna drop.

[explosion]

Narrator: On July 6, 1942,

Beurling puts his skills to the test.

He attacks a pair of me 109s, and one tries to run.

From half a mile away,

Too far for most pilots to even consider,

He takes his shot.

He knocks the german fighter from the sky.

Darlow: Beurling is able to picture

Exactly where the enemy aircraft is going to be

In space and time

And make sure that his gunfire gets there.

And he proves this in an extraordinary combat

Where he's able to fire at approximately 800 yards range

And shoot down an enemy fighter.

Narrator: But as the siege of malta grinds on,

Beurling's health starts to fail.

Hackett: When you're in combat day after day,

The fatigue builds up on the pilot slowly.

Combat's a very physical thing.

But it's not just the combat;

It's an emotional rollercoaster.

They wake up every morning,

They wait to be scrambled.

They can be held on the ground for hours,

Just waiting for that fight,

Just wondering if it's going to be their last fight,

So they can go from sometimes boredom

And waiting for something to happen...

[bell ringing] to absolute mayhem in the sky.

I think malta was a particularly challenging

Theater of war.

Their water supplies were not good,

Their food supply was bad.

So they were effectively malnourished.

Narrator: Many pilots suffer from dysentery,

Which they call "the malta dog."

Darlow: The situation in malta was...Was desperate

And getting more and more desperate.

Everybody was suffering, including the pilots.

George beurling was suffering terribly--

Extraordinary weight loss through dysentery.

Narrator: Bitten by the dog, beurling loses 50 pounds,

And can't fly for much of August and September.

In October, he's back in the air

When the germans make one last push

To force malta into surrender.

In just three days, he takes out another seven german planes.

Darlow: Beurling was able to shoot down enemy aircraft

One after the other,

And he became the leading ace in malta.

Narrator: He destroys 25 axis planes over malta.

But his string is about to run out.

Grant: October 14, 1942,

Germany launches yet another major attack on malta.

Beurling takes off to intercept the bomber formations.

Narrator: He dives on one bomber

And tears it apart.

Then he spots several me 109s chasing another spitfire

About 450 yards,

Or almost a quarter mile away.

Grant: Beurling takes a long-range shot on an me 109

And splashes it.

Narrator: But while battling the me 109s,

His own plane takes over 30 hits.

Grant: Now beurling is fighting in a melee.

He's already taken hits to his aircraft,

And another me 109 has beurling in his sights.

Narrator: A cannon shell rips through beurling's spitfire.

And he plunges toward the ocean.

At the last second, beurling parachutes free of the plane.

Half-starved and wounded, his war is over for now.

Darlow: Beurling probably wanted to continue,

But it was time for him to have a rest.

So, when beurling returns to canada,

He's given this persona of being a knight of malta,

Defending the island against the all-evil enemy.

[applause]

Narrator: Though beurling is sent home,

His fight was not in vain.

October 16th,

Just two days after beurling's last fight in malta's defense,

The germans halt their air offensive.

And in November,

Allied relief convoys begin reaching the island.

The siege is broken.

Darlow: Beurling and his colleagues had done enough

In the last few months of 1942

To ensure that the luftwaffe has not subjugated the island.

Narrator: In the mediterranean, the tide is shifting.

And over France,

The raf has already been taking the fight to the germans.

Hackett: So the battle of britain was over.

We defeated the germans over our home territory,

We prevented the invasion.

Our next thing was to prepare

For the inevitable invasion of europe

Where we wanted to take back the continent and defeat hitler.

Narrator: So the raf goes on the offensive,

Led by men like douglas bader.

Darlow: The raf is still spoiling for a fight,

In particular, people like douglas bader.

He's already had considerable success

During the battle of britain,

But that's not enough, he wants more.

Hackett: Bader was an aggressive personality.

He very much wanted to lead from the front.

I think all fighter pilots, you need to believe in yourself.

You cannot be a shy and retiring person

And go to war and just hope for the best.

You've got to be confident,

And he was certainly very confident.

Narrator: Bader is also one of the raf's

Most experienced pilots.

Darlow: Douglas bader is smitten with flying

From an extremely early age,

And when he gets the opportunity to fly,

He liked to take part in aerobatics.

Narrator: Bader joins the raf in 1928,

Almost a decade before war is on the horizon.

Three years later,

While training with the raf acrobatics squad,

Bader attempts a risky maneuver, and crashes.

Darlow: Unfortunately, that results in a serious injury,

And he loses his legs.

Narrator: With a pair of metal prosthetic legs,

He relearns how to walk,

And then to fly.

Darlow: And he pressures, pressures the royal air force

To get back into a cockpit

And to be involved in the forthcoming fight

During the second world war.

Narrator: Even with tin legs, bader is an excellent pilot.

And in 1939, the raf allows him to reapply for service.

Darlow: Douglas bader is clearly an accomplished pilot,

And the raf needs pilots.

Narrator: The raf takes him back,

And confident as ever,

Bader puts on a display of his acrobatic skills

In an older biplane.

Two years later, on August 9, 1941,

With the war in full swing,

Bader leads his 62nd fighter sweep over France.

He's already shot down 21 german planes,

And he's hungry for more.

Hackett: The fighter pilots, bader in particular,

Felt he wanted to take the fight across the channel

Into northern France.

Narrator: At the head of three squadrons,

Bader is on the hunt.

Over France, he spots roughly 50 me 109s.

Darlow: On this particular day,

Douglas bader sees the enemy aircraft below him,

And his aggressive nature, he wants to get after them,

So he dives at them.

Narrator: The aggressive style that makes bader

Such a good pilot is a double-edged sword.

Diving on the me 109s,

He overshoots and flies past his prey.

Even worse, bader has left his wingman behind.

And the hunter is about to become the hunted.

August 9, 1941,

Raf ace douglas bader gets separated from his squadron.

Without another set of eyes looking for enemy planes,

Bader has made himself vulnerable.

But always aggressive, he won't turn back.

Darlow: Then he sees enemy aircraft in front of them,

And he goes into the attack against those.

Narrator: He takes out one and closes in on a second,

When he realizes he's under attack.

Bader breaks sharply, and disaster strikes.

Hackett: Now, the fog of war, it is an intense thing at times.

You as a fighter pilot

Only can see what you can see out of your cockpit.

So for one pilot to take in all that information,

Under the stress, the heat, and the fatigue of battle,

And to get a fully recognized air picture

Was a big challenge indeed.

Narrator: Bader claims he sideswipes another plane,

While witnesses say he's shot down.

Whatever the cause, the result is the same:

Bader's spitfire plummets to the ground.

He barely bails out in time.

Captured, bader tries to escape by tying sheets together

And lowering himself to the ground.

Recaptured, he makes several more attempts,

But won't stop even after the germans threaten

To take away his prosthetic legs.

Finally, they confine him to colditz castle,

The prison for incorrigible pows,

Where he spends the remainder of the war.

For the rest of europe, the fighting rages on.

By early 1944, the allies have germany in retreat.

And hitler grows desperate.

He launches the most brutal assault,

Unleashing the wunderwaffe, or miracle weapons.

They are self-guided missiles and bombs,

Launched from europe

And aimed straight at the heart of England.

The first: The deadly v-1.

Grant: The v-1 was a terror weapon designed to do

What the luftwaffe had failed to do in 1940,

And that was to inflict more and severe damage on britain,

Knock out morale,

And change the balance of the war.

Narrator: Hitler aims to batter britain

Into negotiating peace terms.

Darlow: There's two sides to the v-1.

There's the physical damage that it can do,

But also there's the damage to the morale

Of hearing that sound coming overhead.

If you could still hear it, you're gonna be ok.

But if the engine cuts out, you know you're in trouble,

And it's gonna fall, and it's gonna explode,

And it's gonna shatter buildings,

And it's gonna destroy people.

The v-1 assault on london could take place at any time,

Day or night,

So there's that constant tension.

Mcmanus: It's really the first example of an unmanned aircraft,

You know, sent into enemy skies to do major damage.

It's a flying bomb,

It carries about 2,000 pounds of explosives,

So it really packs a wallop.

So, imagine it landing on a densely populated city block.

It could do some significant damage.

How do you stop it from getting to where it may do damage?

[explosion]

Narrator: England is helpless

Against this monster from the future.

So british engineers try to do the impossible:

Use existing spitfires to take on the flying bomb.

The supermarine company

Has adapted the spitfire several times,

And one of the biggest advances comes

When they add the new rolls-royce griffon engine

To create the mark xiv variant.

Darlow: The design of the spitfire was so strong,

That from the engine firewall back,

Hardly any changes were needed, if any at all,

To allow for a different engine.

You could go from the mark I spitfire

With the rolls-royce merlin engine,

Just over a thousand horsepower,

To the rolls-royce griffon in the mark xiv.

Double the horsepower and an increase in speed

Of around about a hundred miles per hour.

Narrator: Now reaching speeds of over 400 miles per hour,

The spitfire will need all the power

This new engine can deliver.

They intend to chase and shoot down the flying bombs.

Soon after the d-day invasion,

The germans are firing over 100 v-1s into England each day.

Grant: The fight against the v-1 presented

Some of the spitfire's most amazing moments in combat.

The extra power of this new engine in the spitfire

Enabled it to chase down the v-1.

Narrator: Spitfires race after the v-1s,

But it takes more than speed to bring one down.

It takes an expert shot.

If the pilot is too far away, it's hard to hit the small v-1.

But get too close,

And the 2,000-pound warhead could blow up his own plane.

Darlow: The v-1 assault, it was a new era in warfare.

It was a forerunner of the cruise missile.

This pilotless aircraft, a machine,

Against fighter aircraft, the man.

It is literally man against machine.

Narrator: Spitfire pilots like australian ken collier

Have to summon superhuman courage

To destroy these flying bombs.

Grant: June 23, 1944,

Ken collier in a spitfire

Spots a v-1 coming across the english channel.

Collier is determined to get it.

He closes, he's in hot pursuit.

Narrator: Collier fires two bursts, emptying his guns.

But the v-1 won't go down.

Desperate, he flies right up to the 2,000-pound bomb.

Grant: It's an incredibly risky move.

Collier can kill himself doing this,

But he's determined to kill this v-1.

Narrator: These images capture the moment

A spitfire closes in on a v-1.

Touching the rocket's wing,

Collier forces it into an out-of-control spin.

It explodes harmlessly in an open field.

Other pilots adopt collier's dangerous maneuver.

The germans fire more than 9,000 v-1s at England,

And over 1,000 are shot or knocked out of the sky.

In may 1945, nazi germany collapses.

And with the spitfire flying cover from beginning to end,

The allies prevail.

Grant: The spitfire was the only aircraft

That britain continued to produce

Before, during, and after world war ii.

Darlow: Once the war had ended,

You're really entering the jet age,

And a lot of aircraft are now becoming redundant.

But the spitfire still has a life,

It still has that adaptability

That it can be used for future function.

Narrator: Sweden, Italy, greece and other european countries

Hold on to their spitfires until the early 1950s.

During the first arab-israeli war,

The egyptian and israeli air forces both fly spitfires.

They duel in several battles;

The only time spitfires fight on opposite sides of a war.

On January 1, 1951,

The spitfire sees its last action

In an air-to-ground operation in malaysia.

Jet-powered fighters replace the spitfire,

But nothing can diminish its role in history.

Mcmanus: I think the spitfire has to go down

As one of the greatest air-to-air fighters

In human history.

Narrator: To this day, it lives on as the symbol of a nation

That stood alone and refused to bow to evil.

Hackett: I think the spitfire's place in history

Is very special to the british people.

Every day, they would see their spitfires take off,

They would see the contrails in the sky

Where the spitfire is engaging the messerschmitts.

So, the british public really witnessed the war at firsthand.

It really made that airplane

Typify the resistance of the british people.

Darlow: The spitfire, it holds a unique position in history.

It is a symbol of the defense of the free world against tyranny.

It's more than just a weapon.

It shows a willingness

That people were prepared to fight for freedom,

And that freedom was important.

The spitfire is freedom.