- [Winston Churchill] Upon this battle depends
the survival of Christian civilization.
Upon it depends our own British life
and the long continuity of our institutions
and our empire.
The whole fury and might of the enemy
must very soon be turned on us.
Hitler knows that he will have to break us
in this island or lose the war.
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free
and the life of the world may move forward
into broad, sunlit uplands.
But if we fail then the whole world,
including the United States, including all that we have
known and cared for, will sink into the abyss
of a new dark age, made more sinister and perhaps
more protracted, by the likes of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties
and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire
and its Commonwealth lost for a thousand years,
men will still say, this was their finest hour.
We must take September 15 as the culminating
date of the air battle.
On this day, the Luftwaffe, after two heavy attacks
on the 14th, made its greatest concentrated effort
in a resumed daylight attack on London.
It was one of the decisive battles of the war
and like the Battle of Waterloo, it was on a Sunday.
I was at Chequers.
I had already on several occasions
visited the headquarters of Number 11 Fighter Group
in order to witness the conduct of an air battle.
Well, not much had happened.
However, the weather on this day seemed suitable
to the enemy and accordingly I drove over
to Uxbridge and arrived at the group headquarters.
Number 11 Group comprised no fewer than 25 squadrons
covering the whole of Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire
and all the approaches across from London.
Air Vice Marshal Park had for six months commanded
this group, on which our fate largely depended.
From the beginning of Dunkirk all the daylight action
in the south of England had already been
conducted by him and all the arrangements
and apparatus have been brought to the highest perfection.
My wife and I were taken down to the bombproof operations
room 50 feet below ground.
All the efficacy of the Hurricanes and Spitfires
would have been fruitless but for this system
of underground control systems and telephone cables,
which had been devised and built before the war
by the arm industry under Dowding's advice and impulse.
Lasting credit is due to all concerned.
In the south of England, there were, at this time,
Number 11 Group Headquarters and six subordinate
fighter station centers.
All these were, as has been described,
under heavy stress.
The supreme command would exercise from the fighter
headquarters at Stanmore, but the actual handling
of the direction of the squadrons was wisely
left to Number 11 Group, which controlled the units
through its fighter stations located in each county.
The Group operations room was like a small theater,
about 60 feet across and with two storeys.
We took our seats in the dress circle.
Below us was the large-scale map table,
around which perhaps 20 highly trained young men
and women with telephone assistance were assembled.
Opposite to us covering the entire wall,
where the theater curtain would be, was a gigantic
blackboard, divided into six columns with electric
bulbs for the six fighter stations.
Each of their squadrons having a sub-column of its own
and also divided by lateral lines.
Thus the lowest row of bulbs showed, as they
were lighted, the squadrons that were standing by
at two minutes' notice.
The next row those at readiness, five minutes.
Then, at available, 20 minutes.
Then those we should take north.
The next row those which had reported having seen
the enemy, the next with red lights,
those which were in action
and the top row, those which were returning home.
On the lefthand side, in a kind of glass stage box,
were the four or five officers whose duty it was
to weigh and measure the information received
from our observer corp, which at this time
numbered upwards of 50,000 men, women, and youths.
Radar was still in its infancy,
but it gave warning of raids approaching our coast
and the observers with field glasses and
portable telephones were our main source
of information about radars flying over land.
Thousands of messages were therefore received
during inaction.
Several roomfulls of experienced people in other parts of
the underground headquarters shifted them
with great rapidity and transmitted
the results from minute to minute
directly to the plotters seated around the table,
on the floor, and to the officer supervising
from the glass stage box.
On the right was another glass stage box
containing army officers who reported the actions
of our anti-aircraft batteries,
which at this time in the command
there were 200.
At night, it was of vital importance
to stop these batteries firing over certain areas
in which our fighters would be closing
with the enemy.
I was not unacquainted with the general outlines
of this system, having had it explained to me
a year before the war by Dowding
when I visited him at Stanmore.
It had been shaped and refined in constant action
and all was now fused together
into a most elaborate instrument of war,
the likes of which existed nowhere in the world.
I don't know, said Park, if we went down,
whether a raid will happen today.
At present all is quiet.
However, after a quarter of an hour, the raid
plotters began to move about.
An attack of 40 plus was reported to be coming
from the German stations in the Dieppe area.
The bulbs along the bottom of the wall of the display panel
began to go as various squadrons came to stand by.
Then in quick succession 20 plus, 40 plus signals
were received.
And in another ten minutes it was evident
that a serious battle impended.
On both sides the air began to fill.
One after another, signals came in,
40 plus, 60 plus, 70 and 80 plus.
And on the floor table below us, the movement
of all the waves of attack was marked by
pushing disks forward from minute to minute
along different lines of approach.
Along the backboard facing us, the rising lights
showed our fighter squadrons
getting into the air.
There were only four or five left at readiness.
These air battles on which so much depended
lasted a little more than an hour
from the first encounter.
The enemy had ample strength to send out
new waves of attack.
And our squadron having gone all out
to gain the upper air would have to refuel
after 70 or 80 minutes or land to rearm
after a five-minute engagement.
It was at this moment of refueling
or rearming, the enemy were able to arrive
with fresh unchallenged squadrons.
Some of our fighters could be destroyed on the ground.
It was therefore one of our principal objects
to direct our squadrons so as not to have
too many on the ground refueling or rearming
simultaneously during daylight.
Presently the red bulbs showed that the majority
of our squadrons were engaged.
A subdued hum arose from the floor
where the busy plotters pushed their disks
to and fro in accordance with the swiftly
changing situation.
The air marshal himself walked up and down
behind, watching with a vigilant eye,
every move in the game, supervising his
junior executive hand and only occasionally
intervening with some decisive order, usually
to reinforce a threatened area.
In a little while all our squadrons were fighting
and some had already begun to return to fuel.
All were in the air.
The lower line of bulbs was out.
There was not one squadron left in reserve.
At this moment, Park spoke to Dowding at Stanmore,
asking for three squadrons from Number 12 Group
to put at his disposal, in case of another
major attack.
Fighting squadrons were rearming and refueling.
This was done.
They were especially needed to cover London
and our fighter air drones because Number 11
Group had already shot their bolt.
The young officer to whom this seemed
a matter of routine continued to give his orders
in accordance with the general direction
of his group commander
in a calm, low monotone.
And the three reinforcing squadrons were
soon absorbed.
I became conscious of the anxiety
of the commander
who now stood still behind his subordinate's chair.
Hitherto I had watched in silence.
I now asked, what other reserves have we?
"There are none," said Air Vice Marshall Park.
He did an account, which he wrote about afterwards,
he said, "At this, I looked grave, well I might.
"What losses should we not suffer
"if our refueling planes were caught on the ground
"by further raids of 40 plus or 50 plus?
"The odds were great, our margins small,
"the stakes infinite."
Another five minutes passed and most of our
squadrons had now descended to refuel.
In many cases, our resources would not
give them overhead protection.
Then it appeared that the enemy were going home.
The shifting of the disks on the table below
showed a continuous eastward movement
of the German bombers and fighters.
No new attack appeared.
In another 10 minutes, the action were ended.
We climbed again the stairways which led
to the surface and almost as we emerged
the all-clear sounded.
"We are all very glad to have seen this," said Park.
"Of course, during the last 20 minutes we were so
"choked with information we couldn't handle it.
"This shows you the limitation of our present resources.
"They have been strained far beyond their limits today."
I asked whether any results had come to hand
and remarked that the attack appeared to have been
repelled satisfactorily.
Park replied that he was not satisfied
that we had intercepted as many raiders
as he had hoped we should.
It was evident that the enemy had everywhere
pierced our defenses.
Many scores of German bombers with their
fighter escort had been reported over London.
About a dozen had been brought down
while I was below.
But no picture of the results of the battle
or of the damage or losses could be obtained.
It was 4:30 p.m. before I got back
to Chequers.
And I immediately went to bed
for my afternoon sleep.
I must have been tired by the drama
of Number 11 Group
for I did not wake 'til 8:00.
When I rang John Martin, my principal
private secretary came in with the
evening budget of news from all over the world.
It was repellent, this had gone wrong here,
that had been delayed there, an unsatisfactory
answer had been received from so-and-so.
There had been bad sinkings in the Atlantic.
"However," said Martin as he finished his account,
"all is redeemed by the air.
"We've shot down 183 for a loss of under 40."
Although post-war information has shown
that the enemies lotted on this day
were only 56, September 15 was the crack
through the Battle of Britain.
That same night our bomber command attacked
in strength the shipping in the ports from Boulaine
to Antwerp.
At Antwerp particularly heavy losses
were inflicted.
On September 17, as we now know, the Fuhrer
decided to postpone Sea Lion indefinitely
and September 15 may stand as the date
of its demise.
(grim music)
- [Narrator] It was the turning point.
The Germans had not achieved their aim.
Hitler therefore postponed Operation Sea Lion
indefinitely, ordered his troops out of
the defensive, and turned his attention eastwards.
The battle, though, dragged on mainly
in the form of German Lightning Fighter raids
until the end of October.
It included two attacks by Italian aircraft.
Mussolini wanted to display solidarity
with his northern ally.
These attacks proved disastrous for the Italians
with 13 of their small contingent of aircraft
shot down on the second occasion.
By now, though, the British were suffering
even worse punishment.
The German bombers had suffered too heavily by day
and were concentrating their attacks
during the hours of darkness,
made even longer as winter drew on.
Night after night, German bombers pounded
British cities.
London was attacked every single night
by one after the 12th of November.
The siren sounds that Londoners had heard
in daylight from time to time during August
was now to become part of the daily
and nightly life of every child, woman, and man
in the capital.
For more than 100 consecutive nights,
along with the drone of enemy bombers,
anti-aircraft fire and the whistle and crunch
of high-explosive bombs, dropped in their thousands.
For the Luftwaffe, there was no pretense
of striking only military targets.
To their surprise and the surprise of neutral
nations, sometimes the surprise of Londoners
themselves, they steeled themselves to it.
The ARP Air Raid Precaution wardens
stayed at their posts.
Doctors and nurses worked on throughout
the raids.
Rescue squads carried out their often
gruesome tasks, night and day.
The bombs fell indiscriminately on
hundreds of thousands of homes.
They fell on shops, on hospitals, on churches,
even after the all-clear.
No period of even momentary safety
was guaranteed.
For the Nazis also dropped tons of delayed
action bombs which might explode days later,
concealed under cover of unmoved rubble
and through which rescue services searched
for trapped citizens.
Day and night, the fire service battled
with countless fires.
- Hostile raid, sir.
(alarm rings)
- [Narrator] The Nazi military policy now
was the destruction of the capital,
mostly at night.
The RAF couldn't be of much help at night.
It all rested on the efficiency of search lights
and the accuracy of anti-air fire.
(people sing)
(men chat)
- [Narrator] The German bombers at first concentrated
particularly on London's docklands and left
the East End districts a roaring inferno,
but still the citizens stood up to it
night after night.
They burrowed underground, wondering whether
they would find their homes still standing
in the morning.
Morning after morning, they emerged into the dawn
to find out the answer.
The Battle of Britain for these months
had now become the battle of London.
(grim music)
In spite of the bombs, the fires, the personal suffering,
and losses, they got to their desks, to their
work benches, to spend another 10 hours, 12 or more,
working, working, working.
There were times when they wondered whether
they'd endure much more.
But some things gave them hope.
Britain was starting to retaliate.
(men and women talk)
- Well, chaps, this is your target for tonight,
the submarine and ship building yards at Bremen.
It's a vitally important target.
- [Narrator] British bombers were taking the fight
back to Germany.
This time with bomb loads, not the propaganda
leaflets they had dropped over one year before.
- Hello rear gunner, can you hear me?
- I'm okay, skipper.
- [Pilot] Hello, operator.
Everything okay?
- Well, it seems to be all here, sir.
- Goering had promised the German people
that no enemy aircraft would ever bomb
a German city, but the people of Bremen
and later on the cities of the Ruhr
had good reason not to take his promises seriously.
(alarm sounds)
- Stand by, I'm going in at a glide.
- [Operator] Steady.
I got the bullseye with the last one.
- [Narrator] Hitler proclaimed the RAF
as night gangsters and for their crime
he would react on British cities a thousand fold revenge.
The first target was to be the city of Coventry.
On the night of the 14th of November, a million
pounds of bombs were hurled on the city
and gave the English language a new word,
the city was coventrated.
Between dusk that night and the following dawn,
it was bombed flatter and more heavily
than Rotterdam or Warsaw.
- [Radio Announcer] The king has been to see
how the people of Coventry were carrying on
after their terrible ordeal.
Now only did he find that their spirit was magnificent
and that everything possible was being done
to alleviate suffering,
but it was also quite evident that his five-hour tour
accompanied by Mr. Herbert Morrison had greatly
encouraged them.
This was the cathedral.
The city having been mercilessly bombed
throughout a whole night without regard
to military targets, now presents a grim appearance
of devastation.
(sad music)
The cathedral spire and the font remain.
The rest is rubble.
But the all that the cathedral represented
and the spirit of this centuries-old city
lives on.
The city of Coventry mourned its air-raid victims
when nearly thousands of people attended the first
funeral service.
172 of Coventry's dead were being buried
in a common grave, yet while even the last rites
were being performed, an air battle was taking place
high above the cemetery.
Even while Coventry mourns her dead,
the Nazi came to renew his terror.
In one common bond of sympathy and resolution,
the whole country will carry on the fight
'til Nazism is destroyed forever.
- [Narrator] The incessant raids on Britain
by the Luftwaffe devastated the infrastructure
of cities, towns, ports, and manufacturing bases,
not to mention countless lives.
But what they failed to destroy was the morale
and the spirit of the British people.
The Blitz was failing for four reasons.
One, being the heroism of the REF.
The second being the fact that the local authorities
all had well-organized and well-trained civil defense
and rescue systems in operation.
There was a total chain of command
with well-tried equipment in each city and district.
The third reason was the fact that the Luftwaffe
had used scatter bombs over most of the targets,
thus by spreading the damage and loss
this strategy tended to equalize and broaden
the suffering throughout the community,
who were, as a result, more closely linked together
in their determination to resist.
The fourth reason is a culmination of the other three.
A well-trained and organized population, enormously
encouraged and heartened by the RAF,
infuriated and hardened by suffering
and daily visited by its leaders,
from the king and Churchill, adjusted itself
to the bombing situation with extraordinary calm
and courage.
Wardens, firemen, rescue workers, salvage teams,
repair gangs, bomb disposal squads, ambulance drivers,
doctors, nurses, factory workers, and housewives
all were working together,
cheating the Luftwaffe of its victory.
With water pipes fractured and supplies short,
they queued in an orderly manner, patiently waiting
to fill their buckets.
There was a complete air of calm
and, for most, life was simply a routine
of making do as best they could.
Neighbors would work alongside each other,
salvaging what few possessions were left
after a night's raid.
The daily array of ARP wardens, police, firemen,
passing volunteers, and servicemen, frantically
digging, often with bare hands and with the chaos
of disintegrating buildings, to rescue survivors,
their pets, and belongings became in every sense
dreadfully familiar.
The Luftwaffe flew over 12,000 night sorties
during this period of the Blitz.
And the terror which the people had to face
was daunting and dreadful.
Threatened so starkly from the sky,
the people soon began to live like moles,
scurrying underground into the safety of the shelters
every night, only to emerge next morning
to yet another scene of devastation.
For London, September 7, 1940
marked the first day of the terrible months to come,
of over 100 consecutive nights of aerial bombardment.
As their nightly raids went on, through the autumn
into the winter, the terror and horror became
more and more familiar.
Many people simply went about their business,
not even bothering to go down
to the shelters at night.
This was Britain in its darkest hour.
Winston Churchill in his dogged resolve to keep
the nation's spirits high would visit almost daily
one or more of the badly damaged areas.
On the morning of the 14th of November,
Churchill was on his way to his Oxford country home
having been to Neville Chamberlain's funeral
who had died three days previously.
He was alerted to the fact that a big raid
was imminent for that night.
He immediately asked his driver to turn around
and take him back to London.
He was not going to spend the night peacefully,
he told his private secretary,
while the people of London were under heavy attack.
The target for that night was not in fact London.
It was Coventry.
Because of the relatively small size of Coventry,
the shock of the raid was that much stronger.
But although the damage caused was immense,
the Germans had once again made a strategic mistake.
For if they had wanted to destroy Coventry completely,
which was their plan, they should have returned
again the next night,
but they did not.
Thus the city's vital war industry was
able to recover.
In the first half of September, 2,000 civilians were killed
and about 8,000 wounded,
80% of the casualties being in London.
From then on, the toll rose steadily.
In the third week of September, 1,500 civilians
had been killed,
1,200 of them in London.
By the end of the month, the toll would have
risen to almost 7,000 dead.
In the months of October and November, this toll
rose dramatically higher still.
Yet still the spirit of the people
wasn't broken.
(grim music)
With merchant shipping losses still running high
in the Atlantic,
the British people were subjected to further hardships
when strict food rationing was introduced.
This also covered other essentials like clothes.
The attacks from the air also made it seem as though
the whole British infrastructure was being destroyed.
Seemingly isolated, there appeared to be little
to stop bruised and battered Britain
from going under.
The Luftwaffe Blitz on Britain during the
grim autumn and winter of 1940-41
had been watched with awe by neutral states.
Neutral observers marveled at the way that
the country was absorbing such terrible punishment,
but many doubted that Britain could hold on indefinitely.
Nowhere was the battle was watched with more concern
than in the United States of America,
the most significant of the neutrals and the one
most closely bound to Britain through a common language
and the antecedents of many of her citizens.
Churchill knew full-well that if Hitler was
to be beaten, Britain would need the help
of the United States.
Many Americans, as they had done in World War I,
did actually volunteer to fight for the British.
Seven US pilots fought in the Battle of Britain.
They helped to form the RAF's Eagle Squadron.
It was, however, the resilience and bravery
of the British people which began to catch
the American imagination.
In particular, it was the broadcasts by the CBS
London correspondent, Ed Murrow, on the Blitz,
which increased public sympathy.
- [Edward Murrow] I remember the evening
of Sunday, 29th.
It was just like any winter evening.
The first bombers were over London at about
half past 6:00.
(alarm rings)
Soon the fires hissed from the top story windows.
Hitler once boasted, I will rub out their cities.
This is what he meant.
- [Narrator] In the November, 1940 presidential election,
Wendell Willkie's strict isolationist policy lost out
to Roosevelt.
Roosevelt spoke to the American people at the
end of the year on the four essential freedoms
at stake: of speech and religion and
from want and fear.
- They do not need manpower, but they do need
billions of dollars worth of the weapons of defense.
(inspirational music)
- [Narrator] The almost total destruction of Coventry
and other cities such as Plymouth brought the war
not a second nearer to its end for the Germans.
On the contrary, the people returned after
each raid to their lathes and machines
for they knew that the workbench and the assembly line
was as deadly a weapon as the gun.
For 109 consecutive nights, one part of London
or another, was savagely bombed,
but unexpectedly one night the citizens had
their first night off,
(choir sings "O Come, All Ye Faithful")
December 25, 1940.
In the days to come, the citizens became aware
that the raids were becoming shorter and fewer.
By the spring, it seemed at last that it was finally over.
In January 1941, Roosevelt had introduced
his lend-lease bill.
Churchill's prayers were being answered.
America would supply war materials, which would
be paid for in kind after the war.
- [Roosevelt] While the tired waves, vainly breaking,
seem here no painful inch to gain,
far back through creeks and inlets making
come silent, flooding in, the main and not by eastern
windows only.
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
in front the sun climbs slow,
how slowly, but westward, look, the land is bright.
- [Narrator] Bomber command was by now increasing
its attacks on Germany.
As well as using the Wellingtons, they were also
using new types of much heavier, four-engined bombers.
- [Churchill] What tragedies, what horrors, what crimes
has Hitler and all that Hitler stands for
brought up in Europe and the world?
The ruins of Warsaw, of Rotterdam, of Belgrade
are monuments which will long recall to future generations
the outrage of the unopposed air bombing
applied with calculated and scientific cruelty
to helpless populations.
Here in London and throughout the cities of our island
and in Ireland, there may also be seen
the marks of devastation.
They are being repaid
and presently they will be more than repaid.
- [Narrator] The German population was now experiencing
for the first time what it felt like to be Blitzed.
These attacks enraged Hitler who threatened
to obliterate Britain's cities in retaliation.
(Hitler talks through radio)
The air attacks on Britain continued into May 1941.
By now, Hitler had turned his full attention
to the east.
Even so, the Blitz did not end with a whimper.
The last raid, on the night of the 10th/11th of May,
was against London.
Out of the blue, the Blitz returned with doubled fury.
For many people it seemed worse than anything
that had gone before
as millions of firebombs rained down on the capital.
In a matter of minutes, more than 1,500 different
sections of the city burst into roaring flames,
flames that merged together in what was the
greatest fire since the Great Fire of London,
almost 300 years before.
In the midst of all the fires and destruction,
vital water mains were shattered and water pressure
almost entirely cut off.
The men of the London Fire Brigade and their auxiliaries
were the heroes of that night as they had been
at the height of the Blitz some months before.
They stretched temporary hose lines out
into the center of the Themes through mud
and slime.
Ironically, that night the river had one of its lowest
tides for years.
(grim music)
Below ground in the Tube stations and shelters,
the people of London felt they were back
where they had been four months ago.
It seemed that they would have to endure it
all over again.
But next day to everyone's amazement,
there was no siren, no air raid warning, no attack.
They didn't know it then, but Hitler had turned away
from Britain to undertake the conquest of Russia.
The Battle of Britain had finally been won,
but not by Hitler.
For the first time, the Germans had tasted defeat.
For almost a year, they had struck Britain
with their formidable might.
They had killed over 40,000 British people.
But from the start, not one single Nazi soldier
set foot as an invader upon the soil of mainland Britain.
The Battle of Britain and the people who won it
also won for the world
a year of precious time, time in which to prepare
the final victory.
(audience cheers and claps)
- In September last, ladies and gentlemen,
having been defeated in his invasion plans
by the Royal Air Force,
(audience cheers and claps)
Hitler declared his intention to raze
the cities of Britain to the ground
and in the early days of that month,
he set the whole fury of the Huns
upon London.
The staunchness and vigor of London was fully matched
by the splendid behavior of our ports and cities
when they...
(audience claps)
When they in turn received the full violence
of the enemy's assault,
we have to ask ourselves this question.
Will the bombing attacks of last autumn
and winter come back again?
Mr. Chairman, we are proceeding on the assumption
that they will.
And if the lull is to end, if the storm is to
renew itself, London will be ready.
London will not flinch.
London can take it again.
We ask no favors of the enemy.
We seek from them no compunction.
On the contrary, if tonight the people of London
were asked to cast their votes as to whether
convention should be entered into to stop
the bombing of all cities, an overwhelming majority
would cry, "No, we will mete out to the Germans
"the measure and more than the measure
"they have meted out to us!"
(audience claps)
We will have no truce or parlay with you
or the grizzly gang who work your wicked will.
(audience laughs and claps)
You do your worst
and we will do our best.
(audience cheers and claps)
(military music)
For more infomation >> Pirates of the Caribbean (Dead Man's Chest) sub indonesia - Duration: 2:30:40. 
For more infomation >> Josh Milli - No Pude Olvidar (Unforgettable Spanish Remix ) Video Oficial🉐 - Duration: 2:46. 
For more infomation >> Video: Strong storms move in for morning commute - Duration: 3:09. 
For more infomation >> (October 24, 2017) A wife confronts her paranoid husband and his intrusive family. - Duration: 41:24. 
For more infomation >> CA Technologies Privileged ...
For more infomation >> Mercedes-Benz B-Klasse B 180 Ambition Line Urban - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> PROFECÍA - "Thrash Hasta la Muerte" (OFFICIAL VIDEOCLIP) - Duration: 4:36. 
For more infomation >> TERRE PLATE. Remue-méninges chez les conspis. A sous-titrer - Duration: 1:58. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét