World War II · Film · 1969
Battle of Britain
After the fall of France, the outnumbered pilots of RAF Fighter Command and the commanders who direct them from underground operations rooms hold off the Luftwaffe through the summer of 1940.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 6 places.
Stop 1: RAF Bentley Priory
At Fighter Command headquarters, Dowding weighs every squadron he can spare against the numbers the Luftwaffe is gathering in France.
Stop 2: Luftwaffe bases, Pas-de-Calais
Göring arrives on the French coast to press his commanders for a quick victory over the RAF.
Stop 3: 11 Group operations room, Uxbridge
Keith Park moves counters across the plotting table and feeds his squadrons into the fight a few at a time.
Stop 4: Skies over Kent
Key location
Spitfires and Hurricanes scramble again and again from bombed airfields to meet huge German formations over the south-east.
Stop 5: Berlin Sportpalast
Enraged by British bombs on Berlin, Hitler promises a crowd that London will pay for them.
Stop 6: London
The bombers turn on London, and the exhausted squadrons rise for the decisive day of the battle.
What really happened
The Battle of Britain ran from July to October 1940. Germany needed air superiority over the Channel before any invasion, and the Luftwaffe attacked convoys, then radar stations and airfields, and from 7 September London itself. Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's Fighter Command, guided by radar and a network of operations rooms, fought it with about 3,000 aircrew, the 'Few', of whom 544 were killed.
The film follows the real campaign closely, including Keith Park's 11 Group, the dispute over Leigh-Mallory's 'Big Wing' and the Polish pilots of No. 303 Squadron, but its airmen are composite characters. Many of the 'German' aircraft were Spanish-built Hispano Buchón fighters and CASA 2.111 bombers borrowed from the Spanish Air Force.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Battle of Britain
- Directed by
- Guy Hamilton
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English, German
- Released
- 1969
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Air war
- Combat
- True story
