Battle of Britain

[legelegel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHx3lWQjNWM

 

[armenius]

One of the all time greatest aviation movies.Aerial photography is unsurpassed.The true story of how a few pilots were able to prevent the invasion of England,which would likely would have brought WWII to a very different conclusion.

As mentioned in a previous thread,you should read "The Making of The Battle of Britain" which describes the tremendous effort behind making this epic film.

 

[legelegel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0t-RqjMH-A

 

[vytoland]

battle of Britain = my wife, at age 2, and her family, experienced the results of bombings, as close as 500 feet from their house, outside of Bedford, England..............

 

[the ringo kid]

If you happen to have access to Infinity, the Battle of Britain is available for free. Great photography, planes, etc. Susannah York is also as hot as any Spitfire. I think it is pretty historically accurate and a lesson for us all.

I always did enjoy her as well as that movie. This reminds me--I have about a dozen original stills from that movie lying about somewhere. Will try finding them sometime and posting them--all great combat shots too.

 

[the ringo kid]

A big second for Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea. The author commanded a frigate in the North Atlantic in WWII. The characters are well drawn, but the portrayal of life and death in the convoy escort force is the work of one who knows. It's the best sea novel I've ever read.

I haven't seen "The Battle Of Britain", but it sounds as if I should. I haven't seen "Twelve O'clock High" in many years, and probably ought to remedy that as well.

You should see it--you will not be disappointed....

 

[the ringo kid]

I knew one of the Polish Battle of Britain pilots.
He was a cotton duster pilot when I knew him.

I used to write to BoB pilots. Two were Polish, two were German and one Brit. Sadly, they are all gone now--as of about 2005.

 

[Texas Star]

I have a soft spot in my heart for this film. In college, I received a Texas Intercollegiate Press Assn. award for the second best movie review written that year in a Texas student newspaper for my review of the movie.

I think you can see it on YouTube. I do have the DVD, which is usually a massive bargain for under ten bucks for one of the absolute finest war films of all time.

Look for the later Spitfires, with twin radiators under the wings. Even in 1969, they couldn't locate enough flyable MK I and MK II ones.

Also note that the German planes use Merlin engines. They were borrowed from the Spanish AF and they weren't using the original engines. But all is as authentic as was possible and the cast was superb. Good music, too.

It's okay on YouTube, but really deserves a larger screen and better resolution than you usually get on the Net.

If you haven't seen, "Battle of Britain", you have missed a superb war film. It has subtitles when the Germans speak.

Air war movies never got any better, although I concede that "633 Squadron" about Mosquitos is excellent, too.

 

[Texas Star]

How was the "Spitfires" armed ?

Generally, eight .303 Brownings in the wings. Some had also two 20mm cannon, but reliability was at first sometimes not good. That was soon remedied and some Hurricanes carried four 20mm cannon. Aircraft with two cannons had, I think, just six of the .303's, maybe four.

It was realized that the .303 was not the best, even for fighter actions, let alone to shoot down bombers. Later Spits carried .50 caliber Brownings and/ or the 20mm cannon.

NOTE: Posted here before I saw this answered above. But the comment about 20mm reliability and the later .50's is new, so I'll leave this. Aircraft operating against Japan often retained the .303 guns, as Japanese planes were more vulnerable. But they did have the 20mm's, too.

 

[UncleEd]

Goering was played by Hein Riess, not Gert Frobe.

My bad. Memory is a terrible thing.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Texas Star]

While they are mentioned and finally go into action, the Polish pilots didn't get enough credit in The Battle of Britain movie.

I remember reading that one historical change that was made regarding Goering's visit to France was that he arrived wearing
pink flight boots. The movie producers put Gert Frobe in black boots.

Of course, Gert learned to "fly" in Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines. (His great grandson
turned into Goldfinger. (How's that for thread drift?)

I thought the Poles were well credited. It was the South African, Rhodesian, Australian, and others who weren't mentioned except in credits. Some Royal Navy pilots were also used in the RAF planes. They later got the Seafire version for carrier use.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The Battle of Britain really deserves a good mini-series, like the movie "Cromwell" they try to cram too much history into 2 hours.
Very few real persons are portrayed, the Robert Shaw character is based on Adolph "Sailor" Malan, a South African. The highest scoring RAF ace of the battle was Josef Frantisek. He was a Czech but he flew with the Polish squadron. Then there was the Eagle Squadron of "Canadians"

 

[the ringo kid]

The Battle of Britain really deserves a good mini-series, like the movie "Cromwell" they try to cram too much history into 2 hours.
Very few real persons are portrayed, the Robert Shaw character is based on Adolph "Sailor" Malan, a South African. The highest scoring RAF ace of the battle was Josef Frantisek. He was a Czech but he flew with the Polish squadron. Then there was the Eagle Squadron of "Canadians"

The BBC made a 3-part series several years ago. I THINK its called: Island at War.....If its not that title?its something similar.

 

[sigp220.45]

I have it saved on my DVR - was just watching it today.

How many recognized the young Al Swearingen?

 

[johngalt]

I need to watch it sometime. In the US, the British don't get enough credit for stopping the Germans. I'm still amused by claims that if we had not entered the war Germany would have invaded us. They couldn't even get across the channel.

 

[rwsmith]

One of the reasons...

In early production, they had 8 x .303 Browning machine guns; 350 rpg.

In later production, they had 2 x 20 mm cannons (60 round drums) and 4 x .303 Browning machine guns with 2 x 250 lb. bombs or 1 x 500 lb. bomb.

One reason I think that 'Spitfire' was a really appropriate name for this plane.

The six .50 cals on some of our planes was nothing to sneeze at either nor the 8 .50 cal guns on the Thunderbolt.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

As the Duke of Wellington said about Waterloo, "It was a d----- close run thing." However, the more I read about the more I think the Germans couldn't have won it. Like Operation Sea Lion, they were trying to improvise things that should have been planned years before. The Germans did not use drop tanks so an Me 109 had about TWENTY minutes flying time over England, and German aircrews developed what they called "Channel sickness"-they were afraid of ditching in the Channel. If they bailed out over the UK they were POWs, RAF crews went back in the fight. German planes lost over the UK were a total loass, RAF planes were either salvaged-by the Civilian Repair Organization-or recycled. As happened to the German wrecks. The German bombers had inadequate defensive armament, while the fighter pilots always complained about being "chained" to the bombers. The Germans had only the Me109, the British had the Spitfire AND the Hurricane, RAF tactics were that the Spitfires fought the Messerschmitts and the Hurricanes went after the bombers.
The casting is like "The Longest Day", an esemble of big name actors. One story about the movie concerns the scene where Susannah York's character meets a pilot she has know for a while. When you see the man's face you realize he has been badly burned, the story is he was a REAL veteran.

 

[Dave_n]

If I remember correctly the Me109s (correct title was Bf109 at the time) were actually Spanish Air Force planes that were rebuilt with Merlins as standard as the DB600 (?) engine was not available post 1945!!

Like the mother of one of the previous commentators, I too was "under the BoB" but was only 15 months old at the time, though my first memories are of air-raid shelters in the back yard about 10 months later during the end of the first London Blitz. Dave_n

 

[Harkrader]

The Cruel Sea

My maternal grandfather has been documented as the oldest captain at sea during the war. He was on the runs to Murmansk and Archangel and was honored by the Russians for his service.
I remember my mother buying the book, and I remember seeing the movie for the first time. Both brought tears from the family.
Captain Charles A.K. Bertun. There are references to him on the web.
We have his personal Chelsea ship's bell clock (documented) and many wonderful pictures along with his logs.

 

[Bat Guano]

One of my ABSOLUTE favorites for all kinds of reasons. The scene of the squadron leader chewing out the kid that did the victory roll is classic. Lee Ermey couldn't have done it any better...

The part of the German 109s hedgehopping to attack the Brit forward airfield is fantastic. If you run it in slow-motion, you will see that one of the 109s only clears the fence by a couple of feet!

And then there is the more recent buzz job (language alert!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QefGfX_IbWY