THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (PT 1): THE GERMAN GOLIATH STRIKES AND BRITAIN RISES TO FIGHT
1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast
Jon Hagadorn
4.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
By May of 1940 the German juggernaut has conquered most of western Europe and all that remains is the tiny island of Great Britain- its army having suffered an embarrassing loss and retreat at Dunkirk trying to defend France against its German occupiers. Now Germany wants to annihilate Britain using their powerful air force- the Luftwaffe- which they consider unbeatable. The outnumbered British Royal Air Force (RAF) bravely rises to the skies to defend their island home from invasion while the fate of the free world in Europe hangs in the balance.
Sources: Battle of Britain (film) MGM, 1969; Bishop, Edward (1968) Their Finest Hour. Ballantine; Collier, Basil, The Defence of the United Kingdom (1962) ///Interviews: Veterans: Ken Wilkensen, RAF Pilot, Gerasld Stapleton, RAF Pilot, Tony Pickering, RAF Pilot, Bob Foster, RAF Pilot, Winston Churchill "We Will Fight Them on the Beaches"
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | . |
| 0:31.0 | I'm Ken Wilkinson. During the war I flew with 19 squadron in the Battle of Britain. |
| 0:39.0 | On 1st September 39 I wrote myself off. I thought you've got no chance at lasting through whatever it's going to be |
| 0:49.0 | because it was quite obvious that the way the Germans were moving there were going to make a hell of a war out of it |
| 0:58.0 | and so I was ready for war. It's our country. You die for your country. |
| 1:08.0 | Say war is a total war and it certainly was in England in 1940 and all the stuff that was being thrown at us |
| 1:20.0 | and when you think that all the thousands of citizens that were being killed by this absurd bombing |
| 1:33.0 | and still they had to pay for it didn't they? Yes, you lost people. Friends didn't come back. |
| 1:45.0 | You have to get into an attitude and to make sure that basically you're as cold as a fish |
| 1:54.0 | and once somebody has failed to return that's it. |
| 2:01.0 | Welcome back everyone to 1,000 One Heroes Legends, Histories and Mysteries Podcast. |
| 2:07.0 | This is your host John Hagridorn and it's great to have you with us today. |
| 2:12.0 | I know there must be a number of pubs and great Britain into which veterans, Oxford and Cambridge brain trust types |
| 2:19.0 | and World War II historians packed nightly to debate the great what ifs of history, especially British history. |
| 2:26.0 | I have a question for them. If you had to choose one World War II battle or campaign on which the fate of the free world rested, |
| 2:35.0 | which would it be in your opinion? |
| 2:38.0 | I would answer hands down the battle of Britain. I think I hear a voice from the bag saying, |
| 2:45.0 | well state your case mate and here it is but I'm not going to give you the short answer. |
| 2:52.0 | By the time we're done here you'll know a little or a lot more about Britain's desperate fight to rid the skies of the German Luftwaffe |
| 2:59.0 | than you thought you did and you'll also hear a new sense of just how close it all was and I mean razor thin. |
| 3:08.0 | All of you here listening internationally know the story of Hitler's Germany and their sweep across Europe in 1939 and early 1940, |
| 3:16.0 | leaving only the tiny island of Great Britain separated from Nazi occupied France and Western Europe only by the 20 mile wide English channel. |
... |
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