It's the 31st of August 1940, about 20,000 feet over Essex in southeast England.

R.A.F. flight lieutenant Morris Monsden has been scrambled along with other fighter pilots

to intercept a formation of German Luftwaffe bombers heading to the city of Kolchester.

His squadron may be surrounded by clear blue skies this Saturday morning, but it's freezing

inside the enclosed cockpit of his Hawker Hurricane.

The 22-year-old shifts in his seat, where the parachute digs into his back.

Hanson, with slicked back hair and a dashing moustache, he also wears a flying helmet, goggles,

oxygen mask, leather jacket, and inflatable life vest.

It's a year since the start of the Second World War, and the Battle of Britain has been

raging for almost two months.

Day after day, waves of Luftwaffe planes have been making their way over the channel

to attack British military targets.

Dearing the field for Nazi invasion, and today is no exception.

Now the controller's voice from the base of North-Wield airfield crackles in his headset,

bandits approaching.

Monsden peers through his goggles to scan the clouds, then sees it, a large group of

black dots in the sky.

He recognizes them as German-Donnier bombers, escorting them a modern, powerful,

Messerschmitt fighter planes, painted with swastikers and with wing mounted cannons.

It's now a desperate race to destroy them, before they destroy him.

He gets into position and takes aim at one of the fighters, showering it with a burst

of machine gun fire.

...