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| The Battle of Britain New (Documentary 1943, B&W, 52:00) Produced by Academy Award Winner Frank Capra, "The Battle of Britain" is a wartime documentary with the limitations and virtues that that implies. German air losses are highly exaggerated, on the order of two to three times their actual numbers. The key roll of the (at the time) still highly secret British radar early warning system and British Intelligence's ability to read the Germans "enigma" code were not revealed until years after the war.
But this film is still a dramatic window on the times and features excellent wartime footage (much of it not to be found anywhere else) and provides an illuminating glimpse of how the Allies represented the Battle during the war.
The Battle of Britain was the first battle in history fought entirely in the air to decide the fate of a major strategic campaign. Before the battle, Hitler was master of Europe, leading what appeared to be an unstoppable war machine in an unbroken string of victories. The French Army lay vanquished and the British Army was a mere shell of it's former self, having abandoned virtually all of it's modern equipment on the beaches of Dunkirk. The Wehrmacht was poised on the coast of France, rushing ahead with its preparations for Operation "Sea Lion," the invasion of England. Only one barrier stood between Germany and the shores of England: the Royal Air Force. The Luftwaffe could keep the Royal Navy at bay and protect cumbersome barges that would ferry the German army across the narrow waters of the channel only if the Luftwaffe could establish air superiority first . The RAF was the only effective fighting force that the British had left. Their epic encounter with the Luftwaffe marked a major tuning point in the war. Operation Sea Lion was canceled, Britain gained an invaluable breather, and Hitler turned his attention instead to Russia. Target for Tonight (Documentary 1941, B&W, 50:00) RAF Bomber Command in a Night Action Target for Tonight" follows the crew "F for Freddie, " a Vicker's Wellington medium bomber (Millerton Station, Group 33), through an entire low level night mission attacking an oil storage depot at a rail yard.. Notice how the film highlights the participation of not only servicemen from all classes from around the British Iles, but also Canadians and a navigator that sounds a lot like an American RAF volunteer.The film exemplifies the understatement, dry humour, and "business as usual" approach typical of British information films of the period, along with a clear "get the job done" attitude. * 50 page Vicker's Wellington pilot's manual in pdf file format with photos, detailed systems diagrams, performance charts, procedures & more. Covers Wellington III, X, Xi, XII, XIII, & XIV * 30 Page Spitfire V (A,B &C) Pilot's Notes in pdf file format with photossystems diagrams, performance information, procedures & more. Also covers Seafire IB,IIC & III Pilot's manual viewable on computer DVD player. Don't have a DVD player on your computer? We can put the manual on a separate CD-ROM! (Click here for info,)
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