01x02 - His Finest Hour

[bunniefuu]

[Hitler] Sieg Heil!

[crowd] Sieg Heil!

- [tense music plays]
- [footsteps marching]

[planes buzzing by]

[explosions]

[Churchill] It took Armageddon
to make me Prime Minister.

- [g*nf*re]
- [expl*si*n]

Now I am determined that power shall be
in no other hands but my own.

[waves crashing]

[indistinct chatter]

[tense music swells]

[intriguing, militaristic music plays]

[Churchill] You lads...
got everything you need?

[soldiers murmur assent]

Good.

What's this?

[seagull calling]

[man] They call them tommy g*ns, sir.

Thompson machine g*ns.

The Americans included some
in their shipment of r*fles.

Same as in their gangster movies.

We'll be ready for the Huns now,
I dare say.

[man] Yes, Prime Minister.

Those we don't drown in the sea,
we'll hit with one of these, eh, Pug?

May I?

- [g*n clicks]
- [Churchill] Ooh.

- How many of these arrived?
- [man] Just a few hundred, sir.

See to it that some of them
are at each coastal defense site.

Let the people
see we are armed to the teeth.

[man] I'll make sure of it,
Prime Minister.

Sir?

[men chuckling]

[riveting music playing]

[rapid firing]

[grandiose intro music]

[foreboding music plays]

[Churchill] The Germans had struck
their long-awaited blow.

The invasion of the Low Countries
and France had begun.

- [fire roaring]
- [rubble clattering]

[expl*si*n]

[Snow] Churchill's got
the most challenging entrée

of any leader in modern history.

[quiet sobbing]

He has got
a military catastrophe unfolding.

The day Churchill becomes Prime Minister,
that's the day that,

now the crisis begins.

The invasion of the Low Countries,

Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and France,

begins on the 10th of May.

So right away, he's on the spot.

[booms]

[Churchill] A slowly gathered, long
pent-up fury of the storm broke upon us.

[plane engine buzzes]

Four or five millions of men
met each other in the first shock

of the most merciless of all the wars
of which record has been kept.

[tank rumbling and squeaking]

One of the real problems with leadership
is when you're full of self-pity.

You know, "Why me? How come this couldn't
have happened under somebody else?"

Churchill never seemed
to have that kind of self-pity.

- [reporters clamoring]
- [cameras clicking]

[Peri] When Churchill takes the stage,

in a way, it's a leader's dream.

The situation is very black and white.

Right? We are good. Hitler is bad.

[military band playing in background]

We're gonna stand up to him.

Black and white.

[chorus singing in German]

[man] Shoulder arms!

Churchill makes himself
not just Prime Minister,

but also Minister of Defense.

- [seabirds calling]
- [somber music playing]

Because the lesson that Churchill took
from the Dardanelles crisis

in the First World w*r

was that it had failed because
no one person had been in overall charge.

[Churchill] At last, I had the authority
to give directions over the whole scene.

I thought I knew a good deal about it all,
and I was sure I should not fail.

- [man] Hip, hip...
- [all] Hurray!

[Bush] I don't know about destiny.

All I know is he got thrown into
a difficult situation and dealt with it.

[Churchill] My experiences
in those first days were peculiar.

One lived with a battle
upon which all thoughts were centered,

and about which nothing could be done.

[tense music softly builds]

I cannot remember
how all the hours were spent.

[Douds] Luxembourg
will surrender within hours.

Netherlands will surrender in five days.

Belgium will surrender in 18 days.

And it's shocking
because it is expected that France,

France who has a world-class army,

who has better tanks than the Germans
and more of them,

they should be able to hold
for months, if not years.

The French army is collapsing.

A mighty German armored thrust
is punching through the French army...

and is going to reach the Channel coast,
dividing the Allied armies in half.

[Packwood] The w*r Cabinet
is almost in constant session.

You can imagine them sitting there
in these smoke-filled rooms

as these dispatch riders are bringing in
sort of successions of telegrams

and increasingly bad news from France.

[solemn music playing]

[Churchill] The French are evidently
cracking, and the situation is awful.

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill put himself at
significant risk on a number of occasions.

He kept flying over to Paris,

holding meetings with the French
prime minister, trying to rally them.

[Meacham] Churchill says,
"I was sure I should not fail."

Almost everybody else
thought that he might fail.

Randolph Churchill, his son,

was sitting in the bathroom
while Churchill was shaving,

and he says, "I am sure we shall win."

And Randolph says, "How do you know?"

And Churchill says,
"I shall drag the Americans in."

"I shall drag the Americans in."

[traffic noises]

[Douds] America is safely ensconced
on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The US has been going through its own
troubles with the Great Depression,

and there is very much an isolationist
point of view in the United States.

We went over in the last w*r,

and those people have
gotten themselves into another one.

It's a them problem, not an us problem.

[people shouting]

When Churchill becomes Prime Minister,

he's got this existing
line of communication to Roosevelt.

They've already exchanged telegrams.
He can now attempt to build on that.

[Churchill] Most secret and personal.

We expect to be attacked here ourselves,
and are getting ready for them.

If necessary,
we shall continue the w*r alone,

and we are not afraid of that.

But I trust you realize, Mr. President,

that the voice and force
of the United States may count for nothing

if they are withheld too long.

You may have a completely subjugated,
Nazified Europe established

with astonishing swiftness,

and the weight
may be more than we can bear.

[Peri] And Roosevelt writes back
a kind of hedging response,

and punts, and says,

"I'd like to help you,
but I really need Congress' approval."

Churchill is, in his head
and to his advisors, saying,

"This guy's the President of the US,
and he really needs to ask Congress?"

"Like, he can't do this himself?"

But that is where FDR is.

[plane engine roars]

- [soldiers clamoring]
- [g*nf*re]

[Snow] In May 1940, Britain's armies
and the armies of France

are cut off from each other,
almost surrounded,

driven back to the sea, humiliated.

The German army are encroaching
all the time, getting closer and closer.

[shots fired]

[Roberts]
If the British Expeditionary Force

was surrounded and captured
by the Germans,

which it very easily could have been,

then that would be pretty much game over
for Britain in the Second World w*r.

[Tucker-Jones]
The Luftwaffe dominated the skies...

[plane rapidly descending]

...which meant they were
gonna be able to strafe and b*mb

any rescue fleet that was put together.

The British army
and a chunk of the French army

were rapidly being trapped in this pocket

in northeastern France,
around the port of Dunkirk.

[dramatic music playing]

And that pocket around Dunkirk
began to be squeezed.

[thunder rumbling]

Tell the French we cannot spare
any more of our aircraft.

Right, sir.

[Tucker-Jones] Behind the scenes,
he had this terrible dilemma.

Boulogne and Calais are nearly lost.

If they fall, that leaves us only
one option to get our men out, Dunkirk.

Operation Dynamo, yes.

Ferry our boys home,

or as many as we can.

Yes, sir.

But the harbor at Dunkirk is
not deep enough for our destroyers,

and it's littered
with sunken ships already.

Well, we'll need the smaller boats then,
ones that can reach the beach.

They'll be smaller targets
for the Luftwaffe.

We'll lose massive amounts of equipment
if we evacuate now, sir.

It'll have to be left behind.

Trucks and tanks are replaceable.
An army of men is not.

Have the small vessel pool at the ready.

Yes, sir.

[quiet, somber music playing]

And how many can you really save?

Maybe...



Forty-five out of nearly 400,000?

We'll lose our army.

You won't be able to stop an invasion.

[Snow] Churchill's trying
to convince the Cabinet

to stay in this w*r against Hitler.

He is a threat unlike any we've faced
in the last thousand years.

This is not Napoleon.
This is not Kaiser Wilhelm.

Hitler is different,
because he's a twisted, demonic lunatic.

He's a genocidal maniac.

Winston, now is the time to negotiate.

If Hitler invades...

My dear Lord Halifax, if Hitler invades,

we shall fight him with...
broken beer bottles if necessary.

Yes, very colorful, Winston,
but it doesn't...

We've got to hold on, Edward.

Surely you know
what negotiating with that man means.

It means accepting
the terms of the conquered,

and we are not yet conquered.

Hitler would demand our navy
and turn us into a sl*ve state.

No!

When the Americans come in...

But the Americans
aren't coming in, Winston.

You have to be realistic.
We must negotiate now.

In May 1940, peace negotiations
were seriously considered

over nine meetings of the w*r Cabinet.

It could've happened.

[Meacham] Churchill thinks,
"We are not cutting a deal."

Some things are more important,

and this is it.

It was a remarkable act of moral courage

to stand and say,
"No, we are not compromising with evil."

[Churchill] If this long island story
of ours is to end at last,

let it end only when each one of us

lies choking in his own blood
upon the ground.

[Johnson] You've got to imagine
what the world would have been like

if Winston Churchill had not been there

in that smoke-filled room in May 1940.

Imagine a sort of
Monty Python hand coming down,

taking Churchill out of the equation.

It is really all too plausible to imagine

that Britain would have
done a deal with Hitler.

Loads of people wanted it.

Loads of important Conservative
politicians like Halifax wanted it.

Now, that would have been a disaster
for humanity of unparalleled proportion.

European civilization would have been lost

to an odious, r*cist,
anti-Semitic tyranny.

Take Churchill out, it's a nightmare.

[music peaks and fades]

[Churchill] Never give in.
Never, never, never, never.

In nothing, great or small,
large or petty.

Never give in, except to convictions
of honor and good sense.

Never yield to force.

[expl*si*n echoing]

Never yield to the apparently
overwhelming might of the enemy.

It's that decisiveness
that we find attractive in the man.

So, late May,
Churchill greenlights Operation Dynamo.

- [airplane approaching]
- [boom echoes]

[Snow] The fate of Winston Churchill,
the fate of Europe,

and possibly the fate of the free world
hang in the balance.

There are hundreds of thousands of Brits
that need to be evacuated from Dunkirk,

under enormous pressure.

[Douds] The expectation,
at least initially, was

we hoped to get about 45,000 men out.

This is already a disaster.

The question is, how big of a disaster?

[crowd noises]

He recognizes that the risk is great

and that this is a decisive operation,
depending on what happens here.

[Packwood] A call was put out
for any civilian vessels

to take part in this evacuation.

[man on radio] A number of appeals
for recruits have been issued today.

The Admiralty want men
experienced in yachts or motorboats.

[Packwood] They needed
shallower craft that could get close.

So they ended up with this fleet
of paddle steamers,

barges, pleasure boats.

[Churchill] Everyone who had
a boat of any kind,

steam or sail, put out for Dunkirk.

And the preparations were now aided
by volunteers on an amazing scale.

[gripping music playing]

[airplane buzzing by]

[Douds] Between the 26th of May
and the 4th of June,

they won't pull 45,000 out.

They'll pull 338,000 out.

[triumphant music playing]

Over 200,000 British and over 100,000
of their allies and partners.

[Churchill] In the midst of our defeat,
glory came to the island people,

united and unconquerable.

And the tale of the Dunkirk beaches

will shine in whatever records
are preserved of our affairs.

[Douds] There's national sweat equity
in making this work.

When they are able to rescue
their professional army,

and many of their allies,

this is viewed as a miracle.

People are elated at the prospect.

A very optimistic picture
was put on that evacuation,

how the victorious
British Expeditionary Force

had been withdrawn to fight another day.
I mean, that's how it was painted.

- [bleak wind whistling]
- [somber music playing]

But the fact is, all of their equipment,

their vehicles, their tanks,
their a*tillery, were lost.

How are you going to
keep the British army functioning?

[Snow] The reality is that in June 1940,

Britain is isolated.

It's lost nearly all
its European continental allies.

German forces now dominate
the Channel coast.

Hitler's armies are now 20 miles away
from the White Cliffs of Dover.

The Germans can see Britain
across the English Channel.

[Churchill] Within six weeks, we were
to find ourselves alone, almost disarmed,

with triumphant Germany at our throats,

with the whole of Europe
open to Hitler's power.

[Snow] Churchill has no honeymoon.

Within weeks of taking office,

Churchill will face
probably the greatest crisis

that Britain has faced
in its modern history.

The great fear is, now that Germany
has occupied the better part of France,

that they're next.

And really, they are
the only country left to face Germany.

[Churchill] It was imperative to explain,
not only to our own people,

but to the world, that our resolve
to fight on was no mere despairing effort.

In the summer of 1940,
Churchill is winning the w*r of words.

He does it through mobilizing the English
language and sending it into battle.

We must be very careful
not to assign to this deliverance

the attributes of a victory.

Wars are not won by evacuations.

Churchill takes this great moment,
you know, Dunkirk and the evacuation,

and dampens down any sense of euphoria,

because he's giving people
this reality check.

Even though large tracts of Europe

and many old and famous states
have fallen, or may fall,

into the grip of the Gestapo
and all the odious apparatus of n*zi rule,

we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end.

We shall fight in France.

We shall fight on the seas and oceans.

[MPs] Hear, hear.

We shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air.

[MPs] Hear, hear.

We shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be.

[moving music playing]

We shall fight on the beaches.

We shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills.

We shall never surrender.

[MPs cheering and applauding]

[man] Yes! Hear, hear!

The "Fight on the beaches" speech
is actually a great example

of how Churchill used communication
to advance his leadership.

You could argue
that he had three audiences:

the British public,

Hitler,

and his most important audience,

Franklin Roosevelt
and the American people.

And what he was trying to convey
to Franklin Roosevelt

was that, "We are in it to win it."

"We are not gonna capitulate."

And even if,
which I do not for a moment believe,

this island was subjugated and starving,

then the new world,
with all its power and might,

steps forth to the rescue
and the liberation of the old.

[more applause]

"The new world
in all its power and might."

That's Franklin Roosevelt.

It ends on a plea and a prayer

that if they're going to undo
what Hitler's done,

he needs FDR.

His strategy was just to hang on.

And he had to somehow inveigle
the United States to come in.

Churchill is known for pitching the UK
as this kind of plucky island

standing alone
against these grave fascist powers.

Um, but the reality is
Britain had an empire behind it.

And I think America was skeptical
of that narrative,

that Britain wasn't the underdog
that it makes itself out to be.

[compelling music playing]

[man on radio] There are many essential
services calling now for recruits.

The local defense volunteers.

[Roberts] Churchill had to act immediately
after the evacuation from Dunkirk.

He needed, essentially,
to militarize the nation.

I think of that summoning up
of the w*r spirit.

I think of the spirit of the women
who got involved in the w*r effort.

The young men conscripted
and signing up on behalf of their nation.

And, indeed, I think of my parents

and their generation across empire,
and in this case, the Caribbean,

being called to fight.

[footsteps marching]

[Peri] France has fallen.

And it is an incredibly dark day.

It's bleak.

[Churchill] After the collapse of France,

the question which arose in the minds
of all our friends and foes was,

will Britain surrender too?

[Churchill, in re-enactment]
The Battle of France is over.

The Battle of Britain is about to begin.

The whole fury and might of the enemy
must very soon be turned on us.

He painted a picture of the world
with these remarkable cadences

in speeches written in psalm form,
almost as if they were poetry.

[Lammy] Churchill is crystal clear
about the values of freedom, of liberty.

And in that sense,
he speaks to this era as well,

where we have to be crystal clear
about the values worth fighting for.

[Churchill] Hitler knows that
he will have to break us in this island

or lose the w*r.

If we can stand up to him,
all Europe may be free,

and the life of the world may move forward

into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail,

then the whole world,
including the United States,

will sink into the abyss
of a new dark age,

made more sinister
by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves
to our duties,

and so bear ourselves

that, if the British Empire
and its Commonwealth

last for a thousand years,

men will still say,

"This was their finest hour."

It's the "fake it till you make it" form
of communication and leadership,

but it's effective,
because if you can, with your words,

assert that the British people
will keep fighting,

that no matter what comes,
we are not going to stop,

the people have no choice but to say,
"Okay, yeah, we're gonna do that."

[Cunniffe] In many ways,
he'd always been a wartime orator

in search of a w*r, and now he's got one.

[Peri] It's one of the speeches
that we all now look back on

and think is one of the greatest speeches
of the 20th century.

[men speaking indistinctly]

[Peri] Interestingly, the British people
did not hear him initially deliver it.

Instead, he recorded it
for delivery on the radio,

and the British public thought
that his delivery was awful.

People thought he was drunk.

One person sent a telegram
to Downing Street

suggesting that he lie down,
and maybe he was drunk.

- [radio static]
- But one story is that

he sounded this way
because he had a cigar in his mouth

the entire time
he was reading this speech.

Of course, later on,
it took on its own mythology.

It's a bit like a Beatles song.

You don't remember first hearing it

because it's just always there
in the background.

[Peri] At a moment
when your morale could be the lowest

because it really does seem like
we are not big enough to fight this guy,

- Churchill comes in and says, "We are."
- [Churchill orating in background]

[Johnson]
He found ways of stirring people,

making them feel
that... they were going to win.

We shall break up and derange
every effort which Hitler makes.

[in German] You are flesh...

[crowd cheers]

[Johnson] The difference between
Hitler's speeches and Churchill's speeches

was Hitler made you feel that
Hitler, he, Hitler, could do anything.

Churchill made you feel
that you were capable of doing anything.

[intriguing music playing]

[Tucker-Jones] So France sued for peace,

leaving Britain
to continue the w*r on its own.

The problem that Churchill
and the British Empire faced was

where now did the loyalty
of the French Empire lie?

[Churchill] At all costs, at all risks,
in one way or another,

we must make sure that the navy of France
did not fall into wrong hands

and then perhaps bring us
and others to ruin.

All the operation of government
went underground during the w*r,

and he was down there deciding,
for instance,

whether they had to butcher
the French fleet.

If our code breakers are correct,

the Germans are now using
French naval code.

Which means they either already have
control of the French fleet

or will have soon.

It's unlikely the Nazis will dismantle
a perfectly good fleet of warships,

no matter what Hitler says.

I think we can safely ignore
anything coming from him.

Or the French, at this point.

So we must seize their navy

or destroy it.

Why in God's name
haven't we done it already?

[man] There are many reasons,
Mr. Beaverbrook.

They may still
turn their ships over to us, for one.

You think Hitler
will let them leave their ports?

Hitler demands they turn over the fleet.

If they refuse,
they burn Marseille to the ground.

If they refuse again, they burn Lyons.

And so on.
There's really no choice in the matter.

Admiral Somerville is in command
of the attack force.

He's requested we avoid use of force
at all costs.

The man served
with the French in the last w*r.

As did I.

As did we all.

[typewriter clacking]

This is a... hateful decision.

If the French refuse
to surrender their ships,

scuttle them, or join us...

sink them.

[tense music playing]

[Churchill] The French had been
only yesterday our dear allies,

and our sympathy
for the misery of France was sincere.

On the other hand, the life of the state

and the salvation of our cause
were at stake.

[Tucker-Jones] Churchill gave
the French navy an ultimatum.

[Douds] "You can sail your fleet
to Canada and be on our side,

or you can scuttle the ships."

[footsteps approaching]

And of course,
France chooses none of those options

because that's not
in keeping with their national interests.

[Purnell] After days of agonizing,

Churchill took the decision
that he would have to attack French ships

in this port in North Africa.

[Douds] This is
a very difficult thing to do to an ally,

but it's one of those other hard calls
that Winston Churchill has to make.

[cannon shells booming]

And so the Royal Navy sinks
the French navy.

[explosions]

[explosions echoing]

[Churchill] It was Greek tragedy,

but no act was ever more necessary
for the life of Britain

and for all that depended upon it.

[somber music swells]

[Purnell]
And 1,300 French sailors lost their lives.

[Churchill] Here was this Britain,

which so many had counted down and out,

striking ruthlessly
at her dearest friends of yesterday

and securing
undisputed command of the sea.

It was made plain that
the British w*r Cabinet feared nothing

and would stop at nothing.

- [horse hooves clattering]
- [quiet, tense music playing]

[in German]
Our party consisted of only seven members.

It already had two principles.

[Purnell] It looked like Britain
was going to be invaded any moment.

[Tucker-Jones] At the time,
if you were in Britain,

that threat was very real, very imminent.
France had fallen.

[Douds] England is next, and the thing
that'll happen is the invasion of England,

or from the German side,
"Operation Sea Lion."

[Snow] Hitler looks at the situation
in the summer of 1940,

and first off,
he's hoping Britain is going to surrender.

What's Britain got left to fight for?

But because of Churchill,
Britain doesn't do that.

He says, "There can be no peace
with Adolf Hitler."

[Hirsch] Churchill was
a very stubborn person.

At the time of huge pressure
when others would have cracked,

he managed to stay focused.

[Churchill] One of the ways
to bring this w*r to a speedy end

is to convince the enemy, not by words,

but by deeds,

to strike heavy and unexpected blows.

[Hitler, in German] Mr. Churchill has
repeatedly declared that he wants the w*r.

I am fully aware that
the continuation of this w*r will only end

with the complete destruction
of one of us.

Mr. Churchill may believe
it will be Germany.

I know it will be England!

[German crowd cheers]

[Snow] Before you invade Britain,
you have to destroy the British Air Force.

You have to gain air superiority.

And so Hitler launches
the Battle of Britain to do just that.

Winston's best hope is
RAF Fighter Command.

Just as the w*r had broken out,

they had state-of-the-art aircraft
coming into service

Had the Hurricane and the Spitfire.

[Douds] There's also 30,000 coastal
watchers in 1,000 observation posts.

There's people working radars,
people working anti-aircraft a*tillery.

There's people working searchlights
and barrage balloons,

mechanics who keep airplanes
back in the air,

people at the production facilities
that are producing aircraft

to replace the ones that get shot down.

And the first mass air raid on Britain
came in what they dubbed "Eagle Day."

[Douds] This is an effort
by the Luftwaffe, the German air force,

to sh**t down British aircraft,
to destroy airfields and runways.

[booming and explosions]

We're talking about 1,000 aircraft
coming over the British coast.

We're talking about hundreds of
British fighters going up to fight them.

[Purnell]
At the height of the Battle of Britain,

Spitfires were attacking German planes
in the skies above southern England,

and you see them sort of looping
and swerving and attacking each other.

[rapid g*nf*re]

[airplane rapidly descending]

Britain could not have been in more peril.

Someone described it once as
the country was hanging on by its eyelids,

expected to be invaded any single day.

The country held its breath
because it thought

the Blitzkrieg was about to come
across the English Channel.

[Purnell] Churchill would invite generals
and cabinet ministers to work at Chequers,

the prime ministerial country residence.

And they would try and find a moment
to reduce the stress a little bit.

Hmm.

Oh, for heaven's sake, Winston,

stop waving that thing around
in the house.

When the Huns invade,

they won't take me alive.

I expect every member of this household
to take one dead German with them.

I, for one, intend to take several.

Do you expect them to invade before lunch?

If not, put it away.

[sighs]

Before lunch or after,
doesn't matter, Clemmie.

The point is they're coming,
and we must all be ready to face them.

I spoke to Cornwall over at III Corps.

Says he's got a new motto
to get them back in shape.

Hitting, not sitting. [chuckles]

Prime Minister, do you hear?
Hitting, not sit...

I heard you.

What did he say
about their readiness to fight?

Well, they need more equipment.

What? More equipment?

Yes. There. Page six.


r*fles and mortars.

How am I supposed to run this w*r
if I don't have accurate reports?

You tell Cornwall from me,

I want the proper numbers
in my hands tomorrow morning.

Action this day!

Now, don't be a bully, Winston,
for heaven's sake.

[Purnell] Churchill was a demanding boss.

And he could bark at people.
He was quite terrifying.

And he was
such a larger-than-life character,

it was quite difficult sometimes
for anyone to argue against him.

Most people would just retreat.

[Roberts] Everybody recognized that
Churchill was a hugely eccentric figure.

Winston Churchill never wanted
to waste a minute,

and so he would dictate to his secretaries
from the bathtub.

Churchill invented
what was called the siren suit,

which was an all-in-one
velvet sort of onesie...

[laughing]...um, that he would wear
over his normal clothes.

And it had big pockets for his cigars,
and he felt very comfortable in it.

He was a bit camp.

He loved hats.

[Petraeus]
He loved to wear different uniforms.

He was a bit of a play actor, after all.

He knew that all of his life
had been preparation

for this moment on the world stage,

and he was going to turn in
a great performance.

What have you got there, Thompson?

The gardener says the Germans have been
dropping them all over London, sir.

"Wanted... for incitement to m*rder."

[chuckles]

Good.

We have their attention, haven't we?

[Douds] So this is German propaganda,

the famous picture of Winston Churchill
holding a tommy g*n.

It was an effort
to make him look like a gangster.

But everybody in the US said,

"That's an American-made tommy g*n.
Awesome."

So it totally backfires in the sense of,

they see in Winston Churchill
someone that they can relate to.

- [intriguing military music playing]
- [plane approaching]

[Tucker-Jones]
There's this enormous pressure.

This air w*r taking place
in England's skies.

- [air raid siren wailing]
- [planes approaching]

You would just see
these unending vapor trails

of German bombers and their escort
fighters passing overhead.

And you would just see
wave after wave after wave of aircraft,

and it would be truly terrifying.

And then the Luftwaffe had a mishap.

A b*mber got lost
and accidentally bombed London.

[loud expl*si*n]

[tense, dramatic music playing]

[siren blaring]

[Churchill] The sporadic raiding of London
towards the end of August

was promptly answered by us
in a retaliatory attack on Berlin.

[Snow] Churchill understood PR.

He understood diplomacy.
He understood politics.

And it was the biggest possible statement

that even while the Brits were
penned up in their island,

worrying about defending their own coast,

they were still able to strike
the enemy capital, Berlin.

[Churchill] I believe that nothing
impressed or disturbed Hitler so much

as his realization
of British wrath and willpower.

In his heart, he was one of our admirers.

[Tucker-Jones] Now, pompous Hermann Göring
had always promised Hitler

Berlin would never be bombed,
enemy bombers would never reach it.

[airplane approaching]

That was not true.

[bombs exploding]

[Hitler, in German] You see,
they will attack us on a large scale.

We will wipe out their cities.

And Hitler is pissed off.

[Hitler, in German] The hour will come
when one of us will break.

And it will not be
National Socialist Germany.

[crowd cheers]

And you get a kind of slow escalation,
a tit-for-tat.

Hitler's furious that
bombs have fallen on Berlin,

and they kind of egg each other on.

[Douds]
And so now this will start to shift.

They'll look from targeting
the Royal Air Force

to targeting the British population.

[air raid siren wailing]

It's a momentous decision.

[man on radio] An evacuation of children

from the danger zones
of England and Scotland carried on.

The hope is, if you inflict
enough damage on London,

maybe the Brits surrender,
maybe there's a revolution,

maybe people rise up against Churchill
'cause they don't wanna be part of this.

[Morse code beeping]

The Bletchley Park decoders
had informed Churchill

that a major raid was imminent

because they'd cracked
the German communication codes.

[Churchill] Our fate now depended
upon victory in the air.

I drove over to Uxbridge
and arrived at the group headquarters.

My wife and I were taken down
to the b*mb-proof operations room

50 feet below ground.

And they went down all these steps

to see people pushing
little kind of models around,

representing squadrons, airplanes, ships,

German formations coming in,
on a huge map.

[Douds] If you're an RAF pilot,

you're probably tired
from the night before,

then you got a call
from the control center.

[phone ringing]

"Heads up, observers have found scores
of German aircraft crossing the border."

"Radars confirm it's true."

Forty plus, 60 plus, 80 plus,

this is the number of German planes
they see crossing the border.

And what Churchill sees is the commander
calling each of the individual squadrons

to up their readiness
until finally he launches them.

[bell ringing]

[Purnell] There was a wall
where there was a line of red lights,

and each red light denotes a squadron.

When the red light comes on,
the squadron is in the air.

[dramatic music crescendos]

It got to the point
where all the red lights were on.

[Churchill] I became conscious
of the anxiety of the Commander.

Hitherto I had watched in silence.

I now asked,
"What other reserves have we?"

There are none.

[Douds] You're talking
to a controller who says,

"Hey, we're gonna
vector you in this direction

for you to set up the intercept that
you might come down out of the sun."

And then finally you roll in.

Now all of a sudden
it's a massive dogfight.

Aircrafts trying to find 1v1 advantage.

Everywhere you turn, there's danger
and somebody else in trouble.

[Tucker-Jones] The RAF Fighter Command
had committed

everything it had to that air battle.

And it was brought to breaking point.

[rapid fire]

[Churchill] The odds were great.
Our margins small.

The stakes infinite.

[dramatic music continues]

[flames crackling]

[Douds] Ultimately the day ends
with the British claiming 180 kills.

It ends up being about 58
and 20 severely damaged.

But this is what breaks the back

of the German effort
to conduct daylight strikes over England.

[Churchill] September 15th
was the crux of the Battle of Britain.

That same night,
our b*mber command attacked in strength.

[Tucker-Jones]
It was touch and go for the RAF.

But because RAF Fighter Command
weathered that storm,

it clearly signaled
the Germans were not going to win.

And that's why 15th September is
celebrated as the Battle of Britain Day.

[solemn music playing]

[Ruane] You go walking sometimes
in the hills beyond Canterbury,

and you will come across
small, little homemade crosses,

lovingly tended spots...

which are a reminder, constantly,

of a Hurricane, or a Spitfire,
and a pilot that lost their life.

The Battle of Britain is there.

[Churchill] The gratitude of every home
in our island, in our empire,

goes out to the British airmen
who, undaunted by odds

and wearied in their constant challenge
and mortal danger,

are turning the tide of the world w*r
by their prowess and by their devotion.

Never in the field of human conflict

was so much owed by so many to so few.

[stirring music playing]

[Snow] It's in September 1940,

with the autumn gales
coming up the Channel,

the days shortening,

the famous British winter on the way,

that Hitler reluctantly decides
he cannot invade Britain this year.

He decides to abandon
military attacks on the RAF

and take up terror bombing of London.

[plane engines starting]

It's so dangerous to go by day

that instead the Germans switch
to going by night.

This attack on London is the start
of what's known as the Blitz.

[air raid sirens rising]

[air raid sirens blaring]

[rocket whistling]

[explosions echoing]

[shots booming]

[ominous music builds]

[Purnell] When the Blitz started, London
had 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

Let's just take that in for a second.
It seemed like it was never going to end.

[air raid sirens wailing]

[explosions echoing]

[Snow] The British people
remember it as the time

when they were thrown into the front line,

when it was men, women, and children

cowering in shelters as German bombs
rained down on them night after night.

City blocks destroyed,
enormous firestorms created,

precious historical sites destroyed,



by the end of 1940
from the German bombing.

[Soames] They had terrible trouble
keeping my grandfather safe

because he always had
this enormous personal courage.

[bombs exploding]

You know, he was supposed to be
in the b*mb shelter,

but he was up on the roof,

much to everybody's horror.

[bombing continues]

[plane buzzes by]

[somber music playing]

[Churchill] The experience of remaining
on the roof night after night under fire

with no protection but a tin hat
soon became habitual.

I felt, with a spasm of mental pain,

a deep sense of the strain and suffering

that was being borne throughout
the world's largest capital city.

[Meacham] Civilian populations
were under attack in London.

He was particularly well-prepared
to stand in the breach

and say, "You've gone that far,
but you will go no farther."

And he was genuinely willing
to die for that.

[man yelling indistinctly]

[people clamoring]

[Snow]
By going out and walking the streets,

and seeing the damage,

and having cups of tea with people
that lost their houses in the Blitz,

lost loved ones,

Churchill projected the image
of calm determination.

[people cheering]

[Hirsch] He had this rare ability to
understand the power of his own narrative

and how to shape a brand around him.

And it's still those symbols
that people remember him for,

you know, the hat, the cigar,
the bulldog, the voice.

[Churchill]
These indiscriminate bombings of London

are, of course,
a part of Hitler's invasion plan.

What he has done
is to kindle a fire in British hearts

which will glow long after all traces

of the conflagrations he has caused
in London have been removed.

[Douglas Brinkley] The bombing was being
broadcast by Edward R. Murrow and others.

[Murrow] I'm standing on a rooftop
looking out over London.

And so people, suddenly,
in a farm in Kansas

could be listening in real time

to the bombs going off.

[Murrow] The lights are swinging over
in this general direction now.

We shall have the sound of g*ns
in the immediate vicinity.

- [g*n fires]
- Just... There they are.

It's an incredibly sympathetic message

to say, "People with your values
who speak your language

are being bombed
by this horrific person, Adolf Hitler."

Winston Churchill knows, perhaps,

the only savior of the world
is going to be the United States.

[melancholy music playing]

[Johnson]
It must have stung for Churchill.

The British Empire, on its own,
was not able to defeat the Nazis.

He had to hang on.

[Churchill]
When the bombardment first began,

the idea was to treat it with disdain.

In the West End, everybody went about
their business and pleasure,

and dined and slept as they usually did.

And the darkened streets were crowded
with casual traffic.

[car horns honking]

[air raid siren blaring]

People were shuddering with fear that
this was the end of the European order

and perhaps of democracy.

[Purnell] Somehow, Winston had to
keep a nation going through all of this,

to give a nation belief
that victory could be possible,

survival even could be possible.

Because you looked out of the window,
and you couldn't imagine it could be.

[distant bombs exploding]

[Churchill] I was deeply anxious
about the life of the people of London.

[solemn music playing]

The greater part of whom stayed, slept
and took a chance where they were.

How long would it go on?

[airplane passing]

How much more would they have to bear?

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades out]