01x03 - Britain at Bay

[bunniefuu]

On June 22, 1940,

Britain stood alone
against the Nazis.

France had surrendered,
and Prime Minister

Winston Churchill could
only crow defiance.

We'll fight on the beaches.

We'll 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.

Britain still had all the resources

of its vast empire.

Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa,

India and a host of
other territories had

all been quick to
declare w*r on Germany.

But they were thousands
of miles away,

across the oceans, and
their military power

could not be brought to
bear where it mattered.

Britain's situation
seemed hopeless.

And Hitler had no doubt
that Britain would

soon try to negotiate a peace.

But Churchill quickly
showed how determined

he was prepared to be in
the w*r against the Nazis.

A powerful squadron of
two French battleships

and two battle cruisers
was lying in the port

of MerselKebir in
French North Africa.

If the French ships
fell into German hands,

the British Navy's position
in the Mediterranean

would become impossible.

So on July 3, a
Royal Navy task force

demanded that the French
ships either join it

or sail to a neutral
port to be interred.

The French refused.

So the British opened fire
on their former allies.

They destroyed or
severely damaged

three of the battleships.

Almost 1,300 French
sailors were k*lled.

But Churchill's ruthlessness
didn't seem to impress Hitler.

On July 19, he returned
in triumph to Berlin

and was greeted by more
than a million people.

That day he made a
speech in the Reichstag,

the German parliament, offering
peace terms to Britain.

His offer seemed generous.

Britain could keep its empire.

In return, Hitler wanted
a free hand in Europe.

His plan was to conquer the
countries of the East in order

to win Lebensraum, room to
live for the German people.

But Churchill would
have none of it.

The British would fight on.

This would, as he put
it, be their finest hour.

Churchill's defiance
was immensely popular.

King George VI
wrote in his diary,

"Personally, I feel
happier now that we have no

more allies to be
polite to and pamper."

But it was difficult to
see how Britain could turn

the tables and
actually win the w*r.

The British army might
have survived Dunkirk,

but it had lost almost
all its tanks, a*tillery,

and transport in the evacuation.

It had just 25 divisions,
armed mainly with r*fles,

to resist the vast armoured
columns of the world's

most fearsome w*r machine.

So there was little be done
except dig in and wait.

Coastal defences were
prepared and concrete

strongpoints build all
across southern England.

Signposts on roads
were removed to make it

harder for any invaders
to find their way around.

Large open areas were
littered with obstacles

to deter airborne troops.

The volunteer defines force,
the home guard was recruited.

It was made up of men
who were otherwise

ineligible to fight, often
because of their age.

By the end of June 1940,
almost one and a half

million volunteers
had signed up.

But there were few weapons
with which to arm them.

Hitler, meanwhile, was
getting on with his invasion

plans, code named
Operation Sea Lion.

Some 20 divisions would
be landed on a broad

front along England's
south coast.

Barges were gathered from
all over Northwest Europe.

These were hurriedly converted
into makeshift landing craft.

Troops were trained
for beach landings.

But for all Hitler's
bravado, those planning

Sea Lion were worried.

Hitler might dismiss the
English Channel as just

another river to be crossed.

But Britain's Navy was still
the largest in the world.

It might be stretched thin
by its worldwide commitments,

but the Royal Navy's home fleet
far outnumbered the German.

The German naval chief,
Admiral Erich Raeder,

had no confidence that he
could seize control of the

English Channel for long
enough to get the army across.

But the Germans did
have one area of

apparent massive superiority.

The Luftwaffe far outnumbered
Britain's Royal Air Force.

The Luftwaffe's commander,
Hermann Goering,

had little doubt that he
could establish air control

over the Channel long enough
for Sea Lion to take place.

On July 10, the
Luftwaffe began attacking

shipping in the Channel.

In response, the British
had two of the most

outstanding of the new
breed of single engine

multi g*n mono planes.

The Supermarine Spitfire
and the Hawker Hurricane.

The Spitfire was slightly
faster and more agile

than its German rival,
the Messerschmitt Bf109,

which escorted the
German bombers.

It would be used
to intercept these.

The Hurricane would prove
a lethal b*mber k*ll.

But in July 1940, Air Vice
Marshal Hugh Dowding,

the head of Fighter Command,
had less than 700 fighters.

Against them were 2,600
German fighters and bombers.

The odds against the
RAF were daunting.

Dowding knew that he could
not take on the Luftwaffe

every time it came
over the Channel.

So when the Germans began
hitting British shipping,

he did nothing.

Instead he would only
use the RAF to stop the

Luftwaffe from establishing
the air supremacy

needed for invasion.

So he would only take
on its big attacks.

To help him, the British
had one crucial innovation.

Radar.

By the 1930s, scientists
in both Britain and Germany

knew that objects well
beyond human sight could

be detected by bouncing
radio pulses off them and

measuring the time it took
for the signals to return.

In Britain, a team of scientists
led by Robert Watson-Watt

began developing radar
as a means of detecting

approaching aircraft
at long range.

Their work was seized
upon by Dowding.

He made radar the core
of the world's first

integrated air defines system.

Known as Chain Home,
this was a string of 21


sited along the south

and east coasts of Britain.

These could pick up aircraft
at a range of 120 miles and

give their distance,
direction, height, and numbers.

The information would
be passed back to RAF

Fighter Command's
headquarters at Bently Priory,

just outside London.

There, it would be assessed
and warning of an impending

raid passed to Fighter
Command's operation room.

Moonshine one
four sky blue take

target one channel "G" George.

Roger.

Controllers would
then alert the nearest RAF

airfields and scramble the
necessary number of fighters.

The question was,
would radar make up for

Germany's massive
superiority in numbers?

The stage was now set
for what would become

known as the Battle of Britain.

Since June 10, 1940,
the German Luftwaffe had

been battering British shipping
in the English Channel.

The Luftwaffe's
commander, Reichsmarshal

Hermann Goering, was
determined to lure the

British air force into combat.

But Britain's Air Chief
Marshal Hugh Dowding

refused to take the bait.

He used his fighters
sparingly, knowing that

the real battle
was still to come.

As this first phase of the
Battle of Britain began,

the Luftwaffe had a massive
superiority in numbers.

It had 1,100 single
engine fighters available

to the Royal Air Force's 700.

Almost all the German
fighters were the excellent

Messerschmitt Bf109E
with a top speed of around



About two thirds of the
British fighters were Hawker

Hurricanes, slower than
the 109s, but more agile.

The remainder were
Supermarine Spitfires,

with a top speed
similar to the 109s.

For their as*ault, the Germans
had over 1,300 medium bombers,

Dornier Do17s, Heinkel
He111s, and Junkers Ju88s,

each carrying about


Goering selected August 13
as Adlertag, Eagle Day,

for the start of
his main as*ault.

His aim was to destroy
RAF fighters in the air,

and the RAF's airfields and
Britain's aircraft factories.

Softening up attacks
were made the day before.

These concentrated on
the airfields and the

radar towers along
the south coast.

One station on the Isle of
Wight was put out of action,

and several were
damaged, but these were

working again within hours.

Goering did not believe
that radar had a significant

role to play in
the battle, and so

these attacks were not repeated.

It was a big mistake.

Adlertag dawned cloudy,
so the main as*ault

was postponed until
the afternoon.

When it came, radar
gave ample warning.

Calling, planes heard
three miles southwest.

None the less,
most of the RAF airfields

in the south were hammered.

But by the end of the day, none
had been put out of action.

The Luftwaffe lost 46
aircraft. Britain, just 13.

The Luftwaffe mounted
its largest attack of the

whole battle on August 15.

Waves of heavily
escorted German bombers

forced their way through
to the RAF airfields.

The RAF was so overstretched
that some pilots

flew seven sorties that day.

By the time the raids died
away, some 90 German aircraft

had been shot down for the
loss of 42 British fighters.

The battle continued
with equal ferocity

over the next few days.

Both sides became
increasingly exhausted.

Dowding tried to rotate
his pilots to rest them,

but he simply did not
have enough of them.

Many were being sent
into battle with just

ten-hour flying experience.

The Luftwaffe was suffering too.

Its pilots were shocked
and increasingly

demoralised by the
resilience of the British.

The RAF fighters always
seemed to be waiting for them.

As the fighting wore
on for 12 solid days,

the British losses began
to creep up to match

those of the Germans.

The Royal Air Force
was close to breaking.

To turn the screw,
Goering began using

his bombers to attack
at night as well.

But this decision had
an unexpected outcome.

On the night of August 24,
a flight of Heinkel

bombers lost its way and
bombed the city of London.

It was the first attack
on a non-military target.

The next night 81
British bombers

responded by raiding Berlin.

Hitler was infuriated and
demanded massive retaliation.

This came on the
evening of September 7.

German bombers attacked
the London docks

and surrounding areas.

More than 450 people
died and thousands

of homes were destroyed.

But in fact, this was Goering's
second crucial mistake.

By switching from the
RAF's airfields just

at the moment when it
seemed about to break,

he gave it the
respite it needed.

Had Goering continued
to attack the airfields,

the RAF could not have
continued to defend the skies.

Instead, on September 15,
British radars picked up

another massive
as*ault on London.

The first wave of


four hundred fighters
was intercepted.

Fighting raged all the
way from the coast.

In the afternoon, another
fleet of 150 bombers

renewed the attack.

Winston Churchill was
at the Fighter Command

headquarters that day.

After he heard controllers
calling in reinforcements

from neighbouring
groups, he asked,

"What other reserves
have we got?"

The reply was, "There are none."

But it was obvious that
the Luftwaffe had failed

to gain control of the
air, and on September 17,

Hitler postponed
Operation Sea Lion.

The Battle of Britain
did not really end.

It died away.

Hitler now tried a new tactic.

By October 5, the daylight
raids stopped and the

Germans concentrated on bombing
Britain's cities by night.

This was the so called Blitz.

London was attacked every night
but one up to November 12.

On November 10,
the centre of the

city of Coventry
was obliterated.

The Blitz continued into


being made on London
on the night of May 10.

More than 50,000 civilians
were k*lled in the Blitz,

but there was never any
question of Britain cracking.

Victory in the
Battle of Britain was

a moment of huge
national relief.

Pilots had come from all over
the empire to join the RAF,

and from countries
occupied by the Nazis,

like Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Churchill summed up
the nation's gratitude.

Never in the field of
human conflict was

so much owed by
so many to so few.

But for Hitler,
this was no more

than an irritating setback.

Britain, he was convinced,
could never be a serious threat.

So he now turned
to Eastern Europe.

For Britain, there was
now a chance to rebuild

with a view, one day, to
taking the fight to the enemy.

But to do that, Churchill
would need help.

Britain may have won
the Battle of Britain,

but it was still
immensely vulnerable.

Night after night,
its cities were

hammered by the Nazis' Blitz.

Its supply lifelines at sea
were under constant as*ault.

Churchill needed more help.

And there was only one
country that could provide it.

The United States.

By 1940, the U.S. had recovered
from the Great Depression

and the economy
was booming again.

It had immense
reserves of manpower

and unrivalled
industrial strength.

But the people of the
United States were utterly

opposed to becoming involved
yet again in Europe's wars.

In July 1940, a poll showed
that only 8% of them

were willing to enter the w*r.

Undeterred, Churchill
lobbied the U.S. president,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Roosevelt had long
admired Churchill for his

outspokenly anti-n*zi views,
and the two men shared

an interest in naval affairs.

Roosevelt had been
Under Secretary for

the U.S. Navy in 1917.

After he became
president, Roosevelt kept

in touch with Churchill.

The two began a
correspondence, Churchill

signing himself,
"former Naval person."

For all his avuncular
image, Roosevelt had no

illusions that German
aggression would one day

suck America into the w*r.

So he began the long
job of preparing

American public opinion.

I am a Pacifist,

but I believe you and I
will act

together to protect and
to defend our science,

our culture, our American
freedom

and our civilization.

In July 1940,
he got approval for a massive

expansion of the U.S. Navy,
including the building of

six large battleships and a
new class of aircraft carriers.

The following month,
Congress agreed that the

National Guard and
other reserves should be

called up for one
year's active duty.

And in September, a
large expansion of the


was agreed, with a limited

number of conscripts
being chosen by lottery.

The first number, drawn
by the Secretary of w*r,

is serial number 158.

That same month, Roosevelt

announced a deal under
which the U.S. would supply

Britain with 50 World w*r I
destroyers, in return

for 99-year leases on
bases in Newfoundland

and the Caribbean.

The British Navy,
desperate for more escorts

to fight the U-boats,
began taking them over

within days of the
deal being signed.

The clearest sign that
Roosevelt was slowly winning

the argument came in the
November 1940 presidential

election, when he convincingly
defeated the isolationist

Wendell Wilkie with 27
million votes to 22 million.

At the end of the year,
Roosevelt spoke to the

American people, setting out
the four essential freedoms

which he believed were
at stake, and which

Britain was fighting to uphold.

Freedom of speech and
religion and freedom

from want and from fear.

To save these, the
United States must become

the arsenal of the democracies.

In other words,
it must arm Britain.

We shall send you in
ever increasing numbers,

ships, planes, tanks, g*ns.

That is our purpose
and our pledge.

But some
Americans remained

implacably opposed
to helping Britain.

One of the most outspoken
was the American

ambassador in London,
Joseph Kennedy,

father of the future
president John F. Kennedy.

A Boston Irish
businessman who had made

his fortune booze smuggling
during Prohibition,

Kennedy hated the
British and seized every

opportunity to claim
that they would shortly

be forced to surrender.

However, Kennedy's virulence
was counterbalanced

by the growing admiration
many Americans felt for

the bravery shown by
the British people

during the Blitz.

In particular, the
broadcasts by the CBS London

correspondent Ed Murrow helped
to change public opinion.

This is London.

I remember the evening
of Sunday, December 29.

It was just like any
other winter evening.

The first bombers were over
London at about 6:30.

Soon the fires hissed from
the top story windows.

Hitler once boasted,
"I will rub out their cities."

This is what he meant.

Encouraged by his electoral success,

in January 1941
Roosevelt introduced his

so called Lend Lease Bill.

The United States would
supply weapons and

w*r material to Britain
and China, which was

still struggling desperately
against the invading Japanese.

Payment would be delayed.

Roosevelt likened Lend
Lease to lending a neighbour

a hose to put out a fire.

You would worry about
the payback later.

Roosevelt was also being canny.

It also meant that unlike
in 1917, if America

had to enter the w*r,
it already would have

a substantial weapons industry.

American w*r preparations
didn't end there.

Roosevelt secretly
authorised U.S. military staffs

to discuss a common
strategy with the British

should America enter the w*r.

By April 1941, he felt
confident enough to take

another step to
help Britain at sea.

He greatly extended the
Pan American security zone,

the area within which U.S.
warships would protect

U.S. merchant vessels.

In May, U.S. troops set
up bases in Greenland,

and in July, U.S. Marines
were sent to replace the

British garrison in
Iceland, which was there

to deprive the Germans
of its harbours.

The U.S. Navy also began
providing limited

convoy escorts,
particularly for

U.S. ships carrying
Lend Lease materials.

Hitler now gave his
submariners strict instructions

not to sink American
ships, as he didn't want to

provoke the United
States into w*r.

But inevitably,
there were clashes.

On September 4, 1941, a
British aircraft attacked

a German submarine.

Thinking that the strike
had come from the nearby

U.S. destroyer Greer, the
U-Boat fired a torpedo at it.

The Greer responded with
depth charges and there

was a running battle
which lasted three hours.

Neither vessel was sunk, but
the tension was mounting.

On November 17, the
destroyer USS Kearney

was hit by a torpedo while
on convoy duty off Iceland.

The U-Boat commander
claimed it was an accident.

He had been firing at
a British ship and the

Kearney had got in the way.

But 11 U.S. sailors were
dead and the destroyer

only just made it back
to port in Rekyavik.

Roosevelt protested and
the U.S. press was outraged.

However, the American
public remained resolutely

opposed to going to w*r.

Within weeks, at the end
of 1941, the situation

was reversed in a single day.

But in the meantime, Britain
would have to fight on alone.

And luckily, it had an
astonishing weapon to hand.

It looks like just another
mansion in the English

countryside, a bit run down.

But Bletchley Park once
contained a secret that

fundamentally affected the
course of World w*r II.

Because it was at Bletchley
that Britain worked out

how to read Germany's
most secret codes.

Since the mid-1930s, all
the German armed forces

and intelligence
departments had adopted

a standard machine for
encoding their messages.

The Cypher Machine E,
better known as Enigma.

It was developed in the
early 1920s as a handy tool

for businessmen to keep
commercial messages secret.

It was powered by a battery,
and its encoded messages

were transmitted in Morse
code to be decoded on

a second Enigma machine
at the receiving end.

The critical element of the
machine was three rotors

which could be set to
scramble the message in a way

which could only
be unscrambled by

another machine with
the same settings.

The rotors could be replaced
and set differently.

As a result, each letter
typed could come up in

any one of 150 million ways.

Given the almost infinite
number of settings,

it was not surprising
that the Germans remained

convinced throughout
the w*r that

Enigma was uncrackable.

It was the Poles who
took the first steps

in solving this baffling puzzle.

They knew of the existence
of the Enigma machine

and assembled a team of top
mathematicians to crack it.

Marian Rejewski,

Jerzy Roszickzi

and Henry Zigalski.

But the team could not
decipher messages without

knowing the internal
wiring of the rotors.

The solution was supplied
by French intelligence,

which sent its Polish
allies material gathered by

a spy in the German
army's cipher department.

Amongst this was
an Enigma manual.

The Poles were able to
reconstruct an Enigma machine

and began laboriously
decoding messages.

By July 1939, Hitler
was sounding increasingly

threatening towards Poland.

Britain and France had
promised to come to its aid.

It was clear that
w*r was coming.

So intelligence officers
from the three allies

met in Warsaw.

There, the British and
French were astonished at

how much the Poles
had done in decoding

Enigma. And the Poles
agreed to send two of their

reconstructed
machines to London.

Just two weeks after
they were handed over,

Poland was invaded.

By the time Poland fell
to the Germans, the Polish

cryptographers had
destroyed all evidence

of their work on Enigma.

Some were captured
and tortured, but none

revealed what they
had been up to.

The task was now taken up
by the British at their

Government Code
and Cypher School,

at Bletchley Park, near London.

Its head was Commander
Alistair Denniston.

Denniston recruited a
strange collection of

mathematicians, chess
masters and crossword

puzzle experts to
continue the decoding.

Among these experts was Alan
Turing, a Cambridge don.

In 1936, Turing had
described the idea of a

universal computing
machine, a machine that he

believed would one day
be able to solve all

mathematical problems.

He used his ideas to
design decryption machines

known as "Bronze Goddesses."

The raw material for
Bletchley came from the

British Y service, a chain
of radio listening stations

which monitored and recorded
German transmissions.

The messages were
fed into Beltchley's

Bronze Goddesses
and permutations run

until at last the key was found.

Once a message had been
decrypted, it was translated,

analysed and passed on to
the appropriate authority.

From the moment he
became Prime Minister

and learned of Bletchley's
work, Winston Churchill

understood its
extraordinary importance.

He referred to Bletchley's
output as his ultra

secret information, and
Ultra became its codename.

The distribution of Ultra
was tightly controlled.

Senior commanders were
shown only that information

which directly concerned
their operations.

The need to keep the source
of intelligence secret

was so great that Churchill
insisted that no action could

be taken on the basis of
Ultra material unless a

cover plan had been developed
to convince the Germans

that the intelligence must
have come from another source.

The third critical element
of the Bletchley operation,

after decoding and
assessing the material,

was keeping control of it.

Often Ultra revealed
vital information about

German plans and actions.

News of forthcoming attacks
and other intelligence

was filed away in a
massive card index system.

This was constantly
mined for answers

to questions great and small.

By the end of the w*r,
Bletchley was decoding

much of the German
traffic almost as fast as

it was being sent.

It was jokingly said that
it would have been quicker

for a German commander to ring
Bletchley to get his orders.

It was at sea that the
Allies first became aware

of how vital information
from Ultra could be.

An early example of its
potential came on June 8, 1940.

The British aircraft carrier
Glorious was covering

the convoys withdrawing
Allied troops from Norway,

when Bletchley decoded
signals showing the German

battlecruisers
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau

were approaching its position.

A warning was passed to
Royal Navy headquarters,

but unaware of how accurate
the information was

likely to be, this
chose not to pass it on.

The Glorious was
intercepted and sunk.

The British Navy had
learned the hard way just

how important the new source
of intelligence could be.

It was not a mistake
it would make again.

Bletchley also performed
a critical role in the

build up to the
Battle of Britain.

It had provided a clear
picture of the Luftwaffe's

order of battle, and the
overall strategy being

adopted by its leader,
Hermann Goering.

This information convinced
the head of British

Fighter Command, Air Vice
Marshal Hugh Dowding that

his tactic of committing
his fighters bit by bit

rather than in large
numbers was the correct one,

a tactic that played a
crucial part in preserving

the RAF's narrow winning margin.

As Britain continued its
lonely fight into 1941,

it had at last found a
way of fighting back.

Bletchley Park was
ready for action.

The major breakthroughs
had been made.

The systems for exploiting them

put in place and well tested.

In the coming years,
Ultra and the work of

Bletchley Park would prove
vital to the Allied successes.

But as the Battle of Britain
and the Blitz ground on,

these were still a long way off.

Churchill still needed
more immediate results.

And by early 1941 he
thought that he had

at last found a way to get them.

n*zi Germany might
now control most of

western Europe, but
Britain's prime minister,

Winston Churchill,
now decided to take

the w*r to the Germans.

We shall not flinch
from the supreme child.

All will come right.

Even before
France had surrendered

he was looking for ways
of striking back, and of

keeping resistance
alive in the countries

which had been overrun.

Just as the last troops
were being taken off

the beaches of
Dunkirk, Churchill was

already planning ahead.

He wrote to his chiefs
of staff, demanding the

formation of raiding
forces which could attack

the coasts of occupied Europe.

Within a few days, a call
for volunteers had been

circulated to create
a force of 5,000 men.

They were to be called
Commandos, after the

highly mobile Boer units
which had fought the

British for three
years in South Africa

at the turn of the century.

Ten commando units each
of 500 men were set up.

They began practising
attacks from the sea.

One unit was ordered to
specialise in parachuting

and using as*ault gliders.

This soon became the
basis of the separate

Parachute Regiment.

Admiral Sir Roger
Keyes was appointed

Director of Combined Operations.

Churchill instructed him
to prepare to mount three

major raids as soon as
the threat of an invasion

of Britain had passed.

One of Keyes' first tasks
was to develop ships

which could land his new troops.

Three cross Channel
ferries were converted

so as to carry landing craft.

On March 4, 1941, two
Commando units and a

demolition squad
were landed on the

Lofoten Islands off
Northern Norway.

Their main objective
was to destroy factories

which converted fish oil into
glycerine for expl*sives.

The Commandos achieved
total surprise and

landed without a
shot being fired.

A German armed trawler
in the harbour was seized.

They quickly destroyed the
factories and fish oil tanks.

One officer could not
resist using the local

post office to send a
telegram to A. Hitler, Berlin.

It read, "Reference your
last speech, I thought

you said that wherever
British troops land on the

continent of Europe, German
soldiers will face them.

Well, where are they?"

The Commandos then
rounded up 60 Norwegian

collaborators and


before returning
without any losses.

With them, they also took


These would then join
the Free Norwegian

forces in Britain.

The Lofoten raid was an
enormous public relations

success and a huge boost
for British morale.

But its most important
result was one which

could not be publicised,
the capture of a set of

rotors for an Enigma machine.

Although the machine had
been thrown overboard

from the armed trawler,
its crew forgot the spares.

They were to give invaluable
help to the cryptographers

of Bletchley Park in breaking
the German naval codes.

Then in December 1941,
four Commando units

landed at the Norwegian
port of Vaagso

and were immediately involved
in heavy fighting.

The approach to Vaagso
was covered by the

small island of Maaloy,
on which the Germans

had placed a*tillery.

This was quickly overrun,
but across the water

in Vaagso, the
fighting was intense.

It took several hours
for the main German

garrison to be subdued.

The Commandos then blew
up several factories

and sank eight ships
before withdrawing.

These raids convinced
Hitler that sooner or later

the British would
attempt to retake Norway.

So for the remaining
four years of the w*r,

he kept some 250,000
troops there.

Troops which might have
proved vital on other fronts.

But effective as they
were, Commando raids

were not enough
to stop the Nazis.

Churchill needed other
ways to hurt them,

so he focused on the
resistance movements

in the occupied countries.

In July 1940, a Special
Operations Executive, SOE,

was formed, as Churchill put
it, to set Europe ablaze.

Its objectives were to
encourage sabotage of

the enemy w*r effort,
gather intelligence and

prepare clandestine forces
to disrupt German defences.

The bulk of SOE's activities
centred on France.

Soon agents were recruited
in Britain to build up

and coordinate the French
resistance networks.

Radio operators
and couriers were

also trained to support them.

One problem was how to get
these teams into the country.

Submarines, high
speed launches, and

fishing vessels
were all tried out.

But the German coastal defences

proved difficult to penetrate.

The answer was aircraft.
And in August 1940,

a special RAF unit was set
up with Whitley bombers

and short take-off and
landing Westland Lysanders.

Agents and equipment
were either parachuted in

from the bombers or flown in and

brought out by the Lysanders.

On moonlit nights,
a growing number of reception

committees would be waiting,
as an increasingly

widespread network of
resistance groups was built up.

But all the while, they were
hunted by an increasingly

sophisticated German
counter espionage system.

This used direction finding
equipment to locate hidden

radios and double agents
to infiltrate networks.

The work of SOE agents
was desperately perilous

and their life expectancy short.

The slightest lapse
in concentration

might betray them
to the Gestapo.

Many suffered t*rture and death.

But Churchill was
sure it was worth it.

Keeping resistance alive in
the occupied countries gave

hope to millions that liberation
would eventually come.

The British Broadcasting
Corporation, the BBC,

was also enlisted to
raise the hopes of those

living under German rule.

It broadcast the news
in all the languages

of the occupied countries.

The German penalty
for listening to

these bulletins was death.

But people tuned in regardless.

The BBC also played a
crucial role in transmitting

coded messages to
resistance groups.

These always came after
the nine o'clock news.

For the peoples of occupied
Europe, the prospect

of liberation might only
be a distant dream,

but in the middle of 1941,
it suddenly became more likely.

For by then Britain was no
longer alone in fighting Nazism.

It had gained a massive ally.

But it wasn't America,
which Churchill

had been assiduously
been courting.

It was the Soviet Union.