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I've been researching and writing about the Second World War for years. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
Along the way, I've interviewed veterans | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
from almost every theatre of war. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
Each one has been a privilege to meet but, for me, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
one man stands out - | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
probably the best pilot this country has ever produced. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
He didn't fly for the RAF though. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
Captain Brown was in the Fleet Air Arm, a pilot for the Royal Navy. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:43 | |
His career spans a remarkable period in aviation, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
from wood and canvas biplanes through to experimental Nazi jets | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
and onto nuclear bombers at the height of the Cold War. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
But his experience extends way beyond his achievements in the air. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
From visiting Germany as a teenager in 1936, | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
he witnessed some of the most extraordinary events leading up to | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
and during the Second World War. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
Captain Brown is a truly remarkable man. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
This is his story. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
To achieve supersonic flight was the Holy Grail | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
of aviation in my time. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
Here you had a new airplane, more power, more thrust, | 0:01:38 | 0:01:42 | |
more aerodynamic refinement. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
I got down to 4,000ft. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:48 | |
Suddenly, the aircraft went into a violent oscillation. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
I was beginning to lose consciousness. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
One thought was survival. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
"How do I get this sorted out?" | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
What I did was hold the throttle, hold the stick, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
just hold both back gently together. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
My name is Captain Eric Brown. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
My last job was chief naval test pilot to the Fleet Air Arm. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:31 | |
My first actual flight was with my father. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:56 | |
I would be about ten years of age, | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
much to my mother's absolute horror. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
I suppose she wanted to preserve her young son. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
Mothers do. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:09 | |
We were in a single seat biplane. I was allowed to hold the stick | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
but, of course, obviously, I couldn't reach the rudder pedals. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:26 | |
So it was just a gentle experience, if you like. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
But he had pressed the right button. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
I've always had in my life a tendency to try something hazardous. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:46 | |
I was the only one at school that had a motorbike, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
a 500cc Norton. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
I used to make my summer money | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
by being a motorbike rider on the wall of death. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
Then, in 1936, the big event happened in my life | 0:04:07 | 0:04:11 | |
that persuaded me to take up flying. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
My father had been a Royal Flying Corp pilot in World War I. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:21 | |
The Germans had a society of World War I combatants. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:28 | |
They decided to invite the opposition over | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
to have a shindig | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
during the Berlin Olympics in 1936. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:38 | |
TRUMPET FANFARE | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
...der elften Olympiade neuer Zeitrechnung als eroffnet. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:49 | |
There was Herr Hitler announcing it open. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
Now they're all cheering him | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
and the whole crowd have raised their right arm. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
The great event of course was the wonderful Jesse Owens. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
Here was a man who won the 100m and 200m, | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
the long jump and the 4x100m relay. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:17 | |
Four gold medals. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
Not exactly what Hitler with his Aryan ideals had wanted. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:27 | |
I've read many stories that said Hitler ignored him. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
Now, this is quite untrue because I actually witnessed | 0:05:33 | 0:05:38 | |
Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
and congratulating him on what he had achieved. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
Ernst Udet became famous in World War I, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
the top-scoring pilot after Richthofen. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
He had many lady friends. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
Cigar smoking, champagne drinking sort of chap. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
Bigger than life. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
He said, "Now we're going flying," and I was in the front cockpit, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:33 | |
he was in the rear. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
He took particular attention to strap me in very carefully. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:42 | |
I thought, "Oh, that's just... "How nice of him," you know, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
but there was a purpose in it, as I found out. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
He really threw that thing around. He turned it inside out. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
We came into land. On the approach, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
he turned it onto its back. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
I thought, "Well, he'll turn it over before." But nothing happened. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
He kept coming on and I thought, really, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
"I think the silly old fool's had a heart attack," | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
and I really thought that was going to be my demise. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
But he turned it round | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
and it literally fell onto the runway. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
This is how good a pilot he was. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
He slapped me on the back | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
and said the German fighter pilots' greeting, "Hals und Beinbruch." | 0:07:40 | 0:07:46 | |
He said, "You'll make a good fighter pilot." | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
And he said, "Now, do two things for me. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
"Learn to speak German and then learn to fly." | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
It was a pivotal point in my life. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
-ARCHIVE: -German troops made a formal entry into the demilitarised zone | 0:08:05 | 0:08:10 | |
on the left bank of the Rhine. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
Herr Hitler confirmed the reoccupation of the Rhineland. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
I had achieved the two things that Udet had challenged me to do, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
so I wrote him and he said, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
"Yes, I'll book you into a little guesthouse | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
"and we'll show you a bit of Berlin." | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
I was, in my teens, politically naive. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:18 | |
I really was just having a wonderful experience. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
It seemed a very vibrant country. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
Lots of uniforms could be seen around. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
The Hitler Youth seemed to offer | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
slightly more than the Boy Scouts offered, | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
if you like to put it that way. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
FANFARE | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
Nuremberg was a rallying point. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
What's the biggest thing we do here? | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
I suppose it was like... | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
the coronation... | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
with knobs on. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:05 | |
The only thing that drove me to want to see it was curiosity. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
People said, "Oh, it's a fabulous show. You must go and see it." | 0:10:15 | 0:10:21 | |
There were so many people packed into one place... | 0:10:21 | 0:10:27 | |
..all hugely enthusiastic. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
Flink wie Windhunde, zah wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:39 | |
CROWD ROARS | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
I began to wonder, "How does this man attract all these people?" | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
I thought there must be some strange charisma. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
He's like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and they're all following him | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
as he rants along. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
For the triumphs of Hitler, his annexation of Austria, | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
the crushing of Czechoslovakia, | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
it has been a year of crises and we can hardly ignore them. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
But it has also been the year of The Lambeth Walk | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
and we may be grateful to that dance phenomenon which has helped | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
to preserve our sense of values, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
for even gas masks and ARP have been unable to still | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
that undaunted "oi!". | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
A little group from the Foreign Office asked me | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
if I was interested in joining the Diplomatic Corp. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
And I said I was and they said, "Right. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
"We will send you to Germany for six months." | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
In early September, I decided to go up to Munich for a weekend | 0:11:58 | 0:12:03 | |
and I'd drive up in my car. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
On 3rd September, at about six in the morning, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
there was a thunderous knock on my door. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
Two SS officers | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
said, "I have to tell you, you're under arrest | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
"because our two countries are at war." | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
Now, technically, this was untrue because 11 o'clock was the time, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:35 | |
but I wasn't in a strong position to argue. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
-ARCHIVE: -The same hour that chimed for armistice | 0:12:43 | 0:12:45 | |
tolls the signal for another war. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
They took all clothes I had, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
books, etc, and off we went. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
I was in a little SS jail. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
I wasn't at all ill-treated. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
On the third day, one young SS lieutenant came to me and said, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:14 | |
"We're taking you down to the Swiss frontier." | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
When we arrived, the lieutenant said to me, "You're free to go | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
"and you can take your car." | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
So I said, "You've taken my clothes, my books, my money. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:35 | |
"Why are you giving me my car?" | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
And he said in German, "Because we have no spares." | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
Very Teutonic attitude. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
-WINSTON CHURCHILL: -But now one bond unites us all, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
to wage war until victory is won | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
whatever the cost and the agony may be. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
I was taken to Bern and the ambassador said, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
"Of course, I've been told to return you as soon as possible | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
"because you've been called up." | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
I was keen to get back at the Germans. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
I was a bit piqued about being locked up | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
and I was young, raring to go. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
Suddenly, on the notice board, there went a thing saying, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
"The Navy have lost a lot of pilots. There's a shortage..." | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
"..and if you're interested in moving over to the Fleet Air Arm, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
"append your name to the board." | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
So I did that very thing. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:51 | |
DRONE OF AIRCRAFT | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
BABY CRIES | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Here comes the Luftwaffe. Hundreds of planes. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
Bombers, fighters. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
The RAF came and dove in, shouting the old hunting cry, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:21 | |
"Tally-ho!" | 0:15:21 | 0:15:22 | |
HMS Audacity originally was a banana boat | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
operating in the Caribbean. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
Churchill, it was his original idea. | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
He thought, "Right. Cut everything off | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
"so that we can lay a flat flight deck on it to operate aircraft." | 0:16:02 | 0:16:07 | |
The Wildcat, as the Americans called it, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
was an aircraft that had a bigger punch | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
than the British aircraft of that time. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
Instead of .303 guns, it had .50 guns. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
Far out in the grey Atlantic, the big Focke-Wulf bombers | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
range far and wide across the ocean, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
seeking out the convoys approaching British shores. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
The courier was probably the most heavily-armed | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
German aircraft in the sky. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
It had machine guns firing out the side windows, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
cannon, two turrets on top and a complete gondola underneath. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:57 | |
All told, it was very heavily armed. | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
Realising what I was up against, I had studied this very carefully. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:06 | |
Worked out how the guns could depress or elevate. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
There was only one blank spot which they couldn't reach | 0:17:16 | 0:17:21 | |
and that was if you came in flat towards the pilot's cockpit. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
When I opened fire, you could see the windscreen | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
just disintegrating, so the pilots must have been killed. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
Your own grave danger was colliding with your target | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
and you had to break away, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
either up or down. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
You get that exhilarating feeling that you've nailed him. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
-ARCHIVE: -The U-boats lie in waiting. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
Like wolves, they will stalk a convoy for days at a stretch, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
biding their time until the chance of wind and weather | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
offers the fattest prize for their torpedoes. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
We realised we were going to be under attack, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
so the captain of Audacity thought, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
"We'll zigzag at full speed for the night." | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
A lone submarine let fly at us. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
Caught the rudder. | 0:18:58 | 0:18:59 | |
We were in darkness by this time. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
We'd barely stopped when the submarine surfaced | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
about 200 yards away on our port side. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
It was an eerie sight. As it popped out of the sea, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
it was covered in phosphorescence. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
It was almost as if it was Christmas tree lights on it, all over. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:32 | |
The commander came up onto the conning tower. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
We could see the gold braid on his hat. We were that close. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
He just leant over the tower surveying us. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
We just stood and watched each other. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
Somebody's nerve broke, one of the seamen, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
and he leapt to a 20mm Oerlikon gun | 0:19:58 | 0:20:04 | |
and started firing at the submarine. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
I thought, "He'll irritate the U-boat captain," | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
which is what he did, of course. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
And the next thing was he just fired off a bevy of torpedoes at us. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
Our carrier reared up. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
I heard the twang of the hawses holding the aircraft breaking. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:34 | |
The six aircraft just broke loose, | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
mowed down the deck into all these guys standing there | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
and it was absolute chaos. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
We were all swimming as fast as we could to get away from the vessel. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:53 | |
Turned round and she plunged down very rapidly. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
Tremendous booming as things imploded. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
There were a hell of a lot of people in the water, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
of course, by this time. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
Another pilot called out and he said, "Let's tie ourselves together." | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
I think we were 24 altogether. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
Now, at first, we were all fine, we talked to each other | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
and everything but, after about three quarters of an hour, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
everybody stopped talking and...falling asleep. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
These chaps were falling forward | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
cos there was nothing to support their heads | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
and were drowning. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
My section leader said, "The only thing we can do is | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
"cut them off from us, otherwise we'll all go down together. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
"The whole 24 of us." | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
So, this continued right throughout the night, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
cutting one or two away and letting them drift off. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
It really was a very nasty business. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
By the morning, all the seamen had drowned. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
There was only two of us left. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
MUSIC: Snow by Yuki Murata | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
Unknown to me, the captain of the Audacity said I had | 0:22:51 | 0:22:56 | |
a facility for deck landing | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
and the Admiralty should make use of it. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
I got a telegram asking me to undertake a series of trials | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
on various carriers. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Hellcat comes in too quickly. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
The pilot seems none the worse. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
This landing is particularly bad. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
With this machine coming in, one would think all is well. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:36 | |
Deck landing, one has to accept, is quite a hazardous business. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
A Firebrand bent on destruction. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
Accidents were ten a penny. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
Here you see another aircraft. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
If it doesn't have an accident, it'll be a very unusual affair. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
-INTERVIEWER: -Did you crash many times? | 0:24:03 | 0:24:05 | |
No. I only had one crash caused by a hook not lowering | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
and the batsman not having seen it. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
A picture-by-picture analysis of the slow-motion film proved very useful. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:17 | |
As you go off on the catapult, like you're doing here, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
you do get a pretty big kick in the pants. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:28 | |
You are very hopeful that there's enough wind | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
for you to get off cleanly. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:32 | |
-ARCHIVE: -The story of the DH.98, or Mosquito, is one of brilliant success. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
At the moment, the fastest aircraft in operation in the world. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
The Mosquito is a superb aeroplane. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
I was asked to put it aboard an aircraft carrier. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
It was twice as heavy as any aircraft that had ever | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
been landed on a carrier. It was twice as big. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
The top entry speed that we could land was 86mph. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:38 | |
The stalling speed of the Mosquito is 110. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:44 | |
Hence everybody said, "Impossible." | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
-ARCHIVE: -This picture shows the Mosquito doing crash barrier tests | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
in HMS Triumph. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
By all appearances, wooden-constructed aeroplanes | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
would just seem to be unsuitable for this treatment. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
But when you're young and confident, you say brash things. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:10 | |
This de Havilland Mosquito was the first two-engine machine | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
to land on an aircraft carrier. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
The pilot was Lieutenant Commander EM Brown. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
This really changed my life because the director of the RAE | 0:26:35 | 0:26:40 | |
said to me later, "Frankly, I didn't think I'd ever see you again." | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
Then I was promoted | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
and became the chief naval test pilot at Farnborough. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
-ARCHIVE: -V-1, the flying bomb, the robot bomb, the buzz bomb. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
You're a passenger on a bus | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
and this is the end of your last trip. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
You're the man on the street | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
and you do what you can. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
You're an airman on leave | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
and this is your welcome mat. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
I was on duty. A V-1 crashed in the garden of our house. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
The house collapsed like a pack of cards. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
My wife was concussed | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
and our cleaning lady lost an eye and had 96 stitches. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:03 | |
Poor thing. She came out of it rather badly. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
The problem with attacking the V-1 is it came over | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
at a steady speed of 400mph. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
Even if you caught up with it and fired, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
the debris from it was likely to damage your own aircraft. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Between sorties, the pilots got together to discuss | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
the best methods of attack. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:38 | |
We devised a method of flying alongside it | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
and putting your wing under the V-1's wing | 0:28:41 | 0:28:46 | |
then, if you raise your wing, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
you'll tilt their V-1 over in the other direction and away it'll go. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:54 | |
The best plane, I would say the Tempest V. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:08 | |
It had the speed to overtake. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
It was a pretty rugged aeroplane too | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
and it had the control to do the tipping. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
I was doing a series of trials and the engine blew up | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
and the propeller went absolutely solid. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
I saw the engine was on fire outside. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
I didn't realise I was burning inside until my feet cooked. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:42 | |
I realised that I had to get out. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
Bailing out is not as easy as many people think | 0:29:47 | 0:29:50 | |
and, when I stood up in the cockpit to get my legs over the side, | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
I was pinned back by sheer slipstream effect. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:59 | |
So then what I did was get one leg over the side, | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
one leg on the seat... | 0:30:07 | 0:30:08 | |
..lean in, get hold of the stick, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
pull it hard over towards me | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
and that catapulted me out. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
You don't get much time to worry about the finer points of it. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:30 | |
The thing is to get out and move out. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:33 | |
In test flying, we had a high casualty rate. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
Year after year, 25% of the pilots | 0:30:53 | 0:30:56 | |
involved in high-speed flight were lost. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
This was for a very great cause - | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
to keep our aircraft ahead of the enemy. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
It was them today. It might be me tomorrow. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
One just had to shrug it off and say, "War is on. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
"There are huge casualties. They are just part of the cost." | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
-CHURCHILL: -This is your victory, | 0:31:36 | 0:31:40 | |
victory of the cause of freedom in every land. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:45 | |
We have never seen a greater day than this. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
The director of the RAE formed a mission to go to Germany | 0:32:06 | 0:32:12 | |
after the capitulation and find out more about their technology. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:17 | |
I was more than impressed, I was shocked by what we found... | 0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | |
because they were so far ahead. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
-ARCHIVE: -This is the Messerschmitt 262, the world's first operational jet fighter. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
It was more than 100mph faster than the best piston engine fighter. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:58 | |
This was a lightning-fast aeroplane. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:01 | |
It looks in body form like a shark, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:05 | |
swept-back wings | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
and the under-slung engines. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
It really looks power, power, power. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
When I got the Me 262 into the air, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
it was so fast, it was virtually untouchable. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
It had four 30mm canon | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
which is a huge punch. | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
Batteries of rockets. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
I saw an American Marauder aircraft | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
being attacked by an Me 262. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
One minute, there was this beautiful-looking Marauder | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
in the sky. A minute later, confetti. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
I've flown almost all the World War II aircraft | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
and I rank it as the most formidable aircraft of World War II. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:09 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Amid the ruins, the dazed people wander here and there. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
Battered and shell-swept, not much remains. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
One of the first war criminals is captured - Hermann Goering. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:36 | |
Goering was Hitler's right-hand man. Head of the Luftwaffe. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
I was quite taken aback | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
at how slimmed down from all the pictures I'd ever seen of him | 0:35:01 | 0:35:06 | |
as a rather porky gentleman. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:10 | |
The Americans had weaned him off drugs. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:18 | |
They'd stripped him of all insignia. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:19 | |
He had been interrogated day in and day out. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
But the invigilating officer said to him, | 0:35:24 | 0:35:26 | |
"Now you're going to be interrogated by a pilot," | 0:35:26 | 0:35:31 | |
and literally he brightened up instantly. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:36 | |
The first question I asked him was, "What, in your opinion, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
"was the outcome of the Battle of Britain?" | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
And he said, "It was a draw." | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
He said, "If you look at the analysis of the battle, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:54 | |
"you will find that, in the last week, for the first time, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
"the German causalities were lower than the British." | 0:35:58 | 0:36:03 | |
Now, this is perfectly true, if you look at the records. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:09 | |
And he said this showed a turning point had arrived. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
-ARCHIVE: -The jaws of the Nazi whale were set to swallow Jonah. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:18 | |
But he said, "Unfortunately, we couldn't continue | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
"because Hitler ordered all fighter units back | 0:36:22 | 0:36:28 | |
"for the invasion of Russia." | 0:36:28 | 0:36:30 | |
I've told many people this and nobody's said, | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
"Oh, no, you got that wrong." | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
Many of them have said, "My God, weren't we lucky?" | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
At the end, he came over and stuck his hand out to shake hands. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:52 | |
Now, I couldn't, under any circumstances, shake hands. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
So I thought, "What the hell do I do now?" | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
Very quickly, I suddenly said to him, "Hals und Beinbruch," | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
the old fighter pilot's greeting. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
He half smiled and just dropped his hand. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
-INTERVIEWER: -What does "Hals und Beinbruch" mean? | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
"Broken neck and broken legs" was the greeting. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
"Go in there and do your stuff. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:20 | |
"Maybe that's what you'll get, but as long as you survive." | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
If you'll just answer my questions, we'll save a great deal of time. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
Concentration camps was one of the things you found | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
immediately necessary upon coming to power, is it not? | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
'Having been to Belsen, I realised that Goering | 0:37:34 | 0:37:39 | |
'had a huge responsibility for the concentration camps.' | 0:37:39 | 0:37:44 | |
-Your answer is yes, I take it? -Ja. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:47 | |
-ARCHIVE: -As the Allied procession moved onward, | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
prison camps were broken open. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:08 | |
When we arrived at the gates, we could see the soldiers | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
waiting for us. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
The Germans had discovered there were 20,000 cases of typhus | 0:38:21 | 0:38:26 | |
in Belsen. They thought, "If the guards, the inmates, escape, | 0:38:26 | 0:38:31 | |
"we'll have a plague which could be worse than the war." | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
I spoke to one or two, but they were like zombies. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
When you stopped them, they would stop. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
They wouldn't look at you, they would just look at the ground... | 0:38:48 | 0:38:52 | |
..not reply at all. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
When you finished, they would move aside and move on. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
They were literally dying zombies. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
I could see huts. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
These had originally been built to accommodate 60 inmates. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:16 | |
When we got there, there were about 250 in each hut. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:21 | |
These people were theoretically still alive. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
But...I say alive... | 0:39:32 | 0:39:37 | |
..brackets. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
-ARCHIVE: -To a British military tribunal has brought assorted assortment | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
of Nazi war criminals, headed by the notorious Josef Kramer, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:47 | |
charged with responsibility for torture and mass murder | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
of 50,000 prisoners at the German death camp at Belsen. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
Kramer was absolutely straightforward. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
He realised the game was up. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
He didn't make excuses, like, "I was obeying orders." | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
He just said, "I had a job to do and I did it." | 0:40:17 | 0:40:22 | |
Belsen's women, as savage as any of the men. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:26 | |
Kramer's chief assistant, 21 years old | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
and a veteran of five years of atrocities, Fraulein Irma Grese. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
Irma Grese, she was the female camp commandant at Auschwitz. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:40 | |
Had a dreadful reputation for cruelty | 0:40:40 | 0:40:43 | |
to the female inmates there. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
Cruelty seemed to be a second part of her nature, | 0:40:46 | 0:40:50 | |
gave me an overpowering sense of evil | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
and right away I classed her as the worst human being I had never met. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:58 | |
My experience of the Germans before the war was a very friendly one. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:15 | |
I admired them for their disciplined way of life. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
They were hard workers. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
But my attitude totally changed | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
when I witnessed what I did in Belsen | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
because I thought, "If these people are capable of this, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
"they are just an evil race." | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
I began to query them. Did they know about these concentration camps? | 0:41:43 | 0:41:48 | |
How did they justify them? | 0:41:48 | 0:41:50 | |
Their excuse was they had been offered something | 0:41:52 | 0:41:56 | |
to put their country back | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
to where it had previously been by Hitler. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:03 | |
And they would have followed anybody that offered them this. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Outside Hitler's bunker are five petrol cans | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
used for burning his body. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
The whole of this Reich Chancellery has fallen to pieces. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:27 | |
In the centre of Hitler's study stands his chair, | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
in a confusion of smashed woodwork, of filth and rubble. | 0:42:31 | 0:42:36 | |
-ARCHIVE: -The Me 163 is a rocket jet plane. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
It carries its own oxygen supply. Therefore is not hampered | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
by thinning atmosphere and high altitude. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
Me 163 was a rocket interceptor. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
Everything about it was new and different. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
Swept back, semi-tailless, skid landing, | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
almost like an expanded bullet. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:22 | |
But above all, it was rocket powered. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
Oh, it's dangerous to fly, extremely, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:32 | |
because of the volatility of the fuels. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Mit einer Pipette wird eine kleine Menge T-Stoff entnommen. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:39 | |
Its operational record was terrible. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
The number of its own pilots it killed was huge, really. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:52 | |
It could go up to a very high Mach number | 0:43:57 | 0:44:01 | |
but, once you'd passed that number, you'd lost control of the aircraft | 0:44:01 | 0:44:06 | |
and it would tuck under. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:07 | |
There was no way out until it made a hole in the ground. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:11 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Das krieg fahrt lauft allein. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
If you landed with as much as a half a cup full of fuel, | 0:44:15 | 0:44:21 | |
the impact of landing, it would explode the whole thing. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
I'm sitting in the cockpit, ready to go. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:35 | |
The noise is thunderous | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
and you are given a bit of a shake-up on the take-off. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:48 | |
The acceleration is unbelievable. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:56 | |
I thought the performance was... | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
There's only one word for it, phenomenal. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
I felt that I was flying in a tin coffin | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
because your chances of bailing out were virtually nil. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:19 | |
I took it on in the full knowledge of what the risk was. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
But at the end of the day, | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
I felt a tremendous satisfaction in having beaten the odds. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:33 | |
I think this is one of the most attractive aspects of flying, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:42 | |
taking on danger and winning, | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
because you know what waits for you if you don't win. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:50 | |
A few months after war ended, trials of the tailless DH 108 began | 0:45:55 | 0:46:00 | |
with Geoffrey de Havilland's flight at Woodbury. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:03 | |
To achieve supersonic flight was the Holy Grail of aviation in my time. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:13 | |
At the end of the war, the de Havilland team | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
visited Germany and were fascinated by the 163. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
So de Havilland swept the wings back 45 degrees, | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
upped the jet engine to about 3,500 pounds of thrust. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:37 | |
They decided to prepare for an attempt | 0:46:41 | 0:46:45 | |
on the world speed record. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
Their chief test pilot was Geoffrey de Havilland, | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
the son of the founder of the company. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
I knew Geoffrey very well, saw a lot of Geoffrey. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:03 | |
To me, Geoffrey was more of the Hollywood type of test pilot. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:07 | |
The way he was going to work up for it was to start | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
with high-speed runs at 10,000ft... | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
..come down 1,000ft at a time, | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
keep full throttle on each run. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:24 | |
He was running at seven when, | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
suddenly, the aircraft disintegrated. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
The aircraft debris | 0:47:45 | 0:47:47 | |
and Geoffrey's body fell on Egypt Bay | 0:47:47 | 0:47:51 | |
near the estuary of the Thames. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
Geoffrey was still in his parachute, | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
but it had never been attempted to be opened. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:03 | |
So, right away, there was the first mystery. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:09 | |
Secondly, it was found that Geoffrey had a broken neck. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
The cause of the disintegration was to be investigated | 0:48:15 | 0:48:19 | |
and this was given to Farnborough. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
I started to follow the same pattern of flight | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
that he had gone on. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
I got down to 4,000ft. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
Suddenly, the aircraft went into a violent oscillation. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:41 | |
It did three cycles a second... | 0:48:43 | 0:48:45 | |
..and, in each cycle, I was subjected to plus 4 g and minus 3 g. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:53 | |
The medics say that a pilot will stand this | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
for ten seconds before going unconscious. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
The one thought was survival. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
"How do I get this sorted out?" | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
I was beginning to lose consciousness, | 0:49:14 | 0:49:16 | |
so what I did was hold the throttle, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:20 | |
hold the stick and...this was pure instinct, | 0:49:20 | 0:49:25 | |
just hold both back gently together. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
As suddenly as it had happened, after seven seconds, it stopped. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:42 | |
I was pretty pleased about it, I can tell you. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
I could see clearly that | 0:49:59 | 0:50:01 | |
Geoffrey's head had probably violently struck the canopy. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:06 | |
Broken his neck and...that was it. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:11 | |
When you take on a job like that, part of it is a dare, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
part of it is a professional challenge. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
Somebody's done an analysis of my flying | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
and they say I've had 13 that might have finished up fatal | 0:50:31 | 0:50:36 | |
but, erm... | 0:50:36 | 0:50:37 | |
..I don't know. | 0:50:40 | 0:50:42 | |
I think two things have contributed to my survival. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
I was a stickler for preparation before a flight. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:52 | |
There was a type of pilot who was a bit gung ho. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:56 | |
A great saying would be, "Kick the tyres, light the fires | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
"and the last one off's a sissy." | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
Now, if you have that attitude in test flying, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
you are not going to last very long. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:10 | |
And secondly, the fact I am small helped my survival. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:15 | |
For example, I had a crash in a Vampire. If I'd been 6ft, | 0:51:15 | 0:51:19 | |
I'd have lost my legs. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:21 | |
I survived purely because I was small | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
and I curled myself up in the cockpit. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
-ARCHIVE: -De Havilland were developing a jet fighter, the Vampire, | 0:51:39 | 0:51:43 | |
and there was a strong desire to operate jet aircraft from carriers. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
We knew the Americans were trying to be the first to land a jet | 0:51:59 | 0:52:03 | |
on an aircraft carrier and it was nothing but a friendly rivalry. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:09 | |
The sea was so rough, the carrier was moving... | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
enough to make life difficult, certainly for a first landing. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:19 | |
So the signal had been sent out, "Return to base." | 0:52:22 | 0:52:26 | |
But I didn't get that, | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
so I screamed overhead and that was the first they knew I was there. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:35 | |
-ARCHIVE: -Another page of history was written on December 3rd, 1945, | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
when LZ 551 landed on and took off from HMS Ocean, | 0:52:58 | 0:53:04 | |
the first jet aircraft ever to operate from a ship at sea. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
-ARCHIVE: -And the pilot, Lieutenant Commander Brown, "Winkle" to his friends. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:13 | |
The event is the cause of interest. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
Some very considerable interest. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:22 | |
There it is. Coming up from below. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
Still surrounded and commanding attention. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
The pilot can be seen in the foreground without a helmet. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:33 | |
Where does the urge come from? Feeling's believing. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
The Goofers Gallery, as we call it, was filled with brass, top brass, | 0:53:43 | 0:53:49 | |
and they all flooded down onto the flight deck. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:54 | |
The sailors who operate the arrestor gear, etc, | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
they all came round and the one thing they wanted to do | 0:54:00 | 0:54:04 | |
was warm their hands from the jet engine. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:07 | |
Running up at full power before taking off. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
The spectators, a little more distant, | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
behind something, somewhere. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:22 | |
There was no trouble with a free take-off. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
A new era had started and the aircraft had come to stay. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:27 | |
'Two-two-zero. Seven-zero. | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
'Can't see it in my radar. Down you go. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
'OK. Standard descent.' | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
By the mid '60s, I was moving up the seniority ladder. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
It was likely that I'd get an air station. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
Being a good Scot, I was praying that I'd get Lossiemouth, | 0:55:15 | 0:55:19 | |
the training ground for nuclear bombers. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
When I first went to the Fleet Air Arm, | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
the first aircraft I flew was the biplane Gladiator. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:37 | |
You finish up at the end of my career, the Buccaneer. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:44 | |
They were as different from that early era as chalk from cheese. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
War had pushed progress along so fast, at a huge cost, of course, | 0:55:52 | 0:55:57 | |
in money and in lives. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
When you compare these two eras, with the biplane and the Buccaneer, | 0:56:03 | 0:56:08 | |
you are talking about destructive loads | 0:56:08 | 0:56:12 | |
being delivered with accuracy that was unbelievable in those early days. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:17 | |
Science fiction, almost. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
At first, when I had to retire from flying, | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
I think it was a feeling similar to a drug addict | 0:56:57 | 0:57:02 | |
when he no longer can get his drugs. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:06 | |
Withdrawal symptoms were fierce for about a year | 0:57:07 | 0:57:12 | |
and then I came to terms with it, | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
after a year, but it wasn't easy. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
One thing I learned about myself was I was prepared to give up anything | 0:57:24 | 0:57:29 | |
to stay in test flying. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
For six years at Farnborough, I virtually never had a day's leave. | 0:57:34 | 0:57:39 | |
That is a terrible imposition on your family, | 0:57:41 | 0:57:46 | |
so there are prices to be paid. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:50 | |
It did become an obsession with me and it was something | 0:57:59 | 0:58:04 | |
I felt I had to do | 0:58:04 | 0:58:07 | |
otherwise I was... | 0:58:07 | 0:58:10 | |
My soul, if you like to put it that way, would never be at peace. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:14 | |
MUSIC: Wings Over The Navy by Lew Stone and His Band | 0:58:20 | 0:58:23 | |
# Wings over the Navy | 0:58:28 | 0:58:31 | |
# Wings over the sea | 0:58:31 | 0:58:35 | |
# We're top of the service | 0:58:35 | 0:58:39 | |
# The Navy's cavalry | 0:58:39 | 0:58:43 | |
# High over the ocean | 0:58:43 | 0:58:47 | |
# Flying wide and free... # | 0:58:47 | 0:58:51 |