The Battle Against the Spanish Armada Battlefield Britain


The Battle Against the Spanish Armada

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In the summer of 1588, England stood alone against the greatest superpower the world had ever seen.

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A vast Spanish invasion fleet, the mightiest ever assembled,

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was sweeping towards the Channel,

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and the only thing that stood between the invaders and the conquest of England

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were the ships of the Royal Navy.

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Together with my son Dan I'll be tracing day by day

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the massive struggle that took place in these very waters.

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For a week the future of the British Isles depended on the bravery and skill of the English sailors.

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None of them had ever fought a battle on this scale before.

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Faced with this overwhelming force,

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they had to use new tactics and new technologies to outwit the Spanish.

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They pushed themselves and their ships to the limit.

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I'll be exploring how the opposing commanders used very different strategies,

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and how chance played a key role in deciding the fate of both sides.

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And I'll be finding out just how effective their weapons were.

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And trying out the revolutionary sailing techniques that swung the battle.

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The skill of the English, the agility of the boats - we had never encountered anything like that.

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For the Spanish, it was a religious crusade against an island of heretics and pirates.

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For the English, it was a battle for survival against the might of a Spanish armada.

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In 1588,

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Spain was busy assembling a vast fleet, an armada.

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Spain was the largest superpower on Earth,

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and this armada would be the greatest concentration of naval power ever assembled.

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Its purpose - to invade and conquer England.

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Spain was Catholic and wanted a Catholic world.

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Spain's King Philip II was a man driven by religious obsession.

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For him, empire building was about extending the power of the Catholic Church.

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Standing in his way was Protestant England, led by heretic Queen Elizabeth.

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It is the duty of every Catholic to make sure that Queen Elizabeth is killed.

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They are a barbarous, savage race...

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..who need to be brought into line,

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who need the grace of God.

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And God willing, we will drive them into the seas and show them that grace.

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But the conflict between England and Spain wasn't just about religion.

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Spain's empire spanned half the globe

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and it controlled all the riches of the New World.

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England wanted a share, but was kept out by force.

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For years, Elizabeth had fought back,

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sending out her sailors to raid Spanish treasure ships.

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Then relations between the two countries edged even closer to all-out conflict.

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Here, in Flanders, the Spanish army was already fighting its own religious war.

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30,000 troops were scattered throughout the region,

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defending fortified towns like this one from the Protestant rebels.

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To the fury of the Spanish, England sent troops to help the Dutch rebels.

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To the Spanish king this was the final straw.

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England was now taking Spanish gold,

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insulting its religion and interfering with its wars.

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Enough was enough.

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It was time to sort out this irritating little country once and for all.

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Philip's plan was to mount an ambitious combined operation

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using his army in Flanders and the fleet he was assembling.

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This massive armada would sail all the way from Spain

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packed with soldiers and naval firepower.

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Its task would be to sail right up the English Channel to its narrowest point here between Dover and Calais,

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and there it would meet up with that Spanish army in Flanders

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and escort it across to England.

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Philip hoped that this combined force would be unstoppable.

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This was to be a military operation on an unprecedented scale.

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The Armada would have to carry over 20,000 men and their weapons and supplies 1,000 miles

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and then launch an invasion.

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Philip had to find the right man to lead the Armada,

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but he chose a most unlikely candidate.

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The man he picked was the Duke of Medina Sidonia.

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From the little that's known, this is what he might have looked like.

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He was one of the richest noblemen in Europe but he was not an experienced naval commander.

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In fact, he had never fought at sea.

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Even Medina Sidonia's own mother didn't think he was up to the job.

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He did everything he could to get out of it.

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He even complained to the king he got seasick and caught colds at sea.

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But Philip wouldn't hear of it.

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To him, more important than experience was social standing,

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and Medina Sidonia had plenty of that.

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Anyone who doubted that Medina Sidonia was the right man was soon silenced.

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In no time at all, every port in Spain was buzzing with activity.

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People were galvanised into action by their new commander's efficient organisation.

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In a few months, supplies were stockpiled, weapons were issued and crews assembled.

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On board the ships, the men were blessed

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to make sure that God would smile on this enterprise.

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People were not allowed blasphemy or gambling on board.

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We were all confessed and absolved before leaving.

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We were prepared for death, to fight for what was right.

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I was happy to do God's work,

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to serve my country.

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To the Spanish, this wasn't just an invasion force.

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It was a religious crusade.

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The Spanish Armada was now a reality. All that was needed was the order to sail to England.

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Queen Elizabeth had got word from her spies that an attack was imminent.

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She knew that England's only hope lay in her navy.

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So in May 1588 she scraped together every ship she could find

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and ordered the main force here to Plymouth.

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Just as well.

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Even as the ships were assembling, the Armada set sail from Spain.

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The Spanish Armada was a breathtaking military force.

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Medina Sidonia had gathered 130 ships.

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The fleet carried 7,000 sailors and nearly three times as many soldiers.

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Never before had the world seen such a concentration of naval power.

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And it was heading straight for England.

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Along the southern coast of England, people waited nervously for the arrival of the Spanish invaders.

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In the villages, men prepared to fight with any weapons they could lay their hands on.

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In huts like this, and all along the Cornish coast,

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lookouts stared out to sea, waiting for the first signs of the invasion fleet.

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Then on Friday 29th of July,

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the watchers spotted a forest of masts and sails looming on the horizon.

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The Spanish Armada had reached the British coast.

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The only thing that now blocked the path of the Armada were the ships of the Royal Navy.

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And the man in charge, on his flagship Ark Royal,

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was Admiral Lord Howard.

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Lord Howard was a natural-born leader,

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but like his counterpart Medina Sidonia,

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he'd got the job more through family connections than through experience.

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He was the Queen's cousin.

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But the English were not exactly short on seamanship. Second in command was Sir Francis Drake.

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Drake was very different from Howard.

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Born the humble son of a farmer,

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he had become the greatest sailor in England.

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He was deeply feared by the Spanish

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for his frequent raids on their ships and ports,

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but his own men respected, even loved him.

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One of the great things about Drake is all men are equal on his ship.

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He's willing to put himself shoulder to shoulder with the next man,

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to stand next to you and burn his hands on the rope.

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Sir Francis Drake, er, rightly... gets my respect, every bloody time.

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The country's future now depended on these two commanders and the men they led.

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They were eager to set out to sea to fight the Spanish,

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but there was something that stood in their way.

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When the Armada was spotted,

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the wind was blowing inland and the tide was flooding in.

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I'm in the middle of the narrowest point of Plymouth harbour at the moment,

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straining away against about a 2- or 3-knot tide.

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It must have been incredibly frustrating for them

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knowing that just a few miles away at sea was the Spanish Armada

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and they couldn't get to grips with them, because they were stuck here.

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There was nothing Drake or Howard could do

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but calmly finish their famous game of bowls and wait for the tide to turn.

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But their calm belied the danger of the situation.

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The English ships were trapped while the enemy drew nearer.

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The Spanish now had an extraordinary opportunity - to launch an attack on the English

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while they were still vulnerable here in Plymouth harbour.

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It might have won them a quick victory, and some Spanish officers argued fiercely for it.

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But Philip's orders had been clear -

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do not engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary.

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The fleet's task was to keep heading for Calais to meet up with that Spanish army in the Netherlands.

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So the Armada sailed on,

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ignoring what might have been an opportunity to strike a decisive blow.

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They weren't intent on causing damage while we were anchored.

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Indeed they waited while the tides became more favourable to ourselves.

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And that is something I shall never understand to this day,

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other than being a man of faith, I suppose that God smiled on us that day.

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It was only as the tide turned that evening that the English had their chance to take the initiative.

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They headed out of Plymouth Sound here to face the enemy.

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Here is the English coast,

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from Plymouth right the way along into Cornwall.

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The westerly wind was blowing the Armada, here, steadily eastwards.

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Drake and Howard, coming out of Plymouth harbour here,

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decided to split their forces.

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Howard's plan was to take the main body of the fleet out to sea,

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whilst Drake was to head westwards along the coast.

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Their aim was to get to the west of the Spanish Armada.

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This was critical because the wind was blowing from the west,

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and if they could get round to this side,

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then they would have the all-important advantage of having the wind behind them.

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But to get to that position they had to sail into the wind,

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and sailing into the wind was very tricky, and it still is.

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Now the trouble about sailing into the wind - the wind's coming almost straight off my bow now -

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is that you can't go straight at it.

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If you do, the sail just flaps helplessly and you stop.

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So, you go off the wind, each side of the wind,

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and you zigzag, you tack, as it's called into the wind.

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So here we go now, we're on one tack...

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and to go up there into the wind, I've got to go through like this.

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Imagine this in a great big square-rigged sailing ship -

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it would take a long time to get the yards and sails around.

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Sailing with the wind behind you is much easier.

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There's two major advantages to going downwind.

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It's pretty much the quickest way of sailing, you're going very fast,

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and you've got a lot of control over the direction of the boat.

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You can go that way, you can go that way, you can go any way you want. It's a very flexible way of sailing.

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The advantage of having the wind behind you becomes clear in a race.

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I'm heading into the wind.

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Dan is sailing with the wind.

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First to the buoy wins and I've got a head start.

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Hooray, we're off! And the big race has begun.

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I've the wind behind me so technically I can go straight from A to B.

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I can head straight for the mark. Dad's got to zigzag the whole way.

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Zigzagging to windward.

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Come on, Dan, I'm going to beat you yet!

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No, you won't, Dad. Even with that head start you can't beat me.

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Well, I'm going to have to try another tack, that's all.

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There you go. Zigzagging into the wind is a terrible way of having to race someone.

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-And look at him - he's almost at the buoy already. ..All right, you win!

-Ha-ha-ha!

-Ha-ha(!)

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Oh, dear.

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It's clear the boat going downwind can go faster and straighter.

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You zigzagging all around and going slowly, it wasn't fair.

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The whole strategy of every battle at sea was to fight for the position on the windward side of your enemy.

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That way you had what they call the weather gauge of it, you were actually able to control the battle.

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Sailing into the wind is hard work, even on a modern sailboat.

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On the huge square-rigged galleons of the time it required great skill and co-ordination.

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But if the English were to gain that vital position, they would have to use their expertise

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to tack westwards into the wind and slip past the Spanish fleet.

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All the next day the Spanish continued heading east towards the meeting point with their army.

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The lookouts strained to catch sight of the English fleet,

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expecting them to appear somewhere in front of them.

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Then at dawn on Sunday 31st, two days after they'd arrived,

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they finally spotted them,

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but to their shock and amazement the English ships were now behind them,

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and worse still, they were getting ready to attack.

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The scene was now set for the first battle of the conflict.

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The wind was blowing steadily from over here, from the west,

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and the two squadrons of the English fleet

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had zigzagged into the wind to get it behind them, giving them an advantage over the Spanish.

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The English fleet numbered just 55 ships, including the 11 in Drake's squadron.

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The Spanish fleet was more than twice that size, over 120 ships.

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They'd now formed into a prearranged battle formation,

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a huge crescent two miles across.

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At each haul of the crescent were two big fighting squadrons,

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huge galleons, these, of up to 50 guns each.

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In the centre, Medina Sidonia himself,

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commanding more big fighting ships,

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whilst all around them, the less well armed supply ships, protected within that close-packed crescent.

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It was an effective defensive formation,

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almost impossible to break up.

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And the Armada had another advantage -

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each vessel was loaded with soldiers,

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as many as 350 on a single ship.

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The Spanish fought in the age-old traditional way -

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they took grappling hooks like this, then they hurled them across at enemy ships,

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dragged the ships together and then would leap across and fight it out hand-to-hand on the enemy decks.

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In this kind of fighting the Spanish had a massive advantage - their huge ships bristling with soldiers.

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The English, with their smaller ships and smaller crews, liked to keep their distance,

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and instead battered their enemy into submission with their guns.

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The two sides weren't only using different tactics,

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they also sailed in very different formations.

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This is like the Armada would have been -

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tightly packed, difficult for the British to get in and fire broadsides -

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but equally very difficult for US to fire broadsides because we only shoot each other up.

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Also not very manoeuvrable, because if I turn or they turn

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we'll hit each other, and a lot of collision went on inside the Armada.

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The English had to be manoeuvrable to keep clear of the Spanish grappling hooks,

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so they tried something new.

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They went in line astern, one after the other, so the leader could control where everybody went.

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It also meant that the guns, which are all down the sides of the ships,

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could all fire at once against the Spanish, much more effective.

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The English hoped that their line formation would enable them to run rings around the Armada,

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whilst the Spanish hoped that their defensive formation

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would enable them to withstand any attacks.

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The English commanders were about to find out if their new battle plan would outwit the Spanish.

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Now with the wind behind them, the English could put this new strategy into action

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in a ferocious two-pronged attack on the Armada.

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Howard now swung around,

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aiming to attack the southern haul of the crescent

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using the English line astern formation.

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Meanwhile Drake was going to concentrate his attack on the northern tip.

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The two commanders knew the fate of England was in their hands.

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As each ship turned to face the Armada,

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the English sailors hoisted up every sail they could

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and used the favourable wind to carry them headlong into battle.

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Heave! Heave! Heave!

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As they approached the giant Spanish ships for the first time,

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they realised just how powerful their adversary was.

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MEN SHOUT

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But this was an enemy they had to defeat or England would fall.

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Below decks the gunners loaded the cannons ready for firing.

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At last the Armada was just a quarter of a mile away.

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The Ark Royal was leading the attack

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and the Spanish ships were now within range of its cannons.

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The order was given to fire.

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Down here on the cramped gun decks the noise would have been unbelievable.

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The well-trained English fired broadside after broadside,

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firing and reloading continuously.

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No amount of preparation prepares you for the noise and the sweat

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and the fear and the sound.

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You're more an animal than a man,

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you just keep going, you keep going...

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until someone tells you to stop.

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Following one after another, the English were able to outmanoeuvre the Spanish

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and bring their guns to bear on the ships of the Armada.

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And all the while,

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the English kept their distance to avoid being boarded.

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Their strategy was working.

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For the Spanish this was a major blow.

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They couldn't get close enough to use their grappling hooks,

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and whilst most of the Spanish ships were protected by their tight formation,

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the ships at the tip were on the receiving end

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of wave upon wave of English cannon fire.

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What was amazing was the...

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..the skill of the English, the...agility of the boats.

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We had never encountered anything like that before.

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Finally the English pulled back,

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triumphant that not a single one of their ships had been boarded.

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But despite firing over 2,000 cannonballs,

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they failed to sink a single Spanish ship.

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We'd as yet been unable to cause any real damage to the Spanish Armada ourselves.

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We HAD hit them, of course, but not hard enough.

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The Armada was still intact and as powerful as ever.

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The English had done nothing that day to dent the invasion plan.

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For some reason the English cannons simply weren't doing enough damage.

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Right, let's load this thing.

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OK, here's the charge... nice and gently.

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-I'm going to ram it down.

-How long would this take on a ship?

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They could do it pretty quickly with a trained crew.

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-I think you'd get a round away in a minute.

-About a round a minute?

-Yeah.

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Then the next thing to go in would be the shot.

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-Weighs about 3lb?

-3lb of cast iron.

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And they went up to, oh, ten times that size.

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-There she goes.

-There it is.

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To stop it falling out we put in the top wad, which on a ship would be old rope. Here we're going to use straw.

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-Because when the ship rolls, we don't want the ball...

-The shot falling out, it keeps it in.

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You give that a good tap home.

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Get ready for priming. I'm pricking a little hole in the cartridge inside.

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That releases the powder so that when you light it, the powder goes off and the ball spurts out the end?

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-That right.

-There you go - physics.

-But the gun hasn't yet been aimed.

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Right, OK, let's go left a bit...

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ah, a little more...

0:28:070:28:09

Too much, back a tiny shade... yeah, that's it, that's spot-on.

0:28:090:28:13

'For safety, we went to set the cannon off remotely from a very reinforced bunker.'

0:28:130:28:18

See the thickness of the roof which we'll be under?

0:28:180:28:22

Right, now, I'm going to take money on this hitting the very, very centre of the target.

0:28:220:28:28

I'll offer you 5-1 on. How about that?

0:28:280:28:31

No, I'm not a betting man, but I think you're going to hit it.

0:28:310:28:35

Five, four,

0:28:350:28:37

three, two,

0:28:370:28:39

one, fire.

0:28:390:28:42

-Whoa! Nice! Straight through.

-We hit it.

0:28:460:28:49

-We aimed well, Dan.

-Yeah, well done, Dad.

0:28:490:28:52

-Let's go and have a look.

-Good.

0:28:520:28:55

If we can manage this here, why didn't the English do more damage?

0:29:020:29:07

You can make a 3-inch-diameter hole in the side of a ship

0:29:070:29:10

but that won't sink a ship because it's easily fixable. It'll cause casualties and may disable it,

0:29:100:29:16

but to actually sink a ship you have to pepper the side of the boat.

0:29:160:29:20

-The Spanish running around with a big plug, shoving it in...

-Taking casualties but plugging the holes.

0:29:200:29:26

And ships not sinking, even though peppered with holes like this.

0:29:260:29:30

No. We imagine shells that rip the side out of a ship, but all that's doing is making a little hole.

0:29:300:29:36

On that first day of battle the English sailors kept their distance.

0:29:390:29:44

But that meant only the occasional cannonball hit its mark,

0:29:440:29:49

and so at the end of that day

0:29:490:29:52

the Armada sailed on virtually unscathed.

0:29:520:29:56

After seven hours of fighting, neither side had done decisive damage to the other.

0:29:580:30:03

The worst damage the Spanish suffered, they'd done themselves.

0:30:030:30:07

In the chaos of battle, two of their ships had collided.

0:30:070:30:11

Rather than break up its formation, the Armada continued towards its ultimate goal.

0:30:140:30:21

One of the disabled ships was left behind.

0:30:210:30:24

At night, Drake was charged with following the Spanish ships

0:30:250:30:30

with his lantern lit to guide the fleet.

0:30:300:30:32

But then he did something quite outrageous.

0:30:320:30:35

He couldn't resist the lure of Spanish treasure.

0:30:350:30:39

So he snuffed out the lantern

0:30:390:30:41

and slipped off to loot the crippled ship.

0:30:410:30:45

And that was something to be proud of.

0:30:450:30:48

We kept a ship from the Spanish

0:30:480:30:50

and it was laden with gold, let me tell you.

0:30:500:30:54

It was a profitable night for Drake, but the rest of the English fleet paid a heavy price.

0:30:540:30:59

Without his lantern to guide them, they got scattered, and by dawn they were in complete disarray.

0:30:590:31:05

It took them a day to re-form

0:31:050:31:08

and the Armada continued its relentless voyage eastwards.

0:31:080:31:13

The English had to catch up with the Spanish or else all was lost.

0:31:150:31:20

Fortunately they had something that would help them -

0:31:200:31:25

the design of their ships.

0:31:250:31:28

It's the shape of a ship that determines how effective it is at sailing -

0:31:280:31:32

the sleeker the vessel, the more manoeuvrable it is.

0:31:320:31:36

Spanish ships were built very high out of the water. They were very top-heavy and cumbersome.

0:31:420:31:48

They were ready to take lots of men and supplies - floating fortresses.

0:31:480:31:52

The English ships were faster, more manoeuvrable.

0:31:520:31:55

They'd taken the traditional galleon design and made it sleeker.

0:31:550:31:58

With their faster ships, the English set off in pursuit of the Armada,

0:32:020:32:07

and after a day of hard sailing, they caught up with them.

0:32:070:32:11

It was now Tuesday 2nd August, five days after the Armada had arrived.

0:32:150:32:20

Medina Sidonia had led his ships as far as this - Portland Bill in Dorset.

0:32:200:32:26

People watching here would have seen the ships clearly out to sea there.

0:32:260:32:30

This was the scene of a second fierce battle.

0:32:320:32:35

Once again the Spanish formation held firm.

0:32:440:32:48

Once again the English failed to make any impact.

0:32:480:32:52

I do remember at that time feeling frustrated and somewhat concerned,

0:32:550:32:59

because we had done our damnedest to get in there and have a go

0:32:590:33:03

but still that bloody armada kept sailing on.

0:33:030:33:06

Hardly troubled it, it appeared.

0:33:060:33:09

But in fact Medina Sidonia was very concerned.

0:33:090:33:12

He'd been expecting to get word from the Spanish troops in Flanders

0:33:120:33:16

to confirm that they were prepared for the invasion,

0:33:160:33:21

but he'd heard nothing. He was now at a critical point in the voyage.

0:33:210:33:25

He was approaching the Isle of Wight

0:33:250:33:27

and he still didn't know whether the army in Flanders was ready.

0:33:270:33:31

It's a quirk of English geography that there are many big harbours west of the Isle of Wight

0:33:310:33:37

but none at all beyond it to the east on this stretch of coast.

0:33:370:33:41

So once past this point, there was no place for the Armada to shelter,

0:33:410:33:45

not even in Flanders itself.

0:33:450:33:47

If the Spanish sailed on,

0:33:470:33:49

they'd be taking a gamble that the army was all set to go.

0:33:490:33:54

Medina Sidonia's safest option

0:33:560:33:59

was to occupy the Isle of Wight and make it a temporary base.

0:33:590:34:03

This would be an easy task for his troops,

0:34:070:34:11

and he could then wait there, safe in the shelter in the Solent,

0:34:110:34:15

until he got word that the army was ready.

0:34:150:34:18

The English knew they had to stop the Spanish from getting into the Solent at all costs,

0:34:250:34:31

but that day, unlike today, there was another problem - there was no wind at all.

0:34:310:34:36

The English didn't let that deter them.

0:34:360:34:38

They put small boats like this into the water and dragged their big galleons into battle.

0:34:380:34:44

Go for it, Dan, come on, heave-ho!

0:34:440:34:47

That's it, you're pulling us along.

0:34:470:34:49

-I'm not sure I'm going too fast here.

-She's moving.

0:34:500:34:54

I can see why the rowers are on a high carbohydrate diet. I feel like the need for a doughnut.

0:34:540:35:00

-I don't want to break it to you, but I think we're going slightly backwards.

-I know.

0:35:000:35:06

Later that morning, the wind at last picked up.

0:35:070:35:11

Now the real battle could commence.

0:35:110:35:14

The two fleets were here, just south of the Isle of Wight.

0:35:140:35:18

The Armada seemed to be heading for the sheltered waters just around the corner in the Solent, here,

0:35:180:35:24

where they could seize the Isle of Wight.

0:35:240:35:27

The English had just hours in which to stop them.

0:35:270:35:31

Howard and Drake had decided

0:35:320:35:34

to split the English fleet into four separate squadrons

0:35:340:35:38

to give them maximum freedom to fight independently.

0:35:380:35:42

Drake took his squadron south.

0:35:420:35:44

Another squadron attacked the Armada from the north.

0:35:440:35:48

But this attack did little damage to the Spanish.

0:35:500:35:53

The two remaining squadrons then joined the fierce melee heading for the centre of the Spanish crescent.

0:35:530:36:00

But through the dense gun smoke the English could see the Armada

0:36:020:36:07

drifting ever closer to the vulnerable entrance to the Solent.

0:36:070:36:12

The campaign was now to take a decisive turn.

0:36:120:36:15

Drake made a brilliant move.

0:36:150:36:17

He'd already led his ships out to sea.

0:36:170:36:20

He now appeared from the open sea

0:36:200:36:22

and brought his firepower to bear

0:36:220:36:25

on the ships of the southern tip of the Spanish formation.

0:36:250:36:29

Medina Sidonia saw this and sent reinforcements southwards to their defence.

0:36:290:36:34

Drake had distracted the Spanish commander at the critical moment.

0:36:360:36:40

Instead of turning into the sheltered waters of the Solent, the Spanish Armada found itself heading

0:36:440:36:51

for one of the most treacherous hazards of the English Channel -

0:36:510:36:55

the dreaded sandbanks of the Owers.

0:36:550:36:58

English sailors had left the Armada with no choice.

0:36:590:37:03

To avoid running aground on the Owers,

0:37:050:37:07

the Spanish had to turn away from the Isle of Wight into the open sea.

0:37:070:37:11

For the time being, the Spanish had been prevented from setting foot on British soil.

0:37:130:37:20

For Medina Sidonia the die was now cast.

0:37:200:37:23

For better or worse, the Armada was set on a one-way course towards Flanders to meet up with the army.

0:37:230:37:31

It all went according to the Spanish plan.

0:37:310:37:34

They could still launch a joint invasion in a matter of days.

0:37:340:37:39

Here in Flanders the army of Spain was still fighting Dutch Protestant rebels.

0:37:560:38:01

They were ready to break off their land war and gather together for the invasion of England

0:38:010:38:07

as soon as they heard that the Armada was getting close.

0:38:070:38:11

But they would need at least a week to complete their preparations,

0:38:110:38:15

so it was vital that they got advanced warning of the Armada's arrival.

0:38:150:38:20

In fact, Medina Sidonia had been desperately trying to get a message to the army

0:38:300:38:36

ever since he arrived off Cornwall eight days earlier.

0:38:360:38:39

But communication at sea was very unreliable.

0:38:390:38:43

He had no idea whether his messages had actually got through.

0:38:440:38:49

On Saturday 6th of August,

0:38:490:38:51

the Armada was finally nearing its destination.

0:38:510:38:54

Despite all the best efforts of Drake and Howard, it had sailed the entire length of the English Channel

0:38:540:39:00

without losing a single ship to those English guns,

0:39:000:39:04

and now it was in the Straits of Dover, the narrowest part of the Channel,

0:39:040:39:09

and within 25 miles of that Spanish army in Flanders.

0:39:090:39:13

Medina Sidonia was still hoping

0:39:130:39:16

that the 30,000 Spanish troops would be ready and waiting on the coast.

0:39:160:39:21

But they were nowhere near ready.

0:39:250:39:27

In fact, word had only just reached the troops of the Armada's progress.

0:39:270:39:33

They started gathering as fast as they could,

0:39:330:39:36

but the preparations would still take days.

0:39:360:39:40

This was disastrous news for Medina Sidonia.

0:39:400:39:43

It would mean the Armada waiting around in the open sea at the mercy of the elements and the English.

0:39:430:39:50

It was a naval commander's worst nightmare.

0:39:500:39:53

But from the point of view of the English sailors, the situation looked equally desperate.

0:39:530:40:00

For all they knew, the Armada was about to be joined by the troops

0:40:000:40:04

for the final assault on England.

0:40:040:40:06

We were all completely and utterly exhausted.

0:40:060:40:10

We'd all been awake for near enough a week,

0:40:100:40:14

with hard sailing and fighting on a daily basis,

0:40:140:40:19

and now the Armada had reached its destination,

0:40:190:40:23

and it seemed we had but hours to achieve...

0:40:230:40:27

what we hadn't been able to achieve in a week.

0:40:270:40:32

It was their last chance to destroy the Spanish fleet.

0:40:320:40:36

So far the Armada's tight formation had proved immune to attack

0:40:360:40:40

and somehow the English had to find a way to break it up.

0:40:400:40:44

So on Sunday 7th of August,

0:40:440:40:47

Drake and Howard met to plan their attack.

0:40:470:40:50

And they decided to use a weapon that struck fear into every sailor on a wooden ship -

0:40:500:40:57

fire.

0:40:570:40:58

On the night of August 7th,

0:41:060:41:09

English sailors prepared eight full-sized ships for sacrifice.

0:41:090:41:13

They loaded them with barrels of tar.

0:41:130:41:16

They even put two cannonballs in each cannon

0:41:160:41:19

so that when the flames reached the powder they would explode at random.

0:41:190:41:23

The moon was full that night, which meant the tide would run strong.

0:41:230:41:27

At midnight, the English sailors set the ships alight

0:41:280:41:32

and let the wind and tide carry them right into the middle of the Spanish fleet.

0:41:320:41:37

As the fire ships drifted towards the Armada, the Spanish raised the alarm.

0:41:400:41:45

It was like a storm of fire coming towards us. You could feel the heat and it was coming closer and closer.

0:42:020:42:08

The terrified soldiers desperately tried to haul the burning boats out of the way.

0:42:110:42:17

We would...clear one boat...

0:42:170:42:20

divert it away from the Armada, and another would follow.

0:42:200:42:24

We would clear that and another would follow and we'd clear that one,

0:42:240:42:28

and another would follow and another behind that. It was relentless.

0:42:280:42:31

Most of the ships simply cut their cables and abandoned their anchors in the mad rush to escape.

0:42:390:42:45

In the confusion the Spanish ships were scattered far and wide.

0:42:450:42:49

There were several collisions and one even ended up grounded.

0:42:490:42:53

Even though not a single Spanish ship actually caught on fire,

0:42:530:42:57

the fear was enough to achieve the required objective.

0:42:570:43:00

By the morning, the Spanish Armada was in disarray.

0:43:000:43:04

At last the Spanish formation was broken,

0:43:070:43:10

its ships spread along the coast of Gravelines, north of Calais,

0:43:100:43:15

an area of treacherous sandbanks and shallow waters.

0:43:150:43:20

The Spanish were now in a perilous position.

0:43:200:43:23

Their armada was scattered

0:43:230:43:25

and it was the ideal time for the English to strike.

0:43:250:43:29

But Drake suddenly discovered that Howard and more than 20 English ships had completely disappeared.

0:43:290:43:36

Incredibly, at this critical moment,

0:43:360:43:38

Howard had shown that he too had a deep piratical streak

0:43:380:43:43

and they'd gone off to loot a Spanish ship that had gone aground.

0:43:430:43:47

Once again, the greed of the English cost them valuable time.

0:43:500:43:55

While Howard chased after Spanish booty, Drake led the rest of the English fleet

0:43:550:44:01

into a conflict unlike any that had been fought before, the Battle of Gravelines.

0:44:010:44:08

What followed was a frantic struggle which both sides knew would decide the fate of the Armada.

0:44:080:44:15

The Armada had been scattered by the fire ships and was spread out along the coast,

0:44:150:44:20

only Medina Sidonia's flagship and four others

0:44:200:44:24

had managed to stand their ground here.

0:44:240:44:28

They bore the brunt of Drake's first attack.

0:44:280:44:31

For over an hour, Medina Sidonia held back the English onslaught,

0:44:440:44:49

giving the rest of the Armada time to reform.

0:44:490:44:52

Finally, Howard returned from his private looting expedition and joined in the attack,

0:44:570:45:03

but, by now, 50 of the Spanish ships had formed their own defensive crescent

0:45:030:45:09

and Drake sailed on to attack it, realising this main body of Spanish ships had to be broken.

0:45:090:45:16

Drake decided to take an enormous risk - he led his ships much closer than in any of the previous battles.

0:45:180:45:25

Soon, they were in amongst the ships of the Armada.

0:45:250:45:29

The experience for those on board would have been different from the other battles.

0:46:030:46:08

The ships were so close either side could fire muskets and even hurl abuse at each other.

0:46:080:46:14

One English ship came so close to a Spanish ship, an English sailor jumped aboard, but was killed.

0:46:140:46:21

We were so close we could hear the Spanish talking, and then we knew we were in musket range.

0:46:290:46:35

But, by getting near, the English were at last able to hit the Armada

0:46:450:46:50

with shot after shot, doing terrible damage to the ships and their crews.

0:46:500:46:55

The Spanish were suffering huge numbers of casualties as the English ships pounded them from close range.

0:46:580:47:05

Below decks on the Spanish ships, cannonballs smashed through the hull meaning death for anyone in the way,

0:47:100:47:16

and sending splinters the size of daggers flying through the air.

0:47:160:47:20

The deck just ran red with blood,

0:47:390:47:42

every...every moment

0:47:420:47:45

it seemed that someone was crying with pain,

0:47:450:47:50

screaming with agony.

0:47:500:47:53

Whilst the English were blasting away, the Spanish guns were only managing to fire about once an hour,

0:47:570:48:03

but what slowed them down was lack of experience.

0:48:030:48:07

These guns are complicated to fire and the Spanish ships had more priests on board than gunners.

0:48:100:48:16

Instead, it was the job of the soldiers to fire the guns, but they had no experience fighting at sea.

0:48:160:48:22

So, for most of the battle, the Spanish couldn't even fight back.

0:48:220:48:26

It was...horrific

0:48:280:48:30

and...

0:48:300:48:33

I remember praying to God

0:48:330:48:35

and thinking that would be my last moment.

0:48:350:48:39

After eight hours of fighting, the English were running out ammunition.

0:49:250:49:31

We'd fired so much and done so much damage

0:49:340:49:38

that, by the end of the battle, we were grabbing anything - using chain instead of cannonballs,

0:49:380:49:44

loading anything we could get our hands on.

0:49:440:49:47

Around four in the afternoon, the English fired their last shots

0:49:550:50:00

and were forced to pull back, hoping they'd inflicted fatal damage on the Spanish.

0:50:000:50:05

The Spanish fleet was in tatters.

0:50:140:50:17

Over 600 Spanish were dead, many hundreds more were badly wounded.

0:50:170:50:23

One Spanish ship had been sunk, two driven ashore and the rest severely damaged.

0:50:230:50:29

And now the wind was blowing them helplessly towards the treacherous sandbanks of Flanders.

0:50:290:50:35

With the English fleet hovering out to sea and the wind pushing the Armada onto the sandbanks,

0:50:410:50:47

there was a hush on the ships and everyone's attention was on one man.

0:50:470:50:52

He was in charge of throwing a line into the water to measure the depth.

0:50:520:50:56

If the ships went aground, it would be certain death, either by drowning

0:50:590:51:04

as the ship broke up in the surf or at the hands of the English.

0:51:040:51:08

As the sandbanks drew nearer, the depths got more threatening.

0:51:080:51:12

60 feet, 50 feet

0:51:120:51:15

and then 40 feet. The biggest Armada ships needed about 30 feet of water. Destruction was moments away.

0:51:150:51:23

On board ship, the priests took final confessions.

0:51:290:51:33

Most of the sailors couldn't even swim. Death seemed inevitable.

0:51:330:51:38

Just as the ships were on the point of being wrecked, the wind changed - it came round to the south west

0:51:410:51:47

and blew the Armada out into the North Sea.

0:51:470:51:50

They believed they'd been saved by the will of God.

0:51:500:51:53

The wind may have saved the Spanish from the sandbanks,

0:52:000:52:03

but it drove them away from their army.

0:52:030:52:06

Philip's plan to conquer England and return it to the Catholic fold had failed.

0:52:060:52:11

For the Royal Navy, it was an astonishing achievement.

0:52:140:52:17

Drake and Howard had taken on the most powerful nation on Earth and won.

0:52:190:52:24

But for the Spanish, the story was to take a final devastating turn.

0:52:260:52:31

The Spanish sailors now had only one aim - to get home.

0:52:360:52:42

The English were blocking the Channel, so the Armada's only route home was round Scotland and Ireland,

0:52:420:52:48

and circling back to Spain. It was a long and arduous journey.

0:52:480:52:53

Soon supplies were running low.

0:52:530:52:55

By the time the fleet arrived off Ireland, men were dying from hunger and thirst.

0:52:550:53:01

Conditions on board must have been horrific.

0:53:010:53:04

You would hear moaning, people dying around you all the time,

0:53:040:53:08

the stink of sweat, of death - there was a smell of death in the air.

0:53:080:53:13

Some of the ships,

0:53:130:53:16

one in particular, had no water, no food - nothing.

0:53:160:53:19

It was a terrible disaster.

0:53:210:53:23

It was the weather that dealt the final blow to the Armada.

0:53:360:53:41

Many of the surviving ships were caught by fierce storms

0:53:410:53:45

as they crawled down the west coast of Ireland.

0:53:450:53:48

The broken ships and weakened men were no match for the elements -

0:53:500:53:55

they were too poorly equipped to cope.

0:53:550:53:58

Dozens of ships were wrecked, thousands of sailors were drowned and, of those who did get ashore,

0:54:010:54:09

many were robbed by the locals, and the rest were captured, and then butchered by English soldiers.

0:54:090:54:15

Only the nobles were spared, kept prisoner until they could be sold back to Spain.

0:54:220:54:29

Everything I once owned is gone.

0:54:300:54:33

I...I look at myself now... I look around this room and I feel I have lost everything.

0:54:370:54:45

Only a third of the men came back alive.

0:54:550:54:59

Medina Sidonia himself almost died of dysentery,

0:54:590:55:03

his second-in-command died of shame only days after he arrived home.

0:55:030:55:08

The Armada was worse than a failure - it was a national tragedy.

0:55:080:55:14

The English sailors fared little better.

0:55:240:55:28

They'd risked everything, fighting heroically for England and suffering less than 100 deaths.

0:55:300:55:37

But now that they'd served their purpose, the English Crown seemed to lose interest in them.

0:55:400:55:46

Instead of being rewarded as England's saviours, they were kept on board where disease spread fast.

0:55:460:55:54

Officially, they were there in case the Spanish returned,

0:55:540:55:58

but many suspected it was so they didn't have to be paid.

0:55:580:56:02

Weakened by hunger and illness, the English sailors were dying by the day.

0:56:020:56:08

I heard that the Lord Chancellor is happy for us to die,

0:56:080:56:13

because the more of us die, the less he'll have to pay.

0:56:130:56:17

I've been willing to give my life

0:56:170:56:22

and now I'm told that my life is worth little or next to nothing.

0:56:220:56:27

The men's commanders, Drake and Howard, did what they could -

0:56:280:56:33

Howard even pawned his silver, but it wasn't enough.

0:56:330:56:36

It is said that, of the men who fought the Spanish Armada, only half were alive a year later.

0:56:360:56:43

It was a tragic end for the men of the Royal Navy,

0:56:450:56:48

but, for England, the defeat of the Armada was a turning point,

0:56:480:56:53

a triumph that will become legendary.

0:56:530:56:58

England had defended its faith, and to this day Britain remains a Protestant state.

0:56:580:57:05

The coming centuries would see Spain decline and Britain taking a turn as Europe's leading power.

0:57:050:57:12

The Royal Navy would play a central role

0:57:120:57:15

in winning Britain an empire greater than any the world had ever seen,

0:57:150:57:20

and it all began with the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

0:57:200:57:25

In the next programme, 350 years ago,

0:57:420:57:45

a battle was fought that would shake the British monarchy to its core.

0:57:450:57:50

It was a turning point in a civil war

0:57:500:57:52

that had ripped the country apart for three years.

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The battle is seen by many as the birthplace of British democracy,

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but it was a birth that was drenched in blood -

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blood shed on the battlefield of Naseby.

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