WEBVTT

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[music]

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-The Straits of Dover,

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no wider than the Saint Lawrence,

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no wider than the Mississippi.

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On one side, the greatest machine
of conquest of all time.

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In the other,
the white ramparts of Britain.

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On this narrow strip of water,

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the eyes of the whole British Commonwealth
are fixed.

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World history may soon be shaped here.

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Around this island fortress of Britain,
they have built a wall of steel.

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Night
and day the watching eyes gaze seaward.

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None can say
when the hour of invasion may come

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but come, they believe it will.

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[music]

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Behind the armored shorelines,

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40 million people are
at the battle stations.

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These are Britain\'s craftsmen,
the steel pedlers, foundrymen, machinists.

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The men and women who in time
of peace made England rich and strong.

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They, it is who have brought
about the silent wartime revolution

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which demands that nothing shall hinder
the fulfillment of the nation\'s needs.

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Willingly they have faced the sacrifices,

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discomfort, hard rations, long hours

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for they know that the hosts
across the sea amassing,

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every hour is precious.

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-[German language]

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-Germany did not start the war,

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the British wanted war
even though they knew

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their cities would be reduced to ruins.

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The power of England will be annihilated.

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The scourge of modern weapons
will be turned against her

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and will ravage her territories
and her people.

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Already her southern towns are receiving
the baptism of fire

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from our long-range guns.

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The role of England is to be
a vassal state in our new European order.

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Britain and her Commonwealth
will be ruled by blood and iron and force.

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Soldiers of the Reich,
your hour is approaching.

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[music]

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-I can usually hear Jerry
leaving the other side,

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we watch out for him

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and as for the shells,

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well, we see a flash count 60,
there she is.

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-It was just such people as these
who bore the full brunt

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of the first German onslaught on England.

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The all-out air attack of September 1940.

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From airfields
all along the conqured coast of Europe,

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wave-on-wave of Goring\'s bombers

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launched their long-awaited assault
in England.

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That tactic to drive the RAF

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from the British skies
who spread civilian panic,

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prepare the way for the invading army.

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Across the fields of Kent and Sussex,
across the rolling downs of Hampshire

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and the sprawling mass of London,
the battle of Britain began.

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The first great decisive battle in history

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in which the frontline fighters
were airmen and civilians.

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[sirens]

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In those fateful autumn days of 1940

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when none knew what terror
the skies might hold,

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there appeared from end to end of Britain

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the strangest fighting force
the world has ever seen.

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An army of citizens self-organized,
self-disciplined.

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Their armament?

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Hoses, stirrup pumps, sandbags,
brooms, and buckets.

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Their purpose?

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To save their town, their community
from the fate of Rotterdam and Warsaw.

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[sirens]

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Even before the droning engines

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of the Luftwaffe heralded
the first mass attacks,

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these people\'s army
of Britain stood ready.

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Over the shores of Kent, they came.

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Over the beaches of Sussex
and the flats of the Thames Estuary,

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100, 150, 200 at a time
with their cargoes of bomb

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and fire and their fighter escorts
massed around them.

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[gun battle]

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These raiders were the elite
of German air force groomed for victory.

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Their Heinkels had thundered over Poland,
their Dorniers had blasted Holland,

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their Stukas had shattered the army
of France.

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Only Britain remained.

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Today her seaports would lie in ruins.

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Tomorrow Birmingham, Coventry,
and the Smoky towns of Lancashire.

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Within a week, London itself would be
a heap of brick and rubble.

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But they failed to reckon with RAF.

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Long will England remember the days

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when the spitfires
and hurricanes first rolled in

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and the fortunes of war were written
in white trails of vapor in the sky.

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As the German formations scattered
before the fighter\'s guns,

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the radio reports blotted out space
and time

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intercepting over Norwich,

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brought down at Calais,

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engaging at Portsmouth,

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destroyed at Ostend,

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and over the radio
to the repeated warning cry of the Germans

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to their hard-pressed comrades,

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[German language].

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Within two months the wreckage
of 2,400 German aircraft lay on the field

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and shores of Britain.

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They had failed to reckon RAF above.

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They had failed to reckon
with character of the people\'s army below.

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[music]

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-We pulled more cherries out of a drink
than all of them ever existed.

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In fact,

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fat ones, thin ones, small ones,
you\'d be surprised.

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We\'re getting proper fed up with it.

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[music]

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-Far more serious to the Nazi High command
than the loss of planes

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and men in that first battle of Britain

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is the rising tide of help
whichever since those perilous days

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has flowed from the new world.

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In these bomb-laden ships eastward bound
from Canada and the USA

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lies a threat not only
to Hitler\'s campaign

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against the British Isles
but to his grip on Europe itself.

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Today the leaders of Germany well know
that unless that sea supply line

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can be swiftly cut,

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all the triumphs
of their armies will have been in vain.

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Every ship that steams in front
of our torpedo tubes

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will henceforth be sunk at site.

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In shipyards throughout the Riech,
the U-boats go down the slipways fast,

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heavily-armed, ocean-going submarines
capable of cruising 6,000 miles

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in the heavy swales of the Atlantic.

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In special schools, young Germans learn
the raiders\' tactic of hit-and-run,

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not for them to heed
the warning upon Tirpitz

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that Germany has never understood the sea.

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Far out in the gray Atlantic,
the Nazis played their second card.

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If we cannot bomb them out,
then we will starve them out.

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[music]

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From bases
along the western coast of France,

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the big pack of old bombers ranged far
and wide across the ocean,

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seeking out the convoys
approaching British Shores.

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[music]

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A rapid inspection from low altitude
and the radios begin to speak.

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Eric Anderson\'s calling U55,
air reconnaissance calling U55,

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eastbound British convoy,
located latitude 5330, longitude 1710.

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Attack with torpedoes.

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Off the coast of Ireland

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along the vital westerly approaches
to the British Isles,

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the U boats lie in waiting.

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Four, five, and six of them together
working in flotillas.

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[music]

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Like wolves, they will stalk
a convoy for days at a stretch,

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biding their time until the trends
of wind and weather

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offers the fattest prize
to their torpedoes.

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[music]

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This is their song,

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\"We\'re sailing against England.\"

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[music]

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Will be tired the ship attempting
to run the gauntlet of the Atlantic alone.

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Be she allied, be she neutral,

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the fact that her course
is set towards British shores

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is enough to seal her fate.

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All that is left is a group
of half-frozen oil-smeared men,

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and a lifeboat lurching
of the green crops of the sea.

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As the battle
of the Atlantic reaches its grim climax,

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the world waters anxiously as London
reveals the rising toll of sinkings:

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400,000 tons a month,

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500,000 tons a month,

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600,000 tons a month.

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Destruction at a rate
more than three times as high

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as British shipyards can replace.

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Sinkings in the south Atlantic,
off west Africa,

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and the Cape Verde islands.

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Sinkings between the Azores
and the Caribbean,

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between Greenland and Iceland.

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Sinkings in the waters
of the Western hemisphere

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within 700 miles of Canada.

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Today, the shipyards of north America

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sound their answer
in the clanging of hammers.

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New ships to release British merchantmen
for service in the Atlantic.

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Along Canada\'s coasts and rivers,

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that Corvettes takes the water

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to help Britain\'s hard-pressed destroyers
keep that vital supply line open.

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Already, the tide
of battle may be turning.

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Already, the wide Atlantic is becoming
a graveyard for the Raiders themselves.

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The final answer lies, not alone in ships.

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Hitler himself has said,

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\"It is not arms that decide,
but the men behind them,\"

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and behind these men
of Churchill\'s Island,

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lies a thousand years of the sea in peace
and war, in calm and storm.

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Because of them,

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the convoys plow on
and Britain\'s lifeline holds.

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For the Nazis,
the writing is already on the wall.

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They have learned
that Britain cannot be conquered by bombs.

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They know that the Western world
will not see her starved.

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Only one card remains; direct invasion.

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For long months,

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the German army staff has been planning

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with all the patient foresight
of their kind,

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the landing,
which they know must win or lose the war.

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Cruising along the channel coast,
past Dover, Portsmouth,

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and better Plymouth,

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Nazi planes maintain
their ceaseless search

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for chinks in England\'s armor.

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Come French and Belgian ports,
torpedo boats,

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streak across probing
for possible landing points,

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striving to keep tabs on the movements
of the fleet.

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Back in Germany, all winter long,

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the airborne army has been rehearsing
its suicide role.

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These are the sharp troops
whose task it is to achieve

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what the ruthless tactics
of the Luftwaffe failed to do;

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blow up defenses,

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destroy communications,

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spread the panic born of uncertainty,

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and so create a bridge-head
for the main invading forces.

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Against this strategy of terror,
stems the might of Britain.

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Her ships and planes,

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machines and guns and men arrayed
in the greatest system of defense

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in the history of warfare.

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Night and day,

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the Sunderland flying boats patrol
far out to eastward,

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keeping the German coast
under constant surveillance,

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for any sign of unwanted activity.

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Below, in the spoils of the North Sea,

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that Navy keeps its sleepless watch

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for whatever may appear
on the eastern horizon.

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Be it the four tops of battleships,
or the blunt bows of motor barges.

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Inshore again worked the minelayers,

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forging their chain
of death up and down the coasts,

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their task;
to ensure that seaborne reinforcements

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with heavy artillery
and tanks will never get through alive

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to seize the bridgeheads open
by the parachutists.

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Across the mouth of every harbor,

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every estuary, lie the booms, steel nets,

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whose catch is submarine
and surface craft alike.

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On the beaches of England,
the children play no longer,

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for among the sand dunes move the troops.

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Troops in steel helmets and battledress

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and armed with Tommy guns
that will cut a man in half at 200 yards.

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Every day the shorelines echo
to the warning thunder of coastal guns

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at target practice.

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Patrolling every moor
and down are the home guard,

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the parachuters,

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whose job it is to destroy airborne troops
before they can consolidate positions.

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Across the countryside,

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the church bells are ready
to sound that toxin,

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and the fields have grown a new crop:
tank traps.

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In the byways and the lanes,

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every stranger is challenged
and identified.

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On the main roads, every civilian driver

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stopped for examination.

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At concentration points
from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight,

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mechanized horses stand ready to rush

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at the first alarm
to any threatened area.

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Aloft, far out of sight above the clouds

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fighter squadrons patrol the sky,

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waiting to pounce on transports

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and gliders before they can
jettison their human loads.

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Behind it all,

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Britain\'s citizen army daily grows
in strength.

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As ever more men, 2 million, 3 million,
4 million, are called to the colors.

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More strength from home
and more from overseas,

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as new troops arrived from Canada

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and the other dominion is
to take their places on the ramparts.

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All through the broad acres of Britain,
they are standing too.

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Along the white walls of the channel,
and the red earth of Devon,

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and the marchers of East Anglia,

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with every passing hour,

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this island fortress of Churchill
and his people rose more formidable.

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Each day the tied of help
from friends across the sea

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flows ever stronger

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and deep-rooted in these British people
in the Cockneys and the Clydesiders,

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in the man of Bristol and Manchester,
Cardiff, and Middlesbrough

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and the $7 million citizens of London
lies an inner strength.

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A stubborn calm, which bomb
and fire and steel cannot pierce.

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As the ship\'s steam on up channel,

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past the Lizard and The Needles

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and the towering cliffs of Beachy Head,

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they site once more the watchtowers

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and the bastions of Churchill\'s Island.

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They stand unconquered
as they have stood down

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a thousand years of history,

00:21:02.891 --> 00:21:07.208
and still they throw that challenge
across those 20 miles of water.

00:21:08.722 --> 00:21:11.642
Come if you dare.

00:21:11.809 --> 00:21:24.094
[music]