The Hardest Day - The Battle of Britain, 18 August 1940 - The World of War

This is the story of one single day in the Battle of Britain: Sunday 18 August 1940. There had been an ominous silence in the skies over south east England the day before, after six days of attack by the Luftwaffe and substantial losses on both sides, but the quiet was not to last. On Sunday, a fine summer's day, the Luftwaffe launched three major assaults. In the course of these and numerous smaller actions 100 German and 136 British aircraft were destroyed or damaged. On no other day in the Battle of Britain would either side suffer a greater number of aircraft put out of action. Aviation historian Alfred Price gives a thrilling, absorbing, minute-by-minute account of that hardest day of the Battle, from the perspective of everyone involved - British and German aircrew, behind-the-scenes planners and strategists, and members of the public above whose countryside the Battle was waged. It was a day that changed the destiny of the war....