Battle of Britain: The Real Story

I love documentaries--particularly about history. However, I don't love EVERY documentary. Too often, these films simply recapitulate everything said in previous documentaries and offer nothing new...nothing. However, when I do see a film that offers a new insight into a super-familiar subject I am excited--and among the billions of WWII documentaries, "Battle of Britain: The Real Story" is among the best.

This show takes a different view when discussing the Battle of Britain. Conventional wisdom is that the British were grossly outclassed by the much more able Germans and yet the Germans (perhaps due to intervention by God) somehow lost a battle that they SHOULD have won. Well, James Holland would NOT agree with this view and offers his own view that in many ways the British were NOT helpless and outclassed and survived due to a miracle. Instead, he picks out many ways in which the Brits were at an advantage and many ways in which the Nazis were woefully unready for such a war. Such thinking is radical yet compelling because Holland backs it up with a compelling argument.

All in all, an immensely interesting and novel re-imagining of the Battle of Britain--and a show that manages to give us new insight into the old.