For the longest time I thought the opening tune was an actual German military march. Goodwin really nailed the style.

Real cars, real airplanes , real actors ,what the hell more could you ask for?...

One of the best movie scores ever. I'll put this movie on sometimes just to watch the beginning.

This opening was an experience in itself. Seeing all of the real planes, real actors was a treat, as was reading the names in the credits- I got quite a surprise seeing Adolf Galland’s name there.

Remember seeing it at the flicks as a boy , I would be about 8 , I guess around 1970 . On Holiday in Southsea with mum dad my sister and two brothers . We thought it was great , I even remember us talking about how good it was in the interval , we had the little tubs of ice cream and tiny spoons . We lost one of my brothers only 14 years later in a car crash . This film brings back happy memories of him , ironically he had his accident in a Spitfire , a triumph spitfire though . I miss him every day, as all my family do .

Easily the greatest opening ever for a war movie.

Sir David: "It's two lumps you take, isn't it?" It couldn't have been better said.

brilliant score Goodwin did his homework , best bit of German music ever written by an Englishman

The German planes in this film I recall were sourced from Spain as they were part of their current airforce. I bought the musical score as I was so impressed by it. I was in my early teens then. Just now I’m in Normandy and close to to invasion beaches. I’d recommend anyone to visit the area. Now in my 60s and my interest hasn’t changed.

"The last little corporal who tried [to cross the Channel] came a cropper!" Such a very-British retort!

For me this is the best WW2 film ever made - no individual hero's, just told like it was. Ron Goodwin's opening musical composition is a masterpiece!

Fifteen years old the first time I watched it …..mesmerised, leading to a life time aloft, counting tens of thousands of flying hours from ultralights to Jets, no doubt inspired by ‘The Few’. Watched it a zillion times since, then again another zillion times with my eight year old son, who began to pretend to be a German pilot ! Another zillion times with my grandson, who was just as mesmerised as I had been, at a mere five years of age…..no kidding. He knew all the lines….’Booms a daisy, enough to make you weep’….’and.. you can make monkeys fly better than that ‘ ! We came off a rocky tour boat once with the family, when little Rohan rather relieved from the experience, piped up…..’well done chaps home and tea for us’ …….!! What a lifetime treat this wonderful Movie has been. As real as it had played been out.. In my seventies now, Sadly watching them leave us one by one. We’ll watch them for another Lifetime. They shall not be forgotten.❤

A very underappreciated film. I saw this as a kid on TV as a kid in 1972 on CBS and thought it was the greatest war movie of all time. It is still amongst the greatest IMHO.

Must be one of the best opening film credits ever produced. Saw this in the cinema on release and this intro really wet your appetite for the coming film. Brilliant.

Im old enough to remember all this going on , what memories !!

I guess some thing why those british war movies from the 60ies appear so authentic was, that all warfaring nations' staff was played by actors from those nation whose most had served in their respective armies during the real war. That enables them to naturally display the typical styles of their very individual military behaviour, in words, body language and all that. Films made today never reach that standard again.

I was once in a hotel room in Vienna, doing a bit of channel hopping on the TV. I came across the film 'Battle of Britain' dubbed into German. It was a very bizarre experience!

In writing this march Ron Goodwin really outkrauted the Krauts. Magnifient piece of work. If I hadn't known any better I'd have thought it was a genuine German march dating back to WWII.

Saw this movie literally dozens of times as a kid growing up in the 1970s and 80s. Never tired of watching it and it still kicks butt to this day. Especially considering the terrible quality of even the so-called "best" war movies made in the last 25 years (and yes, that includes "Saving Private Ryan"). Hundreds of extras, uniforms/costumes that are period correct in every detail, and a whole lot small things that make the movies feel far more real.

THE best film. EVER. Music, scenes, aerial filming, props, actors, locations, the list goes on. Only the English can make films like this.

A great sequence - from Dunkirk, to the Luftwaffe bomber airfield, then to Berlin and the British embassy in Switzerland, and finally the RAF fighter command station. In those few minutes, the whole story of the lead up to the Battle of Britain, and what the battle would mean, is summed up. And that music - perfect. :O)

I saw this at The Dominion, Tottenham Court Road. All up the front of the cinema was the film title. I was so excited and only 15. That was in 1969. In the film The Black Windmill, Michael Caine is on a bus going past that cinema, with the film emblazoned across the front of it.A film he starred in.

It is the expertise on display here that is breathtaking by modern film-making standards - no bloody blue screen, no whizz kid Korean geniuses faking it all with CGI, just real equipment and men. Yes, some of the cast had served in the war, but the movie also was able to use a plethora of experts led by Adolf Galland, the Luftwaffe air ace, while the British pilots included Wing-Comm Stanford Tuck and, with respect, Air Chief Marshal Harris`s deputy, Wing Commander Robert Wright. And then Ron Goodwin produces the best German march ever written by a non-German. Thanks to all involved.

Much much better than today's war films.

I have always loved those lines: "It's unforgivable. I lost my temper". Just verbally standing your ground is not losing your temper!

The British were in a bit of a tight spot after Dunkirk but this movie overlooks Britain's many strengths. The British had an excellent radar network, observer corps, antiaircraft artillery, and an information processing system for RAF Fighter command to help guide their fighters to the incoming warplanes of the German Luftwaffe. The Fighter Command sector control could guide their fighters eliminating the need for endless patroling. This RAF air defense system allowed RAF pilots early warning without getting caught on the ground during airfield attacks. RAF Fighter Command Air Chief Hugh Dowding was a brilliant officer. He made this complex air defense system and sector command system work almost flawlessly. The Luftwaffe wasn't just fighting Hurricanes and Spitfires. The Luftwaffe was fighting a brilliantly coordinated and carefully managed air defense system. The RAF had shortages of fighter pilots but the Commonwealth countries made up the differences in pilots and kept the British RAF Fighter command in the fight. The main point forgotten here is the British had been rehearsing their air defense system since the middle 1930's, for a Battle of Britian type scenario. The German Kriegsmarine lacked many important destroyers, cruisers, and landing craft for any amphibious invasion of Britain. The Germans had suffered heavy naval losses during the Norwegian campaign in early 1940. Plus, RAF and French resistance over France during the Battle of Dunkirk caused further considerable Luftwaffe aircraft losses. The whole British Empire of Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, Rhodesia, and New Zealand were at war with Germany. Many occupied European Allied nations, with troops on British soil, offered these soldiers and trained pilots to help Britain. These countries included Poland, France, Czechoslavakia and various Scandinavian countries. The British had comparable fighter planes with the Hawker Hurricane and probably superior fighter planes in the Supermarine Spitfire. The British enjoyed naval superiority, which as long as the RAF challenged the skies over Britain, meant German naval forces would be blasted out of the water making any amphibious invasion extremely costly for Germany. So Operation Sea Lion was really a fictional German plan without the naval and logistical means to carry it forward. British resistance in Norway and Dunkirk had an accumulative effect with beneficial results in the summer of 1940. The United States started aiding the British soon after the fall of France. Lend Lease aid came later on after the Battle of Britain but lots of other aid went to the British during the Battle of Britain. FDR realized at somepoint, the United States would be forced to enter the war. So he understood, that helping the United Kingdom stay in the fight was actually furthering American interests. Many American manufacturers started switching over to Lend Lease military aid. The American industrialist base lacked many of the important machine tools and industrial components to convert a civilian economy to a wartime economy overnight. These conversions took time but were rapidly accomplished as was the military draft and calling up Guard and Reserve divisions for federal service. Many First World War artillery and infantry small arms were dragged out mothballs in depots and converted to modern weapons. The Americans did a few things right from the beginning to get ready for war despite strong isolationist sentiment. The most important aspect of the American Lend Lease program was to build the necessary QUANTITY of adequate military weapons through mass production. The Curtiss P-40 fighter was built in huge numbers with a majority going to the British Commonwealth, including the Soviet Union and Nationalist China.The M-3 tank was a Lend Lease tank built by Mr. Knudson, President of Chrysler in a new plant in Detroit exclusively for tanks. The M-3 tank had a 75mm gun in sponson with a 37mm gun in a turret. This awkard looking but still effective medium tank helped keep the British going in North Africa until the M-4 Sherman arrived during the Battle of El Alamein. The M-3 Grant tank went to the Soviet Union with about 1,000 seeing combat at Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk, and Petsamo. The British sent their old P-40's and all their old M-3 Grant tanks to Burma using them until the end of the war against the Japanese. The British Army used refurbished First World War artillery from Lend Lease from the United States in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy including the M-3 halftracks with 75mm guns for mobile artillery. The Americans provided enormous amounts of canned food stuffs, infantry small arms, vehicles and trucks, telephone wire and equipment, boots and uniforms, even locomotives and ships for the British Commonwealth and later the Soviet Union. None of America's weapons under Lend Lease were necessarily the best weapons of WW 2. But much of U.S. Lend Lease aid kept the British and the Soviet Union in the war. Much of the Lend Lease aid and weapons went to secondary theaters or theaters that were less critical to the war effort. But this is extremely important because it allowed the British and the Soviets to concentrate their best units and equipment in the main combat areas. So the legacy of the Battle of Britain is that of American Lend Lease aid to the British. British aid to the Soviet Union helped stabilize the front and win the Battle of Moscow. British aid to the Soviet Union mattered greatly in 1941. But no British aid could have made it to the Soviet Union until American Leand Lease aid came after the Battle of Britian.

Immaculate tailoring, concise to the last detail. No high water hems, no tight waists or short backs, the shirt and coat sleeve lengths are precise, and the cuffs do not cinch the wrists. Those were the days when men knew how to dress, they wore subdued colors that by themselves would not even warrant a glimpse, but in combination with other hues of the same nature caused a contrast that pleased the eye, and gave the wearer a sense of dereguerre and civility.

This tune is, possibly, the greatest gift from Britain to the German people. It glows with Germanic inspiration, from musical note to musical note.

And all the German warbirds provided courtesy of Spain’s Ejército del Aire. Glad they were still available during the days of filming!

"We're not ready. We're on our own. We've been playing for time. And it's running out." Sounds familiar.

I first saw this in the cinema as a teenager, like Grand Prix and 2001. I love the bit where the general says "If I have to look at another bomber, I won't recommend you for a promotion." I don't know if it's true, but it feels real.

Goodwin at his very best sets the tone for the German air assault on a crippled England. What a jaunty march full of confidence and arrogance....because they had it. What an exceptional film that stands the test of time!

"Europe is ours. We can walk into Britain whenever we like... Now that didn't quite work, now did it...

Vee are going to march into London whenever vee vish ! 'Its 2 lumps you take isn't it'.

This movie ranks among THE very best of war action/drama films. While set in WW2, it had an "ahead of its time" feel to it, largely due to the style & skills of Harry Saltzman who, along with Albert Broccoli, co-produced the James Bond films (all of which had the same "ahead of time" effect); Sir Guy Hamilton, who directed this and the 007 films as well, and- last, but not least & more like most of all- Ron Goodwin with the musical part of it. A definite winning combination !!!

"The battle for France is over; the Battle of Britain is about to begin." Peter Jackson used that as inspiration for a quote from Gandalf in The Two Towers! "The battle for Helm's Deep is over; the Battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin."

"it's two lumps you take isn't it"

I love this piece of music. typically German. They are at that moment in time, riding high, the world at their feet they must think of themselves as nigh on invincible. Little did they realize the rug was going to be torn out from under them.

I have always like this peace of music since I first heard it by Ron Goodwin a good start to the film

As a plane model making 12 year old,it was as if Santa had made a movie just for me!

My Father took me to see this in the cinema 6 times. I love this film.

The amount of time I have seen my little 6 year old brother march up and down the living room saluting the TV to this is uncountable 😂. One of the greatest war films made ever.

Great film My grandad liked the way the germans were portrayed ,not all monsters there were in fact like us

One of the best opening for a movie, all my childhood !

My dad took me to see it when it came out . I was a little boy . Amazing. It started my love of history.

Just for the record, there are eight minutes of film before we see the start of this fine video.

The Spanish copies of the HE111's (used in the film) CASA 2.111 from what I read had RR Merlin engines. The irony of the ironies.

If you have ever wondered why the vehicle is exchanged at minute 03:10: Usually, the squadron leader of the unit drives behind the generals in the car to answer possible questions about the condition of the squadron. If the flight squad to be inspected changes, so does the squadron leader and thus the car. This procedure remains in the german Luftwaffe until today. Greetings from a fellow air force member GAF OF-D.

One of the great realistic great war movies, along with Tora Tora Tora.

Never had so many,owed so much to so few.. One of the greatest speeches of WWII ever...

First time watching this movie as a kid was a trip and half. Right up there with Jaws, my first Bond film and Battle of the Buldge.

4:52 Love how the music goes "Meanwhile, away from Germany..." :)

Imagine with all we face today, to think back on that Summer of 1940 and what Britain was staring at across the English Channel. It was a honestly frightening and defining time for England. You were either frightened to tears or energized by the challenge. And an immense challenge they did face as bombs rained down on London later on. Imagine being there in 1940.

With this iconic theme music, Ron Goodwin outgermaned the Germans.

Superb score from Ron Goodwin! First time I heard it I thought it was an authentic German march. Till now I cannot get it out of my head!

I saw the movie in its entirety...pretty accurate description of the conflict that arose after France fell in the spring of 1940...most historians agree that this chapter in Great Britain's history is their finest hour....imagine being outnumbered and with limited resources. The United States was remaining neutral and won't be involved until December, 1941...a little island stood up against Hitler and won....if Hitler had beaten England,. ..the U.S. was next on his radar...this and the prevention of Germany developing "heavy water" for the Atomic bomb were some of the few key moments that helped win the war...if you read more about this historical time in Wikipedia and other sources, you'll realize how great a victory this was for England.

What a great movie. Just to see all those Spanish Heinkel 111’s, (no CGI there) and Spanish built Buchón’s its an amazing sight to see. They were “loaned” (for a price) by Franco’s Ejército del Aire. He may have been a dictator, but his government contributed in the making of one of the best WW2 movies ever.

Best airwar film ever. It has a naturalness and organic feel that you can forget with CGI and lots of fancy camera angles. The score too is sublime. They got it dead right with this film.

two lumps XD that response is magnificent

It is hugely ironic that Ron Goodwin, an Englishman, composed the Aces High March (the music that companies this video), which is quite possibly the finest German march ever, as part of a movie depicting the defeat of the German Luftwaffe by the British Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, the event that was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

This and Grand Prix were two great films I loved as a kid😅

The movie opens with the German's theme instead of the now famous theme, because at this point the movie is still about their triumphant march to victory. But they'll figure it out soon enough.

I like how they capture the sense of euphoria amongst the German high command and officers, having overrun mainland Europe and expecting to vanquish Britain in short order. They must have felt that they were standing on top of the world at that point. The young Luftwaffe pilots billeted in the French chateau, banqueting with fine wines after returning from each sortie, summed it up.

its said that this film is the most accurate war film ever made

Excellent musical opening to a war film, rivaled only by The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

"The last little corporal who tried it came a cropper." One of the greatest lines ever. I don't know if it is historically accurate, but it oughtta be!

the start of a film is so important,this is well done

childhood movie. good memories. also these opening scenes are my favourite. Nostalgia!

Gave me goosebumps. The courage to stand up for what is right

So don't dictate or threaten us until you are marching up Whitehall. And even then we won't listen!

Has to be one the best introduction scenes of any war movie and made all the more so with the brilliant music.

The opening titles must have had the same budget as some 'B' pictures. Ron Goodwin's theme is spot-on! Many 1960s movies have amazing opening sequences and/or extraordinarily high production values. Lawrence of Arabia, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, The Bond Films and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to name a few. So much talent. the Actors would probably claim that their fees were sacrificed on the production value altar. The work is of such quality that it must be preserved forever. Thank goodness that the Film Industry had such amazing talent at that time.

We can walk into Britain whenever we like. Britain: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT

The sheer, historically-accurate visual minutiae lavished upon this film is surely peerless and perhaps best exemplified at approx 2:30 mark of which briefly shows labourers repairing war-damaged infrastructure. Naturally most films would've simply requisitioned a few extras portraying German soldiers to strip to their vests to perform such a function. Here though they correctly depict the khaki-clad German Labour corp, 'Organisation Todt' instead! Inevitably 'Todt is _very_ rarely (if ever) represented in WW2-themed films for it's recreation requires distinctive/bespoke uniforms.... and here they're only on screen for a paltry couple or so seconds! As I say, an incredible, if not unsurpassed attention to detail.

Probably one of the best WW2 movies for realism and acting.

Superb opening sequence and music. Shows what we were up against - and we still won.

I read somewhere many years ago that all those Heinkel 111's were loaned from the Spanish air force for the making of this film. It is noticeable that they are all fitted with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, I can only surmise that the German industries were so heavily bombed that the original engines could no longer be produced after the war.

Great classic ww2 movie, the best aviation film ever made, hope the new ridley Scott battle of Britain film gets produced and released in theatres sometime soon

I love this opening so much that I goose - step all over in the house , great opening .

I remember when they were filming the movie. Several Spitfires and Hurricances flew over our (Essex) house on a number of occasions. Probably based at Duxford. Ron Godwin wrote some of the best martial music ever to accompany WWII films, the score for 633 Squadron for example was one of the best, and I still hum it today. TBofB film although having many well known actors of the time, wasn't the best received and laboured in parts, but the areal sequences, and the score made up for it.

German hubris and British technological superiority contributed to the victory of the RAF over the Luftwaffe.

"I lost my temper".

Greatest flying movie ever made. And one of the greatest war films ever.

Great film. I saw it three times in the cinema, once in Hamburg . Kenneth Moore dubbed with a German voice!!! The amazing thing was the audience cheered when the Brits shot a German plane down. Amazing cast, amazing action, and yes, it's a true story!! The music score is one of my favorites too.

Just imagine what the world would be like now if the RAF had lost the Battle of Britian. There's a good chance Britian would have turned into another Vichy satellite of Germany, and the million or two German soldiers protecting the west would have joined the invasion of Russia. What ifs in WW2 are too numerous to even dwell on, but losing the Battle of Britian would have changed history.

One of the best war movies, second only to Bridge on the river Kwai.

The wonder of a film as memorable as this is that the attention to correct equipment is almost perfect. One of the highlights for me is seeing more than one, of the now almost 'extinct', Zündapp KS 750's in one place & being used.

Honestly, I could watch this movie every month...

Great film should be shown at all schools as it was in my generation not all this political correct crap!

Always underestimating the enemy.

2:25 Upon further inspection I was surprised to see that the RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) was portrayed repairing the bridge. Probably the first and only time I’ve seen them in Ww2 movies.

I have a find memory of my dad taking me to see this movie. I was 11. Same year as the moon landing and of the Amazing Mets World Series victory!

The great gift to Britain came on December 7, 1941 ...

As a proud former Serviceman of 30 year's, I am disgusted at the way successive Government's have degenerated the brave sacrifice our former colleagues made. Immigration alone has destroyed the UK. Vote Reform UK 🇬🇧.

R.J.Mitchell, 11th June 1937, didn't live to see the Spitfire fly in the Battle of Britain, RIP

Toy model planes must have been fun to build.

If only we could display that attitude in the current negotiations. Which ever side your on.

2:54. Now that is a distinguished list of technical advisors!

I have the opening music as my alarm ring tone.

The aircraft gathered for this film created the 33rd biggest airforce in the world at the time! One of the non-flying Spitfires was "gate guardian at my ATC headquarters. They gave us a Meteor NF-14 and a Vampire T-11 in it's place!