History Main / BattleOfBritain

-> ''What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the [[TheNamesake Battle of Britain]] is about to begin.''

* HomeGuard: Of the TorchesAndPitchforks variety, showing how desparate Britain's situation is during this campaign.
* HypocriticalHumor: Group Captain Baker is in the middle of lecturing Maggie Harvey about how the practice of male and female personnel sharing the same trenches during air raid drills has ''got'' to stop. He is interrupted by the onset of a German raid on their base, and he and Maggie both dive into the nearest trench.

* TitleDrop: The BBC radio announcer quoting WinstonChurchill, saying "What General de Gaulle called the Battle of France is over; the Battle of Britain is about to begin". Cue the CrowningMusicOfAwesome.

* AbandonShip: Numerous men are shown bailing out of their crippled fighters and bombers through the film. Just as many are shown desperately ''trying'' to do so and failing, including one very long drawn out wide shot of a British fighter diving out of the sky trailing smoke, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel the pilot struggling to open his canopy]], before we see the distant explosion as it hits the ground.

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* WarIsHell: German and British pilots alike meet very unpleasant ends. One of the main characters is last seen trying ot bail out of a plane whlie his cockpit is engulfed in flames. [[GoryDiscretionShot We are told later that he bailed out and survived]], but suffered [[BodyHorror severe burns over most of his body]]. The aftermath of one air raid includes a row of dead Women's Auxiliary Air Force personnel covered by a tarp. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot shows that a bomb shelter full of civilians shown in a previous scene has suffered a direct hit.

* SittingDucks: Throughout the early part of the movie, many British planes fail to get off the ground before being shot up by the Luftwaffe.

** Harvey herself has a bit of this after a raid herself. She shakily [[MustHaveNicotine pulls out a cigarette]] and is shouted at by a male officer because she could easily ignite a fuel leak with a lit cigarette. In response, she briefly loses her StiffUpperLip.

* DogFighting: The 1969 film contains a number of dogfights, including a climatic one near the end.

Contains examples of:

-> What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the [[TheNamesake Battle of Britain]] is about to begin.
--> Prime Minister William Churchill

** There is a little fun bit of this, although very slight - The Spanish Bf 109s and He 111s used for the film were powered by Rolls Royce Merlin engines. This when added to the use of Spitfires and Hurricanes made it that the vast majority of planes in the movie - on both sides - used the same engine.

* JustPlaneWrong: There are a number of inaccuracies in that department, although they made quite an effort to avoid this as far as possible.

* Rule 63: Believe it or not, exists. Can be found [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/pool/show/3987 here.]]

-> What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Averted. The one time [[AdolfHitler Hitler's]] voice is heard in the film, he speaks with a heavy Southern accent - the real Hitler came from Austria. That's right: [[ShownTheirWork they actually made an effort]] to portray someone who speaks [i]a different language from the film's creators and expected audience[/i] with the correct accent.

* AcePilot: To be expected in a film about aerial warfare; both sides have some of these. Harvey and "Skipper" fit the stereotype best, but any named character with pilot's wings who isn't dead by the end of the film is at least an honourary example.

* EagleSquadron: Most notably, the Polish pilots fighting for the Royal Air Force, but the credits include a list of different nations whose pilots fought for Britain during the titular battle.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Many of the German bomber crews get notably gory deaths.
* FatBastard: Göring grows increasingly obese as the film progresses. [[ShownTheirWork This really happened.]]
* GeniusBonus: A number of details go unexplained unless you pay attention. One of the characters speaks with no British accent whatsoever. A close inspection of his uniform reveals that he is a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, but this is never brought up in dialogue.

** Even better: the one time [[AdolfHitler Hitler's]] voice is heard in the film, he speaks with a heavy Southern accent - [[ShownTheirWork the real Hitler came from Austria.]]

* EjectEjectEject: Of the pre-jet-age variety. Numerous men are shown bailing out of their crippled fighters and bombers through the film. Just as many are shown desperately ''trying'' to do so and failing, including one very long drawn out wide shot of a British fighter diving out of the sky trailing smoke, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel the pilot struggling to open his canopy]], before we see the distant explosion as it hits the ground.

* WorldWarTwo

* WarIsHell: German and British pilots alike meet very unpleasant ends. One of the main characters is last seen trying ot bail out of a plane whlie his cockpit is engulfed in flames. [[GoryDiscretionShot We are told later that he bailed out and survived]], but suffered [[BodyHorror severe burns over most of his body]]. A BlinkAndYoullMissIt shot shows that a bomb shelter shown in a previous scene has suffered a direct hit.

* AcePilot: To be expected in a film about aerial warfare; both sides have some of these. Harvey and "Skipper" fit the stereotype best.

* PresentDayPast: One map shows London with its post-1967 boundaries, much bigger than it was during the war.

* TranslationConvention: One of the first WorldWarTwo films to avert this. The British, French, Germans and even the Poles speak their own language.

Major attempt at accuracy, sourcing a massive number of real planes (100) and cost a lot of money to make. Has some inaccuracies, using {{Composite Character}}s and over-emphasising the Spitfire's role due to lack of available Hurricanes. A number of names are fictionalised.

Has an all-star cast.

* JustPlaneWrong (there are a number of inaccuracies in that department, although they made quite an effort to avoid this as far as possible)
* PresentDayPast (one map shows London with its post-1967 boundaries, much bigger than was during the war)

* ReverseFunnyAneurysm During the radio chatter, one of the flights/squadrons has the callsign Batman. This sounds a lot funnier/weirder now to audiences who are unaware of what a batman was in the military.
* TitleDrop The BBC Radio announcer saying "What has been called the Battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to begin"
**Also a direct quote from WinstonChurchill
* StiffUpperLip The British (obviously)
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome The main theme at the beginning
* CrowningMomentOfFunny "Repeat please!" "Oh God, strewth!" "I'm Polish! I'm on your side!"
* TheClimax The massive aerial fight.