History Film / BattleOfBritain

** It also comes up when a Polish pilot is shot down, bails out and lands in a field -- where the farmers mistake him for a German pilot because of his accent.

* HomeGuard: Of the TorchesAndPitchforks variety, showing how desperate Britain's situation is during this campaign. Also, after their radar stations are hit, the RAF is left to rely on the Observer Corps to spot the bombers visually and report in.

** Maggie 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 the raid blew a gas main open, and that cigarette would ignite the leak. In response, she briefly loses her StiffUpperLip.

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

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Averted. Bombers do not distinguish between gender, and a number of WRAF ground personnel are killed in raids on British bases. Not to mention the civilians, including women and children, when London is bombed.

-->'''Instructor:''' Now shut up, the lot of you! And follow me, unless you're blind as well as... ''(realizes what the Poles are doing)'' '''Oh, God's truth!''' ''(frantically turns to follow)''

* TheCavalry: Inverted and Averted early in the film. Air Chief Marshal Dowding's introduction is a monologue explaining why the RAF cannot afford to help the French any further.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent:
** Averted. The one time [[UsefulNotes/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 ''a different language from the film's creators and expected audience'' with the correct accent.
** Seemingly played straight by Colin Harvey, who doesn't sound British at all... but [[GeniusBonus if you look at his uniform carefully]], it is revealed that he's actually Canadian (a change requested by his actor Christopher Plummer). This is never brought up in dialogue.

* ShownTheirWork: The production company rounded up every flyable Spitfire and Hurricane they could, and simulated the Luftwaffe by using Spanish copies of the Me-109 and He-111 built under license. In an early scene, a Hurricane does a victory roll, and the engine sputters while the plane is inverted. The early war Spitfires and Hurricanes used a gravity-fed carburetor, and would actually stall out if flown inverted for too long. Indeed, this is exactly the reason cited by Harvey when he chews out the pilot for the maneuver later.

** Two German pilots are visiting Berlin to give a report, and we see the German civilians going on with their lives, enjoying a pleasant night in Berlin as a peaceful rendition of the Luftwaffe-Marsch... [[OhCrap Then all of the lights cut out across the city, and air raid sirens begin wailing...]]

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted, as the entire film takes place before America's entry into the war. That said, the (neutral) Americans spend the entire film just OutOfFocus, with the Brits trying to wrangle various support from them while the Germans try to convince them that Britain is on the ropes.

* EagleSquadron: Most notably, the Polish, Czech and Canadian pilots fighting for the Royal Air Force. The credits include a list of different nations whose pilots fought for Britain during the titular battle. As a point of trivia, the [[TropeNamer actual Trope Namers]], the three Eagle Squadrons of American volunteers that served in the RAF, do not appear in this film because those squadrons did not become operational until after the Battle of Britain[[note]]No matter what ''Film/PearlHarbor'' [[CriticalResearchFailure wants to tell you]][[/note]].

''Battle of Britain'' is a 1969 British film directed by Creator/GuyHamilton, retelling the story of the [[UsefulNotes/TheHomeFront Battle of Britain]] in 1940.

* DatedHistory: The film was made a few years before it was revealed that British intelligence had broken the Enigma code; hence there was no mention of the crucial role that Ultra decrypts played in turning back the German air offensive. Also the film erroneously indicates that the RAF pulled out of the Battle of France while it was still going on, when in fact it was still heavily engaged through the end of the Dunkirk evacuation (Churchill acknowledged the RAF's role in his speech about the evacuation, but popular history tends to forget this because most of the 2700 air sorties took place out of sight of the evacuation beaches and so are absent from eyewitness accounts).

* DatedHistory: The film was made a few years before it was revealed that British intelligence had broken the Enigma code; hence there was no mention of the crucial role that Ultra decrypts played in turning back the German air offensive.

* BilingualBonus: Polish pilots in the movie speak their own language and their lines are not subtitled. If you happen to know that language, you may not only understand them, but notice that most of their speeches were in fact pre-recorded and each one of them is played more than once -- not necessarily in appropriate moment. For example, the very first Polish line in the movie -- "Niemcy! Niemcy, na dole!" ("Germans! Germans, down there!") -- is initially played when a Polish training squadron accidentally stumbles upon enemy bombers (where it makes sense) and later again, in the middle of aerial combat during the climax (where it makes ''zero'' sense -- and it does not help that it is immediately followed by "Nie widzę ich! Gdzie?" -- "I can't see them! Where?", that is -- from another pilot). The end result is... quite random.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: This film plays up both the idea that the RAF saved Britain from invasion, and that it was a close-run thing, with the British nearly running out of planes and pilots. In reality, the British were able to maintain a steady roster of pilots and (especially) planes throughout the battle. And further, most analysts agree that the Germans never really had a chance to invade England even if they'd destroyed the RAF, because their navy was nowhere near strong enough for the task.[[note]]The Kriegsmarine had started out the war already inferior to the Royal Navy, and it got much worse after the Germans took severe naval losses during their conquest of Norway. The only plans ever made for invading Britain involved converting Dutch canal barges into troop transports and towing them across the rough seas of the Channel. Even if they got across, they would have been cut off after the Royal Navy closed off the Channel and probably shot to pieces on the beach. A far cry from D-Day, which relied on ''massive'' programs of infrastructure, logistics and shipbuilding to succeed.[[/note]] Really, the RAF's main aim wasn't to "win" so much as [[WeWinBecauseYouDidnt "not lose"]] - ensuring the survival of their own service and infrastructure meant they were in a good position to expand and counter-attack once German attention shifted east.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: This film plays up both the idea that the RAF saved Britain from invasion, and that it was a close-run thing, with the British nearly running out of planes and pilots. In reality, the British were able to maintain a steady roster of pilots and (especially) planes throughout the battle. And further, most analysts agree that the Germans never really had a chance to invade England even if they'd destroyed the RAF, because their navy was nowhere near strong enough for the task.[[note]]The Kriegsmarine had started out the war already inferior to the Royal Navy, and it got much worse after the Germans took severe naval losses during their conquest of Norway. The only plans ever made for invading Britain involved converting Dutch canal barges into troop transports and towing them across the rough seas of the Channel. Even if they got across, they would have been cut off after the Royal Navy closed off the Channel and probably shot to pieces on the beach. A far cry from D-Day, which relied on ''massive'' programs of infrastructure, logistics and shipbuilding to succeed.[[/note]] Really, the RAF's main aim wasn't to "win" so much as "not lose" - ensuring the survival of their own service and infrastructure meant they were in a good position to expand and counter-attack once German attention shifted east.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:Andy's wife and two young boys are all killed when the church they are sheltering in takes a direct hit while he is away helping another family out. He returns to find the church a bombed out, burning ruin and the look on his face [[TearJerker is just a dagger in the heart]].]]

* VomitDiscretionShot: At the end of the film, Dispersal's phone rings (which throughout the film has had a 50/50 chance of meaning a [[RedAlert Scramble]]). Turns out that this time it just means the tea is ready] One EnsignNewbie is polite enough to step outside before leaning over to nervously puke.

* VomitDiscretionShot: At the end of the film, Dispersal's phone rings (which throughout the film has had a 50/50 chance of meaning a [[RedAlert Scramble]]). Turns out that this time it just means the [[SpotOfTea tea is ready.]] One EnsignNewbie is polite enough to step outside before leaning over to nervously puke.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: During the RAF squadron's evacuation from France, one pilot takes a French naval officer along in his fighter to also get him to safety. The French officer is not seen again for the rest of the film.

* WarIsHell: German and British pilots alike meet very unpleasant ends. One of the main characters is last seen trying to bail out of a plane while 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. Another scene shows that a church hall full of civilians (including the family of one of the main characters) shown in a previous scene has suffered a direct hit. By the end of the film, German and British pilots alike are shown to be badly strung out, the British units full of nervous newbies (most of the experienced pilots having been shot down by now) and the German units shown to be badly thinned by attrition (not receiving replacements as quickly as the Britons are).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Maggie Harvey meets an RAF officer who had [[BodyHorror suffered severe facial burns]] and is visibly put off by it. Her husband ends up caught in a burning Spitfire in the next battle sequence. He escapes, but is badly burned.

* NotSoDifferent: British and German forces alike are shown to partake in good-natured joking around and sharing of advice between missions.

* TemptingFate: "You know what our friend Goering said: 'If ever a bomb falls on Berlin, you may call me Meier.'"[[note]]At that time, considered to be a Jewish name in Germany[[/note]]

* TemptingFate: "You know what our friend Goering said: 'If ever a bomb falls on Berlin, you may call me Meier.'"

* InvisiblePresident: In one scene an officer reports to Hitler, but all we see is the officer through the door into Hitler's office. Later we see Hitler giving a speech, but throughout he is shot either from behind or from a far distance. (Churchill is TheGhost.)