The joy of war films | Tom Jones | The Critic Magazine

We’re short of 200 pilots. Those we have are tired, strained, and all overdue for relief. We’re fighting for survival. Losing...Tom Jones

Gentlemen, you’re missing the essential truth. We’re short of 200 pilots. Those we have are tired, strained, and all overdue for relief. We’re fighting for survival. Losing. We don’t need a big wing or a small wing. We need pilots. And a miracle.

The miracle comes. 

• A lost German bomber accidentally drops its bombs on London, the RAF retaliates by dropping bombs on Berlin, and Hitler orders London razed. 
• The let up takes the pressure off the RAF’s airfields and means German fighters have only enough fuel for ten minutes’ combat. 

Through a relentless series of dizzying dogfights...the tide slowly turns, culminating on the 15th September.
The next day, across the Channel, German forces withdraw from the coast and Göring leaves the front.

The pilots are shown waiting anxiously, exhaustedly, for another scramble call that never comes. 

Dowding steps out of his office to look up at a clear blue sky; the strings swell, and so do the tears in my eyes...