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The Art of Battle
Storyboard Text
- Slide: 1
- RAF Biggin Hill, a primary sector airfield south of London.
- Target: Berlin. Pathfinder duties. Flak heavy but accurate. Searchlights active. Bombs dropped successfully on target marker at 02:04.
- The Art of Battle - Autumn Hamilton
- A young pilot sits on the wing of his Hawker Hurricane, listening distractedly to old pilot's logs. They crackle through the speaker, encouraging him and instilling a strange dread in his chest simultaneously. He adjusts his leather flight helmet, brushing his fingers repetitively over the badge on his shoulder than read RCAF No. 1 Fighter Squadron. He prepares to enter a fight which will later be named The Battle of Britain.
- Slide: 2
- Back home in Winnipeg, the sky goes on forever! It feels crowded her, like the sky is closing in on me...
- He wistfully inspects the photo of his family back in Winnipeg, Manitoba, his RCAF-issued playbook held limply beside it. His friend from the barracks, Leo Ricks, was the youngest pilot here at only 18 years old. The pilot could only imagine how Leo's family felt.
- Slide: 3
- Shouts and a cacophony of voices, including over 100 other pilots surround the Hurricanes as a mechanic hands him a parachute. The airfield bustles and voices overlap. Arthur Art Sterling inspects a map of the English Channel. Rain begins to patter from the dark clouds.
- Slide: 4
- Art traces his finger along the chain of events leading to this moment. Dunkirk falling, France surrendering, the Luftwaffe bombing English ports. Everyone knew what was coming- however this would be the first battle fought nearly entirely in the air.
- Slide: 5
- I'm shaking so hard, I hope the mechanics don't think it's the plane.
- Clear the runway!
- Move your asses, move move move!
- Check my straps, don't let me slip out of this thing!
- Art prepares to take off, buckling himself in and quadruple-checking every mechanism, button, and switch he can think of. Voices shout around him, some familiar and some not.
- Slide: 6
- Airspace over London
- Drat!
- Art takes off, the Hurricane shuddering and groaning under him. He looks out through his goggles at the vapor trails crisscrossing the darkening sky. The rain had slackened, but it still left smears on his windshield. He cursed the English weather.
- Slide: 7
- There they are! They didn't tell us there would be this many...
- Terror grips Arthur, as a large formation of German bombers appear through the clouds ahead! They're Heinkel He 111s. Art pushes the throttle forward, adrenaline fueling his rapid panic of this being the first time he'd seen the enemy up close and personal.
- Slide: 8
- Breaking left! I've got one in my sights! Firing... now!
- A dogfight begins! Smaller German planes, Messerschmitt 109s, dive from above and dissipate the clouds. Art's dashboard lights up with crosshairs.
- Slide: 9
- This plane's going to vibrate my teeth out of my mouth. The cordite feels like it's burning my throat!
- Art presses the firing button, light flashing from the Hurricane's eight machine guns. He hits a German bomber which shudders and begins a rapid descent, trailing smoke. The smell of cordite fills Arthur's cockpit.
- Slide: 10
- AHH!
- Yellow three, he’s on your left! Break left, break left! Art, he’s on your tail!
- Suddenly, frantic radio chatter scratches through the roaring around Art. His squadron leader, desperation scrambling his words together. Art leans closer to the comm-- and then a rattling jolt slams his head into the window of the Hurricane. He's been hit.!
- Slide: 11
- I’m hit! Engine’s gone- cockpit’s burning-
- Art! You’re trailing smoke! Roll her over, get out of there! Bail out!
- The radio chatter from Art’s squadron leader gets more desperate as broken sentences make their way from the comm. Another jolt, rattling the Hurricane. A German fighter attacking Art from his blind spot. Art’s cockpit starts filling with smoke, an orange glow flickering in his peripheral vision.
- Slide: 12
- Smash it, Art! Use the emergency release! Come on, push, pull back on th-
- It won’t budge. The heat, oh God…
- Art’s hands scrabble through the flames that are encroaching into the cockpit as he coughs violently through the black smoke. His blistering fingers duel with the ejection mechanism, but it’s jammed from the impact of the German’s shots. It won’t budge. His shaking hands slow over the controls, the pain stiffening them. His vision is almost entirely black now, the heat suffocating…
- Slide: 13
- The English countryside, 45 minutes later
- A trail of acrid smoke marks where Art’s Hurricane crashed into an open field. Local farmers and salvage squads rush towards the wreckage, but it’s too late.
- Slide: 14
- Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few…
- Winston Churchill’s “The Few”.
- Back in Winnipeg, Art’s mother collapses on her porch, telegram in hand. Her only witness is Art’s squadron leader. Art’s last words ring in his head as he looks at the devastated woman. On August 20th, Winston Churchills delivers a speech honouring the Allied pilots of the Royal Air Force.
- Slide: 15
- Dictator Hitler has called off his amphibious invasion of Britain indefinitely, says anonymous source… this is all thanks to the Royal Air Force’s courage and bravery in the face of danger…
- Later, Art’s mother listens to the radio, surrounded by friends and relatives. The news is surprisingly… good, an ironic and bitter contrast to the grief surrounding the family.
- Slide: 0
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