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The Documentary: Spitfire stories

Spitfire Mk XVI

10/10/2020 GMT

Spitfire stories

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Spitfire stories

How a WW2 icon was made, piece by piece, against all odds. With historian Victoria Taylor

How a WW2  icon was made, piece by piece, against all odds. With historian Victoria Taylor.

In September 1940, in two factories in Southampton, one of the most iconic planes of World War Two was being painstakingly assembled, piece by piece.  This sleek and beautiful fighter, with record breaking top speeds and a deadly reputation for precision, was to be Britain’s most notorious weapon against the Nazi air invasion. But, the factory making them was about to be destroyed by devastating German bombing raids.

How could the Battle of Britain be fought without the Spitfire? With the factory a smoking ruin, a plan was hatched to keep the planes coming, against some pretty extraordinary odds.

Drawing on interviews from this summer’s hit World Service podcast, Spitfire: The People’s Plane, historian Victoria Taylor tells the story of the ordinary men and women who saved the Spitfire.  Bus depots, car showrooms, stately homes, a laundry and even a glove factory were all converted into secret factories that could produce the Spitfire, hidden from the bombs of the Luftwaffe. A new workforce was trained and faster, feistier planes were designed and developed, giving Britain a fighting chance to turn back the Nazi tide.

Producer: Emily Knight
Historical adviser: David Key

(Photo: A Spitfire Mk XVI from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), RAF Coningsby, flies over Lincolnshire for the Battle of Britain 80 commemorations. Credit: MoD/PA)

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