Alterations had to be made at Tablada and El Corpero airfields (see On Location), the two main aircraft locations in Spain, and by early March an 85strong team of accountants, boom operators, camera operators, carpenters, clapper boys, electricians, hairdressers, make-up personnel, painters, riggers, sound mixers, continuity girls and secretaries had been flown out to Spain to start work preparing the main locations for shooting. March 13 saw the first major sequence in the production committed to film. This was the opening title scene, when Dietrich Frauboes, playing the part of Feldmarschall Erhard . Milch, inspects the rows of Heinkel bombers.

Before the rehearsals began for the scene there was a two minute silence observed for Don Federico Eglesias Lanzos, who had been killed on January 20, while flying aerobatics in one of the Messerschmitt I09s. As a mark of respect the film company paid £18,000 to his widow.

Several rehearsals were needed to get the timings and positions just right for this long sequence in the film, and it was not until mid-afternoon that Guy Hamilton was satisfied with the action and the light conditions for filming. Perched atop the director's podium, Hamilton called 'Action' at 3pm and the film was actually underway. This was the first of over 5,000 separate shots, which would eventually go to make up the finished film. After many trials and tribulations, it looked as if the film was finally getting moving and something useful was, at last, going 'into the can'.

"It's been tried and tested, so don't blame the system if you're no good" - Nigel Patrick

While much attention had been paid to getting the requisite numbers ofaircraft on the British and German side of the story, little thought had seemingly been paid to arranging these aircraft in the air for the cameras. With this in mind the film company was very fortunate to secure the services of one John Blake. John, in subsequent years would be known the world over for his airshow commentaries in the UK and abroad, but at that time he was working for the Royal Aero Club. In a 1999 interview with the author, John fondly remembered how he became involved with Battle of Britain.

(Storyboards are the drawings of the action as the producers envisage it on screen. These are then studied by the film cameraman to see if what is depicted can actually be achieved before any shooting begins)

In order to capture on film scenes of the RAF attacking large formations of Luftwaffe aircraft, the producers decided that one of the company's Spitfires would have to fly out to Spain in order to participate in these scenes. Spitfire IX MH415 (G-AVDJ) was the aircraft chosen, and it was duly fitted with a long range fuel tank so that it had extra 'legs' for the flight. Spitfire Productions contracted the well known aircraft restorer and replica builder Vivian Bellamy to fly the Spitfire out to Spain, as Vivian's experience on large piston-engined fighters was considerable. Bellamy served as a pilot with the Fleet Air Arm during World War Two, and postwar had owned Spitfire (Tr.8 G-AIDN) for a number of years, before selling it on to his brother in law, John Fairey.

At his home in 1997, just a matter of months before he died, Vivian Bellamy recalled his time on the Battle of Britain film during an interview with the author.

Because I had flown this sort of aircraft before, the film company asked me if I could fly the Spitfire out to Spain, and I said yes, no trouble at all. I remember I had a few snags with the drop tank, in that it at first was not 'petrol tight' in the connections between the tank and the aircraft's main fuel system, but we eventually sorted it out. I took off from Eastleigh Airport and flew down, aiming for Biarritz, but it started to rain and the weather slowly got worse. At one time a French Air Force Mystere jet came alongside me to take a look at the old Spitfire. I was doing about 150 knots, and the Mystere had a bit of a job to go as slow as me. He came past with the flaps and undercarriage down at one point. The weather got so bad that Ihad to turn back and land at Bordeaux. As soon as I taxied in, ancient Frenchmen, who had flown Spitfires at one time or another, surrounded the aircraft.

The following day I took off bound for Madrid. In years gone by you could almost see Madrid when you climbed to height, but with all the pollution of the 1960s it was a bit of a job sometimes to actually see where you were going. However, I landed safely at Madrid, after which the aircraft was surrounded again, but this time by Germans, who had aff turned out to see the famous, or in their eyes, infamous, Spit/ire. I decided to show them what a Spitfire could do, so when 1 took off I gave the aircraft 108lbs of boost, and it literally shot into the sky, followed by a low flypast down the runway. As 1 was about to turn on course for Seville, the airfield control tower came on the radio and said 'Would you do that again please'.

While filming on the ground was relatively easy, it was a different story when the aircraft got airborne. Firstly shooting had to be carried out in reasonably sunny skies, which could be matched with filming back in the UK, secondly all the mass bomber formations had to be carried out over sea, as the landscape of Spain was most unlike that of Kent in 1940, and thirdly time was of the essence, as the Messerschmitts still had the lack of range problem that the Luftwaffe suffered back in 1940.

As John Blake remembered: We used to fly a racetrack pattern with the Heinkels, and the Messerschmitts were in the standard wartime finger four formation, but considerably closed up so that they would fit into the camera frame. We also used to get the filming sequences all lined up ready, and then a fleet of Spanish fishing trawlers would come into shot below us and we would have to go around again. The aircraft were formed up into two separate blocks of fighters and bombers, code-named Sevillia and Betis, which were the names of the two local football teams. The bombers would take off and join up over Tablada and head west over the coast, and then fly a long big racetrack pattern, with about a 15 minute duration each side. The 109s came up separately, and joined in where they were required. Quentin Laurence and I spent hours on the floor of one of the hangars at Tablada with a lot of plastic Airfix models on sticks, placing them into the formations required for the filming.

On the allotted bomb-dropping day we flew south, recalled John Blake, instead of flying our usual westerly direction. The Heinkels set off and actually headed in the direction of Gibraltar. At that time General Franco was having one of his tantrums about the British and Gibraltar, and 1 did actually wonder whether the Spanish pilots were going to drop the concrete bombs on Gibraltar! Thankfully they didn't and the scenes were shot successfully.

After many frustrating hold ups, the Spanish filming sequences came to an end and the film company packed up its belongings and made ready to return to the UK. Spitfire Productions had, in the meantime, purchased two of the Heinkels from the Spanish Air Force, in order to match in film sequences in England with RAF fighters attacking the Luftwaffe. By now it was early May, the Spanish filming having taken a lot longer than had been planned. Things had to move fast if the shooting schedule was to be kept on track. The long flight for the Spitfire, the 17 Messerschmitts, two Heinkels and the B-25 Mitchell was planned and scheduled. It would take at least three days to get the aircraft to Duxford, the film company's main base in the UK. By the time the aircraft arrived in England and were made ready for the cameras it would be mid-May and time was indeed pressing. One chapter of the filming had come to an end, another chapter, with even more frustrations to come, was about to begin.