A cargo steamship sails through the pristine waters of the Red Sea. In the far distance - twenty miles off the ship’s starboard side - we can see the closest land...

The four hundred foot long boat is packed with wartime cargo. Most of it - all the munitions and armaments - are in the hold...

A Heinkel 111 twin engined Luftwaffe bomber flies high above the desert towards the sea. A wing of six Messerschmidt 109s flies in formation behind the bomber.

The forward anti aircraft gunner scans the skies with a pair of binoculars. He tenses when he spots something high above.

We’re inside the surprisingly rudimentary cockpit of the lead Spitfire. At the controls is Squadron Leader RAY THORNTON.

Obersleutnant JURGEN FRIEDL is commanding the Luftwaffe fighter escort. Like his British counterpart he also has he name and rank painted beneath the cockpit along with a line of ‘kills’ that’s even longer than Ray’s.

The anti aircraft gunners on the cargo ship see the events unfolding in the skies above and open fire. The huge exploding shells leave puffs of black smoke against the flawless blue of the sky.

Ray opens up with his dual Browning machine guns... The rest of the squadron follow suit before fanning out to pursue the enemy aircraft.

Both sets of planes are performing complex aerobatic maneuvers in order to place themselves directly behind one of the enemy planes. One of the Messerschmidts executes a textbook barrel roll to escape the withering fire from the pursuing Spitfire’s machine gun.

Ray is traveling at close to 400mph about 20 feet about the sea. He screams past the SS Thistlegorm - so close that the men on deck are caught in turbulence of his wake.

The nose gunner takes aim at the Sprifire screaming towards them. He fires.

Ray’s POV as his machine gun fire finally strikes home - hitting the bombs before they’re released. They explode and the Heinkel turns into a fireball.

Ray’s Spitfire emerges unscathed. Almost immediately one of the Messerschmidts dives towards him.

It’s a maelstrom up here. Dogfights are breaking out everywhere.

The Spitfire pilot is ready to press the ‘fire’ button when a second Messerschmidt drops right in behind him.

Jurgen is flying the plane that just dropped in behind the Spitfire (a classic ‘sandwich’ move in dogfighting). He opens fire.

Ray is diving towards the engagement... He sees the Spitfire go down...

The Spitfires land on a makeshift airstrip in the middle of the desert. Although it counts as an RAF base - in fact it consists of little more than a row of tents and a series of low fortified bunkers filled with fuel and munitions.

Ray ducks inside one of the sand colored tents. The spartan interior contains a camp bed with carefully folded sheets and blankets, an oil lamp, a hard back copy of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, a shaving kit, a spare uniform and a knapsack.

Jurgen climbs out of the cockpit of his Messerschmidt. The German base in the middle of the desert is larger than the British one...

The camp’s kommandant is a thin faced, oily, bureaucrat... sitting at a desk wearing full Nazi uniform.

The kommandant rises... red faced.

Ray enters a tent that has been turned into a makeshift chapel. There is a lectern and guttering candles - but nobody else in here.

The German pilots are seated around long wooden tables. There is a large portrait of the Fuhrer on the tent wall.

Ray takes his seat in the virtually identical British mess tent. Despite the loss of one of their pilots the buzz of conversation is more animated than among their German counterparts.

Jurgen assesses the mood of the room. He leaves his meal unfinished and rises.

There are cheers now as Jurgen winds up to a crescendo. There will always be setbacks...

From the rousing German anthem we cut to dead silence in the British mess. Everyone is standing.

The singing continues as we see a desert wind whip up sand that swirls around the row of Spitfires.

Less than a hundred miles away the row of Messerschmmidts gleam in the moonlight. UNISON (CONT’D)

The singing reaches its patriotic climax.

A British cargo ship is refueling in the port of Djibuti in Eritrea. Like the Thistlegorm it is packed with cargo heading north to help the war effort.

Jurgen is helping two mechanics push an older model Messerschmidt out of the hangar. They stop when it’s alongside another plane.

Ray is sitting outside his tent. He’s at a low table writing a letter.

Using a code we know they’ve broken. But it won’t be long before they figure it out...

The SS JARROW is about to leave. The mooring lines are being removed from the dock cleats and winched back onboard.

Rob and Neal are mopping the floor of the cavernous mess hall. The rows of long wooden tables and benches have been bolted to the floor.

They lug the wooden crate through the large kitchen. Apart from the row of basins and the large metal work surface, there are two giant refrigerators in here as well as a long gas cooker.

The mechanics and pilots are playing football. It’s one of the rare carefree moments here.

The German mechanics and pilots are also playing football (there’s not much else to do our here in the middle of the desert). Jurgen scores.

The sun rises over the desert saturating the land with a warm light. The camera rises to take in the Red Sea coastline and a tiny speck that is the SS Jarrow - sailing North.

The Heinkel 111 crew head out towards the waiting bomber. Jurgen, wearing his leather flying jacket, hurries out and falls into step beside the bomber pilot.

The British fighter pilots are playing cards outside the mess tent. They have all their kit next to them.

The Heinkel bomber is already in the air. One by one the Messerschmidt 109s take off.

Jurgen pulls back on the stick and the fighter starts an almost vertical climb. He glances back to see the other seven planes (including the two older models that were brought out of the hangar yesterday) following in perfect formation.

The wing of seven Spitfires are also in the air. Ray is leading them towards the Red Sea.

The crew of the cargo ship are very aware that they’re entering hostile waters. The hatches are being battened down.

Neal and Rob are washing up a giant pile of dishes after the crew’s breakfast. Just because you hate washing up.

Close on the Heinkel... flying at 20,000 feet.

Ray scans the skies - above and below them - sees nothing. Suddenly the radio crackles into live.

Jurgen spots the six Spitfires climbing towards them. Here they come.

The Messerschmidts fan out as they dive. The Spitfires also break formation.

The bomber pilot gets the message and immediately pushes the stick forward - taking the bomber into a steep dive.

The first officer on the ship’s bridge is staring up at the sky through a huge pair of binoculars. He sees the bomber.

Ray is managing to evade a Messerschmidt that is trying to get on his tail. He sees the bomber diving towards the Red Sea.

Jurgen rolls in behind another Spitfire... His thumb is on the firing button.

Both ‘Ack Ack’ guns are firing in the direction of the approaching bomber. The air above the ship is filled with puffs of black smoke.

Jurgen pulls off a spectacular acrobatic move - using an inverted loop to get himself onto the tail of Ray’s Spitfire. He opens fire.

The glass cockpit canopy shatters around Ray... More bullets stitch a line across the underside of one wing.

The bomber pilot drops the bombs.

We follow three bombs as they plummet downwards towards the SS Jarrow. Two miss...

The explosion literally lifts the huge ship several feet in the air and drops it back down. The effect, inside the kitchen, is to hurl everything that isn’t bolted down...

There’s frantic activity on the main deck of the ship. The dozen or so crew members are trying to put out fires that are breaking out all over the ship.

Ray’s plane is in trouble. He’s losing height fast...

The ship’s first officer has gone below to inspect the bomb damage. He opens a bulkhead door that leads into the engine room.

The movement of the ship was so extreme that one of the huge industrial fridges has toppled over. It is now lying on its side - directly in front of the store room door.

The first officer races back onto the bridge. It’s bad.

Jurgen is again closing in on Ray’s Spitfire. It won’t be long now.

Jurgen has Ray in his gun sights. As he fires his 20mm canons Ray makes an unexpected move.

Wide shot as two parachutes open. Both pilots are going down in the sea.

Neal and Rob are trying to exit the store room... but the fallen fridge is blocking their exit.

The officer charged with rounding up survivors enters the kitchen. He looks around at the deserted, debris strewn, room.

The last jolt has toppled the shelves in the store room.. Neal and Rob work together to lift a tall unit away from the door.

Ray and Jurgen have landed in the water. Both are battered and bruised - but are not suffering from any serious injuries.

The two life boats have been lowered. The survivors - about ten of them in total - climb into the boats.

Ray can see the lifeboats setting out. He waves and yells frantically.

The captain scans the sea around his stricken ship. There’s various kinds of wreckage that has fallen overboard during the attack - including barrels and wooden crates.

Jurgen watches the lifeboats disappear into the distance. He turns through three hundred and sixty degrees...

Jurgen makes it across to the ship. It’s now listing to starboard...

Ray approached the boat from a different angle. He has arrived at the bow.

Ray find himself floating in the flooded engine room. The influx of water - now about six feet deep - has put out most of the fires...

Jurgen is lying flat on his back on the foredeck - clearly exhausted. He takes a deep breath and sits up.

He rises to his feet.

Ray closes the bulkhead door that leads into the rapidly flooding engine room. He heads up two flights of metal steps and down a long passageway.

Neal and Rob have cleared a space on the floor of the store room. Both are lying down on the hard metal floor.

Ray has passed through the devastated kitchen and is in the mess hall. He can’t hear the banging from in here.

Ray steps out onto the deck. Jurgen is already there.

Ray makes it onto the bridge... keeping his head low in case his enemy can fire at him.

Jurgen hesitates on the way to the bridge. He has a nasty looking knife in his hand...

Ray peers gingerly out of the windows that overlook the foredeck and bow of the ship. To his surprise there’s no sign of the Luftwaffe pilot.

The gunner we saw earlier is dead and lying on his back on the deck. Jurgen has taken his place and has swung the huge gun around to face the ship’s bridge.

For Ray, on the receiving end, the noise is even more ear piercing. The huge ‘Ack Ack’ shells slam straight through the glass...

Jurgen fires the last bullet in the belt that was already loaded when he arrived. Beside him there is a large metal ammo case.

Now that the gun has stopped firing Ray takes the opportunity to look up. Through the smashed window he can see Jurgen reloading.

Jurgen looks up to see Ray in the window - pointing the flare gun at him. Ray fires.

Ray races down the steps and onto the foredeck with the fire axe in his hands. Jurgen is still scrabbling away from the anti aircraft gun when he reaches him.

We’re still in Jurgen’s POV as the world swims back into focus. He’s not dead (obviously) but he has been securely tied to the side railing.

Ray is searching for survivors below decks. There are bodies down here...

Ray passes through the kitchen. He stops.

Neal and Rob are still shouting and banging tin cans against the metal walls... but with less conviction now.

Ray is banging on the store room door. Is there someone in there?

Ray and Neal are frantic. They both hammer as hard as they can on the metal walls...

The floor is at a 45 degree angle as Ray exits the kitchen. He looks out to sea.

Wide overhead shot as the ship reaches 90 degrees.... Then drops over.

Ray and Jurgen clamber onto the hull of the boat - using a fixed maintenance ladder next to the twin screws in the stern. They both collapse on their backs - utterly exhausted.

An underwater shot in the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea. Jurgen and Ray dive down about fifteen feet...

What was the deck is now the ceiling. There’s a gap of about two feet between what used to be the deck and the water level.

Jurgen and Ray make their way into the kitchen. They are now walking on what was the ceiling - so the hanging lights are lying on the floor surrounded by a tangle of wires.

The wave of relief that washes over Rob and Neal when the door opens is seismic. They’d given up long ago...

Close on the body of the anti aircraft gunner who we saw lying dead on the deck. When the ship rolled his body floated clear and he’s now rising slowly - very slowly - towards the surface.

All four men jump into the water. All of them are now in the two foot pocket of air beneath what used to be the deck.

Another shot beneath the water as they all swim over - i.e. under - the side rail and up to the surface.

All four of them pop up next to the overturned ship. Both Rob and Neal take huge relieved breaths.

SHARK POV. A view from below of the four men swimming towards the stern of the boat.

As they swim towards the access ladder Neal spots a fin - slicing through the water towards them. It’s a shark.

Ray climbs onto the hull to find Rob in bad shape. His leg is mangled and he’s slipping in and out of consciousness.

Another underwater shot as Ray dives from the hull... He swims down a few feet and disappears through the large hole in the hull made by the German bomb.

The engine room is now almost completely flooded. There’s a tiny space close to the roof - just a couple of inches of trapped air.

Breaking the pressure seal and partly flooding the corridor leading from the engine room... causes the whole ship to sink another foot.

Ray makes his way down the part flooded passageway. He sees a set of steps that used to go down...

Since the hold is the lowest part of the ship there’s no water in here. But when the ship turned over everything fell and the floor (that used to be the ceiling) is covered in debris.

Neal has followed Jurgen’s instructions and has managed to snag several pieces of wood from around the overturned boat. He’s now using one of them to guide a floating metal barrel towards the access ladder.

Ray can’t go back through the bulkhead doors to the engine room. He heads down the steps to the now fully flooded foredeck.

Ray breaks the surface of the water. The tents he brought are just about floating...

Ray swims as fast as he can towards the access ladder. The confused and temporarily blinded shark veers away.

Ray is lying flat on his back on the upturned hull... exhausted.

As the sun slowly sets we see the three men working together to bring more ‘debris’ onto the upturned hull. The wood from splintered packing crates has all floated to the surface and they collect the longest pieces.

Rob’s body floats for a moment... then sinks slowly towards the dark depths.

Neal is snoring. Ray and Jurgen, lying on the second army tent, are finding it hard to fall asleep.

An orange glow beyond the horizon heralds the beginning of a new day.

The overturned ship has sunk several feet overnight. The black metal hull is only about thirty inches above the water line.

Close on a piece of wood as it’s split down the middle. Pull back to Jurgen.

Neal paddles hard to put some distance between himself and the hull of the overturned SS Jarrow. Cut to close on his hand.

SHARK POV. The tiger shark is moving in long lazy circles around the overturned boat.

Ray and Jurgen watch the raft move away. It’s nearly a hundred meters away now.

Neal looks around. Doesn’t see anything.

Ray and Jurgen watch as Neal is torn apart. The raft is overturned.

Jurgen nods. He’s good with that.

An endless and spectacular vista of ocean. The overturned hull of the SS Jarrow is a tiny speck in the sheer scale of the image.

Only a small patch of the hull remains visible... and it’s less than a foot above the water line.

The hole in the bow of the boat is deeper now... but they both make it easily and quickly.

The upside down engine room is completely flooded. The air pocket that Ray used last time (up by the ‘roof’) has gone.

The hold is now flooded. All the pieces of wood as well as the tarpaulins and tents are floating freely in the water.

They swim down the flooded corridor... through and open bulkhead door...

Ray picks up a Jerry can of fresh water... Jurgen grabs an arm full of cans and jars.

As they enter the kitchen Ray glances back down the flooded corridor. There is a dark shape moving towards them.

Ray hangs onto the jerry can and swims back to Jurgen. He grabs him around the waist and pulls him out through the flooded kitchen, up the overturned steps and out onto what was the foredeck.

Ray and Jurgen surface in the middle of an endless expanse of sea. The hull of the SS Jarrow has vanished beneath the surface.

Ray puts the Jerry can of precious fresh water onto the top of the raft. He then climbs on board and hauls the unconscious Jurgen on with him.

Jurgen is recovering. He manages to prop himself up on one elbow.

Both are paddling. There is still no sign of land in any direction.

Ray and Jurgen have stopped paddling and are eating from the cans that Neal and Rob brought on their first trip. How far do you think we’re come?

It’s night and the sky is full of stars. Both men are lying on the raft.

There’s a glow behind the horizon as the sun prepares to rise. In the foreground we see the tiny speck that is the makeshift raft carrying our two protagonists.

The commanding officer who we last saw speaking to Ray... heads into the ‘chapel tent’ carrying a cardboard box.

The commanding officer places the box on top of the growing pile. Like the others this one has the photograph of the deceased pilot on the front.

The oily Kommandant is back behind his desk. Standing in front of him is Jurgen’s replacement as Obersleutnant (the Luftwaffe equivalent of Wing Commander).

Jurgen and Ray are paddling hard... but still appear to be in the middle of nowhere.

The shore line is getting nearer as Jurgen and Ray keep on paddling. She was at secretarial college when we first met.

A shot from underwater of the two men swimming down. Cut to the bullets hitting the water...

Ray bursts to the surface... Climbs onto the raft.

The cloud of blood from Jurgen’s wound dissipated quickly. But tiny drops remain in the water.

Ray is paddling. Jurgen is lying on the now ‘off kilter’ row of barrels.

From beneath the surface we see the metal barrels scraping over the sharp coral. The waves start to get more powerful...

They finally make it into the calm water beyond the reef. The shore is just thirty meters ahead.

The shark is heading straight for Jurgen. It’s mouth opens it’s eyes roll back.

Jurgen launches himself towards the shark. It sinks its teeth into his leg.

Ray watches as Jurgen and the shark sink together beneath the surface.

Jurgen and the shark sink towards the bottom of the lagoon... both mortally wounded.

Ray washes up on the shore... He stumbles forward onto the sand.

Ray is collecting driftwood from the shoreline... He’s making a bonfire on the sand.

Ray heads into the desert. In the magical dawn light it’s spectacular....

Ray is walking uphill through a sandstorm. Visibility is down to just a few inches in front of his face.

We’re in Ray’s POV as he wakes. The storm is abating...

Ray wakes in a Bedouin tent. One of the men we saw riding a camel is crouching down next to him.

Ray is riding with the Bedouin across a vast swathe of desert. They crest a hill...

Ray is bidding his saviors a formal but sincere farewell. He bows his head as he shakes their hands.

Wide shot of a small picturesque English country village. Ray, wearing new clothes and sporting a new beard, heads through a gate and up to the front door of a small cottage.

A five year old girl (CATHERINE) - wearing a school uniform and pigtails - freezes when she sees both her parents. Daddy?

The war is finally over and there are VE day parties all over the country. People of all ages are celebrating on the streets of London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle....

Ray hugs Catherine... then his wife.

Ray boards a military cargo plane.

Ray is in the back of a battered taxi driving through a city in ruins. Not a single building is undamaged.

The taxi passes through a pair of iron gates that are hanging off their hinges... then proceeds down a long gravel driveway to an impressive country house.

Ray enters the living room. It’s a scene of devastation.