Rare Historic Footage of London During the Blitz | Cities at War: London | Our History

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] 1936 film of H.G Wells things to come vision of what modern warfare would bring airaids gigantic and immediate large cities destroyed overnight thousands of aircraft millions of dead complete disaster a vision in the 1930s That Grew into a nightmare Another War would mean the end of civilization September the 1st 1939. this is the national program from London the first news copyright reserved these are today's main events Germany has invaded Poland and has bombed many times Parliament was summoned for six o'clock this evening orders completing the mobilization of the Navy Army and Air Force was signed by the king at a meeting this afternoon of the privy Council the British cabinet met from half past 11 this morning until half past one and both houses of Parliament were summoned for six o'clock this evening President Roosevelt has appealed to the European powers that if they should be involved in hostilities they should refrain from bombing civilians and unfortified towns the nightmare was about to become real war with Germany seemed unavoidable but surprisingly London was the best prepared city in Europe surprisingly because most people they're apprehensive refuse to concern themselves personally with preparations for war throughout the 30s men like Shaw Wells Atley and Churchill had warned the public of the horrors of War and the danger of Germany but the public had ridiculed civil defense supported appeasement yet quietly the government had laid its plans in case the Holocaust should come now in the crisis they were ready with millions of shrouds and extra hospital beds gas masks for the entire population extra police for the rioting crowds expected to cram roads and Railways as soon as the bombing began on the very first day of the crisis a huge evacuation scheme went into action the evacuation of British children is going on smoothly and efficiently the Ministry of Health says that great progress has been made with the first part of the government to rent it was clear to children we went from Stafford Road it's terrible mother's Crow and children growing but we couldn't go with them once we left them outside out this place we had to go away and leave him then they never know you know didn't know where they was going to or who they were going with I mean you felt ever so sorry for the children and the children she didn't seem to realize actually what was happening to them and we had to try to cheer them up the best way we could because their mothers and fathers they wanted their mothers and crying in three days 600 000 children were evacuated on Sunday September the 3rd London waited for the last seconds of Britain's ultimatum to Germany to tick away at 11 15 Chamberlain spoke to the nation I am speaking to you from the cabinet room of 10 Downing Street this morning the British Ambassador in Berlin ended the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of War would exist between us I have to tell you now had no such undertaking has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany [Music] within seconds the siren sound this is it [Applause] [Music] suddenly no one really knows what to do or everyone does wardens run down the streets giving conflicting orders cars are stopped people are headed to shelters gas rattles are sounded for a few brief moments confusion Reigns they are coming quicker even than anyone expected [Music] it was a false alarm officially a home office misunderstanding someone it seemed had decided to test all the sirens but had not got around to warning everybody else that it was going to happen it was in some ways an apt start that night the pubs were packed the joviality had a frantic quality about it drink and be merry for tomorrow we die but nothing happened preparations continued but the bombs didn't come things are not going a bit like we imagined they would are they I was led to expect that thousands of bombers will be overhead the first day war was declared that we'd all be gassed and blown to Pieces right away funny you know here we are at War yet everything's going on just the same it all seems unreal doesn't it of course things were not going on just the same really the authorities made enormous efforts to use the breathing space to bring London to a full state of readiness advertisers did not take long to see how things could return to good Advantage me and my girl meant for each other sent for each other and liking itself [Music] no use pretending we knew the endings some ages ago some little church with a big steeper just a few people that both of us know and we'll have love laughter be happy ever after me and my God the mood of the advertisers was repeated in the newsreels where Natty idea showed you how to get around in the blackout but the Natty tips had their serious sides throughout the eyes of darkness no light must be visible outside which meant everybody had to curtain their windows so that not the slightest [ __ ] of light got through and there were arid wardens on hand to see that the rule was obeyed the theory seemed to be that thus the enemy bombers would be unable to find London in the dark as a result by December 1939 there were 40 pedestrian deaths in London streets each day oh sweetness by 1940 the fire service had become popularly known as the darts team Airaid wardens were thought officious and unnecessary and people got angry with the government for frightening them all in the first place in fact the Wharton Services itself was getting rather fed up with the whole thing they were wishing they could have a bomb so that people could realize that we weren't just taking them on you see have you got everything on board you ought to have yeah sure I think so well well thank goodness it's something anyway I would drive the shovel upon the problem from with the bronze plan straight into the home home not two not all and we know there's some more in the yard why what's the matter what quick you coming across the house on fire Rob Wilton was funny particularly because people didn't think he was Far wrong what address is it Grimshaw Street Grims now wait a minute I know it as well as it can be and I can't just place it would have come along it's only just down down no no don't tell me let me think of it myself Grimshaw oh isn't that annoying I could walk straight to it and I can't think of it it's next to whitey Street next to whitelist oh I know it as well as confused what uh what's the number lady what number is it 78 78. they're not nice against there isn't it here is a short News Bulletin the German Army invaded Holland and Belgium early this morning by land and by Landings from parachutes the necessary measures for giving assistance were put into effect at once on May the 10th 1940 Hitler suddenly attacked Holland and Belgium without warning and crashed through their feeble defenses in the light of this morning's events in Holland and Belgium householders are recommended to overhaul their domestic preparations against the possibility of air attack in their own District it is emphasized that tube stations in London are not available as air raid shelter the situation rapidly deteriorated into disaster the French and British armies were driven back after only three weeks fighting the British were improvising A hurried Escape across the channel from Dunkirk while France was on the verge of total collapse in London with the German Army only a few miles away across the channel Churchill now prime minister broadcasts to the nation should the Invader come to Britain there will be no Placid lying down of the people in submission before him as we have seen alas in other countries we shall defend every village every town and every city the vast mass of London itself Fourth Street by Street could easily devour an entire hostile Army and we would rather see London laid in Ruins and Ashes then that it should be timely and abjectly enslaved invasion was expected at any moment fire Watchers looked up for parachutists not down for fires parks and Open Spaces were littered with trenches and obstacles to prevent the landing of enemy planes and gliders and in the distance the Battle of Britain raged throughout August 1940 The Vapor Trails could be seen and the distant sounds of dogfights Earth as the battle reached a climate to the Southern England [Music] but London was still untouched then came Saturday September the 7th 1940. the clock in the afternoon they came over how many marshes a squadron album and then turned southwards towards the river I thought well this is it 320 bombers and 600 Fighters overhead 300 tons of bombs concentrated on Silvertown on the dockland area of West Ham a Borough that had been contemptuous of civil defense only nine months before the Terrace houses collapsed black packs of cars the sun was blacked out by smoke chaos and confusion rate as the fires seemed to burn out of control two hours later they all clear sounded people were Dazed and Confused the authorities seemed powerless and now people started to run they collected together what belongings they could and got out entire families escaping westwards hand carts prams bicycles piled with pots pans bedding valuables that evening the fires were still blazing the sky was red the sun seemed to have set in the east as well as the west and the enemy bombers had a beacon to guide them to the Target from eight in the evening till four the next morning 250 bombs were overhead some places the long trained civil defense worked well in others it didn't exist or couldn't cope the darkness Terror was added to chaos in the narrow streets by the river [Music] morning revealed the full extent of the devastation a thousand londoners had been killed no enemy planes have been shot now whole tracks of the East End had been reduced to Rubble people were a complex of emotions of sorrow or anger of hopelessness and despair rumors spread that West Ham was ready to surrender the authorities where they had prepared a tour had prepared for the wrong things there were millions of shrouds but no homes for the homeless there were thousands of empty hospital beds but no adequate Provisions are treating shock and minor injuries it had been anticipated that one bombed house would mean four dead people the government had organized accordingly on the morning of September the 8th 1940 there were a thousand dead but there were many more thousands of the awkward League dazed homes alive but with nowhere to go schools were opened as rest centers they were neither suitable nor prepared but they were the only places big enough very soon 25 000 people were living in them is this your wife yes what happened to your house and the sisters last night lady my house respond yes and all the things were gone and I didn't know what to do that morning and in the days that followed as people improvised and helped each other and as the organizations that existed struggled valiantly with problems often quite Beyond them fear began to turn to anger the East end started to think about how to get something done it was those of us who had a realization however faint that the worst was yet to come we made the noise we had asked the local authorities we wanted to be safe you didn't know what to do I said if something is not done I will lead the people to Whitehall whom selling Wilkinson went down to the very early shoulders of where I don't remember now but somewhere south of the river and she said um it's terribly damn but my Waters all over my feet walking in this was something ought to be done about this and the man in charge of that isn't water that's urine it was bad as that Churchill came down it was not an extensive visit but he came down and I visited the scene of Devastation and his comment was that he could not understand the threat of the people to March and Whitehall there seemed to be less disorder amongst the people than there was amongst the authorities Churchill knew the Germans were trying to make the city uninhabitable and break the spirit of the people he could defy Hitler but hardly the population of London as well a hundred miles away on the other side of the channel gurring hoped to win the war at one glorious stroke London was to collapse under a weight of bombing no sit here experience before he would Avenge the fuel feeble but provocative attacks Churchill had ordered the RAF to make on Berlin but in bombing London the luftwaffe turned away from attacking the vital RAF fighter fields in Southern England had they known it in those attacks they'd almost crippled fighter command but now the RAF was reprieved and was soon shooting the luftwaffe out of the sky never increasing numbers in a bid for personal Glory some German Pilots flew off course to bomb Buckingham Palace they failed to kill the king but succeeded in uniting London and the way the government might never have done Britain may not have had a Ministry of propaganda but somehow such opportunities for cashing in on popular sentiment were never missed [Music] a house [Music] and all the world we're facing the music here we all are and here we all say the king is still in London in London in London [Music] every night the Germans came the daylight was becoming too expensive for them the routine was always the same inevitable drone inevitable bombs and nothing to fight back with the fighter planes were no use at night [Music] but then Churchill ordered up all the available attack guns for the defense of London on September the 12th they opened fire [Music] Churchill knew that this roaring cannonade could do little harm to the enemy the Gunner succeeded in shooting down a mere four planes and the shrapnel from the shells probably killed more people on the ground than in the air but it didn't matter the psychological effect was terrific [Music] and I went into one shelter locally and they said oh listen to that lovely music outside so was that woman I walking down the road one morning and she'd had an egg axial through her roof and the neighbor came out was sympathizing with her and saying we know dear but it is a shame in your nice house and she was Furious she said who are you sympathizing with that was one of our shells that was the blitz were settling down into a ritual in the morning new areas of Destruction another Street gone another friend dead BBC Home Service up in the morning early this time the physical exercises for ladies regularity meant familiarity grin and Barrett chin up improvise good morning everyone would you get your chair and stand with your left side towards the back of it and your left hand on now swing your right leg across in front of your left one so that it comes as high as you can get it both knees straight now let it swing down towards the floor and straight sideways as high side races will go swing it towards the floor and across in front of the left one towards the floor and straight sideways now put it down and let's try all that with the music keeping both knees straight ready go swing in front to the side across to the side and across to the side and swing out the cross and up and up across and stop the Eerie Silence of the deserted streets closed by an unexploded bomb but the day does not stop the normal life of the capital simply flows around by afternoon people are queuing for the shelters again they have trekked across London for a good place and a deep tube in the West End it's become a routine and that very dreary routine is important it means people are learning how to deal with the situation that they are coming to terms with what they have to face yet even now more than half the people of London were sleeping at home and leaving the official air raid shelters complete with the proper Banks and sanitation almost empty as the people settled down they passed the timingways they knew best a common danger and a shared routine broke down barriers and made the blitz for many people one of the best times of their lives is good evening I think that'll be all right now yes that's Grand anyway I'll be back in a few minutes if you want now how are we going to get you up there [Music] thank you London was an exciting place to be theaters and dance halls were open again young people felt the need for a good time they worked hard they played her for who knew how long it would last but tomorrow you might be dead prostitutes stood under the business as usual signs and people poured in at night to share the exhilaration of being in a city under Fire [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] everyone authorities and volunteers felt they were fighting not only against a common danger but for an ideal and by now they had learned how to cope how to wait and how to act when the time came let us pray oh God we commit ourselves into thy keeping this night we pray that to bless all those who are keeping us safe for Christ's sake [Music] defenses knew the pattern and went about tonight what they'd done last night all over again [Music] Battle of far and bombs raged outside the Battle of fear and courage went on inside people sheltered where they felt safe at the beginning this was mainly in the basements of warehouses under the railway arches and makeshift sheds of Their Own it was the familiarity and good company that made them feel safe and it was here that they died [Music] the government had been forced to open the tubes to shelter it the best place to be was in a big private shelter like those under the Dorchester or the Savoy where each guest had his own marked mattress and his meals served in bed but the majority of the people of course couldn't go there the breakdown of class barriers didn't extend that far people from the East End even marched on the Savoy to demand admission in the tubes the trains not only work you up they began to bring you food and throughout the night welfare offices and the wvs brought tear and comfort to those who needed it this was the last great occasion when the middle classes were able to offer charity to the working class and be readily accepted and they did it with a courage and enthusiasm that probably did as much to save London as the carriage of the cognies themselves [Music] I remember one particular shelter where we had a great deal of trouble night after night it was a sort of shelter where if one child hid another child out came a knife you know the sort of thing and eventually we solved it by finding someone who was head of a gang in that area we knew that everyone was frightened of this gang so we got the wife who was a very big sturdy woman and she was made shelter Warden and we had no more trouble at all and on the platform menus couldn't get inside the um sales like the underground you lay on the um platform you have but you didn't know no room to move at all you couldn't walk around each other you know service were created uh London people aren't awfully fond of vintage or they went in those days and uh you would go down to the shelter perhaps as we very often did um five o'clock in the afternoon we've had all the ventilators open everything quite as it should be and who went down there at one o'clock in the morning every ventilator would be stuffed up with rags and you would have to pull them all out again because they liked a good Thug and they certainly got it in some of them 30 people somewhere your child to get rid of the clean people were you know if it's own safety for the kitties you know they were extraordinarily healthy and that's just one of those acts of God I am absolutely convinced because if ever there were conditions through which an epidemic could start it was there and yet it never did in an extraordinary way they didn't seem to know what was happening outside on the most terrible night when pets we'd had our canteen fall into a crater about three times that hadn't been there yesterday and we'd had to lie on our faces so many times to try and get the food in the door they wouldn't know anything about that the curtains came down outside and they didn't hear so when you got inside they didn't say it's a terrible night isn't it dear they sometimes said how's the raid going but mostly they were so far underground or like moles you know of course they gave me a name which I must honestly say I simply loved and it was Mother London and I read it did love it very much and they called me alternately um lady Phoebe which was a kind of um nightcap thing that you put over your hair at night or even simply which seemed a little bit irreverent our lady [Music] London was bombed for 57 consecutive Nights by an average of over 200 bombers altogether 14 000 tons of high explosive hit the city an average of 200 tons of high explosive bombs each night a couple in a minute who lost their home and they were taking them to relations in the country the man who was driving the car said to them was it your own house and the woman said no the man said yes but the woman lodged him and said no dear would have been Monday when you think of the installments and installments that they'd paid there they were perfectly cheerful driving away and just said would have been Monday he walked through the tunnel from Liverpool Street to the bank station and when I got there I felt like turning back there's nothing else but bodies well it's hard to describe it was just like Taylor's damage put up against the wall some with no clothes on some with half their clothes on and we had to tell the um well the toilets they were like plywood sheets with these sanitary Powers inside we had to tear them down to use them as stretches at the Port of the home you'd think and the more remember the 19th 30s before the war had been heartbreaking for Deptford I mean long lines of unemployed it got so little you'd have thought yet when the time came they had the courage of lions it uh well it was like one big family during the blitz if you got bombed out the person next door took you in and that's how it went I rode on during the Blitz and he was really going to turn old Jerry again when I opened the door and went in the passage right I smelt the supper cooking so I said tomorrow why aren't you down the shoulder so she said well you have to work in it you weren't feeding it and that's how the women were not all of mine Joe from November onwards the bombing wasn't every night it seemed like a breather in any case neither Hitler nor bombing was going to stop Commerce and children making the best of Christmas if you couldn't sell model airplanes for kids now you never would but there shouldn't have been any children in London to enjoy a blitz Christmas they should have been evacuated away from the danger that they were not was not the authorities for they'd been sent but they drifted back families wanted to be together and hang the danger there were a quarter of a million children in London for Christmas 1940. you can't force parents to let their children go loss of sleep was a major problem many people who did a full-time job in the day and a voluntary one at night went through much of the war on three or four hours sleep others paid for a good night's rest there was no shortage of private firms ready and willing to cash in on the fears and exhaustion of their countrymen for a few Shillings you could buy your piece in Epping Forest join the already resident campus who spent the whole War there or even spend the weekend in Torquay it was preferable to paying a wide boy Sixpence to keep you a place in the shelters [Music] London Town poor puzzled Moon a new phrase entered the vocabulary bombers Moon for the first time for centuries The Londoner was as conscious of the weather as the Countryman who are paved with stars it was such a romantic and as we kissed and said good night a nightingale signs our Christmas on the 29th of December 1940 the city burnt down it was the Second Great Fire of London as high winds spread the Flames the fire brigade needed 600 000 gallons of water a minute to fight 1400 fires but bombs shattered the water mains and the Thames was at its lowest ebb of the whole year the fireman's hoses ran dry and choked with mud but the fire should never have happened the raid was a comparatively smaller 136 aircraft and 3 000 incendiary bombs but it was the Sunday after Christmas and the fire watches were away the offices and warehouses locked so small fires were allowed to become big ones and farmland couldn't get at them Customs officers even prevented them from entering one blazing Bonded Warehouse because they did not have the necessary authorization surrounded by fire the most vulnerable building of all still stood Saint Paul's a symbol of defiance it had been hit by dozens of fire bombs but had been saved by its own efficient fire team the model was obvious and Herbert Morrison the Home Secretary was soon on the radio to rub it in some of you lately in more cities than one have failed your country this must never happen again fire watching was made compulsory the government had believed that the British would resist the idea of compulsion but no one complained instead they just dodged it three-quarters of those registered claimed exemption in contrast the bus drivers and conductors continued to operate their services whatever the conditions the homely red buses had become as much a symbol of London's survival and resistance as Saint Paul's they crept all the way down to look at the canyon town I saw Charlie magic he was another inspector scene so I said well what are you going to do so go on so we go to Woolwich and got a soul on board and I'll get to religion a few minutes these people came out and standard telephone and they all got on the bus we didn't worry too much then about time schedules as long as he was doing your job so we came out and I just got Roundy back station into the what they call the Albert Road and they brought him in a Searchlight so and they really let him have it and he let us have it at all so I stopped the bus and I went back in I said now look I said if you people want to take shelter you can but if you want to go I'm ready to take you and I went upstairs it was about a dozen up top I said no don't sit up here right I said coming downstairs and I said I'll get you through if we can and then they all got inside and the way we went the public expected the bus to be there if you understand what I mean they came out of the morning to go to work and they expected the bus to be there and it was always there well nine times out of ten the bus was there by 1941 authorities and people had learned to live with the blitz bombing did not disorganize life nor air raid stop production at the start everything had come to a halt when the sirens had sounded and the resulting disruption had often been more costly than the effects of the raid itself now with sputters on the roof factories carried on until the bombing got dangerously close hello gunfire in the Southeast right [Music] foreign apply to Big organizations involved in war production but to shops and ordinary people as well science have sounded but we are carrying on those who'd wish to do so may take shelter in the basement alarm Bells will be run if our roof spotters report that danger threatens when all flaws must be clear at once carry on people had proved their adaptability in a remarkable way far from running mad in the streets as forecast people seem to be taking the bombardment in their stride there was no increase in insanity and the suicide rate actually dropped after six months of almost continuous bombing London was the opposite of the Wasteland of Twisted smoking Rubble inhabited only by the last half crazed survivors that so many wise men had forecast it seemed healthier more honest happier even than ever before when the blitz was on life was very easy because you had only two things you were thinking about where do I get something to eat where do I sleep and that does simplify life most marvelously when I got there the woman in charge of the canteen I'd left for the night said to me did you know there was a monkey found under a stone a monkey acid yes I said what'd you do with it oh she said seeing he was a shock case we gave him a cup of hot tea with plenty of sugar I said what happened to him then they said we took him across to the wardens post now in the wardens post a warden used to live in tin hatch you know not the sort of men would be in charge just an ornament could take things down so I said can we kill the monkey brought into you he said oh him he took down a little brown file of a shelf and all it was written monkey and in Brackets underneath it believe Jacko well I said what did you do with him well he said seeing he was a showcase I wrote him in a rug and lay him flat and I think then he put his head in the air and he said because he always when he was putting anything put his head in there and he said to me an animal was injured in an air raid belongs to the police I said what did you send for the police he said I did and they come along and they take a look at him and say maybe he'd fancy a drop of hot milk if it goes back to police station and they bring the cup of art milk and the monkeys gives himself a kind of shake because if you say that's better takes the company to the land strains it to the bottom and then he acts Perfectly Natural and turns around and bites the policeman so then I said what happened to him next so then he had a look at this fire licking his finger and turning off the pages if there's a lot of news and he said to him he's all right he's got relations I said what kind of relations has Jackie got he said he's got an auntie in the Midlands so I of course what really had happened was for unfortunate man was killed and got an auntie in the Midlands and I have an awful feeling that Auntie was rang up and said your nephew's dead there's a monkey coming anyway the next stage was I said has has he gone to his auntie in the Midlands and once more up when the head said an animal what's injured an air raid asked to see a vet before they can travel and they takes a look at him and they says no and they sent a little ambulance and he's going up there to rest and recuperate well girls would you like to hear a nice bedtime story time story now I'm glad you asked me that well a bedtime story in this Mr Handler as London has tuned into it more the air defenses tuned into the German radio beams which guided the bombers onto their target by May 1941 with night fighter radar and improved Ground Control the RAF seemed to have won the night battle but on May the 10th the German navigation beams crossed over London OC speaking right that was home office Fire Control they'll be raiding tonight London's fire chief summoned a thousand extra fire engines into the city from all over the country in the fighter control rooms the radar plots were showing hundreds of bombers converging on London the controller scrambles his night Fighters into the dark to meet it over the city the first flares and fire bombs start to fall [Music] descended bombs falling between 145 degrees and 180 degrees about three quarters of a mile it is to be the classic pattern first Mark the Target and get some good fires going within centuries then spread the flames and hamper the firefighting with high explosives control right docks pizza at Fire Control headquarters they deploy their forces like a general fighting a tactical battle hospitals factories stations communication centers are vital private houses are low on the priority list [Music] but it's hard for ordinary people to see the battle like this in Brixton angry citizens blocked the path of engines racing past their burning homes to other fires the engines have to force a way through by driving straight at the people it was light enough to read a newspaper Street lamps wilted like grass and paint ran down the walls with intense Heat the bomb that hit the underground shelter at the elephant left Shadows of humans imprinted on the walls like at Pompeii [Music] the whole city from Poplar in the East to Fulham in the west north and south of the river seemed like one continuous roaring fire Victoria Street blazed from end to end by midnight and fires were out of control farming available staggered by the size of the fire quite unable to cover sharp only 66 pumps available right get onto Brigade control calls still being received further help declared pumps available 66. despite the new regulations warehouses and offices were locked and scared fire watches have panicked and allowed fires to get an early home check out your pumps available 10 pounds thank you thank you by 2 am the water pressure drop over 600 Mains have been smacked [Music] there was nothing to be done foreign pumps coils of empty hose farm and huddled in coldest 30 groups doing nothing I hung onto hoses whose nozzles only dribbled water like tea spouting from a pot [Music] [Music] 1436 dead 2 000 seriously injured 14 Enemy planes shot down a riot at the elephant and Castle as the canteens brought breakfast to the exhausted firefighters 20 million pounds worth of damage eight thousand streets impossible one third of London five and a half thousand houses demolished twelve thousand homeless 700 Acres completely consumed by fire and the German radio asking do you want any more Refreshments Mr Churchill Sunday morning and the city fills with sightseers while some people queue for death certificates others plunder the damaged shops and pubs 150 000 families without water gas or electricity half the main telephone system destroyed two more nights like that and London will be not right out the House of Commons completely gutted and in the night famine had complained that the custodian had refused them entry because they did not enjoy parliamentary privilege and the fire chief had been shot at by the Home Guard in the mail Churchill wept when he saw the ruins luckily for London Hitler was about to attack Russia and his bombers were called away to the east for a while London could rest and regain her strength foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] Myra Hess gave midday concerts in the National Gallery gray wartime London screwed itself down to the long hard Hall which was to take Britain from avoiding defeat to gaining victory foreign Hitler's attack on Russia meant we were no longer fighting alone to all those who contributive to the making of these very excellent machine the quicker you will send to Russia these good machines the earlier car will come out victory [Music] War work and music while you work tanks for Russia planes for Berlin ammunition for the second front [Music] foreign [Music] the austerity period warships week followed by Waste Paper month smaller rations but longer queues the time when it seemed the war would last forever [Music] yours in the gray on the December [Music] the way I love you could I when I was born [Music] this night has music [Music] my heart I hold you near me the heavy bombing was over and with the great battles raging in Russia many people thought it would never come back the government was not so confident they continue to build deep shelters properly equipped with light heat and water they were making good some of the earlier deficiencies the fire brigade which had fought the blitz did drills and maintenance it's more difficult to keep going than in the Blitz and they could see why we were fighting now we couldn't they learned how to put out fires according to the book it was a period of intense frustration relearning things you already knew preparing for something you didn't think would happen by 1942 the Americans were in the war London seemed like an international Barracks a girl's Paradise resentful Englishman summed up the trouble with Americans overpaid overfed over sexed and over here [Music] oh Johnny Johnny [Music] oh Johnny please tell me dear What Makes Me Love You song you're not handsome it's true but when I look at you I want you oh Johnny oh Johnny Care number one under the command of General Eisenhower Allied Naval forces supported by strong Air Forces began Landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France it was June the 6th 1944 D-Day we were back in Europe now it could only be a matter of weeks until the end but then only one week later on June the 13th [Music] [Music] [Music] London was back in the front line facing the grimaced audio level it was the first of the German secret weapons [Music] oh happy my darling will be [Music] with these relatively cheap pilotless aerial Torpedoes Hitler planned to knock out London and win the war they were more devastating than anything the city had suffered each carried a ton of high explosion [Music] after almost five years of war the enthusiasm and high morale of the blitz were missing this new inhuman Terror was something that many exhausted londoners had no longer the resources to meet more than twice the number who went in the great evacuation of 1939 [Music] the defenses were bewildered and for the civilian there was nothing to do but watch and wait water in mid-july Duncan Sands who had been placed in charge of the defense plans moved all the city's anti-aircraft guns to a narrow belt on the coast between Beach ahead and Margaret's Bay [Music] the guns could now pick out their targets as they came in without worrying about their unexploded shells falling on civilians and Fighters could tackle anything that got past the barrage thank you soon 80 percent were being destroyed the fighters had also mastered techniques for shooting them down flying at more than 400 miles an hour The Tempest and Spitfires could only just catch them and although the Doodlebugs could not far back attacking them could be hazardous on September the 7th Duncan Sands was able to announce to a relieved City the Battle of London is over The Day After Duncan Sands announcement London was rocked by a huge unexplained explosion it was Hitler's most destructive weapon the V2 rocket there was no defense against it and no warning that it was coming plans were laid to abandon London do I believe in Stratford about 12 25 to finish at Canning Town when I got to a pub called the telegraph that's called a gift line just passed overstone Church and it was a terrific crash huge cloud of dust couldn't see much now where those Rockets was concerned they were terrible things because with the buzz bombs you could see them you could hear them in a certain amount of Direction where they were going to go but with the rocket it was there you'd never a chance well I stopped I suppose about 20 yards away from this other bus that was in a bit of a mess a presidio conductor sitting on the platform and I'm going to know I said hey Jim I said leave me alone Lori well as far as I can tell you that poor bloke who got it right at the lower abdomen with a in a location when you never did conduct any more buses you finished up night of Duty at Upton Park well there was one poor little kid lying on the platform off in the saloon off on the platform little girl about 10 or 11. and she was opened up just like you see a rabbits opened up in a butcher shop it was the Forerunner of today's intercontinental ballistic missile if Hitler had been able to bring them into use earlier they might have brought in Victory but the advancing Allied arm is over around the launching sites and the last rocket fell on the 27th of March 1945. only five weeks before the end of the war bombs and Rockets had killed almost 30 000 londoners and injured more than a hundred and thirty thousand [Music] all right uh hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight Tuesday the 8th of May but in the interest of saving lives the ceasefire began yesterday to be sounded along all the fronts the German war is therefore at an end [Applause] it always said we can take it but if you become a kind of desperate but we were proud of God and exhausted [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and the sun will be shining [Music] when they find [Music] how happy my darling [Music] when they turn up the line and the dark lonely night s [Music] Nevermore I will be upon always together [Music] and the whole world will see when they saw before foreign foreign

Channel: Our History

Views: 67,823

Keywords: our history, documentary, world history documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, historical, history documentary, blitz, london, world war 2, world war II, 2nd world war, germany, total war

Id: 46JFgB7zx14

Length: 62min 29sec (3749 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023