Beautiful Color Footage Of Pre-War Britain | Thirties In Colour | All Out History

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] this is 1930s Britain for the first time black and white films now in color bringing new life to the good times the bad turbulent decade the best things happen and the worst things happen three kings in one year the monarchy in crisis a government gambles everything in a desperate attempt to stem the Nazi tide [Music] I think this is one of the things that's really hard to understand about the 30s how could this have gone on [Music] this time the shadow of the first world war still looms large over Britain [Music] pull Revolt it was a very very dramatic moment in British history brave men and women made their feelings known fascism gets a British poster boy he was incredibly charismatic Oswald Mosey you only had to ask his long line of Mistresses for proof of that and a nation is tested to the Limit the ordinary people have come together and said not in this country this is the 30s in color countdown to war [Music] [Music] the 1930s was a time of deep economic depression and growing dangers in Europe but at the beginning of the decade British people were determined to enjoy normal life the memory of the first world war was only 12 years old and peacetime had brought a newfound sense of hope in London's where it's West End clubs and Cabaret theaters were packed with men and women dancing to the latest Jazz hits from America [Music] the 1930s for me are a decade of total change and total Adventure it's the age of recreation it must have been unimaginably exciting it was a time where freedom and social change was flourishing [Music] first time the cinema became a weekly part of people's lives every town and city had its Ritz its Roxy an Empire or an Odeon and a scene here in maidenhead anyone could watch the latest Hollywood sensation for only 10 pence a ticket film industry was booming the first sort of entertainment Blockbusters were created in the 1930s people wanted to be entertained wanted to be scared wanted to be excited by I think wanted to be taken out of that rather miserable existence [Music] was bigger than Britain's Charlie Chaplin his films often making light of tough times made him the highest paid actor in the world and the heartthrob was adored by fans when he returned home [Applause] the nation was hungry for Heroes and they found a real one in the shape of a 26 year old pilot from Kingston upon Hull [Music] I always wanted to see this Amy Johnson flying back from her solo flight to Australia to Croydon of all places she's such a fantastic icon for women in the 30s she's setting a new bar for women she's showing what women can do in this new age they're not just going to be pushing Hoovers they're going to be flying airplanes on the 4th of August 1930 thousands welcomed Amy Johnson home after she became the first British woman to fly solo to Australia the flight took her 19 days in her second-hand gypsy moth plane called Jason I want to shoot you by my flying exactly what I feel about England how I love England and its people how glad I am to be back home and this is absolutely wonderful this is incredibly strong independent woman trying to give a speech and a man reaches out from this crowd of gray men behind her and tries to adjust her position towards the microphone and she tolerates her for a second then she looks so annoyed she shrugs him off um you know this is a modern woman who does not need an old bloke shoving her towards the microphone she was making herself heard perfectly well without him so I loved that moment there's actually quite a few women flying planes driving racing cars that take advantage of these new technologies to the 30s and really the strange thing is that that doesn't continue um into the into the present I think there's only five percent of airline pilots today at women you think what happened to all those Amy Johnsons I've flown for a living since I was 21 years old really just climbing into a little airplane to go and Chase a cloud just because you can there aren't really enough words to describe it but it but it really is the most amazing experience that I've found [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's a sensation of freedom of Peace you get a view of the world that people don't see there are no borders there are no boundaries growing up in whole Kath learned to fly at the same Aero Club Amy Johnson flew from in the 30s [Music] I was about eight years old my grandma bought me a book for Christmas it was adventure stories for girls and I read this book it was a good book and I said to my dad I dad this book's wrong well it says here a woman from Hull went to Australia in an airplane on her own and he said well what's she called Amy Johnson I said yeah he said well she did I said you can't have said why can't she have she came from all and I just could not believe that anybody male or female from Whole had done anything that impressive that I I started reading everything I could lay my hands on to find more about Amy Johnson and what a what a fascinating woman she was these colored pictures of flying are fabulous I'm not seeing them in color before and it gives you a real feel of what it must have been like [Music] open cockpit means that the airflow is just going straight past year of your ears at the same speed that you're flying at so something like the moth will be doing 80 90 miles an hour most of the time so a 90 mile an hour wind trying to rip your helmet off are no radios there are no modern navigation AIDS I think it would take an enormous amount of Bravery to go off into the unknown like that the longest flight Amy had done prior to setting off was from Hull to London I think she had about 100 hours total time in an airplane and to set off to Australia you know I'd stop and think twice and I've got a few more hours than that Lee Johnson became a mega star across the country we asked hairdressers for the Amy Johnson wave and she was idolized everywhere she went nowhere more so than in Hull where a homecoming parade was organized to celebrate their local hero you can see it's so happy and so excited I mean this is a celebrity coming back to her hometown that you see that the crowd there sort of moving as one as so many of them and there's children there and the mayor of Hall that she's been shared by all her thousands of fans good thank you when war finally came Amy Johnson signed up for the Air transport auxiliary to support the RAF on the 5th of January in 1941 her plane crashed in bad weather over the Southeast coast of England her body was never recovered there seemed to be a general opinion that she was ironically quite underconfident she needed to prove herself over and over again and certainly contemporaries at the time thought that that was what ultimately led to her death other Pilots were sitting on the ground in Blackpool waiting for the weather to improve whereas Amy was Amy Johnson so she was expected to be able to do it in her in her mind if in nobody else's you know she's obviously got a bit about her I think I think it's in that one frame yeah I'm going to do it my way [Music] [Music] as the depression deepened it meant hunger and hardship for Millions 200 workers from one Shipyard decided to fight back led by one remarkable woman these weren't just some men losing their jobs this would be a whole Beauty a whole infrastructure being broken foreign [Music] 1931 the full force of the Great Depression had struck Britain with devastating effect unemployment doubled to 3 million in just 12 months prime minister Ramsey McDonald had no answer to the economic crisis his coalition government cut unemployment benefit as Britain's workers paid the price in an era of austerity [Music] the fishing industry was the lifeblood of whole communities and women from all over Britain were drawn to the work [Music] I don't think we really stop and consider how incredible these women were these women often from places like Barra in the altebrates from Lewis who had lived all of their lives in these very small close-knit communities and these women would travel down to Great Yarmouth and for the first time the Heron season gave them a sense of absolute Liberation seeing a new way of life seeing a very contemporary modern Urban way of life you know so different from where they come from [Music] Yarmouth feet was once 90 boats now only 17 trolled the North Sea for hearing determined to maintain their way of life these Herring girls went on strike for a week [Applause] [Music] the women successfully achieved that extra Shilling and the spirit of the Heron girl still exists today in traditional fishing communities like here in Hull there's a real twang in her voice didn't they she looks like a leader didn't she she looks very powerful in her body language and the way she's you know putting a fist into her hand yeah what we want yes we're from a massive fishing family and all my mums uncles went to see our Nana's Brothers um Nana's maternal family to do all the tugboats and the women all worked well most of them in in the fish factories like my answer yeah how about the smell oh don't go there oh dude God you could with it before you even get out of bed the smell oh walking in the morning oh God there's a real social hierarchy about fish houses as well you lost some women and they'll say did you work in Fishers ah never I'm a lady and then other women like Pat absolutely loved it embraced it she didn't care about the smell or the long hours or the hard work to get your work don't get it out but if you got it you work out then you've got a boner once you've done that Peter [Music] women played one of the biggest Parts one of the most horrible and painful jobs so you know gutting and salt in the fish with these tiny sort of sharp knives can you imagine nicking yourself with one of these which happened a lot and then having to stick your hands into the salt barrels it just makes me shudder thinking about having to do that [Music] the kids of today are never going to know that feeling of living like that I know everyone was in December it was hard it was hard every time you saw no your husband or your brother went to say I could imagine the anxiety was full of I think about I could gonna say and I think oh God I'd have Bloody nightmares every single family was the same and it brought that togetherness if one family had a tragedy it was a community tragedy everybody felt that they all come together we all didn't matter what happened they all talk together and we'd all still now across the industrial North coal Fields steel mills and shipyards were being closed as Britain's north-south divide deepened in jarrow in tyneside seven out of 10 men were unemployed forcing thousands of families to live in cramped and impoverished conditions with no other options the men took to the streets determined to show the prosperous South the reality of life in the north it's absolutely incredible seeing it in color because the images that we see so often of the jarrow March are very serious quite somber black and white images and the color really for me shows the life and the spirit that was in these men who were marching as the last Act of pleading the government to help them in a time of absolute crisis [Music] representing the hopes of the whole Community 200 men set off on the 300 mile March from jarrow to Westminster armed with a petition demanding the opening of a new steel works [Music] both my father and my mother who were very strong supporters of the labor party were among those who helped to join the general Crusade I would have been about six or seven at this time the general March involved scores of people hundreds of people people were adding themselves as they walked through one town after another they went South ing talking to people making speeches it was a very very dramatic moment in British history something where brave men and women made their feelings known look at this guy's face that guy walking along there that starvation face that's a man who hasn't eaten look at the way his his cheek is collapsed there that's somebody you know who hasn't had enough calories now my mum and dad were left-wingers and when they talked about unemployment before the second world war they talked about it as if it was a terror a blight they talked about the jarrow marches this was something very emotional and important for my parents they had no doubt whatsoever that these people were their people front and center of the March was Ellen Wilkinson the MP for jarrow born to a poor working-class family in Manchester she understood firsthand how desperate these men were and to see Ellen Wilkinson in particular in color this was a woman who was known for her sense of vivaciousness her style her bright red hair she was known as red L and she was known as the fire particle because of that she has Affairs and she learns to drive and she smokes like chimney she takes all of these things that women would previously have been criticized for doing so socially and openly and she just does them but she was a Thoroughly Modern Woman and yet we've only ever seen her in black and white before there was no longer the old distinction menmarked in Crusade women kept their mouths shut and didn't say anything you couldn't do that with someone like Ellen Ellison the dog in town you can see him he's a little black labrador here just walking behind the petition this dog is an enigma but the story that we tend to stick by is the dog was an elderly woman who lived in jarrow who just as they set off decided to join them on the March and she just said yeah just take him with you so he went all the way with them to London he wasn't any of the men's dogs he just kind of saw them walk and thought I'm gonna go along Ellen Wilkinson led the marches through the gates of Westminster on the 31st of October 1936 but public support was all they would receive their month-long March was met with only a few minutes debate and little else they were actually given more support and cared for more on this March than they were being in their own hometown by their own government so it was such a crucial part of history and even though it failed short term what happened after the war the welfare state coming in change is happening to society to support men like the men of jarrow was partly because of what happened [Music] thank you as British workers struggle to survive in the midst of depression across Europe people were turning to very different solutions in Germany one in three men were unemployed propaganda films like this proudly portrayed a nation rebuilding after the first World War they were very large scale sufferings on the part of ordinary people in Germany the young Germans were invited to join the Nazi party invited to take part in the rebuilding of the cities that had been in many cases badly shelled or bombed in the first World War February 19 th the largest in Germany and Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor it was the first time he had ever held a position of power foreign [Music] clipped watching Hitler digging the start of a new Autobahn in Germany well this is Hitler very literally putting the German people back to work if you think that we had an unemployment problem in Britain in the 1930s it was an awful lot worse in Germany which had six million people unemployed when Hitler came to power in January 1933 but within a few years that had been all but eradicated and people in prison were incredibly impressed that this had happened here it seems that we had no imaginative solutions to the unemployment problem but here you had Hitler building autobahns and putting the German people back to work so he portrayed himself as out of Germany's savior really and by showing that he was trying to ship reporting to show that he was an ordinary worker an ordinary person from the lower classes he portrayed this image of uniting all social classes in the Germany that he was creating [Applause] he saw himself and was seen by others as being part of the architects of the new world and a lot of people in other countries not just in Germany itself but even in France and Britain and so on there was a sense of amazement Delight excitement about the rise of the Nazis [Music] thank you the support for Hitler's policies was gathering momentum much closer to home and one man in particular pushed tensions to their Peak as fascism hit the Streets of London Hitler coming to power in 1933 sent shockwaves through Europe Mosley is saying I can do this as well [Music] by August 1934 Hitler had violently eliminated his Rivals and was now fuhrer with complete control over Germany across Europe fascism was on the rise and Britain seemed to be next in line Hitler saw Oswald Mosley as his Ally and it's believed the Nazi party bankrolled Mosley's British Union of fascists in an attempt to destabilize Britain there's Oswald Mosley yes I see him I recognize him there now the interesting thing about Oswald Mosley was that he was an opportunist I mean at the core of him was somebody who was very very keen on power he was incredibly charismatic Oswald Mosey and uh you only had to ask his long line of Mistresses for proof of that as well as all of these supporters he had but you can see him in a very expensive suit there he was never short of Dosh was in our Oswald a complete hate figure for my parents my mother at the tea table when she said Mosley you could just see the emotion in her face this was as if Hitler was amongst them in the East End that he was interested in terrorizing working-class Jews and he had the backing of Lord rothermere Lord rotherme who owned the Daily Mail so he had the backing of a very powerful force at this time [Music] Optical party the British Union of fascists boasted 50 000 members and provocative marches like this became increasingly common [Music] he has a lot of support because people at the time are thinking you know you need new ways to approach these unprecedented problems of of mass unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Depression you can see them all giving the Nazi salute there Mosley can appear sometimes as a sort of a joke figure and irrelevance but at the time Mosley in a sense had the backing of these huge Powers Hitler's Germany Italy and Spain and it felt as if Mosley had the momentum going with him [Music] tension and conflict were in the air and on the 4th of October 1936 in the heart of London's East End Mosley's black shirts were met with an unprecedented show of defiance famous confrontation cable Street 1936 Mosley in his black shirts marching through the East End [Music] so the idea was that if they March through the East End they would be joined by throngs of fascists and racists but what they were met with was resistance from Ordinary People which the fascists in Italy and in Germany had not met with in the same way the Ordinary People of London and elsewhere have come together and said not in this country oh they're the anti-fascists you'll see they're trade unions there I half expect to see my parents here to get I'm scanning the crowds in order to see them they shall not pass that was the slogan of the day October the 4th 1936 why do I know this date because my parents had told me this story of this day over and over again because this was a day to them that well apart from anything else it was their first date for them politics life and love were the same these banners that are being carried in this demonstration are so interesting what we see here this is classic satire and caricature of fascists you know this is an age-old way to ridicule political opponents make them look ridiculous really interesting their fascism spreads Terror and there you can see a barricade what people did was they brought trucks they threw beds out of the windows there were chairs and tables so that whatever happens you know Mosley wouldn't be able to get through here from marching into the East End police defending the fascists right to protest violently tried to clear the route ahead and the police charged these barricades and my parents were caught so they said on the wrong side of one of these barricades leading into cable Street and these Mounted Police came for them with their night sticks so we're driving towards them and my mum used to describe this with Terror at the tea table and say we thought Harold and I thought that we were going to get beaten and then a door opened uh in one of these little uh streets off cable Street and the people grabbed my mum and dad and pulled them into the house and they didn't get beat wow extraordinary and I hadn't seen that first of all that's very interesting we've actually got footage of it policeman actually defending the fascists there he's just knocked him out he's just knocked that guy out just whacked him there the guy with the hat and then right in the middle of the screen you can see their bump right to the chin and there he goes again and then meanwhile a policeman straight after it whacks him the same guy over the head so you then have there you can see quite clearly the police and the black shirts working together to try and force this route through for Mosley [Music] after two hours of fighting Mosley was forced to turn back it was a humiliating defeat that the British Union of fascists would never recover from English people are not alarmed lest written beyond the brink of political upheaval the fascists had made their move and here at cable Street ordinary British people had seen them off I don't think it's surprising that the British public spurned the British Union of fascists but I think most people thought that it was incredibly unbritish and later on Diana mostly a wife of Oswald Mosley was asked famously in an interview if she regretted anything about the movement and she said no and they said oh yes the Jack Boots I always told him that the British would never go for Jack Boots and I think that's quite true it was considered a bit vulgar foreign aggressive not our way of doing politics by calm consent [Music] across 30s Britain protests and conflict were everywhere but a class battle was brewing in the most unlikely of places let's take a walk and enjoy one of the cheapest healthiest and most inexpensive pastimes never invented young Ramblers were leading the fight for the freedom to roam the British Countryside this is fascinating I think also in the 1930 there's a desire among some people to challenge class position and to think about the countryside as part of their Heritage and a feeling that England should be a home fit for Heroes as a result of what they had suffered in the first World War they wouldn't be recognized as Ramblers today probably other than the hobnow boots which is probably a giveaway it is lovely because on their faces you can see that real look of enjoyment of the sheer freedom and when you think of the conditions they were working in and what cities were like at that time so a lot of these people were living in in slum housing they were working very long hours in very poor conditions the people of Manchester and Sheffield could actually see these wonderful Hills Kinder Scout from their homes and their workplaces but the terrible thing was in the 1930s they weren't allowed to walk on them this was a forbidden Mountain if you like [Music] the pressure for access to land was growing throughout the 30s Ramblers risked arrest and violence from landowners by deliberately setting foot on private land the most famous was the Kinder Scout Mass trespass in the Peak District where 400 Ramblers were led by a 20 year old activist from Manchester Benny Rothman [Music] a lot of them were relatively young they were in their 20s and they were very politically motivated young people on the left would have joined the Communist Party it was a large mass party at the time and I think that Communist Party membership has to be set against the rise of Nazism in Germany anti-Semitism in England and a British political system that was in some chaos at the time so they would have seen that as the biggest way of opposing the rise of fascism [Music] strict was eventually designated Britain's first national park in 1951. that's why Kinder and the trespass is so important that we're still able to enjoy this even today but it's a lot of it is thanks to these Brave young men from the 1930s foreign [Music] Britain was more determined than ever to maintain peace but one football match would force people to face up to the true horrors of the Nazi regime it's really shocking to see that in 30s Britain [Music] as uncertainty intensified abroad at home Britain was more determined than ever to preserve a sense of stability ensuring that the most traditional sporty events continued as normal once again it's the magic of the green courts and the Ping of the ball on the racket during the mid-30s Fred Perry dominated Wimbledon winning three consecutive singles titles and whether it was a national spectacle I'll kick about on the back streets of East London sport-bound communities together [Applause] okay [Music] football certainly at this time was a simple game to play this is where it was born it's the jostling of the players there's usually one player who knows he's not quite as good as the others and the captains know that he's not and he's the last one left and he doesn't so that that comes into it oh football was hugely important but both to the kids and to their fathers but throwing down the jackets I remember it's done all the time how anybody knows who's on what side um I have no idea my school time as a as a youngster we played with a tennis ball and there could be three or four matches all going on in the playground at the same time so that was that was how it was done I don't know whether that was a proper ball or whether it was a bundle of rags which is how it started [Applause] thank you it is fairly chaotic but it was a different sort of lore in those days as we see how people are reacted to by the law by the mother these days wouldn't be a permissible that's for sure clearly no VAR in the background but it's just just just lovely to see the faces and amazing on the 4th of December 1935 the beautiful game divided the nation England played the German national team at whiteheart Lane in North London the first time the two teams had ever played each other in England on the morning of the match London 10 000 German supporters out to enjoy themselves the story of this match is really fascinating I think and this wasn't just a football match this is a political spectacle the match is very heavily placed way more than than the eurogether match would have been and this police car the megaphone on the top is actually a broadcasting messages in Germans and German fans exhorting them lots of antagonize the English supporters there's always been a special rivalry between England and Germany how much it was heightened at this time I don't know it certainly stayed ever since there is a special determination gotta beat the German to actually I think there was an agreement that no swastikas no Flags would be brought or worn as the teams come out together the German and Englishmen side by side our men are in blue and the visitors in the usual British fight jerseys [Music] [Music] but there's that moment on the pitch when the German players will do the salute it's really shocking to see that in 30s Britain especially when we've got this fight against homegrown fascism going on that comes the important ceremony of saying Heil and it leaves a slightly uncomfortable feeling there is no reference by the commentator and the peace and the but they knew so he was obviously told whatever his own views you should just report what he sees by 35 you know the world is waking up to what Hitler is doing he's building autobahns he's beginning to re-arm he's already locked up the Trade union movement the left there had been pogroms and attacks on Jews he's abolished democracy [Music] foreign at this time Hitler ruled over Germany as fuhrer he started to build up the luftwaffe brought in conscription and in September 1935 he introduced the Nuremberg Laws stripping Jewish people of their basic human rights well by 1935 the Nazis had passed a number of anti-Semitic laws that had been a boycott of Jewish owned shops Jews had been sacked from Civil Service posts have been violent incidents against Jews in the street no wonder therefore that the community around North London where the match was played was outraged by the fact it was being held there [Music] happened one may wonder when one sees this match why the British government would allow such a thing to happen but I think there was a general concern of appeasement many people were afraid of Another War an appeasement even with Nazi Germany would have been considered as preferable to going to war and the NC's England winners by three North a comfortable score line did not ease the controversy surrounding the match a lone Nazi flag Flew Over the West stand one England fan climbed up and tore it down determined that the swastika would not fly over his patch this is 1930s Britain for the first time black and white films now in color bringing new life to the good times and the bad it's a turbulent decade the best things happen and the worse things happen three kings in one year the monarchy in crisis a government gambles everything in a desperate attempt to stem the Nazi tide looking back in history we say well how can they not be 360 degree aware of the reality of what they were facing [Music] this time the mid-1930s Brits enjoy new freedoms people are showing their bodies the first one especially for women it's very liberating the Nazi threat grows it's rather star thing to see the Union Jack and the Nazi swastika flag side by side they're marching through a Kent Street wow I had never seen this before Britain strives for peace but prepares for war this is the 30s in color countdown to war [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] by 1935 Adolf Hitler had established complete control over Germany but it was still unclear what threat he posed to Britain where a whole new world was emerging a boom in car production and New Roads meant an escape from town to country and the holiday pay act meant that ordinary working people could now enjoy a proper break well this year we've got holidays with pain [Music] there was a new and glamorous holiday destination on offer Butler's fantastic fun I didn't go until the 60s but you know it's incredible fun this is before people took flights to the Algarve all the Costa Del Sol [Music] an opportunity for people from often from inner cities to go somewhere and enjoy a holiday as a family the idea that ordinary working-class britons could enjoy a holiday was completely alien before the 1930s it was a hugely exciting moment and a real moments of social Mobility [Music] thousands could now go on holiday to Resorts and camps like Butlins in skegness clacton and later Bogner Regis founded by Billy butlin on the neat idea of a week's play for a week's pay these camps promised three meals a day and organized fun for all the family From Dawn till Dusk my father came over from Canada and he stayed in a guest house you had your breakfast and your evening meal there but they didn't want to see you for the rest of the day so you had to amuse yourselves he saw that there was a great opening for a amazing business that's how we started Butlins I love the ethos it was there right from the beginning to the even till today our true intent is all for your Delight my father right from the very beginning wanted to provide holidays for everybody and his ethos was to make everybody happy it's lovely to see it in color as well it's amazing then as on was Ruth they'd Rouse holiday makers at 7 45 shop for their daily activities today it's a more optional endeavor [Music] redcoat's Freya and Jake carry on the tradition wow look at this costume and figure competition imagine if we had that now I'd win that easily yeah all right thank you put the hair and just the swimsuits and stuff is so different to now now everyone's got those top-not bum things and it matter how times have changed [Music] what's up competition now I get why we don't do it yeah foreign we just wouldn't even think to do this in our time off I think are they really having fun is this what fun looks like 1930s stuff it's just good family fun fathers with daughters oh there's my father uh with the mustache it's so lovely to see him there what a handsome man he was and my mother always said she fell in love with him you know when she first saw him she thought oh my God he looks like Errol Flynn makes you feel proud doesn't it we're doing the same things we are literally doing the same job and creating the same happiness the same Memories the same Magic when the holiday was over the organized activities went on at home in the 1930s their health and fitness craze gripped the nation with a link between obesity and heart disease newly confirmed in the press the pressure was on to keep in shape the women's league of Health and Beauty offered group exercise classes for women of all kinds and the cameras flocked in to enjoy the spectacle it's a forerunner to the fitness crazers of today yogurt and some such but it was it was really quite new in the 30s [Music] many of them thought they'd never stoop so low but now thanks to these rhythmic exercises they can not only touch their toes but almost bite them commentary something else commentary you try to switch it off on the hands down can be ornamental as well as useful here's an exercise that suggests rocking chairs very reminiscent for those people who remember it of Harry and Fields satires of these kind of public information films that just unbelievably patronizing cliche jaw-dropping comments about young ladies and their legs it seems that yesterday that the female leg was looked upon as something that shouldn't be looked upon the league of Health and Beauty was so popular it gained almost 200 000 members by the end of the 1930s women of all backgrounds were encouraged to take part donning their matching gym kits and taking to the fields they are surely the original Bridget Jones big knickers only it's quite a change here you are seeing women wearing very short shorts and 30 years earlier people were covering up table legs and chair legs because they were so prudish in their Victorian morality cycling without a cycle is a great exercise and it's new in the sense that working out in public for the first time especially for women that's very important that you know they can use their physicality in a way they hadn't been able to before yeah it's very liberating I think now the downside of this this isn't just about physical health this is about racial health and racial Fitness and this is a hangover from Social Darwinism around survival of the fittest and the survival of the fittest Nations and underlying this exuberance is a kind of concern about the survival of the white race I'm sorry to bring you know a sour note into this or potentially light-hearted silly 1930s film but it's actually connected to a whole lot of eugenic ideas about race and motherhood and what women were for which was breeding the next generation of healthy British men this obsession with health race and Beauty was to take the most Sinister of turns in the years ahead and Britain got dangerously close to embracing Nazi ideals I think this is one of the things that's really hard to understand about the 30s how could this have gone on thank you in mid-1930s Germany military conscription meant unemployment was falling fast and Hitler was starting to re-arm in Britain the worst of the unemployment crisis was behind us and in towns and cities we were busy building futuristic factories producing life-changing products started to emerge the most iconic of all was the Hoover building when this revolutionary American company opened its Factory in West London it was hailed as a modern Palace of Industry [Music] the building is supreme Art Deco Art Deco represents modernity streamline Beauty newness to the people of that time it must have seemed like a pyramid seemed to the ancient Egyptians like a miraculous building of Wonders in the 1930s vacuum cleaners were transforming British homes and Hoovers were the most popular cleaners on the market bitty Housewives say regretfully for an electric vacuum cleaner inside the factory the ultra modern technology and appropriately clean Interiors were a unique selling point this sneak peek through their doors was designed to lure in even more customers there are 879 parts and 3631 operations in its manufacture now I remember my parents talking about this almost as if it was utopian that is the idea that in the future factories would be like this clean and modern and you wouldn't have people dying of industrial disease [Music] this would be handy in the bathroom for re-breasting old toothbrushes interesting to see the man had goggles on so a very strong sense of safety my Grandad worked for Hoover as an engineer in the 50s and it's fantastic to see even in a 20 years difference how this has changed from a quite a humble beginning and something quite new and Innovative to something that was in every single household here one of the extensions of the dusting tools is being bent so that it will go into odd corners and otherwise uncuttable places with a minimum amount of stooping and craning by milady nobody ever fell off a stepladder using one of these sweepers there's the lucky recipient using the Hoover on her no doubt synthetic carpet at last Milady can make light of her housework hardly realizing how much care energy and the patience have been spent on her behalf that the irony with all this is that all these appliances make housework somehow fun and exciting apparently and instead of that work being done by servants for money it's now done by Housewives for free with the added excitement of an appliance which I think is one of the biggest changes really for women in this time [Music] British industry was about to switch to a war footing as tensions mounted in Nazi Germany European Statesmen have been staggered by dictator Adolf Hitler's latest move in announcing the treaties of Elsa and locano at nothing more than scraps of paper which government began to prepare for the threat of gas attacks and factories Across the Nation were dedicated to preparations for a war most people wanted to avoid at all costs [Music] the government consider that in time of War everyone ought to have a gas mask everyone whether rich or poor whether they have the money to buy it or not we hope they will never be needed so says Mr Jeffrey Lloyd the Parliamentary under secretary for the home department when he formally opens the government-owned factory for Mass producing gas marks it's interesting that the war was already being prepared there's already a Dawning realization that the threat of war is really serious so of course this created a good deal of anxiety and I think that fueled the popular support for Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement Neville Chamberlain and the British government had been pursuing a policy of appeasement trying to keep the peace with Adolf Hitler who had broken international law by marching his troops into a stretch of land in West Germany known as the Rhineland the government hoped that by turning a blind eye Hitler would be satisfied gas masks and another War could be averted leveled him really straightforward he just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be a war and he remembered the first world war and was determined this shouldn't happen again by 1937 I don't think anyone would have said that war was inevitable but it would have been a brave man who would have ruled it out entirely Hitler's built up the German armed forces from scratch he has developed an incredibly powerful Air Force and so while the British government was doing everything it could to avoid a war the very possibility of war was being widely discussed and if there was to be a war people thought that gas was likely to be used 500 0 were being produced a week an ordinary Brittany waited to be the demonstrations of how to breathe with them are quite a quiet something I'm trying to entertain this screaming child that is no doubt terrified by her mother is quite dramatic transformation when she's put the gas mask on oh God no she's got to wear one the general feeling was that you had to put the Children First they should be told about gas masks that is just horrible seeing a young child being terrified like that I remember at school we were all asked to try on gas masks gas was something people were very frightened of it really is important to understand that one of the main reasons for this fear was of course the use of gas in the first World War it's just a tiny snapshot of the trauma the children especially had to go through in the 1930s and 40s and it's not surprising that it shaped their experience the rest of their lives [Music] whilst preparations for war rumbled on the overwhelming Hope was still to maintain peace with Nazi Germany and shocking scenes played out in rural Britain this rare and mysterious home movie from 1936 shows a highly unusual trip in Kent between a British Boys Club known as the Britannia youth movement and Hitler's very own organization the Hitler Youth so here we've got Brit saluting the swastika we've got the Hitler eugent as it's called in Germany and then our guys in sort of Cadet uniform they're marching through a Kent Street wow I had never seen this before [Music] not a lot is known about the Britannia youth it's rather startling to see the uni and Jack and the Nazi swastika flag side by side and young Germans have Hitler Youth trying not entirely successfully to do the goose step I think the grass gets in the way it really is a fairly chilling sight hearty British teenagers marching alongside German fascists this is one of the things that's really hard to understand about the 30s when we know what happened later how could this have gone on Hitler above all gave a sense of Mission to young people and among a lot of people in other countries even in France and Britain and so on there was a sense of amazement Delight excitement about the rise of the Nazis you said this was 32 33 34 you might say turn a blind eye to it but I mean 1936 the things that were known about the Nazis by this time you know with thousands of people locked up with Jews having been deprived of their livelihoods and the means to work by the start of 1937 the Hitler Youth was compulsory for all Aryan children aged 14 to 18 and had over 5 million members these youths would go on to form the Bedrock of the future Nazi army the film also shows the Britannia youth visiting Germany and one young member even captured the fuhrer on film okay I mean it's extraordinary that people believed him to be a sort of leader of the great Nordic peoples that they were going to breed and kill the Jews and kill the mentally deficient and kill the criminally insane and then the person it's focused on is a is a dark-haired little bloke from Austria who speaks to the very very strong Austrian accent I mean but then of course you know why why should racism make sense sorts of exchanges were in fact part of an in carefully orchestrated by the Nazi party in order to seem more respectable than they really were Britain was taken in [Music] there's a lot of sentiment that young people from the two countries needed to be friendly and to get together to overcome the legacy of war and conflict 1936 was the closest the Britain and Germany ever came to any sort of friendly relations this was the year in which Germany made a conscious effort to try and be respectable they were hosting the Olympic Games in Berlin this was a propaganda gift for the Nazis and the last thing they wanted was people not turning up [Music] whilst Britain continued to maintain a delicate peace with adversaries abroad at home the very fabric of British tradition was under threat in the wake of a royal Scandal it was just totally unexpected it was massively unexpected the Royals were supposed to be a steady feature [Music] despite the growing fascist Menace abroad most British people continue to enjoy their favorite traditions up and down the nation communities rallied together and had fun this remarkable footage captures a town get together in Helston Cornwall when crowds came out dressed up to the nines to celebrate the start of spring at their annual Flora dance [Music] these are remembrances of England's pre-christian traditions and they have survived Roman occupation Anglo-Saxon occupation the reformation and all of those sort of limiting ideological restrictions on culture especially after the war that Resurgence of community spirit world have still played a really important part in these towns and in these communities this tradition carries on in Cornwall today Nina Riddell has been reliving these steps every year for the last three decades I think it's wonderful the band they keep the timing but sometimes they're having to do quite serious walking and playing rolling down the hill they've got these great big instruments there's something more in the dance than the sum of its path there's an extra something that by being together and dancing it's a sense of community and belonging really interesting nearly everybody is wearing a hat I mean I can remember this in the 1950s most men and women went out with hats on and people's faces um they said just so modern it's wonderful to know that people's faces don't change as much as we think they do people's physiog this stuff the bones and the eyes I mean the makeup on that woman there that looks like it could have been done yesterday so it's this woman in the blue who has the lilacs in her hat she could have been taken off the front of a style magazine in the 30s look at her hair look at her hat the color of her suit the cut of her suit that is a perfect picture of a modern woman as well as embracing old traditions modern men and women could now enjoy a new communal activity the 1930s was the Golden Age of the Lido these vast outdoor pools sprung up in cities and towns Across the Nation offering cheap bathing for the masses almost 200 were constructed over the course of the decade before you'd had the public baths which had been sort of tied up with getting clean as much as with exercise the Lido is much more of a pleasure place the pleasure of Lidos was open to all since gaining the vote in 1928 women had pushed for more and more freedoms [Music] now they could enjoy these open-air pools together with the boys this was a huge moment it's a really important step in social change for equality and for women and it's something that seems so small the women you can see that their backs are exposed their legs are exposed what's really interesting is the difference in what is accepted as socially beautiful or attractive norms and because today in society we often frown or raise an eyebrow and we see armpit hair and it's quite evident here that young women are showing it without worry they could show themselves warts and all in a way that we maybe in our society haven't learned to do yet and of course they were fantastic places for courtship the appeal of Lidos was as much about the socializing as swimming Denise gent and Christine Thomas have spent many happy years here at the largest saltwater Lido in Britain the Jubilee pool in Penzance opened in the mid 1930s I love just swimming in the cold water sun on our back when we're lucky I come out feeling peaceful we used to sit up there and talk watch the boys a lot of love affairs started here [Music] when I was quite young we've now been married over 50 years so it worked we had two daughters who have also swung here all their lives and now the third generation three grandsons who were all lifeguards in the pool polarized footage shows men and women embracing their Newfound opportunity to cool off their smiling faces and the way they just jump in there's no faffing about they're just straight in the water it's just sheer Joy really must be wonderful living in this city especially on a hot summer stay it must be blessed just entering the water loving the swimsuits behaving just like we do whom are the old footage is fabulous I think it's wonderful that people in the 30s could enjoy such a fabulous place the simple joys of life for a welcome distraction from Sinister developments abroad [Music] but the one institution that promised stability the very backbone of British Society the monarchy was now a cause of Crisis it all started with the grand State funeral the King was dead once more we cried long lived the King on the 20th of January 1936 King George V died after over a quarter of a century on the throne his coffin traveled from Norfolk to London where he lay in state for four days [Music] the King was the great figure from the first World War he had been a famous King he had been a very respected King but he was certainly a king of the old style George V had been the first king to do a Christmas broadcast so the thing that most people felt the closest to there was this strong sense of the importance of monarchy molecule is a key fact about the 1930s this is at a time when a portrait of the Monarch would have sat in pubs and houses and factories and workplaces they were very very visible [Music] Edward is so different from his father he's very modern he's very contemporary he has a different look and style Edward VII was very popular with the people of Britain partly because he went out of his way to visit depressed parts of the country places that were pushed down by poverty or by unemployment but public opinion began to sour when salacious details of Edward's love life hit the news he had chosen to marry his twice divorced American mistress Wallace Simpson the Scandal mounted and Edward was forced to abdicate giving up the British throne in a moving public broadcast on the 10th of December 1936 you all know the reasons which have impelled me to renounce the throne that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love it was just totally unexpected it was massively unexpected the abdication of a king is something that just hadn't been experienced before public was fairly split about this some of them felt very strongly that everybody deserved to be treated well and others felt know that that was really wouldn't do you couldn't suddenly marry not just an American but a divorced American my uncle who was a deacon of the calvinistic Methodist Chapel in North Wales was so disgusted that he took down the coronation mug because all of those things like coronation marks the souvenirs and everything all being prepared for his coronation and used it as his shaving mug so I mean gradually the soap would wash away the image on the front of it thank you in May 1937 Britain got a king they'd never expected in Edward's younger brother the stammering George VI the coronation that shouldn't have happened that no one expected to happen community events like these coronation celebrations on the streets of middlewich in Cheshire now took on a rather muted tone Stephanie was a national event at a time of Crisis and perhaps all the more important people to to cling to their their love of the monarchy [Music] this is very typically British everybody's come out in their finest they're lining the streets there's all of this pageantry but at the same time it's quite it's quite restrained they're standing waiting for the procession to go by and they almost look like they're they're in a queue so these lucky kids have been put in front of the camera and said you just need to eat some chocolates out at 10 so they're perfectly happy with that and get to eat chocolates and symbolize the love of a new generation for their royal family probably more interested in the chocolates though the world family for for a very long time has known how to merchandise itself and to to combine kind of consumerism with patriotic emotions what's fascinating is that Edward didn't have a coronation they hadn't had the opportunity to do it for their previous King and maybe being able to celebrate it in this way would have cemented George in their minds as the rightful King in just one year three very different Kings had reigned over the nation but far from shaking British resolve these troubles had only Consolidated a sense of britishness under its new monarch with George VI on the throne a national crisis was averted [Music] and Britain turned its gaze to the problems mounting on the continent it was looting there was theft Jewish women was stopped in the streets and robbed of the fur coats and jewelry it was a really terrible situation thank you foreign in March 1938 Adolf Hitler LED his armies triumphantly into Austria once again despite British hopes that Nazi aggression would cease Germany was expanding its territories you can see from the Welcome that the Germans got when they marched in and ecstatic crowds greeting Hitler this is hugely popular [Music] hey they're shouting one people one rice Empire one leader you see Hitler there he's standing in the front of the car to show that he's kind of on the same social level as the driver he's not some kind of Posh guy sitting in the back [Music] substantial Jewish population in Seattle and what you don't see in this propaganda of films of course is the appalling treatment it's looting there was theft Jewish women was stopped in the streets and robbed of the fur coats and jewelry supporters of independent Austria had painted graffiti on the walls Jewish people were made to clean them off with acid with their bare hands it was a really terrible situation whilst Hitler's reign of terror continued unabated Britain turned to other means of diplomacy to tackle the problem two months later in May 1938 England faced their Rivals Germany on the football pitch the 115 000 fans who gathered to watch this pre-World cup friendly at the Olympic stadium in Berlin were met with a surprising site all the courtesies are observed before the start God's name of the king is paid [Music] and the english team in white shirts give the Nazis salute during the German national anthem that's incredible isn't it that's very very interesting and really quite shocking they are doing a Nazi salute the White Church of England saluting the leader of Nazi Germany this is not not comfortable sorry it's a long time ago I know but that's not comfortable and the english team in white shirts give the Nazi salute during the German national anthem it's just a matter of fact thing as far as the commentator was concerned that England would follow suit but I suspect he was told Harry had to react can you imagine The Rao nowadays if something like that happened it's extraordinary that we were playing football with the Germans one year before the outbreak of the second world war but life went on and there was an awful lot of hope that these sorts of interactions would promote Goodwill these footballers were told to perform the Nazi Salute by the British foreign office shortly before the match sport has often been used as a tool of international diplomacy and I think it did a lot to shore up anglo-german relations at a time when there was a clear danger that there might be a war between the two countries despite Hitler's most recent conquests Britain was still striving for peace at any cost sure that they look back on it with a certain amount of embarrassment Sally Matthews and I got to know really quite well I know he was not in not in favor at all so politics and Sport it goes on it goes on it goes on I think if you were a person of color or you're Jewish communist or any of those people who are going to be the victims of Nazi atrocity you would feel totally alone and appalled [Music] this is part of the history of this country and we need to remember it it's absolutely fascinating and mix it 6'3 the actions of the boys on the pitch [Applause] Hitler was now poised for his next Act of political aggression setting his sights on german-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia and this time British prime minister Neville Chamberlain took decisive action this plan is known as plan Zed and it's incredibly secret not even Chamberlain's wife knows about it Chamberlain flew to Germany here he is in Hitler's holiday retreat in the Bavarian Alps going up the steps to begin negotiations this is an incredibly dramatic moment these days we are very used to politicians getting in and out of airplanes and meeting each other but it was not at all normal then and it is a sign of quite how serious the international situation has got [Music] a momentous settlement was broken according to the Munich agreement Hitler could occupy german-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia but his demands would stop there once and for all Hitler was actually rather annoyed by this he had wanted to invade and take over the whole country and the prime minister and of course Chamberlain came back famously at the airport waved the piece of paper that Hitler had signed and said this is peace for our time this morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor here Hitler and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine come on [Applause] well this is one of the most famous scenes in all of history and tragically the beginning of what became one of the most notorious false boasts in history we regard the agreement signed last night and the anglo-german naval agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again you see him here at Heston Aerodrome and huge crowds and Chamberlain then was taken onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace he and his wife were the first commoners non-mems of the royal family in history ever to go onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace and to wave at the crowd and as you can see from the film the public was entirely at one with him and of course he knew something in 1930 seven and eight the rest of us didn't very little about which was essentially that very little work in mindan are realming Britain on defense or anything of that kind people remember the first world war they didn't want anything like that to happen again and whatever could be done to avert it they supported there was a war memorial in almost every single Village Town railway station there was hardly a person in the country that hadn't had a father husband or brother killed during that time the idea that you're going to have another Mass Slaughter against the same enemy again was unconscionable and then suddenly this fairly old fussy English prime minister with his archaic winged collar had secure peace Chamberlain was enormously popular on both sides there was a clear realization that war was on the horizon the problem for the British was that the public weren't ready for it they backed Chamberlain and doing everything he could to try and avoid a war against the odds Neville Chamberlain had calmed the fears of the nation with this settlement and for now at least Brits could enjoy peace this is 1930s Britain for the first time black and white films now in color bringing new life to the good times and the bad it's a turbulent decade the best things happen and the worse things happen three kings in one year the monarchy in crisis a government gambles everything in a desperate bid to stem the Nazi tide [Music] looking back in history we say well how can they not be 360 degree aware of the reality of what they were facing time it's just one year to war Britain prepares and opens its doors to Europe's most vulnerable children there's an incredible historicism about them must have been absolutely terrifying British children are blissfully ignorant until war and evacuation brings its own trauma look at that boy look at him he tries to smile there they don't know what's going to happen to them an extraordinary time this is the 30s in color countdown to war [Music] [Music] [Music] the summer of 1938 was a great time to be a child in Britain they were organized outings Galore Punch and Judy shows and London's Children's Zoo had just opened a world away from the grown-up Warriors award London Zoo is a fine bit of news for young visitors I only wish that this had been possible in my young days the summer months can see these days out moments of just free recreational time it's so Carefree these are young innocent children can see the excitement you can see the joy the simple pleasure of watching a Punch and Judy show it's ecstatic and there's nothing on the horizon that would upset this for them at this time they don't know about any huge political changes or social changes they're just young children enjoying themselves and being given the opportunity to enjoy themselves which have been so rare up until before this decade [Music] there is a sense of optimism people have got a glimpse of what a better world would be could be we could work shorter hours we could have longer holidays we could work in clean places we could build nice schools and hospitals people starting to envisage a better fairer Society [Music] short months on the 10th of November 1938 news arrived of Crystal knocked known as the night of the broken glass Chamberlain's peace agreement was in peril for 24 hours Nazi paramilitary forces and civilians violently targeted and destroyed Jewish homes businesses and synagogues across Germany in Crystal act concentrates mines quite rightly lots of things change after that and it's almost as if the scales fall from people's eyes around the nature of the Nazi regime which up to that point you know people have been trying to appease [Music] Hitler was increasing the pace of his drive to war in 1938 and part of this then was a mass outbreak of anti-Semitic violence ordered by Hitler nine thousand jewish-owned shops were trashed in the so-called Knight of broken glass but a thousand synagogues were burnt to the ground thirty thousand Jewish men were arrested and put into concentration camps many Jewish dozens in scores of Jewish people were were murdered in the course of a crystal the official figure was 91 but in fact I'm sure it was much greater than that this got very widespread publicity across the world it's a pretty desperate situation when Al Baldwin broadcast his appeal for Jewish refugees from Germany thousands of men and women despoiled of their goods driven from their homes seeking Sanctuary on our doorstep these were victims not of any catastrophe of the natural world but of man's inhumanity demand meanwhile these child refugees from Germany who have found shelter in Britain are being cared for and are learning to play a useful part in the nation's world thank you the British government supported the humanitarian Mission known as Kinder transport the scheme rescued mainly Jewish children from the dangers of Nazi Germany and Nazi occupied Austria and later from Czechoslovakia and Poland over the coming months ten thousand children were allowed into Britain but they had to leave home without their parents [Music] had incredible barriers to prevent adult Jews from getting out of Germany everybody in my family knows of the desperation that Jewish parents felt these are children their parents have put them on trains and boats to save them entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley was just five years old when she was placed on one of the last Kinder transport trains leaving Vienna her birth name was Vera buchtal so I've seen this in black and white lovely thin color I remember going onto the ferry which was at night um I'd never really seen the sea and there was this black Inky water and apparently what as I remember very small Gangplank going up to the Sea sort of somewhat nauseous crossing of the uh of the of the channel from hooked from Holland to to Harwich we all had a massive clothes on because we couldn't bring anything else out so our parents apparently put us in two or three coats so that we had this is in July so sort of wearing as much as we could prior to the crossing Vera and her nine-year-old sister Renata had a growing awareness of what was going on in Austria and why their mother fought so hard to get them out I knew it was a difficult time my sister was stoned as she left her little school she had a kind teacher who would let her out early my sister and I being half Jewish half not Jewish were called crossbreeds occasionally subhuman Philly animal it was beginning to get quite anti-Semitic it was a long long journey we slept on strips of corrugated cardboard on the floor on the benches and believe it or not in the overhead luggage racks each train had about a thousand children aged 5 to 16 with a few 17 year olds stuck in and unbelievably really um there were just two adults on the train so it was fairly badlamic um there were also some babies um and some volunteers who were not eligible to escape from Nazi Europe Lily reichenfeld was one of the volunteers taking care of the young children on Kinder transport a non-jewish friend had guaranteed that she would return to Germany to what she must have known was almost certain death and she had made two such journeys of Love really had returned to Germany and then it was terration start Auschwitz and and Oblivion courage has many forms what a do remember very much is arriving at Liverpool Street Station and that was a gray day it was silent a thousand children were coming off the train after two and a half day Journey we were dirty we were tired I think we were just so traumatized that it was almost a silent exit we filed into a very large Hall and waited to be claimed like bits of lost luggage in a sense we were but we were very very lucky our foster parents were lovely loving people living in the Midlands of England they didn't speak a word of German my father had taught us a few words of English so I could say things like slow combustion stove very useful for a five-year-old but didn't know how to ask to go to the bathroom we arrived in July the 6th and when school started in September our English was good enough for us to go to school well I've felt the need to fit in quite quickly strongly and dramatically I desperately wanted to assimilate it's absolutely driven my life it certainly shaped who I am but it also gave me very early on the need to justify why I was saved and to make sure that the life that was saved was worth saving foreign the rescue of child refugees came at a time when Hitler's military forces were taking control of other nations and Britain realized it had to prepare for war like it or not people thought that an entire city could be destroyed in a matter of weeks you see these pictures of people scurrying about putting on gas masks filling up sandbags it's exactly what happened by early spring 1939 Europe was in crisis fascist dictator General Franco was about to win the Spanish Civil War with support from Nazi Germany on the 15th of March the British government was stunned to learn that Hitler's troops had marched into Prague forcing the whole of Czechoslovakia to live under Nazi rule this was really really shocking because it was the absolute pairing up of the Munich agreement that agreement which had been brokered between Britain France and Germany and Italy in September 1938 and was meant to be a full stop it was meant to be Hitler said his last territorial demand but here he is he has invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia this really destroys the policy that is become known by now as appeasement it is consistently said that his aim is to bring all ethnic Germans within the Reich he's got the Germans this is now taking in checks it is all about Empire building and people now begin to realize as they see these clips of the German centering Prague that they are dealing with another Napoleon the Chamberlain and the cabinet realized immediately in March 1939 that Hitler was now driving towards war and so the next country on the list was Poland and so they issued a guarantee to Poland that they would come to Poland's Aid if Hitler invaded no British government will submit to dictation from a foreign [Music] these Mighty armaments of which I speak are not there to threaten anyone but they are there available to resist aggression or domination prime minister Neville Chamberlain warned Germany of Britain's guarantee to Poland and that Britain was re-arming the nation realized whether they wanted to or not that the whole country would now take an active role to prepare for war here in this recruitment film for the air raid Protection Service in Salford preparing for a whole new kind of conflict in a whole new way it's going to be aerial bombardment potentially poison guests targeting of Civilian populations you can see that the level of preparation just has to be monumental [Music] for the first time in British history civilians on the ground were the likely targets of German bombers and the ARP wardens will be the First Responders they're doing such an important job and they were first line of defense really for the home front and people who joined the ARP were people who couldn't join up for other services in the main but wanted to contribute seeing this character on his bike with that arm bundle in their uniform that makes me immediately think of Dad's Army character of the ARP Ward played by Bill per Twee videos we see in this clip of men but there were many women who served as air raid precaution wardens as well including my granny Beryl she was a fire Warden and had what must have been an extremely frightening job of going around after Air Raids so she was just one of millions of people who had these important but very very difficult and frightening jobs one of the drills the ARP wardens practiced seemed to be what to do in the event of a gas attack using actors as the poison victims reminds me of those sort of national service adverts for what you do in the case of nuclear war it's a sort of stage manager Affair an attempt to create a sort of calm in a very uncomm situation here I think the guy at the front of the show doesn't realize that he's still in the shop possibly he's taken off the gas Mark and doesn't realize that in this scenario he should by now have died from inhaling the poison gas in the first world war there was mustard gas and people alive at this moment were suffering the effects of mustard gas bombs during the first world war so that had a very strong reality about it would Hitler drop poison gas bombs on Britain yes he could would probably would that's what's behind that tens of millions of gas masks were made and probably one of the abiding memories for a lot of people who lived through the second world war is that little cardboard box they had to have all the time close at hand I'm reminded of the fact that we had a gas mask in the top cupboard in our house and I thought it was funny so I remember putting it on and walking around the house and my mum who hardly ever shouted at me screaming at me and saying take it off I can just see the look on her face that she thought it was an ugly terrible thing not because of how it looked but what it represented as part of its preparations for re-arming British factories up and down the country were now producing War paths the economy was boosted and employment was on the up today we present dramatic pictures of men laboring night and day producing the shells for our artillery and if you think they've got a cushy job at home you'd better think again filmmakers got busy too public information films designed to prepare the population for Danger on the home front were rolled out in cinemas when you hear these warning sirens take cover at once even now it's a terrifying whale that siren sound it's so evocative I didn't grow up hearing those sounds in this context but even I find them quite disturbing to hear the warning may also be given by short blasts on police whistle foreign people would have paid very close attention to these films because however bad the subsequent Blitz turned out to be people in the 1930s thought that it was going to be even worse people thought that an entire city could be destroyed in a matter of weeks primary school kids when this was happening and into their old age would talk about the fear that they felt [Music] feeling in the pit of your stomach the absolute fear of what's going to happen you see these pictures of people scurrying about putting on gas masks filling up sandbags it's exactly what happened aerial bombing you know this is one of the most disgusting appalling frightful things that human beings have ever invented Shirley Williams was nine in 1939 living in London but he's filmed so very much about the gas mask issue but actually much more important but for most people was to have an Anderson shelter in their Garden which meant that the minute that they heard a siren they would rush into the garden stay in the shelter I remember doing that my job was to carry my mother's Cook's daughter who was only a baby as fast as I possibly could into the underst shelter my father at the entrance he would oversee whether they were more indications of further bombing to come so you've got this kind of private world of protection but not one that was quite as advanced or as sophisticated as you would have got much later in the war if you are provided with a steel shelter and have not erected it do so at once it was extremely flimsy it might protect you against the blast if your house was bombed but I couldn't expect much in the way of safety from a direct hit [Music] the phone except for very short urgent messages I'm sorry the number's still engaged but Tweed no not Tweed darling even though this film was clearly made to show what life might be like what actually happened when war came there's moments where we think really when you look at the woman on the telephone eating the chocolates because she's been on the phone for ages chatting to her friend it's very stereotypical think of my line I'm so sorry the numbers still engaged you may be causing delay to vital calls by the summer of 1939 as Britain prepared for war life for the most part continued as normal yes you can't live in a state of high alert and maybe some of this Keep calm carry on idea is the only way people can get through something which is terrifying what else could you do you had to carry on as usual otherwise everything would have fallen apart thank you [Music] by the summer of 1939 with war looming the British public is instructed to carry on that whatever happens Britain is a nation prepared so up and down the country ordinary life continued as normal [Music] they went to the cinema they read books newspapers enjoyed everything enjoyed Butler's holiday camps and so on we can imagine that the greater the threat of disaster war of death of bombing of losing loved ones the more intense the emotional experience is the more intense a pleasure you might take in your freedom and your moments of enjoyment when you feel them so much under threat [Music] well there are movie cameras which allowed them to record those everyday moments of pleasure and freedom like this family in delamere Forest Cheshire happy looking family picnic always wear your tie even on a picnic [Music] she eating stick of celery he's getting his hair slicked back bit of Brill cream on there [Music] he had his um comb put under his nose if he was doing an impression of Hitler I mean a lot of the British people did think that Hitler was a a lunatic a Sinister lunatic it's funny the way this Terror of Hitler is kind of diverted into a joke so we've got the famous song Hitler has only got one ball Gering has two but very small Himmler is very similar and poor old Gobles has no balls at all now what does that represent apart from the vulgarity of it is that these people we will castrate them in the song we will make them less fearful than they are it's to not necessarily to humanize the enemy but to make the enemy less serious than if they're being mocked then they cannot be that serious and therefore if they're not that serious we'll be okay Life Will Go On Keep calm carry on in Northampton win Bassett Loke and his wife Jane were also home movie enthusiasts [Music] their great-niece Jane remembers them fondly my memory very matches of him never sitting still my art was forever saying oh come and sit down win and he'd sit down for two or three seconds and then bounce up again and say oh I need to go get so and so on off he'd go [Music] Uncle Wynn was a successful toy maker whose company specialized in producing model Railways with trains large and small a skill that was surprisingly to prove vital for Britain in the war years ahead bassetlope Garden Railways featured a newly emerging theme parks like Beck and Scott the famous 1930s model Village in buckinghamshire he really was Mr tomorrow's man who is always full of new ideas and didn't talk down to us as children he would invite us to come and see whatever his latest new acquisition was and you sort of felt excited by him he liked making films it's lovely to see the color this would be one of his projects to show how good a town Northampton is involved in the design and planning of new proper Municipal indoor baths and he was him who wanted them to be Art Deco and really rather special and full Olympic length with the success of his company win Bassett lope commissioned German architect Peter Behrens to design his home in Northampton England's first modernist house new ways it was such a different house for any of the other houses I visited there was these lovely tiled hallway to went into and because it had a flat roof it looked different back in the 1930s we didn't lock front doors during the day and taught us sat on a little table near the door so when you went to visit at new ways you'd open the front door and you would go and you would ring office the Bassett loc company was commissioned for the war effort creating important scale models of Bailey bridges for the Royal engineers and later working models of Mulberry Harbor which would prove invaluable during the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. this was my walk time secret which for years I never told anyone because we'd always been drilled during the war that careless talk costs lives and we didn't talk about it and as young children somehow you did pick up anxiety [Music] holidays were a welcome distraction in Wales the Salford Lads Club were taking their annual camping trip it was something they looked forward to all year round and the 1939 trip to aberystwith was no exception these teenagers didn't know their lives would change so dramatically for some it would be the last Carefree time of their lives foreign we still do this to this day jumping off the Rocks but the costume is a little bit different I would imagine they were all made in Waldorf yeah you'd get them wet and the costume would drop down exposed exports while they shouldn't the social look a bit um nothing changes well they still complain about the food though that's the stuff to wash up their own yeah yeah so what's the wrong gear and for the best of them is for washing pops and for tidying up they'd get a place for that the blanket is there The Lads are fold in there those are the Army blankets are in the first world war probably camping trips like this one in Wales were especially important to Growing Lads coming away from dangerous industrial areas when we get into the 1930s here we were talking about a very polluted environment you know didn't you have to like a lot of people who ended up in a two weeks yeah um well I had new money when I was growing up so these Mill towns are just full of atmosphere so going into the countryside it's a powerful thing is the camp it was it had lots of kind of levels to it yeah he looks very familiar that actually does look like Clifford I think that looks like Clifford said foreign Clifford Sutton enjoyed Camp life with his friends so much that he'd already signed up for the 1940 Camp the next year even though War loomed ever closer although it was a very dark time I suppose it was still you know we're going to go next year so the idea of this suddenly coming to Halt was was extremely um you know difficult for kids everybody thought it was going to be next year the 1940 because we actually set Camp up for 1940. when that camp s Dean in March 1944 he would be killed in a Lancaster bomber on a mission over Frankfurt places like Salford Lads club which offered a place for young men and boys to learn to sort of get involved in recreational activities such as boxing and football they were given a space outside their particularly hard lives to just be boys and be Lads and keep out of trouble in a way you can see the Joy on their faces and it just makes you feel quite happy that if they do go to war and if they're about to have their whole lives upturned and changed that they've experienced a day just full of simple joy and Simple Pleasures like this as soon as I came through the door said to me like one of the most special place I'd ever seen you were waiting to get to the age of 13 so you could join and like you you come through the door and games to play it was something that everybody every boy in the area looked forward to doing a Chinese Club it was the it was the the place to be a long way continue by the late summer of 1939 the tents of Salford Lads Club had long been packed away English Cricket fans endured the rain cheerfully the test Series against the West Indies was going their way but due to the imminent outbreak of war the cricket was suddenly abandoned war is yet to be declared but the government orders of frantic major scale evacuation sending millions of children and adults out of cities Destination Unknown we children were told oh it's all going to be over by Christmas and it's a big adventure anyway always remember the gas mask hang on to your gas mask [Music] on the 1st of September 1939 news arrived at Hitler's Armed Forces had invaded Poland in the early hours of the morning propaganda showed a Britain prepared if evidence of Readiness for war is the sole remaining hope of peace all bear witness that if War comes we shall not be found wanting troops were mobilized as Britain and France agreed a 48-hour Hiatus before the official declaration of war with German bombers capable of flattening entire cities and their civilians the British Nation pulled together as never before the government commenced operation Pied Piper the biggest mass movement in British history in just three days three and a half million people were evacuated including nearly a million unaccompanied children sent from towns and cities across Britain to the countryside these parents have not met the people who are receiving their children they are entrusting their children perhaps forever to strangers it's the most incredible thing look at that boy look at him he tries to smile there you know they don't know what's going to happen to them it's little children being given their Cups of Tea or possibly cocoa hot drink is the answer to emotional trauma away from the handkerchiefs steaming out of third British City into the British Countryside look at their eyes all these separations imposed by War so that's what you can see on their faces separation it's such a powerful thing look there's a girl look at her hand Clinging On to a mum's coat and putting her head next to her mum's chest it wants to be with her mum and his mum's upset as well but she's been told by authorities this is safe and in a way the authorities are right A lot of people were killed in the cities and these children who went if they went to the countryside they survived many of us will have parents and grandparents who went through this in some way and were emotionally affected for Life by it [Music] children living near the River Thames in London were considered high risk and were first in line for evacuation Pat age eight was living near the Woolwich Arsenal George age nine just a few miles down the road in Belvedere to them this footage stirs up strong memories of that Journey this takes me back and it's in color too they're carrying their cases and their pillowcases some of them carried stuff in pillowcases I think I had a little bag carry a bag and a gas mask I can always remember the gas mask hang on to your gas mask wonder where the hell we was going that morning we went round to the school [Music] I was evacuated with my mother and my small sister under the Madison babies scheme and we weren't known to Woodhill School in Woolwich we had our labels tied on us and apparently I stamped my foot and had a tantrum because I said I wasn't a piece of luggage and didn't want to have a label tied on me yeah wait [Laughter] till all pushing and shoving and bust onto the couches then we was all fighting to get to the windows just look look back again so I said oh yeah from remember one elder sister 20 she come to why was Barbara she was crying that's right we didn't know where we were going the trains just went [Music] you took with you a special toy and this is Ted and if he was given to me by my dad he's very special especially as my father's submarine was sunk during the War I wouldn't part with him for anything let's make the plant window watching the world go by we stopped a couple of times I remember that summer sandwiches or something we had sandwiches you know that's really low on the same because we got from the um people at the station and they passed the um sandwiches through the window getting a drink they were giving out brown paper bags with our own Russians in them tins of corned beef and tins of milk and packets of biscuits and nuts and raisins and a big bar of chocolate you can imagine what the children did with the chocolate I knew that war meant fighting and that the grown-ups were worried but we children were told oh it's all going to be over by Christmas and it's a big adventure anyway got out cars and coaches and we was all distributed and you're going there You're Gonna Go With It Go with him and we were the last ones that's five and we got in two different cars foreign Journey would take her to a grocer shop in Kent and then on to Wales George would settle on a farm near Barnstable in Devon where he'd learn many new skills from the farmer's nephew Reg I should go and plowing digging potatoes that's another laugh that was he playing that potatoes Royal Prince one day and we would be on picking all his potatoes up and oh backaching job days oh it taught me everything everything I know that's why I missed him my friend oh children in those days used to play out in the street but when we were evacuated there were fields to run and play in and the river and the woods and it was so different I cried when I come home I pray I cried is it all away I love evacuate oh are lovely on Sunday the 3rd of September Chamberlain learned that Britain's final ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw from Poland had been ignored he prepared to make the most important radio announcement of his life we were in a very beautiful rural part of Britain The New Forest and my brother and I were playing in the garden I remember it was full of red animal butterflies floating Over the Garden my mother shouted to us he was to come and hear the Prime Minister we were told because complete the silence which we were I have to tell you now no such undertaking has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed remember he sounds like it quite an old man he sounded broken really his voice was was broken and his style was not one of uh you know military Victory on the contrary it was one of disaster and he talked about the ab taught by the war and he talked about how inevitable it was now Hardy had tried to avoid it and stop it situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted and no people or country could feel itself safe and become intolerable my mother broke into tears and we began to realize that something terrible happened even if we didn't understand very well what it was I remember my parents talking about it in a kind of depressed way that everything had failed that that's what war is and now that we have resolved to finish [Music] shortly after the announcement the first air raid siren in Wartime Britain Was Heard as the blackout began so did a new era as Britain stepped towards an uncertain future the 1930s was not always a preparation for war it was also a preparation for peace even though we think of it as the decade preparing for war most ordinary people were not concerned with war until War actually affected them only good thing that came out of it was that no one would go back to the poverty of the 1930s and the depression that was on the flip side of what was known as a prosperous and socially liberating decade the 30s is such a divided decade and you see those contradictions being played out and it's no wonder we're now looking back to the 30s to try and understand more about our own situation and some of the threats that we're currently engaging with or facing we get this emotional Vivid sense of life in the 1930s in all its human colorful Glory suddenly there's this coming alive of sensation and putting the emotions back into history and putting the color back into films is really very much the same experience it makes people seem closer to us it makes it easier for us to feel that they might have been feeling things that we can recognize we humans have history and history isn't something that's separate from US history is in US [Music]

Channel: All Out History - Premium History Documentaries

Views: 11,649

Keywords: world war 2 explained, wwii documentary, All Out History, AlloutHistory, Allouthistory, allouthistory, AllOutHistory, mussolini, mussolini edit, military history, military history channel, british empire, us military, hitler, world war 2 doc, world war 2 documentary 2022, world war 2 documentary timeline, 1930s, 1930s music, 1930s movies, colourized, colourized footage, colourized history, great depression, appeasement, Neville Ch, neville chamberlain, neville chamberlain speech ww2

Id: -tccQ_bWBAo

Length: 130min 41sec (7841 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2023