- This is the Linby Trail, near the little village of Linby
in Nottinghamshire, in England. I'm filming on the trail
because it'd be really weird to do a walk-and-talk
to a camera on a stick in a little village. This is one of those stories
about war where no one dies, no one even gets hurt, and, for a little while,
there's this bit of light in the middle of something terrible. So, World War II, 1941. Britain is being bombed
every night by the Luftwaffe. Over in Germany, William Joyce
broadcasts fascist propaganda over the radio to the UK,
trying to demoralise the British public. The press nickname him Lord Haw-Haw because of his affected
upper-class accent. Sometimes, Lord Haw-Haw would forecast which towns and places
would be bombed next, and he was eerily accurate. And on one of his broadcasts,
he threatened Linby Docks. Dockyards were strategic bombing targets;
of course they were. But Linby Docks aren't
dockyards at all. They're these little streams
that run through the village of Linby. The docks are just a local name. But Luftwaffe commanders
had looked at the map, seen Linby Docks, and decided to waste
some of their limited war-fighting resources on bombing something that,
while quite pretty, was strategically useless. Oh, and they missed. The bombs landed a couple of miles away. No one was even slightly hurt, although presumably one farmer's field had some unexpected and
rather violent ploughing done to it. It's a lovely story. It's part of the local
mythos here in Linby. You'll find articles about it online and it's referenced on the
lovely little parish map that is next to the bus shelter. And I'm really, really sorry to Linby, but I'm not sure it's true. Because if you look at
the maps from back then, they didn't say 'Linby Docks' on them. Of course they didn't. These streams are so small that
they are barely even marked on the largest-scale maps. If Germany was using maps
that were that detailed and that precise, well,
then they could tell that the docks weren't big
enough to have any ships in them. And if they weren't
using maps that detailed, well then the docks wouldn't
be marked on them at all. Lord Haw-Haw, that propaganda broadcaster, he didn't actually give away secret plans or announce bombing raids in advance.
Of course he didn't! The Luftwaffe didn't want
to give advance warning so they could be shot down. So, he just lied or relied on reports that came back in the news in the hope that he would be right enough to convince the British public,
who weren't fools. A lot of folks tuned in to him,
a few million, but it was mostly for entertainment. There's an argument that
rather than hurt morale, he actually helped British solidarity. And there aren't many recordings of him; there's certainly no audio of him
saying 'Linby Docks' that I could find. The Blitz was logged in detail
by all the local authorities and all the records were compiled. Hucknall, the nearby town,
is mentioned twice, but Linby isn't mentioned at all. I searched through all the
relevant local newspapers, they've been digitised,
and they have no articles about any bombings near here. I even asked the local historical society,
and they were wonderful, they went through a lot
of documents for me. But there's nothing from
the time that backs it up, just folklore and stories
told from parent to child, from elder to youth, for
maybe the last 80 years, which does hurt a little, because
it's such a wonderful story. Now, if I present something
like this to the world and say, "I don't know," there's a tendency
for certain overenthusiastic people to see it as a mystery
and try to solve it. The only people who know for sure
are over 90 years old and, look, no one should bother them trying to disprove or prove
one bit of local folklore. Besides, I'm only in my thirties and
I've occasionally had moments where I've recalled
clear memories of things that evidence later showed me
I have had completely wrong. But the bomb records are not perfect. Newspapers back then might
not have mentioned it because "Bomb Lands in Field,
No One Hurt" is not a story, at least not in 1941; it would be today. Maybe it did happen. Or maybe someone came
up with a story once, told it as truth, and everyone thought, "Sure, that sounds fun, let's go with it." I am expected to provide
evidence for claims, rightly so. But there are countless
tales that never happened. We call them urban legends
or eventually just legends. Did King Alfred really burn the cakes? Probably not. Does it matter? Over a long enough period
of time, no, not really. I don't think something like this needs to be proven or debunked,
even if it somehow could be. It's just a good story. Thanks to the historians and archives
who helped me with my research. I have put links in the description.
