Blitz - the bombs that changed Britain

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09gtbh2/blitz-the-bombs-that-changed-britain-series-1-episode-1

Absolutely excellent. Incredibly moving at times too. 400 people were killed in London on the first night of the Blitz, and it went on for months after that, night after night. It's almost unimaginable now.

I really liked the way this programme got relatives of people who were bombed to read out their diary entries and look at the archives.

I watched this, it was very interesting. I prefer the human story side of history. My overwhelming feeling though, especially during the middle part of the documentary, was the complete lack of interest and compassion in the ordinary person by those in power, even when their partners, sons and fathers were out there fighting the war for them, it came across as if they were seen as the same level as animals and was incredibly distasteful. I had hoped things had changed after WW1 but it seemed to be very similar still. I hope we’ve moved on but fear it’s not very far from that now still.

Fake factories and also fake airfields and a fake fleet, Lurking.

Luftwaffe bombers fooled by decoy airfield

Dummy Wooden Battleships in WW2

Fake factories and also fake airfields and a fake fleet

Derren Brown (yes, that one) wrote a fascinating article a few years back on the role of Maskelyne in WW2.

Aircraft carriers made out of pycrete ? The latter was the subject of an (as usual) fascinating "Mythbusters" ...

I've got my granddad's photos from the war. They've very telling. Him in the infantry out in the middle east with his Brownie camera. These are real pictures, not what was put out at the time. Much more frightening to look at than my other granddad's pictures (he was a Battle of Britain Pilot) where they're more pilots larking about, but I guess they couldn't take pictures when they were up there.

The telegram my granddad sent saying he's been demobbed is quite poignant. Think of what that would have meant to my Gran.

The village where I was brought up there was an accident where an American plane came down on the school and killed all except a couple of the infant class. The photos from the paper at the time are so sad. The Americans maintain a playground in the village to say sorry.
I think one of the extra sad things is that some of those children were evacuees. It was considered a safe place despite being next to an American Air base-the Germans didn't discover it.

The village where I was brought up there was an accident where an American plane came down on the school and killed all except a couple of the infant class. The photos from the paper at the time are so sad. The Americans maintain a playground in the village to say sorry.

Just remember how nasty some people are about the US joining WW2 ...

John F. Kennedys elder brother (the one who was really meant to be President) died in a mission over Cambridge ...

Thank you Op for posting about this. My grandparents moved to Glasgow the month before the war and lived in an area often targeted by the bombers. I've heard lots of stories over the years and thought it was fascinating as a child but they made it seem so normal. The way the information was presented yesterday showed just how truly terrifying it was. It was a very well done documentary with terrific research and attention to detail.

DH’s mum has a scar on her arm from where a bomb blew in the windows of her bedroom in London during the Blitz, she was only 2 at the time.

DH’s grandfather was shot down and killed during a bombing raid in France, he’s buried in a local church graveyard after the Priest retrieved the bodies (7 of them) from the aircraft and gave them a proper burial. He also hung on to the personal effects of each of the aircrew then when the awar was over handed them in to be returned. DH’s Dad (who was only 2 when his dad died) still has his wedding ring and cigarette tin - both are badly dented and warped

Has anyone been watching “SAS Rogue Heroes” on BBC Four about how the SAS was formed? Fascinating stuff.

DH’s grandfather was shot down and killed during a bombing raid in France, he’s buried in a local church graveyard after the Priest retrieved the bodies (7 of them) from the aircraft and gave them a proper burial

There was a fascinating where they went to France and excavated a Spitfire that crashed shortly after takeoff. It was amazing they worked out he hadn't had a chance to fire his guns, if I remember.

Once again, the respect the French show our war dead (and their own) puts us to shame sometimes. Seeing flowers in the bullet holes in the Parisian buildings where resistance members were summarily executed ... and the signs on the Metro (in the 80s) reserving seats for veterans.

I agree Lurking the French and Belgians have been amazing in looking after our war dead.

If anyone is interested in the British/French WW2 connection, there's a great pub in Dean St, Soho, called The French House. It's a listed building which was used by the Free French exiled in London. Lots of photos. See Wiki.

Caught up with the programme last night. Personal connection for me because I used to know the Calder family. Gideon Calder is the son of the late Angus, who wrote The People's War, the seminal account of life on the Home Front. Highly recommended, lots of oral history.

There’s a pub in Cambridge called The Eagle. As there were a lot of air bases in the area during WW2 a lot of air crew drank in there, in one of the bars the ceiling has graffiti on it written by the air crews (see picture).

It’s also where Watson and Crick (discoverers of DNA) used to drink.

Allegedly it’s haunted by many ghosts, including some air crew who, it is said, can be heard drinking and celebrating in the bar.

Thanks, @Thymeout, I hadn't made that connection. I have that book. It's fascinating.

My grandfather was ground crew with the RAF and he used to count the planes coming back to their base and worry if it was something he hadn't done that caused a plane to be shot down. He was haunted by the young pilots who died.

Glad you enjoyed it, Op. Angus and Jenni (Daiches), his wife, were friends of mine at university. He read through many, many wartime diaries produced for Mass Observation to write that book. I remember Ritchie Calder coming to visit him for his 21st birthday and giving him a bottle of gin and one of those round tins of Senior Service. Happy days!

*CaveMum - yes, I know the Eagle. You wonder what happened to the crews. Mortality rates in Bomber Command were scarily high.

We watched this - it was gripping, and very moving. I was in tears at more than one point.

I was born n the NE, but my mam was a Cocker-Ney. I was thinking of how terrifying everyday life must have been for my lovely mam and gran, and for the first time in my life became really aware of why my mam was so anxious about everything. She was the most frightened person I know - incredibly anxious, I think that sort of start in life never really leaves you.

If I am being honest what reallly shocked me was the fire bombing of Dresden that we and the allies did towards the end of WW2

25,000 civilians dead in one night . Plus Hamburg

I know it was a war and the Germans were our enemies but it's shocked me that I didn't really learn about it until I was 4O

Whereas my children know about WW2 from our perspective

For me it felt like a war crime over and above but not a popular view I feel

I agree, we only really learn about the war from one perspective. We live in Germany now and were surprised/nervous to learn that they regularly uncover unexploded bombs here whenever they are doing construction work, particularly when they have to dig deep (we're having an underground railway system constructed where we are at the moment).

And just think people are still facing this kind of threat every day in some places in the world.

I was unable to find the blitz on youtube but instead found "wartime farm" oh my 8 wonderful informative episodes.

The children's accounts of the blitz, written as school essays and compiled by a very insightful individual as a record of the horror, were absolutely heartbreaking. To hear a 13 year-old reading the essay of a boy of similar age during the war, who had walked past a sobbing girl whose legs had been blown off, or one who desperately tried to help pull bodies from rubble, was not only heart-breaking, but gave me a much greater insight into the early life of my mother, who lived in London for the first 16 years of her life. The horror and terror she must have experienced - and never spoke of.

What I found upsetting on a megga level was the fact that the South African Anthropologist collated the psychological effect of the blitz on the public to determine the strike-back level on the German population. My stomach actually heaved on that disclosure. It was determined that the effect on the general public in the UK was used to calculate how much bombs to drop on Germany to break Hitler et al.

Bertie, still normal in some parts of the UK, too.

This was three months ago: Kings Hill: Second World War bomb found at Blaise Farm Quarry

I was more meaning that sone countries are still at war and have bombs etc falling now.

While I agree that what happened in Dresden was awful, you must remember that we’re looking at it from a peace time perspective. Think about how it felt to be under constant threat of bombing in this country, losing family and friends on a regular basis.

The demonisation of the Bomber Command crews after the war has been unforgivable in my opinion, it’s a sad fact that it took until 2013 before they got recognition in the form of the Bomber Command Clasp.

My MIL met a young German man on holiday a few years ago. She asked him where he was from and when he told her Dresden she said “Oh, I’m sorry about what we did during the war”.

He replied “Don’t be, we deserved it!”

Oh god yes, Bertie, I keep it in mind too. I do family research, so spend a fair bit of time recording people's lives in wars-gone-by, but I always spare a thought that there are people living through this right now.

Several things that have haunted me after watching the latest episode.

1. The child's essay that had been marked and had all the red corrections to spelling and grammar. It just seems so heartless, as if that was what was important, not the distress of the child that wrote it.

2) the two ladies who were rescued from the house, telling about their sister who was burned, who was saying to her mum that she could feel the fire on her legs and arms. 3) the lady who did not know she had had siblings who had died before she was born, because 'no body was allowed to talk about the war and her dead siblings'. 4) when she visited the cemetery with the other ladies, all the children who had been killed were buried together in a mass, and apparently unmarked, grave. So sad.