Somerset at War - 1st-Take Films (presented by Henry Buckton)

Somerset at War is written and presented by Henry Buckton and produced on DVD by the 1st-Take film studio. For more information visit www.1st-Take.com or telephone [phone]. Somerset’s contribution to the Second World War was extremely varied and in this film we visit a number of locations that help to illustrate this diversity. We see coastal defences at places like Brean Down and Steepholm; pillboxes throughout the county built to bog the Germans down if they had invaded; how the town of Glastonbury prepared itself to be occupied by enemy troops; Burnham-on-Sea’s connection with the Mulberry Harbours; Barrage Balloon trials on the Pawlett Hams; how explosives were produced at the Royal Ordnance Factory; why the town of Bridgwater sent a defiant message to Hitler; how the first jet aircraft entered service with the RAF at Culmhead; why the Taunton area was crucial to the defence of the West Country; how naval fighter pilots were trained at Yeovilton, while anti-aircraft gunners were trained at Doniford and tank crews near Minehead; we visit Downside Abbey School, the scene of one of the most tragic accidents of the entire war; and Double Hills, where the first casualties of Arnhem perished; we study the military prison at Shepton Mallet where the Americans executed some of their own soldiers; Pilton, to learn about the Women’s Land Army; the important contribution made by the town of Yeovil to wartime aviation; the airfields at Weston Zoyland and Merryfield, from where American airborne forces took part in the invasion of Normandy; and we see how Weston-super-Mare and Bath experienced the worst of the bombing on the county.