What Living In London Was Like During The Blitz | Cities At War: London | Timeline
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2017
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One of my teachers was a child who stayed in London with her mother during the blitz. When the sirens went off one night, they ran to their local shelter in a church, but were turned away because it was full. They could hear the planes, so her mother ran with her to a local shop that was open, and the shopkeeper took them down into his basement. After the bombing stopped, they went outside to find that the church had been completely destroyed and everyone inside was dead. They always stayed in the shop basement after that, and both survived the blitz.
Wow😲
Just imagine if she went the church. Her or any of her siblings/ daughters/sons wouldn’t be here.
Wow my nanna told me that same story and said they knew loads of people who had gone in the church but they went in the air raid shelter up the road and the church was gone when they came out
That’s crazy! Those poor people.
@@fredmuppet3077 I m no war expert but it seems they knew. What to bomb.
My parent met in a bomb shelter during the Blitz in London. They were married in 1943. They lived throughout the war. Made of different stuff then.
That's cool, you know I'll bet there are so many stories like that. My friend's Nan got her second batch of kids that way. Many kids didn't evacuate and some in the shelters were missing their parents and they never found them so my friend has some aunts and uncles who were 'acquired' because they made friends in a shelter.
Beautiful memory Thankyou for sharing. 🐝
@@beverley1539 Thanks - my father was a n East End Jewish immigrant escaped the pogroms. Mum was an Anglican Minister's daughter from Golders Green in N London. You couldn't make it up!
@@davidjma7226 i
that is so sweet, love blooms in rain.
my zayde met my bubbah through his service in the war, he knew my bubbah’s late fiancé as one of his comrades.
i hope you have the best memories of your parents, i know i cherished my grandparents. family and the stories within are always heartwarmingly sweet
My mum will be 89 in two weeks time she lived in Woolwich London and remembers very clearly the hardships, the bombings, one which she survived after it hit her home, her dad was in the fire service, and attended some horrific call outs, which sadly cut short his own life, by the end of the war my mum was 12 years old and her and her siblings were orphans, they had no financial help, what little welfare help there was in those days, she received none, literally throw at of an orphanage at age 17, to cope as best she could, she has always been a survivor, and she said that the last 18 months have been testing, but shes been through worse. She is amazing, a positive, kind human being and with all that life has throw at her never complained. She is truly a great example to me and all her family
God bless her. Respect.
Thats a remarkable story & unfortunately (These days)we get sob-stories from these moronic,inadequates,who blame everyone else,but themselves.
Like,some of the modern,residents of Woolwich today,who blame the British,for their ills.
🙏🙏🙏
I am 89 now, I also lived in London as a kid, hated the sounds air raid warnings and guns also the sound of the planes going over, slept in the shelter with the rest of people from street.i was lucky .came through ok, sister was bomb out, dad in the 1st airborne div, so was away on invasions, he made it back ok. Life went on ❤
Your mother and I were same age, I was almost 12 when war ended, I'm so sorry you ended up losing both parents, so sad. I'm still alive now almost 90yrs old, i lived in N.W 2 london until 1954 when I got married, now living in U.S but hope to make one more trip back to london.
My nan's home was bombed during the war, her parents were killed and she was left shell-shocked. She ended up going to Bletchley and working at Bletchley Park with the Enigma machine =) very cool lady.
Bletchleys a shithole lived there 4/5 years live couple estates over now 😂😂😂
@@alexcraw1010 wtf are you on about????
She sounds awesome. I lost my grandma recently and miss her badly. She was a very tough old lady physically as well. But emotionally very sweet. They were an amazing generation. I wonder how we'd fair today under similar circumstances. Sadly I think we'd fall short
@@matthewcullen1298 Yes... Look at how we are whinging about this lock down... That is why I am watching this doc ... to put it into perspective. We are SOFT!! Maybe they were too? But they weren't AFTER!!!
@@susanl8478 true that. We've been lucky where I live. There's been no real lockdown. I've spent more time in lockdown when I was in hospital. I guess there's adversity is subjective as different things affect different people in different ways. I've spent 20 years with chronic joint pain but still spend my days lifting heavy steel beams and concrete sleepers. I take little notice of that yet find dealing with technology extremely stressful. My grandmother grew up living under very physically tough conditions so very little physical dramas phased her. My dad spent his career digging injured and dead people out of mangled cars. He was extremely cool under somewhat harrowing conditions. I couldn't do that without needing some counselling yet dad is one of the. Happiest most grounded human beings I've ever met
Amazing to think that there are people alive today that went through these events. Makes you realize that this wasn't so long ago.
My nan is alive still today and she often tells me stories of her being evacuated as a child during ww2 and how when she came home parts of our town was decimated by bombs and homes are completely gone.
Check out Memoirs of WWII. They are stores from a few soldiers of WWII that are still alive
The blitz was nearing its end almost eighty years ago, it ended on the tenth/eleventh may so yes its a long time ago. However I would say it still in living memory. I fist leant about the blitz in my last year at primary thanks to a drama called how we used to live. This was back in 1978.
Unfortunately not today
@@maureenjackson2041 i USED TO WATCH THAT, VERY WELL MADE AND INFORMATIVE.
I simply cannot imagine endless days and nights of living like that.
I admire the British people so very much.
My family went down to Kent as London was bombed so much. The family was walking along a lane and a German plane tried to machine gun my mums pram. Her uncle picked it up and threw her and pram under a tree upside down. I believe he was brought down in a field. I love hearing about those days.
Admire yhem for what ? For starting ww 2 or for bombing german civilians first ?
Now it is the same in Ukraine
@Katalin Lendiel but the British couldn't evacuate and had to stay.
FUNNY I AM FROM KENT (FOLKESTONE) AND WAS SENT TO ERITH TO ESCAPE THE FIRST V1'@@Takeawayinataxi
92 years old now, lived through the lot, and this is exactly what happened
Wow man, you really did live through a lot, I remember reading your other comment when you were 90. Great to hear your doing ok 👍 I’m only 25 and I can’t even imagine what being 92 could even be like
My father was a postman in London at that time after being wounded at Dunkirk.For extra pay he used to drive a PO van through the streets while the bombs were falling and told me that many times he could feel the blast pushing the van along.After his army time he was pretty fearless.May he rest in peace.
@Old Guy's Place What am I missing?
Old Guys Place you disrespectful moron
Bye Bye I’m very sorry to hear of your loss, he seemed like a great man and hero. Please ignore the negative comment.
What a brave man god bless him 🙏🙏
God bless your brave and heroic father.
When relatives got together after the war for say Christmas. If they talked about the war and/or played Vera Lynn records, as a child you could feel a palpable atmosphere descend upon the gathering. An almost fond nostalgia of a shared experience from which we children had been spared. I can never forget that mood, I can still almost taste it.
Bless you
The Greatest Generation.
Ty for your strength and perseverance.
of course, many people were from poor backgrounds, knew deprivation personally , i.e they roughed it, SO, the war shortages, mend and make do attitude , was the perfect background for survival. But harder to adjust, for better off people, prewar.
@@MrDaiseymay They had also suffered through the first World War and the Depression prior to WWII
One thing I love about this generation, is they all looked out for each other, friends, family & neighbours, very rare these days. RIP to all those who died xx
To an extent, but the crime rate absolutely skyrocketed during the war. Especially in London, looting during bombing raids could potentially be punishable by hanging.
People still look out for one another today. It's not all bad!
That's because everyone were united and British. Being blunt, ruthless and quite direct, England is ruined. We're divided and lack empathy to others. We're out for ourselves and have such high immigrants and terrible immigration laws. Heaven forbid, but if the UK were to ever go to war, the people who aren't British but came for a better life and try to seek asylum, would they stay and fight or immigrate elsewherToday's world and society is destroyed by media and technology.
@@marktaylor4216sad but true
@@marktaylor4216 please learn the history of England before you say stuff like this... immigration has always existed, and blaming immigrants is blaming innocent people.
I'm so glad these videos and interviews exist. It's so important not to forget history. My dad always said if we forget we will repeat the mistakes.
we already are repeating it with Israel sending missiles to civilian neighborhoods in Palestine and killing multiple innocent children and people who have nothing to do with Hamas, claiming they hit a building with terrorists.
I'd like some proof of that. Hamas started this recent conflict by firing 1000s of missiles with the intent to kill civilians. Isreal are targeting these terrorists who hid amongst their own people, using them as shields.
B Motion that's the truth right there some people should stop watching MSM with the Tunnel vision
@@frankspencer6928 I like to know the truth too! (I don't watch any news from MSM, CNN, ABC etc etc)
Forget history and you are doomed to repeat it.
My Grandmothers family were bombed out from their relatively new home in Rotherhithe and had to move back closer into London. My grandmother said it was the only time in her life she ever saw her mother cry.
My mother in law was a fire warden in wimbledon during the blitz.She was only 20 years old at the time. she afterwards served as a plane spotter and experienced the V1 raids in london and eventually married an RAF lieutenant colonel.We owe so much to this generation for their courage and refusal to surrender to evil.
Indeed. Well said.
They never had lieutenant colonels in the RAF in WW2 its an army rank
@@billelliot51 Or any other time since it was formed in 1918. The RAF has NEVER had army ranks. The equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel is the rank of Wing Commander.
My great uncle was a fire-watcher in St. Pauls.
The room at the top can hold 6 men at a squeeze.
Surrendered? Germany never wanted war with Britain
Watching this really makes you wonder what happened to society when compared to today. Nothing but respect for every person who lived and fought through this
Rich and higher class people did NOT respect the poor.
Should of listened to The Germans this wouldn't be happening white British are very soon going to be a minority same with America
What an entirely baseless and ignorant statement. Obviously you don't know your history well. One thing that will never change is that humans will remain a stupid animal for many years to come.
@@tylermartin7245 the Victor's get to write the history books and therefore are the judge's and jury
,
I was born in Jan 1938 and have enough memories of air raids, having to go into our Anderson Shelter built under the back garden, sometimes it was sitting under our solid oak dining table. We were evacuated to a family farm in the country ( we were lucky as it was family, not strangers). Remember the aerial dog fights, finding bits of shrapnel and shell cases in the streets. Rationing was the worst, so little food, we kept chickens and rabbits, for eggs and food, converted the lawns into vegetable growing. Rationing extended well after the war. They were not good years but at least everyone pulled together, unlike today where it is me, me, me. We did not have any options about being vaccinated, as kids we lined up in the school hall and got a jab in each arm, that alone saved so so many lives. As us oldies fade away, those who have not lived through 6 years of ‘lockdowns’ in effect, seem all too keen to start wars. Memories of A Yorkshireman from Leeds. Post script, bombing was bad enough in England, but the Germans had it much worse by far. I served in the RAF Medical Branch, my first posting was to a new RAF hospital in Germany, mid 1950’s, for two years. I got to see and talk with German people across Germany, so I saw things from both sides. It was devastating, beyond belief what madness can take over the human mind.
At least you think the jabs saved lives.... Of course you don't know how well everyone would be today if they hadn't had them....
@@fredmuppet3077 -Perhaps they should have left it to Darwinism!
@@fredmuppet3077 An army doctor vaccinated me against diphtheria. I was born February 1940. The May blitz, Liverpool, particular target. The Atlantic Convoy HQ in Lpl. on a moonlit night the Mersey became a bright guide for the Luftwaffe. My mother lived through 2 WWs. She died in 2014 aged 107.
My grandfather was a Tipperary man who went working in London in 1938. He was 29 at the time. He married my grandmother in Surrey in 1940, she was a Kerry woman. The lived in West Molsley. They had a Anderson shelter out the back. He was in the Homeguard and worked in Vickers on the Wellington bomber production line. My aunt was born in London in 1941 and when my grandmother was pregnant with my mother the V2s were dropped. He sent them back home to his family in Tipperary. My mother was born in 44. They came back again after the war, my grandfather remembered a V1 doodlebug dropping one time and blowing up a street. My grandmother spent countless nights in air raid shelters. They sold up and came back home in 1952 to Tipperary and bought a small farm. His brother was RAF groundcrew, his sister was a nurse in London and married an English man who was a Dunkirk veteran. I remember them visiting us several times in Ireland during the 70s and 80, they loved my mother's cooking. All gone now and my mother RIP. Thank you for story and for your service. They were great people in London at the time. My Dad worked in Cricklewood during the 60s, he served as an Irish UN peacekeeper in the Congo in 1961, he was a Bren Gunner. He said the English people were always the best to pay unlike his own crowd.
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I was a kid when war started. It was a dangerous time but interesting because of the presence of soldiers and equipment.
Planes and bombing. We collected parts of bombs, shells and aircraft for swopping at school. And slept fitfully at night.
We knew we were going to win. Churchill said so.
You must be about my dad's age. When he talks about his experiences of the war in London, it sounds as if it might have been the best time of his life: playing on bomb sites, punting on doors in flooded bomb craters (mind the letterbox) ... except that every time he asked his parents for some treat the answer was always "don't you know there's a war on?"
Churchill has always been a hero of mine....Chamberlain?? The opposite.
@@Gurl-5150 push over he was! Just like the new generation
He may have thought so in public to keep moral up. From records now evident he didn’t think so in private at the beginning.
@@Gurl-5150 no. He has just seen a nation lose millions of young men 20 years earlier. He has no wish to do so again so did what he thought would avoid war. Remember, but hurt this might be but the majority of the nation was also in agreement with appeasement for a long time including many of your parents despite what they may say now to save face.
A most informative record. My late aunt and uncle lived in the City of Westminster during that period. They were both involved with government/ministerial work. She was a Scot married to a Londoner and had the option of returning home; she decided to stay put as they had no children and gave help as a volunteer First Aider. She often spoke of the horrors of the Blitz and said that the worst thing was seeing young families looking so broken and fragile. I personally would have fled London and never looked back. They were all such brave, brave souls with more pluck than I could ever conjure.
Kudos to th Londoners who lived thru th Blitz and showed their true grit!! Examples and inspiration for th world today in areas undergoing th horrors of violent invasion, coup, or civil war! GOD help them and grant them hopeful courage and endurance also!!
@@valueangles Well said. Sometimes we need to look back and take the odd leaf out of their books. There have been times in my life when I asked myself,'What would grandma have done?'. That usually would give me the inner strength required to plod on. Enjoy your day. x
Very well put together, not a bunch of dramatic music or ends chatter. Thank you, it's a tribute to those we lost.
My mother-in-law, who lives with us here in the US, grew up in London during World War II as a teenager. She can tell you some amazing stories about what life was like back then. Not knowing if your friends at school would show up the next day, or if they would even be alive. Would the streets you walked every day, still be there tomorrow. Sometimes they were, sometimes they weren't. Nights spent in air raid shelters, and in the subway, hoping for that their home would still stand in the end when it was all over, for this time. I very much enjoy listening to what all she remembers. It's truly inspiring.
My Grand parents were going to evacuate their children, but changed their minds. They decided it was risky sending them off to goodness knows who and they didnt know how long they would be scattered to the winds. They decided it was better to be together than seperated. Thankfully they all survived, but they were bombed out of their house the night my Dad was born, and moved from south to north London, being put in offices for a while until a flat could be found for them!
My grandparents were also evacuated. Unfortunately my grandads father was killed by a V1 rocket and after that he returned to London for the last year of the war and even has a photo of himself as a boy in London on VE day. At least he didn't have to live through the blitz
Keep Calm and Carry On! Bless all of the brave souls of London.
It wasn’t only the south of England and London that got bombed. ..🙄
@union I am so sorry. As an American we've only really heard about London being bombed and seeing the pictures of people sleeping in the Tube stations and the children being sent out of the city. I did not realize other parts of the country were targeted as well.
Liverpool ,Coventry ,Nothing left of it bombed to the ground and yet still part of the famous Cathedral spies exists to this day , Birmingham , Sheffield, and many other towns cities.
@@lindajones7219 Thank you for this information. I'm sorry I haven't heard it talked about...
@@Ionabrodie69 Yes Coventry and East London got bombed and anywhere where artillery was made.
My Nan who passed during the pandemic of 2020 was a child who stayed in London during the blitz. She could remember every single detail. Miss her so much ❤️🙏
Survived a war but not a flu lol
@@Hsjsjshshshs How is that funny? Ironic maybe but not funny.
I'm so sorry. My London grandma passed last year, it's tough.
Once you've been through all this, and then grew old.... it all starts to jumbly come back. Putting it in order, is difficult ! but it really is fascinating, when you now see it as an adult, as as opposed to when you experienced, it, as a child.
My mom lived in Stepney during the blitz. she told me houses on either side of her house were destroyed, they got a broken window! I loved hearing her stories of the get togethers in the tubes during raids
your mum lived in stepney she was a star I was born there when all the bombs were dropping all the good ones were born and lived in E 1 we survived to tell the tale god bless
My Mum gave birth to me in a bomb shelter during one of those raids. There was a doctor there seven sheets to the wind who tried to help but splashed ether all over her face. Plus, I was a breech birth so things were very dicey. She told this story in years to come, and always ended by saying it was the happiest day of her life!
Ahh..that's a lovely story..tough lady..lol
Wow! God had a plan for you!
My mother was also born in a shelter but in Birmingham 22 Nov 1940, the days before my grandmother could see Coventry burning in the distance. The bombing was still going the next night. My grandmother put her two older daughters aged 5 and 3 in the anderson shelter in the backyard she sat under the stairs with mom on her lap with only a pillow for protection. That night a few doors up a whole family of five were killed in their Anderson shelter.
My mum gave birth to me in an air raid.
Both of my parents living in North London, who were 12 and 10 years respectively, were evacuated privately. My father went to Shropshire to a farm run by his brother in laws parents, but not until the bombing got bad.
My mother went to a large house in Horsham to be under the care of the butler and his wife.
My father in law at 16 years old, decided to leave school and worked in the laboratory of a soap factory in Waterloo. This was destroyed in the bombing and he then worked in the lab's of British Oxygen at Wembley as he did throughout the war, being deemed medically fit for military service.
All survived the war pretty much unscathed.
Man those brave RAF pilots had real balls going up 2,3,4 times a day,night putting their life on the line every time.now these are real heroes in any age.
The last truly epic generation.
Have you ever read the story of Douglas Bader? The book is called Reach for the Sky and so is the movie. He lost both legs and kept flying, he was captured by Germans and escaped was caught and they took his wooden legs of him and he escaped again without them. I'm not sure but I think he was one of the Dam Busters, using a newly invented bouncing bomb. After the war a lot of the Dam Busters went to Borneo to fly people around seeking out oil. He was a character from what I've read about him.
My uncle was an engineer on Lancasters. He survived over thirty five bombing raids over Germany.He told me they never mentioned the missing in the mess room after a raid for fear they'd all lose their nerve. His parents home was bombed out in Deptford and most of their neighbours were killed. My Uncle never glorified his war service in the RAF and hated war and warmongers.
I have read that the average pilot “lifespan” was three weeks. That is a very sobering thing to ponder. To me, it increases their bravery ten fold. To keep flying several times a day, knowing each flight shortened the odds, but continuing to do it, to the extent that some men had to be forced to take a day’s leave once in a while.
My Aunt grew up in London during the Blitz......great Lady
Check out our show. We are interviewing Londoner's. People who make London their home.
Both my parents grew up in London during the war they were not evacuated. My dads parents both worked in woolwich arsenal making bombs. Two of my dads uncles were fireman in London. Miraculously they all survived. I still have a piece of shrapnel that my dad picked up when he was 12 from a German bomb that was dropped. Both my parents told me many stories about their lives during the war. They lived into their 80 s.
I was a child living in East London during the war. We had a Morrison shelter in our front room. It was a steel cage with a double mattress inside - I was terrified of going into it at night. During the day my mother would place me to play under the dining room table for safety. In early 1945 I was with my mother in a grocery shop in Lea Bridge Road. Without warning there was an enormous explosion and the windows of the shop were all blown in. We were unhurt and later learned that a V2 rocket had exploded nearby.
My great grandpa was a fireman. My grandma (born in 42) remembers the air raids and having to hide.
Could not imagine anything like this, our brave cousins across the pond are nothing less than inspiring. Thank you from USA.
We Irish fought Britain and germans during ww1
There were several US guys who were there as RAF pilots, etc. in the early phases. I was 11 and in the ATC, and once I heard one talk , on our base, and can remember laughing at his "funny" accent ! I can't remember if he flew in a Blenny or not.
❤ thankyou,we owe you America's alot to,
Many years ago, I was studying at the University of South Wales when I met this wonderful elderly lady at a church. During World War II, she and a few other children were evacuated from London to Wales when she was two or three years old. A sister of similar age who was relocated to another part of the country, just like she, was the only member of the family to survive. They continued to live apart even after the war without knowing about each other. After she grew up as a nice Welsh girl, she met John one day when she was out walking her dog. Blushingly, she said, apparently, it was their dogs who liked each other first, so they walked their dogs together (I somehow doubt that!) When they fell in love and married, they bought a beautiful house near Treforest, Pontypridd. On their 60th wedding anniversary, they received a letter from the Queen. The preacher read the letter in front of the congregation and they were both very proud of it. I was always welcome at their house, as long as I could handle more than 3-4 cups of tea. They had many stories to tell me about the past, and I enjoyed listening to them. Unfortunately, John has sadly passed away in 2019 and she now lives in an assisted living facility. I heard she suffers from memory issues now and I haven't seen her for 9 years and I wonder if she will remember me. This documentary reminded me of her. I must pay her a visit as soon as I can.
I know Britain is known for many things, however, the life of anyone middle class and below is pretty much the same around the world. It is always a life of struggle, and as a general rule, they suffer the most when things go downhill. Nevertheless, these are the brave people who lived through this war. Throughout the adversity, they remained kind, compassionate and generous. Some fought and gave their lives heroically for their land and freedom, and they deserve respect! What a tough batch!
Please do visit her
My family were evacuated to sth Wales.
Your story telling is honorably carrying forth the legacy she left. Keep sharing! That is the gift you are giving with your great stories. Cheers.
Amazing documentary portraying the sheer guts and bravery of the people of London.
I was 4 in London when the war started. I remember being carried by my shaking dad to the Anderson shelter in the back yard while the whistling bombs fell. I loved the barrage balloons in finsbury Park. Funny I ended up living in ashkelon in Israel where sirens are an everyday experience. Alan
I was the same age at that time,I can also remember being carried by my father,running done the street to an air raid shelter under a school
My Mum and her sister lived in Kent and their Mum(my gran) and when the air raid siren happened at night my Mum couldn’t wait to get to air raid shelter in the garden but her sister would have to be dragged out of her bed as it didn’t worry her. My Grandad was away in the navy on the subs.
How old are you guys if you don't mind me asking...
@@starter47990 in their 80s
When my dad and his siblings were offered to be evacuated, my grandparents actually refused it saying ‘no we’ll keep em with us’. There’s so many reports of how many of those children faced abuse in their foster homes, that’s why no doubt many kids stayed in London. I bet many parents had the same thought as my grandmother and grandfather.
That's one side of it, BUT, there were several other cases, where either, the parents -didn't want their children back, or, had no home to house them, or, where children didn't want, to go back ; mostly because they had a good time in the country, and /or, their carerer's loved them more. Sad on different levels.
My mother. Evacuated and never went back!
Or the poor sods that were shipped off to Australia. Many were severely abused by the accommodations they were placed in.
I heard this
I met a woman back in the 90s. She was considerably older than me but we were friends. She told me she came to Australia in the late 40s and was told her family were all dead. Years and years later she discovered they had lied and her parents though both deceased had both survived the war. She still had brothers and sisters in England but she had married by that time and had her own children. She said the conditions she lived under when she came to Australia as a refugee were appalling. It was a pretty sad story.
I really like how they included in the narration how there were people who behaved badly, profiteering and not cooperating, etc. It makes it seem more accurate and real, not romanticized, not propaganda-y. People are always people. Some are generous and others just jerks. I liked that about this show.
But by far, what you heat about in first hand accounts is that most Britons were brave and helped one another during that trying time. There was not as much widespread crime and violence as there is now.
@@cattycorner8 sadly, that isn't true. The crime rate skyrocketed in London. Muggings, rapes, murders and of course looting. When a swank night club was bombed, service personnel couldn't even get to the victims (alive or dead) before they were stripped of all effects, such was the throng of looters. The city was under a blackout order, so no street lights. Many of the able bodied men were called up to service, so there was a severe shortage of qualified police. Organized crime ran rampant. There were organized, roving looting operations. Theft of everything to the bare walls. Theft and smuggling of alcohol, bath tub stills. Every scarce product from batteries to light bulbs to meat and fish was on the black market. Many firemen only did so to have the opportunity to steal. Any public building that was bombed might have murder victims dumped there before morning. You had to sleep with a knife in hand in many shelters and rely on your trusted friends. People will always be people.
I knew someone whose father worked in the London docks.mhe reckoned that my father and his brothers were stupid for joining the army. He boasted that he spent the war stealing and selling things on the black market. He also, I think, refused to man a crane for Churchill's funeral unless he was paid!
It's always glossed over how crime went up horrendously in London, particularly looting. Even worse, it wasn't confined to buildings.
After a raid, the dead were not treated with dignity, but instead had their pockets turned out for anything valuable by scroungers. Right down to prising wedding rings from dead fingers, and I don't know if it's true or not, but even false teeth. Even clothes. Particularly shoes - possibly because they were the easiest & quickest to pilfer.
Not all dead who were naked had lost some of their clothing due to fire & smoke damage. Some of the bombs, particularly as the war went on, didn't kill by explosive power. People essentially suffocated, when the bombs detonated, sucking up all the oxygen to feed the resultant fire. It wasn't uncommon for the wardens to come across corpses, who just looked like they were sleeping, as they didn't have a single mark on them. As a result, the dead suffered one final insult - to be robbed of the clothes on their backs.
Of course, people did complain to the police or other authorities, but what could they do, realistically, in the middle of a literal war zone? The punishments for grave robbing were severe, but those who were doing it knew that they were highly unlikely to get caught. Even if they did, it couldn't be proven what they were doing. They could simply claim that they were trying to ID the dead, so they could chalk the names next to the bodies. That they were just doing their civic duty. There were the odd occasions where looters were caught, and made a public example of, as a warning, but it didn't really make much of a difference.
While it's true that war can bring out the best in people, the reverse is also sadly true. Bizarrely, some people post war, who in their later years, did confess about their crimes, revealed they would never have dreamed of doing anything like that before the war, nor did they after (or so they claimed). Maybe the adrenaline or desperation kicked in, making some people do things they wouldn't normally. The sceptic in me though, doubts that. Or at least, only a very tiny minority did.
@@cattycorner8there was lots of crime, but it wasn't made public like it is now.
I just read a novel set in London during the endless bombings. Pretty descriptive. It’s called “ The Last Bookshop in London. It’s main character becomes a warden, people who walked a beat, learning who lived where, then after bombings, dragging the wounded and dead out, putting out fires, etc.
It was amazing how citizens came together to protect their city, and did it with very little to eat, running water, fuel for burning, or clothes. Can you imagine people stepping up like that today?
Yes, unfortunately. 🌻🌻🌻🇺🇦
I think COVID has shown us that's not going not happen. People can't even be encouraged to wear a mask and isolate let along deal with war time restrictions.
No!’
I was seven when the war started and twelve when it finished.
Stayed in London N12 though the war within one mile of Northolt airfield. 303 Squadron, Polish pilots.
Bombs, V2s and V1 did damage locally but we remained unhurt. My father overseas in the army, my mother calm and caring.
Us kids, we collected bomb and shell fragments to swop at school.
Winston Churchill told us we would win and we didn’t doubt it.
I admired my sister she worked in an aircraft factory by day and as a fire watcher by night.
It all made us so strong.
Were you never evacuated?
Some of the bravery from the civilians was just amazing as the ones fighting in the the war in uniform!
The people of London were all so courageous during the blitz. Special regard to the Spitfire pilots
in the air battle of Britain. They began the defeat and attrition of German airpower, and protected
the city of London. They were especially brave and heroic!
Virtually ALL Cities ,and major towns, where bombed.
@@MrDaiseymay
The first bomb hit Liverpool.
What the fk are you talking about. London was only one out of dozens of towns and cities all over the country that was bombed.
Tbh they had no choice. No civilian really has a choice so they either get on with life or fall apart.
Thank Mr Watts and radar
During the Blitz, the Queen was asked if it wouldn't be wiser to send Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to somewhere safe, such as Canada. She replied:
"The children won't leave without me; I won't leave without the King; and the King will never leave."
"England's finest hour." How true. Their bravery cannot not be overstated!
My grandparents lived through both world wars in England. After living through that nothing ever phased them. People in America complain that coffee was rationed lol. My grandparents neighbour had their house “disappear” one night from a German bomb while they were in the underground. They spent the rest of the war living with my grandparents. Oh and their tea was rationed as well. Lol. Can you imagine having your tea rationed lol
Amazing people in a horrific time. After the last 3 years, I can imagine rationing! Here in the USA, things are already disappearing from the shelves of the shops or are in limited supply, so rationing is going on without the ration cards. It would be interesting to see how the current populations of our countries would respond to similar circumstances.
I have so much Compassion and Admiration to those brave, kind and good people for getting up in the morning, helping others and carrying on with life in spite of being bombed mercilessly. God bless them, every one. My grandfather lived throughout that era and was evacuated to the countryside. RIP Miss you Grandad.
i can remember 2 patients i nursed in a rest home in new zealand - one - a male we will call him sandy - he was a spitfire pilot from the battle of britain - his air force uniform was still in his wardrobe - he was built like a racing sardine back then - so slim - poor guy had dementia but proudly framed and hanging on the wall beside his bed was the thank you certificate from king george for doing his duty as a pilot during the battle of britain - and the other was a lady - from london - who could still hear the doodle bug bombs and she still had night mares about them - so i would sit with her till she settled - i admired them and made sure that i thanked them
IT WAS NOT CHILDLESS - my brother and I stayed in London with my mother and our extended family. We all survived.
You were there? It must have been a terrible time
Wait waitwaitwaitwait, YOU WERE THERE??
I think that it was a generalisation about the child evacuation and that if they had said “largely” or “to a large extent” it was childless then it would have been better, still not accurate, but better, in this case they used “poetic license” far to easily and for shock value.
Yes, quite.. my mother wasn’t evacuated from Marylebone until after the blitz. Even though she was very young she had vivid memories of the bombing and the AA guns on Ordinance Hill.
My dad stayed.
My mum was evacuated to a farm in Norfolk. Her parents brought her back home to London because she was fretting and her hair was falling out. She was only five years old. She stayed in touch with the family in Norfolk for all of her life and visited them every few years.
Norwich was very badly bombed, didn’t she tell you?
She wasn't there very long. @@Cromwelldunbar
What incredibly brave people!
You do know it was the British idea to bomb Germany first then Germany did the same to us
@@thesilverreich3947 The comma is important here. Just because a people thinks of doing something, doesn’t mean they decided to act on their ideas. Frankly, if I offed all the people I wanted to remove from the earth, well, I might be alone.
I guess most people in London had no choice. Some did leave.
@@thesilverreich3947 How else was they going to stop you. What was they supposed to do hang around. Bloody nuisance the lot of you.
@@christineusher6204 white British are a minority very soon. Should of listened to us
My mum was 4 when war was declared and she lived in London. My Gramps was a police officer during the blitz. They had an Andersen shelter in their garden.
Reminds me of one of my favorite movies growing up ; Hope and Glory
I live in America and attended an American university, but we had this old British professor in our English department who loved to talk about how he and his friends would play hide-and-seek in the rubble of their London neighborhood during the Blitz. He said they weren't quite sure why buildings were broken the way they were, but the adults acted like everything was normal, so they did too.
My dad was a gunner on an Ack Ack site in London at the time. My mum lived near his gun and .....well here I am. Can anyone honestly think that today’s society would cope like these people.
My ex husband’s family lived in London during the War. His father served throughout as a Metropolitan police officer as did his mother as an Ambulance driver! They all survived the actual War but his only sister died from Meningitis tragically only a short time prior to the availability of Penicillin!!! Their home in the East End was bombed on two separate occasions (they simply rolled up their sleeves and did what was required to make it habitable!). The Monarch Grammar school my ex attended was also bombed and he carried window glass impelled in his head throughout his life.
No, absolutely not.
My utmost respect to the British for standing their ground againstthe biggest bully in history. As a Cape Townian, from South Africa, my dad was oni mine sweepers in the then Royal Merchant Navy based in Simon's Town. He wore the beautiful uniform with bell bottoms and wide lapel, and growinng up a picture of him would proudly be displayed on the mantelpiece over the fire.. My mum would tell stories of windows having to be blacked out, etc, etc and her administration for the British people.. Since then I have always loved documentaries of London during the.war years.. Thanks so much for this.
South Africa should have remained neutral.
The free world survived because of their courage. They were as brave as the soldiers on the front line.
I just can't even imagine the sacrifice that the soldiers and family members of both World Wars had to endure. It makes you appreciate the good things in life. No matter how bad I have it sometimes it gives me extra strength knowing that others have endured far worse.
Oh, my goodness! This is the best documentary I’ve seen on London in the blitz. The actual people and places and actions and responses. It’s just great. I am sharing it with my daughter right away. She’s a history lover, too. Although we’ve both been more interested in the Pacific side since my Daddy, her Granddaddy fought in that sphere.
@idontthinkso2861 and you start paying attention when people tell you to shut up and stop trying to be pretentious and obscure.
Imagine living through all of that without any ‘Kardashians’ or ‘Celebrity Survivor’ marathons on...Happy days!
My grandfather was a shelter warden and my mother and younger brother were sent out to the country from London. Parents didn’t know where they were going, how well they would be treated or if they would come back. My mother and her brother were very young but still made to do a full day of chores. My grandmother committed suicide as she was unable to withstand the stress. Out of it all my mother was an incredible and positive individual.
My Mum was born on 30 September 1939, just 27 days after the Second World War was declared. She remembers, as a toddler, being led by the hand to a field (my family live in Northern Ireland) and her and her elder brothers having to lay in the hedgerows until the Luftwaffe flew overhead...Frightening times 😕
I have a friend, in her late 80s now, who lives in London and has lived there all her life through this. My feelings are that people now don't have the moral courage or spirit, perhaps , that people had then. People have complained about lockdowns during the current pandemic. How much worse was the war, yet people kept on going, and going to work. It was also said there was no mental health problems in this. We have changed, and not I think for the better.
Don't believe that. There had to be PTSD but nobody knew what it was. That's why the Babyboomers are such a mess!
There WERE mental health issues, they didnt have the knowledge or language to discuss it. There would have been great stigma i would imagine. Today we are only beginning to talk about it.There is great shame and stigma still. However i think there is room for lets carry on. I think working on health with an im moving forward mindset is good.
@@mirandafountain2184 oh yes they did know about PTSD. You weren't around then stop making up stories about something you know nothing about.
There were mental health problems!! They just weren't talked about which is why you probably had cases of suicide, verbal, physical,and sexual abuse, fear of certain noises, smells, weather, etc. Some were so traumatized they have never spoken about it. It can manifest itself wirh relationships- anger that it happened to them and not their siblings, jealousy,envy, etc. Had an aunt who was always mean to my mom( aunt had been held by German police for 2 weeks during WWII- NEVER told anyone what happened). You can't live through air raids, homes being bombed,friends getting killed, seeing dead bodies as a child, young person or adult and not have it change you.
Many people with mental health issues were locked away in institutions back then...
My nan and her family lived in Plaistow East London during the blitz in ww2 she was only 9 years old when the war began in 39. She never got evacuated out of London my nans eldest sister died in a unexpected day raid bombing the docklands. she spoke very little of it to me about it. i found out the full story and more after her passing my nan was the youngest of 11 brothers and sisters. Back then you just got on with it and made the best of what you had she grew into her teenage years seeing roads and houses destroyed and regular air raid sirens. And complete terror r.i.p nan xx
Its great to see the way everyone pulled together in a time off need!
NATH C, pity it’s not the same in 2020 when the country is facing a different enemy, possibly more deadly, but nonetheless deadly enough to need us to all pull together, and we did, in the beginning, but as soon as the government eased the lockdown (far to soon in my opinion) the younger generation decided that THEY would, unilaterally, ignore the social distancing rules and regulations and cause a new wave of uncontrollable infections, imagine what would have happened if the WWII generation decided NOT to obey the extra regulations in force for the duration of the war, I don’t think we would be writing comments on a free speech social media platform. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
It’s a shame people are so selfish and shallow today. The WWII generation had real integrity.
Apart from the guy who gave the v,s up to the car that didn’t stop 😂😂
@@allandavis8201 it wasn’t just young people though and we were forced back into school anyway.
@@lefeuviolet Yes the selfish people of today.
Someone I was close to and loved very much lived in northern England during this time. He, his sisters and mum went to stay in the country during the most dangerous time. I’m glad he wasn’t shipped off somewhere alone as a lot of families had to be separated.
I was born in Bethnal Green 9 yrs after the end of ww2, & as a child I remember playing in the sites of bombed out buildings, & finding all sorts of war detritus, like damaged bomb tailfins, flattened tin helmets, & shrapnel of all sizes. But the I'll never forget the find that horrified myself & my mates, it was a boot with the bones of the foot still inside it, I remember we stared at it for ages, then one of us covered it back up again. We didn't tell anyone as it was forbidden to play on these sites, & we didn't want to get in trouble with the police. We never went back there again, nowadays, It's a sobering thought that the loved ones of the person who owned that boot, probably didn't have anything to bury.
I doubt the people of today would be able to deal with such an event as the blitz, as people were tougher & more stoic in those days.
I loved playing on the bomb sites.
What a strong City
Certainly is. A long history with many battles since the Roman occupation.
Your stronge💃🏯🏰🏩🏪🏣London in my heart 🏤🏥🏦⛪⛪🏪🏩🏧🏠🏠🏠🏢🏭🗻⛪🗼🗽⛲all the city kept safe 🗽🙇😪😪😌
Was now white British are a minority now in Londonstan
I remember the sound of the Ack Ack guns sounding off from Hackney marshes as the german bombers were aiming for the huge Temple Mills marshalling yard Leyton/Straford borders.... Think that is now partially the home of Westfield Shopping Centre... how times change !
😮😮😮😮😮
Wow
The old major Stratford railway works were on the site of what is now Westfield and former 2012 athletes village
Temple mills is slightly further north but less than ½ mile away
My grandfather worked at temple mills
I love hearing these stories
@@Takeawayinataxi 0
My grandmother was 4 years old during the Blitz. She was deaf and kept trying to sneak out to watch the planes bomb London to the north of her. Because, she said “it looked like fireworks.” For her, the bomb shelters were dank, smelly, and boring- It was unbearable being in a dark shelter for a deaf child, her parents struggled to comfort her.
She’s still around, and I’m lucky to have been able hear her account of the war from her perspective.
Winston Churchill was right - this was their finest hour. Thank you for putting together this outstanding historical video. May the thousands who died RIP. God bless them all. 🙏❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
Churchill was a traitor.
enjoyed this very much. my mum used to tell me what it was like in liverpool in the war..but now ive seen what it really looked like.
My mother (who was in her early teens) lived about 26 or so miles SSW of London. She told us about hiding under the billiard table as the V-1s flew over. Now, I've been in that house when I was a kid and I can't for the life of me figure out where there was space for a billiard table. It was a very small row house. Grandma said "the first bloody Jerry through the door was getting a meat cleaver in the head."
Probably a Morrison shelter. Not a billiard table.
I doubt they had a billiard table, probably a dining table or Morrison shelter, which was a table with a cage underneath it.
I lost an ear drum, when a Landmine's blast, damaged a friend's house, that I was playing, at THAT time, etc. I Have lived all my life, with just one ear If, I'd been in another part of THAT house, and at THAT time.... I would have been DEAD ! Some times in a War.... one gets lucky ! I'm still here and will be 94 in October !!
My mum was nursing at the London Hospital during the war
She told many stories to us.
They each lifted, moved worked....no complaints just got stuck in. I amso proud l have learned to use my hands to serve others...big blessings. 🇬🇧
My Great Grandmother was bombed out in London during the Blits. My Grandfather traveled from Bournemouth to London to get his mother to go with him back to Bournemouth. She refused to go, and said She was a Londoner born and would not budge. Grandpa went back to Bournemouth without his mother. When the train stopped at the station family were there to tell him to go back to London to fetch his mother as she had been bombed out. All she had on was her night clothes, everything else was gone. She went with him to Bournemouth and remained there until she died at age 103 years old.
My nan lived in central London and 5 of her children went to Wales to during the blitz. Two of the older girls became part of the 'land girls'.
In NY, my grandfather was a block warden. He had to check blackout curtains, curfew violators, that car owners had their headlights properly painted over in black, etc.
My grandfather rarely talked about being a child during the war. One of the few stories he told was he and his friends would go looking for what they could find, they found a live shell and hit it and a few boys got killed.
Born in 1941, in Birmingham, my earliest memory is, sitting in my 'Push-Chair in the garden, aged about 2--3, And very fast fighter planes, whizzing overhead, very low and noisy. The Spitfire Factory at Castle Bromwhich, was only about 7 miles away. I've since learned that the very Brave Ladies of the ATA, collected the new planes, and flew them to front-line bases. maybe that's what i saw.
My Mum was 15 years old, going to work in a raid. She couldn’t make up her mind whether to shelter in a phone booth . when she came home it was blown away. It really upset her .Lived in North London.
When the V1 Flying Bomb raids started, her father watched one pass over her house. It was blown back by a gust of wind hit 2 houses down. The explosion nearly killed her father. Everyone in the Eastern, norther & Southern parts of London experienced similar things .
Yes I was there during the Blitz spent most of my school days in the shelter and also the nights even now if I hear a siren my stomach churns .hungry most of the time .but we got through it without any countsling just had to get on with life after
I’m so sorry you endured this.
How unprepared we are, physically and mentally for this kind of hardship
Both my nan's lived in London during the blitz.
One was bombed at work and trapped in a lift for 24hrs with her dead boss and best friend.
She spent every night sleeping in the underground tube stations (There is film of her playing an accordion down there) and would never get in a lift again.
My other nan served in St Johns ambulance and my god did she have some awful stories.
Both said it was the best time of their lives and people was always laughing and good spirits despite the suffering and awful times.
Go figure.
God love them xx
I am a nurse and I had a patient who lived through the blitz. The patient would often wake up screaming that bombs were falling. When we put the patient to bed they would refuse to take off shoes so they could run into the shelter
I find it strange how they said there was no mental illness resulting in the blitz. Perhaps people had PTSD symptoms but they weren't recognised as such or they were told to stop being dramatic.
I'm sure people must have felt suicidal. I remember my grandad saying that when they waited in the shelter, the bombs falling around them he wished he could die. Our grandma nudged him and he said he's fine now but I do wonder if people just didn't want to talk about it.
I've heard the children of the war generation saying that sometimes their parents felt distant. I know some people cope with trauma by throwing themselves into other things instead of addressing the issue. Perhaps that could account for why we as a nation were so industrious post-war.
When Americans speak of 2020 as the current generation's WWII I wonder how such people, so detached from reality and history, would stand up as the Brits did in the face of real war and a real external threat.
They wouldn't, the first sign of discomfort and they all fled for the suburbs and took their toilet paper with them. No sense of community or greater good. The 16 year olds bagging groceries had more courage and fortitude than the adults buying more than they needed.
They wouldn't..They take rescritions personally..No place for that when fighting a foe..
@Gary Koosie, that was rude. The world also watches OUR UK nowadays and see little sign of the courage & character WE once displayed then as well.
Mom grew up in London during the blitz. She was evacuated to the country, like all the other children. She doesn't talk about it much. But there is a print of R.A.F. Spitfires taking off from a grassy field hanging in her living room. Got to see one a couple years back, can't believe how small they were.
My Gran said it was the worst of times but the best of times, it brought them all together.
I was neatly five when war started ,I have clear recollections of war being declared. I stayed in Dear Old London with my mum for the first year of the war ,then for some unknown reason my cousin and I were evacuated to a horrible woman in Northampton until my gran visited and we were moved , then Sod's law I had a accident and ended up back in London hospital stayed at home in Islington for rest of the war .lost a few school friends after raids very upsetting a whole row of terraced houses was flattened hundred yards from our house and Monday morning a few class mates never came back to school two incendiary bombs went through our roof out the ceiling and landed in garden where they burnt out ,I could write a book on blitz
This should be shown to all those youngsters who think they have things tough today
It is great to be able to look back on war events of 1939/1945 this is great to be able to teach our children what it was really like to live through a blitz in the battle ofLondo
My Mum and her family went through all this. They never forgot.
My mum never forgot either. she uses mnemonic devices. she also knows all the state capitals
I went through it all, and it is still very vivid in my mind.
@@johnbarton7543 so impressed how people of London able to carry on every day life as best as possible.
@@timothycasey4738 There wasn't anything that we could do about it. Lots of kids were evacuated to the country, but my parents thought that we should all die together, so I didn't get to go. My dad was a butcher so he had plenty of knives and brought a selection of them home to comply with the slogan "Take one with you" This meant that if you were about to be killed in an invasion of Britain, make sure you killed at least one of them.
My mum and dad lived through the blitz in London and my husband was one of the kids evacuated thanks for this
Same here
Other cities had their own blitz. Portsmouth and Coventry being just two of them. My Dad was a fireman during the blitz in Portsmouth, and there were times when we wouldn't see him for days, often wondering if he was coming home at all. The sounds of sirens and doodlebugs flying over will always remain at the back of my many memories of the war!! We all survived, but the futility of war remains, because in the end, no one wins.
My mother told me how my grandparents stood and watched the blazes from Plymouth being bombed.They lived near Slapton sands,so had to leave for the soldiers to practice for D-Day.It’s funny how to them it was just something that happened.I suppose no one thinks these things will happen until they do.
The trauma never really went away either I bet. The sounds of the air raid sirens chill ME! After months, I bet I'd hear them in my sleep every night...assuming you even had sirens remaining after a while.
Communism and Zionism were the only victors of the two world wars.
PLUS FOLKESTONE AND DOVER
BOMBED,SHELLED,AND THE 1ST VI's.....
JUST 20 + MILES ACROSS THE CHANNEL FROM
THE LONG RANGE GUNS AND GERMAN AIRFIELDS AROUND CALAIS
JM
My Nan and Grandad kept their five children at home with them in S.W.London, the kids at the beginning of the war were 12, 11,8,5 and 3. Grandfather had an Anderson shelter under the back garden, the garden itself was turned into a vegetable patch he also had chickens and rabbits in order to supplement the rationing. Their second son at the age of sixteen became a father, yes I was born in the dining room in 1944, that is how life went on even during the war.
Yes excellent documentry. Can't imagine what those people went through. My dad was in the north Atlantic and grandfather in ww1. Got taken prisoner but survived.he would never speak of the war.
My grandmother was bombed out 3 times at work and home. Amazing generations go on. Dad played on bomb sites early fifties
We played on bomb sites late 50s early 6os. It’s really not that long ago.
Incidentally I was bombed out early 80s by the IRA. please don’t damage the peace accord it’s a very precious treaty.
My grandparents and my mother were also bombed out three times, but on the other side of the North Sea. When I was born in 1949, we lived in half a ruin until 1956, which was only provisionally repaired. In the 1950s we still had a lot of bomb sites where you could play football wonderfully. That was the only advantage of the war, but in the future such nonsense should stop. If need be, soccer fields could also be created by peaceful means.
My great aunt died age 48 when her Anderson shelter took a direct hit. She was totally obliterated and only her wedding ring was found. Her husband and next door neighbours were killed too.70 years later I dated the great nephew of the dead neighbours.
My mum's friend suffered the same fate, and I was put in Hospital before the age of three.
An old English lady said, "Oh, the Blitz was horrible. I was sitting on the veranda having tea when there was this great, whacking banging noise and I found myself flying in the air stark naked hanging onto the tea cozy for dear life." They did not lose their sense of humor.
My father was born in London, 6 days before the Blitz.
Big deal !.....Ringo, was conceived in Liverpool..... During the Blitz...! Lots of things were happening, while other things were happening.....some Good ....some Bad...That's the way WARS ...go ....
Maybe it’s because Prince Philip died yesterday, surely one of the few WWII veterans, but when I heard Churchill’s broadcast after becoming PM I teared up and choked up.
You realise that Britain was the aggressor?
@@noone3272 You realise Britain's allies in Europe were attacked first!
@@tomnicholson2115 who? Britain cares about nobody other than itself.
Germany was once Britain's ally
@@longhornlove1 no. Germans have been brainwashed into hating their history
@@longhornlove1 you do know it was Winston churchill that wanted to bomb germany first
Sad to realize that the people we watched behave so bravely are gone. Truly, The Greatest Generation.
Thank you so much. This was a really informative and educational documentary.