1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:04,001 --> 00:00:08,001 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 3 00:00:08,002 --> 00:00:12,002 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:19,686 --> 00:00:22,771 (narrator) For the wartime newsreel cameras, 3 00:00:22,856 --> 00:00:24,690 the dancers wore gas masks. 4 00:00:24,774 --> 00:00:29,528 But the Germans never used gas against British civilians. 5 00:00:30,697 --> 00:00:35,367 Hitler's weapon against British civilians was bombs. 6 00:00:35,452 --> 00:00:39,997 Over two million homes were damaged, blasted, gutted. 7 00:00:40,081 --> 00:00:44,918 And beginning with London, whole cities were hammered. 8 00:00:45,003 --> 00:00:47,588 Fire and high explosives 9 00:00:47,714 --> 00:00:52,259 probed and tested the strength of the British way of life. 10 00:01:51,319 --> 00:01:53,362 (air-raid siren) 11 00:02:02,622 --> 00:02:07,709 ln November 1940, the Germans shiffed their attack from London. 12 00:02:07,794 --> 00:02:12,464 The first provincial city they hit hard was Coventry. 13 00:02:15,969 --> 00:02:18,053 (♪ church organ) 14 00:02:23,518 --> 00:02:28,313 The heart was torn out of the cathedral, out of the city. 15 00:02:33,611 --> 00:02:35,362 People were bewildered, 16 00:02:35,446 --> 00:02:39,533 and their leaders were bewildered, too, by the huge fires. 17 00:02:43,037 --> 00:02:46,582 (man) On paper, Birmingham, Nuneaton, 18 00:02:46,666 --> 00:02:50,169 Rugby, should've come to the aid of Coventry, 19 00:02:50,253 --> 00:02:52,713 which they did, in fact. 20 00:02:52,797 --> 00:02:54,923 But on arrival here, they found 21 00:02:55,008 --> 00:02:59,011 that the couplings on the fire engines were dissimilar, 22 00:02:59,095 --> 00:03:01,930 didn't marry up, and it meant, therefore, 23 00:03:02,015 --> 00:03:05,684 that cooperation broke down completely. 24 00:03:05,768 --> 00:03:11,273 Of course, in addition to that, you've got 360 fractures on the gas main 25 00:03:11,357 --> 00:03:14,610 and all the other serVices went. 26 00:03:14,694 --> 00:03:17,529 All the water supplies were disconnected. 27 00:03:17,614 --> 00:03:23,702 lf the firemen wanted to find sources, they simply were not there. 28 00:03:24,746 --> 00:03:29,416 (narrator) The king visited Coventry. With him, the Home Secretary. 29 00:03:29,500 --> 00:03:31,877 (Hodgkinson) Herbert Morrison came in. 30 00:03:31,961 --> 00:03:35,005 The military folk wanted to establish martial law. 31 00:03:35,089 --> 00:03:38,759 We had a stand-up fight on this. 32 00:03:38,843 --> 00:03:45,557 Alderman Bill Halliwell and myself said, "No, this must be a civic exercise." 33 00:03:45,642 --> 00:03:51,647 The pressure was taken off and virtually he and l, 34 00:03:51,731 --> 00:03:57,194 plus the regional officers, conducted operations from then on. 35 00:03:57,278 --> 00:04:00,864 There were virtually seven weeks of dictatorship. 36 00:04:02,242 --> 00:04:06,662 You see, there was nothing in the textbooks of civilian defence 37 00:04:06,746 --> 00:04:09,539 to indicate to local authorities 38 00:04:09,624 --> 00:04:14,002 how to behave in an emergency, calamity situation, 39 00:04:14,087 --> 00:04:19,174 such as we found on the morning of November 15th. 40 00:04:19,259 --> 00:04:22,344 (narrator) While Morrison strove to correct this 41 00:04:22,428 --> 00:04:25,722 by creating Britain's first national fire serVice, 42 00:04:25,807 --> 00:04:29,101 volunteers shored up the crumbling home front. 43 00:04:29,185 --> 00:04:31,645 Fresh evacuation hurried the children away, 44 00:04:31,729 --> 00:04:34,439 as city affer city passed through crisis. 45 00:04:36,985 --> 00:04:39,278 Portsmouth, Southampton, 46 00:04:39,362 --> 00:04:43,115 Sheffield, Bristol, Glasgow. 47 00:04:43,199 --> 00:04:45,909 Then Plymouth became the worst-hit city 48 00:04:45,994 --> 00:04:49,788 with seven big raids in March and April 1941 . 49 00:04:49,872 --> 00:04:52,207 A quarter of its people, 50,000 trekkers, 50 00:04:52,292 --> 00:04:54,960 fled the city at night and slept out in the hills. 51 00:04:55,044 --> 00:04:58,672 This film was not shown in wartime Britain. 52 00:04:59,716 --> 00:05:03,385 The censored press could only hint at chaos. 53 00:05:03,469 --> 00:05:08,557 30,000 people lost their homes and many lost much more. 54 00:05:10,685 --> 00:05:12,728 (alarm) 55 00:05:12,812 --> 00:05:17,983 And when the sirens went, it was somewhere around nine o'clock, l think, 56 00:05:18,067 --> 00:05:21,653 l called my mother and she came down the stairs. 57 00:05:21,738 --> 00:05:25,449 She said, "l'll take Raymond." l said, "All right, l'll take Sheila." 58 00:05:25,533 --> 00:05:28,702 And we called Mrs Todd, that was the lady upstairs, 59 00:05:28,786 --> 00:05:31,413 and she came down with her three children. 60 00:05:31,497 --> 00:05:35,667 And we went in our respective cupboards, 61 00:05:35,752 --> 00:05:40,422 and l sat on a little tiny chair, l put Raymond at my side, 62 00:05:40,506 --> 00:05:43,592 and l held Sheila in my arms. 63 00:05:45,219 --> 00:05:48,638 And affer that, l didn't know anything. 64 00:05:49,807 --> 00:05:54,227 l must've come to in the cupboard, because l heard my father say: 65 00:05:54,312 --> 00:05:57,856 "Oh, l'm afraid your mother's had it." 66 00:05:57,940 --> 00:06:04,404 And then l said, "Oh, Sheila's all right. She's in my arms." 67 00:06:04,489 --> 00:06:10,702 And l went to touch my other child and l couldn't feel him. 68 00:06:10,787 --> 00:06:15,749 And l must've lost consciousness again because l was buried, l believe. 69 00:06:17,668 --> 00:06:23,507 Later, l learned that my mother was dead and the two children were. 70 00:06:23,633 --> 00:06:28,178 And Mrs Todd was killed, and her two children. 71 00:06:28,262 --> 00:06:30,847 She was expecting a baby any hour. 72 00:06:30,932 --> 00:06:33,141 (narrator) Mrs Bunt's husband, a sailor, 73 00:06:33,226 --> 00:06:35,185 came home on leave the next morning. 74 00:06:35,269 --> 00:06:39,564 (man) There was her mother laying on the bed in the front room. 75 00:06:39,649 --> 00:06:43,235 We went across the road to her brother's place. 76 00:06:43,319 --> 00:06:47,322 He told me about the two children. 77 00:06:47,407 --> 00:06:51,660 l went up, there they were... cold. 78 00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:53,829 Not a blemish on them. 79 00:06:57,041 --> 00:06:59,459 That's when l lost my temper. 80 00:06:59,544 --> 00:07:03,130 l said, "lnstead of us dropping bloody paper, 81 00:07:03,214 --> 00:07:06,341 we ought to be hitting them the same as they're hitting us." 82 00:07:06,467 --> 00:07:10,011 Mr Magee, affer all this, what do you think about us 83 00:07:10,096 --> 00:07:13,181 going over to Berlin and doing the same? 84 00:07:13,266 --> 00:07:14,599 l should think so, too. 85 00:07:14,684 --> 00:07:18,145 Bit worse than this, l hope, with a wicked bugger like he is. 86 00:07:18,229 --> 00:07:21,356 l definitely do, sir. Bomb them tenfold. 87 00:07:21,441 --> 00:07:23,984 l'm sorry for the women and children of Berlin, 88 00:07:24,068 --> 00:07:26,361 but what about the people of this country? 89 00:07:26,446 --> 00:07:28,530 (cheering) 90 00:07:30,867 --> 00:07:36,580 (narrator) This is what the authorised newsreels did show of Plymouth. 91 00:07:36,664 --> 00:07:40,959 Churchill's voice and presence did sustain morale. 92 00:07:41,085 --> 00:07:44,421 And in cabinet, he knew how to get his way. 93 00:07:46,424 --> 00:07:49,843 And if Henry V said, "Now, gentlemen, 94 00:07:49,927 --> 00:07:56,099 l've been into all this thing and the Channel is very tricky at the moment." 95 00:07:56,184 --> 00:08:02,522 "We can't get the reinforcements, the rate of sickness can't be replaced." 96 00:08:02,607 --> 00:08:09,571 "The bridgehead, according to Hamley's infantry tactics, is too small." 97 00:08:09,655 --> 00:08:14,117 "And, in short, l feel there's nothing else but to launch an attack." 98 00:08:14,202 --> 00:08:16,077 But he didn't say that. 99 00:08:16,162 --> 00:08:20,457 He said, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends." 100 00:08:20,541 --> 00:08:23,793 Winston had that extraordinary power. 101 00:08:23,878 --> 00:08:26,796 (narrator) Churchill's speeches rang less true now. 102 00:08:26,923 --> 00:08:28,298 Almost worse than bombing, 103 00:08:28,382 --> 00:08:31,384 U-boat attacks on shipping cut Britain's food supplies. 104 00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:35,305 The Germans were on the rampage everywhere. 105 00:08:36,682 --> 00:08:43,230 (Churchill) We cannot tell what the course of this fell war will be, 106 00:08:43,314 --> 00:08:48,235 as it spreads, remorseless, through ever-wider regions. 107 00:08:48,319 --> 00:08:52,155 We know it will be hard. We expect it will be long, 108 00:08:53,157 --> 00:08:59,120 We cannot yet see how deliverance will come or when it will come, 109 00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:05,627 but nothing is more certain than that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, 110 00:09:05,711 --> 00:09:11,258 every stain of his infected and corroding fingers, 111 00:09:11,342 --> 00:09:14,177 will be sponged and purged 112 00:09:14,262 --> 00:09:19,182 and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth. 113 00:09:19,267 --> 00:09:23,937 He may spread his course far and wide 114 00:09:24,021 --> 00:09:27,065 and carry his curse with him. 115 00:09:27,149 --> 00:09:32,028 He may break into Africa or into Asia. 116 00:09:32,113 --> 00:09:37,784 But it is with us, here in this island fortress, 117 00:09:37,868 --> 00:09:43,331 that he will have to reckon and settle in the end. 118 00:09:46,335 --> 00:09:48,878 ♪ Now behold in me an LDV 119 00:09:48,963 --> 00:09:50,922 ♪ For battle l'm just yearning 120 00:09:51,007 --> 00:09:53,425 ♪ Doing my best like all the rest 121 00:09:53,509 --> 00:09:55,635 ♪ To keep the home fires burning 122 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,179 ♪ Each evening stiff and starched 123 00:09:58,264 --> 00:10:00,098 ♪ Up and down the street l march 124 00:10:00,182 --> 00:10:02,767 ♪ l'm guarding the home of the Home Guard 125 00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:05,061 ♪ Guarding the Home Guard's home 126 00:10:05,146 --> 00:10:07,355 ♪ All day long, steady and strong 127 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:09,608 ♪ Doing what l'm told and l can't go wrong 128 00:10:09,734 --> 00:10:13,778 ♪ All the ladies are fond of me but last night one of them gave a shout 129 00:10:13,863 --> 00:10:16,114 ♪ When she saw me pulling my bayonet out 130 00:10:16,198 --> 00:10:18,575 ♪ While guarding the Home Guard's home 131 00:10:20,328 --> 00:10:23,496 (narrator) The Home Guard had been founded a year before. 132 00:10:23,581 --> 00:10:26,791 On exercises, its members played at fighting. 133 00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:31,963 You are a new corps, a corps with its traditions to make. 134 00:10:32,048 --> 00:10:38,470 But you have already got your motto, and your motto is: "Kill the Boche!" 135 00:10:38,554 --> 00:10:42,182 ln the course of your duty, 136 00:10:42,308 --> 00:10:46,895 you may have the luck to come in contact with the enemy. 137 00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:49,147 lf you do, one of your duties 138 00:10:49,231 --> 00:10:52,984 is to shoot when you see a sitter, and shoot to kill. 139 00:10:54,612 --> 00:10:57,030 (narrator) The British still lived in fear, 140 00:10:57,114 --> 00:11:02,202 not just of invasion, but of the foe at home - 141 00:11:02,286 --> 00:11:04,454 fear of listening spies. 142 00:11:09,168 --> 00:11:11,795 And fear of enemy aliens. 143 00:11:13,255 --> 00:11:17,842 ln the summer of 1940, the press had screamed, "lntern the lot." 144 00:11:17,968 --> 00:11:20,595 And almost all of them - Germans, Austrians, 145 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:22,764 refugee Jews, leff-wing exiles - 146 00:11:22,848 --> 00:11:28,520 had passed through verminous transit camps, interned without trial. 147 00:11:28,604 --> 00:11:31,272 l was interned just like that, you know? 148 00:11:31,357 --> 00:11:37,445 Fetched by the police without knowing anything beforehand. 149 00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:39,948 Two policemen came and fetched me. 150 00:11:41,367 --> 00:11:43,702 (narrator) Although they did not know it, 151 00:11:43,786 --> 00:11:46,579 they were bound for Liverpool, for embarkation. 152 00:11:46,664 --> 00:11:50,917 People standing lining the streets, you know? 153 00:11:51,001 --> 00:11:58,133 Throwing stones at you, spitting at you, shouting "spies", you know? 154 00:11:58,217 --> 00:12:01,094 And that was horrible. 155 00:12:02,138 --> 00:12:07,142 Everyone thought it will be a concentration camp like it is in Austria 156 00:12:07,226 --> 00:12:10,311 or in Germany. 157 00:12:10,396 --> 00:12:14,023 And we were brought on that boat. 158 00:12:14,108 --> 00:12:17,235 Several of them wanted to jump into the water 159 00:12:17,319 --> 00:12:22,031 because they didn't know what is in front of them. 160 00:12:22,158 --> 00:12:24,701 When we arrived on the lsle of Man, 161 00:12:24,785 --> 00:12:27,996 we had pictures taken with our number on. 162 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,709 So we had already the feeling, "Well, we are criminals." 163 00:12:32,793 --> 00:12:37,756 But from that moment on, it was much, much better. 164 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:42,135 We had quite nice people to look affer us, 165 00:12:42,219 --> 00:12:45,013 and we had more security. 166 00:12:45,097 --> 00:12:50,059 We had so much security that we were fenced in, even. 167 00:12:50,144 --> 00:12:53,730 (narrator) Aliens had the right of appeal to tribunals, 168 00:12:53,814 --> 00:12:56,149 and by 1941 many were free. 169 00:12:56,233 --> 00:12:59,235 But a new threat to civil liberty had loomed: 170 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:01,863 Regulation 2D. 171 00:13:04,325 --> 00:13:06,868 Because Stalin was in alliance with Hitler, 172 00:13:06,952 --> 00:13:10,497 the British Communist Party opposed the war effort. 173 00:13:10,581 --> 00:13:15,293 Under 2D, its paper, the Daily Worker, had been banned. 174 00:13:15,377 --> 00:13:17,962 Five months later when Hitler struck at Russia, 175 00:13:18,088 --> 00:13:21,883 Churchill himself seized the chance to be Stalin's ally. 176 00:13:21,967 --> 00:13:23,426 Germany's new thrust east 177 00:13:23,511 --> 00:13:26,262 took the pressure off Churchill's battered island. 178 00:13:26,347 --> 00:13:31,935 There was time now to perfect the new and truly total war economy. 179 00:13:33,646 --> 00:13:36,272 But at its head, in the coalition government, 180 00:13:36,357 --> 00:13:37,857 were two jealous rivals - 181 00:13:37,942 --> 00:13:40,693 big men brought in from outside Parliament. 182 00:13:40,778 --> 00:13:45,156 Max Beaverbrook, the newspaper baron, now Minister of Supply, 183 00:13:45,241 --> 00:13:48,117 and Ernest Bevin, the strong man of the TUC. 184 00:13:50,746 --> 00:13:53,957 For Bevin, the industrial workers were his people. 185 00:13:54,834 --> 00:13:59,212 Well, mates, ever since we took office, 186 00:13:59,296 --> 00:14:02,924 we have been exhorting you to work harder. 187 00:14:03,008 --> 00:14:08,137 l've never done so much exhortation to work hard in my life. 188 00:14:08,222 --> 00:14:11,599 But we've got to do it to win this victory. 189 00:14:12,434 --> 00:14:17,856 We'll all go along together with a mighty effort, 190 00:14:17,940 --> 00:14:21,150 and show to the Hitlers and Mussolinis 191 00:14:21,277 --> 00:14:24,362 that we do not only work and fight, 192 00:14:24,446 --> 00:14:27,407 but we can be cheerful in doing it as well. 193 00:14:27,491 --> 00:14:29,576 (cheering) 194 00:14:34,957 --> 00:14:38,877 (Chandos) Ernie Bevin, you see, is an Englishman to the fingertips, 195 00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:42,088 and with a great hold over the trade unions 196 00:14:42,172 --> 00:14:44,799 and the labour movement as a whole. 197 00:14:44,884 --> 00:14:49,053 l think he's the most conceited man that l've ever known. 198 00:14:49,138 --> 00:14:52,390 lt happens to self-made men very offen. 199 00:14:52,474 --> 00:14:54,517 But the great thing about Ernie 200 00:14:54,602 --> 00:14:57,312 is that he never went back on what he said. 201 00:14:57,396 --> 00:15:01,149 He'd say to me, "Well, l said it, didn't l?" 202 00:15:01,233 --> 00:15:05,320 That is a tremendous thing. He was very loyal in those ways. 203 00:15:05,404 --> 00:15:07,280 A very likeable man. 204 00:15:07,364 --> 00:15:10,742 And one day, we were fighting for, a rather technical point, 205 00:15:10,826 --> 00:15:13,620 the extraction of wheat in the loaf. 206 00:15:13,704 --> 00:15:17,582 And they were trying to get it up to 88% extraction. 207 00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:22,587 And Ernie suddenly said in the committee, he said: 208 00:15:22,671 --> 00:15:25,381 "l say the middle of this loaf is indigestible." 209 00:15:25,466 --> 00:15:28,426 "l can't eat it. (niccups) What did l tell you?" 210 00:15:28,510 --> 00:15:31,763 Churchill grew in admiration 211 00:15:31,847 --> 00:15:35,850 of the great fundamental qualities of Bevin - 212 00:15:35,935 --> 00:15:37,894 his single-purposeness 213 00:15:37,978 --> 00:15:44,150 and the obvious desire, determination, on the part of Bevin, 214 00:15:44,234 --> 00:15:48,696 to suppress all party-political considerations. 215 00:15:48,822 --> 00:15:51,032 lmagine the power he had. 216 00:15:51,116 --> 00:15:56,996 He was in charge of the possibilities of serVice 217 00:15:57,081 --> 00:16:01,042 for everybody in the civilian life of this country. 218 00:16:02,127 --> 00:16:06,756 (narrator) He had total powers over every man working, and over every woman. 219 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:12,220 From March 1941 , Bevin began to direct women into vital work, 220 00:16:12,304 --> 00:16:17,141 and into vital work the pretty girls went, but not enough of them. 221 00:16:17,226 --> 00:16:21,145 So in December, Britain went further than any fighting land had ever done 222 00:16:21,230 --> 00:16:23,523 and further than the Germans could ever go. 223 00:16:23,607 --> 00:16:27,026 Conscription of women was announced. 224 00:16:27,111 --> 00:16:31,239 Girls called up could choose between the women's serVices 225 00:16:31,323 --> 00:16:34,701 or war work in the fields or factories. 226 00:16:37,413 --> 00:16:39,372 (radio) "Music While You Work" 227 00:16:39,456 --> 00:16:43,459 will be played to you this morning on Rhythmic Records. 228 00:16:43,544 --> 00:16:46,212 (sings along) 229 00:16:46,296 --> 00:16:48,965 (♪ "Yes, My Darling Daughter) 230 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,943 - You'll be leaving us shortly? - Yes, l think l will. 231 00:17:09,028 --> 00:17:11,195 l think l'll give the Land Army a try. 232 00:17:11,321 --> 00:17:15,700 - Do you think you'll like that? - Yes. The life rather appeals to me. 233 00:17:15,784 --> 00:17:18,911 l don't think any of us want to starVe, though. 234 00:17:18,996 --> 00:17:24,125 What will l do about my hair? l can't possibly come down to the country. 235 00:17:24,209 --> 00:17:28,504 Oh, well then, madam, l suggest you wear it straight, like Hitler's. 236 00:17:28,630 --> 00:17:31,090 l'd like to help to build Spitfires. 237 00:17:31,175 --> 00:17:36,012 My boy's in the RAF, well, and l feel l'm helping him. 238 00:17:36,096 --> 00:17:39,265 The sooner we all pull together, the sooner it'll be over. 239 00:17:39,349 --> 00:17:42,852 l would like to go in the serVices because the uniform appeals. 240 00:17:42,936 --> 00:17:45,021 (♪ "Fall In") 241 00:17:49,526 --> 00:17:53,029 (woman) Changing step at the march in quick time. 242 00:17:53,113 --> 00:17:57,658 Change step! 243 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:02,413 Move to the right in threes. About... turn! 244 00:18:05,417 --> 00:18:07,293 Slow... 245 00:18:07,377 --> 00:18:08,711 march! 246 00:18:08,796 --> 00:18:11,339 About... 247 00:18:11,882 --> 00:18:13,966 turn! 248 00:18:16,178 --> 00:18:18,846 (narrator) Bevin's concern was long-term efficiency, 249 00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:22,308 but Beaverbrook revelled in short-term frenzies. 250 00:18:22,392 --> 00:18:24,435 Now he was calling for tanks. 251 00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:27,188 We want tanks. 252 00:18:27,272 --> 00:18:30,066 We want very many tanks. 253 00:18:30,150 --> 00:18:34,779 We want them for the defence of our island 254 00:18:34,863 --> 00:18:38,991 and also for offensive operations. 255 00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:43,079 (narrator) Beaverbrook's methods outraged his colleagues. 256 00:18:43,163 --> 00:18:44,997 Even his loyal friend Churchill 257 00:18:45,082 --> 00:18:47,875 was troubled by his moods, his resignations, 258 00:18:48,001 --> 00:18:51,212 and his quarrels with Bevin. 259 00:18:51,296 --> 00:18:56,092 (Chandos) Max Beaverbrook did a very good crash job. 260 00:18:56,677 --> 00:18:59,720 But in my opinion, and l am biased, 261 00:18:59,805 --> 00:19:06,018 he leff behind an enormous quantity of wreckage - administrative wreckage. 262 00:19:06,937 --> 00:19:12,483 And he said, "War is a matter of improvisation." 263 00:19:12,568 --> 00:19:15,736 "Organisation is the enemy of improvisation." 264 00:19:16,822 --> 00:19:18,948 (man) Ernie Bevin... 265 00:19:19,032 --> 00:19:21,242 domineering, dogmatic, 266 00:19:21,326 --> 00:19:23,786 even tyrannical, could be ruthless. 267 00:19:23,871 --> 00:19:27,832 "Don't stand in my way. Don't criticise me." 268 00:19:27,916 --> 00:19:32,044 "l will tolerate no interrogation from any source." 269 00:19:32,838 --> 00:19:35,965 Beaverbrook the same. The same. 270 00:19:36,049 --> 00:19:41,596 Two strong personalities, domineering and ruthless. 271 00:19:42,514 --> 00:19:44,015 (narrator) Early in 1942, 272 00:19:44,099 --> 00:19:47,226 Beaverbrook flounced out affer two weeks in a new job - 273 00:19:47,311 --> 00:19:50,771 boss of war industry, Minister of Production. 274 00:19:51,815 --> 00:19:55,860 For convincing reasons, Bevin had finally won. 275 00:19:55,944 --> 00:20:01,824 Well, l think he won because Churchill had the sense, the common sense, 276 00:20:01,909 --> 00:20:07,288 to realise it was good to have the trade union movement on his side. 277 00:20:07,414 --> 00:20:10,541 He didn't throw Beaverbrook overboard. 278 00:20:10,626 --> 00:20:15,129 Don't forget, Beaverbrook was out and in, and out and in. 279 00:20:15,214 --> 00:20:19,091 (narrator) And finally out. This time he stayed out. 280 00:20:19,176 --> 00:20:21,427 A visit to Russia, where he'd been welcomed 281 00:20:21,511 --> 00:20:24,013 by Britain's ambassador, Sir Stafford Cripps, 282 00:20:24,097 --> 00:20:29,810 had convinced him that the delightful Stalin was a great man. 283 00:20:29,895 --> 00:20:33,105 Russia had been pressing a reluctant British government 284 00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:35,107 to start a second front in Europe. 285 00:20:35,192 --> 00:20:39,278 Out of office, Beaverbrook flung himself into a campaign for the second front, 286 00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:43,950 building on Britain's almost mystical admiration for the Red Army. 287 00:20:44,076 --> 00:20:48,412 We believe in the skill of the Russian generals. 288 00:20:48,497 --> 00:20:52,583 We believe in the equipment of the Russian divisions. 289 00:20:52,668 --> 00:20:58,464 And we believe in the fighting power and the courage of the Russian soldiers. 290 00:21:01,218 --> 00:21:06,264 And this is the day to proclaim our faith! 291 00:21:06,348 --> 00:21:08,683 (cheering) 292 00:21:09,226 --> 00:21:11,602 Weapons we must give, 293 00:21:11,687 --> 00:21:14,647 and raw materials. 294 00:21:14,731 --> 00:21:16,816 Bread we must give, 295 00:21:16,900 --> 00:21:19,694 and sugar, too. 296 00:21:19,778 --> 00:21:22,780 Men we must give, 297 00:21:22,864 --> 00:21:26,826 equipped with tanks and with airplanes. 298 00:21:28,912 --> 00:21:32,290 That is a pledge of the second front. 299 00:21:32,374 --> 00:21:35,167 (cheering) 300 00:21:35,252 --> 00:21:37,920 (narrator) Also cheering Beaverbrook on, 301 00:21:38,005 --> 00:21:40,965 Britain's Communist Party now backed the war. 302 00:21:41,091 --> 00:21:43,342 Their leaders were calling on the workers 303 00:21:43,427 --> 00:21:45,845 to make their war production mightier yet. 304 00:21:45,929 --> 00:21:51,142 No one calls for the second front without being personally prepared 305 00:21:51,268 --> 00:21:57,231 to place their being, their energy, and every ounce of fight they possess 306 00:21:57,357 --> 00:22:00,109 at the disposal of the government. 307 00:22:00,193 --> 00:22:03,779 There is a full understanding of what is meant, 308 00:22:03,864 --> 00:22:06,282 and the people of this country 309 00:22:06,366 --> 00:22:11,245 are quite rightly beginning to resent this war on the cheap, 310 00:22:11,330 --> 00:22:14,165 this one-way war that's going on, 311 00:22:14,249 --> 00:22:16,876 where it's the Russians that do the dying 312 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,295 and the fighting and the sacrifice, 313 00:22:19,379 --> 00:22:21,213 while we pay tribute to them 314 00:22:21,298 --> 00:22:24,050 from the benches of the House of Commons. 315 00:22:24,134 --> 00:22:26,510 (applause) 316 00:22:26,595 --> 00:22:29,889 (narrator) But one leff-winger on those benches, Cripps, 317 00:22:30,015 --> 00:22:32,808 had just returned from his stint in Moscow. 318 00:22:32,893 --> 00:22:36,645 Many people saw him as a possible rival for Churchill. 319 00:22:36,730 --> 00:22:39,857 His views on Russia had vast appeal. 320 00:22:41,276 --> 00:22:46,364 (Cripps) We've got to try and help the Russians in every way that we can 321 00:22:46,448 --> 00:22:50,868 to make ready, to meet the spring offensive of Hitler. 322 00:22:50,952 --> 00:22:53,996 l appreciate there are some people in this country 323 00:22:54,081 --> 00:22:58,584 who are still afraid of the spread of the Russian ideology. 324 00:22:58,668 --> 00:23:03,672 But what they've got to recollect is that if we are friendly with Russia 325 00:23:03,757 --> 00:23:06,675 and have an arrangement of cooperation with them, 326 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,763 any dangers which they fear will be very much less. 327 00:23:10,847 --> 00:23:16,977 As a matter of fact, the Soviet Union have no idea and no wish 328 00:23:17,062 --> 00:23:21,649 to interfere with the internal affairs of any other country. 329 00:23:21,733 --> 00:23:24,902 l know that from the lips of Stalin himself. 330 00:23:34,454 --> 00:23:38,999 (narrator) Again, in the headlines, disaster was stacked on defeat. 331 00:23:39,084 --> 00:23:40,543 The press was critical, 332 00:23:40,627 --> 00:23:45,131 especially the Daily Mirror's scalding campaign against profiteers. 333 00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:47,716 One cartoon was too much for Churchill: 334 00:23:47,801 --> 00:23:53,472 "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny - Official". 335 00:23:56,268 --> 00:23:58,602 Churchill told Morrison to stop the paper, 336 00:23:58,687 --> 00:24:01,230 but the press rallied to the Mirror's support, 337 00:24:01,314 --> 00:24:07,361 led by the young editor of Beaverbrook's Evening Standard, MichaeI Foot. 338 00:24:07,446 --> 00:24:10,281 The liberty of press in this country 339 00:24:10,365 --> 00:24:14,618 can only be maintained by the vigilance of the people, 340 00:24:14,703 --> 00:24:18,747 the vigilance of Parliament, and the courage of the newspapers themselves. 341 00:24:18,874 --> 00:24:25,629 That's the only way. Therefore, we must fight, fight to retain those liberties. 342 00:24:25,714 --> 00:24:30,426 The ministers come along and tell us, they've told us in the last few weeks, 343 00:24:30,510 --> 00:24:33,762 it's only the Daily Mirror they were trying to get at. 344 00:24:33,847 --> 00:24:37,016 "The attack is over," they say. 345 00:24:37,100 --> 00:24:39,768 "No more demands on any other newspapers." 346 00:24:39,853 --> 00:24:44,190 "All other newspapers may continue to live in tranquillity 347 00:24:44,274 --> 00:24:47,443 and in freedom and in peace." 348 00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:51,614 There's something rather familiar about those words. 349 00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:55,951 - l have no more territorial demands. - (laughter) 350 00:24:57,370 --> 00:25:00,873 l can picture in my mind's eye now 351 00:25:00,957 --> 00:25:05,586 Mr Morrison himself muttering those words. 352 00:25:05,712 --> 00:25:09,340 "l have no more territorial demands." 353 00:25:09,424 --> 00:25:16,305 Coming down Shoe Lane with a firm look on his jaw and a hot gun in his pocket, 354 00:25:16,389 --> 00:25:19,433 with the Evening Standard safely suppressed under 2D, 355 00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:24,104 and its proprietors safely looked affer under 18B. 356 00:25:24,189 --> 00:25:27,983 The only man who thought it was going to be shut down was Churchill. 357 00:25:28,109 --> 00:25:30,528 When it was brought up in the Commons, 358 00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:35,115 the House of Commons came out on the side of the Mirror, more or less. 359 00:25:35,242 --> 00:25:40,371 They didn't like the Mirror, but they weren't going to have it suppressed. 360 00:25:40,455 --> 00:25:43,541 And affer that, we trimmed ourselves a bit 361 00:25:43,625 --> 00:25:46,752 and the government forgot their foolishness. 362 00:25:46,836 --> 00:25:52,091 (narrator) Since democratic life did go on, there were still by-elections. 363 00:25:52,175 --> 00:25:56,178 The coalition government lost a string of them to independents. 364 00:25:56,263 --> 00:26:00,057 Tom Driberg stood at Maldon as an independent Socialist. 365 00:26:00,141 --> 00:26:03,477 Maldon was a very safe Tory seat. 366 00:26:03,562 --> 00:26:06,730 (man) l hadn't the faintest idea how to be a candidate. 367 00:26:06,856 --> 00:26:12,611 l didn't belong to any party, l didn't know the electoral law or anything. 368 00:26:12,696 --> 00:26:16,323 First l went to see my employer, Lord Beaverbrook, 369 00:26:16,408 --> 00:26:21,078 whom l was working for at the time on the Daily Express. 370 00:26:21,162 --> 00:26:24,039 And he was a bit sceptical. 371 00:26:24,165 --> 00:26:28,919 He said the only advice he would give me was that l must wear a hat. 372 00:26:29,004 --> 00:26:30,629 He said, "The British people 373 00:26:30,714 --> 00:26:33,340 will never vote for a man who doesn't wear a hat." 374 00:26:33,425 --> 00:26:37,720 (narrator) Then in June came a fresh shock from Africa. 375 00:26:37,804 --> 00:26:40,556 (Driberg) Tobruk fell about three or four days 376 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,517 before polling day in the election. 377 00:26:43,602 --> 00:26:47,980 We rushed out a leaflet headed "Tragedy at Tobruk". 378 00:26:48,064 --> 00:26:50,983 And it was a tragedy, and we felt it as such, 379 00:26:51,067 --> 00:26:53,819 but, nonetheless, l'm bound to admit that 380 00:26:53,903 --> 00:26:59,283 that did probably greatly add to the number of votes which we got. 381 00:26:59,367 --> 00:27:02,119 (narrator) Driberg won by a huge majority. 382 00:27:02,203 --> 00:27:07,708 Meanwhile, the rebel MPs of all parties wanted a showdown with Churchill. 383 00:27:08,752 --> 00:27:12,546 (man) And when Tobruk fell in 1942, 384 00:27:12,631 --> 00:27:16,383 Churchill was in Washington. 385 00:27:16,468 --> 00:27:20,554 The American press carried alarmist reports 386 00:27:20,639 --> 00:27:24,016 of the state of the government at home 387 00:27:24,142 --> 00:27:27,061 and the possible votes of censure, and so on. 388 00:27:27,145 --> 00:27:29,813 So much so, that Winston rang me up. 389 00:27:29,898 --> 00:27:34,526 lt was about 5am our time, l suppose about midnight his time, 390 00:27:34,611 --> 00:27:38,864 to ask what was happening - 391 00:27:38,948 --> 00:27:42,785 was the government still in office and what was going on, and so forth. 392 00:27:42,869 --> 00:27:45,663 And l was able to tell him, so far as l knew, 393 00:27:45,747 --> 00:27:50,084 nothing had happened expect this motion had been tabled that he'd have to take. 394 00:27:50,168 --> 00:27:52,252 (narrator) Churchill came back 395 00:27:52,337 --> 00:27:56,590 to a motion expressing no confidence in his leadership. 396 00:27:56,675 --> 00:28:01,261 lt even seemed to the rebels that they might win, but they muffed it. 397 00:28:02,472 --> 00:28:06,475 As so offen with these great parliamentary debates, 398 00:28:06,559 --> 00:28:10,604 there's a bit of an anticlimax when you get there. 399 00:28:10,689 --> 00:28:16,944 And in this case, the anticlimax came instantly in the opening speech 400 00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:21,156 by this ineffable old Tory, Sir John Wardlaw-Milne, 401 00:28:21,282 --> 00:28:24,618 because he made this fantastic suggestion 402 00:28:24,703 --> 00:28:27,079 that there should be a supreme commander 403 00:28:27,163 --> 00:28:29,498 of all the armed forces who should be... 404 00:28:29,582 --> 00:28:35,546 And he named him none other than the Duke of Gloucester, whom God preserVe. 405 00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:42,219 But there was a roar of laughter and a howl of disappointment. 406 00:28:42,303 --> 00:28:46,807 (narrator) And in gales of derision, the motion was swept away. 407 00:28:46,891 --> 00:28:50,102 There were only 25 votes against Churchill. 408 00:28:51,187 --> 00:28:54,940 And now the war news began to grow brighter. 409 00:28:55,024 --> 00:28:58,277 The Germans were held up at Stalingrad. 410 00:28:58,361 --> 00:29:01,989 Britain won in November at El Alamein. 411 00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:06,285 Churchill went north to Bradford in sprightly spirits. 412 00:29:07,245 --> 00:29:13,542 Now, we have just passed through the month of November, 413 00:29:13,626 --> 00:29:16,712 usually a month of fogs and gloom, 414 00:29:16,796 --> 00:29:20,132 but, on the whole, a month l've liked a good deal better 415 00:29:20,216 --> 00:29:22,634 than some other months we've seen 416 00:29:22,719 --> 00:29:26,472 during the course of this present unpleasantness. 417 00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:29,141 - (applause) - And so l say to you, 418 00:29:29,225 --> 00:29:35,689 let us go forward together and put these grave matters to the proof. 419 00:29:35,774 --> 00:29:38,192 (cheering) 420 00:29:38,276 --> 00:29:41,779 (narrator) Churchill was safe in power while the war lasted, 421 00:29:41,863 --> 00:29:45,491 but the hopes of the British people were swinging away from him. 422 00:29:45,575 --> 00:29:49,369 Beyond victory, what could Churchill offer them? 423 00:29:50,830 --> 00:29:55,292 ♪ Roll out the barrel 424 00:29:55,376 --> 00:30:00,172 ♪ We'll have a barrel of fun 425 00:30:00,256 --> 00:30:05,177 ♪ Roll out the barrel 426 00:30:05,261 --> 00:30:09,264 ♪ We've got the blues on the run 427 00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:13,685 (narrator) But by the middle of the war, there weren't so many barrels. 428 00:30:13,770 --> 00:30:18,106 lf you wanted beer, you might have to bring your own bottle. 429 00:30:18,191 --> 00:30:22,486 And many other things which people had relied on were now in short supply. 430 00:30:22,570 --> 00:30:28,408 Apples and razors, prams and potatoes, bread and offal were all unrationed. 431 00:30:28,535 --> 00:30:30,619 But you had to queue. 432 00:30:36,584 --> 00:30:40,838 And because they hated queuing, people welcomed rationing. 433 00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:45,759 Soap and clothes were rationed, as well as most essential foodstuffs. 434 00:30:45,844 --> 00:30:50,264 You knew you could get the ration and the British system seemed fair - 435 00:30:50,348 --> 00:30:53,141 the same for everyone, rich or poor. 436 00:30:53,226 --> 00:30:56,687 Each person got up to eight ounces of sugar a week, 437 00:30:56,771 --> 00:30:59,773 every two months a packet of dried eggs, 438 00:30:59,858 --> 00:31:04,111 eight ounces of cheese a week, eight ounces of fats, four ounces of bacon, 439 00:31:04,195 --> 00:31:06,655 and about a pound of meat. 440 00:31:16,499 --> 00:31:20,961 (man) Are you helping to win the war on the kitchen front? 441 00:31:22,338 --> 00:31:29,344 lf you're saving our shipping by making the most of what we grow at home, 442 00:31:29,429 --> 00:31:36,101 if you're growing vegetables on every bit of ground that you can get hold of, 443 00:31:36,185 --> 00:31:39,688 if you're only eating what you need 444 00:31:39,814 --> 00:31:43,901 and not what you like and as much as you like, 445 00:31:43,985 --> 00:31:46,695 then you are helping to win the war. 446 00:31:46,779 --> 00:31:52,743 And my advice to you is cook potatoes in their jackets, 447 00:31:52,827 --> 00:31:55,120 and grow your own onions. 448 00:31:55,204 --> 00:32:00,709 (narrator) And they did, assailed by a barrage of films and posters. 449 00:32:00,793 --> 00:32:04,546 Affer war work, before fire watching, between spells of training, 450 00:32:04,631 --> 00:32:07,591 townsmen toiled on their allotments. 451 00:32:07,675 --> 00:32:10,510 Britain was under blockade. 452 00:32:10,595 --> 00:32:12,804 By 1943, farmers had brought 453 00:32:12,889 --> 00:32:17,225 nearly four and a half million extra acres under the plough, 454 00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:21,355 and allotments were chewing up scraps of good land leff over. 455 00:32:21,481 --> 00:32:25,651 Vegetables flourished round the Albert Memorial. 456 00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:35,827 Good, plain food was still cheap and unrationed in factory canteens 457 00:32:35,912 --> 00:32:38,497 and in new publicly-owned British restaurants, 458 00:32:38,581 --> 00:32:44,169 but many people complained that the rich could still find fancier titbits. 459 00:32:44,253 --> 00:32:48,382 The black market snaked silently through Britain. 460 00:32:48,466 --> 00:32:52,052 "Poor fella. Now, what can l sell his mother?" 461 00:32:56,766 --> 00:33:01,979 l want to talk to you about what is called racketeering, 462 00:33:02,063 --> 00:33:04,731 or the black market. 463 00:33:04,816 --> 00:33:07,734 lt is being stopped. 464 00:33:07,819 --> 00:33:11,738 These food cheats are the enemies of the people. 465 00:33:11,823 --> 00:33:16,618 There must be no dirty fingers in the people's food. 466 00:33:19,580 --> 00:33:24,167 (narrator) The ugly Squanderbug, symbol of waste, was outlawed. 467 00:33:24,252 --> 00:33:27,004 Women were reminded not to waste old clothes 468 00:33:27,088 --> 00:33:30,298 and not to ask for glamorous new ones. 469 00:33:36,931 --> 00:33:40,308 Every scrap of manufactured matter counted. 470 00:33:40,977 --> 00:33:43,228 (newsreel) Fashion is rationed. 471 00:33:45,606 --> 00:33:47,691 The rot set in when silk stockings 472 00:33:47,775 --> 00:33:50,944 had to be sacrificed in the early stages of the war. 473 00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:53,196 That was pre-Austerity. 474 00:33:53,281 --> 00:33:56,992 Did you realise the difference between Austerity and Utility? 475 00:33:57,076 --> 00:34:01,455 Austerity, on the left, is the elder sister of Utility, in the checked suit. 476 00:34:01,539 --> 00:34:03,081 And Austerity was allowed 477 00:34:03,166 --> 00:34:06,084 many fashionable privileges denied to Utility. 478 00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:07,836 For instance, pleats. 479 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,797 Utility, as you know, is confined to four, 480 00:34:10,882 --> 00:34:14,009 whereas Austerity was lavish with pleats. 481 00:34:16,345 --> 00:34:19,931 (narrator) Strict petrol allocation drove cars off the road, 482 00:34:20,016 --> 00:34:23,185 though some drivers ran on coal gas. 483 00:34:25,938 --> 00:34:28,607 Trains and buses were scarce now, too. 484 00:34:28,691 --> 00:34:31,151 (newsreel) You wonder why we make a fuss 485 00:34:31,235 --> 00:34:33,070 if George decides to take a bus. 486 00:34:33,154 --> 00:34:38,033 But look again and you will see that George ain't all that George should be. 487 00:34:38,117 --> 00:34:42,746 He's only got a step to go - a couple of hundred yards or so. 488 00:34:42,830 --> 00:34:47,292 Whilst others, further down the queue, have far to go and lots to do. 489 00:34:50,004 --> 00:34:55,342 When George gets on we often find that other folk get left behind. 490 00:34:55,426 --> 00:34:59,763 He pays his fare and rides a stage, 491 00:34:59,847 --> 00:35:02,349 then off he hops... 492 00:35:02,433 --> 00:35:04,768 and see the rage. 493 00:35:04,852 --> 00:35:08,063 And seeing this gives George a jog. 494 00:35:08,147 --> 00:35:12,067 (George) Perhaps I'm just a transport hog. 495 00:35:12,151 --> 00:35:16,780 Hello, Forces. Once again, this is Joan Griffiths saying thank you for... 496 00:35:16,864 --> 00:35:19,616 (narrator) The BBC, official voice of Britain, 497 00:35:19,742 --> 00:35:23,787 was more high-minded than ever, but the public didn't mind. 498 00:35:23,871 --> 00:35:26,665 The Brains Trust, a weekly intellectual forum, 499 00:35:26,791 --> 00:35:29,376 was one of radio's most popular programmes, 500 00:35:29,460 --> 00:35:34,047 and the voice of the novelist JB Priestley made him a major star. 501 00:35:34,132 --> 00:35:39,427 The British were absolutely at their best in the Second World War. 502 00:35:39,512 --> 00:35:45,600 They were never as good, certainly in my lifetime before it. 503 00:35:45,685 --> 00:35:50,438 And, l'm sorry to say, that they've never been quite as good affer it. 504 00:35:51,482 --> 00:35:53,900 Because a large number of people 505 00:35:53,985 --> 00:35:59,114 were living more intensely than they'd ever done before, 506 00:35:59,198 --> 00:36:05,495 a large number of people equally felt they needed some of the arts. 507 00:36:09,333 --> 00:36:13,587 (narrator) Dame Myra Hess played in the National Gallery. 508 00:36:17,633 --> 00:36:22,345 (Priestley) There was a greater demand, l think, for good books, 509 00:36:22,430 --> 00:36:27,184 good plays, music, the sight of some good pictures, 510 00:36:27,268 --> 00:36:30,478 than l'd ever known before in this country. 511 00:36:43,075 --> 00:36:45,619 (narrator) Still more people loved Hi, Gang! 512 00:36:45,703 --> 00:36:47,454 and "That Man", Tommy Handley. 513 00:36:47,538 --> 00:36:50,582 - (man) ITMA! - (fanfare) 514 00:36:54,670 --> 00:36:58,298 (chorus) ♪ It's that man again, yes, that man again 515 00:36:58,382 --> 00:37:00,550 Can l do you now, sir? 516 00:37:00,635 --> 00:37:03,053 (applause) 517 00:37:10,394 --> 00:37:15,273 Well, well, if it isn't Canteen Clara, the rissole-smacking bomber. 518 00:37:15,358 --> 00:37:18,985 l say, you look a bit tousled. Have you flown off the handle? 519 00:37:19,070 --> 00:37:22,948 No, sir. l've been fire watching for the first time. 520 00:37:23,032 --> 00:37:25,575 (laughter) 521 00:37:25,660 --> 00:37:28,578 - Did you have a chaperone? - Oh, yes, sir. 522 00:37:28,663 --> 00:37:31,873 And a very nice polite chap he was, too. 523 00:37:31,958 --> 00:37:34,960 Always said "pardon" before he took his boots off. 524 00:37:35,044 --> 00:37:37,170 (laughter) 525 00:37:39,382 --> 00:37:43,343 l'd hate to hear what he said before he took his socks off. 526 00:37:44,303 --> 00:37:47,347 (narrator) And Gracie Fields was back. 527 00:37:47,431 --> 00:37:49,474 ♪ l'm the girl that makes the thing 528 00:37:49,558 --> 00:37:51,768 ♪ That drills the hole that holds the spring 529 00:37:51,852 --> 00:37:56,481 ♪ That drives the rod that turns the knob that works the thingamabob 530 00:37:56,565 --> 00:38:00,652 ♪ l'm the girl that makes the thing that holds the oil that oils the ring 531 00:38:00,736 --> 00:38:04,656 ♪ That takes the shank that moves the crank that works the thingamabob 532 00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:09,160 ♪ lt's a ticklish sort of job making a thing for a thingamabob 533 00:38:09,245 --> 00:38:12,914 ♪ Especially when you don't know what it's for 534 00:38:12,999 --> 00:38:14,624 And l don't know! 535 00:38:14,709 --> 00:38:17,210 ♪ But l'm the girl that makes the thing 536 00:38:17,295 --> 00:38:19,296 ♪ That drills the hole that holds the spring 537 00:38:19,380 --> 00:38:23,508 ♪ That makes the thingamabob that makes the engines roar 538 00:38:23,592 --> 00:38:28,221 ♪ And l'm the girl that makes the thing that holds the oil that oils the ring 539 00:38:28,306 --> 00:38:31,725 ♪ That makes the thingamabob that's going to win the war 540 00:38:32,852 --> 00:38:34,311 'Tis true! 541 00:38:38,983 --> 00:38:42,235 (narrator) Aircraff production had trebled in two years. 542 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,070 ln the next two, it doubled again. 543 00:38:44,155 --> 00:38:47,157 Britain's war economy was much more widely based 544 00:38:47,241 --> 00:38:49,951 and thoroughly organised than Germany's. 545 00:38:50,036 --> 00:38:53,580 But the cost of such concentrated effort was high. 546 00:38:53,664 --> 00:38:56,374 Familiar customs in industry were swept aside. 547 00:38:56,459 --> 00:39:01,504 Workers put in massive overtime which stretched mind and body to the limit. 548 00:39:01,630 --> 00:39:05,508 Then, sometimes, their patience snapped. 549 00:39:06,385 --> 00:39:11,139 This is Betteshanger, Kent, scene of a famous dispute in 1942. 550 00:39:11,223 --> 00:39:15,727 lndustry cried out for coal, but output fell and went on falling. 551 00:39:15,811 --> 00:39:19,773 Many miners had joined up or had found better-paid work. 552 00:39:19,857 --> 00:39:24,277 Older men worked longer hours and had to guard the mine, as well. 553 00:39:24,362 --> 00:39:28,740 But when they could stand these conditions no more, they struck. 554 00:39:28,824 --> 00:39:35,038 (man) We all marched down into Deal and then onto the Canterbury Road. 555 00:39:35,122 --> 00:39:40,752 There were several local residents and particularly some of the troops, 556 00:39:40,836 --> 00:39:44,589 they were jeering and sneering at us. 557 00:39:44,673 --> 00:39:48,009 But little did they know at the time 558 00:39:48,094 --> 00:39:52,305 that we were manning this pit 24 hours a day, 559 00:39:52,390 --> 00:39:55,266 with the Home Guard troops, ourselves, 560 00:39:55,351 --> 00:40:00,438 and many of us worked and stopped at the pit here 24 hours a day. 561 00:40:00,523 --> 00:40:03,858 (narrator) The miners knew strikes were forbidden by Bevin 562 00:40:03,943 --> 00:40:07,362 by a wartime regulation, order 1305. 563 00:40:09,198 --> 00:40:11,408 But faced with a solid body of 1 ,000 men, 564 00:40:11,492 --> 00:40:14,285 you couldn't jail them all or even collect fines, 565 00:40:14,370 --> 00:40:17,122 and Bevin and Churchill knew it. 566 00:40:19,583 --> 00:40:22,794 (Roberts) l don't think Churchill wanted us to go to prison. 567 00:40:22,878 --> 00:40:25,672 He wanted us to stay here and guard his property. 568 00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:29,926 Because it was his property, affer all. lt wasn't ours. 569 00:40:30,970 --> 00:40:33,054 (narrator) The government gave in. 570 00:40:33,139 --> 00:40:38,309 Desperate for labour, late in 1943, Bevin called up boys. 571 00:40:38,436 --> 00:40:41,438 Not for the forces, for the mines. 572 00:40:41,522 --> 00:40:43,481 You'll be here four weeks. 573 00:40:43,566 --> 00:40:47,360 ls there any district you'd like to go to at the end of your training? 574 00:40:47,486 --> 00:40:52,157 - Bolsover, Derby. - Pass down to the billeting section. 575 00:40:53,117 --> 00:40:56,578 - Good old steel toecaps. - Thank you. 576 00:40:56,704 --> 00:41:00,039 - What size is your hat? - Seven and a quarter, please. 577 00:41:00,124 --> 00:41:03,585 (narrator) One new national serViceman in ten became a Bevin Boy. 578 00:41:03,669 --> 00:41:06,504 You couldn't escape, whoever your dad was. 579 00:41:06,589 --> 00:41:08,506 You're a public schoolboy. 580 00:41:08,591 --> 00:41:11,634 lt'll be a change for you going in the mine, won't it? 581 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,138 Yes, but it's a necessity that someone's got to do the job, 582 00:41:15,222 --> 00:41:20,351 so l think l'm doing my part in... in helping. 583 00:41:21,729 --> 00:41:24,230 l was expecting to go into the army. 584 00:41:24,315 --> 00:41:28,026 l was very shocked when l heard on the news on Christmas Day 585 00:41:28,110 --> 00:41:30,653 that l was to be directed into the mines. 586 00:41:30,738 --> 00:41:32,280 lt was a ballot, actually, 587 00:41:32,406 --> 00:41:35,450 and they drew out numbers ending in nought or nine. 588 00:41:35,534 --> 00:41:40,747 My registration number ended in nought, so there was no ducking away from that. 589 00:41:40,831 --> 00:41:43,791 l had to go in the mines regardless of anything. 590 00:41:43,876 --> 00:41:46,794 (narrator) His parents hoped he'd be an army officer. 591 00:41:46,879 --> 00:41:48,296 They were flabbergasted. 592 00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:50,882 lf somebody'd said, "You'll go into the mines", 593 00:41:50,966 --> 00:41:52,926 l'd have thought they were joking. 594 00:41:55,054 --> 00:41:56,387 (narrator) But lads of 17 595 00:41:56,472 --> 00:41:59,474 without a mining background couldn't solve the problem. 596 00:41:59,558 --> 00:42:02,769 Output went on falling and falling. 597 00:42:02,895 --> 00:42:05,480 And in 1944, in Yorkshire and South Wales, 598 00:42:05,564 --> 00:42:09,817 over 200,000 miners came out on unofficial strike. 599 00:42:10,903 --> 00:42:16,866 The men have worked continuously for a period of nearly five years, 600 00:42:16,951 --> 00:42:19,494 under war conditions, 601 00:42:19,578 --> 00:42:22,497 suffering from a deep sense of grievance 602 00:42:22,581 --> 00:42:26,251 because they have not been rewarded by the state equally 603 00:42:26,335 --> 00:42:30,129 with ex-mine workers employed in government factories. 604 00:42:34,301 --> 00:42:37,554 (narrator) ln bustling Tyneside shipyards, as in mines, 605 00:42:37,638 --> 00:42:42,183 men who remembered mass unemployment feared the peace. 606 00:42:42,268 --> 00:42:48,356 Their doubts and wishes spoke out even in government-made documentary films. 607 00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:51,317 (man) Tyneside's busy enough today. 608 00:42:51,402 --> 00:42:55,572 Old 'uns and young 'uns hard at work making good ships. 609 00:42:55,656 --> 00:43:01,369 But just remember what the yards looked like five years ago. 610 00:43:01,453 --> 00:43:04,872 ldle, empty, 611 00:43:04,957 --> 00:43:07,208 some of them derelict, 612 00:43:07,293 --> 00:43:12,255 and the skilled men that worked in them scattered and forgotten. 613 00:43:12,339 --> 00:43:17,427 Will it be the same again five years from now? 614 00:43:18,804 --> 00:43:21,097 Other films echoed the same question, 615 00:43:21,181 --> 00:43:25,643 like this early effort by the Boulting brothers, starring Bernard Miles. 616 00:43:25,728 --> 00:43:30,565 l reckon Hitler's made a lot of us change our minds a bit lately. 617 00:43:30,649 --> 00:43:32,525 We made a fine big war effort, 618 00:43:32,610 --> 00:43:36,070 but when it's all over, we've got to make a fine big peace effort. 619 00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:41,242 There's no two ways about it. We can't go back now we've made a start. 620 00:43:41,327 --> 00:43:44,621 Cor, look at that Dunkirk. 621 00:43:44,747 --> 00:43:46,998 Weren't no unemployed there. 622 00:43:47,082 --> 00:43:50,293 Every man had a job to do and he done it. 623 00:43:50,377 --> 00:43:55,381 That's what we've got to see they have in peacetime - a job. 624 00:43:55,466 --> 00:43:59,052 And there'll be work enough, too, when this lot's over - 625 00:43:59,136 --> 00:44:04,057 building up something new and better than what's been destroyed. 626 00:44:04,141 --> 00:44:09,312 There mustn't be no more chaps hanging around for work what don't come. 627 00:44:09,396 --> 00:44:11,814 No more slums, neither. 628 00:44:11,899 --> 00:44:14,692 No more dirty, filthy backstreets 629 00:44:14,777 --> 00:44:19,989 and no more half-starVed kids with no room to play in. 630 00:44:20,074 --> 00:44:25,244 We can't go back to the old way of living. Leastways, not all of it. 631 00:44:25,913 --> 00:44:28,581 That's gone forever. 632 00:44:28,666 --> 00:44:33,336 And the sooner we all make up our minds about that, the better. 633 00:44:33,420 --> 00:44:36,130 We've gotta all pull together. 634 00:44:36,882 --> 00:44:40,635 There was a great community spirit during the war. 635 00:44:40,761 --> 00:44:44,013 lt is the nearest thing that l've seen, in my lifetime, 636 00:44:44,098 --> 00:44:46,974 to the operation of a kind of socialist state, 637 00:44:47,059 --> 00:44:50,478 that is of a democratic socialist state of citizens 638 00:44:50,562 --> 00:44:54,107 believing they could influence by their actions, 639 00:44:54,191 --> 00:44:56,734 speedily, what was going to be done, 640 00:44:56,819 --> 00:45:00,405 and that the world could be changed by the way they operated. 641 00:45:00,489 --> 00:45:03,991 They saw that the world was changed by their actions in the war 642 00:45:04,118 --> 00:45:08,371 and thought that could be translated into political action as well. 643 00:45:08,455 --> 00:45:13,334 lt was extremely exciting, but some of the political leaders, 644 00:45:13,419 --> 00:45:16,629 because they were so involved in their own pursuits, 645 00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:19,132 didn't appreciate what was happening. 646 00:45:19,216 --> 00:45:22,927 (narrator) And so, the people's hopes for a better peace 647 00:45:23,011 --> 00:45:25,972 fixed themselves on Sir William Beveridge, 648 00:45:26,056 --> 00:45:28,891 who'd been commissioned by the government 649 00:45:28,976 --> 00:45:32,562 to draw up plans for a welfare state. 650 00:45:32,646 --> 00:45:37,817 When his report was published in 1942, it was a best seller. 651 00:45:37,901 --> 00:45:40,987 The report proposes, first, 652 00:45:41,071 --> 00:45:45,658 an all-in scheme of social insurance, 653 00:45:45,743 --> 00:45:49,787 providing for all citizens and their families 654 00:45:49,913 --> 00:45:54,333 all the cash benefits needed for security, 655 00:45:54,418 --> 00:45:58,629 in return for a single weekly contribution 656 00:45:58,714 --> 00:46:02,175 by one insurance stamp. 657 00:46:03,093 --> 00:46:10,433 lt preserVes the maximum of individual freedom and responsibility 658 00:46:10,517 --> 00:46:14,812 that is consistent with the abolition of want. 659 00:46:14,897 --> 00:46:19,817 (narrator) The government first blew hot, then cold, very cold. 660 00:46:19,902 --> 00:46:22,028 Churchill wouldn't act. 661 00:46:22,112 --> 00:46:25,114 Churchill got very worried and his two chancellors, 662 00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:29,577 Sir Kingsley Wood and Anderson, were equally critical. 663 00:46:29,703 --> 00:46:33,122 That's why the Beveridge plan was delayed affer my bill. 664 00:46:33,207 --> 00:46:35,333 That's why education came first. 665 00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:40,171 (narrator) A major reform of education would tread on fewer big toes. 666 00:46:40,255 --> 00:46:42,423 lt had other uses, too. 667 00:46:42,508 --> 00:46:46,594 (Butler) lt wasn't very controversial. lt was very long. 668 00:46:46,678 --> 00:46:49,680 Churchill realised here was a wonderful way 669 00:46:49,765 --> 00:46:52,225 of exercising the troops, you see? 670 00:46:52,309 --> 00:46:56,187 (narrator) Churchill was, first and foremost, a war leader. 671 00:46:56,271 --> 00:46:58,648 He kept the brakes on reconstruction. 672 00:46:58,732 --> 00:47:01,651 (Butler) Churchill didn't take much interest. 673 00:47:01,735 --> 00:47:06,072 He wanted to know whether we were going to go in for nationalisation. 674 00:47:06,156 --> 00:47:11,410 We had a proposal by Herbert Morrison to nationalise the electricity industry, 675 00:47:11,495 --> 00:47:14,288 and that's where the coalition government stopped. 676 00:47:14,414 --> 00:47:16,541 We couldn't get agreement on that. 677 00:47:16,625 --> 00:47:18,876 (narrator) A new party, Common Wealth, 678 00:47:18,961 --> 00:47:22,088 called for Beveridge now, and won two by-elections. 679 00:47:22,172 --> 00:47:25,675 Other independents took up the cry. 680 00:47:25,759 --> 00:47:28,052 The Beveridge bandwagon rolled on. 681 00:47:28,136 --> 00:47:31,013 Early in 1944, West Derbyshire had its say. 682 00:47:31,098 --> 00:47:33,474 One candidate was wholly independent. 683 00:47:33,559 --> 00:47:36,394 lndeed, he had no programme at all. 684 00:47:36,979 --> 00:47:39,522 l have no animosity... 685 00:47:39,606 --> 00:47:42,191 to the other two candidates. 686 00:47:43,861 --> 00:47:50,449 lf l am not elected, l am the only one that has anything to lose. 687 00:47:51,910 --> 00:47:55,246 l am very proud... 688 00:47:55,330 --> 00:47:58,040 that what l consider 689 00:47:58,125 --> 00:48:02,587 to be the foundation stone of true democracy 690 00:48:02,671 --> 00:48:08,092 has been well and truly laid in the village of Kniveton, 691 00:48:08,176 --> 00:48:11,178 Derbyshire, England. 692 00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:17,602 (narrator) Goodall then fled to his father's cottage. 693 00:48:17,686 --> 00:48:21,564 The real fight was between an independent socialist, Charlie White, 694 00:48:21,690 --> 00:48:24,358 who had Common Wealth support, 695 00:48:24,443 --> 00:48:27,653 and the youthful ConserVative Lord Hartington, 696 00:48:27,779 --> 00:48:30,323 who had official Labour backing. 697 00:48:31,742 --> 00:48:35,077 Hartington's family had always found a seat here, 698 00:48:35,162 --> 00:48:38,205 and to reject him would be most untraditional. 699 00:48:44,087 --> 00:48:46,547 But White won by a landslide. 700 00:48:46,632 --> 00:48:49,884 ConserVatives were not pleased. 701 00:48:49,968 --> 00:48:52,178 Democracy, however, was safe enough 702 00:48:52,304 --> 00:48:55,139 for the Fascist leader, Mosley, to be released. 703 00:48:55,265 --> 00:48:57,683 He had been interned since 1940. 704 00:48:59,436 --> 00:49:04,273 The government said that he was ill, but very few people believed it. 705 00:49:04,399 --> 00:49:08,527 This caused the greatest public uproar of the war years. 706 00:49:18,497 --> 00:49:21,165 Fear and hatred had changed their targets. 707 00:49:21,249 --> 00:49:24,085 Released aliens serVed in the Pioneer Corps. 708 00:49:24,169 --> 00:49:26,963 On newsreels, they now appeared as lovable allies. 709 00:49:27,047 --> 00:49:29,507 (man) This is Corporal Gruker. 710 00:49:29,591 --> 00:49:32,093 His scars and his glass eye 711 00:49:32,177 --> 00:49:34,470 are the legacy of being kicked by a horse 712 00:49:34,554 --> 00:49:37,473 when he was in a crack Austrian cavalry regiment. 713 00:49:37,557 --> 00:49:41,769 - The Dragoons, wasn't it, Gruker? - Yes, sir. l was kicked twice. 714 00:49:41,853 --> 00:49:46,983 Once by the horse and once by Shickelgruber. l prefer the horse. 715 00:49:47,776 --> 00:49:50,987 (narrator) Alien troops were welcomed now in Britain 716 00:49:51,071 --> 00:49:55,408 where they gathered to prepare for the D-day invasion. 717 00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:58,327 The Free Poles conquered many Scottish hearts. 718 00:50:01,289 --> 00:50:04,041 And the Gls were everywhere. 719 00:50:05,794 --> 00:50:09,755 (all chant) One! Two! Three! Four! 720 00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,675 (narrator) They were well-equipped, well-paid, 721 00:50:12,759 --> 00:50:16,846 and gave the girls fine new things like nylons and the jitterbug. 722 00:50:22,978 --> 00:50:27,440 Churchill could now inspect an army which knew that it would win. 723 00:50:28,692 --> 00:50:33,195 The hour of our greatest effort and action is approaching. 724 00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:38,409 We march with valiant allies who count on us as we count on them. 725 00:50:38,493 --> 00:50:44,665 The only homeward road for all of us lies through the arch of victory. 726 00:50:47,627 --> 00:50:50,838 (narrator) At last, the day came. 727 00:50:50,922 --> 00:50:53,007 And it was sweet. 728 00:50:56,970 --> 00:51:00,473 Wally Hammond's cover drive delighted crowds 729 00:51:00,557 --> 00:51:04,101 who basked serenely in the fine summer weather. 730 00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:18,949 Britain seemed close to the winning post. 731 00:51:19,034 --> 00:51:21,660 Wasn't it all over, bar the killing? 732 00:51:21,745 --> 00:51:25,247 (newsreel) Thanks to the very fine weather in the Straits of Dover, 733 00:51:25,332 --> 00:51:30,336 all holiday crowds had a good time, except those rash enough to travel. 734 00:51:30,420 --> 00:51:33,839 Is the favourite winning? Ah, who cares anyway? 735 00:51:45,685 --> 00:51:47,436 (droning) 736 00:52:01,701 --> 00:52:04,161 (narrator) The V-1. 737 00:52:13,380 --> 00:52:15,548 A plane with no pilot. 738 00:52:18,426 --> 00:52:20,010 (droning ceases) 739 00:52:29,604 --> 00:52:31,689 (explosion) 740 00:52:33,316 --> 00:52:35,401 A new kind of weapon. 741 00:52:48,206 --> 00:52:50,749 A new kind of war. 742 00:53:14,149 --> 00:53:16,400 lt was time to hide again. 743 00:53:18,695 --> 00:53:20,779 (droning) 588 00:53:57,478 --> 00:54:01,023 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 589 00:54:01,024 --> 00:54:05,024 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 590 00:54:05,025 --> 00:54:09,025 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud