Britain's Home Front Put That Light Out! - WWII Documentary Air Raid Precautions Home Front

[@helenel4126]

What amazing courage and fortitude the British displayed! Thank God they persevered.

[@Theoobovril]

At 29:40 The evacuation of children out and away from London was not compulsory. Parents had the choice to either send them away or keep them at home. My mother's mother, my grandmother, kept both her and her sister, mt auntie, at home. My mum told me that grandmother stated that if we get bombed, and die, then we all go together. So my mum and auntie stayed and carried on going to school as many of her school friends did. The letter that the children brought home with them, from school, gave the parents the option to send their children away, it was optional but not mandatory.

[@smokeykitty6023]

I feel so grateful I am living in safety and have no family or friend to worry about. I will go back and watch these videos whenever I feel down or depressed. Thank you, greatest generation, for my freedoms and my peaceful life.

[@fairlyvague82]

Great upload thanks. The story of the boy with his leg stuck down the loo was priceless!

[@neilhobson3624]

Don’t you just love the commentary. The vocabulary that is used is ace 👍👍. I wish it was still like this today. Seeing their children going off to a safe place must have been gut wrenching, even though it was a good thing to do.

[@allandavis8201]

This really is a wonderful piece of history, hearing about the “Home Front” and everything associated with the “Battle” to keep the home fires burning as they say, I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the military side of the Second World War but admit to knowing little about how the general population were affected and it’s nice to see a programme dedicated to their war Effort, because of the home front organisation and the civil defence forces the regular, reserve and conscription forces could do what had to be done without overly worrying about what was happening at home, they could train, exercise and get combat ready, and of course many many would die, but they died knowing they had served their country with honour,dedication and determination that paved the way to victory, but without the home front heroes the outcome could have been different. I know what the gentleman @ 41:19 is eluding to but I have to contradict him, the very first air raid on United Kingdom territory was over Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in 1939 when a squadron of Nazi JU-88 aircraft were sent to try and sink HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy and the nation, and Hood obviously frightened Hitler or he wouldn’t have ordered the Luftwaffe to try and sink her, which obviously they failed to do, and for their audacity they lost at least one aircraft to the RAF or Triple ‘A’ fire (Anti Aircraft Artillery), serves them right, never pick a fight with the Jocks, if they can’t beat you physically they would make you go crazy trying to work out WTF they were saying (sorry Jocks). The first raids on England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 were in July 1940 with raids on coastal targets, mostly on our RADAR stations that the Germans thought were something to do with communications, little did they know, if they had known about RADAR and had destroyed the system completely the whole Battle of Britain 🇬🇧 might have had a very bad ending for us, but they didn’t so hahaha 😝. No matter what people think of Winston Churchill prior to him becoming prime minister during WWII, in my opinion he was the best leader this country ever had, and arguably the best leader the World 🌎 had ever seen, and 100% he WAS the best leader out of all the big 4, Himself, Roosevelt, De-Gaulle and Stalin, even though Stalin was only allied with the rest of the allied nations because Hitler attacked the Soviet Union after they jointly invaded Poland, and when we declared war on Nazi Germany we were technically declaring war on the soviets as well, just because they had made a specific pact to invade Poland it was a coordinated attack and therefore that meant they were allied, Stalin only agreed to a nonaggression pact with the Germans because, quite rightly, he didn’t trust Hitler as far as he could throw him, but he still made the coordinated attack on Poland, and that should have led to our declaration of war on Germany include the Soviet Union, but I am very very glad it didn’t, otherwise you would not be reading this comment, we would all be walking around saying “Comrade” or “Have a nice day”, but definitely not “Mein Heir”.

[@helentepper3513]

Nice comment! Social history is definitely worth a look though; the human sacrifice and cost of what we enjoy (in relative terms) today - how people are, sanitation, what they wore, how they romanced each other, all of it - absolutely fascinating and represents the experience of those who paid the true price for our ‘progress’ 😢

[@annoyingbstard9407]

Using your logic we were also at war with Poland…who were allied with Hitler when they both invaded and annexed parts of Czechoslovakia.

[@Cromwelldunbar]

@@annoyingbstard9407 But - and I say this with all respect to you - beware of logics for they are many…Poland was never at war with Czechoslovakia but true it was the tension between the two over an importantly rich mining town half if not more the population of which was Polish or of Polish origin ie their language was Polish and the area of the town had fallen within the Czech territorial claims on the splitting up of lands of the former and now defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the Münich crisis or just prior to the final infamous settlement, Hitler had upped his demands at Bad Godesberg at Chamberlain’s second meeting with him and included in these that he wanted the claims of others to be taken into account as well ie effectively and mischievously to say the very least taking up the griefs of Poland and Hungary against Czechoslovakia. At this stage, Poland had not felt too much fear of Nazi Germany and I doubt neither it nor even Czechoslovakia shed any tear at the fate of Schussnig’s capitulation before Hitler’s characteristic foul play and bullying. True that Austria was no democracy, had been shouldered by Mussolini until he found he had no friends but Hitler over Abyssinia, true that Austria’s population was politically divided by three political groups ie the socialists, the Nazis, and the ruling Dollfuss/Schussnig group, true that the socialists And the Nazis were together in opposition to the ruling group, true that the majority of Austrians saw Union and integration of their country with Nazi germany as the solution to their economic and even cultural problems…and worse true that an eminent Austrian politician and socialist recommended voting for the Anschluss with Germany: that man was Karl Renner [and how he got the favour of the Russian troops when they invaded Austria in 1945 is still a mystery…] But back to the drawing board…Hitler was biding his time with the Poles and the latter were rather full of themselves at this stage believing they were Germany’s military equals any day and hadn’t they received German praise when the great Pole Marshal Pilsudski had driven back the Soviet hords all the way back from the remaining ten percent of Polish territory to Russia? But Pilsudski had died and the ´friendship non aggression treaty’ between Pilsudki’s Poland and Weimar had ended and had not been renewed. And Hitler was bumming up Polish trust in his puerile ‘good faith’ by his ‘defence of their interest in poor Czechoslovakia…True too and you are right that Poland hardly rallied to the defence of their neighbour’s interest either which would come with both stealth and bullying over Danzig and marginal strips of Polish territory for Germany to build an Autobahn connection with East Prussia . Matters became worse and Polish efforts to sidetrack, if not wholly resist, Hitler’s increasingly bullying demands eg that Poland send an emissary with full powers to sign an agreement to Berlin was nevertheless effectively seen for what it was ie an aggressive bullying tactic of the kind Hitler had successfully deployed against Schussnig, and Benes, Chamberlain and Daladier, and later against Hacha in March 1939, and refused to be drawn into the pit…But alas the Poles still overrated their chances on the field of eventual battle - as would or already did both Britain and France. And thank goodness Britain and France avoided involvement over Soviet invasion of Finland for then would we have been at war with the two most heavily armed totalitarian dictatorships imaginable! As Orwell might have well agreed, our hearts were in the right place, but Hell, didn’t we overrate ourselves, escaping by the skin of our teeth, thanks to the incompetence of one of the Axis Trio ie Italy, and the blind exaggerated ambition of Hitler, and the similarly outlandish and exaggerated wanton aggression of Japan…But had it not been for the guts and determination of one GM - Churchill - and Britain’s People of that Generation which I salute - we with Halifax would have buckled like France and Petain. Let us be grateful and give thanks… That said, my praise and thanks to the makers of this documentary and to those who have made it available for viewing…It is one if not the very best and brings back memories to me personally because I too lived through it all - but not the worst as many poor souls did - and I know, respect, admire and feel the same as the gentleman relates his own experiences breaking down at the mention of the GM ..saying simply « He was great… » and I echo his feelings which are mine too Churchill was the greatest…the others came along when attacked - Stalin did his utmost to remain on good commercial relations with Hitler, delivering the last oil supply just hours before Hitler’s treachery: and a German soldier had swam across the dividing river line the night before to Russian lines to divulge all that would happen shortly…Stalin informed by the local Russian commanding officer for instructions, got Stalin’s order: « Shoot him! »….That was the world of those days…

[@robnewman6101]

Today of course! Old German Bomb Shells can still be found discovered in parts of the UK today!

[@timburr4453]

heck they find unexploded ww1 ordinances in europe

[@robnewman6101]

Ok.

[@taiikomochiyuurichin1459]

It is bound to find years later as at the time they may have just not been noticed due to plowing deep into the ground and some may have been rated at the time as unnecessary to remove depending on the situation or just forgotten about in the chaos.

[@robnewman6101]

Mr Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965.

[@adeh503]

Excellent 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

[@markbell9135]

Hands down the greatest generation ❤️

[@timburr4453]

watching this...britain certainly took preparing seriously. The devastation came, but it couldve been worse. Everyone chipped in to help

[@nathr7375]

Yeah I knew we prepared but wow this was some prep and a half.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

That's a myth. In reality crime skyrocketed during the Blitz.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw Poor Britain.... apparently the rest of the world was crime free !!!

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Sebastian Haffner is correct regarding Hitler's role in decolonisation.

[@fayecox9401]

I like stuff to do with the home front thankyou for upload this

[@annehersey9895]

Those gas masks made people look like Woozles from AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh with the Hefalumps and Woozles!

[@itsnerfornothin6995]

The clip at 4:37 what film does that come from? Would like to see the full thing.

[@warprecautions631]

I do not know actually. I tried to find it with no luck. Hopefully I will find the film eventually.

[@djl2701]

I’ve always wanted to know too but could never find it

[@marciawilson1490]

The film is called "Things to Come" made in 1936

[@chriswaring5565]

5: 45 ITS MR HODGERS IN DADS ARMY PUT THAT RUDDY LIGHT OUT!!!!!!!!!

[@rapman5363]

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle

[@jeanbrown8295]

I wonder if todays generation would survive the conditions that we lived under then

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

People would never support an imperialist war now.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw Really? Look out of your window at the dupes with Ukrainian flags flapping on their cars and houses. They DO support US imperialist wars, they just don;t realise it.

[@johannesbols57]

What? Take away their phones? Are you mad?

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

@@johannesbols57 People nowadays would know the Blitz was in response to the RAF bombing cities and towns in Germany.

[@christopherwelch136]

Would have to; no choice.

[@mavisemberson8737]

I remember taking my gas mask to school in its little case!

[@robnewman6101]

20th Century's Emergency Services.

[@robnewman6101]

Fire & Rescue. Constabulary, Police. Medical.

[@rescuepetsrule6842]

At 7:10- what a fall! The man didn't even try to break his fall. Later, the narrator says, while showing boys picking through bombed out home possessions, they are collecting "souvenirs"- they are LOOTing, ya big goof! I just watched the story of Billy Hill, the crime boss in London, who had gangs of men that did a lot of looting, too. It's like stealing from the dead, and if the owners survive, the last thing they need to know is some crook found the money and the antique rings. Anyway, this is a great film about the many different people it took to win, and the fact that they were willing to sacrifice together to do it.

[@robnewman6101]

A Tragic Time!

[@adeh503]

Even more tragic now when you see what's happening to our great country

[@robnewman6101]

We Brits shall never surrounder!

[@rapman5363]

😂😂😂

[@robnewman6101]

?

[@AnniePA1960]

Or surrender, even.

[@andyg3]

Who are we not surrounding?

[@annehersey9895]

Unfortunately, war-at least in 1939 could have been avoided if Britain and France would have marched into Germany the minute Hitler militarized the Saar and Rhineland! Hitler could have been stopped also the minute rearming was discovered.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Bless.... such naivety. You seem to believe that massive armies just materialise fully equipped at the drop of a hat !!! The BEF started crossing the English Channel on 4th September 1939, and by the time that Poland had collapsed on 6th October, less than 2 of the eventual 10 full strength divisions of the BEF had assembled in France. My own father was 20 years old in 1939, PERFECT age for IMMEDIATE conscription you might think... he received his "call up" papers on 2nd Sept 1939, had his RN medical on 3rd December 1939 and was instructed to arrive for his Royal Navy Basic training on 27th February 1940!!! Almost unbelievably, simply the bureaucratic process to get him to training by itself took 5 months. Germany had been slowly mobilising for the previous SEVEN years. The rest of Europe had been bending over backwards to avoid another European blood letting like WW1. France's mobilisation like many French endeavours was bungled. It conscripted so many of its citizens that it crippled its own economy and then had to release tens of thousands of conscripts to man its factories again. Peacetime armies do not just flick a switch and instantly turn into "combat mode"... its not a computer game. Hundreds of thousands (millions in France's case) of reservists and conscripts have to be processed, transported to their training, equipped, trained, allocated and transported to their unit, then their unit needs transporting to their operational posting. That is the unfortunate reality of military mobilisation. Britain was the world's number 1 seapower prior to WW2 as we controlled a global empire highly dependent on maritime trade, We've NEVER possessed armies the size of France and Germany's. Instead on 3rd Sept 1939 the Royal Navy instigated the North sea blockade to instantly cut off the vast majority of Germany's fuel and supply imports, the same blockade that strangled Germany to near starvation in WW1, and the RAF launched attacks against units of the Kriegsmarine in the north sea on the same day, suffering heavy losses in the process. THATS how we the British prosecuted the war from day 1.

[@robnewman6101]

WW2 1939-1945.

[@chriswaring5565]

#6:34 WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING MR HITLER?

[@ricksart6437]

pretty sure the pictures of the queen in this are actually the queens mother.

[@warprecautions631]

The Queen mother had the title of Queen while George VI was king.

[@fairlyvague82]

HRH Elizabeth II didn’t succeed to the Throne until 1952. Therefore from 1936 (abdication of Edward VIII) until 1952 the person we eventually became to know as ‘The Queen Mother’ was officially The Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth. Between 1936 and 1947 she was also Empress of India.

[@marthae9338]

She was the Queen then, yes.

[@marine4lyfe85]

​@@marthae9338Queen consort, correct?

[@robnewman6101]

Their all scared & frightened!

[@eatiegourmet1015]

And you would stand on a hill top, bare your chest and shout at the Luftwaffe, "Come take me if you can!", right? You have no idea about life or society then, and I doubt you would survive very well were you transported back to that time.

[@karlfonner7589]

I think that the news reel people had bought stock in Anderson shelters. Watch this news clip again with a bottle and take a shot every time they mention Anderson shelters😂😂😂😂

[@eatiegourmet1015]

They were being pushed hard by the gov't. Like now, media have to push the gov't agenda. Though, I think the Anderson shelters were a good plan. Through this video, however, I kept trying to think of ways to reinforce them, and to keep them from flooding.

[@mavisemberson8737]

Don't be crass. This really happened.

[@robertroyston5707]

Why make that sound when speaking

[@andyg3]

What sound

[@randydelaney7053]

I know it's no doubt just me, but as interesting as that Cyril in the blue shirt is, I can't stand his lip smacking while he talks. It's so annoying as I am Hyper Sensitive to sounds like that. Ugh. However I want to hear what he has to say I just wish he would stop doing that over and over. I do love this though. I wonder how people there would cope if there was a World War today? I hope not though.

[@Bigbro28]

18:00 - Ah, unequal pay for men and women, which continues to this day. 🐨🇦🇺

[@cherylschantz9893]

Most of the time it’s because women are the ones who take off when their children are sick. Men aren’t often willing to do that.

[@Bigbro28]

@@cherylschantz9893 : Fair enough, Cheryl, one up to you. I reckon that is pretty accurate. Unfortunately, some things never change. 🐨🇦🇺

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Some people talk absolute arse gravy. Can anyone give me a current example of a woman doing the exact same job as a man for less money? Maybe 30-40 years ago but give over... it doesn't happen in the western world now, simple as that.

[@Bigbro28]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Regardless of your charming use of the English (Pom) language, check out some of the pay rates in Oz. Too many examples to list here. Avagoodweekend. 🇦🇺

[@bradleyjackson7168]

Women are paid more than men now

[@drstevenrey]

Would the British please begin using the dentists that exist. If you don't you will make these funny noises when speaking as you have a burnt down town in your mouth. Just horrible. Priorities people, priorities.

[@warprecautions631]

Americans on average have more missing teeth than British people, and yet they are the only ones who push that steretoype. Funny that.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Cletus, Auntie Mum is calling you back to your shack for your grits and gravy.

[@alexcarter8807]

That guy's old as the hills and he can lisp all he wants. He's probably older than Americans can expect to live, what with we Yanks' decreasing life expectancy. Plus we've on average got worse teeth to go with our worse health.