Time Team S15-E08 Blitzkrieg on Shooters Hill, London

Tony Robinson and the team unearth the hidden archaeology of the biggest British battle that never was: the defence against a Nazi invasion in 1940.
Shooters Hill, in south London, was a key strong point in what was known as 'Stop Line Central' ¿ one of several defensive anti-tank lines around the capital, designed to fight off a potential German attack.
The road through Shooters Hill runs straight from the Kent coast and down into the heart of London. If the defences here had been breached, the Home Guard would have been pushed back to the banks of the Thames, before making a last ditch stand in the streets of Whitehall.

[@Pauldjreadman]

I like Tony Robinson. He translates and brings humour.

[@korpus10p]

He's a great host for the show!

[@charlieherron5462]

I'm surprised after watching Francis Pryor for years on this show that we didn't hear about how the concrete bunkers and pillboxes were for rituals and religious ceremony.

[@JETWTF]

I was going to make the same comment, Surprised Francis didn't say it was for ritual, they would go into the bunker to commune with the ancestors and bring some form of offering. After seeing a bronze age episode where he was claiming an island was an "island of the dead" because it had 1 barrow on it at the start then once the whole village was discovered he said it was in their minds that it was an island of the dead I gave up on his BS being remotely believable. Then 2 bronze age spear heads found point down and a bronze sword at the bridge landing of the same island were offerings to the gods. The bronze sword was clearly bent from bad edge alignment(term used for when swinging the sword it isn't 90 degrees to the target) and broken at a fault in the material which was clear evidence of use and if you break a spear and the head lands in water with soft silt it will land point down and stay standing in the silt, the shaft would come out over time leaving nothing but the head. Bronze age was a brutal time, you would put your settlement on a island and use the bridge for defense, 3 bronze age weapons with clear evidence they could be from combat and for him nope it was ritual. Then the episode with a broken pot with burnt grain in a ditch next to the enclosure entrance was ritual, they carefully placed the pot with burnt grain in the ditch for the gods to eat. Giving the gods some burnt grain is an offering worthy of the gods? Most likely newlywed farmer Bob and Jane got a bit horny while Jane was cooking the grain pottage and the pottage burned and cracked the pot. Bob took it out with him and dropped it into the ditch on his way back to the fields. Which sounds more believable? Then everytime he is there and they are doing a trackway or bridge and they find anything on the sides of it that would have been in the water... More ritual offerings. Has he ever seen what is on the sides of bridges today? you can find all kinds of things in the water alongside bridges, some of it expensive but we don't perform rituals unless you consider accidently dropping a ring as you cross a bridge a ritual. In other words, Francis is full of ritual BS.

[@stiannobelisto573]

Haha I thought the same thing

[@laurahall5218]

In America we call the heavy anchoring bars "Re-bar" which is a brand name. In England it is called "whacking great bars", which is hilarious.

[@JETWTF]

The flanged spikes were for camo coverings over the bunker. Put the spikes in and different length poles can be bolted onto them to hold up the camo tent in an irregular shape so it looks like foliage from the air.

[@scarletfluerr]

I thought they looked like a base unit that something would screw down to.

[@richtravis9562]

@@scarletfluerr i was thinking lewis gun AA mounts, but that was just a guess.

[@sarahhearn-vonfoerster7401]

Enjoyable series. Family friends, whom I met during Graduate School years overseas, lived on Shooters Hill Road. I remember clearly the gigantic bomb crater across the street from their home, near the Naval Observatory. It was unbelievable. These were persons with steel backbones. The Mother of the family later became M.P of the District. She was a sterling example of the bravery and determination of that generation. It was such an honor to have known them .

[@havingalook2]

I thought this one would be dry and boring - well was I mistaken. I found this episode very very interesting. Gave me goosepimples to think what the ordinary citizens had to endure. We owe a lot to the past!

[@korpus10p]

Cracking good episode. Amazing to think what the every day blokes would have had to go through had the Island ever actually been invaded. These people were/are the Greatest Generation!

[@gillianlefrancois9394]

I was born in Shooters Hill Hospital, amazing to see it on this show! Now I feel positively ancient!

[@enidmorrison6063]

Me too, played I the woods. My dad was in the Home Guard.

[@annk.8750]

I was born before the war ended. My mother told me that when she had me, she could look out her hospital window at an unexploded bomb in the adjacent field. One uncle was fighting in Belgium, one in North Africa, and the oldest one in the home guard. When our home town was bombed he was mentioned in the papers as having two vehicles, a jeep and a motorcycle, blown out from under him on the same day.

[@163london]

This is where I was born and brought up (my parents still live there). I had no idea about any of this until they made this programme. Fascinating.

[@statickaeder29]

I love these Home Guard Veterans - I have always loved the elderly, and its wonderful to see them reporting from their youths.

[@dadsbus]

Great to watch. My grandfather was part of the Shooters Hill home guard.

[@enidmorrison6063]

So was my dad.

[@vincerussett7922]

Wow. Were any of them involved with the TT programme? We need to record all those Home Guard memories: critical stuff.

[@thedrunkenelf]

This, and 'blood sweat and beers' are my favourite episodes. Thank you for uploading all these Time Teams I really appreciate it!

[@holmanrw]

Born in 1952 I grew up at a time when the landscape was still dotted with pillboxes, airfields and bomb craters, many gardens still had their Anson shelters serving as garden sheds or hideaways for us boys. Over the years they mostly disappeared and I often commented on the loss of history but our parents generation who had lived and fought through the World Wars understandably needed no reminders of those times and just wanted them gone.

[@jehugo66]

Keep a few examples to teach history and to remember.

[@parrotraiser6541]

I think you mean "Anderson" shelters. primaryfacts.com/506/anderson-shelter-facts/ Ansons were twin-engine aeroplanes, also WWII era. www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=2

[@doncook2054]

That is the reality of all archaeology ...something vastly/suprememly important .... then, later, something no one wants to remember....so it's forgotten; then dug up by archaeologists trying to understand its importance....

[@hennessyblues4576]

Probably the best archeological wartime artifacts still remain at the bottom of the English Channel.

[@65twiggy]

My Mum grew up in Cambridge during the war and I was born there. Although no major damage there,they had over 400 air raids and over 20 people killed. My Mum lived in the southern US in her later years. First time she heard the tornado siren she went under the kitchen table. All I remember is the absolute fear in her eye for those few moments until she came back to herself.

[@patukott]

My late grandmother studied dancing back in the 30's in Germany, France and Italy, and she told me about the ghastly feeling one got seeing and hearing the story of Edward and Wallis being discussed everywhere - with Hitler in power and the inevitability of a new war becoming clearer with every day that passed.

[@lisakilmer2667]

Stewart's map work gives a pretty scary story. His little speech at 42:40 made me tear up.

[@Songbirdstress]

Dad's Army is underrated. Very real seen through humour. Sir Tony would have been great in it .

[@chrispascoe8116]

I used to play in Oxleys Wood when I used to visit my Aunt and cousins, that would have been about 1960, I knew what the bits of buildings were because my Auntie & Mum told me, but it's very interesting to see the stuff investigated.

[@fjmb79]

i love these WW1 and WW2 episodes of time team , thx for uploading

[@Everywhere2]

Stone the crows! (I love Phil.)

[@Everywhere2]

I also love Reijer!!!! Thank you for all these wonderful videos.

[@stannousflouride8372]

The Communications Bunker is here: 51°28'25.4"N 0°04'16.2"E The Spigot Mortar is here: 51°28'13.4"N 0°03'21.3"E And the Barrage Balloon tether base is here: 51°28'13.9"N 0°04'15.8"E

[@rogerwilco2]

As a Bronze Age expert, that must be well outside Francis Pryor's comfort zone. But having an eye witness is not something you get when investigating the Bronze Age. And somehow he sees and finds Bronze Age stuff everywhere.

[@frankcarmack1442]

Thank God for the good people of Britain...Churchill was right...it was "their finest hour". I spent much too short a time in London in June-July of 06. I wish I'd had a chance to personally thank members of that generation for their courage under pressure. I have been embarrassed by America's isolation and "know nothing"-ism while Western Europe fell to Nazism and fascist thugs. But the interval did allow us to make the tools which made Germano-Italia-Sino defeat possible. We ignore the past at our peril. Thanks TIME TEAM for shedding archaeological light on this time.

[@TacDyne]

It was Churchill's fault for being a psychotic warmonger and having his vision of fighting a "great enemy" in the first place. He declared war on Germany. Not the other way around. And it's too bad you haven't studied anything about history, otherwise you would know that the US had been supplying the allies with equipment since the war started. Look up lend lease. Research: A li'l dab'll do ya.

[@cogidubnus1953]

Yes and we Brits were repaying huge sums for American "generosity" right up into the 1990s...it crippled our post war recovery and reconstruction...the industrial heritage (or rather lack of) is with us still...

[@Bunionification]

TacDyne, Chamberlin declared war on Germany because Germany invaded Poland, Churchill wasn't Prime minister until 1940.Lend lease started in 1941.You might want to brush up on your history too

[@paull2815]

Yeah, American taxpayers should have just opened their wallets without expecting repayment for loans because Britains politicians couldn't mind their own business.

[@cogidubnus1953]

@@paull2815 OK - that's fine... but explain that to the displaced citizens of the Chagos archipelago...which as a US citizen you might just recognise as Diego Garcia...or more likely not - because US citizens rarely conceive anything outside their own tiny shithouse range...

[@jantruitt9241]

I had never heard of “Barrage Balloons” in London or anywhere else for that matter. See you’re not to old to learn something!

[@TheNyah5]

28:00 I was always wondering, how/why we forget certain things in history. Like, how could we forget how Romans talked? Or various things they did and created. Now I‘m watching this, and just realized that they were actually guessing what that shelter was for. And it‘s only been 70-80 years. Imagine all the knowledge lost in history.

[@GingerTomMom]

My 2nd most favorite episode of Time Team!

[@KoriEmerson]

That last bit where they drew in the communications building.. It just send shivers.. God bless the Brits for all they did for King and Country.

[@vincerussett7922]

Thank you

[@Wotdermatter]

When I lived at Hainault, Essex, the underground ran alongside what had been R.A.F. Fairlop. All along the perimeter were huge blocks of cement which were not square. They were there for anti-tank defense. Also, there were a few bomb shelters and Nissan huts used by the crews, ground staff, and staff stationed there. There was a plan, at one time, to keep some of the many artifacts and build a type of museum, but I do not know what became of the idea. Now, living in Canada, I have lost track of all of my old friends and cannot find out if anything is left.

[@David.Bobson]

Wotdermatter it's a golf course now. All that's left is some remnants of the ww1 part of the airfield, pill box at fairlop station. The eight gun a.a site down the road at Mark's gate has survived and worth a look on Google earth.

[@hellspite]

Finally watched this episode. Good insight into the defense of London

[@brian554xx]

5:26 "yeah?" _Oh, I'm on camera!_

[@annemariesibal1435]

Well done to all Allied Forces! I’m a Yank, prior military, my grandfathers both served in WWII,, and I absolutely love and respect our British friends! Long live the UK!

[@vincerussett7922]

Thank you

[@BoredCertified]

Great episode! So interesting! God bless the brave men and women willing to sacrifice so much in the defense of their country!

[@phantomkate6]

This is one of my favourite episodes!

[@tammydriver5759]

This is mislabeled. It's Season 15, Episode 6. Episode 8 is Knave Hill, Leicestershire

[@riffdenbow9055]

OMG the subtle Dad's Army visual reference at 1:48

[@takefive4291]

Ha, ha! I have watched this perhaps four times over the years and I never before now had noticed the "Blackadder moment" at 33:50 (approx)!

[@areyouavinalaughisheavinal5328]

blackadder?

[@lisakilmer2667]

I've always had the theory that the lack of Blackadder references over the years was something Tony insisted on (he was a producer). I think there are only a couple of references total!

[@alanatolstad4824]

I loved this episode, so I'm not trivializing the subject by reminiscing the story in Disney's BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS...the secondary story having to do with the German invasion and citizens being called to defend their homeland...MIGHTY STUFF any way one looks at it.

[@rick5793]

I've been watching TT for a while, I'm pleased to see this about WW2. Be nice to see more of this type of investigations. Ancient history is fine and very interesting BUT to do more of these about WW1 & WW2.

[@cherielk1975]

Some years back a sunken U Boat was found not far from the coast of Maine. It put us into reality on how close the war was to mainland America

[@1andonlylynda]

I respect the British for what they did. Nazi's were bombing their import ships, their coastal cities and were attempting to invade. England succeeded in stopping them and for that they are to be congratulated. It took a lot of countries to defeat the Nazi's so this is not a place to play I am better than you. Enjoy the episode and leave the one up man ship where it belongs. In your own head.

[@sunnyrose6106]

+Thomas F The U.S. did not help until touched by Pearl Harbor !

[@edbadyt]

Most brits know we couldn't have won the battle of Britain without the Polish and that the Nazis were pretty much defeated by the Russians. But this is a British show, never intended to be shown anywhere else so talking about other countries effort while looking at our invasion preparations would be like pointlessly changing the subject.

[@Whitpusmc]

grandma lynda Well said. I especially admire the few and their leader Dowding. I’m also sorry we, the USA, didn’t get in sooner but we were badly unprepared and isolationist so.... But we were the arsenal of the war and shipped a ton of stuff to the allies. The Red Army ran on our trucks and that alone helped them. Plenty of praise to go around.

[@cathjj840]

Comack = the perfect illustration. sigh The US 'liberates' people to death. - and destruction, physical, moral and cultural. But that destruction permeates US society as well. The only things really thriving there are the MIC, corporations and finance. People are stuck or regressing.

[@vincerussett7922]

My parents and grandparents were bombed in Bristol during the second World War. This is still an uncomfortable period to recollect, even now. In 1940, Britain was literally alone. They would have fought to the death to defend our homeland. As Churchill said 'You can always take one with you'. I'm not sure I would have been brave enough. But fortunately, despite Seelowe, it was impossible. The RAF and the Royal Navy were powerful enough to have destroyed any attempt to invade. But don't get me wrong: without our Empire ( as it then was, now Commonwealth), without our US friends, and our Russian allies (don't forget them), WW2 could have been very different.

[@captainseyepatch3879]

20:00 basically the best way to put it. "Ya we know that."

[@sarahcoleman5269]

Worlds largest nails. I'm starting to think Matt is a masochist, Roman slave, monastery laborer, Norman squire... if there's role they want to explore that involves hard labor and near on torture, he's your man.

[@areyouavinalaughisheavinal5328]

Phil plays guitar finger style.

[@lisakilmer2667]

Matt was always the good sport to do the "experimental archaeology" type things. Sometimes they just used the reenactors' clubs.

[@mrsnoozyboozee6046]

im a bit late to this but I'm happy that I live 2 min from here

[@allenhonaker4107]

What fugas recipe are you using? You forgot the grease and the detergent flakes.

[@pillager6190]

Yes but we are 80 years later, lots of practical experience since 1940.

[@markarianludd5930]

My mother's house in Liverpool was bombed during the war. Thankfully she and her mother were in a in one of the shelters.

[@flitsertheo]

If I'm not mistaken the CGI balloon truck at about 8:46 is a *German* WWII Opel Blitz .

[@cogidubnus1953]

Born in 1953 of London/Brighton parents, I was, virtually from birth, wholly aware of the potential impact of a fougasse...Isn't this sad....

[@cathjj840]

Funny name, fougasse. In France it means a tasty flat-ish bread from the Midi (southern France), often slashed with holes and garnished with cheese, onions, pork bits or other good stuff.

[@jameshorn270]

Re barrage ballooons, there is a 1940 comedy starring the Crazy Gang called Gas Bags, which starts out with them in a barrage balloon unit, though that soon disappears in the craziness. I also ran across a memoir by a Canadian pilot which includes a day off exploring and he comes across a more rural barrage balloon site crewed by women who have found a different use for the balloons. They crank it down so he and one of the girls can climb on top where their weight creates a depression in the top (low pressure gas filling) so they won't roll off. They proceed to have sex 2000 feet off the ground. Sorry, it was two or three decades ago, so I do not remember the title of the memoir. I also did some archaeology in Israel as a student. It was at Beersheva where a WW I battle, Australian cavalary vs Turkish infantry, had been fought. I hit two hand grenades with a pick. The Israeli military police came out to gather the grenades and said if I had hit one on the striker plate it would likely have one off.

[@paulbriody297]

A reminder of the actual reality of the real world.

[@pillager6190]

Replace "Actual" with "Awful". They both work.

[@Centurion101B3C]

Lovely to see that Phil is wearing a Dutch army sweater.

[@neddyladdy]

Oh please not another fuck-wit that reckons the European war would have won by Germany had not the US intervened.

[@TheShadow19962810]

***** fuck off the u.s had to intervene to prevent the Germans from total domination

[@neddyladdy]

TheShadow19962810 Total dominatgion ? Are you as total fuckwit ? Russia took on and defeated the greater bulk of the German military, albeit with a little help from the UK and more material help from the US.

[@TheShadow19962810]

***** how about you fuck off you piece of shit and domination does not have a g in it you fucking nitwit

[@neddyladdy]

TheShadow19962810 oh very well, how would you like me to fuck off good sir ?

[@Tiberiotertio]

The three days bit seems always to be the most important message......as if that where so wow.

[@lavenderwolf6]

Tiberiotertio considering that most digs take months, if not years, to get the same amount of information that these guys get in 3 days.....yeah, it is "so wow".

[@marthareis5873]

Wonder if the Time Team went back and excavated the Bronze Age ironworks?

[@onnieduvall2565]

Phil and Matt as Home Guard reminds me Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello. So hilarious looking. Regardless, they demonstrate the reality of the dark days of World War II Britain and the last line defenders of the country. Battle of Britain was a turning point, but if the British Army was not rescued at Dunkirk even having lost the air war, Britain would still have been a tempting target for Hitler.

[@jehugo66]

I think Hitler changed his mind about invading England at Dunkirque, because after all, the Germans could've closed in and allowed the British Army to escape in lieu of his planned Barbarossa invasion of Russia. I believe his Blood Philosophy of the British Anglo Saxons being akin to his German Aryans what with Saxon invasion and the intermarrying of the Royals between Hapsburgs and English Crown. He was hopeful of them being ultimate allies against Bolshevism.

[@richardtorz2164]

When you are going after the target of anything ww2 in britain, you have to disregard anything prehstoric iron age, bronze age or roman. Just bag it and tag it and mark it's position and just keep tracking on with the ww2 things. You can't get bogged down in trying to figure out anything pre-ww2 or else you just lose all aim.

[@TeresaTrimm]

First aired February 24, 2008.

[@angelitabecerra]

What's a Pillbox defense?

[@allmendoubt4784]

They've missed the women. Shooters hill was a vantage point for incendiary lookouts, that may explain a comms bunker better - lookouts systems directing the fire services or tipping off the RAF. Also for anti aircraft guns as the incoming bombers followed the south bank towards the docks. Just further down in Charlton, Woolwich and Greenwich you can see the bombsites from the switches in architecture. Shooters Hill Road is also part of Watling street - an ancient ridgeway communication from Kent to London, probably used in theRoman invasion, and certainly paved by Romans. This area has more strategic history than most areas in Britain, occupied, probably since pre-history. It is still deeply associated with the armed services. You can watch the Queens guard horses in the vicinity quite regularly. I had to stop for the Queen herself once after crossing road fer a loaf a Kingsmill. Learn more at the Docklands museum and Woolwich and Greenwich Naval history sites.

[@pillager6190]

Remember they found iron slag from bronze age on the hill.

[@andro7862]

Does anybody know the specific name of the anti-tank mortar shown here?

[@pixiniarts]

The Blacker Bombard, also known as the 29mm Spigot Mortar.

[@andro7862]

pixiniarts Thanks!

[@yereverluvinuncleber]

Barry the mortar.

[@cathjj840]

Not Matt the mortar? Oh right, he's the other kind of mortar.

[@AMRosa10]

23:00 The flanged stakes were likely mounting brackets for Vickers Machine Guns.

[@andrewdrabble8939]

Now this is the kind of history I like. World War 2, not the Tudor or Elizabethan era's

[@jehugo66]

That pipe looks like what are used for pipe handrails and fencing. I'd guess that bunker is for troops stationed in the park on duty, possibly antiaircraft gunners watching for German bombers who may have to duck under cover.

[@imapaine-diaz4451]

32:06 There"s MORTAR this? Bad pun tony!

[@sherryelliott4795]

Is Guy a WWII expert too?

[@vincerussett7922]

Yes, he is

[@jehugo66]

5:25 👍🏻

[@markreeter6227]

“We will fight on the beaches. . . we will fight on the streets . . . we will never surrender!” W. S. Churchill

[@1101millie97]

Wow, they had real-life wildfire....

[@hellspite]

Keeps stopping at 00:49 really pissing me off. Will try another MAC.

[@spacelemur7955]

Why do I think that in the unlikely event that the Germans were advancing on this crucial hill, the regular army would be manning all the positions once the Home Guard gave them the tour? Sure the local guys could, if not deemed in the way, add a deadly ruckus, but did they have the logistics to maneuver, or were they meant to be cannon fodder that would hopefully extract a bit of a toll to fractionally reduce the job the Army? That would take courarage and a willingness to self sacrifice with no guarantee of any success.

[@tobiasfunke8990]

Of course Francis finds Bonze Age...

[@AlfieGoodrich]

Fascinating. I did my Army basic training not far from Shooters Hill. And my great great uncle, Colonel Maurice Buckmaster - as Head of French Section, SOE - would I am sure certainly have known all about the planed British Resistance plans.

[@tlewis171]

I wonder if they ever bothered to learn about who owned the houses with the 'secret bunker' back during the war....

[@susanking9033]

Trust Francis to find bronze age archeology

[@philais]

The Home Guard was like what Hitler used to defend Berlin at the end against the Soviets and would have had the same ending...total defeat. Thank God Germany did not invade.

[@allenra530]

The principle of layered defense was exactly what the Russians utilized to stop the Nazi invasion in the Ukraine. The British would have made an invasion incredibly costly for the Germans, just as the Russians did. A posting in the invasion forces in Britain would have carried the same sort of virtual death sentence that the Eastern Front came to carry in the latter part of the invasion of Russia. The British defense planners devised a brilliant plan to defeat any German forces that managed to get off the beaches. The only way that the Allies were able to get through the Bocage in France was really sheer bloody mindedness. If the Germans had been able to make better use of the hedgerows, they might have delayed the breakout even longer.

[@maddog2771]

2019

[@spacewater7]

Just a few minutes in and I'm reminded that many UK high schoolers now think that Sherlock Holmes was a real man and Churchill was a fiction.

[@pillager6190]

Not shocked. US history is not really taught anymore either. Communist Plot if you ask me.

[@jehugo66]

It's ironic how Germany's defense of Berlin is framed as pathetic with teenage boys and old men against Russian tanks-however we see here that was the exact plan for London's final defense, with all men of military age having already been called off to war. The topic of the Home Defense of England-equipment and structures built but never used as ultimately intended-is starting to emerge and be studied by new generations, as the generation who manned them has almost disappeared.

[@tomhenderson7498]

Having of never had that problem,of course it is natural for you not to understand what ...... Making the last stand ....... means!

[@joshschneider9766]

Foo gas = napalm with alumina added to make it incendiary as well as sticky and flammable

[@joshschneider9766]

Using it today is a war crime

[@joshschneider9766]

Not that I would have begrudge the stop line fellas using it mind ya.

[@allenra530]

@@joshschneider9766 I recall that the Americans used it in Vietnam as part of the defensive ring around their fire bases in the 1960's and 1970's. I believe that the British also used it against the Communist insurgents in Malaysia during that time period.

[@davekinghorn9567]

Aluminum.. not Alumina. "Alumina" is Al2O3, the already burned ash from Aluminum combustion. Aluminum powder burns so good they use it as fuel in solid rockets. By the way, Napalm is Naptha + Palm Oil.

[@vincewhite5087]

Actually at this time the allies did not know about concentration camps etc.

[@hellspite]

Been trying to watch this vid for weeks still cannot. Keep getting error message all the rest work.

[@jehugo66]

The local archeologist says that there's no record of many of the scattered defense fixtures. I wonder if German Luftwaffe reconnaissance aircraft exist showing these under construction (like Allies took over Normandy prior to D-Day, and with their analysis of the fortifications. They probably do exist and say more than British War Records about London WW II invasion defense fortifications. The Nazis kept great records of everything-they didn't destroy their files to their detriment. Brits routinely got rid of everything, usually by burning, their war documents daily all throughout '40-'45. Home Guard Women are probably the best survivors to have tell about these times and facilities now. They'll be being dug up anew for centuries by future Time Teams.

[@jehugo66]

Luftwaffe Reconnaissance Aircraft PHOTOS.

[@ledichang9708]

Luftwaffe's photo archive went up with Dresden Cathedral in 45. They also burned so much stuff in Berlin towards the end of the war that to this day even the German War Memorial Bureau had problems tracking down who went where during the war.

[@krabat4821]

Please look at this video at 0:45 (kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3XNq59qZ7h5b80).Could that be Shooters Hill ?

[@iDuckman]

Okay, I have to come clean and admit it. One of the reasons I so enjoy TT is that it's one of the only places where one can view attractive young women doing sweaty manual labor. There. Now I feel much better.

[@eboracum2012]

Ummm, Guy? Britain didn't win WW2, the Allies won it together.

[@edwinhuizinga3042]

Surreal to watch this episode while Putin's bloody red army is pulverizing Mariupol and encircling Kyiv. We all thought that total war would never happen again in Europe (ignoring the violent break up of Yugoslavia for a moment).

[@allmightlionthunder5515]

Yea the boys anti tank gun was used on the windows not on the tank armour like a'lot of people think same with the rifle fire but worst damage done in side so on. People would stop the tanks and stuff by the tracks and destroy the periscope so they have to open the windows covers. One of the biggest tactic of ww2 as an anti tanker from antitank rifle man to using sticky's . anyone know what the iron or bronze age thing they find ?

[@jameshorn270]

Don't laugh at Matt and phil defending against the Germans. There is a long association between archaeology and the military, both through the influence of retired generals in the development of early archaeological protocols and as amateur archaeologists (Moshe Dayan, Yigael Yadin, etc among the most prominent Israelis, Lawrence of Arabia was involved in Middle eastern archaeoloogy before WW I which is how he became adept with the Arabs, and General Allenby planned his campaign in palestine/Israel in WW I with the contemporary archaeological interpretation of Old Testament war in mind. John pendlebury was an archaeologist of Minoan Crete who laid the groundwork for Cretan resistance to the Germans in WW II, though he was killed early in the fighting. In general, archaelogists look at the landscape in a way similar to the military, looking for routes of access, water supplies, defensible ground, etc. Oh yes, and they can read maps.

[@koningbolo4700]

Oh dear, Britain was defended by water filled condoms... The fraze "Don't mention the war." suddenly takes on a interesting new meaning....

[@hedvighelmeczi6412]

S15E06

[@christmasina]

Umm, let’s be clear. At this time the British were medically castrating and imprisoning homosexuals as well.

[@bossel]

6:10 "Every able-bodied man between the age of 17 & 45 in Britain being carted off to concentration camps." is utter nonsense. Just look at France, the Netherlands or Norway.

[@tomhenderson7498]

Why do I get the general impression Tony Robinson is taking it as a joke? Is it me?

[@lisakilmer2667]

Watch it again, and I think you will notice that many of the segments are so serious that he was probably scripted to add in a little silliness here and there.

[@wilhelmtauber836]

Guy de la Bedoyere is incorrect at 5:58, where he claims all adult men of working age would be put into concentration camps etc.......other similar north European conquered lands were governed/overseen by the Germans , but the native population was allowed to carry on work more or less as usual (unless you were a Jew or Gypsy etc). This was proven in Norway, Holland, France, Belgium, UK Channel Islands etc etc. In fact, the Germans sometimes encouraged the men to fight for Germany's cause. The occupation of the UK Channel Islands was a good example where the locals mostly went about their normal business of farming, policing, teaching, banking etc etc, and the only real hardship they experienced was when the UK/army navy blockaded the islands from France after July 1944 and starved the population. People like Bedoyere are sensationalists, who try to distort the facts of history.

[@PalHBakka]

Robinson is sometimes overdoing his Baldrick act.

[@cogidubnus1953]

It is of course an act...and he is, of course, hired to act...what part of the contract do you not quite understand?

[@ericknutson8679]

take away American help, and you'd be speake'n german

[@JosephPbuckleyNorthAmerican]

Those are the fact's..

[@neddyladdy]

Oh please not another fuck-wit that reckons the European war would have won by Germany had not the US intervened.

[@JosephPbuckleyNorthAmerican]

none of us waz there so it's all MUTE

[@MrKen-wy5dk]

Joseph P buckley North-American What kind of word is "waz"? I don't find it in any English dictionary. Being from Texas, I like to give the English language a bit of latitude, but "waz"? Maybe "were"? "was"? Inquiring minds want to know.

[@JosephPbuckleyNorthAmerican]

Mr. Ken Dude i am from the Metroplex, where u from..???

[@TheNyah5]

28:00 I was always wondering, how/why we forget certain things in history. Like, how could we forget how Romans talked? Or various things they did and created. Now I‘m watching this, and just realized that they were actually guessing what that shelter was for. And it‘s only been 70-80 years. Imagine all the knowledge lost in history.