Into Battle The BBC at War


Into Battle

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The Second World War was reaching towards its climax.

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The Red Army was turning the tide on the Eastern Front.

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The Western Allies were on the offensive.

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GUNFIRE

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The shells are whistling overhead now, just listen to them.

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The Paratroops are landing. They're landing all round me, as I speak.

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So put up the "V" where they'll see it, as the sign of the V Army.

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The BBC were starting to win the war of words against the enemy abroad,

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but it had yet to win the trust of the politicians

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and the generals at home,

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or the hearts and minds of the British people.

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These are today's main events.

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It knew what it wanted to tell them,

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but not always what they wanted to hear.

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The BBC were still remote - "theirs" not "ours".

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The broadcasters faced a multitude of challenges on every front -

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many barriers to breach, and there was not much time.

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It was 1943.

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Britain had been at war since September 1939 -

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more than three years in which the BBC had sought to establish itself

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as a vital public service.

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It had made some progress, but not enough.

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It had acquired a huge audience in Britain and around the world,

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but it was still regarded with suspicion by politicians

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and as a threat by the military.

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The stage was set for a drama that would shape the world

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and could be the making or the breaking of the BBC.

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On the 16th of January, 1943,

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a young man who happened to have a fear of flying became

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the first BBC correspondent to be assigned to the Royal Air Force.

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My father, Richard Dimbleby,

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was deputed by the BBC to fly with 106 Squadron in a Lancaster bomber,

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piloted by a man who would soon acquire fame

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as the leader of the Dambusters' raid -

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Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

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Precociously aware of the potential of radio,

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Gibson insisted that the BBC man

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should fly in his aircraft and none other.

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The Berlin raid was a big show, as heavy bomber operations go.

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For me, it was a pretty hair-raising experience,

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though I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

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To get a good view of the squadron

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as it flew over the North Sea towards Berlin,

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Dimbleby sat down at the front of the plane, with the bomb aimer.

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As they got up towards cruising height,

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he switched on his oxygen supply.

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A little later, he felt drowsy and soon afterwards, slumped sideways.

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One way or another, he had managed to kink the line

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linking the cylinder of oxygen to his face mask.

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He soon recovered, but it was not a very auspicious beginning.

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We knew well enough when we were approaching Berlin.

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There was a complete ring of powerful searchlights.

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There was also intense flak.

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For a moment, it seemed impossible that we could miss it.

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Score after score of firebombs went down,

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and all over the dark face of the German capital,

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these great incandescent flower beds spread themselves.

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But I couldn't help wondering whether anywhere

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in the area of its devastation,

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such a man as Hitler might be cowering in a shelter.

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We turned away from Berlin at last.

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It seemed we were there for an age.

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It was not only an eye-opener for the correspondent,

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but for his listeners.

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We came back across the North Sea,

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exchanged greetings of the day with...

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It was their first chance to hear on radio what it was like

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to witness Germany under bombardment from the air.

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"Through hardship to the stars" is the RAF motto.

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I understand the hardship now,

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and I am proud to have seen the stars with them.

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Dimbleby's account of the bombing raid on Berlin

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was judged a success,

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notably by those who mattered in the military.

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One more barrier had toppled.

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Gibson, who at the age of 24

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was a powerful voice already in Bomber Command,

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was well pleased with Dimbleby's broadcast.

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So too was the RAF.

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As a result, his maiden flight was the first of many he was to take.

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A little later, he was joined by two more BBC Air Correspondents,

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but he was the only one of them to survive

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in what was the most dangerous and later,

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the most controversial campaign of the war.

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For the BBC at war,

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there was another barrier to batter - on the Home Front.

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To earn the blessing as well as the respect of those

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who kept the home fires burning,

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the broadcaster had to offer what they wanted,

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as well as what they needed.

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And that meant entertainment, as well as news -

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a little pleasure to assuage the pain.

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For this reason, the BBC's talent -

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men and women who could offer a measure of light relief

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from the tribulations of war -

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were evacuated en masse from London,

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for fear that a stray bomb might fall on Broadcasting House

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and take them off air.

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The team found themselves on a train to Wales.

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432 comics, actors, singers, musicians,

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their assorted wives and children

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and 17 dogs, an unspecified number of cats and a parrot.

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Their destination, Bangor.

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This is the Happidrome!

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MUSIC: Happidrome Theme

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When the motley crew of metropolitan talent alighted here,

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they were not universally greeted with open arms.

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In particular, the chapel-goers of North Wales

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apparently were not at all enamoured

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by the sight of women wearing trousers

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and smoking in public.

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# It's that man again It's that man again

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# Yes Tommy Handley is here

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# He'll do his best With all his zest

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# To lift your troubles Right off your chest... #

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To meet popular demand,

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the variety department had to put on more and more programmes.

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Some performers did up to ten shows a week...

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..all with hardly any rehearsal.

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Listeners loved them.

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-TTFN.

-EIEAMS.

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What's that, sir?

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Ee, If Ever A Man Suffered!

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LAUGHTER

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Tommy Handley's gently subversive show, It's That Man Again,

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made him the most popular comedian in the land.

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-Oh, I say, Sam! This is a bit thick.

-What is, boss?

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It's an envelope full of fog!

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# Rise and shine and say good morning... #

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When it came to popular music, however,

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the BBC found it far harder to accommodate the nation's taste.

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To a great degree, the BBC was still permeated

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by the austere prejudices of its founder, John Reith -

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and the controller of programmes, one Basil Nicholls,

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shared his mentor's conviction

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that the BBC should be

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"a moral, spiritual and aesthetic guardian of the nation".

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Music is an ennobling, spiritual force

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which should influence the life of every listener.

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It is the BBC's policy to exclude crooning.

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Difficult to define, but easily recognisable in various forms,

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such as sub-tone, falsetto and other modes of effeminate singing.

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The jazzing of dance and classical tunes,

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or the borrowing or adaptation of them -

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this is normally quite unacceptable.

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Each example must be reviewed

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and arbitrary decisions taken regarding inclusion or exclusion.

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Recognising that there are degrees of adaptation,

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ranging from the innocuous to the obscene.

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MUSIC: V Stands For Victory by Margaret Eaves

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In the case specifically of dance music,

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the BBC was confronted by a dilemma.

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Dancing had become the rage.

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Ministers were delighted.

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Here was an innocent pleasure that would cheer the masses

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and with a bit of luck, inspire them to work harder, as well.

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The BBC's top brass did not share this enthusiasm.

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As it was government policy

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to promote this form of mass entertainment,

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the BBC had no choice but to embrace it as well.

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But it did so reluctantly -

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and when, from their high-minded perspective,

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music seemed suggestive, or liable to promote licentiousness,

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the nation's moral guardians pounced with a vengeance.

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Now, this you could hear.

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JAUNTY DANCE TUNE PLAYS

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So, that was fine.

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But this - wait for it - wasn't.

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# There's a star spangled banner waving somewhere

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# In a distant land so many miles away

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# Only Uncle Sam's great heroes get to go there... #

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The Star-Spangled Banner, banned.

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The BBC's taste tsars may have had rhyme or reason,

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but in the spirit of "never apologise, never explain",

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they didn't.

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MUSIC: We'll Meet Again by Vera Lynn

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There were few limits to the censoriousness

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that infected the upper echelons of Broadcasting House.

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Even Vera Lynn did not escape.

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The controller of programmes, Basil Nicholls,

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judged that performances by women singers like her

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were "insincere" and "overly sentimental".

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The board of governors went further.

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Her very popular programme Sincerely Yours

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provoked these denizens of good taste to sniff,

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"Sincerely Yours, deplored.

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"Popularity noted".

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But, perhaps because of the possible backlash,

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they refrained from taking an axe to the Forces' favourite.

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# There'll be bluebirds over

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# The white cliffs of Dover... #

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There'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover

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was written to sustain the hard-pressed morale of a nation standing alone.

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But by 1942,

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the nation was no longer alone.

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There had been an invasion -

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not from Germany, but the United States.

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MUSIC: Over There by Glenn Miller

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# Over there, over there

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# Send the word, send the word over there

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# That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming

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# The drums rum-tumming everywhere. #

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Soon after Pearl Harbor, the first GIs began to pour into Britain

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to prepare for the eventual liberation of Europe.

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By 1943, South Devon was a billet for at least 30,000 US servicemen.

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The village of Slapton became a US dormitory.

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To make way for the strangers from the New World,

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the residents resigned themselves to moving out

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and finding a bed elsewhere.

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For the BBC, this influx of young Americans

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posed a challenge of a rather different kind.

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When the American troops arrived, they were given radios -

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one for every 100 soldiers.

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The radios could only pick up the BBC -

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news, entertainment, music.

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Music while you work will be played to you

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by AJ Pearl and his banjo octet.

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The GIs were not impressed.

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News, OK.

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Music, dire.

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Entertainment, dreary.

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Something needed to be done.

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All information is that

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American troops consider the BBC's programmes "lousy".

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Even the news, which one might suppose would form a common ground

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to all English-speaking peoples,

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is unacceptable to American troops

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when presented in the British manner.

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How to give a party, including how not to.

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Also, how and how not to be a guest.

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The GIs weren't impressed.

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Indeed, so powerful was their disaffection

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that their commanding officers feared they would seek out

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enemy radio stations.

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Anything, except the BBC.

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The Corporation's cultural tsars were at a loss.

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The BBC was in a quandary.

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On the one hand, it wanted to preserve its broadcasting monopoly.

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On the other, it was important, not least for their morale,

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that the GIs actually enjoyed listening to the radio.

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The solution - let the Americans have their own station, which was

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fine until word got out and British listeners started to tune

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into the American Forces Network as well, and loved what they heard.

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The BBC was losing out.

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ANNOUNCER: This is the American Forces Network.

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It's one big package of words and music and laughter,

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delivered to you by the stars from whom you want to hear.

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BIG BAND MUSIC PLAYS

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The great attraction was the big band sound, which the

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BBC's audience had rarely, if ever, heard before.

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The likes of Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Count Basie

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and Duke Ellington, household names in America,

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mesmerised those who tuned in to the American Forces Network, AFN.

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Word spread, and before long the BBC found itself with a rival,

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which, ironically, it had helped establish and operate.

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Soon, some five million British citizens, many of them young

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men and women, were deserting the BBC for the new American station.

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Facing this haemorrhage of listeners,

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one BBC panjandrum proposed a desperate remedy.

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"The BBC should take every step to check

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"up on the number of civilian listeners, but discreetly,

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"so as not to draw attention to the rival network.

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"If it was found the numbers were considerable,

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"then we should ask the Americans to take steps to reduce the power

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"of the transmitters, or take whatever steps may be appropriate."

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But that didn't work.

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In the end, the BBC would have to face an unpalatable truth -

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it would not be possible to control public taste for much longer.

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To stay in business, the national broadcaster would have to go

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with the flow and not play Canute with the tide of popular taste.

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CHORAL MUSIC

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While their bosses in Broadcasting House wrestled with their

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personal prejudices, the BBC's war correspondents were in the county

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of Oxfordshire, on the cusp of a new era in broadcast journalism.

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AIR RAID SIREN WAILS

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ARTILLERY FIRE

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On the 1st of March 1943, the Allies mounted a secret military exercise

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across great swathes of southern England -

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a trial run for the liberation of occupied Europe.

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The BBC team was with them, embedded with the British Army.

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But this was only because the military had finally given them

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a chance to prove themselves.

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It had not been easy.

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The secret exercise was codenamed "Spartan", and Oxfordshire

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was chosen as the location for a mock battle against a mock enemy.

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The BBC had to fight the military to get permission for its

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reporters to cover the operation, and when the authorities finally relented,

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Richard Dimbleby was deputed to lead the reporting team.

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It was a crucial moment - a chance for the BBC to prove itself.

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Get it right, and the way would be opened to an entirely new

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kind of front-line reporting.

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Get it wrong, and the BBC would be out in the cold.

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Almost a year earlier, the broadcaster had

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come in for severe censure from those with authority over it.

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One of the BBC's senior controllers, AP Ryan,

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who had himself been seconded from Whitehall, noted gloomily -

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"We have been criticised by the Board of Governors,

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"by the Minister of Information and by Number 10,

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"for not having a high enough standard of news observing.

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"We must, you will agree, admit that this criticism is justified."

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ARTILLERY FIRE

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Ryan's rebuke had galvanised the BBC into a far more coherent

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approach to the task of covering the conflict.

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By the time of Spartan, the Corporation had established

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a much larger team of professional correspondents.

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Better organised, better trained and better equipped.

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Everything was done as though for real.

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Engineers recorded the sounds of battle.

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Reporters gave eyewitness accounts which were flashed through to

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Broadcasting House.

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There, every word was scrutinised, passed through the censors

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and then condensed into a radio newsreel which was rushed

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through to meet the mock deadlines of a mock bulletin.

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In the pile of scripts thus processed,

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was one my father sent back from a liberated city.

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"I am talking at a street corner in Oxford...

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"which was entered by our forces, last night, after the enemy

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"had evacuated the city.

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"The people of Oxford are taking it with admirable calm.

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"While the enemy was withdrawing from the city,

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"they remained inside their homes, hearing the crushing explosions as

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"the lovely old bridges of the city are destroyed, one after another."

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After it was over, the BBC played back its Spartan war report

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to the Secretary of State for War, and the military high command,

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and then waited anxiously for their verdict.

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It was unanimous.

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After three and a half years from the start of the Second World War,

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the BBC was now free to report the war on a far greater scale.

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It was a real breakthrough.

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The BBC's War Reporting Unit, as it was called,

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could now plan for the next phase of the war.

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With Supreme Allied Headquarters set up on the edge of London

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in Bushy Park,

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and more than a million and a half American troops assembling

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in Britain to rehearse for D-Day, the BBC's men were also in training.

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STAG BELLOWS

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Learning how to interpret signals, distinguish between different types

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of weaponry, and to negotiate rough country with a pack on their backs.

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It was, though, one thing to be an officer and to wear uniform,

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another to play the part to perfection.

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The BBC reporters were instructed in military etiquette -

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the general salute.

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On the command, "Salute",

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you salute on the third and last movement of the present,

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and you drop the salute on the second

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and last movement of the slope.

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Thus, sergeant major says, "Present arms."

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"Slope arms."

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History doesn't record whether anyone ever got it right.

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But this attention to detail paid off.

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The radio men had been regarded as meddlesome amateurs.

0:22:320:22:35

Now they were increasingly treated with respect,

0:22:350:22:39

as valued comrades in a common venture.

0:22:390:22:41

The BBC boss who had been on the receiving end of that

0:22:440:22:47

coruscating review of the BBC's war coverage two years earlier,

0:22:470:22:51

now held his head high as he prepared his team for battle.

0:22:510:22:55

"We have a world audience...

0:22:560:22:58

"and we mean to give it the fullest and the most vivid

0:22:580:23:00

"and alive account of coming operations that we can.

0:23:000:23:04

"Let pride in the achievement of our armies come through,

0:23:040:23:07

"but never seek to 'jazz up' a plain story.

0:23:070:23:09

"Events will contain their own drama.

0:23:090:23:12

"You handful of men have been chosen to undertake the most

0:23:120:23:15

"important assignment so far known to broadcasting.

0:23:150:23:18

"Good luck."

0:23:180:23:20

-ANNOUNCER:

-General Overseas Service of the BBC,

0:23:240:23:26

broadcasting to the Far East,

0:23:260:23:28

the Middle East, the Near East...

0:23:280:23:31

ANNOUNCER SPEAKS IN DANISH

0:23:310:23:34

For the BBC,

0:23:340:23:36

the war was not only about its reporters on the Allied front-line.

0:23:360:23:39

There were also the men and women on the other side of the line,

0:23:390:23:46

entombed by the Nazi Occupation and longing to be free.

0:23:460:23:52

ANNOUNCER SPEAKS IN SPANISH

0:23:520:23:54

By 1944, the number of foreign language services

0:23:540:23:58

operated by the BBC had grown from seven at the start

0:23:580:24:01

of the conflict to no less than 46 networks.

0:24:010:24:05

And it was one of these that inspired what became perhaps

0:24:080:24:12

the war's most memorable symbol of resistance.

0:24:120:24:15

It began here, in the Ministry of Information

0:24:170:24:20

when a young Belgian refugee,

0:24:200:24:21

fleeing from the Gestapo for helping the Resistance, met an official

0:24:210:24:26

from the Ministry, and said, "What we need is something to unite us.

0:24:260:24:30

"Something like a symbol."

0:24:300:24:32

Word of that reached the head of the BBC's Belgian service,

0:24:320:24:35

Victor de Laveleye, and he came up with the idea of the letter V.

0:24:350:24:39

First letter of his Christian name, Victor, and of course, victory.

0:24:390:24:45

# When the Fuhrer says We is the master race

0:24:450:24:49

# V heil, heil

0:24:490:24:50

# Right in the Fuhrer's face... #

0:24:500:24:53

De Laveleye urged his listeners to adopt the V sign as their own

0:24:530:24:56

form of silent resistance.

0:24:560:24:59

MUSIC: Symphony Number 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven

0:25:030:25:06

Another member of the BBC staff took this campaign a step further.

0:25:090:25:13

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, very familiar, of course.

0:25:130:25:17

It reverberated across the airwaves with a very special resonance.

0:25:170:25:21

A BBC news editor, Douglas Ritchie, had noticed that the

0:25:230:25:27

"b-b-b-boom" precisely replicated the "dot dot dot dash"

0:25:270:25:32

of the Morse code for the letter V - V for victory.

0:25:320:25:36

So he turned it into a jingle at the start of his programme,

0:25:360:25:39

and thus the German composer's famous Fifth became

0:25:390:25:43

an indelible symbol of British defiance.

0:25:430:25:46

MUSIC: FIFTH SYMPHONY JINGLE

0:25:480:25:50

Ritchie broadcast on the BBC's European Service under

0:25:500:25:53

the pseudonym, Colonel Britton.

0:25:530:25:56

You in Europe who listen to me now...

0:25:590:26:03

know that we are working and preparing for the day

0:26:030:26:06

when we shall cross that narrow strip of Channel

0:26:060:26:08

and the North Sea, and help you drive the Germans out.

0:26:080:26:11

If you and your friends are in a cafe and a German comes in,

0:26:120:26:16

tap out the V sign all together.

0:26:160:26:18

Have you got it?

0:26:180:26:20

HE TAPS OUT V SIGN IN MORSE

0:26:200:26:21

The response was remarkable. The V went viral,

0:26:210:26:26

spreading across all occupied Europe.

0:26:260:26:29

A chance to scrawl a secret "up yours" to the Nazis.

0:26:290:26:33

Inspired by this, Ritchie wrote a pamphlet entitled,

0:26:330:26:37

Broadcasting As A Weapon of War.

0:26:370:26:40

"After 20 months of war, it is now clear that there are in Europe

0:26:400:26:43

"an enormous majority of people who wish to see the Allies win the war.

0:26:430:26:48

"The BBC's broadcasts to the occupied countries are listened

0:26:490:26:52

"to by a remarkably high percentage of the population.

0:26:520:26:56

"It is almost impossible to exaggerate

0:26:560:26:58

"the significance of these two facts.

0:26:580:27:00

"We have here, if we develop it, and make use of it,

0:27:000:27:03

"a weapon of war of an entirely new kind.

0:27:030:27:06

"No such power has ever been in the hands of man before."

0:27:060:27:09

For Ritchie, the possibilities seemed boundless.

0:27:120:27:16

"The Germans are short of oil.

0:27:160:27:18

"At a word from London,

0:27:180:27:19

"sugar can be slipped into petrol tanks all over Europe,

0:27:190:27:23

"and buildings where oil and other petrol are stored

0:27:230:27:26

"can be set on fire.

0:27:260:27:28

"The Germans are short of rubber. At a word from London,

0:27:280:27:31

"motor tyres can be slashed across the Continent."

0:27:310:27:34

It was a trifle far-fetched,

0:27:340:27:37

and in fact those ideas were never broadcast.

0:27:370:27:40

Nonetheless, Ritchie, aka Colonel Britton,

0:27:410:27:44

was able to promote the V campaign on air,

0:27:440:27:47

by suggesting a somewhat subtler campaign of sabotage.

0:27:470:27:51

Colonel Britton liked to call his growing number of listeners his

0:27:510:27:54

"V Army", and he gave them a vital task to perform.

0:27:540:27:58

Amongst other things,

0:27:580:28:00

urging factory workers under German occupation to cut their output.

0:28:000:28:05

A go-slow to beat Hitler.

0:28:050:28:06

In a belated counterattack, the Germans tried to claim that the

0:28:080:28:11

V for Victory sign was in fact theirs, which fooled no-one.

0:28:110:28:15

However, Colonel Britton's radio campaign eventually ran

0:28:170:28:20

out of fresh ideas and it was dropped.

0:28:200:28:23

Not that that mattered too much.

0:28:240:28:26

By this time, it had played its part in securing a European

0:28:260:28:30

audience of at least 35 million people a day,

0:28:300:28:33

who defied the Nazis by tuning in to the BBC.

0:28:330:28:37

And with Beethoven's help, the solemn V for Victory drumbeat

0:28:380:28:43

continued to echo across the airwaves for the rest of the war.

0:28:430:28:47

MAN SINGS IN FRENCH TO TUNE OF FIFTH SYMPHONY

0:28:490:28:55

The BBC's European Service also had a more tangible purpose,

0:29:010:29:06

notably for the French.

0:29:060:29:08

MAN ON RADIO: Ici Londres, et vive la France.

0:29:090:29:12

Ici Londres gave refugees in Britain a chance to send

0:29:150:29:19

messages back to their loved ones in France.

0:29:190:29:21

But some of these began to sound very odd indeed.

0:29:230:29:26

MAN SPEAKS IN FRENCH

0:29:270:29:30

One evening in the summer of 1943,

0:29:340:29:37

listeners to the BBC's French service heard a most peculiar message -

0:29:370:29:41

"Le sucrier est entre les deux tasses."

0:29:410:29:45

The sugar bowl is between the two cups.

0:29:450:29:48

It may have sounded like any other personal message from refugees

0:29:480:29:51

in Britain, back home to their loved ones in occupied France.

0:29:510:29:56

But this one was different.

0:29:560:29:58

In this case, the sugar bowl and the two cups,

0:29:590:30:03

a coded message to the Resistance in this area that a cache

0:30:030:30:07

of weapons was soon to be dropped in a field just outside this town.

0:30:070:30:11

The codename for the drop was Operation Roach,

0:30:170:30:21

which was masterminded by the Special Operations Executive.

0:30:210:30:24

Established in 1940, the SOE's mission was sabotage.

0:30:250:30:30

Blowing up trains, bridges and factories,

0:30:310:30:34

and promoting subversion and guerrilla warfare.

0:30:340:30:37

It was a high-risk enterprise.

0:30:380:30:41

On the night of the 14th of July,

0:30:430:30:45

a small group of resistance fighters led by a local teacher,

0:30:450:30:49

Marcel Herard, was waiting at the drop site.

0:30:490:30:53

AEROPLANES DRONE

0:30:530:30:54

The sound of aeroplane engines.

0:30:540:30:57

Then the parachutes floating to the ground.

0:30:570:31:00

Seven crates laden with pistols, grenades, explosives

0:31:000:31:04

and Sten guns, to be collected up and carted off well before dawn.

0:31:040:31:09

The following morning, Marcel Herard's wife,

0:31:110:31:14

who was also a teacher, brought her pupils to the same field,

0:31:140:31:18

but while they played, she scoured the area to make sure that

0:31:180:31:22

all evidence of the previous night's haul had been removed.

0:31:220:31:26

As the preparations for D-Day intensified,

0:31:270:31:31

the SOE wanted more and more airtime to contact the Resistance.

0:31:310:31:35

But with the airwaves reaching saturation point,

0:31:360:31:39

the announcers threatened mutiny.

0:31:390:31:41

"I rather think this is getting beyond a joke.

0:31:440:31:48

"It seems the general opinion that any announcer, good,

0:31:480:31:51

"bad or indifferent, can stand up in front of the microphone for 30

0:31:510:31:54

"to 40 minutes and read, without a break, some 300 to 400 messages.

0:31:540:31:58

"It is an established fact that a really first-class announcer

0:31:580:32:02

"at the BBC has had enough after 20 minutes."

0:32:020:32:05

By this time, listeners to the BBC's French Service were being

0:32:080:32:12

deluged with personal messages.

0:32:120:32:14

Some genuine, some coded. It was an avalanche of gobbledegook.

0:32:140:32:20

For instance, what were they to make of random nonsenses like

0:32:200:32:23

"Le lapin a bu un aperitif" - the rabbit has drunk an aperitif?

0:32:230:32:28

Or "Mademoiselle caresse le nez de son chien" -

0:32:280:32:32

Mademoiselle is kissing the nose of her dog?

0:32:320:32:35

In London, the Ministry of Information set up

0:32:450:32:48

a meeting between the BBC and the SOE, to solve the conflict

0:32:480:32:52

between the secret saboteurs and the public broadcasters.

0:32:520:32:56

In a really significant shift of attitude,

0:32:580:33:01

the Minister of Information, Brendan Bracken,

0:33:010:33:04

who took a refreshingly unorthodox view of his role,

0:33:040:33:07

sided with the BBC against his government colleagues in the SOE.

0:33:070:33:12

The BBC was right, he argued, to insist that its principal role

0:33:120:33:16

was to report the news, not to send secret messages.

0:33:160:33:20

And the Minister prevailed.

0:33:200:33:22

On the other side of the line in Berlin,

0:33:330:33:36

the Ministry of Propaganda was up against it,

0:33:360:33:39

though the Nazi call sign sounded as confident as ever.

0:33:390:33:43

ANNOUNCER: Germany calling, Germany calling, Germany calling.

0:33:440:33:48

The notorious voice of William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw.

0:33:490:33:55

Once a thorn in the BBC's, side, his lies

0:33:550:33:58

and distortions no longer carried conviction.

0:33:580:34:00

Though the German armies were on the retreat,

0:34:010:34:04

Lord Haw-Haw continued to claim the opposite.

0:34:040:34:06

German troops have succeeded in surrounding

0:34:080:34:11

and annihilating a large enemy force.

0:34:110:34:14

The Soviet losses in dead have been at least three or four

0:34:150:34:20

times as great.

0:34:200:34:22

In fact, the Red Army had turned the tide on the Russian Front.

0:34:230:34:27

By the summer of 1943,

0:34:320:34:34

only the most gullible listener believed anything the Nazis said.

0:34:340:34:38

Thanks, not least, to the BBC,

0:34:380:34:40

which was now winning the war of words hands down.

0:34:400:34:43

On all fronts, the Allies were on the offensive.

0:34:460:34:49

They destroyed the Axis armies in North Africa.

0:34:490:34:53

By July, they were in Sicily.

0:34:530:34:55

In September, the Italian army laid down its arms.

0:34:550:34:59

The Germans were left on their own to hold the Third Reich's southern flank.

0:35:000:35:06

The Allies began to advance on Rome.

0:35:060:35:08

The Wehrmacht mounted a stubborn resistance

0:35:110:35:14

and held the high ground to the south of the capital.

0:35:140:35:17

To break through, the Allies needed reinforcements.

0:35:180:35:21

On the 22nd of January 1944,

0:35:310:35:35

Allied troops stormed ashore here on the beach at Anzio, and which

0:35:350:35:40

was a measure of the new respect with which the military regarded

0:35:400:35:43

the broadcaster, the BBC's Wynford Vaughan-Thomas was with them.

0:35:430:35:47

VAUGHAN-THOMAS: Then down went the ramp and we stepped off.

0:35:520:35:55

I braced myself for the shock because not far from us,

0:35:550:35:58

the men were going in up to their armpits, but we were lucky.

0:35:580:36:01

As the troops landed, they advanced into thick woodland,

0:36:040:36:07

but soon came under heavy fire.

0:36:070:36:09

Suddenly, there came a high-pitched whistle,

0:36:120:36:15

and a dull shaking thud among the pines.

0:36:150:36:18

It was shells. The Germans had woken up at last.

0:36:180:36:21

SHELLS THUD

0:36:210:36:22

To record the Anzio landings, the BBC had a new piece of kit

0:36:260:36:30

that was to transform radio's coverage of the war.

0:36:300:36:34

It was called The Mighty Midget.

0:36:340:36:36

And this was it. Mighty perhaps, but not exactly a midget.

0:36:390:36:45

It weighed in at 42lbs, just about you could carry it on your back.

0:36:450:36:50

But they were also very fragile.

0:36:500:36:53

You had to cut the disc as you were speaking through the microphone.

0:36:530:36:57

It had to be wound up, but otherwise it was quite sophisticated.

0:36:570:37:01

It had two settings.

0:37:010:37:03

Normal, which is if you wanted to be heard over the sound of battle,

0:37:030:37:08

and Distant, if you wanted to hear the entire pandemonium of war.

0:37:080:37:12

The Mighty Midget transformed radio war reporting.

0:37:140:37:18

You could be with the soldiers in a slit trench at the front,

0:37:180:37:22

right in the thick of it.

0:37:220:37:23

It was a real broadcasting revolution.

0:37:230:37:27

Now I'm going to lift the microphone over the parapet

0:37:270:37:29

and hold it up for you to hear

0:37:290:37:31

the actual sound rhythm of the Anzio beachhead front at night.

0:37:310:37:35

GUNFIRE AND SHELLING

0:37:350:37:39

As the Allies pressed the offensive,

0:37:480:37:51

the BBC correspondents were with them all the way,

0:37:510:37:54

notably at the Battle of Monte Cassino.

0:37:540:37:57

The Germans held the monastery on the commanding heights

0:37:570:38:01

which blocked the way to the capital.

0:38:010:38:04

It was not only a massive obstacle, it was also virtually impregnable.

0:38:040:38:09

It was four months before the Allies were in a position

0:38:130:38:17

to make the final assault on the summit,

0:38:170:38:19

but on the 18th of May,

0:38:190:38:20

Godfrey Talbot was with the Polish Second Corps

0:38:200:38:23

as it made the final fight to the top.

0:38:230:38:26

Men fought till they dropped.

0:38:280:38:30

Dropped exhausted, or dropped killed or wounded.

0:38:300:38:33

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

0:38:330:38:37

They had to get through appalling mountain tracks

0:38:370:38:41

with the Germans pouring streams of fire upon them at every move.

0:38:410:38:45

GUNFIRE CONTINUES

0:38:450:38:47

In many positions,

0:38:500:38:52

you could by day remain alive only in a hole in the ground.

0:38:520:38:56

To show yourself and move in daylight

0:38:570:39:00

in these forward positions was death.

0:39:000:39:02

Eventually, on the 18th of May,

0:39:060:39:09

Monte Cassino was taken by the Allied forces.

0:39:090:39:12

I was at a Polish headquarters on the morning of the capture

0:39:120:39:16

when the news came through.

0:39:160:39:17

"We're in the abbey.

0:39:170:39:19

"Monastery Hill is occupied."

0:39:190:39:22

It was a historic moment and the drama was heightened

0:39:220:39:26

when an officer put the good news right in front of my eyes.

0:39:260:39:30

He handed me a small piece of paper.

0:39:300:39:33

"It's come from the monastery by one of our carrier pigeons," he said.

0:39:330:39:37

And I looked at the crumpled scrap of paper.

0:39:370:39:40

All that was on it was one large V for Victory.

0:39:400:39:45

18 days later, Rome was liberated.

0:39:470:39:52

TRIUMPHANT SHOUTING

0:39:520:39:53

I'm standing in the middle of the Piazza Venezia,

0:39:530:39:57

on this day of our occupation.

0:39:570:39:59

The windows have been opened

0:39:590:40:01

and there's come out onto the balcony, not Mussolini,

0:40:010:40:04

but three Allied soldiers

0:40:040:40:06

and they're waving the Italian and the Allied flags.

0:40:060:40:10

But this victory was rapidly overshadowed

0:40:150:40:19

by the moment for which everyone had waited - the launch of D-Day.

0:40:190:40:22

For the BBC's War Reporting Unit, it would be the test to beat all tests.

0:40:290:40:34

Just after midnight on the 6th of June, 1944,

0:40:380:40:42

my father was on the edge of this runway at RAF Harwell

0:40:420:40:46

to record the departure of troops from the 6th Airborne Division

0:40:460:40:50

as they took off for Normandy

0:40:500:40:52

to become the first Allied soldiers to land in occupied France.

0:40:520:40:58

ENGINES HUM

0:40:580:41:00

The first aircraft that is going to lead the very front

0:41:000:41:03

in the early hours is turning onto the end of the tarmac

0:41:030:41:05

to make its takeoff.

0:41:050:41:07

Taking off from here, loaded with parachutists.

0:41:070:41:10

Taking with it perhaps the hopes and the fears

0:41:100:41:13

and the prayers of millions of people in this country,

0:41:130:41:15

who sleep tonight not knowing

0:41:150:41:17

that this mighty operation is taking place.

0:41:170:41:19

-ENGINES ROAR

-There she goes now.

0:41:190:41:21

The first aircraft leading the attack on Europe.

0:41:210:41:24

Dimbleby was one of the 17 BBC correspondents

0:41:390:41:42

who sailed with the Navy, flew with the RAF,

0:41:420:41:45

jumped with Paras, landed with gliders,

0:41:450:41:47

or hit the Normandy beaches with the Allied troops.

0:41:470:41:50

In the history of radio, there'd been nothing like it.

0:41:540:41:57

GUNFIRE

0:41:570:42:01

We're over the enemy coast now.

0:42:010:42:03

Red light, green light and out, out.

0:42:030:42:05

Get on! Get out! Get out!

0:42:050:42:06

Out, out into the air over France.

0:42:060:42:08

We're jumping, in fact, into fields covered with poles,

0:42:090:42:13

but I hit my 'chute and lower my kit bag

0:42:130:42:16

which suspends on the end of a 40-foot rope from my harness

0:42:160:42:19

and then the ground comes up to hit me.

0:42:190:42:21

On the evening of the 6th of June, 1944,

0:42:250:42:28

the British public heard the first edition of a new programme

0:42:280:42:32

that was to go out every night

0:42:320:42:34

immediately after the nine o'clock news.

0:42:340:42:36

It was called War Report -

0:42:360:42:38

first-hand accounts from BBC correspondents on every front.

0:42:380:42:43

Vivid, accurate, and authoritative,

0:42:430:42:47

the programme had an electrifying impact and in the process,

0:42:470:42:51

served hugely to enhance the BBC's status

0:42:510:42:54

as a genuine public service broadcaster.

0:42:540:42:58

War Report number one - the story of D-Day.

0:43:050:43:08

The Paratroops are landing.

0:43:120:43:14

They're landing all round me as I speak.

0:43:140:43:16

GUNFIRE

0:43:160:43:19

They've come in from the sea, showering in.

0:43:190:43:23

There's no other word for it.

0:43:230:43:25

On D-Day, the BBC's correspondents sent back

0:43:310:43:34

more than 50 reports to London.

0:43:340:43:36

Vivid and up to the minute, War Report was a must-listen programme.

0:43:360:43:41

Hello, BBC. This is Richard Dimbleby.

0:43:410:43:45

The British, Canadian and American troops

0:43:450:43:47

who landed on the coast of France in broad daylight this morning,

0:43:470:43:50

are already several miles inland.

0:43:500:43:53

They're pushing steadily on,

0:43:530:43:55

backed by the tremendous firepower

0:43:550:43:57

of heavy British and United States warships,

0:43:570:43:59

and covered by an ever-changing, but ever-present umbrella of fighters.

0:43:590:44:04

Within days of the landing,

0:44:120:44:14

General Montgomery, commanding the Allied forces on the ground,

0:44:140:44:18

had established his headquarters in a chateau in the village of Creully.

0:44:180:44:22

It was crucial for the broadcasters to site themselves nearby

0:44:240:44:28

to get the news back fast.

0:44:280:44:30

Montgomery gave permission for the BBC

0:44:320:44:35

to take over part of another chateau in the village,

0:44:350:44:38

a base from which front-line reports could be transmitted

0:44:380:44:41

almost immediately to radio stations all over the world.

0:44:410:44:44

I'm lying down at full length here, in the cornfield.

0:44:590:45:01

Just in the hedges around me, I can see many men taking shelter

0:45:010:45:05

behind a bank while this terrific barrage goes on around us.

0:45:050:45:07

The shells are whistling overhead now. Just listen to them.

0:45:070:45:11

GUNFIRE AND SHELLING

0:45:110:45:15

By this point,

0:45:170:45:18

the little studio here had become a global broadcasting hub -

0:45:180:45:22

the only way of telling the world

0:45:220:45:24

what was going on on the Normandy front.

0:45:240:45:26

The road into Tilly is a road of devastation.

0:45:280:45:31

It's lined at intervals with soldiers' graves.

0:45:310:45:33

Some British, but mostly German.

0:45:330:45:36

Every yard of this road was shouting at you

0:45:360:45:39

that it had been fought for bitterly.

0:45:390:45:42

It was a ghastly, a sickening sight.

0:45:420:45:45

I've never seen a place so completely obliterated.

0:45:450:45:48

Tilly has just ceased to exist.

0:45:480:45:51

Allied broadcasters trooped in here

0:45:510:45:53

to tell their stories to millions upon millions of listeners,

0:45:530:45:57

in the United States, in Canada,

0:45:570:45:59

Australia, India, the Pacific and not least into occupied Europe.

0:45:590:46:04

The BBC was broadcasting in more than 40 languages

0:46:040:46:07

and in Britain alone, it had at least 15 million listeners.

0:46:070:46:11

The BBC not only served a worldwide audience, but Montgomery as well.

0:46:150:46:21

The BBC's Frank Gillard was the go-between.

0:46:210:46:24

Soon after D-Day, Montgomery summoned Gillard

0:46:250:46:28

and said, "I want to use the BBC to reach my troops quickly."

0:46:280:46:32

Gillard said, "Can I use your phone?"

0:46:320:46:34

He was put through to the War Office, to the BBC,

0:46:340:46:37

who recorded the pep talk

0:46:370:46:38

and the two men sat and listened to it

0:46:380:46:40

as it went out half an hour later.

0:46:400:46:43

To every officer and man,

0:46:450:46:47

whatever may be his rank or employment,

0:46:470:46:50

I send my grateful thanks

0:46:500:46:53

and my best wishes for the future.

0:46:530:46:56

Much yet remains to be done, but together, you and I,

0:46:560:47:01

we will do it and we will see this thing through to the end.

0:47:010:47:06

The BBC had come a long way since the beginning of the conflict

0:47:080:47:12

when it had been regarded by the military

0:47:120:47:13

with suspicion and hostility.

0:47:130:47:16

Montgomery now called it "the fourth arm of the war."

0:47:160:47:18

As the Allies advanced slowly but inexorably towards Germany,

0:47:220:47:27

the peoples of occupied Europe

0:47:270:47:29

came to rely on the BBC's European Service

0:47:290:47:31

to discover when they might be liberated.

0:47:310:47:34

Within Germany itself,

0:47:400:47:42

sensing that they were doomed,

0:47:420:47:44

Hitler's subjects began to do likewise.

0:47:440:47:47

RADIO BROADCASTS IN GERMAN

0:47:500:47:53

By the autumn of 1944,

0:48:040:48:05

the German people were tuning their People's Radios

0:48:050:48:09

away from Berlin towards London,

0:48:090:48:11

from where the BBC's German Service was reaching an audience

0:48:110:48:16

estimated at some 15 million people.

0:48:160:48:18

But to listen to the BBC was a risk.

0:48:180:48:22

The radio carried a health warning.

0:48:220:48:25

"Think of this.

0:48:250:48:26

"It is a crime against the national security of our people

0:48:260:48:30

"to listen to a foreign broadcast.

0:48:300:48:32

"It is a Fuhrer order punishable by imprisonment and hard labour."

0:48:320:48:38

No hint that Hitler might lose the war

0:48:400:48:43

was ever allowed to seep onto the German airwaves.

0:48:430:48:46

No setbacks were reported.

0:48:460:48:48

Victory remained inevitable, if somewhat delayed.

0:48:480:48:52

If you were British, it was a nonsense to relish

0:48:550:48:58

and the BBC made the most of it.

0:48:580:49:01

With the Allies now all but assured of victory,

0:49:020:49:05

the BBC German Service was taunting its listeners

0:49:050:49:08

by reminding them how many months had passed

0:49:080:49:11

since the year in which Hitler had promised them final victory - 1940.

0:49:110:49:16

Only the most besotted Nazi could now ignore the facts,

0:49:170:49:21

however unpalatable they might be.

0:49:210:49:23

As the Allies drove more deeply into Europe,

0:49:250:49:28

the BBC teams were with them.

0:49:280:49:30

Paris has been liberated. A communique just received...

0:49:300:49:33

And now that that they were more often reporting success than failure,

0:49:330:49:37

far freer to tell it how it really was.

0:49:370:49:39

In March 1945, as the Allies began the crossing of the Rhine,

0:49:410:49:46

BBC correspondents were on the ground and in the air.

0:49:460:49:49

The engines are being revved up to their full peak and we're off.

0:49:510:49:55

My father was in an RAF plane, towing a glider,

0:49:550:49:59

filled with Airborne troops.

0:49:590:50:01

This time, in marked contrast

0:50:010:50:03

to the bombing of Berlin over two years ago,

0:50:030:50:06

he had the Mighty Midget to record his impressions directly onto disc.

0:50:060:50:11

It made a huge difference.

0:50:110:50:12

The Rhine lies left and right across our path below us,

0:50:140:50:17

shining in the sunlight,

0:50:170:50:19

and the whole of this mighty Airborne army

0:50:190:50:21

is now crossing and filling the whole sky.

0:50:210:50:25

Our glider's gone. We'd better go.

0:50:250:50:28

There she goes, down behind us.

0:50:280:50:30

I'm sorry if I'm shouting. This is a very tremendous sight.

0:50:300:50:34

Ahead of us, another pillar of black smoke marks the spot

0:50:340:50:38

where an aircraft has gone down and yet another one.

0:50:380:50:41

It's a Stirling, a British Stirling.

0:50:410:50:43

It's going down with flames coming out from under its belly.

0:50:430:50:46

A few days after crossing the Rhine,

0:50:500:50:52

the British Second Army was on its way towards the port of Hamburg.

0:50:520:50:56

On the 15th of April,

0:50:590:51:00

my father was relaxing with other correspondents at a forward base

0:51:000:51:04

when word reached them of a German prison camp a little way up the road

0:51:040:51:09

that was about to be liberated.

0:51:090:51:11

He decided to go there with the British troops.

0:51:110:51:15

They entered the gates of Belsen.

0:51:160:51:17

Belsen was still in the hands of the SS,

0:51:200:51:23

but the Camp Commandant, Josef Kramer,

0:51:230:51:25

who was later to be hanged as a war criminal, had agreed to surrender

0:51:250:51:29

to allow soldiers and doctors from Montgomery's Second Army

0:51:290:51:33

to come in here with food and medical supplies for the inmates.

0:51:330:51:38

Inside they found a charnel house of sick, dying and dead people.

0:51:430:51:49

My father bore witness to it all

0:51:520:51:55

and then returned to the forward headquarters of the Second Army

0:51:550:51:59

to record in unsparing detail what he had seen and heard.

0:51:590:52:03

Here, over an acre of ground, lay dead and dying people.

0:52:050:52:09

You could not see which was which,

0:52:120:52:14

except perhaps by a convulsive movement

0:52:140:52:16

or the last quiver of a sigh from a living skeleton too weak to move.

0:52:160:52:21

A mother, driven mad,

0:52:220:52:24

screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child

0:52:240:52:28

and thrust the tiny mite into his arms and ran off, crying terribly.

0:52:280:52:32

He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.

0:52:320:52:36

This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.

0:52:380:52:41

It was the first time that any such thing had been broadcast by the BBC

0:52:440:52:48

and those who heard it would never forget it.

0:52:480:52:52

But it very nearly wasn't transmitted.

0:52:520:52:54

At first, Dimbleby's bosses in London

0:52:540:52:57

thought that the truth that he had spoken was so terrible

0:52:570:53:00

that it shouldn't be shared with the British public.

0:53:000:53:03

It was only when my father, who was by then a household name,

0:53:030:53:06

said that he would never broadcast again

0:53:060:53:09

unless they changed their minds, that they finally relented.

0:53:090:53:13

Belsen was the first camp to be liberated by the British.

0:53:140:53:18

Tens of thousands perished, a great many of whom were Jews.

0:53:180:53:23

My father's report was testament to the Holocaust.

0:53:230:53:26

Just over two weeks later, the Third Reich finally crumbled.

0:53:290:53:35

Hello, BBC. This is Chester Wilmot,

0:53:370:53:38

speaking from Field Marshal Montgomery's tactical headquarters

0:53:380:53:42

on a high, windswept hill

0:53:420:53:44

on the wild Luneburg Heath near the River Elbe.

0:53:440:53:47

It's 10 minutes past six on Friday, May the 4th.

0:53:470:53:50

The commanders of the German forces opposing Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group

0:53:500:53:55

have come to this headquarters today to surrender.

0:53:550:53:58

Another private war had also been won - the BBC versus Lord Haw-Haw.

0:54:030:54:10

William Joyce had retreated to Hamburg just before the surrender.

0:54:110:54:15

Lord Haw-Haw had finally given up predicting a mighty Nazi triumph.

0:54:170:54:22

Instead, he started to ramble on about the threat posed to Britain,

0:54:220:54:27

not by Hitler's 1,000 year Reich,

0:54:270:54:29

but by the United States and the Soviet Union.

0:54:290:54:32

To support him in this volte face,

0:54:320:54:34

he took to drinking prodigious quantities of alcohol.

0:54:340:54:38

Indeed, he took to the bottle big-time,

0:54:380:54:41

a fact which some listeners were to detect in his very final broadcast.

0:54:410:54:45

-SLURRING:

-This evening,

0:54:520:54:54

I am talking to you about Germany.

0:54:540:54:58

That is a concept that many of you may have failed to understand.

0:55:000:55:08

Let me tell you that, in Germany, there still remains

0:55:080:55:14

the spirit of unity and the spirit of strength.

0:55:140:55:19

Once he'd got all that off his chest,

0:55:210:55:24

William Joyce lay down his microphone and fled the city.

0:55:240:55:27

Soon afterwards, the Devonshires were here

0:55:270:55:30

with the BBC's Wynford Vaughan-Thomas in attendance.

0:55:300:55:33

Vaughan-Thomas could not resist.

0:55:330:55:35

He saw the Haw-Haw microphone and picked it up.

0:55:350:55:39

This is Germany calling.

0:55:390:55:42

Calling for the last time from Station Hamburg.

0:55:420:55:45

And tonight, you will not hear Views On The News by William Joyce.

0:55:460:55:51

For Mr Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw to most of us in Britain,

0:55:510:55:55

has been most unfortunately interrupted

0:55:550:55:58

in his broadcasting career.

0:55:580:55:59

And in his place, this is the BBC,

0:55:590:56:02

calling all the long-suffering listeners in Britain

0:56:020:56:05

who, for six years, have had to put up with the acid tones of Mr Joyce,

0:56:050:56:09

speaking over the same wavelengths that I'm using to talk to you now.

0:56:090:56:13

William Joyce would be no more than a footnote in the history

0:56:150:56:19

of the Second World War, but for the BBC, he had been an important one -

0:56:190:56:24

a real threat and a formidable challenge.

0:56:240:56:27

Now on behalf of his colleagues, Vaughan-Thomas had got his own back.

0:56:270:56:32

In Britain, the nation waited for the moment

0:56:380:56:40

when, no longer a matter of wonder or surprise,

0:56:400:56:43

the Prime Minister would take to the airwaves

0:56:430:56:47

to announce that the war was over.

0:56:470:56:49

BIG BEN STRIKES THE HOUR

0:56:510:56:53

The German State signed the act of unconditional surrender

0:56:530:57:00

of all German land, sea and air forces.

0:57:000:57:04

Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom!

0:57:040:57:11

God save the King!

0:57:110:57:13

CHEERING

0:57:130:57:14

My father was the BBC's man on the spot.

0:57:140:57:18

And the crowd is singing,

0:57:180:57:20

and this suddenly has become a very moving moment,

0:57:200:57:23

for Mr Churchill too is singing

0:57:230:57:25

and he is conducting the singing of this song.

0:57:250:57:27

Will you listen, please?

0:57:270:57:29

CROWD SINGS "LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY"

0:57:290:57:35

Here they come.

0:57:350:57:36

First, Her Majesty the Queen comes into view. Then the King.

0:57:360:57:39

The BBC did its bit.

0:57:450:57:47

Battered by bombs,

0:57:470:57:49

Broadcasting House was nonetheless bedecked with flags -

0:57:490:57:53

the emblems of the 22 nations

0:57:530:57:55

which had helped destroy the tyranny of Nazism.

0:57:550:57:59

For the BBC, as for the nation, it was a beginning as well as an end.

0:58:040:58:09

The nation had been transformed by the war and so had the BBC.

0:58:090:58:14

At the start of the conflict,

0:58:140:58:15

it had very little idea of where it was going or how to get there.

0:58:150:58:20

By the end, it had found the ways and means

0:58:200:58:23

to articulate the story of a nation at war

0:58:230:58:26

and had the confidence to do it.

0:58:260:58:28

In the process, the BBC had become embedded in the national psyche

0:58:280:58:32

as a genuine public service broadcaster.

0:58:320:58:35

The BBC had been moulded by the war.

0:58:350:58:38

Now, it faced the challenges of peace.

0:58:380:58:41

But that, as they say, is another story.

0:58:410:58:44

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