0:00:03 > 0:00:05This year marks the 100th anniversary
0:00:05 > 0:00:07of the Imperial War Museum.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11Founded during the turmoil of the First World War, its aim -
0:00:11 > 0:00:17to record the sacrifices made by men and women in times of conflict.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21War changes people's lives irreversibly and the artefacts,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24documents and recordings on show here in this museum,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27are physical reminders of its impact.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Every object here was owned by someone or used by someone,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35be they civilian or military and they all tell a story.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42The museum has expanded significantly over its 100 years.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Now taking in sites like Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51the Churchill War Rooms
0:00:51 > 0:00:52and HMS Belfast.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Delving into the museum's rich collections,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01our team of presenters will discover the stories behind
0:01:01 > 0:01:03ten specially-chosen objects.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10From a humble wallet carried to the Somme by a brave headmaster...
0:01:12 > 0:01:15..to the mighty Spitfire that was part of our finest hour.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18What an extraordinary treat this is.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I haven't touched anything in here, by the way, and I'm not going to.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27And from a ukulele made from boxes by a prisoner of war...
0:01:28 > 0:01:31..to the helmet worn by a true war hero.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34- So these are all the guys...- That I saved.- ..that you saved?
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Oh, my gosh.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43Each of these objects tells its own vivid story of Britain at war.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04When the Imperial War Museum was founded,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08Britain was still at war with Germany and the Home Front was in
0:02:08 > 0:02:10the grip of food shortages.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Chef Ainsley Harriott
0:02:17 > 0:02:20has come to the Imperial War Museum's cafe to find out about
0:02:20 > 0:02:24an object very close to the nation's heart and its stomach.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29I've come to the museum today to look at the ration books.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33Can you imagine being told you can only have so much sugar,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37so much butter? What were they able to actually make with those foods?
0:02:37 > 0:02:40So it's going to be a fascinating afternoon for me.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Anthony Richards is the Imperial War Museum's head of documents.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Rationing was introduced very late on in the First World War.
0:02:49 > 0:02:50I mean, even today,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53we associate rationing with the Second World War, really.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Absolutely, I would never have known it was connected with the
0:02:56 > 0:03:00- First World War.- No. This is an example of a ration book from 1918.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05If we have a look at it, you can see that you've got tickets for meat...
0:03:05 > 0:03:06Oh, yes.
0:03:06 > 0:03:07..lard.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I've never seen one of these, you know?
0:03:10 > 0:03:12- Butter and margarine. - Butter and margarine.
0:03:12 > 0:03:13Look at this.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19The newly-formed museum used ration books to encourage people
0:03:19 > 0:03:22to donate objects relating to the Great War.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26"Also, original letters, sketches,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29"poems and other interesting documents sent from any of the
0:03:29 > 0:03:32"war areas and all kinds of memorabilia,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34"even of trifling character."
0:03:36 > 0:03:37Great, isn't it?
0:03:37 > 0:03:39- It's wonderful. The old way of speaking English.- I know.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41So how did they get all these people
0:03:41 > 0:03:45to send so much personal stuff in there? Because it could have been
0:03:45 > 0:03:49- something they remember their loved ones by.- Absolutely,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52well, right from the museum's origins,
0:03:52 > 0:03:58it was decided that the museum would concentrate on personal experience.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02Because the original curators of the museum didn't want it to be
0:04:02 > 0:04:07- a collection of dead war relics, just big bits of metal.- Sure.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10They wanted to be able to tell personal stories.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20What type of things would have been made with these ingredients?
0:04:20 > 0:04:25Many people would have been baking cakes and things like that and
0:04:25 > 0:04:27sending parcels out to the trenches.
0:04:27 > 0:04:28Right at the end of the war,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32the government was actually producing guidelines as to
0:04:32 > 0:04:34particular recipes that you could make
0:04:34 > 0:04:35with the minimum of ingredients.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40- The famous example is the trench cake.- OK.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42This is one I made earlier.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45An actual trench cake.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47Wow.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49Now...
0:04:49 > 0:04:52This looks a bit like a scone actually, doesn't it?
0:04:52 > 0:04:54It is - very flat.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58This is for consumption, then?
0:04:58 > 0:04:59Yeah, let's try it.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02It is a bit biscuity.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05There you are, mate. Get your noshers around that.
0:05:10 > 0:05:11Oh, it's quite nice.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14- Very nice.- Hm.- Bit dry.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll cut it up, and if you don't mind,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I'll have a little wander around the museum and see if we can get a few
0:05:19 > 0:05:21- of the visitors to try, see what they think of it?- Good plan.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Yeah, not bad at all.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Please, ladies and gentlemen,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29come forward, come and try a bit of our trench cake.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Do you like cake, generally?
0:05:31 > 0:05:34OK, so this is the original recipe.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37It lacks perhaps a little bit of...
0:05:37 > 0:05:39- It's chewy.- What's your feeling?
0:05:39 > 0:05:41- Dense.- Dense?
0:05:41 > 0:05:43- Very dry.- Very dry?
0:05:45 > 0:05:49I love that first... That first bite says everything.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52I think they would have been grateful for anything
0:05:52 > 0:05:53- out there.- Yeah.- So...
0:05:53 > 0:05:57If you'd been fighting in the trenches and your loved one
0:05:57 > 0:06:00- sent you this, would you be happy? - Yeah, to have this.
0:06:00 > 0:06:01Wouldn't have tea...
0:06:02 > 0:06:04..some muddy water, maybe.
0:06:04 > 0:06:05Trench cake and muddy water?
0:06:05 > 0:06:07Yes.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13These ration books were distributed to everyone throughout Britain.
0:06:13 > 0:06:14What a way of advertising,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16what a way of saying to people, "By the way,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18"whilst you're getting your butter and sugar,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21"if you've got anything that's in your loft or in your drawer,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25"that you can send to the museum to share your story."
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Talking with Tony has just brought it home to me,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31you're talking about a personal relationship that the museum
0:06:31 > 0:06:33had with these families.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47The Imperial War Museum's aim to feature personal possessions as well
0:06:47 > 0:06:48as military items
0:06:48 > 0:06:52has resulted in a hugely diverse collection of objects -
0:06:52 > 0:06:55many of which themselves bear the scars of conflict.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00This wallet belonged to teacher Robert Smylie.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03And I've brought it back to his old school in Suffolk,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07where he was headmaster when the First World War broke out.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11The school may have changed a bit in the past 100 years,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13but the story of Robert Smylie
0:07:13 > 0:07:16is still an important part of its history.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19I'm really looking forward
0:07:19 > 0:07:22to finding out about Robert Smylie himself,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26but I want to find out what the young people know about him.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Because it's about them knowing more about their own school,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33about their own environment and the people from this area who went away
0:07:33 > 0:07:35and never came home.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39'Teacher David Grocott has researched the school's history.'
0:07:39 > 0:07:44This is Robert Smylie and this photo was taken in 1914.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48He had been in position as headmaster for three years when the
0:07:48 > 0:07:50First World War broke out.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53This is a letter that he sent to all of the parents of the boys
0:07:53 > 0:07:56- of Sudbury Grammar School. - "On September 13th,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00"I received an official letter asking whether I was prepared to
0:08:00 > 0:08:01"accept a commission.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04"That is not the kind of work which I prefer to do,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07"but there is only one honourable answer to a request made by
0:08:07 > 0:08:11"military authorities in time of war."
0:08:11 > 0:08:13What is remarkable about Robert Smylie is that he...
0:08:15 > 0:08:17..was 40 years old at the outbreak of war.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21But he felt a sense of duty and a sense of commitment.
0:08:23 > 0:08:24Maybe as a teacher,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Robert Smylie felt he had to continue looking out for the
0:08:28 > 0:08:30young men of his country.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35By late 1915, he was on the Western Front and in July 1916,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37his regiment was sent to the Somme.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44Two weeks later, Smylie, now a captain, led his men into battle.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49We've got this remarkable artefact from the Battle of the Somme -
0:08:49 > 0:08:50Robert Smylie's wallet.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53And as you might expect, we've got within it
0:08:53 > 0:08:56a picture of his wife and indeed his three children.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Most touchingly, we have, in the centre of this artefact,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01this damage here,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05which we believe is caused by the bullet that took his life.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Did you have anything similar when you were in service?
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Yeah, I think most service people take some sort of memorabilia,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23some sort of keepsake, something that attaches you to your family.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26Yeah, I had a wallet in...
0:09:27 > 0:09:30It was surrounded in a plastic envelope.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Mine got thrown over the side,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36because when they stripped off my clothes, they were still ablaze,
0:09:36 > 0:09:38so the easiest thing was to cut them off straightaway
0:09:38 > 0:09:39and throw them over.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43So it's probably still at the bottom of the sea, all sealed still.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47But...it had all my poker winnings in it.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53'To this day, the school still holds a two-minute silence for
0:09:53 > 0:09:55'Robert Smylie every year.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58'I've come to talk to some of the students about his legacy.'
0:09:58 > 0:10:00How are we, guys? You OK?
0:10:00 > 0:10:02- ALL:- Yeah.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04What do you think about the fact
0:10:04 > 0:10:06that Mr Smylie didn't have to go to war?
0:10:06 > 0:10:09He was very brave to do it and
0:10:09 > 0:10:12he got a lot of respect from it and things like that.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Cos he didn't have to do it but he did it cos he felt that was
0:10:16 > 0:10:20- the right thing to do.- He had three children and yet he still wanted
0:10:20 > 0:10:23to go and be a part of all those young people,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25people like yourselves, that he'd taught,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28he'd been headmaster with and for.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31I think in 1914, lots of people were keen to go to war.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Someone of his age wasn't obliged to go but his love for the country,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38I suppose, was shown. I think pupils...
0:10:38 > 0:10:41I know I certainly would respect his desire to do that.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46I'm thrilled that the school has taken on
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Robert Smylie's history and his sacrifices.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54They have taken it all to heart and that's really important.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57I was 16 when I joined up.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00A young man with no responsibilities.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03But it was very different for Robert Smylie.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08He left behind three children and his wife and I find a bit of me is
0:11:08 > 0:11:12angry at him for doing that. But you have to respect somebody that makes
0:11:12 > 0:11:15a decision and sticks to it, whatever the consequences.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18He still went and did his duty.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22He still represented and stood in front and led all of his men,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25which takes a heck of a lot of courage.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38When the First World War ended,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42the loss of a generation of men changed the way we commemorated
0:11:42 > 0:11:44our fallen soldiers.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Artist Cornelia Parker
0:11:47 > 0:11:50is fascinated by ideas of war and memory
0:11:50 > 0:11:52and has come to Richmond to look
0:11:52 > 0:11:56at an early object from the Imperial War Museum's collection that will
0:11:56 > 0:11:59forever be associated with remembrance.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02I'm always very interested in the found object
0:12:02 > 0:12:04and things that have
0:12:04 > 0:12:07become culturally significant, you know, almost cliched.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10I'm very interested in how that icon came into being and how it's
0:12:10 > 0:12:12manufactured and who makes it
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and so the idea of coming here was very exciting.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Brian Love is a tour guide here at the Poppy Factory.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22So here, Cornelia,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26we've got a poppy that was made later, 1929.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29It's made of silk, it's got hair bristles in it
0:12:29 > 0:12:31and it has a metal stud
0:12:31 > 0:12:32which says, "Haig Fund".
0:12:38 > 0:12:41So this poppy is part of the Imperial War Museum's collection,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43but I think you have something to do with it, don't you?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45This is the one I gave them.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47So I'm proud to see it again,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50it's like a relative, a long-lost relative.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54The power of the poppy as a symbol, has its roots in the battlefields
0:12:54 > 0:12:56of the Western Front.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00When the servicemen first went to France,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04they found corn poppies growing on devastated areas of ground and they
0:13:04 > 0:13:07used to pick them and wear them in their felt caps, then,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09before steel helmets,
0:13:09 > 0:13:10as a lucky talisman.
0:13:12 > 0:13:13Since the First World War,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17the poppy has become a universal symbol of remembrance.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23When Cornelia came here back in 2014 to research her work on war and
0:13:23 > 0:13:27memory, it wasn't the poppies themselves that most inspired her.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31This machine was the thing I saw when I first came here.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I was so struck by all the holes
0:13:34 > 0:13:36being punched out of this piece of paper.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38It puts hairs on the back of my neck,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40it's almost like the loss of all the men.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I just thought, "This is what I'm looking for."
0:13:47 > 0:13:49In the final artwork,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Cornelia hangs swathes of this leftover red poppy paper
0:13:53 > 0:13:55in an installation entitled War Room.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Somehow, the paper with the poppy holes in it meant even more to me
0:14:04 > 0:14:08than the actual poppies. It's almost like the negative space, it's like,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10- "Where did all the flowers go?" - Yes, absolutely.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Another contemporary artist interested in ideas of commemoration
0:14:20 > 0:14:22and sacrifice is Steve McQueen.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27His work on the Iraq war, Queen And Country,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30is on permanent display here at the Imperial War Museum, London.
0:14:31 > 0:14:37I think it was in 2003 when I went to Iraq for the first time.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The one thing I did come away with was the camaraderie of the troops.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44I thought, "These people have to be represented,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46"and represented in a way
0:14:46 > 0:14:49"that people could participate in their memory."
0:14:49 > 0:14:52And I started thinking about war letters and stuff like that.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Steve decided to use portrait photographs of men and women who had
0:14:59 > 0:15:03died in Iraq and turned them into sheets of postage stamps.
0:15:06 > 0:15:07At the time, living in Amsterdam,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10there was a stamp about van Gogh and his image was on the stamp,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12this little portrait. I thought,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14"Oh, portraits and the portraits of the troops."
0:15:14 > 0:15:16When I first was researching this...
0:15:16 > 0:15:19the only people that could appear on a stamp, who weren't royalty,
0:15:19 > 0:15:20was if you were dead.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23I thought, "OK, well, let's put two and two together."
0:15:23 > 0:15:25- Can we have a look at one?- Sure.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Lance Corporal Thomas Keys.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Yeah.
0:15:35 > 0:15:3720 years old.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44I wanted those people recognised in a way which wasn't monumental,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46but was within our everyday.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47That's why you chose stamps.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49The idea of the face being on the letter.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Yes. For me, I wanted to sort of
0:15:52 > 0:15:56get into the bloodstream of the country in a way which didn't come
0:15:56 > 0:15:59- through the media.- Yeah.- Didn't come through, er, you know...
0:15:59 > 0:16:01I wanted to come through the everyday.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03- Come through the letterbox.- Exactly.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05That whole idea that the country
0:16:05 > 0:16:09could be participating within the active recognition of these troops
0:16:09 > 0:16:13who had basically given up their life for Queen and country.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16But the stamps with the faces of
0:16:16 > 0:16:18those who had given their lives in Iraq
0:16:18 > 0:16:19were never sent.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25- We wanted it to be actual stamps... - Yes...
0:16:25 > 0:16:28..but it's one of those things where the Royal Mail have to sort of...
0:16:28 > 0:16:32have to make the decision of what they want to do.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34This, for me, is not an artwork
0:16:34 > 0:16:36until it's actually realised as the artwork that it was intended.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38- And activated.- Exactly.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40Because they are in drawers,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43it's like a sarcophagus, they're in the dark.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47And the viewer has to pull it open and let the light in.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Absolutely. And I think the whole idea of having that intimacy was
0:16:50 > 0:16:53very important for me. This was the only way I could actually
0:16:53 > 0:16:56perceive it in a way, for now,
0:16:56 > 0:16:58that people could see what I was wanting to do.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01So it's the unfinished artwork, basically.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09I think we've both chosen to use the mass-produced and the mechanised
0:17:09 > 0:17:12to deal with something quite, you know, raw.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Rows and rows of stamps, it's a mechanised process.
0:17:15 > 0:17:16Going to the Poppy Factory
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and seeing millions of poppies being punched out
0:17:19 > 0:17:21is a similar kind of production line.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Whereas my commemoration was to do with the absence, you know,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26the emptiness, the holes.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The people who've gone.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30And his were the faces of the dead.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32And so it's a brilliant way,
0:17:32 > 0:17:34and a very quiet way,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38of dealing with all that turmoil and chaos and anguish,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40which wars are all about.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48AIR RAID SIRENS BLARE
0:17:54 > 0:17:57When war broke out again in 1939,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01the Imperial War Museum was 22 years old.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05It would play a major role in recording the stories of those who
0:18:05 > 0:18:08fought and died in this new global conflict.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Anita Rani is going in search of an object that belonged to one of the
0:18:15 > 0:18:19millions of soldiers from Britain's colonies who served
0:18:19 > 0:18:21in the Second World War.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25I'm here to find out about a silver Sikh bangle, called a kara,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27that belonged to Major Parkash Singh,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31who won the Victoria Cross during the Second World War.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Because my own grandfather was a Sikh who fought as part of the
0:18:35 > 0:18:38British Indian Army, it resonates quite deeply.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45During World War II, with two-and-a-half-million recruits,
0:18:45 > 0:18:46the British Indian Army
0:18:46 > 0:18:49was the largest all-volunteer force in the world.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Diane Lees is the Imperial War Museum's director-general.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Wow! Can I...?
0:18:57 > 0:19:00- With the gloves.- With the gloves, obviously.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Here it is.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Major Parkash Singh's bangle.
0:19:06 > 0:19:07- His kara.- His kara, yes.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11For most people to look at, it might just seem like a bracelet,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13but actually, that is so significant.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17- Yes.- And this would have been there throughout the war with him.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19And you can see that it's quite battered,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21it's lived a bit, this one, hasn't it?
0:19:21 > 0:19:23- Yes.- That's incredible. - It's a beautiful object.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37When war spread to the Far East, Parkash Singh was one of thousands
0:19:37 > 0:19:40of Indian soldiers sent to Burma to fight the Japanese.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45His heroic actions on the battlefield were to win him
0:19:45 > 0:19:47the highest possible award for bravery.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51So, these are his medals?
0:19:51 > 0:19:52These are his medals.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54- Can I touch them?- Please, do.
0:19:55 > 0:19:56I'm so excited.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58This is... Wow!
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Wow, they're heavy. That's quite some collection there.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03- Yes.- But the one I'm particularly interested in
0:20:03 > 0:20:04is this one here, right?
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Is that the one? That's the VC, yes.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07- The VC.- That one there.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13In January 1943,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Parkash Singh's convoy came under attack from the Japanese.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Many of his unit were trapped in their burning vehicles.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29He went back to get his compatriots, so he dragged several people out,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and put them in his vehicle, and took them away from the fire.
0:20:32 > 0:20:33But he went back repeatedly,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35and I think that's the real courage in the story.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37He didn't only do it once.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40His officer was a chap called Lieutenant Burt Causey,
0:20:40 > 0:20:46who had been injured in the legs along with his co-driver, and
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Burt said, "No, leave me."
0:20:48 > 0:20:51He said, "I've come all this way back, I'm taking you out.
0:20:51 > 0:20:52"I'm going to get you out."
0:20:52 > 0:20:54So he then, actually, under fire,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58hooked up this carrier to his transport and dragged them out.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Wow, that is a real act of bravery.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04What a...in the nicest way, total nutter!
0:21:04 > 0:21:05I mean, amazing.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Just something in him said, "I need to get in there,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10"put my own life at risk..."
0:21:10 > 0:21:13- Yes.- "..and do whatever it takes to get them out."
0:21:13 > 0:21:16- Yes.- And to be sitting with the main man's kara.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18- Amazing, yes, absolutely. - I want to pick it up again.- Do.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- And try it on? No, I don't.- No.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- I wouldn't advise you to.- No!
0:21:25 > 0:21:27I always have to try and push it.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28(Walk out with it.)
0:21:32 > 0:21:35These memorial gates on London's Hyde Park Corner
0:21:35 > 0:21:39were erected to honour the men and women from the British colonies who
0:21:39 > 0:21:41volunteered to fight in two world wars.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And under the dome of the small pavilion are written names of all
0:21:45 > 0:21:48those who won the Victoria Cross.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Anita is here to meet Major Parkash Singh's granddaughter, Amrita.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Amrita, what an incredible grandfather you had.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59- What was he like?- Predominantly,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02my grandfather was a man of real principle.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06What was important to him was to have a strong character.
0:22:06 > 0:22:07And have a backbone.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10And if you knew you had to do the right thing, then do it,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12regardless of what other people said.
0:22:12 > 0:22:13Shall we go and see his name?
0:22:13 > 0:22:16- Yes.- Shall we do it? Come on. You can show me where it is.
0:22:18 > 0:22:2332 Indian soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29Relative to their numbers, this was more than in any other regiments.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32So his name is actually right there.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35- There he is.- Parkash Singh L.Hav.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Wow. Is it incredible to see his name up there?
0:22:38 > 0:22:42- What's the feeling?- Well, it's there, it's written in stone.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44It's there for a very, very long time.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46For many people to see.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Your grandfather, and all the others whose names are up there,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52represent the two-and-a-half-million Indian men
0:22:52 > 0:22:54that fought in the Second World War,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59that we... You know, for many years, were overlooked.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03I was very lucky to have been asked to several events,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05VC and GC reunions.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07And I was able to meet several of them.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12And they all have something very similar, they are all very reserved.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15And they have a sort of twinkle in their eye.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17And when you read about what they've done,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21you know that these men are cut from a different cloth.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Meeting his granddaughter was fantastic,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31especially looking at his name on the memorial over there.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36I felt fuzzy, and very proud of her grandfather.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40The memorial was only built in 2002.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45And we know that around five million men from those countries fought in
0:23:45 > 0:23:47the First and the Second World War.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49And it's really important to be able to tell those stories.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And when I met Diane at the Imperial War Museum, she said,
0:23:53 > 0:23:55"We call them our hidden stories."
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Well, not so hidden any more.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10As the fighting in World War II spread across the globe,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13back home, Britain was engaged in a battle for the skies.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire, and its brave fighter pilots,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23played a key role in the country's air defences.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Duxford is now part of the Imperial War Museums and is still
0:24:29 > 0:24:31a working airfield.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Comedian Al Murray has a passion for wartime aviation,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39and is fascinated by Duxford's most glamorous object, the Spitfire.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44I grew up in the '70s, when Action Man, Airfix,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46the Battle Of Britain movie, all that stuff was very,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50very much a big part of childhood masculine culture.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And I'm very much a product of the Airfix age.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56I would come here to check the colour on the aeroplanes,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59to make sure I was making my Airfix models...getting them right.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04So this place, I mean, you know, that's a Mk XXIV.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06It's just a brilliant place to be.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11During the Battle of Britain, the nerve centre at RAF Duxford was
0:25:11 > 0:25:13the operations room.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I'm really lucky that I've been allowed down here
0:25:16 > 0:25:18to stand right next to this,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21cos this is a real... a very, very big treat.
0:25:21 > 0:25:22Represented on these blocks,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25you've got the number of the enemy formations,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29the estimated number of aircraft, and then the height it's flying at,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32so 12,000 feet, 10,000 feet.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35- NEWSREEL:- Here comes the Luftwaffe. Hundreds of planes.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Bombers, fighters, dive bombers.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40And then, on top,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43these things on top are the squadrons that have been sent from
0:25:43 > 0:25:46Duxford to attack these enemy formations.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51The RAF came, facing odds of six, eight, ten to one,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54shouting the old hunting cry, "Tally-ho!"
0:25:58 > 0:26:00And it's...it's just remarkable
0:26:00 > 0:26:03how important a room like this was.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Big squadron, lots of fighters,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08fate of the country, you know, on a table like this.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21Duxford's dramatic heyday may be a distant memory,
0:26:21 > 0:26:23but, for Al, it's still a magical place.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28John Romain is the pilot of the Imperial War Museum's
0:26:28 > 0:26:30very own working Spitfire.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Tell me about this beautiful, beautiful Spitfire.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36This one's got particular history to Duxford.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39- Right.- Because it flew from Duxford in 1940,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41and was used on the Dunkirk campaign.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46- Wow!- The day that it was lost, it shot down two Stukas,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49and then was hit, belly landed on the beach,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52and then it just sunk away and disappeared.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56But the aeroplane then came back to the surface in the early 1980s.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59There was a big shift of sand on the French coast,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01and it popped back out.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03Amazing. The Spitfire always had a reputation
0:27:03 > 0:27:05for being a wonderful aeroplane to fly,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and if anyone's going to know that, it's you.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10As a fighter, it's a lovely thing to fly.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12And it looks after you.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16You know, we all talk in pilot terms of the aeroplane "talks to you"
0:27:16 > 0:27:18if it's going to do anything bad like stalling,
0:27:18 > 0:27:19or anything like that,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21and a Spitfire does.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23It really does look after the pilot.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Each aeroplane has got its own character.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Which is lovely. And they all... they sort of smell different,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30they do things slightly different.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32But they're all gorgeous, of course.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34OK. Can I find out what it smells like?
0:27:34 > 0:27:36- Yeah, absolutely.- Am I allowed in?
0:27:36 > 0:27:37We'll get you in.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40- So, hand on here.- Yep.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42- Right foot there, pull yourself up. - AL GRUNTS
0:27:44 > 0:27:49There we go. Then swing your right leg over and stand on the seat.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52- And then...- I'm not as lithe as I was.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54And hold on to the front screen.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56This is for smaller men, isn't it?
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Then just lower yourself down.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05As I say, this is a Mk I, so it's the real basic Spitfire.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Yep. This is no frills, isn't it?
0:28:08 > 0:28:10Absolutely.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20What do you navigate with in here?
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Navigate with a compass, which is down there.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25- OK.- And a stopwatch and a map.
0:28:25 > 0:28:26That's how they used to navigate.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29So they certainly didn't have things like GPS, or...
0:28:29 > 0:28:32No, so very brave men flying these, really.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36They were all young, you know. And I think sending a 19-year-old airborne
0:28:36 > 0:28:40in one of these in 1940, in a lot of ways, they didn't see the danger.
0:28:40 > 0:28:41No.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46- Or if they did, they accepted it. - Yes.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49This is... What an extraordinary treat this is.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51What a thing. I'm not going to...
0:28:51 > 0:28:53I haven't touched anything, by the way.
0:28:53 > 0:28:54And I'm not going to.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59- NEWSREEL:- And the RAF kept on flying.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01These two men with wings, alone in the sky,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04behind their motors and machine guns,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07were smashing the whole Nazi plan of world conquest.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14The really strange thing about sitting in the cockpit
0:29:14 > 0:29:15of a Mk I Spitfire is these...
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Even the colour, the internal colour of the cockpit,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22takes me back to being, you know, seven, eight years old.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26That brown and green colour scheme on the wing is deeply imprinted in
0:29:26 > 0:29:30my memory, but also you really get a sense of
0:29:30 > 0:29:33the confines of this cockpit.
0:29:33 > 0:29:34The dangers.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38The very centre of the aeroplane is the trigger for the machine gun.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40GUNFIRE
0:29:41 > 0:29:44This is a beautiful aircraft, but it's a killing machine,
0:29:44 > 0:29:45no two ways about it.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49Although I am, you know, I'm amazingly fortunate to be able
0:29:49 > 0:29:52to do this, to sit in here, it's such a privilege. Crazy.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08While above ground Britain was undergoing the most deadly onslaught
0:30:08 > 0:30:10in its history,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14deep under the streets of London the commanding officers of the
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Army, Navy and Air Force oversaw the war's progress from
0:30:17 > 0:30:19the Cabinet War Rooms.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25Like Duxford, this network of tunnels is now part of the
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Imperial War Museum.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32In her 40-year broadcasting career, Kate Adie has reported
0:30:32 > 0:30:35from conflicts around the world.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39She's come to find out about some of the people who worked down here,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41behind the scenes of Churchill's campaign.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49The map room shows the enormous scope of this war,
0:30:49 > 0:30:50right round the globe.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56This is the heart of the operation, in the Cabinet War Rooms.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59This is actually where the war was run from.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01It's extraordinary.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05And you see tiny, tiny holes, hundreds, several thousand,
0:31:05 > 0:31:12where the pins have gone in, a ship, a convoy, some action in the war.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20The orders decided on in this room would be sent to the typing pool
0:31:20 > 0:31:22next door.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Churchill stated several times during the war that he wasn't really
0:31:26 > 0:31:30interested in women taking any kind of role
0:31:30 > 0:31:33in fighting forces or forward positions.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38It was even difficult to get women on ships, when they had to travel.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41Even accompanying him on his foreign visits.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45And therefore, women were doing what, traditionally,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48they did before the war, they were the typists.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54Kate has come to meet Joy Hunter, who worked as a typist
0:31:54 > 0:31:57in the War Rooms from 1943 to 1945.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59Tell me what it was first like walking down the stairs,
0:31:59 > 0:32:01coming in here.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03I think it was rather frightening, actually.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05Because we had to press a button to get in.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06We were locked in.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08So there were Marines on the door,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10and we really didn't know what we were
0:32:10 > 0:32:14- coming into.- What was your first impression?
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Underground. Electric light.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19- Very stuffy.- Lots of cigarette smoke.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Of course! A lot of cigarette smoke, and I suppose there was an air-con,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24but not a very good one, I think.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27You're coming into a place where, central to your life,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30is the wonderful typewriter.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32- JOY CHUCKLES - Yes.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Did you actually like typing?
0:32:41 > 0:32:43I found it quite difficult at the time.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Of course, when we were learning, it was awful,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48really, because we had to type with our gas masks on,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51type to music, and I'm slightly musical so, you know,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55a three-letter word with a space-bar was fine - dum, de, de, dum, de,
0:32:55 > 0:32:56one, two, three, four.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59When you got to five-letter words and then the space-bar,
0:32:59 > 0:33:01then another five, it didn't fit in too well,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03so I don't think I was a very brilliant typist.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07I did get 100 words a minute, so I did get there in six months.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Were you aware of what you were typing?
0:33:10 > 0:33:11Oh, yes, yes.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14It was all planned. We were in the joint planning secretariat,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17responsible to three senior officers from the three services.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19You really felt you were in the centre.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24I actually typed the battle orders for D-Day, with other people
0:33:24 > 0:33:26of course checking and everything, thank goodness.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29I mean, otherwise, I might have sent them all to Spain instead of
0:33:29 > 0:33:31wherever they should have gone to!
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Was there much talk?
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Or was it very disciplined?
0:33:35 > 0:33:38We didn't talk. We weren't allowed to talk while we worked.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40So there was no conversation.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43The people I worked with, for instance, I did know their names,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46but I didn't know where they came from or where they lived,
0:33:46 > 0:33:49or whether they were married or what family they'd got.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51It's very top secret all the time.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53Were you glad you did it?
0:33:53 > 0:33:55Do you look back on it
0:33:55 > 0:33:58with a fond feeling?
0:33:58 > 0:34:02I do, actually. Much more now than at the time.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05And I realise now that I was very, very privileged.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08You'd contributed to the war.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10Oh, only as everybody else did!
0:34:10 > 0:34:12A minute cog.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17This was the hub of all the thinking
0:34:17 > 0:34:21and the planning and the orders going out.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25Joy was at the very centre of it, but there she was,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29not telling anyone what she was doing.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Not family, not friends, not even talking to the other girls.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35It's extraordinary, isn't it?
0:34:35 > 0:34:39Just typing away, that clacking typewriter,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41right at the heart of the war.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48BELL TOLLS
0:34:51 > 0:34:53During World War II,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57thousands of Allied servicemen were taken prisoner in the Far East.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02The objects they brought back home from the prison camps in Burma are
0:35:02 > 0:35:04a poignant and often surprising part
0:35:04 > 0:35:07of the Imperial War Museum's collection.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13Ex-servicemen JJ Chalmers has come to IWM North on Salford Quays.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19I'm here to see a ukulele that was built by a prisoner of war
0:35:19 > 0:35:22in the Far East during the Second World War.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24I served in the Royal Marines for ten years,
0:35:24 > 0:35:26and I served in Afghanistan.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28Now, clearly, I wasn't a prisoner of war,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32and even from my experience of conflict myself,
0:35:32 > 0:35:34it's just on another level.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942
0:35:40 > 0:35:42it was the largest surrender
0:35:42 > 0:35:46of British-led military personnel in history.
0:35:46 > 0:35:5080,000 Allied servicemen were captured
0:35:50 > 0:35:53and many were sent to work on the infamous Burma Railway.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59Charlotte Czyzyk is a researcher here at IWM North.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03How bad were the conditions there?
0:36:03 > 0:36:05Thousands of people died, and many became seriously ill.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08They were made to work for about 12 hours a day
0:36:08 > 0:36:11on very little food, often just some rice.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Thomas Boardman was one of a handful of extraordinary men
0:36:15 > 0:36:19whose creativity provided an escape from the horrors of captivity.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25This is a ukulele that he made while he was a prisoner.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28He got hold of scraps of wood, things like from Red Cross boxes,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31things like that. He also got the telephone wire
0:36:31 > 0:36:33that he's used for the strings.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36You can imagine him sort of sitting round with his friends,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40strumming away on this, and people joining in, that kind of thing.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43So it really is a remarkable item.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46- Wow. Can I?- Would you like to have a hold?
0:36:46 > 0:36:47So he didn't just play on his own,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50- he put on concerts for people as well?- That's right.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53So there would have been other people with different talents,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55and they would put on a show, all together.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58JAUNTY UKULELE TUNE PLAYS
0:37:04 > 0:37:08So this is a programme, it's a variety performance we have here.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11So we have people like magicians, they had actors,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15they had stand-up comics, singers, you name it.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Bill "the Hot Dog" Williams.
0:37:17 > 0:37:18Exactly.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22When you read the name, you don't picture a starving prisoner of war,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24and I suppose that's kind of the point.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27For an hour, he wasn't a prisoner,
0:37:27 > 0:37:29he was Bill "Hot Dog" Williams.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Another soldier who found himself
0:37:34 > 0:37:37in the camps on the Burma Railway was Fergus Anckorn.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Fergus had been a magician before the war,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44but had been badly wounded in the fighting.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47The surgeon said they were going to take my hand off.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51And then the orderly looked at me and said,
0:37:51 > 0:37:56"Aren't you the magician we saw in Liverpool?"
0:37:56 > 0:37:58And I said yes.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02And he said, "You can't cut his hand off, sir. He's a conjuror."
0:38:07 > 0:38:10We used to get bashed about all over the place.
0:38:10 > 0:38:11We were like animals.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16- We just took it.- It must be almost impossible to keep morale up.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18When did you start using magic to sort of...
0:38:18 > 0:38:21I was using magic as soon as I could.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24We used to have a concert every Friday night.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27We would put on a show.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Well, I never thought of the fact
0:38:30 > 0:38:34that we were doing the greatest thing for morale,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36because the fellows working,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40they were waiting for Friday night when we'd be doing our bits.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The Japanese camp commandant saw me,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49and happened to be a magic buff.
0:38:49 > 0:38:55So I was sent to his hut to do some magic.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57So he gave me a coin,
0:38:57 > 0:39:02and I noticed on his table there was a tin of sardines.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05I thought, "Right, I'm having those."
0:39:05 > 0:39:09And so I vanished the coin,
0:39:09 > 0:39:11reached across,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14opened the tin, and there was the coin,
0:39:14 > 0:39:16as you would.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Now, he then pushed the tin to me.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22They would touch nothing that we touched.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25We were verminous and horrible.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27So I got the fish!
0:39:29 > 0:39:31Fergus never stopped doing magic,
0:39:31 > 0:39:36and is now the longest-standing member of the Magic Circle.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39So I must ask, can I see a trick, please?
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Well, yes, I wouldn't let you go out without it!
0:39:42 > 0:39:44- I've got one with six cards here. - OK.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Three of them are red and three of them are black.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Now, if you open both hands...
0:39:50 > 0:39:55Last year, Fergus's remarkable story helped fellow magician and soldier
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Richard Jones win Britain's Got Talent.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01I'm very proud,
0:40:01 > 0:40:06and honoured to present to you, tonight, the man himself,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11at 97 years of age, Mr Fergus Anckorn!
0:40:11 > 0:40:13CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Seeing the ukulele and meeting Fergus reminds you
0:40:31 > 0:40:33of a thing which I've experienced, and it's that,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37when you're a soldier, it does define who you are in many ways,
0:40:37 > 0:40:41but you're just a human being at the end of the day,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44And these things remind us that, particularly in those conflicts,
0:40:44 > 0:40:49we asked ordinary people to do extraordinary things on our behalf.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53And I think it's a testament to that, more than anything else.
0:41:04 > 0:41:05Back down in London,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09another of the Imperial War Museum's sites also happens to be
0:41:09 > 0:41:12the largest object in its collection.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16Bear Grylls is coming aboard HMS Belfast to find out more
0:41:16 > 0:41:19about her dramatic role in the Second World War.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24I served as an honorary lieutenant commander with the Royal Navy,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27and actually to be on board HMS Belfast and learn
0:41:27 > 0:41:29and get into the heritage and history
0:41:29 > 0:41:32of this incredible ship is a real privilege.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45I think what I'm most excited about is actually meeting somebody who
0:41:45 > 0:41:49served on board HMS Belfast at the height of her service.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52An incredible gentleman called Ted.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54I can't wait.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02HMS Belfast was launched in 1938.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07During World War II, she spent two years protecting the Arctic convoys
0:42:07 > 0:42:13which delivered essential supplies to Britain's Russian allies.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17Ted Cordery was one of the brave crew who served on Belfast
0:42:17 > 0:42:20as she patrolled the perilous northern waters.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26So, Ted, it must have been brutally cold up in the Arctic?
0:42:26 > 0:42:29It was. This was one of the problems,
0:42:29 > 0:42:31because the ice formed quickly,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35and you can have 200 ton of ice on board a ship that size,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37and if it's left there,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40- it will topple her.- So, actually, it can turn a ship over?
0:42:40 > 0:42:41It could do, if it was left.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43- So do you have to break the ice? - Yes.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45I was always chipping ice.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Always chipping ice.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50- What rank were you? - I was leading torpedo operator.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54- OK.- That was my official rank. I could take a torpedo apart,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57put it back together, because I spent so much time living with it,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00- you know?- I've been up in a little boat up in those Arctic seas,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and it is wild up there.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06- It is.- This must have been crazy, when there's a big swell...
0:43:06 > 0:43:08- Oh, yes.- ..and a storm going on. Were you seasick?
0:43:08 > 0:43:11I got headaches, but I was never seasick.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15I used to walk over some of our POs, who were lying on the floor, sick.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Couldn't get up because of the sea.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21And I'd say, "Oh, you're not so bright now, are you?"
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Not so bright now!
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Seasickness doesn't care which rank you are.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28It doesn't. Indeed.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33At 94 years old, Ted is still able to negotiate
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Belfast's precarious stairways.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41He's taking Bear up to the ship's bridge
0:43:41 > 0:43:44to look at a very special document
0:43:44 > 0:43:46from her most famous mission, D-Day.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54In the early hours of 6th June 1944,
0:43:54 > 0:43:55Belfast moved into position
0:43:55 > 0:43:58at the head of the British and Canadian fleet.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04The ship's log from that momentous day
0:44:04 > 0:44:07is now kept in the National Archives,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09but today it's come back home.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12So this is pretty special.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14- It is indeed.- This never leaves the National Archives,
0:44:14 > 0:44:16so we've got to be super careful with this.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19But we're going to open it on D-Day, so here we go.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22"Sixth day of June, 1944."
0:44:22 > 0:44:24If we come down...
0:44:24 > 0:44:26"05.27.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29"Opened fire with full broadside to port."
0:44:29 > 0:44:32- You remember that moment? - Yes. Yes, I do.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40As Belfast's vast guns bombarded the coastline of occupied France,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43thousands of other smaller ships
0:44:43 > 0:44:46were alongside her carrying the ground troops.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51They were so small, being buffeted, loaded with equipment,
0:44:51 > 0:44:52possibly being seasick,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56and I thought to myself, "My God! God bless you all," you know?
0:44:56 > 0:44:59Because I was in a relatively good position,
0:44:59 > 0:45:01with regards to them,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05and I felt... I just felt sorry for them, that's all,
0:45:05 > 0:45:10knowing full well that lots of them wouldn't come back anyway,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12- and they didn't.- Hmm.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19It was the largest seaborne invasion in history,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23and as the fighting intensified on the French beaches,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Belfast began to take on the wounded.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28And then you remember afterwards
0:45:28 > 0:45:31the casualties being brought on to the sick bay of the ship?
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Oh, God! I'll tell you something,
0:45:34 > 0:45:36they will keep with me the rest of my days.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40A man would be injured, and then they'd come out to the ship,
0:45:40 > 0:45:46and I would pick them up from there and load them onto the ship.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50And the damages I saw made me cry.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52Faces blown away.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Arms off, legs off.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58- I can see it now. Terrible, terrible injuries.- Hmm.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59They really were.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01Terrible.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03But there you are.
0:46:03 > 0:46:04What was it all for?
0:46:04 > 0:46:07- What was it all for?- Hmm.
0:46:09 > 0:46:10There you are.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20When you seen death close up like that,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and some of the horrors of the reality of war, you know,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27of helping these injured, dying soldiers and sailors
0:46:27 > 0:46:29back onto Belfast,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32you know, these are real lives with real families,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34and real sacrifice.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36And sometimes, it's not until you bring people back
0:46:36 > 0:46:40to this sort of place, where Ted saw it,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45that you remember what so many people gave for us.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05By the time I went to the Falklands in 1982, photographers and TV crews
0:47:05 > 0:47:08were part of the war landscape.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Even the aftermath of the bombing of my ship, the Sir Galahad,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14was captured in detail by the cameras.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18But today, I'm here to find out
0:47:18 > 0:47:22about a very different way of recording conflicts,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26one that sits at the heart of the Imperial War Museum's collection.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30I've come to the museum to look at war art.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32I know very little about it.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I've seen plenty of it, because of my history.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37But I don't truly understand symbolism
0:47:37 > 0:47:41and what some of the artists are trying to say.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44There are some that glorify war and, from my experience,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46there's nothing glorious in it.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48But there is so much symbolism in it,
0:47:48 > 0:47:50and there's an awful lot to understand,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53and I'd love to find out more about that.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00'Tim Marlow is artistic director of the Royal Academy of Arts,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03'and a trustee of the Imperial War Museum.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07'He's taking me behind the scenes to the museum's art store
0:48:07 > 0:48:11'to look at works by some of our greatest official war artists.
0:48:11 > 0:48:17'Firstly, he shows me these intimate drawings by John Singer Sargent
0:48:17 > 0:48:20'that formed the basis for one of the most famous paintings
0:48:20 > 0:48:22'of the First World War.'
0:48:26 > 0:48:27These are the studies
0:48:27 > 0:48:30he made of the figures, so there's the arm
0:48:30 > 0:48:32holding on to the shoulder.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36This is one of the figures, not a dead figure or a dying figure,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40but they're blinded, so they're lying down, waiting to be treated.
0:48:40 > 0:48:41Look at this.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43This sequence there.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46I love this touching relationship,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49each man helping another, holding on to another.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53I don't know how strong or powerful that is to you, but it is to me.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56No, it's huge. I mean, there was a point in time, after being injured,
0:48:56 > 0:48:58that I was blind,
0:48:58 > 0:49:03and I had to be led to my hospital bed because the stretcher I was on
0:49:03 > 0:49:05couldn't quite get through the doorways,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08and they tipped me off onto the floor,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10and I said, "Enough's enough,"
0:49:10 > 0:49:12or words to that effect.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15We won't go in to the exact vernacular!
0:49:15 > 0:49:17And then they led me to my room.
0:49:17 > 0:49:22In this way, this is very, very powerful, and it's so sad.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27But in its sadness, there is a great deal of compassion and emotion.
0:49:27 > 0:49:28The human spirit.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38This is a beautiful work by Stanley Spencer,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40also from the First World War,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42of the travoys.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45These are these mobile stretchers being towed by horses,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47taking them to a field hospital, the wounded.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51There's a kind of religious sense. When you look down on the figures...
0:49:51 > 0:49:55There's something like a crucifixion to me, when I look at those figures,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and then, this figure here, who's walking away,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00having been...if not fully healed, he's on the road to recovery.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02Maybe there's the hope of redemption in this picture.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05What you can't remove is the brutality,
0:50:05 > 0:50:10because people are lying on stretchers, incapacitated,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14but the one thing is the hand, here, on the fellow's face, over his eyes.
0:50:14 > 0:50:15And he's covering it,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18and it's almost like, we don't want you to look.
0:50:18 > 0:50:19We don't want you to see.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Or we don't want somebody else to see what you're seeing.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24Or what you're feeling. There's something...
0:50:24 > 0:50:26- It's gentle and tender as well, though.- It is.
0:50:26 > 0:50:27It's dignified, I think.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36'But there's another set of works Tim wants me to see,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39'that are closer to my own experience.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41'Back up in the public galleries
0:50:41 > 0:50:45'are a set of drawings of the Falklands Conflict by Linda Kitson.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49'One of the images shows my own ship, the Sir Galahad,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52'on which 48 men were killed.'
0:50:53 > 0:50:56- This is us.- That is you.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58- This is us.- You know that...
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Do you know exactly when this drawing was made?
0:51:01 > 0:51:04I have no idea.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06This was a week after the bombing,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09when the ship was still on fire,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11and that boat is still burning.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20The bomb came through the other side.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And this is the engine room that started the fire.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25And then the bomb detonated inside the fire
0:51:25 > 0:51:27that had started in the oil.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31And that's why this side is probably the side that burned the quickest,
0:51:31 > 0:51:33because that's where the fire started.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36I was about here. I was the closest to the bomb to survive.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And then I managed to make it out along this side of the ship,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44and it was up here, where they winched us off.
0:51:44 > 0:51:45And that was it.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47I didn't even look back at her.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49- You've never seen this.- Never.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53How...how is it? Does it feel quite remote or removed for you?
0:51:53 > 0:51:56This bit I find quite disturbing.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Because it's like...this is the ribs of something living,
0:52:00 > 0:52:02and they've peeled away the skin of it.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Don't be polite. Don't hold back.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Looking around the Imperial War Museum's collections,
0:52:07 > 0:52:11does art ultimately fall short of the capacity, for you,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15to invoke the horrors of conflict and war?
0:52:15 > 0:52:16No, I...
0:52:16 > 0:52:18I like art.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22I believe that it captures things perfectly in many ways,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26although it can never actually replicate what you see.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29But there's a rolling story in every picture.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37The conflict took ownership of my life for so long,
0:52:37 > 0:52:42and seeing the Galahad so open and wounded, like she was,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46as she is in the picture, all of her flesh torn away,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and all you see are the ribs and the bones
0:52:49 > 0:52:55and the interior carcass of her, it was hugely emotive to me.
0:52:55 > 0:52:56That's a bit of it I'd never seen.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00I only saw when she was in the throes of that death.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02And we were a part of that.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04When you look at it,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08I could start to get some smells coming back to me,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12and noises, and those are things that you can't teach people about.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15They only learn from experience.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29Over the past century, the Imperial War Museum has been testament
0:53:29 > 0:53:32to the courage of men and women caught up in conflict.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36For the last of our ten objects,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40Dame Kelly Holmes has come to the museum's Lord Ashcroft Gallery,
0:53:40 > 0:53:44home to the world's largest collection of Victoria Crosses,
0:53:44 > 0:53:49to meet one of her, and our, greatest war heroes.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53Johnson Beharry is one of only six living recipients of the VC,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56and Kelly will be taking a look
0:53:56 > 0:53:59at a very special object from his service in Iraq.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03I joined up a month before my 18th birthday.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07I'd wanted to go into the British Army since I was 14.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10I can't believe that I'm actually getting an opportunity to speak
0:54:10 > 0:54:11to Johnson Beharry,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14because I remember when he got awarded the Victoria Cross,
0:54:14 > 0:54:16and having been military myself, you think, "Wow,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18"that is the biggest honour ever.
0:54:18 > 0:54:19"This guy must be amazing."
0:54:21 > 0:54:25In 2004, Johnson Beharry was serving in Southern Iraq.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28On 1st May,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30he was driving an armoured personnel carrier
0:54:30 > 0:54:33when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38He was alone in the front of the vehicle,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41and had lost all communications with the men in the back.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44I could see now the engine is on fire,
0:54:44 > 0:54:46and there was loads of smoke.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49- Oh, boy.- I couldn't see anything, so I opened the hatch,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52in the middle of whatever was happening,
0:54:52 > 0:54:55and then I realised I was in the middle of an ambush.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59With the road blocked in front of him,
0:54:59 > 0:55:04Johnson's first impulse was to try and escape from the burning vehicle.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06There are seven soldiers in the vehicle.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10I'm thinking, "I'm about to get out, I'm going to leave them to die."
0:55:10 > 0:55:12And I said to myself, "No, I'm not going to do that.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14"I'm going to stay with them."
0:55:14 > 0:55:18Johnson managed to force his way through the roadblock and then,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20still under attack,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23he saved the lives of the men trapped in the back.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25The vehicle was still on fire,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and the guys were in the vehicle.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31So what I did, I went through the vehicle, the burning vehicle,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35and got all seven guys into safety, one after the other.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38What I would love to pick up on is your helmet.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40It's in kind of good shape.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44- It still is, yeah.- I see all this writing on it, I'm quite fascinated.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46- So these are all the guys... - That I saved.- That you saved.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50So my name is not on it, and the reason is, my name is inside,
0:55:50 > 0:55:52it's my helmet. With my number.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10One month later, Johnson was again at the centre of an ambush,
0:56:10 > 0:56:13and again demonstrated remarkable bravery.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19This time, I had a bullet in my shoulder, a bullet to my head,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22and a grenade detonated six inches from my face
0:56:22 > 0:56:24and blew this off.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28I managed to reverse the vehicle out of the contact, I don't know,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31I haven't got a clue how I done it, saving 12 lives.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33But that one was a serious one.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35That's where I had a serious brain injury
0:56:35 > 0:56:38- and I stayed in a coma for five weeks...- Wow.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41..with less than 1% chance of survival.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43So that is the bad one.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45The first one was pretty easy.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47Of course it was(!)
0:56:49 > 0:56:54In March 2005, Johnson was awarded the Victoria Cross.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Tell me, when you were awarded this, how did that make you feel?
0:56:57 > 0:57:00I remember going into this room to get a briefing,
0:57:00 > 0:57:05on how to address Her Majesty, because I never speak to her before.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07I'd only seen her on TV.
0:57:07 > 0:57:13And I didn't know what to say or do, because that's my boss.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15APPLAUSE
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Finally, the VC, what does it mean to you?
0:57:19 > 0:57:22Most of all, I wear it with pride,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25knowing the guys are all safe,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29and are representing the rest of the British Army.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31I'm going to leave it there.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33That was amazing.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38Johnson was the first living serviceman to win the Victoria Cross
0:57:38 > 0:57:40in nearly 40 years.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43He had saved the lives of 30 men.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47I had an amazing time meeting Johnson.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49His story is just incredible.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52The focus and the resolve that he has
0:57:52 > 0:57:54to save the rest of his comrades,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57and that's all that mattered to him.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Having come here and seen all the Victoria Crosses,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03it just makes you feel very proud of all those people.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08This is a unique set of individuals who have done extraordinary things.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25For 100 years, this museum has played a vital role
0:58:25 > 0:58:28in preserving our national memories of conflict.
0:58:28 > 0:58:32For me, it's this sharing and learning of these memories
0:58:32 > 0:58:34that is so very important to ensure
0:58:34 > 0:58:39that the impact of war on people's lives is never forgotten.