0:00:03 > 0:00:07In September 1940 death and destruction came to the streets
0:00:07 > 0:00:10of Britain on a scale never seen before or since.
0:00:14 > 0:00:15The noise was deafening.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Bang, bang, tremendous explosions, one after another.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21They called it the Blitz.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26The whole of the city was aglow.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30In the space of little over eight months,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34more than 450,000 bombs rained down on British soil.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40But in the midst of the chaos and confusion,
0:00:40 > 0:00:41meticulous records were kept.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48This is a bomb map. Every single dot is where a bomb landed.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Using this untapped archive, we'll identify individual bombs...
0:00:53 > 0:00:56That's the bomb that you were looking for.
0:00:56 > 0:00:57Oh, it is, yes.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01..with consequences which rippled down from the point of impact
0:01:01 > 0:01:05through the lives of people and beyond to help shape modern Britain.
0:01:08 > 0:01:14Of all the houses that plane was flying over
0:01:14 > 0:01:18and one bomb, why did it hit us?
0:01:18 > 0:01:22In this episode, March 1941,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26the bomb fell on a quiet suburban street in the city of Hull.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32I just remember a skirting board going across my neck,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35could see up t'street, all the lights and all the bombs dropping.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38It destroyed lives.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41And that's when the three children were killed instantly.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46It entangled its victims in an extraordinary psychological study.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51He heard moaning and set about digging for his children,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54he felt in a mental frenzy.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58A study that was used to support one of the most controversial wartime
0:01:58 > 0:02:02strategies the British government would ever carry out.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08And it began with one bomb.
0:02:19 > 0:02:25By March 1941, the Blitz on Britain's regions was at its height.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32One city, Hull, was about to enter its most intense period of bombing.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38You could hear the drone of the German engines, you know,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42and you used to think, "Oh, I wonder if we're going to get it tonight."
0:02:43 > 0:02:45For the Luftwaffe, Hull was a key target
0:02:45 > 0:02:48because of its docks and industry.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52It was also a good place to dump leftover bombs
0:02:52 > 0:02:54before returning to base.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01This plane went over and you saw the doors literally open
0:03:01 > 0:03:03and the bombs just go like that.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08And it was an easy target,
0:03:08 > 0:03:14its location on the Humber Estuary, making it identifiable for miles.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20There was a deluge of incendiary bombs.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26They literally rained them over Hull.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Air raids had brought a new level of terror to war.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Civilians across the country were now under threat in their own homes.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43For many, the psychological impact would be devastating.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49You can only imagine what it must've been like to not know
0:03:49 > 0:03:52when you go to bed at night whether or not you're going to wake up
0:03:52 > 0:03:54the next morning, really.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Before the war, Hull was the third largest port in Britain
0:04:02 > 0:04:04and its main fishing centre.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Its residents were fiercely proud of their city
0:04:09 > 0:04:11and its industrial heritage.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Bordering farmland on the edge of the city was the North Hull estate.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Building had begun on the site in the 1920s.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Planned by Hull Council as a model garden estate
0:04:31 > 0:04:34for the residents who had moved there from the unsanitary slums
0:04:34 > 0:04:35of the town centre.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40The area was literally a breath of fresh air.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49Living at 56 Eighth Avenue was Arthur Hicks
0:04:49 > 0:04:52with his father George, a boilermaker,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55his mother, Eva, and his brothers, Clarence and Norman.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03My two elder brothers decided to take me to see this new house
0:05:03 > 0:05:09and one of my brothers opened the letter box,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11and I said, "What's that?"
0:05:13 > 0:05:16And that of course was the end of the bath
0:05:16 > 0:05:19which was curved, was there.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I hadn't seen one of those before.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Two streets away, at number 60 Sixth Avenue,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31lived Tina and Doreen Taylor,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34their mother, Annie, and their sisters Vera and Irene
0:05:34 > 0:05:40and brothers Bob and Peter. Their father, John, was away in the Army.
0:05:40 > 0:05:46All the families were all bringing up children as old as us
0:05:46 > 0:05:52so we all used to play together, but all the mums got together
0:05:52 > 0:05:54and did lots of things.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Next door to the Taylors, at number 62, lived the Owens.
0:05:58 > 0:06:04Alma and Edith and their children Harry, Donald, Margaret,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Doreen and David.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Janet Owens, who was born there after the war,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13is their youngest daughter.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15They used to call it the garden estate
0:06:15 > 0:06:17and I think it was the first lot of council houses
0:06:17 > 0:06:22that actually had huge gardens and indoor toilet and indoor bathroom.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27We had a garden for the very first time.
0:06:29 > 0:06:37Pop went out and bought this garden spade and for the first season
0:06:37 > 0:06:38he planted potatoes.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44But gardens and bathrooms were not the only advantage
0:06:44 > 0:06:46the estate had to offer.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Unlike families living at the centre of Hull,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53who shared cramped public shelters,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57the authorities provided residents with air-raid shelters
0:06:57 > 0:06:58in their own gardens.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08Most of us in the Eighth Avenue area got Anderson shelters.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12They didn't just sit them on the grass, they dug a hole
0:07:12 > 0:07:18which was encroaching on my dad's beautiful garden.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21He didn't like it but he realised it had to be done.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26- NEWS REEL:- Anderson shelters are stocked so that there may be
0:07:26 > 0:07:29nothing to think of at the last moment.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32We had a concrete shelter in the back garden which we
0:07:32 > 0:07:39used to go in at first, and then Mum found it was a bit damp
0:07:39 > 0:07:44so she brought the big double bed down and the mattress underneath
0:07:44 > 0:07:47so that's where we stayed when the sirens went.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55By March 1941, the Luftwaffe had inflicted severe damage on London.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01They now set their sights on other cities.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Hull had already suffered several small-scale raids.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12But now the attacks started to intensify.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The sirens was nearly every night, weren't they?
0:08:16 > 0:08:17- Oh, yes.- Every night.
0:08:17 > 0:08:18And the balloons.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Big barrage balloons.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25Flying high because my mum used to always say, don't go far,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29they're high tonight and that meant planes were coming round.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39On Thursday the 13th of March,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43a fleet of 78 Luftwaffe planes headed towards Hull.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49They were carrying 39 tonnes of high explosive bombs
0:08:49 > 0:08:52and 4,500 incendiaries.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Out on the edge of the city,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01the sirens of the North Hull estate sounded sometime after 8:30pm.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07We knew the sound of the German engines and that,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10and then we knew that town had been hit.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12You could see the flames.
0:09:12 > 0:09:13The, kind of, smoke and flames.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Flames in the town.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19There was no dark patches at all,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23the whole thing and you got the silhouettes of what was there
0:09:23 > 0:09:29and then across the skies you got the searchlights
0:09:29 > 0:09:33and then you'd see a flash of the ack-ack sites.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38And then the bombing and the boom, boom, terrible sounds.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42That night, the Luftwaffe's targets
0:09:42 > 0:09:47were supposed to be the power station, waterworks and gasworks.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53But several planes had missed their mark and were heading towards the
0:09:53 > 0:09:56North Hull estate and Sixth Avenue.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06It's difficult to describe the rumbling from a long way away
0:10:06 > 0:10:11and then getting louder and louder and louder.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17At number 60 Sixth Avenue, Mrs Taylor's five youngest children
0:10:17 > 0:10:20were asleep under the bed in the living room...
0:10:21 > 0:10:25..while she and her 14-year-old daughter Vera
0:10:25 > 0:10:26had taken cover under the table.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Next door at number 62, Mrs Owens also decided
0:10:32 > 0:10:35not to take her children into the shelter
0:10:35 > 0:10:37she shared with the Taylors.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44There was a lull with the sirens.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54And Mum said to Vera, "Come on, I'll do your hair,"
0:10:54 > 0:10:58and I think Vera was sat on a pouffe
0:10:58 > 0:11:02and Mam was doing her hair to go to work the next morning
0:11:02 > 0:11:04and then all of a sudden...
0:11:04 > 0:11:07AIR-RAID SIRENS WAIL
0:11:22 > 0:11:28The high explosive bomb, later known as bomb 31, had detonated on impact.
0:11:30 > 0:11:3560 and 62 Sixth Avenue took a direct hit
0:11:35 > 0:11:37with the Taylors and Owens still inside.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43The explosion could be heard for miles around.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51I can remember my father almost rushing into the shelter.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56And I can remember, quite clearly, him saying,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59"Bloody hell, that was close."
0:11:59 > 0:12:05All I remember was waking up and it wasn't waking up,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08just waking up,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11I think it was the blast must have knocked me out.
0:12:12 > 0:12:18- What about you?- I just remember the skirting board, we were laid down,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22skirting board across my neck, could see up t'street,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24- all the lights and all the bombs dropping.- And I couldn't...
0:12:24 > 0:12:27- She couldn't see it. - I couldn't see that.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32I had the skirting board as well but it was just, when I came to,
0:12:32 > 0:12:37I found out afterwards it was the blast what had sort of
0:12:37 > 0:12:42knocked us out and I come to and my mum was making us sing
0:12:42 > 0:12:46because there was water, it was dark, it was horrible.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50And my mum was singing, and trying to make us sing.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53# Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run. #
0:12:55 > 0:13:00# Run, rabbit, run, rabbit Run! Run! Run!
0:13:00 > 0:13:02# Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Goes the farmer's gun
0:13:02 > 0:13:04# Run, rabbit, run, rabbit Run! Run! Run! #
0:13:09 > 0:13:16The bomb hit the chimney, the fire blew out on Vera and a red hot tank,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21scalding hot water, come on Mum and Vera.
0:13:25 > 0:13:31She was burnt and scalded at the same time.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34She was saying, "Mum, it's running up my legs,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36"it's running up my arm."
0:13:36 > 0:13:40So she said, "Whatever you do, try and get the soil
0:13:40 > 0:13:43"and put it on your face, don't let it touch your face."
0:13:45 > 0:13:47That advice saved Vera's face.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52But her entire body was horrifically burnt
0:13:52 > 0:13:56before rescuers could pull her and the rest of her family
0:13:56 > 0:13:58from the wreckage.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08I just heard the ARP warden say to his mate, "That's the lot, George."
0:14:09 > 0:14:11And then I said, "Don't forget me."
0:14:13 > 0:14:15So they lifted us out
0:14:15 > 0:14:20and then we got taken to the lady opposite's house.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Mrs Ansen, they called her.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27But not everyone in the family survived.
0:14:28 > 0:14:3212-month-old Peter was found dead but completely unmarked.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38He'd been killed by a shock wave
0:14:38 > 0:14:41caused by the sheer force of bomb 31.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Peter was in his, like a big black... Like that.
0:14:47 > 0:14:48You know, where babies used to go.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Like a shelter thing.
0:14:53 > 0:14:54That's where he was, under the bed.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56So, and he's still...
0:15:02 > 0:15:03Yeah.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09I think he was on the draining board in Mrs Ansen's back kitchen.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12I think that's where they'd laid him and then we never saw him any more.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Never spoke about it any more, Peter.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Our mum, or dad, or...
0:15:20 > 0:15:22- Didn't know where he'd gone, did we?- No.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29I think this is the first time we've ever spoke about it in depth.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33- Everything has come out. - The fire has all come out...
0:15:33 > 0:15:34..and I'm pleased.
0:15:38 > 0:15:43You see... Oh, God! We didn't have counselling, did we?
0:15:43 > 0:15:44We didn't have anything.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46They just said afterwards, did you get any counselling?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48And they said to old Vera, you know,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50said, "Well, there wasn't counselling in them days."
0:15:54 > 0:16:00Next door at number 62 the fateful decisions made by Mrs Owens
0:16:00 > 0:16:06would also cast a shadow over her family for decades.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Janet Owens grew up knowing nothing about what happened to her family
0:16:13 > 0:16:14that night.
0:16:16 > 0:16:17I was talking to my sister one day,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20I always got on very well with my sister.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23I was 26 at the time.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28And she said about the three children that were killed in the war
0:16:28 > 0:16:31so I said, "What are you talking about, what three children?"
0:16:31 > 0:16:36So she said, "Well, you know, our two brothers and sister."
0:16:36 > 0:16:39I said, "I don't know what you're talking about, Margaret."
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And it was like, oh, right, yeah, of course.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Well, we was never allowed to talk about it.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52When the Blitz began, Janet's parents
0:16:52 > 0:16:54evacuated two of their children,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57eight-year-old Donald and four-year-old Margaret.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The rest, Harry, Doreen and baby David,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04had remained at home with their mother...
0:17:05 > 0:17:08..whilst their father was out on air-raid duty.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15They were all inside the house the night bomb 31 hit.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21When the air-raid siren went, Mum took the three children
0:17:21 > 0:17:25into the electric cupboard under the stairs.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30One of the children wanted some water so she went into the kitchen.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43And that's when the bomb hit.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48And Margaret told me that she was told the three children
0:17:48 > 0:17:50were killed instantly.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56My mum survived because she went into the kitchen
0:17:56 > 0:17:58which obviously was stronger.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04Rescuers found the body of 11-week-old David that night.
0:18:06 > 0:18:0918-month-old Doreen was found the next day.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13And ten-year-old Harry the day after that.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Soon after the war, the Council rebuilt the house.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Mr and Mrs Owens and their surviving children moved back in
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and carried on with their lives.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36Janet was born in 1950, nine years after bomb 31
0:18:36 > 0:18:39had devastated her family.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45I was brought up in the house never knowing what had happened,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47never talking about the war.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Never knowing anything about the war because my father would not allow us
0:18:50 > 0:18:52to talk about it.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55"You don't talk about things like that in this house,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59"you don't need to know about it, you don't talk about it."
0:18:59 > 0:19:02And, to me, that was normal.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11The trauma that left Janet's father unable to talk about the blast
0:19:11 > 0:19:15that killed three of his children has left her wanting to understand
0:19:15 > 0:19:18more about what happened that night.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23It's like nobody cares about those three children.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Enough to talk about them.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29I mean, would you like to think that when you die nobody wants to talk
0:19:29 > 0:19:32about you? I don't.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34I want all my family to talk about me forevermore
0:19:34 > 0:19:37but no-one was allowed to talk about those children.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Was they?
0:19:39 > 0:19:41It was like they never existed.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Janet has never met anyone outside her family
0:19:49 > 0:19:52directly affected by bomb 31.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54Until today.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00I was brought up on North Hull estate after the war
0:20:00 > 0:20:04- and I understand that you two ladies were.- Yes.
0:20:04 > 0:20:05Next door to your mum and dad.
0:20:07 > 0:20:08- Taylor?- Yes.
0:20:11 > 0:20:12You OK?
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Come on, what do you want to know?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21I don't know. I wasn't expecting this.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Sorry. So, you knew my mum and dad and...
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Yeah. We knew all the children.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33- That were killed?- Yeah, of course.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Sometimes I thought my dad was a bit mean to my mother...
0:20:38 > 0:20:42..and I've always had this terrible, terrible idea,
0:20:42 > 0:20:44would his first thought have been,
0:20:44 > 0:20:45"Why didn't you go into the shelter?"?
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Janet, the reason why we never, we used to go in the shelter,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and then it was damp, horrible and things.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58And I think your mums were fed up of getting you all ready,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01putting blankets round and rushing to the shelter.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Because having a three-month old baby or around three months -
0:21:04 > 0:21:06I'm not absolutely sure how old he was -
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and a little two-year-old, and like you say,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11if they went night after night after night.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15- Yes, yeah.- And it was March time so it was after winter -
0:21:15 > 0:21:17- that would have been horrible in there.- Yeah, it was awful.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Yeah.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23One of the things that's been real hard for me
0:21:23 > 0:21:25is this thing about my father, never...
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Insisting nobody ever spoke about it in the house, ever.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35To me, those three children have been forgotten.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37- It's like they never existed.- If anybody ever said, you'd just say
0:21:37 > 0:21:42"Oh, we was bombed out. And we lost Peter, and Mrs Owens lost..."
0:21:42 > 0:21:44They've never...
0:21:44 > 0:21:46It's always been, "Mrs Owens lost three."
0:21:47 > 0:21:49It was just remembered like that.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51They was never, ever forgotten.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57And where is your brother buried?
0:21:57 > 0:21:59In with yours.
0:21:59 > 0:22:05Your family. Peter's there, with the other children who got killed
0:22:05 > 0:22:06on that night.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09When my memory serves me right.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13- Where?- In Chanterlands Avenue. - So that's where they are, then?
0:22:13 > 0:22:14That's where they are, with ours.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22The high explosive that fell on the Owens and Taylors
0:22:22 > 0:22:26was numbered 31, as part of the national bomb census
0:22:26 > 0:22:29run by the Government to try to understand
0:22:29 > 0:22:32the enemy's bombing tactics and their effect on the country.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Detailed maps were drawn up, marking out and numbering
0:22:39 > 0:22:43each individual bomb that dropped on Britain's towns and cities.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53Janet has come to the Hull History Centre to look at the bomb census
0:22:53 > 0:22:58material relating to the night her family's home was hit.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07This particular map details all the bombs that were dropped on Hull
0:23:07 > 0:23:12on the evening of the 13th and 14th of March 1941.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14So I believe that's the date that you're looking for.
0:23:14 > 0:23:15- That's the date.- Yeah.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18- So, if we have a look, and it's Sixth Avenue...- That's right.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20..isn't it, that you are looking for...?
0:23:20 > 0:23:23So, if we look up here we can actually see the bombs
0:23:23 > 0:23:28that were dropped on Sixth Avenue and in that area on that evening.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29We can see...
0:23:29 > 0:23:32That's the bomb that you are looking for.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35Yeah. 31.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40And of course the damage didn't just occur where the bombs dropped,
0:23:40 > 0:23:45you know, there were shock waves went across the other streets.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47So many lives affected.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51Yeah. And yet my mum went on living there.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53And Dad.
0:23:53 > 0:23:54How hard...?
0:23:54 > 0:23:58I don't know, maybe that was their way of coping, I don't know.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Sorry.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04My father decided that he didn't want to talk about the war
0:24:04 > 0:24:09any more. Was he suffering from what we now call, is it P...?
0:24:09 > 0:24:14Post traumatic stress syndrome? You know, if this was happening today,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17he would be diagnosed with that.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23And, you know, they didn't really get much help, did they?
0:24:24 > 0:24:26No.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28If the adults who survived the Blitz were too mentally scarred to
0:24:28 > 0:24:31speak about their experiences,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34it was even more unusual for the voices of children to be heard.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41But the archive also holds a small collection of essays
0:24:41 > 0:24:46about the Blitz written by schoolchildren in Hull.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50None of these essays refer to bomb 31,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53but they do give a unique view of the air raids.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Here we have the essays that were actually written.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01So if you'd like to have a look through those.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05"What happened to me and what I did in the air raids.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09"When the sirens go, we have to go into the shelter
0:25:09 > 0:25:15"in case the aeroplanes come over and drop their nasty bombs.
0:25:15 > 0:25:21"When the all-clear was sounded, we all gave a sigh of relief.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25"When I went home...
0:25:25 > 0:25:31"I have no home to go to. I felt as though I could...
0:25:31 > 0:25:37"just go across to Germany and punch Hitler
0:25:37 > 0:25:41"and his Nazi gang in the jaw.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48"We heard them dropping the bombs, then the guns started.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54"It got worse and worse, and we heard the aeroplanes above.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58"In the next terrace, the people began to cry
0:25:58 > 0:26:02"and the little children began to cry.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09"When it was quiet, my father went into the kitchen...
0:26:09 > 0:26:13"..and made a fire and then made a cup of tea for us."
0:26:15 > 0:26:17They're invaluable, aren't they?
0:26:17 > 0:26:19We're used to seeing the official records.
0:26:19 > 0:26:20- Yeah.- But we're not used to seeing this.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23- The the real war, isn't it? - That's right.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25This is the real war.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Arthur Hicks, who lived just two streets from the Owens family,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36was a schoolboy during the war.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40He was one of the children who wrote a Blitz essay.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Although he escaped bomb 31, Arthur had a close shave
0:26:44 > 0:26:48when he and his brother were almost killed by a parachute mine
0:26:48 > 0:26:50outside the cinema.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54I want to show you something, Arthur.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56- Yes.- See if you remember this.
0:27:01 > 0:27:02"Age four..."
0:27:04 > 0:27:05Goodness me!
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Arthur hasn't seen his essay since he wrote it 75 years ago.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15- REPORTER:- Do you know what that is, Arthur?
0:27:15 > 0:27:17Where the hell did you get that?
0:27:19 > 0:27:24"What happened to me and what I did in the air raids.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29"On our way home, we were passing another cinema
0:27:29 > 0:27:32"which was the National.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37"When we were about 25 yards past it...
0:27:39 > 0:27:45"..it went sky high and it blew us flat.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47"There were clouds of smoke,
0:27:47 > 0:27:54"the guns blazing away, and there were hundreds of HEs dropping.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57"The all-clear sounded at 12.45."
0:27:59 > 0:28:01I wrote that.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22But Arthur's essay and the other 29 held in the Hull archives
0:28:22 > 0:28:26are in fact part of a much larger collection
0:28:26 > 0:28:32of around 2,000 Blitz essays written by the city's schoolchildren
0:28:32 > 0:28:36in the space of a single week in February 1942.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43They are held at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Janet was unable to find an essay about bomb 31
0:28:48 > 0:28:52in the whole city archives.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53Oh, look.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01But she's hoping that she might find one here
0:29:01 > 0:29:03that describes that devastating night.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12Oh, look, he's done the search lights. Wow.
0:29:12 > 0:29:13He's very...
0:29:15 > 0:29:16Very astute.
0:29:32 > 0:29:37Oh. It's Beryl. This is Miss Beryl Wilkinson.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40Oh, Miss. She's put "Miss Beryl Wilkinson."
0:29:40 > 0:29:42Mrs Wilkinson, she was my mum's best friend.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47Oh, right. And that 58 was next door to us, the house that was bombed.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53"The planes were humming round us, then my father said,
0:29:53 > 0:29:55"Jerry's hit something.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00"And then bombs were flying all over the place, one hit next door."
0:30:03 > 0:30:06"The house came down like a pack of cards."
0:30:14 > 0:30:18L Wilkinson. This is obviously the brother.
0:30:19 > 0:30:27"We heard the bombs whizzing down and all the people were terrified
0:30:27 > 0:30:28"in the shelter.
0:30:30 > 0:30:37"And the shelter rocked, and the shelter was full of dust."
0:30:41 > 0:30:43My goodness.
0:30:45 > 0:30:46"And all the men running...
0:30:47 > 0:30:53"..into the bombed house, getting the people out of the ruins."
0:30:57 > 0:31:01These two eye-witness accounts of the devastation
0:31:01 > 0:31:05caused by bomb 31 are typical of the hundreds of stories
0:31:05 > 0:31:11recorded in these children's essays.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Malet Lambert is one of the last surviving schools in Hull
0:31:15 > 0:31:19to have taken part in this extraordinary project.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Some of today's pupils have been looking at the essays written
0:31:23 > 0:31:28by their counterparts 75 years ago.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30"John Matthews, aged 13.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35"I ran across our garden and stopped suddenly,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37"for there in front of me was a girl
0:31:37 > 0:31:40"whose legs were severed from her body.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47"I suddenly felt very faint and sick. And with a groan,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50"I turned towards our shelter."
0:31:51 > 0:31:53"Marion Bird, age 13.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58"I don't think I shall ever forget the scene which met my eyes.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02"Our house was still stood up and so was the one nearest to it,
0:32:02 > 0:32:05"but the next one was half down and the next four,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08"and the terrace was not there at all.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12"I picked my way through the chaos which prevailed in our house,
0:32:12 > 0:32:14"and a tear ran down my face."
0:32:17 > 0:32:20"Margaret Jefferson, age 13.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24"One plane seemed to be coming straight at our house,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27"but crashed about two miles away,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"where I saw after the burned bodies of German airmen,
0:32:30 > 0:32:35"and also a black burnt hand of one man who had a gold ring on."
0:32:38 > 0:32:42"I could not find any pity for these men after the terrible sight
0:32:42 > 0:32:44"I saw they had made Hull to be.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47"Such horrible and terrifying screeches,
0:32:47 > 0:32:48"we all became very frightened."
0:32:48 > 0:32:51They suffocated because the shelter was made of sand.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54I was buried, but I still helped to pull out the dead and injured.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58It took two whole days to dig the people out.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02These Blitz essays, including the accounts of bomb 31,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05give a rare child's-eye view of war.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09But they weren't just part of an innocent school exercise.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14They were commissioned for a very different purpose,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18by a government scientist, Professor Solly Zuckerman.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Zuckerman was born in Cape Town, and came to London in the 1920s
0:33:23 > 0:33:29to continue his studies in medicine and comparative anatomy.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34He made his name in 1932 with a groundbreaking study,
0:33:34 > 0:33:38The Social Life of Monkeys And Apes.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41I had no idea what my father was doing,
0:33:41 > 0:33:47except that he had monkeys in his office and that was kind of fun.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50He used to talk to the monkeys,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53he had this strange thing with his tongue that he could do -
0:33:53 > 0:33:56they seemed to react and used to greet him with great pleasure.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59He was really good fun to be with, he was very interesting.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02He knew an enormous amount about things
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and he didn't suffer fools gladly, at all.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11Zuckerman's expertise in anatomy brought him to the attention
0:34:11 > 0:34:14of the Ministry of Home Security.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Early in the war, he was recruited to help the authorities
0:34:18 > 0:34:22better understand and prepare for the effect of bombs on humans,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27as experienced by the residents of Sixth Avenue when bomb 31 fell.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Paul has come to the University of East Anglia,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38where his father's archives are held, to meet Professor Ian Burney.
0:34:40 > 0:34:47In 1940, the British government commissions a bomb survey,
0:34:47 > 0:34:52a survey to get information on every bombsite in terms of the damage to
0:34:52 > 0:34:54the physical infrastructure.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57What your dad proposes is, on the back of that,
0:34:57 > 0:35:02to send out people who are not interested only in buildings,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06but are interested in bodies in relationship to buildings
0:35:06 > 0:35:09- and where it is... - For every one of these bombs?
0:35:09 > 0:35:11For every - yes, that's right.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14And he called this The Casualty Survey.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19He had a team of trained bomb site investigators
0:35:19 > 0:35:21who went out with specific instructions
0:35:21 > 0:35:25about what kind of data needed to be collected,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30and what he's interested in is how it is that he can detect
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and demonstrate the effects of blast on the human body.
0:35:33 > 0:35:34How extraordinary.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40One of Zuckerman's findings was that the sheer force of a blast
0:35:40 > 0:35:44could cause a huge internal blow to the lungs,
0:35:44 > 0:35:49killing people without leaving a single mark on their bodies.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54This may have been what killed Peter Taylor when bomb 31
0:35:54 > 0:35:56fell on Sixth Avenue.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04So your dad's project is effectively to take the immediate chaos
0:36:04 > 0:36:07of a bombsite and victims within it,
0:36:07 > 0:36:12to turn that initial scene of horror into a set of useful data.
0:36:14 > 0:36:20In 1941, Zuckerman's groundbreaking work on the effects of bomb blast
0:36:20 > 0:36:24led the government to ask him to undertake a more detailed study
0:36:24 > 0:36:26of the impact of air raids.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31He chose to survey Birmingham and Hull
0:36:31 > 0:36:34because they had comprehensive bomb records.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38But Zuckerman's study would be about more than just the physical impact
0:36:38 > 0:36:40of the Blitz.
0:36:41 > 0:36:46He proposes to extend this survey idea one step further,
0:36:46 > 0:36:52and he calls it a psychological - or a neurosis - survey.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58This is all part of the government's interest in civilian morale.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02They were thinking that one of the worst enemies of morale
0:37:02 > 0:37:04was going to be aerial bombardment.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09You're telling me my father was asked to do a survey
0:37:09 > 0:37:11- on people's morale?- Yeah.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18The government had been monitoring the nation's morale
0:37:18 > 0:37:23throughout the war, but now they wanted to get a detailed picture
0:37:23 > 0:37:30of how bombing affected civilians mentally.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35Zuckerman's idea was to conduct a series of psychological interviews.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38He understood that for traumatised Blitz victims,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40like Janet Owen's father,
0:37:40 > 0:37:43it was hard to describe the impact air raids had had on them.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49So he set out to record the behavioural symptoms of neurosis.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Symptoms that today might be recognised as post-traumatic stress.
0:38:00 > 0:38:06So he designs a questionnaire. There are 900 Hull dock workers
0:38:06 > 0:38:09that are interviewed face-to-face on their experiences
0:38:09 > 0:38:14and how it is that bombing has affected their behaviour.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16This is just one example.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19- So this guy's age 56.- Yep.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22"A depressive reaction with some anxiety features
0:38:22 > 0:38:25"following a severe personal bombing experience."
0:38:25 > 0:38:28He's been dock master for the last seven years.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34In 1941, when Zuckerman was carrying out his survey,
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Captain Albert Eastwood was in charge of King George Docks.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Philip Eastwood is Albert's grandson.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53He's come to the dock entrance where the family house once stood.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01This is where the house was, with the sheds behind it,
0:39:01 > 0:39:06and he lived in this house which is, as you can see,
0:39:06 > 0:39:10quite a large impressive-looking building, really,
0:39:10 > 0:39:15with his family which were his wife, Ethel, and six kids,
0:39:15 > 0:39:19three boys, three girls, of which my dad was the youngest, Roy.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26A hardened seaman,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Albert had had several near-death experiences
0:39:29 > 0:39:35in the First World War. When asked about them by the local newspaper,
0:39:35 > 0:39:37he said his motto was "not to talk".
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Albert's toughness extended to his family, too.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51They lived next to the dockyard police station,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54where Airedale Terriers were kept to guard the wharfs.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58The Eastwood children always had one as a pet.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04My grandad was a strong man.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06When one of the dogs, one of the Airedales...
0:40:06 > 0:40:10They were all called Peter, every one of them -
0:40:10 > 0:40:14his imagination didn't stretch further than that.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18Actually bit a postman, unfortunately,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21one morning, and my grandad just went out
0:40:21 > 0:40:22and got his gun and shot the dog.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28I think that sort of summed up his character.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33I don't think he was a particularly sentimental sort of bloke.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36On the night of May 7th, 1941,
0:40:36 > 0:40:42British pilots returning from a bombing raid on Germany
0:40:42 > 0:40:45reported seeing the city of Hull ablaze
0:40:45 > 0:40:46as they crossed the North Sea.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Hull was being bombarded by 72 Luftwaffe planes.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54In just two hours,
0:40:54 > 0:40:59they dropped 110 tonnes of high explosives,
0:40:59 > 0:41:05and almost 10,000 incendiary bombs over the docks of the town centre.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09It was just the start of two nights of heavy bombing
0:41:09 > 0:41:14that would leave 450 dead and over 30,000 homeless.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22At around 1:45am, bomb 26 was dropped.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29A parachute mine, it started its descent towards King George Docks
0:41:29 > 0:41:30and the Eastwood family home.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Philip's father, Roy, who was 17 at the time,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42was standing just outside the front door with his brother, Ken,
0:41:42 > 0:41:44when they saw something caught in a nearby tree.
0:41:47 > 0:41:54Ken shouted to everybody, "That's a mine, a landmine, run for it."
0:41:54 > 0:41:57The bomb went off...
0:41:59 > 0:42:02The house was obviously blown up.
0:42:02 > 0:42:09Ken, sadly, was killed instantly. Inside the house, his sister,
0:42:09 > 0:42:14Winifred, had a big hole put into her leg, but survived.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20My grandma and grandad had taken refuge in the cupboard
0:42:20 > 0:42:24under the stairs and they survived.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28My dad was out there in the road, badly injured.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32His sister, Muriel, was reading a book
0:42:32 > 0:42:36and was killed instantly, sadly.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Apparently, she didn't have a mark on her, it was just blast injuries,
0:42:39 > 0:42:44and she was just statuesque in her chair, book still in her hand.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Albert seemed to have survived the blast unscathed.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52But seven months later, despite his motto being "not to talk",
0:42:52 > 0:42:55he gave an interview to one of Zuckerman's team.
0:42:58 > 0:43:04His story would be recorded in Zuckerman's archives as Case 1.
0:43:04 > 0:43:10Philip didn't know of the existence of this interview
0:43:10 > 0:43:13with his grandfather, until now.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17"A depressive reaction with some anxiety features
0:43:17 > 0:43:21"following a severe personal bombing experience.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25"Past history - during the last war, he was torpedoed and mined.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28"He was once in icy water for one hour,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32"at which incident three of his companions died from exposure.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36"Raid experience - he heard moaning and set about digging
0:43:36 > 0:43:38"for his children.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41"He felt in a mental frenzy.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45"He then called for the ambulances and fainted.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50"In hospital, he felt terrible, collapsed,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53"upset with hearing his wife screaming.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55"After being put to bed, he vomited for two days,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57"but could not sleep at all during this period.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03"He still reproaches himself for not having provided a shelter."
0:44:07 > 0:44:10I find that actually incredible, really.
0:44:13 > 0:44:19But as I recall him, he did seem quiet and somewhat reserved,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23and that didn't seem to be the character of somebody
0:44:23 > 0:44:26who had lived the sort of life that he lived.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30That totally explains, in very detailed terms,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33the reason why that would be.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37Probably he was suffering from post-traumatic stress.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44It's so stoic and it's so self-effacing.
0:44:47 > 0:44:48They don't take any credit for it.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52And yet...
0:44:52 > 0:44:54..they deserve all the credit, don't they?
0:44:57 > 0:44:58Yeah.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05Just as bomb 31 had rendered Mr Owens
0:45:05 > 0:45:09unable to even hear any mention of the war...
0:45:11 > 0:45:16..bomb 26 had left Albert Eastwood mentally scarred for life.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23But Albert was only one of the 1,000 or so working-class men
0:45:23 > 0:45:26and women of Hull studied by Zuckerman.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Case 31, CM.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33General description - single man with a shut-in,
0:45:33 > 0:45:35ineffective personality,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39who was invalided out of the army after receiving a head injury.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Reaction to raids. He feels safe in the shelter
0:45:42 > 0:45:44and has been able to make friends and met girls
0:45:44 > 0:45:46for the first time in his life.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50Case 38, Miss D.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54General description - a single woman who has not been upset by raids,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57but who is stupid and easily led.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Case 9, HS.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Raid experience. Several of his relatives were killed
0:46:03 > 0:46:07in another shelter - his mother and three nieces.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11He had to go round the mortuaries and to identify them.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Personality. Usually cheerful, happy-go-lucky
0:46:14 > 0:46:17and does not worry easily, though at the present he looks miserable.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26When these men and women of Hull talked to Zuckerman's interviewers,
0:46:26 > 0:46:31they had no idea how the information they gave would ultimately be used.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Although Zuckerman's psychological survey appeared to be concerned with
0:46:40 > 0:46:45the victims of bombing, its real focus was on bombing the enemy.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50In 1941, the British government was split
0:46:50 > 0:46:55over how best to use RAF Bomber Command to end the war.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59There was growing concern over the effectiveness of RAF bombing.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02It was found that only one in four RAF bombers struck
0:47:02 > 0:47:05within five miles of their target.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Some argued it was time to abandon precision raids
0:47:09 > 0:47:13on key German military and industrial targets
0:47:13 > 0:47:15and adopt area bombing -
0:47:15 > 0:47:19the indiscriminate bombing of German towns and cities...
0:47:20 > 0:47:22..with the express purpose of breaking the morale
0:47:22 > 0:47:25of the German civilian population.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Churchill was inclined towards area bombing,
0:47:30 > 0:47:34as was the man about to be appointed head of Bomber Command,
0:47:34 > 0:47:35Bomber Harris.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41A lot of people do say that bombing can never win a war.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45Well, my answer to that is that
0:47:45 > 0:47:48it has never been tried yet, and we shall see.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54FA Lindemann, Churchill's scientific advisor, was in favour, too.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58But as this policy was contentious, he wanted scientific evidence.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Lindemann turned to Solley Zuckerman and asked him
0:48:04 > 0:48:06if he could answer a blunt question...
0:48:08 > 0:48:12How many tonnes of bombs does it take to break a town...
0:48:14 > 0:48:18..not just physically, but mentally?
0:48:21 > 0:48:25Zuckerman's psychological study of Hull
0:48:25 > 0:48:28provided the perfect basis for finding out.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34The devastating consequences of bomb 31 and the thousands of other bombs
0:48:34 > 0:48:38dropped were analysed in a bid to provide an answer.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The survey is written up and is what we have here.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47So, "Summary of Conclusions..."
0:48:47 > 0:48:51"There's no evidence of breakdown of morale for the intensity
0:48:51 > 0:48:53"of the raids experienced by Hull or Birmingham."
0:48:54 > 0:48:57So the headline there in capital letters is,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01"There's no evidence of breakdown of morale."
0:49:01 > 0:49:07This is good news for anybody who is interested in the nation
0:49:07 > 0:49:10coming out successful in the war effort.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14But in terms of it being useful information
0:49:14 > 0:49:19in order to support carpet bombing, this is problematic.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22But there's a twist in the tale here,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26because Lindemann actually used it and, to some extent,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31distorted the information in order to make it a case for...
0:49:31 > 0:49:32- Carpet bombing.- ..carpet bombing.
0:49:32 > 0:49:37Yeah. This document says that this amount of intensity
0:49:37 > 0:49:41of exposure to air raids did not break morale,
0:49:41 > 0:49:46however it does not necessarily say that no amount of intensity
0:49:46 > 0:49:48will break morale.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53Seizing on this ambiguity, Lindemann sent Churchill a memo,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56now known as the Dehousing Paper.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00"Investigations seem to show that having one's house demolished
0:50:00 > 0:50:01"is most damaging to morale.
0:50:03 > 0:50:04"People seem to mind it more
0:50:04 > 0:50:07"than having their friends or even relatives killed.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11"On the above figures, we should be able to do ten times as much harm
0:50:11 > 0:50:15"to each of the 58 principal German towns. There seems little doubt
0:50:15 > 0:50:17"that this would break the spirit of the people."
0:50:17 > 0:50:20This is depressing, isn't it?
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Yeah. So, what Lindemann has done is to take
0:50:23 > 0:50:27what is actually quite a careful and nuanced analysis
0:50:27 > 0:50:32that your father worked out and sort of taken what he wanted out of it.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Lindemann simply concluded that if the bombing intensity
0:50:38 > 0:50:43inflicted on Hull and Birmingham had caused no breakdown in morale,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47then ten times that number of bombs should do the trick
0:50:47 > 0:50:48on German civilians.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53Area bombing raids went ahead,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56a decision in which Lindemann's use of the psychological survey
0:50:56 > 0:51:01of the Hull Blitz lent a powerful stamp of scientific approval.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07What followed was the destruction of Cologne, Hamburg
0:51:07 > 0:51:12and other German cities, including Dresden.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Rod Clayton grew up in Hull during the Blitz.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29We were going into the Morrison shelter virtually every night.
0:51:30 > 0:51:31It was very frequent.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35When I was a little bit older, later on in the war,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38the bombsites around, we used to play in the bombsites -
0:51:38 > 0:51:40it was great fun to do that -
0:51:40 > 0:51:43but obviously a lot of damage was done at that time.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Rod's father, Eric, was a mid-gunner on a Lancaster,
0:51:50 > 0:51:53and was stationed at RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Eric and his crew set off on an area bombing raid.
0:52:09 > 0:52:16Bombing Nuremberg, similar load, 4,000lb high capacity.
0:52:16 > 0:52:171,000lb bomb.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21Mixture of incendiaries.
0:52:21 > 0:52:22But failed to return.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27They were shot down by a German night fighter.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29It was hit several times, I think,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and caught fire, obviously trying to crash-land,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34and the report from the villages,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37they saw the aircraft circling around.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41They did see one paratroop come out and opened,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45but then candled again and collapsed.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49On the body the villagers found the next day was this photograph.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54So I was five when my father died.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00Rod's elder brother, Derek,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03was another one of the Hull schoolchildren who wrote an essay
0:53:03 > 0:53:05about the Blitz.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11"What happened to me and what I did in the air raids."
0:53:11 > 0:53:12It's my brother's report here.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14He's aged 13 years.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20"The sky all over the town was a mass of red
0:53:20 > 0:53:21"and the night was filled with screams.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27"Two whistling bombs had dropped also, but only one had exploded.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30"In that piece of German work,
0:53:30 > 0:53:34"four men were killed and one little boy of seven died of shock.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41"Then we heard something which makes your blood run cold -
0:53:41 > 0:53:44"it was the whistling bomb echoing in our ears and bringing destruction
0:53:44 > 0:53:48"with them and killing defenceless women and children."
0:53:50 > 0:53:55Derek's essay was also part of Zuckerman's psychological survey,
0:53:55 > 0:54:00the same survey that was used to provide a scientific rationale
0:54:00 > 0:54:01for area bombing.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16For Janet, these essays are a poignant reminder
0:54:16 > 0:54:19of what bomb 31 cost her family.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22That's what you come to realise, that,
0:54:22 > 0:54:27like we've said before about this one bomb, it was only one of many.
0:54:27 > 0:54:28But the impact it had...
0:54:32 > 0:54:34I might have been reading one from my brother,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36Harry, if he had survived.
0:54:42 > 0:54:47If Harry had lived to write an essay describing his fear in the Blitz,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51its intended use would have been to test the theory
0:54:51 > 0:54:54that German civilians could be terrorised into surrender
0:54:54 > 0:54:56by aerial bombardment.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05What the government was doing was studying the population of Hull
0:55:05 > 0:55:08in order to get a sense of how they were being affected
0:55:08 > 0:55:12and developing their own policies accordingly
0:55:12 > 0:55:15of how they would then carpet bomb German civilians.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18- Children like this.- Hmm.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23I find that horrifying.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25I'm sorry, I don't know if I should say that,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27but I find that horrifying, because...
0:55:30 > 0:55:34It's just that, you know, it's just that expression, "carpet bombing".
0:55:34 > 0:55:38Kills innocent people...
0:55:41 > 0:55:42..and children.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Over the course of the war, nearly 500,000 tonnes of Allied bombs
0:56:01 > 0:56:03were dropped on German cities.
0:56:05 > 0:56:11It's estimated that 353,000 German civilians were killed,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13including tens of thousands of children.
0:56:18 > 0:56:19At the end of the war,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Zuckerman was asked to analyse British bombing strategy.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27He concluded the bombing had not broken the morale
0:56:27 > 0:56:32of German civilians, but had diverted resources away
0:56:32 > 0:56:35from more valuable military targets -
0:56:35 > 0:56:39thereby possibly even prolonging the war.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Although Zuckerman found little proof of psychological breakdown
0:56:51 > 0:56:54as a result of the air raids on Hull,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58for many the legacy of the Blitz will be far wider-reaching
0:56:58 > 0:57:03than anything that could be noted in a two-page profile,
0:57:03 > 0:57:04or expressed in a child's essay.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Doreen, Tina and Janet have come to the Northern Cemetery,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16where their brothers and sister are buried together in a communal grave.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26When bomb 31 fell on Sixth Avenue 76 years ago,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29the ripple effect of that one bomb would last for decades...
0:57:32 > 0:57:35..just as it would for the many thousands of other bombs
0:57:35 > 0:57:38dropped during the Blitz.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45A bomb falls on a Scottish tenement.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48I went to bed at night a boy, I wakened up a man.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51The community of Clydebank is torn apart.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55It was the largest evacuation in the history of these islands.
0:57:55 > 0:57:56But in the shipyards...
0:57:56 > 0:58:00"He has also been invaluable against Communist infiltration
0:58:00 > 0:58:02"through shadow organisations."
0:58:02 > 0:58:06..a secret war was already being waged.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08Well, well, well!
0:58:08 > 0:58:10Daddy, you kept that very quiet!
0:58:13 > 0:58:15How were the lives of Germans affected by air raids
0:58:15 > 0:58:18when the Allies retaliated?
0:58:18 > 0:58:20To explore this and more, go to...
0:58:24 > 0:58:28..and follow the links to the Open University.