0:00:03 > 0:00:05In September 1940,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08death and destruction came to the streets of Britain
0:00:08 > 0:00:11on 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 city was aglow.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31In the space of just over eight months,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35more than 450,000 bombs rained down on British soil.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41But in the midst of the chaos and confusion,
0:00:41 > 0:00:43meticulous records were kept.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48This is a bomb map. Every single dot is where a bomb landed.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53Using this untapped archive, we'll identify individual bombs...
0:00:53 > 0:00:56That's the bomb that you're looking for.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Oh, it is, yes!
0:00:58 > 0:01:01..with consequences which rippled out from the point of impact,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04through the lives of people and beyond,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08to help shape modern Britain. EXPLOSION
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Of all the houses that plane was flying over...
0:01:13 > 0:01:15and one bomb.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Why did it hit us?
0:01:19 > 0:01:23In this episode: November 1940,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25the port city of Bristol is assailed
0:01:25 > 0:01:29by a deadly weapon of mass destruction.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31That's an incendiary bomb.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33They really were killers.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40More than 12,000 incendiary bombs fell on Bristol that night.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45But it would only take one to reduce a sacred symbol of the city to
0:01:45 > 0:01:50smouldering ruins, and to push its spirit to breaking point.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56That night, you could say, the soul of the city was wiped out.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00But even as the flames rose around them,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Bristolians learned to fight back.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Was it right that my father used to kick off the incendiary bombs,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08off the roof?
0:02:08 > 0:02:10That's what you did. We knew what we had to do,
0:02:10 > 0:02:15and if any incendiaries came down, to get on them.
0:02:15 > 0:02:16No-one really knows...
0:02:19 > 0:02:22..the inner part of what people
0:02:22 > 0:02:24went through, emotional-wise.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29And probably people will never know.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44In the heart of Bristol today stand the ruins of St Peter's Church,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48a stark reminder of the night the soul of the city was seared.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55St Peter's had stood for more than 800 years at the top of
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Castle Street, a local landmark in a compact neighbourhood
0:02:58 > 0:03:01of shops, businesses and homes.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05The historic heart of Bristol and its civic soul.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11But in November 1940,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14this deep-rooted community was under threat.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21By then, the Blitz had been raging for nearly three months...
0:03:22 > 0:03:27as the Luftwaffe bombers expanded their target list from London
0:03:27 > 0:03:31to major ports and industrial centres across Britain.
0:03:33 > 0:03:39And on the night of Sunday, November 24th, 1940, it was Bristol's turn.
0:03:47 > 0:03:515pm. As dusk fell, at an airfield south-west of Paris,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Luftwaffe navigator and bomb aimer Martin Reiser
0:03:54 > 0:03:57boarded his Heinkel 111 bomber,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01loaded with the most destructive weapon in the Luftwaffe's arsenal.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08- Oh! Oh, dear. - HE LAUGHS
0:04:08 > 0:04:10That's an incendiary bomb.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12I still seem to think
0:04:12 > 0:04:15that they were fatter than that,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18but that's probably my memory
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and my hands.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25David Pearce was 13 years old
0:04:25 > 0:04:27when the incendiary bomb came to his city.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34They had hundreds of these on the aircraft,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36and they dropped them at random
0:04:36 > 0:04:38when they came down,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and when they hit the ground, they ignited the thermite inside.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45They really were killers.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49By this stage of the Blitz,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52a clear pattern to the terrifying night raids had emerged.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58First, elite pathfinders dropped flares and incendiaries
0:04:58 > 0:05:00to illuminate the target area.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Then wave after wave of bombers dropped hundreds of high explosives
0:05:06 > 0:05:10to destroy water mains and cripple the firefighting effort...
0:05:12 > 0:05:16..and tens of thousands more incendiaries to sow countless fires
0:05:16 > 0:05:18that grew into an inferno.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24By the time Martin Reiser and the rest of his Heinkel bomber unit
0:05:24 > 0:05:28took off, heading over the English Channel for Bristol,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31the pathfinders, known as the Firelighters,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34were already over the city and had begun the night's work.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Like many other Bristolians that Sunday evening,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Geoffrey Serle and his father had been attending church
0:05:44 > 0:05:46when the raid began.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53It was a nice, quiet Sunday evening, as usual, in the church.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56And to suddenly see the sky light up like that, all of a sudden,
0:05:56 > 0:05:58with flares and
0:05:58 > 0:06:02being November, I said, "Dad, look. There are fireworks still around."
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Of course, he knew that was not the case, and they were flares from the
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Pathfinder bombers who were lighting up the city
0:06:09 > 0:06:13before the main bomber force arrived.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15And they were heading towards St Peter's Church
0:06:15 > 0:06:18at the top of Castle Street.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24If your memory stretches back to the '30s, you'll remember this.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29Cock And Bottle Lane really did exist - one of any number of narrow
0:06:29 > 0:06:31alleyways that led into Castle Street,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33which ran from Old Market to St Peter's Church,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36through what has now become Castle Park.
0:06:38 > 0:06:43Today, only glimpses of the elegance of prewar Castle Street remain.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48But it lives on in the vivid memories of former residents
0:06:48 > 0:06:50like Geoffrey Serle.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53The centre of the city was Castle Street.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56All the famous shops and restaurants were there.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00On a Saturday, particularly, the whole of Bristol seemed to
0:07:00 > 0:07:02congregate in Castle Street.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05The Serle family clothing shop, Yeoman, Serle & Co,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09was just one of hundreds of long-established local businesses
0:07:09 > 0:07:12which gave Castle Street its particular cachet.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15It just had about everything in that road, you know,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19fashionable dress shops and tailor's shops.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21You could get almost anything in Castle Street.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Among the flagship department stores on Castle Street was a Woolworths,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32where Ellice Turner, 18 years old in November 1940,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34was proud to staff the tea bar.
0:07:38 > 0:07:39Oh, it was lovely.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43There were about five of us girls, I think, on the tea bar.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And it was a very, ever such a happy thing.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49And one of us would be collecting the dishes and taking them into our
0:07:49 > 0:07:52little kitchen to wash those ones up.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54And the others were serving.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59You could get a complete lunch for sixpence.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Such a bonny bunch of ladies.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Just north of Castle Street, at 9 Merchant St,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10was a tobacconist and sweet shop owned by William Hares,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12who lived above the shop.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16William's daughter-in-law Jan,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18and his grandchildren Stephen and Catherine,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21have carefully preserved his personal archive.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27There's the picture of his shop in Merchant Street, as it was,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29with "W A Hare" on the top.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32W A was William Andrew.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Everybody knew him as Bill Hares.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37I think, with 9 Merchant St, they valued the place, didn't they?
0:08:37 > 0:08:40- It was their first home. - It was home, yes.- Yes.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Dad was born there, Auntie Margaret was born there.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45- It was an anchor in the city.- Yeah.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56St Peter's Church was another anchor for the Castle Street community.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59A place of worship, a familiar landmark,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and a civic focal point for residents
0:09:01 > 0:09:03like Bill and May Hares.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05When Grandma and Grandpa got married,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07they went up to St Peter's Church,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10to the registry office on Castle Green,
0:09:10 > 0:09:15and both of them always referred to Castle Green with a lot of emotion,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18really. It was not just a stone's throw away from Merchant Street,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21but they could see that from the front of the shop.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32In St Peter's Church,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34the evening service, called "Light and Darkness",
0:09:34 > 0:09:39was drawing to a close when the warning siren sounded at 6:22pm.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42AIR RAID SIREN
0:09:42 > 0:09:46School teacher Margaret Kane, a member of the congregation,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50described the moment the raid began in a letter written to her parents
0:09:50 > 0:09:52the morning after.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55"During the closing prayers,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59"we had light and darkness outside in the shape of flares.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03"They lit the stained-glass windows, just like daylight, and almost
0:10:03 > 0:10:06"immediately the first bomb fell and the guns started up."
0:10:12 > 0:10:15As Geoffrey Serle and his father tried to make their way home,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18they were caught out in the open.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22With no public shelter in sight, Geoffrey's father had to think fast.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26I said, "Where are we going?"
0:10:26 > 0:10:29He said, "We must find some shelter, we must find shelter."
0:10:29 > 0:10:31We went down these stone steps...
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and below there was a pontoon.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37We managed to get down there,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40then we could hear the bombs coming down steadily.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Incendiaries first,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45bursting into flames.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47You could see the flares, even from down there.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59Tobacconist Bill Hares left a dramatic minute-by-minute account of
0:10:59 > 0:11:02the terrifying night when the familiar world
0:11:02 > 0:11:04of Castle Street went up in flames.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09This is the original diary that was actually written the day after the
0:11:09 > 0:11:12first Blitz, on any scrap of paper that he had.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16"Suddenly, people are running like hell.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20"The sky is now lit up with different coloured flares.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23"The barrage is terrific and the air is filled with the constant drone of
0:11:23 > 0:11:27"Jerry planes, the scream of falling bombs and the thunder
0:11:27 > 0:11:28"of their explosion.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31"I've got a queer feeling, myself.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34"I'm terribly dry and I don't quite know what to do."
0:11:38 > 0:11:40The noise was deafening.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Bang! Bang! Tremendous explosions, one after another.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47And shortly after,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49a bomb dropped just along there.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52About 100 yards along.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55And a wave came across and swamped the pontoon we were in.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57I thought we were going to drown.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00I was petrified. I hung onto my father. He was shaking.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02EXPLOSIONS
0:12:05 > 0:12:11Fires stoked by a blizzard of incendiaries had taken firm hold.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17At St Peter's, the vicar, Reverend Loveday,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20told Margaret Kane and other members of the congregation that they must
0:12:20 > 0:12:24abandon the church, which, though still untouched,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27was by now surrounded by a sea of flames.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Mr Loveday came back and said,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34"We must go out across the churchyard and into the shelter
0:12:34 > 0:12:36"in the vaults of St Peter's hospital."
0:12:36 > 0:12:38About 20 of us left then.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43After about a quarter of an hour, it was 8:30, by now,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45once again he came back and said
0:12:45 > 0:12:48the fire was spreading and very, very near to us.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Martin Reiser and his unit appear over the centre of the city,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02and begin their bombing run.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Before them lies St Peter's Church.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10As they approach, they release their BSK incendiary canisters...
0:13:12 > 0:13:15..each packed with 36 individual incendiary bombs.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19It will take only one of these,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23designed to ignite on impact and burn white hot,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27to melt through the church's lead roof, exposing the ancient timbers
0:13:27 > 0:13:30beneath to the scorching flames of destruction.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39By the time Martin Reiser's unit crossed the south coast,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43after a successful mission, St Peter's,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46along with the rest of Castle Street, was in flames.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Tobacconist Bill Hares could only look on in despair.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56"The centre of the city is one blazing mass,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00"and the Jerries are plastering the fires with all they have.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03"Hell is released on our city.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05"Many soldiers are doing good work,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08"but we've still no fire auxiliaries to deal with the local fires.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13"It looks as if the whole block will be gutted,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16"but there's still no sign of any firemen.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18"Where the hell are they?"
0:14:22 > 0:14:24As the incendiaries rained down,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Bristol's firefighters were quite simply overwhelmed.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32Drafted in to help them was Les Reynolds,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35a night duty police driver.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37Bev Reynolds is his son.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39My father looked after the family.
0:14:39 > 0:14:45He worked hard, he was a van driver before the war.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50And then he joined the police.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54He drove the first radio-controlled car in Bristol.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58He loved his job as a policeman. He absolutely loved it.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02But cars were little use that night.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Les Reynolds abandoned his,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and made his way on foot to the chaotic inferno that had engulfed
0:15:08 > 0:15:11St Peter's, as his account reveals.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15"We could not use any cars or vans,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19"because of the many craters left on the roads.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23"When I got to Peter Street, I found that Burton's the tailors,
0:15:23 > 0:15:28"and the new theatre, St Peter's Church, were all ablaze.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33"The water mains had been fractured,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37"so we ran some extension hoses down to the river,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39"to try and draw water up from there.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45"We tried to save St Peter's Church, but it was absolutely hopeless."
0:15:47 > 0:15:50From the ancient hospital building next to St Peter's,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Margaret Kane finally made her escape.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55"By this time, outside,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59"it was like a heavy blizzard of red-hot chunks blowing all around.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01"I had no hat,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06"so I put my head under the tap and splashed water all over my coat and
0:16:06 > 0:16:09"started off with another girl who lives near me.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12"I've never cycled like I did then.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17"We had been told there was only one way we could go, and we passed by
0:16:17 > 0:16:22"numbers of fires even then, but we felt we must risk them and go on."
0:16:32 > 0:16:34The all-clear sounded,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37and Geoffrey Serle and his father emerged from their improvised
0:16:37 > 0:16:41shelter beneath Bristol Bridge to find the familiar face of
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Castle Street had undergone a terrible transformation.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50We paused for a moment and looked back at the burning city, and it was
0:16:50 > 0:16:53such a devastating sight,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57to see the buildings tumbling down and the flames still there.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Looking down Castle Street, we could see St Peter's Church was on fire.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You could see through the windows that it was all well alit inside,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08so it was obviously burnt out.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11As my father said, "That won't... that's gone, the church is gone."
0:17:12 > 0:17:18In its final agony, the bells fell inside the church's gutted tower,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21and its roof was seen to flow down Castle Street
0:17:21 > 0:17:24in a river of molten lead.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26It was an eerie sight, it really was.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Etched in my memory, it will be there forever.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40That night, you could say the soul of the city was wiped out,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43it really was. The heart of Bristol had gone.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48But it wasn't just the past that had been destroyed that night.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51With the obliteration of Castle Street,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Bristol lost the commercial and economic hub
0:17:54 > 0:17:57that had given life to the centre of the city.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09We tried to get a bit further, stumbling along through the
0:18:09 > 0:18:13rubble and so on. My father said, "I think the warehouse has gone."
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Our family business - Yeoman, Serle & Co -
0:18:16 > 0:18:21our warehouse was just about here, where you see the smoke coming out.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30That's an image that typifies how, how it was after the raid.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Complete, as you can see, complete devastation.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Nothing left of it, right the way through Castle Street,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38right the way through.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45When Ellice Turner struggled to work next morning at Woolworths, she too
0:18:45 > 0:18:48discovered a world turned upside down.
0:18:50 > 0:18:51Everything was everywhere.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57It was so sad because we'd just had all our Christmas eatables in,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59and on the confectionery counter.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03It just looked like devastation.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06I was going to say, it looked as if a bomb had fallen.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Exactly, it did.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10For policeman Les Reynolds,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15the trauma of the night only ended when he finally returned home to his
0:19:15 > 0:19:18wife and their eight-month-old son, Bev.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23"At 11am on Monday the 25th,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28"we were dismissed from duty after almost 17 hours of sheer hell.
0:19:29 > 0:19:35"I arrived home to find my wife and eight-month son safe...
0:19:37 > 0:19:39"..safe and well.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45"I looked in the mirror and I would not have been surprised to find that
0:19:45 > 0:19:47"my hair had turned white.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50"I am not ashamed to say...
0:19:51 > 0:19:54"I then sat down and cried my eyes out."
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Very emotional.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03And I think that
0:20:03 > 0:20:05no-one really knows...
0:20:07 > 0:20:11..the inner part of what people went through,
0:20:11 > 0:20:12emotional-wise.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16And probably people will never know.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19Didn't know that.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25The only thing I knew was that he used to say that, "When I got to the
0:20:25 > 0:20:28"top of the road, I used to go on my bike and have a look down
0:20:28 > 0:20:30"to see if the house was still there."
0:20:30 > 0:20:34He said, "I'd think, 'Thank God it's still there.' "
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Others were not so lucky.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44During the six-hour raid,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47more than 200 people had been killed
0:20:47 > 0:20:49and nearly 900 injured.
0:20:49 > 0:20:5210,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58The next morning, one man took up his camera and began documenting the
0:20:58 > 0:21:02devastation caused by the incendiary attack on St Peter's
0:21:02 > 0:21:04and the Castle Street neighbourhood.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09His name was Jim Facey,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12a photojournalist working for the Bristol Evening Post.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17For fellow local journalist Eugene Byrne,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Facey's photographs provide a unique record of Bristol
0:21:19 > 0:21:21during the Blitz.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29Down here we have hundreds of photographs of wartime Bristol.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36But it's really only Facey's that are the ones that sort of tried to
0:21:36 > 0:21:38tell this human story behind it.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41These pictures really were all about what savages,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45what barbaric things the Nazis had done to Bristol,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49but also about, sort of, the sense of defiance of Bristolians.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54So, you know, in this, for instance,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57she's lost, by the look of it,
0:21:57 > 0:21:58three quarters of her home,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01but she's having a nice, calming cigarette.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05One of my favourites is this.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10This is the girl whose house has been bombed out, and...
0:22:12 > 0:22:15..but the...the doll's house is OK.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21The young girl with the doll's house was called Ellen Lydia Rich,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25whose family had lived close to the Castle Street neighbourhood for generations.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Barbara Walshe is Ellen's daughter.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34The first time I saw this photograph, it was my uncle George
0:22:34 > 0:22:38had seen it in the Bristol Evening Post,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and, as he was the oldest in my mum's family,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44he recognised it to be my mum, and
0:22:44 > 0:22:46he also recognised the doll's house.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48He remembered her having that.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51I looked at all the people, the men in the background,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and I'm sure the man behind her is her dad.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58I'm sure that's my grandad there, and they're just trying to collect
0:22:58 > 0:23:01some of their belongings.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Just to find themselves without anything at all left in the world,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06even though they're still alive,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09they must've been just wondering, "What on earth is going to happen next?"
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Where are they going to go?
0:23:14 > 0:23:16But, for all their enduring power,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20many of Jim Facey's photographs were not seen at the time because of
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Government censorship.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Control of the press in wartime by the Ministry of Information
0:23:28 > 0:23:30was strict.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36Denying the enemy intelligence about the effectiveness of their raids
0:23:36 > 0:23:40meant that identification of cities badly hit was routinely suppressed.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46The censorship has some pretty surreal moments,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48and frankly it does end up causing
0:23:48 > 0:23:50quite a lot of resentment in Bristol.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57So, for example, on the morning of Monday, November 25th,
0:23:57 > 0:24:02the lead story in the Bristol Evening Post...
0:24:05 > 0:24:10So the biggest news story in Bristol, in the Evening Post's
0:24:10 > 0:24:14entire life, and it can't say what everyone picking up a copy of this
0:24:14 > 0:24:16damn paper knows fully well -
0:24:16 > 0:24:20that the bombs fell on Bristol and not just any old west town.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23The martyred city of Coventry.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26But there were exceptions to the censor's rule.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Words are hopelessly inadequate to describe the horror and indignation
0:24:31 > 0:24:35felt all over the civilised world at this wanton devastation.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Just ten days before the Bristol raid,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41the centre of Coventry had been subjected to an attack of such
0:24:41 > 0:24:46intensity that its ordeal was given maximum publicity,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49in order to stir up national indignation
0:24:49 > 0:24:51and international condemnation.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Theses are scenes of the butchery of Coventry.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58They came through the ordeal magnificently.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59This is their greatest hour.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Watching the newsreels on Coventry that played in cinemas the very same
0:25:05 > 0:25:08week of their own ordeal,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12many Bristolians must have felt slighted and ignored when only
0:25:12 > 0:25:16veiled references to the raid appeared in the local press.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21In the immediate aftermath of the 24th of November,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24the question of the city's morale came to the fore.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28The official line was, "Britain can take it."
0:25:30 > 0:25:34But the intensity of the raid had been so great that the question
0:25:34 > 0:25:37being asked in the corridors of power was, could Bristol?
0:25:42 > 0:25:45To test the resilience of cities like Bristol,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48the authorities turned to some unorthodox methods.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52In 1937,
0:25:52 > 0:25:56anthropologist Tom Harrison and others had set up a pioneering
0:25:56 > 0:26:01social survey organisation called Mass Observation.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04It sought to gauge how ordinary people lived their lives,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07and their attitudes to current events.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Now, in the middle of the Blitz,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14it was more urgent than ever to take the emotional pulse
0:26:14 > 0:26:16of ordinary civilians.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22So the Ministry of information contracted Mass Observation
0:26:22 > 0:26:23to do just that.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29For historian Dr Lucy Noakes,
0:26:29 > 0:26:34Mass Observation's singular approach has proved invaluable in her quest
0:26:34 > 0:26:38to dig beneath the surface of the so-called "Blitz spirit"
0:26:38 > 0:26:41in cities like Bristol.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Harrison thought the best way to gather information about the British
0:26:46 > 0:26:48people was from the ground.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50It was sort of living amongst people.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55So they would listen to conversations on buses,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57in queues, in shops,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and write down everything that people were saying.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04He knew that memory can play tricks.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06He knew that, if you ask people after the event,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08then your memories of the event might have changed,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11they might have been shaped by subsequent events.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14So they really wanted to kind of get down to live with the people,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17to see what the experience was like at the time.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24And so Mass Observation investigators arrived on the
0:27:24 > 0:27:26bombed-out streets of Bristol
0:27:26 > 0:27:29and began to eavesdrop on conversations.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Their conclusions made for alarming reading.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42"There's more depression in Bristol than in any other studied city in
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"recent months. There's quite open defeatism.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49"Also, much more wishful thinking about the war being over than in
0:27:49 > 0:27:53"other areas. In itself, probably an indication of depression."
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Snatches of overhead conversations
0:27:57 > 0:28:01were offered as evidence for this conclusion.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06- "I don't see how we're going to win this war."- "Of course were going to lose. We're only a small country."
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Among the most plaintive cries was a lament for the city's historic
0:28:11 > 0:28:16centre, now marked by the gutted tower of St Peter's.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19"It'll never be the same again."
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Tom Harrison believes that, in a city as small and compact as
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Bristol, the trauma of the Blitz was intensified.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35"I know from personal experience that it is ten times more unpleasant
0:28:35 > 0:28:38"to be blitzed in places the size of Coventry or Bristol,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41"where every bomb is personal,
0:28:41 > 0:28:45"and every piece of bomb damage is a disaster to one's own town,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48"instead of the great agglomeration of town which is called London."
0:28:51 > 0:28:55But alongside the evidence for depression and defeatism
0:28:55 > 0:28:59amongst some Bristolians was the determination among others
0:28:59 > 0:29:01to fight back.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06Ironically, the opportunity to do so was offered by the very same weapon
0:29:06 > 0:29:09that had dealt them such a grievous blow in the November raid.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18The Browns at home. Suddenly, the alarm.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19Enemy aircraft are here.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22But the Browns are prepared to tackle the worst.
0:29:22 > 0:29:23An incendiary bomb hits the house.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27It burns very violently for the first minute, but after that it can be tackled.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Brown goes to ascertain the damage, and sends to Smith next door...
0:29:31 > 0:29:33The incendiary was one of the most effective weapons
0:29:33 > 0:29:35in the Luftwaffe's arsenal.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41An 1,800kg high-explosive "Satan" bomb
0:29:41 > 0:29:43could flatten a street of houses.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50It was the incendiary, weighing just 1-2kg, that did the real damage...
0:29:52 > 0:29:56..seeding a thousand fires that reduced cities to ashes.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05They fell in such great numbers that people in Blitz Bristol would become
0:30:05 > 0:30:08all too familiar with their sinister outlines.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14This is an incendiary bomb, which was dug up by my father and was very
0:30:14 > 0:30:17effective in the destruction in the Blitz in Bristol.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21He took it back home, and realised that it hadn't gone off and tried to
0:30:21 > 0:30:24drill out the explosive that was in there.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27And it's been with us ever since.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31For Bristol-born engineer Will Boult,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36this singular family heirloom is an object of particular fascination,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38as ingenious as it was deadly.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42It's a very intricate, it's a very well-designed item.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47It's got the imperial eagle on it, it's got a serial number.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49You can see here the holes,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51that's to let, you know, that's to let the gas out
0:30:51 > 0:30:54as the detonator starts to burn.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57You know, I'm an engineer, and the thought of this item being designed
0:30:57 > 0:31:01by a contemporary engineer in Germany,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05just to kill people, is a really strange thought.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08A team of engineers has gone to a lot of effort to make sure
0:31:08 > 0:31:11this will be a very effective weapon.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14So it does have a sort of terrible beauty about it.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23But for all their insidious menace,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Bristolians realised that, when it came to the incendiary bomb,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29they weren't just passive victims.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33Here was a weapon that could be taken on and defeated.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37There was so much of this going on, there was a Government campaign,
0:31:37 > 0:31:39so, like, we have information posters.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44There's this sort of thing, saying, "Beat Firebomb Fritz."
0:31:44 > 0:31:48And it says, you know, very defiantly, "Britain shall not burn,"
0:31:48 > 0:31:49but actually,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53how do you deal with something that, a burning piece of metal times
0:31:53 > 0:31:57- 12,000?- All that was needed, according to the propaganda films,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01were tools, training and the will to fight back.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06The stirrup hand pump is the best to deal with both bomb and fire.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Miss Smith arrives.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15She has received training from the local authorities, which you too can receive.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Brown decides to operate the pump away from the heat and smoke.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Note how Miss Smith keeps as near the floor as possible,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23and plays a jet of water on the heart of the fire
0:32:23 > 0:32:25to get it under control.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32But before an incendiary bomb could be tackled, it had to be spotted.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35That's where the fire watchers came in.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Civilian volunteers stationed on the roofs of vulnerable buildings,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41even in the middle of a raid,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45watching out for the firebombs as they fell to earth,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47ready with stirrup pumps and sand,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50to extinguish them before they could do too much damage.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56There had been fire watchers on duty in Bristol on the night in November
0:32:56 > 0:32:59when St Peter's had been destroyed,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02but nowhere near enough, and none on the church's roof.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10After that baptism of fire, more volunteers stepped forward,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14determined to save their city if "Firebomb Fritz" returned.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20They joined veterans like tobacconist Bill Hares,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24who had volunteered as a fire watcher before the November raid,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27despite having lost a leg due to a childhood injury.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34This is Bristol's Siren Nights, a book that was published in 1943.
0:33:34 > 0:33:40It's a collection of stories from the first Blitzes,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44and this is the picture that we think is Grandpa climbing the roof
0:33:44 > 0:33:46with his wooden leg, his leg's straight.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49- I think that's right.- He was incredibly active.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53- He wouldn't be beaten, would he?- Oh, good gracious, no. No, no way.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Grandpa just wanted to get in, pitch in and do his thing.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59- And do his bit, yeah.- Do his bit for the city, really.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Keep everything safe.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14The next big test for Bristol's Fire Watchers came as the Luftwaffe
0:34:14 > 0:34:16bombers returned in force to the city.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Among the volunteers that night was 23-year-old Eric Tyley.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26Eric and his wife-to-be, Betty,
0:34:26 > 0:34:33had witnessed the aftermath of the November raid just nine days before.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35It was a terrible shock.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38One day the buildings were all there, the next day, nothing.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45And it was a horrible smell. It was terrible and still smouldering.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Of course, I remember very well,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54going up from the Bristol Bridge
0:34:54 > 0:34:58up into Castle Street area, you know.
0:34:59 > 0:35:00That was devastated.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05On that night, it wasn't just St Peter's that had been destroyed.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10In this so-called city of churches, a dozen others had been
0:35:10 > 0:35:13badly damaged or destroyed.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18But less than a mile south of St Peter's,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21one church remained unscathed.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24St Mary Redcliffe - Eric's church.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30And as the sirens sounded on the evening of the 2nd of December,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Eric and his fellow fire watchers were determined to keep their
0:35:34 > 0:35:37beloved church safe through another night.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42We did all we could to save it, because we were all brought up
0:35:42 > 0:35:45there. I'd been brought up in Redcliffe School.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49I started down there in 1926.
0:35:50 > 0:35:531926, so I was picked out then, for the school,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55to sing in the choir.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57So, I mean, Redcliffe, it was my home.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02I wouldn't like to be without it, I think it's a marvellous church.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05CHORAL SINGING
0:36:05 > 0:36:09Leading the team of volunteer Fire Watchers at St Mary Redcliffe
0:36:09 > 0:36:12was its charismatic vicar, Canon Sidney Swann.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19- Hello, Eric.- Hello, Celia. How are you?
0:36:19 > 0:36:23- Whether you remember me, I'm not sure.- A long time ago, but you were quite young, weren't you?
0:36:23 > 0:36:25I think I know your face.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28Celia Byrne is Canon Swann's daughter.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33- Your father was in charge.- Yes.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36We had a group of fire watchers, all of us.
0:36:36 > 0:36:42I and my mate were just responsible for this part.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46And we got through that doorway there, up onto the roof.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50Was it right that my father used to kick off the incendiary bombs,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52- off the roof?- Of course, that's what you did.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56He was very busy. If it hadn't been for Canon Swann,
0:36:56 > 0:37:01I don't think this church would be here today, quite honestly.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05You can't tell anybody today what it was like, really.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09The noise...and the shrapnel.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14The incendiary bombs lit the city to such an extent, it was like
0:37:14 > 0:37:16- daylight.- Really? I never knew that.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19You see, your experience is quite different from mine,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22you being an adult and me being a child.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26And some of it was exciting for me. It wouldn't have been for you.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28No, I suppose it was for you youngsters,
0:37:28 > 0:37:29but it wasn't very exciting for us.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Four nights later, on the 6th of December, the bombers returned,
0:37:37 > 0:37:41bringing the death toll for the working week to more than 200.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48St Mary Redcliffe came through untouched again,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50thanks to the vigilance of Canon Swann's
0:37:50 > 0:37:52dedicated team of volunteers.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58But three heavy raids in less than two weeks had exposed worrying
0:37:58 > 0:38:01cracks in the provision of public shelters in Bristol.
0:38:04 > 0:38:05At the start of the war,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09the Government had calculated that the city's public shelters would
0:38:09 > 0:38:12need to accommodate 25,000 people.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14But when the raids began,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16there was room for only 3,500.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20And as for the shelters themselves,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24dissatisfaction with them was a source of bitterness,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27as Mass Observation investigators reported.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31"The main grumbling is about shelters.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36"This is often spontaneous, non-political and actually justified.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39"Investigators who have a wide comparison of experience in town
0:38:39 > 0:38:42"shelter facilities, consider those in Bristol
0:38:42 > 0:38:45"to be strikingly inferior and inadequate."
0:38:46 > 0:38:50Bristolians had good reason to complain.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54The council's brick-built shelters were known to crack or even collapse
0:38:54 > 0:38:56when subjected to attacks,
0:38:56 > 0:39:01in part because penny-pinching subcontractors had used a defective
0:39:01 > 0:39:03mixture in the water.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10They were dark, they were dirty, and they smelled.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14They were put up quite rapidly, as a temporary thing,
0:39:14 > 0:39:19and it was said that, if a bomb dropped on them, they were gone.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26Eavesdropping Mass Observation investigators recorded a rising
0:39:26 > 0:39:29chorus of discontent on the streets of Bristol.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34"It's a waste of time building those doll's houses.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36"There's a buggery in them. We want bomb-proof shelters."
0:39:38 > 0:39:41"We won't win the war unless we have underground shelters for everyone.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45"It's going to drive people scatty unless they have them."
0:39:45 > 0:39:48The bitter experience of the Blitz taught ordinary Bristolians to
0:39:48 > 0:39:51take matters into their own hands.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55They began to search for places of safety in a myriad of tunnels
0:39:55 > 0:39:58and caves beneath the city itself.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Word had spread that in the cliffs of the Avon Gorge,
0:40:04 > 0:40:062.5 miles from the city centre,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10were disused railway tunnels which could provide the safety
0:40:10 > 0:40:13that seemed to be absent elsewhere.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16One was called the Portway tunnel.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24And it was to here that hundreds of Bristolians from the city centre
0:40:24 > 0:40:27fled during the winter nights of 1940.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33But, apart from the protection it offered,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35the tunnel had little to recommend it.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38According to Mass Observation investigators...
0:40:39 > 0:40:42..who surveyed it soon after it had been commandeered.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45There is no official shelter sign and no indication along the road
0:40:45 > 0:40:48that there is a shelter until one arrives at the entrance.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55Just inside the entrance is a blast wall of sandbags.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59As one enters, the stench is overpowering.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03A mixture of sandbags, urine, disinfectant,
0:41:03 > 0:41:05stale sweat and bedding.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11There's no canteen and no other facilities.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13Two closets with sackcloth doors.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Ralph Smith, the youngest of 13 children,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26was just six years old when he entered the Portway tunnel
0:41:26 > 0:41:30for the first time but the memory of it is still fresh.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34The fact was, it was scary.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36It was cold, it was damp.
0:41:37 > 0:41:42Bearing in mind all those bodies breathing, no air coming in
0:41:42 > 0:41:44or going out. It was terrible.
0:41:44 > 0:41:45Absolutely terrible.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51Because we all went in and the kiddies started bellowing.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53One starts, 50 others start.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00But then, when we were in there, you've got to bear in mind
0:42:00 > 0:42:03people were suffering outside.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06People were being blown from here to there.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Sheltering with Ralph in the tunnel each night
0:42:10 > 0:42:12was his elder brother Gerald
0:42:12 > 0:42:15who later left an account of that traumatic time.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Ralph's grandson, Nathan, is reading it to him for the first time.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24"We got down to the tunnel,
0:42:24 > 0:42:26"and there must have been about 700 or 800 people.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28"It was absolute chaos.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31"It was terrible and everybody was fighting for places.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33"You couldn't lay out, so you had to kneel,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36"cooped up with your back against the wall and it was
0:42:36 > 0:42:39"always streaming with water. We couldn't sleep,
0:42:39 > 0:42:41"sleep was almost impossible.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43"And any sleeping was done during the day."
0:42:43 > 0:42:45Correct.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Correct. That is memories.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Well, well, well.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54What do you think about that?
0:42:54 > 0:42:56How emotional, really.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Exactly as I remember it. Yeah.
0:43:01 > 0:43:02It was...
0:43:04 > 0:43:05It was all true.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Gerald's account also describes the scenes
0:43:09 > 0:43:13that confronted the shelterers when they emerged from the tunnel
0:43:13 > 0:43:15after a night of heavy bombing.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21"When we got to the main street near our home, all the houses
0:43:21 > 0:43:23"were caved in on the street. There were hosepipes,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27"dogs barking and sirens going and burglar alarms sounding.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30"An absolute cacophony of war.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33"I remember blood running from the bodies into the main road,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35"and this went down the road,
0:43:35 > 0:43:37"as if somebody was tipping buckets of red paint.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42"We saw people walking along with parts of torsos, matching them
0:43:42 > 0:43:45"with shoes or coats and piecing them together."
0:43:45 > 0:43:48That is true. And it was raining.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51And it was going down into the drains, red,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53I remember that as a little kid.
0:43:53 > 0:43:54I'll always remember it.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58I can remember seeing a person come out with just one arm.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03You didn't realise what had happened to that person.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Another came out screaming, holding her eyes.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12And it's not till you sit here and I go back over my memories
0:44:12 > 0:44:15that you realise what WE went through
0:44:15 > 0:44:18and what THEY went through outside.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27Caught between the terror of the bombs and the horrors of the tunnel,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30hundreds of Bristolians chose the latter,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33ignoring warnings about the possible outbreak of TB.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37But, despite repeated appeals,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39little was done to improve conditions
0:44:39 > 0:44:42for the largely working-class families
0:44:42 > 0:44:44huddled in the Portway tunnel each night.
0:44:47 > 0:44:51The official view of the shelterers was expressed by Sir Hugh Ellis,
0:44:51 > 0:44:54the Southwest Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58in a letter to a colleague at the Ministry for Home Security.
0:45:00 > 0:45:01"My dear Gater.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04"As you remember, we had between 24th of November
0:45:04 > 0:45:07"and the 6th of December a series of very heavy raids.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09"And after the turmoil was over,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12"it was discovered that upwards of 1,500 persons
0:45:12 > 0:45:14"had formed a sort of gypsy encampment
0:45:14 > 0:45:17"in this undesirable place and had filled it with beds,
0:45:17 > 0:45:20"little shelters and the most indescribable collection
0:45:20 > 0:45:21"of junk of all sorts."
0:45:23 > 0:45:26This letter tells us volumes about what the authorities thought
0:45:26 > 0:45:28about the ordinary people
0:45:28 > 0:45:30that were trying to take shelter during the Blitz.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32There's that phrase about them and us,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35and, during the war, the "them" wasn't always Germany.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38- NEWSREEL:- This is the British Broadcasting Corporation.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41To make matters worse,
0:45:41 > 0:45:46the authorities had arranged to hand over the Portway tunnel to the BBC,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49in search of a secure emergency headquarters
0:45:49 > 0:45:53in case they were bombed out of their London and Bristol studios.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57In January, when the BBC turned up to assess the tunnel,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01the shelterers refused to budge and staged a sit-in.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06Soon afterwards, according to a Mass Observation report,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09the police forcibly cleared sections of the tunnel
0:46:09 > 0:46:13with the help of truncheons, in the name of public health.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16It can't have been great for morale, can it?
0:46:16 > 0:46:19You're trying to take shelter from the bombs night after night,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22and the police are there with truncheons to keep you away.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24It's unthinkable, really.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28And it's not part of what we think that we remember about the Blitz.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31But it's an important part and it's something that really happened.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42Less than six weeks after the destruction of St Peter's,
0:46:42 > 0:46:47a 12-hour raid saw more than 50,000 incendiaries
0:46:47 > 0:46:50fall on Bristol in a single night.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56At St Mary Redcliffe, Eric Tyley and the other fire watchers
0:46:56 > 0:46:58were on duty as usual,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02keeping their church safe from another night of flames,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05in which 149 people lost their lives.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09More often than not, we slept in the Lady's Chapel
0:47:09 > 0:47:12because it was quicker to get up onto the roof.
0:47:12 > 0:47:18We knew what we had to do and, if any incendiaries came down,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20to get on them with the stirrup pump.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24And get it down and put some sand it on them, deaden it down.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29- NEWSREEL:- You cannot stop a high-explosive bomb from bursting
0:47:29 > 0:47:33but you can stop a firebomb from starting a fire.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37Just a few days earlier,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41Home Secretary Herbert Morrison had taken to the BBC to chide
0:47:41 > 0:47:45those who'd shrunk from tackling Firebomb Fritz.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49- NEWSREEL:- Some of you lately, in more cities than one,
0:47:49 > 0:47:51have failed your country.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54It must never happen again.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Fall in, the firebomb fighters.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03But, by the time of the broadcast,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07it seemed Bristol had already become a city of firefighters,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09according to the local press, at least.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14They made great play with the story of 12-year-old Barbara Horn,
0:48:14 > 0:48:18who, it was claimed, put out eight incendiaries
0:48:18 > 0:48:21while dressed in her New Year's party frock.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26For other kids in Bristol,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28familiarity with this deadly weapon
0:48:28 > 0:48:31had bred a peculiar kind of intimacy.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35Some of them didn't go off,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39and we used to collect them and take them back into the garden.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46We played with them, we took them apart...
0:48:47 > 0:48:53..we got bits of stick and dipped those in water
0:48:53 > 0:48:56and then put them in the thermite
0:48:56 > 0:48:58and rolled them round,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02and lit it, and it made giant sparklers.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05And they were fantastic.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10But we were stopped from doing that by our mum and dad after a time
0:49:10 > 0:49:13cos they thought it was a bit dodgy.
0:49:19 > 0:49:20Good Friday.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Bristol suffers its sixth large-scale raid
0:49:25 > 0:49:28since its baptism of fire in November, 1940.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35The following morning, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
0:49:35 > 0:49:39appears on the streets on a morale-boosting visit.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44This time, Bristol is permitted a few moments of newsreel fame.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47- NEWSREEL:- Shortly after Bristol received its raid,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Mr Churchill visits the battle-scarred city
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and it was to the bombed people of Bristol
0:49:53 > 0:49:55that Mr Churchill gave his stirring pledge -
0:49:55 > 0:49:56"We'll give it to them back."
0:49:57 > 0:50:01But behind the newsreel smiles was a deep-seated bitterness
0:50:01 > 0:50:03at the months of relentless bombing.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08It was even rumoured that Churchill himself had been booed.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13The censored local press came as close as it could
0:50:13 > 0:50:15to reflecting a new public mood.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20Unrecognisable from the passive despair of just a few months before.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22"As the death toll mounted,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"and it became clear that casualties were likely to be heavy,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28"the mood of Bristol became one of burning anger.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31" 'They will have to pay for this,'
0:50:31 > 0:50:35"was the grim pronouncement of people who had lost loved ones,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38"homes or businesses, who'd carried on with their firefighting
0:50:38 > 0:50:40"and rescue work for hour after hour."
0:50:40 > 0:50:46So, the Western Daily here is sort of hinting at the sort of level
0:50:46 > 0:50:51of wear and tear that it's taking on the morale of the city.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56Because, of course, at that stage, Bristolians had endured a winter
0:50:56 > 0:50:59of what must've felt to them like endless air attacks.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02AIR RAID SIREN SOUNDS
0:51:02 > 0:51:05You know, night after night, the air raid sirens would go,
0:51:05 > 0:51:06and it was an awful feeling.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09And going to school, you know,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12the teacher would call out a name,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16"Anna Morgan," and someone would say, "She's not in today, Miss.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19"The house was hit last night, a direct hit, they were all killed."
0:51:21 > 0:51:25Bristol's emergency services had also learned some harsh lessons
0:51:25 > 0:51:29since the chaos of the first major raid in November 1940.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32During the raids of 1940 and '41,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35the enemy failed in his attempt to break our spirit.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Because of the courage and the determination
0:51:37 > 0:51:39of the civil defence services.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44But the civil defence services had something more than determination.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47They had a plan - a plan based on a simple pattern of action.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56In 1942, the city's civil defence system featured in a
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Government propaganda film, Control Room,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02held up as an example to other cities of the efficient coordination
0:52:02 > 0:52:06of the professional fire, ambulance and police services,
0:52:06 > 0:52:11with volunteer fire watchers, ARP wardens and rescue workers.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15They've done it. A direct hit.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17This information goes at once to our report centre.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Its position is plotted on a map...
0:52:21 > 0:52:24..and an officer decides what services are needed.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26Rescue parties are wanted immediately
0:52:26 > 0:52:27to get out the trapped people.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31First aid and ambulance parties to attend to the wounded.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35It was a precursor of today's coordinated response to
0:52:35 > 0:52:37emergency situations.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39But after the Good Friday raid,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Bristol's control room would never be required
0:52:42 > 0:52:46to go into action again on a major scale.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Of course, nobody at that time would have realised
0:52:52 > 0:52:55that that was the last big raid.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59This so-called Good Friday raid is the last major German raid
0:52:59 > 0:53:03on Bristol, because what happened then was that
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Hitler diverted the attention of his air force
0:53:06 > 0:53:09towards the forthcoming attack on the Soviet Union.
0:53:14 > 0:53:15When the war ended,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19the battle for Bristol's heart and soul entered a new phase.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25The greatest responsibility the council has today is the replanning
0:53:25 > 0:53:27and rebuilding of the city.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30The bad must be replaced and the future taken into account.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37That future took shape in Broadmead,
0:53:37 > 0:53:40the neighbourhood immediately to the north of St Peter's Church.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Badly damaged - but not totally destroyed - by the bombing,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Broadmead was earmarked for wholesale demolition...
0:53:49 > 0:53:53..its mixture of shops, houses and public buildings
0:53:53 > 0:53:57replaced by a new and little-loved shopping centre.
0:54:04 > 0:54:05Well, there's the Greyhound.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08So that would've been one of the pubs
0:54:08 > 0:54:11in Grandpa's darts league fixtures.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13Oh, and then the arcade.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16If the people could come back and see it now,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18they'd hardly believe it was the same place.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Among the houses swept away in the wholesale redevelopment
0:54:23 > 0:54:27of Bristol city centre was the shop on Merchant Street,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31where fire watcher Bill Hares once sold tobacco and sweets.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34This would have been where it was.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37- It'd be 9 Merchant St, now on the corner.- Yeah.
0:54:39 > 0:54:40Castle Green over there.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45And the Church of St Peter, where they got married.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50I think they must have had a happy life here
0:54:50 > 0:54:53because he was so concerned with keeping the family
0:54:53 > 0:54:54together and safe.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58And I think the trauma of actually leaving the area must've been
0:54:58 > 0:55:01quite horrendous, really, because this was his life.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04His first house.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06And the children were born here.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10- Yeah.- Yes.- Dad and Auntie Margaret were born here.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14Another time, another world, eh, Mum?
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Today, little remains of the old Castle Street neighbourhood...
0:55:24 > 0:55:26..except the ruins of St Peter's.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31On its front is a commemorative plaque
0:55:31 > 0:55:33placed there after a long campaign
0:55:33 > 0:55:37by Portway Tunnel survivor Ralph Smith,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40so that Bristol's darkest hour
0:55:40 > 0:55:42would be remembered in the place where it all began.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47- Can you read it from here?- Yes. - Yeah?
0:55:47 > 0:55:52"In memory of the citizens of Bristol and surrounding areas
0:55:52 > 0:55:57"who died in the Blitz during the 1939-'45 war."
0:55:57 > 0:55:59That there...
0:55:59 > 0:56:05represents so much of Bristol's history.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09So when people stand here, like me and my grandson,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12and we look at that and that's telling the people
0:56:12 > 0:56:16that that was the Blitz, that was the war,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20and that's dedicated to hundreds of people that died in Bristol.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25And I bow my head to them...
0:56:28 > 0:56:29..with all sincerity.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33And all I can say is, God bless you all.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41At St Mary Redcliffe,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44which survived the battle of the flames thanks to the efforts of this
0:56:44 > 0:56:48dedicated team of fire watchers,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51their courage is honoured in a Palm Sunday service.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59Across the city, ordinary people did extraordinary things to protect
0:56:59 > 0:57:02places they valued and people they loved.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Here at St Mary Redcliffe, the vicar, Sidney Swann,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09led a team of fire watchers.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Eric Tyley, a member then and a member still of this church family.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15It symbolises their courage.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21After the demolition of his shop,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24Bill Hares and his family moved to the suburbs, never to return.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29Geoffrey Serle became a local TV news reporter,
0:57:29 > 0:57:31but his visits to the city centre
0:57:31 > 0:57:34are still haunted by his memories of the November raid.
0:57:36 > 0:57:41Eric and Betty Tyley don't visit the city centre much these days.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44They prefer to keep their memories of the past intact
0:57:44 > 0:57:47while still looking forward to the future.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59I shall be 100 on the 25th of November this year.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03So it's a bit of a struggle to get here,
0:58:03 > 0:58:05but I'm getting there, I think!
0:58:05 > 0:58:08LAUGHTER
0:58:08 > 0:58:11If we can stick together, Bet and I, we'll be all right.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18How were the lives of Germans affected by air raids
0:58:18 > 0:58:21when the Allies retaliated?
0:58:21 > 0:58:23To explore this and more, go to...
0:58:27 > 0:58:30..and follow the links to the Open University.