0:00:02 > 0:00:07*
0:00:20 > 0:00:23AIR-RAID SIRENS
0:00:34 > 0:00:41From mid-September, 1940, London faced night after night of continuous bombing.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46It became almost a matter of horrific routine,
0:00:46 > 0:00:54with wardens helping people to the shelters as the sirens wailed over blacked-out streets.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00But one night and one image encapsulate the London Blitz - the 29th of December,
0:01:00 > 0:01:07the second Great Fire of London, when St Paul's rose in its glory amongst the smoke and flames.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12On that night, the cathedral was surrounded by a ring of fire
0:01:12 > 0:01:16as centuries of history went up in smoke.
0:01:16 > 0:01:23The landscape of London was changed for ever and those who were there will never forget it.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26There was just one big red glow.
0:01:26 > 0:01:32- Everywhere was red.- You couldn't make out Tower Bridge or St Paul's? - It was all afire.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Everywhere you looked was alight.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40The Blitz was a new kind of warfare -
0:01:40 > 0:01:45total war. Its victims were civilians - men, women and children,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50attacked in their own homes and on their own streets.
0:01:50 > 0:01:58Throughout the summer of 1940, the Germans had tried to destroy British air defences.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03But the British had a new secret weapon. Radar.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07It gave the RAF warning before the bombers appeared.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12The system was barely completed before the German attack began.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16For inexperienced young operators, many of them women,
0:02:16 > 0:02:24sitting at screens like this was tense. It took only six minutes for German aircraft to cross the Channel.
0:02:24 > 0:02:31Getting RAF pilots airborne in time and at the right place depended greatly on these radar operators.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Within minutes of receiving notice of incoming bombers,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43RAF fighter pilots were scrambling to their planes.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56By the end of August, the British seemed to be getting the upper hand.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Every German shot down was one fewer to bomb Britain.
0:03:01 > 0:03:08Then German strategy changed. As usual, it was cock-up, not conspiracy, that provoked the change.
0:03:08 > 0:03:15Hitler had argued against bombing of civilians on the grounds that it wouldn't achieve anything useful.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20But on the night of August 24th, two German aircraft, hopelessly lost,
0:03:20 > 0:03:25dropped bombs on central London - strictly off-limits to bombers.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30The first fell here at St Giles' Church, in the City of London,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35where Shakespeare worshipped, Cromwell was married, and Milton was buried.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Nine were killed and 58 injured.
0:03:38 > 0:03:44It was no longer a combat between young men high in the air,
0:03:44 > 0:03:49but a war against ordinary men and women going about their daily business.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54In retaliation Churchill ordered the RAF to bomb Berlin the next night.
0:03:54 > 0:04:01Hitler decided that the Luftwaffe should attack British civilian targets as a reprisal.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04The daylight Blitz had begun.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Saturday, September 7th, started the German bombing campaign proper.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14On Black Saturday, the Germans dropped 300 tons of bombs on London,
0:04:14 > 0:04:21not only devastating the docks, their real target, but demolishing great areas of the East End
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and killing or wounding nearly 2,000 civilians.
0:04:25 > 0:04:33When the bombers came back at night, they found London easily. Its flames were visible from mid-Channel.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37The Luftwaffe seemed to have the edge at last.
0:04:37 > 0:04:44In the next week, the Luftwaffe mounted repeated daylight bombing raids on London,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48but under constant attack from the RAF.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53Among the German bomber pilots was Ernst Wedding.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55The greatest threat was fighters -
0:04:55 > 0:04:58much faster than a bomber.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02And when he lets fly with his eight guns...
0:05:02 > 0:05:07He only needs to puncture a radiator or oil tank
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and you'd be in trouble.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15The war in the air was not personal. It was a target.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21You saw an aircraft. The fighter - the boys - attacked it.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24It was, "Can we avoid the fighter?
0:05:24 > 0:05:30"Can we run away or hide in the clouds?" That was our method of survival.
0:05:30 > 0:05:38On the morning of September 15th, the pilots who would bear the burden of the battle were up early.
0:05:38 > 0:05:45At Tangmere and Kenley, at Croydon and Biggin Hill, at Hornchurch, North Weald and Duxford,
0:05:45 > 0:05:51veterans aged 25 rose at dawn to meet the German attack.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08This is the actual control room
0:06:08 > 0:06:11of Fighter Command's 11 Group at Uxbridge,
0:06:11 > 0:06:16responsible for the defence of southeast England, including London.
0:06:16 > 0:06:24On September 15th, Winston Churchill sat here, watching 20-odd young men and women gathered round that map.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28At about 10.30 that morning, warnings from radar stations
0:06:28 > 0:06:34brought the first markers of attacking enemy aircraft on to the map.
0:06:34 > 0:06:41In reply, the British sent up planes from a dozen airfields, beginning with two squadrons from Biggin Hill.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46As the first attackers crossed the coast, the battle began.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52There was fierce fighting over London that day - even Buckingham Palace was hit.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57But by nightfall it was clear that the Luftwaffe was losing.
0:06:57 > 0:07:04Two days later, Hitler abandoned invasion plans and turned to the bombing by night of civilian targets.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09By bombing at night, German planes were less vulnerable to attack by the RAF.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13They also hoped to destroy British civilian morale.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Coventry got it in one night in November.
0:07:17 > 0:07:24Over 500 people were killed and a 14th-century cathedral was reduced to ruins.
0:07:24 > 0:07:30Many other cities suffered appallingly. This is Plymouth.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36But London was the worst hit.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41From mid-September, it was bombed almost every night.
0:07:42 > 0:07:49Christmas 1940 had been very quiet. There was an informal truce in bombing operations on both sides.
0:07:49 > 0:07:55But at about 5.20pm on December 29th, enemy aircraft were detected on the radar.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01The warning was passed on to Fighter Command headquarters at RAF Bentley Priory
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and down to the sector control rooms.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Here, as ever, they plotted the incoming aircraft
0:08:13 > 0:08:16tonight coming in from the south.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20As the Germans approached, 29 fighters were sent up.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25But night-interception was still very much in its infancy
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and no raiders were shot down.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34The Germans flew on. They were heading for Target Area Otto - the City of London.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38And by ten past six, they were over St Paul's.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40SIRENS
0:08:46 > 0:08:53As the sirens wailed, the people of London went underground, many into street shelters like this -
0:08:53 > 0:09:00basically, a hole in the ground lined with corrugated iron and covered with earth or sandbags.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07Night after night was spent down here,
0:09:07 > 0:09:12neighbours trying to sleep on benches like this while sounds of war raged overhead.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18One Londoner wrote: "It's not the bombs I'm scared of any more, it's the weariness.
0:09:18 > 0:09:26"Trying to work and concentrate with your eyes sticking out like hatpins after being up all night.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30"I'd die in my sleep happily if only I COULD sleep."
0:09:30 > 0:09:35For children in London, the shelters became almost a home from home.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Peggy Chusonis was 12 when the war began.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44- Here's where we went into the shelter.- That was...?- OUR entrance. - That's just here.- Yeah.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47We ran up here every night.
0:09:47 > 0:09:55It had cubicles with special names - the Ritz, the R.O., Number 10 Downing Street...
0:09:56 > 0:10:04- And we used to make the tea in the house where we lived. - You made the tea for everybody?
0:10:04 > 0:10:09Everybody in the shelter got a cup of tea, made in a watering can.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15Stirred it with a broom handle. You never had a spoon long enough.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18We used to have a piano down there.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Really...had a good laugh.
0:10:20 > 0:10:28But many of the PUBLIC shelters were far from safe, offering little protection against a direct hit.
0:10:28 > 0:10:36In one raid, 164 people were killed when a block of flats collapsed on the packed air-raid shelter beneath.
0:10:39 > 0:10:45Among them were Wolf Kramer, his wife Mildred and their daughter Pearl.
0:10:45 > 0:10:51Wolf's body was identified, so he could be given a proper burial.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54What remained of Pearl and Mildred was buried here -
0:10:54 > 0:10:59a jumble of ordinary people in a mass grave.
0:11:10 > 0:11:17The safest place to be was several hundred feet below the surface.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23This is Aldwich Underground Station, where hundreds of families took refuge every night,
0:11:23 > 0:11:28coming down these stairs laden with torches, blankets and Thermoses -
0:11:28 > 0:11:33mothers and babies, courting couples and old people alike.
0:11:38 > 0:11:46Down below, whole communities were created in Tube stations across London.
0:11:46 > 0:11:52# If today your heart is weary
0:11:52 > 0:11:57# If every little thing looks grey
0:11:57 > 0:12:00# Just forget your troubles
0:12:00 > 0:12:05# And learn to say,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09# "Tomorrow is a lovely day!" #
0:12:11 > 0:12:16But it wasn't all the cosy community of mythology.
0:12:16 > 0:12:23The Government censored information, and pictures of demoralised civilians simply weren't published.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28Tales of cowardice and hysteria were untold, casualty figures left vague.
0:12:28 > 0:12:34There was a black market in the best places to kip.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39And in one station several people were killed in the rush to get down.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41The lists of civilian war deaths
0:12:41 > 0:12:48record many children killed in a tube shelter accident.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53But on December 29th, it was far safer down here than up there.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Above ground, teams of soldiers, mostly Territorials,
0:13:04 > 0:13:09manned giant searchlights whose beams lit up the sky
0:13:09 > 0:13:14to pinpoint enemy bombers and help the anti-aircraft gunners take aim.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20But at this stage in the war, searchlights only reached 12,000 feet.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Above that and the raiders were safe from the dazzle of the lights.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42These anti-aircraft guns could punch ten rounds a minute into the sky, yet they offered little protection.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44They were powerful enough,
0:13:44 > 0:13:51but despite searchlights and predictors which estimated the flight path of incoming aircraft,
0:13:51 > 0:13:56they were often literally shooting in the dark.
0:13:56 > 0:14:03On the night of December 29th, the guns defending London didn't shoot down a single German aircraft.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07But they made a vital contribution to morale.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11To tens of thousands of civilians in their shelters,
0:14:11 > 0:14:18the constant roar of the guns above was living proof that we were "letting them have it".
0:14:18 > 0:14:23By 6.17 that evening, the bombs were falling all over the city.
0:14:23 > 0:14:30Many of them were high explosives containing between 200 and 1,000 kg of explosive.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32But that night
0:14:32 > 0:14:37the Germans were experimenting with incendiary bombs.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Their warheads, made of magnesium,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42burned so hot they melted steel.
0:14:42 > 0:14:48They could penetrate the roofs of buildings to burn undetected in their very hearts.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50A bomber could carry 700 of them.
0:14:50 > 0:14:58It was the Sunday after Christmas and there were few firewatchers. By 6.30 the city was in flames.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03As one fireman put it, "The whole bloody city is lit up."
0:15:13 > 0:15:16BELL RINGING
0:15:16 > 0:15:23All over London, fire engines were racing to the City and East End. But it was a losing battle.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28Then the message came through that St Paul's itself was under threat.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33Churchill gave the order that the cathedral must be saved at all costs.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36But the firemen needed ammunition - water -
0:15:36 > 0:15:43and bombs were hitting and destroying the mains. London was running out of water fast.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54There was only one place to get more water -
0:15:54 > 0:15:56 the Thames.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02The Germans were lucky. The tide was at an exceptionally low ebb that night.
0:16:02 > 0:16:09To make matters worse, there was an unexploded parachute mine lurking somewhere in the mud just downstream.
0:16:09 > 0:16:17Fireboats could pump the water out, but the firemen had to struggle with the hoses across 50 yards of mud
0:16:17 > 0:16:23to get the water to a vast reservoir tank to be pumped into the City.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40The firemen desperately hauled the heavy hoses through the streets towards St Paul's,
0:16:40 > 0:16:46at constant risk from bombs, debris, embers and falling masonry.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52One fireman,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57Sam Chauveau, began the evening on a roof in the heart of the Square Mile.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02By the time we'd tackled the incendiaries on the Exchange roof,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07the sky, which was ebony black when we first got up there,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10was changing to a yellowy orange colour.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15And it looked as though there was an enormous circle of fire.
0:17:15 > 0:17:22It involved St Paul's Churchyard, St Martin's-le-Grand,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27Aldersgate Street, Chiswell Street, Wood Street, Gresham Street...
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Fires were developing in these streets almost simultaneously.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37I had this terrible feeling of helplessness.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41It was excellent planning on the Germans' part -
0:17:41 > 0:17:46first send in the pathfinders and the fire-raisers
0:17:46 > 0:17:54followed by high explosives, more incendiaries, and lots and lots of parachute mines.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00Tens of thousands of incendiaries descended on the city
0:18:00 > 0:18:05released from aircraft so that they fell in a cluster.
0:18:05 > 0:18:12On the Stock Exchange we had a cluster of these bombs on a flat roof.
0:18:12 > 0:18:18Six enormous conflagrations engulfed the Square Mile,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22flames leaping from building to building,
0:18:22 > 0:18:27consuming banks, offices and London's history as they went.
0:18:29 > 0:18:36In the centre of it all was Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38Eight Wren churches had already gone.
0:18:38 > 0:18:45The Guildhall was in flames and down the river the docks were lighting up the sky.
0:18:45 > 0:18:52The area around St Paul's was ablaze and bomb after incendiary bomb was landing on the cathedral itself.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04Teams of volunteer firewatchers, armed only with sandbags and stirrup pumps,
0:19:04 > 0:19:11constantly patrolled the passageways in this vast building, dousing the fires as they started.
0:19:11 > 0:19:18The most dangerous patrol was up here - on the stone gallery that runs round the famous dome.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Volunteers for this were selected for their head for heights.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28At about 9pm, an incendiary bomb became lodged up on the dome.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33The roof lead began to melt and fire in the timbers was imminent.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38American reporters cabled that St Paul's was lost.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41But suddenly the crisis passed.
0:19:41 > 0:19:48The bomb slipped down here on to the floor of the stone gallery and was put out with a sandbag.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55Elsewhere in the City, firemen were having to give up.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01In the Moorgate area, they ran out of water completely, like an army running out of ammunition.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04They were surrounded by fire.
0:20:04 > 0:20:11There was a grille leading to a tunnel down which the men could escape. But their equipment was gone.
0:20:11 > 0:20:18Down the river, in the docklands below Tower Bridge, a public shelter had caught fire.
0:20:18 > 0:20:24Peggy Chusonis was among the women and children who fled on to the burning street.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27You just ran and hoped you'd be all right.
0:20:27 > 0:20:36I can't remember where my mother was, or what had happened. We ran but nobody knew where we were going.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41We went into the Metropolitan Wharf, which was opposite, one floor up,
0:20:41 > 0:20:47stayed there all night, talking and just sitting on the concrete - we had no bedding.
0:20:47 > 0:20:55And the dock wall was all this gunge, all coming through - butter, sugar or whatever...
0:20:55 > 0:21:00through these slits, down the wall, where it had all caught alight.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04And the smell of everything... was terrible.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06SIREN
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Just after midnight came the welcome sound of the All Clear.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Fog in the Channel had stopped more planes from coming over.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25But the battle to save London was far from over.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29The firemen fought throughout the long December night,
0:21:29 > 0:21:33still handicapped by the shortage of water.
0:21:33 > 0:21:40The situation was that dozens of appliances were standing around doing nothing
0:21:40 > 0:21:42because there just wasn't water.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47It wasn't until about three or four in the morning,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50when the tide turned,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54that we were able to bring some water in
0:21:54 > 0:21:57into the fire zone.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00We had a complete relay going into this area,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04by St Paul's, by about five in the morning.
0:22:04 > 0:22:10By dawn, together with my crew - I had a crew of five and myself...
0:22:10 > 0:22:18we all of us had to go along for treatment to the St Bartholomew's Hospital,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21and had our eyes treated.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27Due to the smoke, the heat and the cold air,
0:22:27 > 0:22:31we were all suffering with, eh... burning eyeballs.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Morning revealed the extent of the damage.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42Among the many volunteers who'd spent the night helping the Fire Brigade was Jim Smith.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45That one was blown out, I'm sure.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47He was only 16 at the time,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51on his first night as a volunteer firewatcher.
0:22:51 > 0:22:57There was nothing but rubble. There was no traffic running. No traffic running at all.
0:22:57 > 0:23:05As it started getting daylight, towards the morning, you started seeing the shells of buildings -
0:23:05 > 0:23:07buildings on both sides of the road.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Tram lines were up in the air...
0:23:10 > 0:23:16Everywhere you looked, there was rubble. London had really copped it that night.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20It was a bad night. That will never go out of my mind -
0:23:20 > 0:23:24the most terrifying experience I'd ever been in.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28A dozen firemen were killed that night,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31and many others were badly burned.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Elsewhere in London, civilians had also suffered.
0:23:37 > 0:23:45Here in Loncroft Road in Camberwell, this side of the street came through unscathed. The other wasn't so lucky.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48At number 38, 13-year-old Edward Marriner died.
0:23:48 > 0:23:54At number 32, William Regardsoe and his baby son John were both killed.
0:23:54 > 0:24:02At 29, the three Probert brothers - Arthur, Frank and Edward - all got it.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06At number 27, they seem to have been having a party.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Violet Jeffries, her son Samuel,
0:24:09 > 0:24:15her 16-year-old daughter Julia, and eight other teenagers were all killed.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20The street was decimated, and it was just one amongst many.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25162 civilians died that night and many more were seriously injured.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33The German bomber crews had done their job.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40When you drop your bombs, that's it. Now home.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Self-preservation sets in.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Because you want to get home alive as well.
0:24:46 > 0:24:52What happens where you dropped the bombs - that was immaterial to you.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58See, later on, when you saw the destruction that had been created,
0:24:58 > 0:25:05then it drove home to you - "Oh, I could have killed children, women..."
0:25:05 > 0:25:08But there it was. That was war.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The next morning, people across London woke up to devastation
0:25:16 > 0:25:19and set off for work.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35Commuters at London Bridge Station that morning saw a completely different city.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Few had offices to go to.
0:25:38 > 0:25:45They picked their way along, in a desperate semblance of normality. A vast clearing-up job had to begin.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53Amongst the hundreds of buildings destroyed that night was a pub, The Blue Last,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58which had stood here, just down from St Paul's, for over a century.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03On the morning of December 30th, it was a heap of ruins.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Rescue teams searched for bodies. Others demolished walls left close to collapse.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14Elsewhere, bomb disposal squads dealt with unexploded bombs,
0:26:14 > 0:26:21including one parachute bomb hanging from the steel rafters of Charing Cross Station.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24The legacy of the Blitz remains.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30It is estimated that over 100 unexploded bombs lie beneath the streets of London.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Miraculously, St Paul's was saved that night,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49but the landscape of the City of London was transformed.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53And it was just one night amongst many.
0:26:53 > 0:26:5730,000 people died in the Blitz on London.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02Another 11,000 were killed in raids on other cities across the country.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Thousands more were made homeless.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Families were destroyed and lives were wrecked.
0:27:11 > 0:27:17Centuries of civilisation were reduced to rubble. No-one was safe.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21The reality of modern warfare had come home to roost.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45The Blitz on London strengthened the resolve of the British High Command.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49In 1940, this was the roof of the Air Ministry.
0:27:49 > 0:27:56On that terrible night, when the City of London blazed and St Paul's was wreathed in flames,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01Air Chief Marshal Harris - "Bomber" Harris - was up here.
0:28:01 > 0:28:09The story goes that as he watched the city burn, he said, "Well, they're sowing the wind."
0:28:09 > 0:28:13In due course, the Germans would reap the whirlwind
0:28:13 > 0:28:18when the RAF bombed the civilians of Hamburg and Dresden.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Subtitles by Anne Morgan BBC Scotland 1997