0:00:04 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented
0:00:07 > 0:00:11and changed for ever the way we were called our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16For the first time, we could see life through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Across this series, we will bring these rare archive films back to life
0:00:23 > 0:00:26with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step on board
0:00:33 > 0:00:37and relive moments they thought were gone for ever.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They'll see their relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face to face with their younger selves
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This is the people's story, our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:26Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967 to show training films to workers.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Today, it's been lovingly restored
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and loaded up with remarkable film footage, preserved for us
0:01:32 > 0:01:38by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41In this series, we will be travelling to towns and cities across the country
0:01:41 > 0:01:47and showing films from the 20th century that give us the Reel History of Britain.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Today, we're pulling up in the 1940s.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59- # Wish me luck... - To hear stories about a time when millions of children
0:01:59 > 0:02:01were evacuated during World War Two.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05# Here I go on my way
0:02:05 > 0:02:11# Wish me luck As you wave me goodbye
0:02:11 > 0:02:13# With a cheer, not a tear
0:02:13 > 0:02:15# Make it gay. #
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Today, we are in Torquay.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20This place was thought to be a safe haven
0:02:20 > 0:02:25for thousands of the millions of children who were evacuated from the great cities
0:02:25 > 0:02:29at the beginning of the Second World War in an operation known as Pied Piper.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Coming up, EastEnders star Derek Martin relives the terror of the Blitz.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Mum threw herself on me. Whoof!
0:02:44 > 0:02:48The whole shelter shook like that. We knew it was very close.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53The epic adventure of a runaway evacuee.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56If my mother and father were going to be killed, I wanted to be killed, too,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58you know.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05And the child who survived a torpedo attack by the Nazis.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09They got me and pushed me to go up these steps.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13They threw us into the lifeboat and that was the last I saw of my brother.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27We have come to Torquay in Devon because, in the 1940s,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31it was considered a safe place for children. Evacuees from all over the country
0:03:31 > 0:03:35and airmen from all over the world poured into this small seaside town.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41As a result, around 5,000 evacuees and over 50,000 airmen
0:03:41 > 0:03:46were packed into the hotels and B&Bs that were once reserved for holidaymakers.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56When the grim clouds of war loomed over Britain, the Government knew
0:03:56 > 0:04:00our major cities faced brutal attacks from the German Luftwaffe.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03AIRCRAFT DRONE
0:04:03 > 0:04:05EXPLOSIONS
0:04:07 > 0:04:08BIG BEN TOLLS
0:04:08 > 0:04:15So an evacuation scheme called Operation Pied Piper began on September 1st, 1939,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17two days before war was declared.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Britons were told there'd be no greater sacrifice
0:04:24 > 0:04:27than to say goodbye to their loved ones and, within days,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30one and a half million civilians, mostly children,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33were transported to places of safety in the countryside.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The evacuation was an astonishing event
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and the largest mass movement of people in British history.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46We'll be hearing how this experience changed the lives of all those involved.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53My guests today have memories of wartime evacuation
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and they've come from all over the country to share their personal stories.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Many of them will be seeing the films we are about to screen for the first time.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05They will show photos of their younger selves
0:05:05 > 0:05:08and revealing how the evacuation change their lives for ever.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Kitty Capitelli has travelled here today from London.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15She grew up in Camberwell, south of the Thames,
0:05:15 > 0:05:21and was evacuated when she was nine years old with her older sisters Mary and Hetty.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26- Can you give us some idea of what happened to you as a girl when you were evacuated?- Yes, yes.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31I was one of the masses that went off on 1st September 1939,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35which also happened to be my birthday. I was nine years old on that day.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39We were five children in the family, two brothers and three sisters.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44The two brothers were too young to go, so I was sent off with my other two sisters.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48And, on that particular day, we had no idea.
0:05:48 > 0:05:49We had no idea where were we going.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53I thought it was my birthday and I was getting a day out at the seaside.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56- So you thought you were going to the seaside for your birthday? - Yes. Yes.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Until I looked round and saw my mother with the baby in her arms
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and my younger brother holding on, crying.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06I realised, "What is she crying for? Why is she crying?"
0:06:06 > 0:06:09That was the original journey.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15We are about to wind the clock back 70 years for Kitty.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19She is going to watch other wartime evacuees leaving their families behind,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22just as she did all those years ago.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34These films will take Kitty back to that day on 1st September
0:06:34 > 0:06:37when she was put on a train bound for Ipswich.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52It made me quite sad, really. Actually, to tell you the truth,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56watching that film, I felt like waving.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59It was all I could do to stop waving to them,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02or waving goodbye to the family again.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07You were taken, transported back that far, too feel you've got to wave to your mother.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Like Kitty, most evacuees had little idea where they were going or when they would return,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and many were separated from their siblings.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21When Kitty and her sisters reached Ipswich, they, too, were parted
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and only Kitty and her elder sister Hetty stayed together.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Eventually, somebody came and said, "I'll take them too."
0:07:30 > 0:07:33We were driven off in this huge car.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38We got to this lovely, big house. We thought, "Oh, we're all right here."
0:07:38 > 0:07:40It turned out to be the house of a Lord and Lady.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44We got to the house. They said, "That's your room down there."
0:07:44 > 0:07:45It was a basement room.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48There were two mattresses there, a pillow at one end
0:07:48 > 0:07:52and a folded army blanket at the other.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55And we thought, "Oh my God, this is awful. Why are we here?"
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Evacuees were sometimes chosen for a specific purpose.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Strong boys would help on farms
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and girls were expected to help with the housework.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Some, like Kitty, were made to work very hard.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14The format was then, at 5 o'clock every morning, we were made to get up
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and they had a long trestle table in the kitchen
0:08:18 > 0:08:23with all this silverware, like cloches and huge trays
0:08:23 > 0:08:25and knives and forks.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28And my sister and I had to polish this up before we went to school.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32We were always late, always late.
0:08:33 > 0:08:39And they didn't really take to evacuees, the school.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44We got the cane practically every morning. Three whacks on each hand.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48And then the bombing in London hadn't occurred up to then,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53so my mother thought... Like most people, a lot of the evacuees went back home.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56By the spring of 1940, no bombs had dropped
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and 80 per cent of evacuees, like Kitty, returned home.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03This became known as the Phoney War.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11As war progressed, Kitty received terrible news about her father.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14- I picked it up. It was in a brown envelope.- Yeah.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17My mother was in the kitchen and I picked it up
0:09:17 > 0:09:21and I said my mother, "It's a letter, it's got OHMS on it."
0:09:21 > 0:09:25She said, "All right." I said, "What does that mean?" She said, "I don't know, just open it and read it."
0:09:25 > 0:09:29And I actually had to read this to her.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32I didn't realise, you know, the significance of it.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36My mother was making tea. She had her back to me.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43That was the latter. That was the letter we had. SHE SOBS
0:09:43 > 0:09:46That was sad, because that was the end of my...
0:09:46 > 0:09:50You know, I adored my father. It happened to so many people.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54Kitty's father died in Italy.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59She was one of 200,000 children who lost their fathers during World War Two.
0:10:06 > 0:10:13These were traumatic times. But my next guest found the war changed his life for the better.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Gordon Abbott, from Milton Keynes, went from city boy to farmer's son
0:10:20 > 0:10:25when he was evacuated from Battersea in London at the age of seven.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27- Tell us where you landed up and what it was like.- Yes.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29I was very fortunate.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31I eventually was billeted with a farmer
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and his wife who had no children of their own.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37They were brought up in Devon
0:10:37 > 0:10:40in a farming community for several generations.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43They were very strict, Victorian upbringing,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46but, for whatever reason, I settled in extremely well,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50solely because I was very much part of the family from the outset.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Evacuation was a heart-wrenching decision for most families.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00Gordon is about to watch a film that was made to persuade parents like his
0:11:00 > 0:11:03to send their children away.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11SIGNATURE TUNE
0:11:11 > 0:11:16This film, called Westward Ho!, shows happy children being efficiently evacuated
0:11:16 > 0:11:17to the safety of Torquay.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21"These children are setting out on what is to them a great adventure."
0:11:21 > 0:11:25"The train that is carrying them away will not be machine-gunned from the air."
0:11:25 > 0:11:28"It even takes with it the spirit of holiday."
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Like the children in this film, Gordon was also sent to the West Country.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37Watching it will take him back to the days he lived with Mr and Mrs Newton
0:11:37 > 0:11:42- on their farm near Bude in Cornwall. - I was introduced as a member of the family.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46If I can just say this, this is important, dear Uncle,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51whenever he introduced me to his friends, with his Devon-Cornish accent,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53he would say something to the effect,
0:11:53 > 0:11:58CORNISH ACCENT: "Let me introduce thee, then." "This is Gordon, my little evacuee."
0:11:58 > 0:12:01And he'd say that every time, bless him.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05Mr and Mrs Newton treated Gordon like the son they never had.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07All their love and affection was showered on him.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11But, after five years, it was time to say goodbye.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14I remember clearly the time that I had to return back to London.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18That was the first time ever I saw Uncle cry.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23He was crying, Auntie was crying and I was crying.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Here I was saying goodbye.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28And Gordon couldn't readjust to city life.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33And fortunately for me, my mother realised, I am sure,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36that I was really unhappy.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39I must have said, "I wish I was back with Auntie and Uncle again."
0:12:39 > 0:12:44And, fortunately, arrangements were made and I returned back to live with Auntie and Uncle
0:12:44 > 0:12:46within about a few months.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Gordon spent the remainder of his childhood in the country.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Torquay has changed a lot since the 1940s,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01but one person who remembers it vividly as it was when the evacuees came here
0:13:01 > 0:13:03is local resident Rosemary Firch.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Rosemary wasn't an evacuee. She's lived in Torquay all her life.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15She was ten when the children from the blitzed cities of Bristol and London arrived in the town.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17She is pictured here, with her father,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21at an evacuee Christmas party at the Town Hall.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Both of them would soon find out that Torquay wasn't safe at all.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30- That was the irony?- Yes. - They'd been sent here to be safe and Torquay was bombed.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Yes, absolutely.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Torquay suffered a total of 21 hit-and-run air raids by the German Luftwaffe,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46who targeted the town because of its munitions factories and hotels,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48where 55,000 airmen were stationed.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51One of the worst came on Sunday, May 30th, 1943,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54and it's a day that Rosemary will never forget.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58I was sitting on Oddicombe Beach at the time
0:13:58 > 0:14:01and we saw this line of black dots coming in.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05They looked as if they were just above sea level.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09I thought the plane was going to go into the cliff.
0:14:09 > 0:14:16And then, after that, there was this terrific explosion as we knew the bombs were dropping.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24There was a direct hit on the church hall of St Mary's at nearby Babbacombe,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26where a Sunday school was being held.
0:14:26 > 0:14:2821 children lost their lives.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34My mother, who was in the St John's Ambulance,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37had gone up to the church.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41She was one of the people who helped to bring those children out
0:14:41 > 0:14:45from the rubble and carry them across the road
0:14:45 > 0:14:49to a first-aid station that they set up in the hotel across the road.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52She lived until she was 101 and, do you know,
0:14:52 > 0:14:57she'd lost her memory at the end, but whenever she saw that picture of that church,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59the whole horror of that story came back to her.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02It was a great tragedy.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10On Reel History today, we're in Torquay on the South Coast,
0:15:10 > 0:15:17hearing some remarkable true stories of how wartime evacuation changed children's lives for ever.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20My next guest is 80-year-old Bunty Tait from Cornwall.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Bunty grow up in Old Coulsdon, Greater London.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26She was a remarkable 11-year old
0:15:26 > 0:15:30who embarked on an incredible journey to be reunited with her parents.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36A lot of us were crying our eyes out. We did not want to go.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41If my mother and father were going to be killed, I wanted to be killed, too,
0:15:41 > 0:15:42you know?
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Bunty is about to step on board and be taken back to remember the time
0:15:51 > 0:15:55she was evacuated to Tyldesley in Lancashire.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58How will she feel about going back
0:15:58 > 0:16:02to the sort of place she ran away from all those years ago?
0:16:04 > 0:16:07I insisted that I had to stay with my sister
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and we were billeted on two spinster ladies.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16And we thought they were about 100. They were probably in their 50s.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And from that moment on, we were hungry.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Day after day, we were hungry, because they didn't know how to feed us.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32Watching these films reminds Bunty how desperately homesick she was.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Everything had to be cleared away at night, locked in cupboards.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39We never played games with them like we'd do with Mum and Dad.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42We only listened to Children's Hour.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Never went running about the streets like we did at home.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47It was... It was difficult.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52I thought, "I'm not putting up with this, what can I do?"
0:16:52 > 0:16:54So I wrote home.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- GIRL'S VOICE:- "Dear Mummy, this is only a short note,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59"just to ask you for some money."
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I used to write weekly, asking for money.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06And then I thought, "If I'm careful with this money,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08"I could save it up and get home."
0:17:10 > 0:17:12That took a long time.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16"We've only just about six shillings left for Monday.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18"I don't know what I'll do after Monday.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21"All my love to Daddy and you, Bunty."
0:17:23 > 0:17:26Hundreds of homesick evacuees ran away and returned home.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Bunty and her sister were two of them.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32One day, the sisters just walked out of the house,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35leaving most of their belongings and a note for the two ladies.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40I remember the note. I just said, "I'm sorry, we've gone home."
0:17:40 > 0:17:43And I never got back to them to apologise. Isn't that awful?
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Incredibly, these two young girls safely completed
0:17:48 > 0:17:51the 200-mile epic journey from Lancashire to London.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57My sister was dragging her heels a bit by now. She was very tired.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And we went into the shop, which was open.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03My father was behind the counter,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07in front of all the cigarettes, and he was a very big man, my father.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12And, erm, he went black, he went blue,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16he went red, and then he went white.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22Perhaps I'm making that up, but I was... I thought he was going to kill me, just by the look of him.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Didn't come near. Just by looking, "He's going to kill me!"
0:18:26 > 0:18:29He didn't, of course. He came over and hugged us. "What the hell...?"
0:18:29 > 0:18:34"What the bloody hell are you doing here?! How did you get here?! Who brought you?!"
0:18:39 > 0:18:42I think that toughened me up for the rest of my life.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45I still cry when I think about evacuation.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51They shouldn't take children away from their mothers and fathers,
0:18:51 > 0:18:52when they're that age.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Nothing would stop Bunty from being with her parents.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10Her story is quite remarkable.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Next, I'm meeting someone who was lucky enough to be evacuated with his mother - Derek Martin,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18best known for playing Charlie Slater in EastEnders.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Derek grow up as an only child of the East End of London.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30His father, a fireman, insisted he should be evacuated with his mum at the age of seven.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33When were you evacuated?
0:19:33 > 0:19:38Early 1940, when the Blitz was starting and really at its height.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41And, er, my mum and me were shipped off.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43My father had to stay in London,
0:19:43 > 0:19:45because he was in the National Fire Service.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47So we were shipped off to Hereford.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49My mum said later on they were a very nice family.
0:19:49 > 0:19:55A man and his wife, a daughter of 13 and a boy at my age, seven.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58But, to be honest, I hated it.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01I hated it, because it was out of my familiarity.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05How can I say without swearing? I was being a little swine!
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Only child, I didn't have any brothers or sisters and I missed my dad.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15And after three or four months, Mum said, "I've had enough.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18"I'd sooner face the Blitz than face this every day."
0:20:18 > 0:20:23So Derek and his mother returned to London for the remainder of the war.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Although the family were happily reunited,
0:20:25 > 0:20:30they faced 76 consecutive nights of aerial bombardment.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34What sort of London did you go back to?
0:20:34 > 0:20:36I went back to the Blitz again. The bombs.
0:20:36 > 0:20:396 o'clock, down the shelter, set the candles.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41That's why I can't stand candles.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44If I take a lady out for dinner, I blow the candles out immediately.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Because the smell brings back the shelters, in the Anderson shelter.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Then, four months after we got back, a direct hit on the house,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58which was only 50ft from where we were in the Anderson shelter at the end of the garden.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04That bomb, it starts off at a high-pitched whistle.
0:21:04 > 0:21:05HE WHISTLES
0:21:05 > 0:21:09It ends up, whoosh, a rush of air, and Mum threw herself on me.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13You could feel it was going... Whoof! The shelter shook like that.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15We knew it was very close.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19And then we looked over and you could see the spars and it was alight.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24So you knew it had hit the house. But you got used to it.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Derek and his family had a lucky escape.
0:21:27 > 0:21:3015,000 people were killed in London and, across the country,
0:21:30 > 0:21:3440,000 other civilians were killed during the Blitz.
0:21:34 > 0:21:41So it's no wonder parents often went to remarkable lengths to ensure the safety of their children.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45It might seem incredible that some shipped them away as far away as Australia and Canada.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53The Children's Overseas Reception Board evacuated just over 2,500 children.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56I'm off to meet one of those sea evacuees.
0:22:03 > 0:22:04Whatever they could spare...
0:22:04 > 0:22:08'83-year-old Derek Capel has travelled here today from Yeovil.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13'He was a 12-year-old sea evacuee in 1940 when his parents decided to send him,
0:22:13 > 0:22:18'along with his five-year old brother Alan, to Canada.'
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Why did your parents want to send you to Canada?
0:22:20 > 0:22:24Well, because there was a distant Jewish connection with my family.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28At the time, in 1940, there was talk of a German invasion.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31My mother had this great fear, because she realised what was happening
0:22:31 > 0:22:35to the Jews in the rest of Europe with the Nazis,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38and she decided that the best thing for us,
0:22:38 > 0:22:44the two of us, my brother and myself, was to go abroad, out of it all.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Derek is about to see film archive of another sea crossing
0:22:53 > 0:22:56that will remind him of Friday, 13th September, 1940.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59On that day, he and his brother Alan said their goodbyes
0:22:59 > 0:23:03along with 90 other sea evacuees at Liverpool
0:23:03 > 0:23:06before boarding his ship, the SS City of Benares.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09It was one of the 19-strong convoy bound for North America.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13It was Derek's responsibility to look after his younger brother.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20I had strict orders to look after him, and so I did.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24And he was my best friend. I taught him at five.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27He could tie up his shoelaces, he could read.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30He would read his comic and I would read my comic.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34For the first 300 miles, the Royal Navy protected the convoy,
0:23:34 > 0:23:39but lurking beneath the surface of the Atlantic were German U-boats,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43criss-crossing the waters, looking for British ships to attack.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Four nights into the voyage, a torpedo was fired at the SS City of Benares
0:23:51 > 0:23:55while Derek and his brother Alan were in their bunks.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01That night, for the first time, we were told we all had to have baths, so we all had baths.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04We were all in bed lovely and comfortable at 9 o'clock at night.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08And then, we were asleep, my brother was comfortable, I was comfortable.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13About quarter past ten, there was a great big, hollow boom.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I got my brother out. We were in pitch darkness. There was water leaking.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20We could hear water sprang, everything like that.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25A torpedo had struck the stern and the ship started to sink rapidly.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Derek and Alan knew the drill and followed the emergency lights to the deck.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35We went to our lifeboat, which was the last lifeboat on the thing. We went up there.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38The first couple went up.
0:24:38 > 0:24:44I was looking after, hanging on to my brother. Because he was only five years old.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49And then they grabbed me out of his hands and pushed me to go up these steps.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Went up the steps and they threw us into the lifeboat.
0:24:53 > 0:24:54That was the last I saw of my brother.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59Once separated from his brother,
0:24:59 > 0:25:04Derek was put in lifeboat 12, the last to be lowered into the icy waters.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09In the chaos of a Force 10 storm, the lifeboat got separated from the other survivors
0:25:09 > 0:25:12and drifted helplessly for eight days.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14I was constantly thinking about my brother
0:25:14 > 0:25:19because I didn't know what had happened to him.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24Suddenly, somebody said, "A plane." We didn't expect anything like that.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28After being spotted by a British seaplane,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32the survivors were rescued by HMS Anthony and taken to Glasgow.
0:25:32 > 0:25:39Derek was one of the lucky ones - 77 of the 90 evacuees had perished at sea.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43After this tragedy, no more children were sent abroad.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46- NEWSREEL:- "After being found by an RAF flying boat,
0:25:46 > 0:25:51"more survivors of the torpedoed City of Benares reach port aboard a warship."
0:25:51 > 0:25:57Today, Derek is watching his 12-year-old self in this newsreel for the very first time.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01"The youngsters were marvellously looked after by one of the escorts, Miss Cornish,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05"a London music teacher. That the boys are none the worse for their adventure,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08"seems to be proved by this bedtime picture."
0:26:08 > 0:26:14Derek spent 60 years wondering what actually happened to his five-year-old brother.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19Then, at a memorial service in 2000, he met an ex-sailor from HMS Hurricane,
0:26:19 > 0:26:23who helped rescue survivors in the first 24 hours.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28He came up and said, "I was coxswain on the Hurricane,"
0:26:28 > 0:26:31which was the ship that picked up the children on the first days.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33He said, "We picked your brother up."
0:26:33 > 0:26:41He said, "We picked three boys up, all little ones, but they were all asleep when..."
0:26:41 > 0:26:45"We couldn't wake them up." And so that was it.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50He said, "At their funerals..." He said, "They were buried at sea."
0:26:50 > 0:26:55"At their funerals, 90% of the crew went to the funerals
0:26:55 > 0:26:58"and the 10% who had to be on duty, were on duty,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01"but 100% of the crew were in tears."
0:27:01 > 0:27:02That really touched me, you know.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Derek's harrowing childhood experience has left an indelible mark on his life.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15I could never cuddle anyone,
0:27:15 > 0:27:20because the last one I gave a cuddle to was my brother.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23You see, I was holding him, around me, like that.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28And so I've felt sorry for everybody I've met since, including my son.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Because I've always had that fear, it's always been there,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37that if you hang on to them too tight, you lose them.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40You know, it's a horrible feeling.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Britain's evacuation scheme officially came to an end in March 1946,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08although many had returned home sooner.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12The Second World War is one of the most extraordinary periods in our history,
0:28:12 > 0:28:19and perhaps in world history, and we did send away 3.5 million children to protect the future.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Hopefully, these stories we have heard today will serve as some sort of tribute
0:28:23 > 0:28:25to all those evacuees and their parents
0:28:25 > 0:28:29who made such a tremendous sacrifice for this country.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Next time on Reel History...
0:28:34 > 0:28:38..we're in London's Soho in the 1950s,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40remembering the teenager and the Teddy Boy.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44- I never really got a Teddy Boy, did you?- Yeah, I went...
0:28:44 > 0:28:47I had a date with one once, but I never went again.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49LAUGHTER
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:57 > 0:28:59E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk