Blitz Street – Channel 4, 9pm

Another map and article on V2 London landings,
http://londonist.com/2009/01/london_v2_rocket_sitesmapped.php

The BBC website is the last place I would go for a history lesson. Channel 4’s take on the “Blitz Spirit” was entirely different. Taken as a whole I have enjoyed the series. Holes could be picked in it, of course, but on balance it was a good mix of historical recollection and effective re-enactment. And as for the milk bottle………

Would the V-2 have buried itself that far in the ground if it hit in a built up area , ie hitting concrete or stone?

Not sure that hitting a concrete road, for example, would have made any difference to the warhead exploding three metres underground but what about a V-2 hitting a building more than three metres tall?

I wonder how the author feels about Stalin choosing not evacuate civilians from Stalingrad? :diablo:

Whoever wrote this seems to have been very selective with their ‘facts’ and they are obviously convinced that government policy during the Blitz had more to do with ‘class war’ than anything else! :rolleyes:

Britain evacuated thousands of children at the very start of the war (even the working class ones ;)), Hitler didn’t evacuate anybody until the bombing became so bad that it was unavoidable and I’m not sure how many of the German population were housed in ‘large, sanitary and comfortable indestructible shelters’, certainly not all of them!

Still I’m sure National Socialist Hitler was nicer than that nasty Conservative Churchill! :rolleyes:

The BBC quote you posted seems to blame the wealthy for having country homes.

Under their ideal of a socialist Britain, the wealthy would not have had safe country homes to go to.:D
How that would have helped the less wealthy stuck in the cities remains vague :diablo:

It probably would have made it more crowded for everyone else.
And they also miss the point, if the wealthy were safe out of the cities, so were their working class household help. 😀

If that quote is a prime example of BBC history…well, their standards seem to have slipped.
They seem to mistake political rants for history and journalism.

Thought the explosion of the V2 was particularly impressive ( if that’s the right word ) but have a few concerns.

While there were obvious H&S concerns would it not have been more realistic to stage the explosion on ground at the same level as the buildings and without an embankment in between ? Most of the force of the explosion went upwards where otherwise most of it would have gone sideways into the buildings?

Would the V-2 have buried itself that far in the ground if it hit in a built up area , ie hitting concrete or stone? Also the V2 went supersonic i think ? what would have been the effect of a supersonic impact on solid ground would there have been a significant shock wave?

I know someone who was on the shoot. Last week I was shown the remains of the elegant lamppost that stood at the end of Blitz Street.

I do fear that we may soon have to face up to the fact that the milk bottle doesn’t make it!

Of course the flip side of that was that they then landed (and killed people) in Kent and in particular NW Kent. Where my mother lived with my older sister and brother (then a baby). It got so bad that she was evacuated to the Midlands for a time. Dad was away in the Navy.

I remember that she told me, much later, that they would often just sit huddled, with their eyes tightly shut, muttering “keep going, keep going, keep going…” as a V1 went over. She was later quite embarrased by the fact that somebody else would then ‘get it’ instead, but I suppose that survival instinct takes over at the time.

On the other hand, although the V2s packed a bigger punch, you couldn’t hear them coming. So you wouldn’t know anything about it if they did hit you and thus she was less worried by them and returned to her own home. I think that people tended to think that ‘If your name was on it’ then you got hit. If not you would be OK.

PS I do hope that they are not topping up that milk bottle. We don’t want it to be the same as the beer glasses in the bar scene at the end of Ice Cold in Alex. A different level in every shot. 😀

PPS Did anyone else notice that the picture in the Radio Times was the piloted version? Presumably a shot from the show at Farnborough after the war.

Rod.

In fact this led to one of the more effective countermeasures in that misinformation was fed to the Germans increasing the number that had allegedly flown on past the capital and under-reporting the number to fall short so that the launch teams progressively screwed the range back to get more on target and in doing so actually ensured more fell short.

Interestingly Herbert Morrison (shelter) vetoed the plan to supply the Germans with misleading impact data on the grounds that it would be ‘playing god’. However, British Intelligence (Scientific and MI5) quietly ignored the veto (and also managed to preserved the credibility of German ‘spies’) possibly saving as many as 2750 lives from V-1 falling in more central London.

Tony said at the end of episode 3 that they detonate a charge the equivilant of a V2 in the next show saying it’s the biggest explosion in Britain since the war.
Does he not remember Buncefield???? Noway a single V2 would make a bigger bang :p

I don’t think they exploded the full amount due to atmospherics, they halved the amount then moved it closer to the buildings.

Just watched part 3.
Was interested to see how the Anderson shelter survived. I have a newspaper cutting that was kept by my mother and has ended up in my possession – it relates to my grandfather and his home built shelter…

SIR JOHN ANDERSON’S “RIVAL.”

Swanley Resident Builds Own Shelter.

Sir John Anderson has a “rival” in Mr A.V. Levens of Swanley Junction, who in the garden of his home The Bungalow, South View, has constructed his own blast and splinter proof air raid shelter.
Mr Levens, who is in the building trade, though not himself a builder, built his shelter in four week-ends, and for approximately £12, including the cost of labour. He maintains that, given the capital, anyone can do the same.
The shelter is 6 ft. long, 4 ft. wide and 5ft. 6 ins. deep. It is lined with corrugated galvanised iron sheeting and the roof is of the same material (22 guage) supported by angle irons (2ins. by 2ins.) and timbers (4ins. by 2ins.).
These supports are set in concrete, of which the floor is likewise composed, to a depth of four inches. A channel has been cut in the floor which leads to a soak-away, consisting of two barrow loads of ashes.
Thanks to the last provision (writes a Kentish Times reporter), Mr Levens told me that in the three weeks of its existence no moisture whatsoever has collected in the shelter.

TWO TONS OF CLAY.

Two tones of clay in bags provides as efficient a protection above as one could desire. The entrance is by three steps, boarded up with six inch by one inch flooring, creosoted and the the surround to the trap hatch at the top of this is built in brickwork and cemented around to counteract the effect of bad weather.
The trap door is strong and covered with sheet iron, which likewise keeps out moisture. Within is ample space for four people seated, and in addition to seats Mr Levens has provided shelves and such useful objects as a saw, spade, fire extinguisher and galvanised pail.
“Why have I built it?” echoed Mr Levens in answer to my query. “Well, as an ex-Army man I know that actually in an air raid I should be in no more danger if I were lying out in an open field on a ground sheet than in my shelter.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT.

“But I have a wife and two children, and it is the psychological effect of knowing that they can go somewhere where there is some obvious protection that in their case would be valuable in the event of a raid. Of course the the shelter is only intended to protect from blast and splinters. No shelter could hope to be proof against a direct hit.
“To know the shelter is there has relieved my wife’s feelings a good deal and my home-made effort seems to have interested several people who have asked me questions about its cost and the method of construction. It’s really quite simple to make one, and I would advise anyone to do so. I don’t put any faith in the Anderson shelters. They are too exposed. And supposing there isn’t a war, it will be a good place to store potatoes or keep garden tools. For the time being too, I’ve decided to plant marrow’s around the shelter and let them climb over the top.”

There wasn’t a date on the clipping but from the text it was obviously leading up to the outbreak of war. I have a photo of my dad on the outbreak of war probably standing at the side of the house!!

Tony said at the end of episode 3 that they detonate a charge the equivilant of a V2 in the next show saying it’s the biggest explosion in Britain since the war.
Does he not remember Buncefield???? Noway a single V2 would make a bigger bang :p

Indeed, and I don’t think that interviewees in this type of documentary programme are paid a fee anyway. If they are asked to be interviewed somewhere to suit the production company I have no doubt that their out of pocket expenses are reimbursed.

Possibly, there seems to have been a certain amount of ‘recycling’ of eye-witness statements from previous documentaries such as the Coventry Blitz and the one about the bombing around Saint Paul’s Cathedral but I don’t suppose they represented much actual screen-time. No bad thing I suppose if these accounts reach a wider audience.

Am I right in thinking that the piece with “Winkle” Brown talking about tipping up V-1s had been used before on a different programme? If I am right I hope he got a repeat fee.

Roger Smith.

The thickest of thick skin…:dev2:

judging by the way most of them succesfully deflected the blast from the expenses scandal, I would think that the majority of them are armour plated anyway:rolleyes:

I was hoping they could have used expenses scandal MPs as live subjects in the shelter, for greater realism.

:D:diablo:

I was hoping they could have used expenses scandal MPs as live subjects in the shelter, for greater realism.

Yup. Last week it had been knocked over and half the milk was spilt out and Tony R righted it in the same position. This week it was unaffected by the scaled down V1 explosion.

It was a bit of a cheat, although an unavoidable one, I suppose. There are restrictions on the volume of sound which can be produced on the range and affect local dwellings. The calculation of the sound footprint based on wind direction and velocity on the day prohibited an explosion simulating the V1, so the amount of explosive was scaled down and the charge placed nearer the street to produce, theoretically the equivalent blast. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be there and the occupants of the Anderson Shelter would not have survived.

But it is the moving voices of recollection from the time which are really affecting and, to my mind, successfully balance the slightly gung-ho team at Blitz Street.