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Introduction: The History of Britain: Episode 4 (02:09)

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Tony Robinson will examine life in Britain during the rule of various monarchs. This film focuses on World War II.

World War II: London's East End (09:39)

In 1940, nearly one million school children, including Babs Clark, were sent to the countryside. After an incident in Torquay, Clark and her family returned to London. Citizens endured food rationing, had allotments, and sheltered in the Bethnal Green Tube; 173 people died in 1943.

World War II: British Soldiers (07:35)

In 1939, the government called James Palmer into service. He joined the 13th Tank Regiment in Warminster and underwent eight weeks of basic training. He became a tank gunner and fought in France.

World War II: A.T.S. (08:39)

Three months into the war, 43,000 women, including Eileen Herron, volunteered for the Auxiliary Territorial Service; training was intense and relentless. Herron drove a Tilly truck and became an instructor, making the rank of lance corporal. Princess Elizabeth joined Tilly's regiment.

World War II: German Occupation (07:46)

In the Channel Islands, over 60,000 British lived under Nazi control. Hubert Lanyon, shared his baker's oven with the Germans. Food supplies were limited, and islanders harvested seaweed. In 1942, Lanyon joined GUNS. Germans beat and arrested Lanyon.

World War II: American GIs (07:32)

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, forcing Americans into the war. Joy Beaver worked to support her mother and brothers. She met Carl Bebe at a dance hall, and they married; the couple eventually moved to the U.S.

Credits: The History of Britain: Episode 4 (00:44)

Credits: The History of Britain: Episode 4

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The History of Britain: Episode 4

Part of the Series : The History of Britain
DVD (Chaptered) Price: $169.95
DVD + 3-Year Streaming Price: $254.93
3-Year Streaming Price: $169.95

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Description

Tony Robinson takes us back to the Second World War. Beating Nazis wasn’t only down to Churchill and his generals. This was a people’s war, fought by bakers, office workers, delivery drivers and housewives. Tony meets Eastender, Babs Clark, who was just eight when the war began. Like thousands of others, Babs depended on the newly built Bethnal Green tube station as an air raid shelter. It was like an underground town, with a library, doctor and community hall. But tragedy struck during a night raid, and Babs and her family were lucky to get out alive. Tony discovers the story of Manchester office boy, James Palmer who received his call up notice on his 21st birthday in 1939. He had to leave his fiancée and father, to serve in a tank regiment. For many recruits, army life was a brutal shock. But worse was coming as James crossed into France to face the invading German Army. It wasn’t just the boys who joined up. Eileen Heron was a grocer’s daughter and delivery driver from Folkestone. The army needed her driving skills, so she joined the ATS, or women’s infantry. She trained hundreds of women to drive and worked with the ATS’s most famous recruit, Princess Elizabeth. In Guernsey, Tony meets Maisie Lanyon, who was five when the Germans invaded. While she remembers the beautiful songs that the Germans sang, things soon turned sour. Her father Hubert decided to make a stand against the regime, a decision that would cost his family dear… And finally, proof that there could be a silver lining in war. Once the USA joined the fight, Britain was swarming with over a million GIs. Tony meets Joy Beebe, whose tough life, working in wartime London was transformed when she met and married an American soldier.

Length: 45 minutes

Item#: FMK239516

ISBN: 978-1-63722-379-6

Copyright date: ©2019

Closed Captioned

Performance Rights

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Not available to Home Video and Publisher customers.


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