Walking London's SECRET War History!
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Join historians Mat McLachlan and Steve Hunnisett as they explore the hidden history of London. See sites from both the First and Second World Wars that tell the story of the suffering and courage of the people of London.
Sites visited:
- A train station that took a direct hit from a crashed German bomber
- A 300-year-old school that still bears the marks of the US soldiers who garrisoned it in WW2
- A former town hall that was the scene of Winston Churchill's famous wartime speeches
- A ghostly sign to a bomb shelter that protected the people of London during the Blitz
- The spectacular Battle of Britain Memorial
- A historic statue that bears the scars of the first night-time bomb attack in 1917
- A 90-year-old ship that sank a U-Boat in the Battle of the Atlantic
- St Clements Church, which was destroyed during the Blitz and now has been reborn as the Royal Air Force church
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Join us on a battlefield tour: battlefields.c...
Join a tour of wartime London with Steve Hunnisett: blitzwalkers.c...
My dad used to drink with a German bloke who had been shot down over Kent and taken prisoner during the war. He chose to remain in the UK rather than return to Germany after the war.
When he was arrested, he was taken to a Police Station, where an Army officer brought him a sandwich and a bottle of beer.
He didn't want to eat the sandwich, as he thought it might be poisoned. The officer took a bite to show him that it wasn't, and a swig of beer.
"So I took a drink of the beer, and AARGH! - It WAS poison! - later I discovered that was just how English beer tastes ..."
Haha, brilliant!
Such an interesting video. Christchurch NZ (and the surrounding area) went through an awful time with strong scary aftershocks following the devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. After countless nights of interrupted sleep from waking up with the house shaking and my heart thumping out of my chest, I kept thinking of all the people who went through the blitz and how small our fear and trauma was compared to theirs.
Just finished listening and watching your very interesting tour of Laondon.s wartime bombing. I was born five years before the satrt of war in Ipswich, thankfully sill have memories of our town air raids, nothing like the intensity of London and other cities. There was one particulay sevear London raid that our parents let us larave our air raid shelter to whitness a huge red glow in the sky, I think this would have been one of rhe big German bomber raids. Thanks for sharing Mat.
Thanks for the comments. What an amazing but terrifying experience you had.
How lovely.. and how refreshing to see your walk in so, peaceful London
much appreciated
Malcolm Challoner formerly Brighton now
Perth WA ❤
Cheers mate.
It's amazing what's around us. I live in Bath and there are many sites where bomb damage etc can be seen.
Thank you for the video tour! The personal stories associated with each site were essential to portrait the effect of war on the individual. Your video did well in that regard. When I was last in London, I frequently traveled in the underground and frequently thought of those who sheltered in the tube stations. The stations have a mechanical odor, contain stale air, and offer little creature comforts. But if bombs are raining down, they were a source of security and nightly quarters. I can not imagine the discomfort of bedding down on the rail beds! Again, thank you, and keep up the good work!
Thanks for the comments. Well said.
A very respectful tour remembering what our forebears did for us.
Thank you!
Knowledgeable man. Great account of the war.
Steve knows his stuff.
Fabulous tour and talk Mat , thank you. Wonderful channel , bringing events and accounts to life for a modern and often uninformed audience. I have studied WW1 & WW2 for many years and there is always something new to learn. Lest we forget .
Thank you!
My late father, who was born in 1935, was born and grew up in London. He saw the German bombers flying over to drop their bombs and the RAF trying to shoot them down, as well as the anti aircraft guns going off. Later in the war he saw and heard the doodlebug V1 flying bombs, he witnessed when the pulse jet engine stopped and his parents worrying where it was going to land. He vividly remembered playing on bomb sites, trying to get the best bit of shrapnel to show off at school the next day. He also told me about the time a bf109 messerschmitt fighter plane was flying up the road shooting at the ground trying to hit a friend of his, obviously being flown by a very die hard nazi!
Wow, great stories. Thanks for sharing.
This was a fantastic video on the history of the war. I loved that the presenters spoke about the importance of women during this time. It's rare to hear about women's roles in the wars. Brilliant show. Let's hope one day we'll actually learn from history, NOT to repeat the same mistakes made in the past and all war and conflict will end. Unlikely, but we can hope.
Thanks for the comments Tamsin. Well said.
I totally agree let's hope
Thank you for such a great tour!
Thanks for watching!
What a great doc-walk!!! Bringing history to life and doing so articulately!!! It's so important to remember what the brave people of London...and the English endured and survived,! Thanks for the history!
Thanks for the comments!
This is a brilliant documentary about little known pieces of history. It makes me want to go exploring to find more!
Thank you!
come to greenwich park and see the bullet holes in the general Wolfe Statue and also the australian Flt. Lieutenant Reynell Memorial at the point
Will add it to my list!
Good to see you in London again Mat, looking forward to your next video
Cheers Russell. 👍🏼
Rich history. Thank you for sharing. I didn't know about the Egyptian stuff there along with WW2 and Victoria station close by. Looked like cipher on the station wall. A different version/variant of Germany modeled off Luxor during WW2. Cool history, so rich in information. Keep up the good work
Thanks for watching!
Excellent video!
Thank you very much!
Excellent as always Mat..👍👍.
Thank you!
I was friends with an elderly man who was a firefighter during the blitz.
What a great man to know. Thanks for sharing.
Great Documentary
Glad you enjoyed it.
Just drive through the suburbs of London and see the strange mismatched housing in places and youve most likely come across the site of a bomb impact. The flat I lived in in SE London had narrowly avoided being destroyed by a V1. The house one street over wasn't so lucky! I also discovered the former air raid shelter when i remodelled the garden! Where i live now in SW London a family was killed at the end of my road by a German bombing raid. Im pretty sure the front door on my house was damaged and then along with all the others was replaced at the end of the war. I know this because when i replaced it a few years ago i found that newspapers dated June 1945 were used to pack out the old door frame! There was also an older one from the 1920s from the previous door...the house was originally built in the 1880s.
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
@MatMcLachlanHistory Thank you for the fascinating video and your battle walks podcast... it genuinely helped to keep me sane during the pandemic.
My late father was a a f s fireman during the blitz he would never talk about it but he said he and his mates were just doing there jobs very brave men god bless them
I was in Whitehall about thirty years ago, and outside HM Treasury you can see large deep shrapnel holes on the building. It could also have been the IRA too! My Grandfather knew the man who captured Rudolph Hess when he landed outside Glasgow.
Wow!
The contemporary photograph of the Dornier falling to earth in flames with its tailplain attached is inconsistent with its demise being attriutable to a collision by a Hurrican cauing the Dornier to lose its tailplain.
I'm not sure at which stage of the action that shot was taken. It might have been just before the collision. (The image I've used of the Dornier dropping bombs is representative, and not of this specific aircraft.)
the Greenwich statue of Wolfe that was machine gunned by German fighter too
I haven't seen that one. Will add it to my list!
@@MatMcLachlanHistoryThat’s definitely on my agenda for your next visit!
It takes an Aussie to really show you London.
Haha, not sure about that! But I do enjoy strolling around there.
Other cities were "pummeled too in the blitz not just London
I don’t think any of us are denying that other cities were attacked but I’m a London based historian and guide my walks here, so it’s very much my manor. London suffered by far the highest numbers of dead (about 30,000 due to enemy air attacks)
Of course. But the video is a walk around London.
What did they fight for and give their lives for… ?
So that the bankers could fill their moneybags - same as all the other 'conflicts'.
Winston Churchill was at the siege at Sidney Street. U can see him on pictures there. He never hid away
Yes, he certainly got out there where the people could see him.
I don’t think the aluminium structure above the BoB bronze relief was mentioned, did it represent an aircraft wing?, I note the ends were elliptical, a Spitfire reference?, or am I overthinking this? 🙂
P.S. really enjoyable piece, thank you👍
Great question! I don't know specifically what it represents, and I can't find any mention of it on line. If anyone knows, please leave a comment!
Great
Thanks!
Tears streaming down my cheeks watching this video.
It’s sad indeed.
Lol, you have handed London over yo the immigrants.....without them firing a single shot! You must be proud of yourselves.
And what part of the world would you hail from ?
*PromoSM*
THERES SOMETHING ROUND THE CORNER I'LL LIKE TO SHOW YOU NO THANK YOU KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS
@Mat McLachlan I would have thought anyone that would call themselves a Historian would know the difference between a Lion and a Sphinx.
Yes, I guess I need to do more work on my Egyptology! And apparently my zoology!
@@MatMcLachlanHistory Ah don't worry about it, those St Bernard dogs at the base of Nelson' column confused me for a while too.
An excellent vlog chaps. Having worked around Westminster in the 80’s I found this particularly interesting, remembering Queen Annes Gate signage. Well done & beautifully narrated by you both.
Thank you! It was a great day.
There is a popular misconception that air raid shelters were for protection against bombs. In fact, few official shelters were deep enough to be safe from a close hit. The chances of being hit by a falling bomb were not that high but blast and flying debris could maim and kill so being out in the open was dangerous.
Of equal danger was falling shrapnel, much prized by small boys, from the thousands of anti aircraft shells fired up at the bombers. Vicious, jagged, lumps of steel rained down, adding to the risk.
Found this fascinating,the things the people of London went through while this was happening,it must have been absolutely terrifying.
I have my Grandfather's Home Guard paperwork,he lived in a small village called Wolviston in the North East of England.
One of his duties was to sit on a bail of hay and guard the road into the village.
His weapon was a pitchfork!
He also drove to the South Coast and collected three men from the village who had escaped Dunkirk.
What a great story. Thanks for sharing.
If you thought that Londoners were terrified, imagine what the Palestinians must be going through now.
My Mum was a young child through the blitz, bombed out 4 times, her first memory was of fire.
How horrific. And sadly all too common.
At Buckingham Palace a Rat was killed through the collateral damage. A Lady had it made into a pr. of Gloves.Apparently she wore them on her Tours of the East End.
My first wife and her younger sister both went to Bluecoats School , as they lived nearby in Lupus Street , but in my opinion , it wasn't a very good school , because all it taught her was to nag and moan ,and she was very very good at that , but her sister was ok
Haha. Best comment ever. 😂
One thing that was pointed out to me was in Mottingham in SE London. And that is if a building had its tiles blown off its roof. Some of the tiles were put In so they showed the Morse code letter V for victory. Which if you look closely you can still see today.
Very cool. I didn't know that.
I remember as a child in the 1960s living in Army Married Quarters just inside the back gate of the old Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk in London, travelling around the city on the Underground railway. The overpowering smell of stale urine permeated almost every station on the line in central London right through the 1960s. It was a legacy of the wartime use of the Underground Stations as public air-raid shelters and the absence of toilet facilities. People pee'd where they could. The Underground was not only a vast public shelter, it was a vast public lavatory, the evidence of whiich lingered decades after the end the the war!🥺
Yes least we forget how Britain is strong but I am wondering about now where's that British we don't take mess from anybody 🤔!?
Wow. A stinky reminder!
I think you would find that that stench was from drunks who urinated during the Nineteen sixty's not warr time urine remains.
During that period I frequently observed that happening on tube platforms.
Extremely interesting-thanks so much for showing us around London and it’s blitz and WW 1 connection.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am very respectful of wartime history. There is much evidence in the US of previous wars. Gettysburg, Penna. has many buildings with holes from civil war shells.
Gettysburg is an amazing battlefield to visit. A must see!
Whato Mat,
It’s odd you had your final piece by the side entrance of Aldwych (aka Strand) station as that is not typical of Leslie Green’s station designs. Had you gone to the front entrance just around the corner, you would have seen one of the great semi-circular windows which, in different numbers, appear on all of his stations.
You are right Mr Green’s architecture can be seen on the Piccadilly Line, between Holloway Road and Gloucester Road but there are also many on the Northern Line between Leicester Square to Hampstead and Tufnell Park (on the Charing Cross Branch) and on the Bakerloo between Elephant & Castle and Edgware Road.
However I can understand why you didn’t go to the front entrance as it’s rather busy there and, perhaps, difficult to film.
Don’t let my remarks worry you though as a thoroughly enjoyed the video. It was interesting, entertaining and well made.
Thanks for the comments. Yes, quiet filming locations were the order of the day!
The other reason for filming around that side is that was where Negley Farson was queuing and entered the station in his book account. If you get the chance to visit the station on one of the official LTM tours, I’d recommend it.
Lovely to watch and interesting
Many thanks
Excellent! Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
He said the Hurricane pilot was a Sgt. I'm surprised and apparently ignorant. I thought most pilots were officers and not a Sgt. I'm 62 and I thought I knew much about the war. I was wrong? Anyway my grandfather spent some time in your country in 1944 before 3rd wave Omaha Beach.
The lowest rank for aircrew in the Royal Air Force in WW2 was sergeant. It was pretty common to find sergeants piloting both fighters and bombers.
The Sergeant Pilot scheme was introduced by the RAF between the wars to allow people from all backgrounds to qualify and serve as pilots, especially those who couldn’t afford to become officers and hadn’t had a university education. The other Commonwealth air forces followed suit and the USAAF also had enlisted men (as well as officers) serving as aircrew.
I bet the present mayor of LONDON hasn’t any interest at all in this amazing history.
You voted for the prat!
MOSLEMS AIN'T INTERESTED IN HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY THEY LIVE IN
You've only got to watch various quiz programs & ethnic contestants know very little about British history.
The Germans tried but Kahn has almost succeeded in obliterating the history of our former capital city!
@@bernardrevill9547how much does the average Brit know about the history of the countries the empire colonised?
this was wonderful... great ...a lot I did not realise ..as an ex Londoner and family in the 2 World war.
Thank you!
I didn't watch much beyond Ray Holms because it was superficial. Did you mention that the Dornier pilot was murdered by civilians?
It’s a shame you didn’t keep watching - you missed some good stuff!
I enjoyed that documentary very much, well done.
Thank you!
good one
Thank you!
Funny looking lion face
Yes, it seems to be some strange hybrid with a human face! 😂
God bless you greatness ❤3
I wish your channel had many more subscribers, its fantastic and well worth my monthly internet fee.
Wow, thank you!
@@MatMcLachlanHistory I just discovered this channel. keep up the good work.
Subscribed.
Not possible to afford the monthly fee if you live in South Africa!
One Pound costs twenty Rands!
.
Do Not forget the Royal Family. The Kiung and Queen remained to support the people.
Not forgotten at all. There’s a photo of them in the video.