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- AIR RAID SIREN 
- 75 years ago this week,

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Britain became under the heaviest attack in its history.

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This was Hitler's Blitzkrieg, or 'lightning war'.

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LOUD EXPLOSIONS

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London endured 57 nights of bombing, but the Blitz also spread

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to towns and cities across Britain, including mine.

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- NEWSREEL: 
- 'The Luftwaffe attack from places all along the coast.

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'The struggle for the Western oceans has begun.'

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I'm Ricky Tomlinson and I'm taking to the skies to discover

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how my city survived the Blitz by the skin of its teeth.

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Them docks are like a line of sitting ducks, really, aren't they?

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- Exactly. 
- Because they're in a straight line,

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and there's row after row after row.

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I'll also find out just how high that price was

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for those on the ground.

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- I'd like to know what that man's thinking, there, standing amongst all that rubble. 
- Yes.

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- He could probably be standing where his own house was. 
- Exactly.

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Thinking, "What have I done to deserve this?"

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And I'll meet the women of Liverpool who survived.

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And the bomb came down.

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You could hear it whistling down,

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and we just grabbed each other in the bed,

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the whole house on top of us,

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and we both thought, "Oh, we're going to die."

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MUSIC: There She Goes by The La's

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I was raised in Liverpool and I've spent most of my working life here.

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Not always as an actor, though.

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No, I was a plasterer and trade unionist

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long before I became a luvvie.

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This city is my home and I don't think I'll ever move away.

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My old neighbourhood was Everton, just outside the city centre,

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and there was five of us in a small terraced house on Lance Street.

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The neighbourhood's still there,

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but it's very different to how it looked when I was little.

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This is where I grew up during the war years.

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And obviously, it's all changed now, but to see all these houses

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with the space they've got, we didn't have that much space.

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And in the middle of the street, with these brick air raid

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shelters with the big, thick concrete ceiling on them.

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And that's where we used to play, play of a day and of a night,

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when the bombs came over, we would go inside them.

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HE EXHALES DEEPLY

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Hey...

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Who'd have dreamed 50 years ago that I'd be sitting

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here on someone's garden wall?

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With all this shrubbery around me, it's as if...

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I could be in the middle of an African jungle, really, couldn't I?

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Because we never saw a blade of grass.

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I could actually be sitting in what was our living room,

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or the back kitchen.

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That...

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It's wonderful.

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It's amazing and I'm so glad I've come back to see it.

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This is more like how I remember it.

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Cramped terraces.

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Back alleys, gangs of kids playing in the streets.

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The families here were poor, and it must have been

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a struggle for our parents, even before the bombs started falling.

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We never had a bath, or hot running water.

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We only had a cold tap,

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and my mum would fill the pan

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and boil it, three or four of them, put us into a little tin bath,

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and we took turns in getting bathed in front of the fire.

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Albert being the eldest, then me, then our David.

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And we'd be in one bed, upstairs,

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because we were only a two-bedroom house,

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and then we'd have a couple of blankets over us,

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army blankets, and then a big army overcoat on top of us.

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And everyone was the same.

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No-one was too proud to admit that they had an army overcoat

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on the bed to keep the kids warm.

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That's the way it was.

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It done us no harm, really, done us no harm.

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I entered the world in September 1939,

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the same month that Britain entered the war.

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I don't remember much about the early years of the fighting,

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so I've invited my big brother, Albert,

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to meet me for a cuppa at my own cabaret club.

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You must have been smelling the tea. Do you want one?

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We never talk much about the war,

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but as he's older, I'm hoping he remembers more than me.

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Sort this tea out for us, will you, love?

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Yeah, so, I'm busy at the moment.

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I'm just...well, we're hoping to make a documentary about the Blitz,

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so I'm looking for stories from old people,

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- and just get some stories... 
- Old folks? That's why you brought me in, is it?

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That's one of the reasons! You were older than me

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- and I can remember quite a bit about the war, so you... 
- Well, you were the war baby, weren't you?

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- I was born at the start of the war, wasn't I? 
- You caused the war, didn't you?

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- Yeah, they reckon I was responsible for it, so... 
- THEY LAUGH

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Heavy Blitz bombing raids began in London in September 1940.

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Two months later, it was Liverpool's turn.

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LOUD EXPLOSION

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- NEWSREEL: 
- 'Never in history has an entire people borne

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'so frightful an ordeal so bravely.'

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At this point in the war, it was all going Hitler's way.

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His army had occupied much of mainland Europe

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and they were within striking distance of Britain.

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London's docks were under constant attack

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and the English Channel was no longer safe.

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PLANE ENGINES ROAR

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But controlling Britain's West Coast, especially at the ports,

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was also crucial for the Nazis.

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'It is in shipping, and in the power to transport across the oceans,

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'the crunch of the whole war will be found.'

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Liverpool was the busiest port of all

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and as the docks were just a couple of miles from Everton,

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that meant our house was in the firing line too.

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All I remember from when I was a young child was the air raid

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shelters right outside the house, you know.

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And then the sirens. We all remember the sirens, you know.

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We hardly used the air raid shelters.

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- You know, my dad only worked down the bottom of the street in the baker's? 
- Yeah.

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And as soon as he heard the sirens, whether it was morning,

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noon or night, he'd be home, grab me on his shoulders,

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my mum would grab you and we'd be down to Gran's.

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That's my dad's mother's, remember? And into the basement.

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- But Granny's was, like, a Dickensian place. 
- Oh, yes.

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Five foot tall, five foot one.

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But I remember people telling me that after the air raids,

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all the bodies would be picked up and taken

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and lined out in her lobby, and she'd wash them.

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Sometimes she'd have to wash them down with a sweeping brush.

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- That's how tough she was. 
- She was.

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I can remember one particular time, we were really getting blasted.

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It must have been 1941.

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And Gran used to have the big, black fireplace with the oven doors,

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- where there was a big slab of slate with a gas ring on it. 
- I remember.

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Anyway, the sirens went off. We were down there.

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Everyone was in the cellar.

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And there was one hell of an explosion during the night.

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And the house shook.

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I'll never forget it. Everyone was terrified.

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The women were screaming, the kids were screaming.

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Anyway, everything's settled down, we come up the next morning -

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she'd had a pan of cockles on this gas ring on the table,

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and they were all over the living room.

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They were up the walls and on the ceiling and everywhere.

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Cockles.

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You know me mam and dad, I mean, were they stressed out or what?

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Well, everyone was stressed.

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I think me dad was the worrier, you know. He was the worrier.

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To us, as kids, it was just another day, you know what I mean?

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Because while the sirens were off, it was just normal life.

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Everyone went to work, we went to school, you know what I mean?

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Do you remember when me mam used to...?

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Our David had been born in the meantime,

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so she had three lads,

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and then me dad would be in work,

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and the bombs would go off, so she'd grab us all in her bed.

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- She was too ill to get us down the stairs... 
- Yeah.

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..and said, "If the bombs go, we'll all go together."

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- Must have been awful. 
- Yeah. The thing is...

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you just got on with it.

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You know, it was something you had to do,

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you just couldn't say, "No, that's it."

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Who could have blamed people if they HAD reacted that way?

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During nearly nine months of the Blitz,

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the Nazis attacked ports all over the country,

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from Hull in the East to Bristol in the Southwest

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to Southampton, Plymouth and Portsmouth on the South coast.

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They also bombed my neighbour, Manchester,

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targeting its factories as well as the busy Ship Canal docks.

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- NEWSREADER: 
- 'Day in, day out, the endless flood of crates and packages

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'passes from ship to shore - foodstuffs essential to our needs.'

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The men who caused the devastation

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were the pilots of the Luftwaffe.

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75 years after they first flew over Liverpool,

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I'm about to discover how they carried out their attacks.

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I'm at Hawarden Airport

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meeting up with aerial archaeologist Chris Going

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and pilot Bill Giles.

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Just going through the flight plan to see if we can work out roughly

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how we're going to pretend to be a German flight this afternoon.

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Before we go up, Chris is showing me

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some rarely seen target documents

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used by the Luftwaffe to plan their attacks.

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This is how the German intelligence saw Liverpool.

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- It come across... 
- This stuff got captured in 1945.

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Most of it was trashed or burnt, but we did capture some.

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If you enlarge it and look at it...

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So, what do all the numbers signify?

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They're all related to specific individual targets.

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These are all targets which have a number 45, which means docks.

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If you could strangle the docks, if you could prevent

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food being unloaded or you could prevent armaments being exported

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to support the forces in North Africa and elsewhere,

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you were well on the way to winning the war.

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And that was just what the Nazis were determined to do

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throughout 1940.

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- NEWSREADER: 
- 'The Luftwaffe attack from bases all along the coast,

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'from the Arctic to the Channel.

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'But this is only the centre of a wider battle.

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'The struggle for the western oceans has begun.'

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In the Atlantic, the Royal Navy was battling to protect shipping

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from the Germans' deadly fleet of U-boats.

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- MAN WITH GERMAN ACCENT: 
- 'In the first two years of war,

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'the Allies have admitted losing three million tonnes of shipping

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'to our torpedoes and guns.

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'In this way, we will slowly strangle them.'

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Supplies of food and equipment vital to the war effort were under threat.

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On 1 August 1940, Hitler issues a directive -

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the Luftwaffe were to start preparations

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for the aerial destruction of the UK ports.

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If the British government wouldn't surrender,

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then Hitler's plan was to starve the British people out.

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Finally, just before we go off on our flight, I want to show you

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a night map.

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These were carried in the cockpits of the aircraft

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and they were for reading under red or blue night lights.

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And here you can see just what their interest in Liverpool was.

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- That whole strip outlined in red... 
- That's the whole of the docks,

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- isn't it? 
- ..of Liverpool Docks.

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- So, you live...Everton, just there? 
- There, yeah.

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- That's, what, a mile, mile and a half from the docks? 
- Yeah.

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- If that. 
- That's it, yeah.

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A few seconds' flying time, you're right in the firing line.

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That's amazing, isn't it?

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That'd send a shiver down your spine.

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It's the main artery to the rest of the country,

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to getting stuff abroad and getting stuff in.

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If he'd have done that, that would have been the end of the war for us.

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Just looking at them 70-odd-year-old maps,

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with Liverpool all marked out in red as the target for the German bombs,

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is quite disturbing, really.

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It's not a very nice feeling, really, not nice at all.

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Armed with our target maps,

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the time's come to get into the plane and recreate history.

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- OK, is everyone happy and secure? 
- Yep.

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I've never been on a plane as small as this before.

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Although it's a calm day, I'm still apprehensive.

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Might just be a little bit bumpy as we climb out,

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just because of the bit of turbulence off the hills here.

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But nothing's going to stop me taking this opportunity

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to look at my city in a completely new way -

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through the eyes of someone trained to destroy it.

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How long would their flight take, do you think?

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From the minute they left to get here.

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Well, they would take a couple of hours

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to get from their base to Liverpool.

241
00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,920
One of the big problems, of course, was navigation -

242
00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:00,360
making sure you could get to the target.

243
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,600
There was a blackout in the UK, so there were no lights showing.

244
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,960
So really, they were flying blind, to a great extent.

245
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:11,160
What the Germans tended to do was use specialist units

246
00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:15,200
who had the latest technological equipment -

247
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,200
a unit called a Beleuchtergruppe,

248
00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:19,080
the Firelighter Group.

249
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,480
And the idea was to set fires

250
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:25,280
so that once those fires are alight,

251
00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,240
the main force, other bombers coming with worse...

252
00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:31,720
or not-so-good navigation techniques could home in on the fires.

253
00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:37,520
- NEWSREADER: 
- 'These raiders were the elite of the German Air Force,

254
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:39,520
'groomed for victory.'

255
00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,440
The British were aware that the bombers followed fire,

256
00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:44,800
so they built decoy sites.

257
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:47,160
We fool Jerry sometimes, though.

258
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:50,000
We bend his radio beams so he flies on a duff course,

259
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,280
then we light decoy fires in the open country for him to bomb.

260
00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:55,560
Fake towns and factories were set on fire

261
00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:58,680
to fool the enemy into thinking they were real targets.

262
00:13:58,680 --> 00:14:02,680
Just a few wasted bombs could save hundreds of lives.

263
00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:05,520
One night we collected 230 AGs,

264
00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:07,720
one oil bomb and a packet of incendiaries.

265
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:10,360
Our casualties were two cows and two chickens.

266
00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:19,840
- Can you see those buildings in there? 
- Yeah.

267
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,640
Right, that's more or less where the decoy site was.

268
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,600
And if you look down, you've got a slight hint

269
00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:30,400
that the coast mimics that further south round Liverpool.

270
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,760
Look to the right - can you see four gun positions?

271
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,760
- You can see four squares. 
- Yeah. 
- Yeah?

272
00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:38,560
- Little sort of grey cubes. 
- Yeah!

273
00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:42,040
That's anti-aircraft, so they had a gun site there as well.

274
00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,760
Although the decoys had some success,

275
00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,720
most planes made it down the River Mersey to their real target,

276
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,840
the Liverpool Docks - a narrow strip of land

277
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:53,960
that then employed nearly 20,000 people.

278
00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:57,120
You know, really, them docks

279
00:14:57,120 --> 00:15:00,480
- are like a line of sitting ducks, really. 
- Exactly.

280
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:04,160
Because they're in a straight line, row after row after row.

281
00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:06,760
Absolutely. It's about six, seven miles long,

282
00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,960
it's about half a mile wide,

283
00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,280
and that was one of the most strategically important parts

284
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,000
of the entire United Kingdom.

285
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,000
So they must have dropped a third of a million incendiary bombs

286
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,160
on Liverpool during the war.

287
00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:22,840
But one of the things that I find really amazing

288
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,600
is the air raids lasted a very long time.

289
00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:29,560
So at any one time, there might be one or maybe two aircraft coming in

290
00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,880
to drop bombs - it was like being, you know, in a bowling alley,

291
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:34,840
but a skittle at the wrong end.

292
00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:37,760
So you would hear the bombs, four or five,

293
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:39,120
and then you would think,

294
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,280
"OK, I survived that one, maybe the next one. The next one."

295
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:44,840
How brave were them dockers, getting up every morning

296
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:46,600
and going to work knowing, KNOWING,

297
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:50,320
that they were going to be under attack that night or that afternoon?

298
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,400
Kissing their kids goodbye, kissing their wives goodbye.

299
00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,760
They didn't know if they'd see them again, and vice versa.

300
00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,800
And yet they never stopped, they kept the docks going.

301
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:01,800
- Fabulous. 
- Absolutely.

302
00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:05,240
From up here, it's obvious how vulnerable the docks were,

303
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:07,600
as bombs rained down night after night.

304
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,840
What's even more frightening is just how close my street was

305
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:13,600
to the focus of the bombing.

306
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:14,880
This is amazing for me.

307
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,520
I'm flying over where all this action took place during the war.

308
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,720
I've just gone past all sorts of landmarks

309
00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,640
that I knew, not only as a grown-up, but as a child.

310
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,800
- And you can see the Liver Building. 
- Absolutely!

311
00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:30,200
So that's... That's right within the vicinity of where we were reared.

312
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:33,560
Exactly. So if they've flown sort of 300 miles,

313
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:35,240
it's literally seconds,

314
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:39,800
and precision bombing is not really something you can achieve

315
00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:41,120
at this sort of distance.

316
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,040
You know, by the end of the war,

317
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:46,200
most of the casualties here were not dock workers, they were civilians.

318
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:49,760
Something like 2,500, 3,000 people were killed.

319
00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:54,680
About 50% of all the housing in Liverpool was damaged in the war.

320
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:59,120
So, I mean, you've got a population of what, 870,000 in 1940?

321
00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:00,760
Just under a million.

322
00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:06,080
That's an enormous economic and sort of human price that was paid.

323
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,160
I knew before we took off that this would be a unique journey.

324
00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,520
But I didn't expect it to open my eyes as much as it has.

325
00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:20,720
I always think of Liverpool as a tough city.

326
00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:23,440
But when you see it from the point of view of an aerial bomber,

327
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:24,640
it looks helpless.

328
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:29,440
Now I'm back on the ground,

329
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:33,080
I want to get a sense of what that helplessness might have looked like.

330
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,880
Anne Gleave is curator of photographic collections

331
00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:39,760
for the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

332
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,280
She looks after the Stewart Bale Collection -

333
00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:46,040
almost 200,000 original glass and film negatives,

334
00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,040
many taken during the war.

335
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,000
These are vivid images of the destruction of Liverpool,

336
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,080
its docks and surrounding areas.

337
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,760
The city centre didn't escape, either.

338
00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,760
So, exactly what is that, what is "the monument"?

339
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,240
That's the Victoria Monument.

340
00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:04,080
- The one that's still there now, today? 
- Yes, that's right.

341
00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:08,760
And you can see...most of the buildings around it

342
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,800
- have been completely flattened. 
- Look at that!

343
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,200
There's nothing. There's nothing. Everything's gone.

344
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:17,200
I don't know what to say about that.

345
00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,320
- That's... 
- No, it is amazing, isn't it?

346
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:22,800
Look how close the damage is to it.

347
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,440
That must be a symbol, there must be something there.

348
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:27,040
There must be a message there.

349
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,760
The only thing I can say is God Save The Queen!

350
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:37,240
Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. Wonderful.

351
00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,920
This one's the Liverpool Overhead Railway in 1941.

352
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:45,200
Again, bomb damage during the Blitz.

353
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,320
I remember, as bad as that damage was,

354
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:51,000
- they restored the overhead railway, didn't they? 
- Yes.

355
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,160
I remember going on it many, many times.

356
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:59,120
- And then this. 
- This was in Bootle,

357
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:01,640
which was hit very badly during the Blitz.

358
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:05,440
And as you can see, there's a lot of domestic housing there.

359
00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,960
Yeah. My wife's from Bootle, her father worked on the docks.

360
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,120
During that time, obviously.

361
00:19:11,120 --> 00:19:14,000
I lived in the Everton area of Liverpool

362
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:15,840
and we got bombed pretty bad.

363
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:20,720
And I didn't even know until now that Bootle got it as bad as this.

364
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,960
Bootle is home to the north end of Liverpool's docks.

365
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:26,240
Proportionately, it saw more destruction

366
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:28,640
than anywhere else in the UK.

367
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:33,960
Of its 17,000 houses, only 40 were undamaged.

368
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,040
I would like to know what that man's thinking,

369
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:37,960
standing there amongst all that rubble.

370
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:40,600
- He'd probably be standing where his own house was. 
- Exactly.

371
00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:44,200
And thinking, you know, "What have I done to deserve this? Why?"

372
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,200
Just looking at them photographs frightens me to death.

373
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,720
I'm overwhelmed by the devastation, the hopelessness,

374
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,040
the look on them people's faces, the men with the flat caps looking,

375
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:57,680
the women huddled together,

376
00:19:57,680 --> 00:19:59,720
one or two kids with their hands in their pockets

377
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,280
and their little stockings pulled up to their knees.

378
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,240
What must have been going through their minds

379
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,040
looking at that devastation? It was shielded from me.

380
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:09,400
It was shielded from my eldest brother.

381
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:10,800
We knew the bombs had gone off

382
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,680
because our own house nearly went up,

383
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:14,000
but that's all we knew.

384
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,560
We didn't know the devastation, the hopelessness,

385
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:18,160
people losing their homes,

386
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,920
nowhere to go to school and stuff like that.

387
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:24,480
I'm just lucky that I was...

388
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,920
Although I was in the war and I remember the bombs

389
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:31,280
and remember hiding under the stairs and me mam cuddling us in bed,

390
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:33,040
I wasn't old enough to realise

391
00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:37,080
the hopelessness and the devastation that was going on all around me.

392
00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:50,640
If only Victoria could talk, eh?

393
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,160
She'd certainly be able to explain what it was like

394
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:55,680
to live through such a massive bombardment.

395
00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,600
But there are others who are still around to do that.

396
00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:00,280
People like Margaret Lunt.

397
00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,120
She's 89 now, and can remember it all clearly.

398
00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:06,920
- How are you? 
- I'm all right, fine, thank you.

399
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,320
Take me inside, tell me some of these lovely stories you've got.

400
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,080
We're meeting at St Luke's, a beautiful city centre church

401
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,640
gutted by fire on the morning of 6 May, 1941.

402
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:24,680
It's never been restored, and today it stands as a symbol

403
00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:27,400
of what Liverpool went through during the Blitz.

404
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:31,400
Isn't it magnificent? What must it have been like in its heyday, eh?

405
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,840
Now, listen, Margaret, it's not very nice

406
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,920
for a man to ask a lady how old she is,

407
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:41,320
but tell me, how old were you when this church got bombed?

408
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,800
When this church got bombed, I was about 15.

409
00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:48,880
A teenager, eh? Must have been terrifying for you.

410
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,560
Well, it was a bit frightening at the time.

411
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,400
It was all, like, adventure, to begin with.

412
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,720
So, where were you living when all this was going on, Margaret?

413
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,920
Just down the road, Blundell Street.

414
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,160
Not far from the Albert Dock, really.

415
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:07,160
They seen plenty of action, didn't they, the docks?

416
00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:09,720
- You can remember it all? 
- Oh, yes.

417
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:13,560
We were in the air raid shelter in Jordan Street...

418
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:15,680
Wasn't your dad a docker?

419
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:21,640
My father was on the docks, and then he was the air raid warden

420
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:26,280
when the war started, along with two others in our district.

421
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:34,520
And we also had a lot of activity by what we called the Pioneer Corps,

422
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:39,440
who done a lot of hard work, and they don't get a mention, really.

423
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,680
You must have been worried when your dad was an ARP warden walking round.

424
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,760
Yes. One time he was a long time coming back in

425
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,560
and we wondered what happened.

426
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:55,520
But the horses were panicking because of the fire,

427
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,080
it was in the greaseworks,

428
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,000
and the grease was running down the street...

429
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:02,480
on fire.

430
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,600
So they had to let the horses out,

431
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,720
and the next thing was they were running along the street

432
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,040
and we thought it was a new secret weapon.

433
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,720
We didn't realise it was the horses.

434
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:16,480
You know, other little things like that.

435
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,040
So, at this time, Margaret, where were your brothers and sisters?

436
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:22,640
Were they still in Liverpool or had they gone by now?

437
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:25,880
My sister-in-law was in Wales, and my sister,

438
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,200
they all got evacuated because they had young children.

439
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:37,360
And then my brother was in the Tank Corps in the 8th Hussars.

440
00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:41,560
The last time I saw my brother was in the air raid shelter,

441
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,800
and he came home on compassionate leave,

442
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:46,000
and...

443
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,280
We were learning him the words of

444
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,760
Yours Till The Stars Lose Their Glory,

445
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:56,680
because it had only just come out,

446
00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:00,920
and so he was trying to learn it so that when he went back,

447
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:02,960
he could sing it.

448
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,280
- And so that's the last time I saw him. 
- Ah.

449
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:08,880
Never saw him after that.

450
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,280
How old would he be when he got killed?

451
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,080
Well, he'd be 30-something.

452
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:16,480
Young man.

453
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:17,520
Mmm.

454
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,280
- How sad. 
- Yeah.

455
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:25,320
When you think about it, it was very sad.

456
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,000
Talking to Margaret makes me appreciate how fortunate I was

457
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,960
not to have lost any close family members during the war.

458
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,520
Me dad was lucky enough to work in a protected industry as a baker,

459
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,440
although "lucky" was a word he probably didn't use himself.

460
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,160
So, just over there, to the right,

461
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,160
was Kelly's Bakery where my dad worked with another man.

462
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,040
It was just the two of them in the bakery.

463
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,240
One little nasty sort of incident that happened during the war

464
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,880
is me dad actually went away to join the Army,

465
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:08,920
and in fact he was away for three days,

466
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,800
but when they found out he was a bread baker,

467
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:16,000
they said he was more important to the local community

468
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,640
than to fighting in the Army, and they sent him home.

469
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,400
And he really wanted to go away and fight for his country.

470
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,440
And now and again he got a little bit of stick.

471
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,200
Having people making little skits made him very, very frustrated,

472
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,760
but I suppose the one thing he could take from it,

473
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,320
it wouldn't be people he knew

474
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,000
because all those who knew him knew that he'd been away,

475
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,560
signed up, wanted to join, and had actually

476
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:40,720
been sent back from Scotland to carry on his job.

477
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,160
My dad's bakery was near Everton Park,

478
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,600
which provides a perfect view of the port.

479
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,600
People used to come here and stand on this high point

480
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,920
and just see the flames all around the docks

481
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:53,720
when the bombing was going on.

482
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,560
And the skies used to light up and people used to stand here

483
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,200
and watch it as if you would stand and watch a bonfire.

484
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,240
Watching the bombing during the war must have been a harrowing sight,

485
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,000
especially in May 1941

486
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,280
when the docks burned for seven consecutive nights.

487
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,440
I've always been fascinated by our docks,

488
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:20,280
even more so now that I know what part they played in the war.

489
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,560
I'd still like to find out more, though,

490
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,480
so I've arranged a tour with a historian, Mike Royden.

491
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,320
We're starting at the highest point, on top of a grain silo.

492
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,480
Liverpool had taken a bit of a decline

493
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,280
just after the First World War

494
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,720
and when the Americans started to help us with supplies,

495
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,120
- this was going to be the major port. 
- All the different cargo -

496
00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:42,800
munitions, food, hospital gear - coming in and out, going abroad,

497
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,120
looking after the soldiers and stuff like that.

498
00:26:45,120 --> 00:26:48,080
Must have been absolutely amazing.

499
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,800
Of course, when the Blitz began, it suffered major damage

500
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,000
in those few days in May.

501
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,720
At least half of the berths had gone out of action

502
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:58,840
during that time. And in fact, when the bombing took place,

503
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,800
there were ships in being worked on and loaded.

504
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,280
Probably as soon as the siren went the all-clear,

505
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:08,200
they'd be back out loading the ships, getting munitions on and off.

506
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,520
- That's quite right. 
- So really, they must have had the heart of a lion,

507
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,000
mustn't they, to have worked under them conditions.

508
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:15,880
They must have been incredibly brave.

509
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,880
The courage of the dock workers was tested to the limit

510
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,800
during the May Blitz of 1941,

511
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,720
when the HMS Malakand, a large ship loaded with munitions,

512
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,880
was destroyed in Huskisson Dock.

513
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,200
It led to the largest explosion in the city's history.

514
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,720
This is where the Malakand was.

515
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:40,560
170-foot vessel that was berthed here on the night of 3 May 1941,

516
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,280
and an incendiary hit the deck, and the men

517
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,840
were struggling to try and stop the fire spreading everywhere else,

518
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,400
but what they were worried about, of course,

519
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,160
was it's going to spread into the ship itself,

520
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,360
because the vessel was carrying almost 2,000 tonnes of munitions.

521
00:27:56,360 --> 00:27:57,680
2,000 tonnes?

522
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,840
Yeah, and if that was going to ignite,

523
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:02,040
the whole thing was going to explode.

524
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,400
You can see how frantic they were in their fight.

525
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,920
Who was in charge at the time, the captain of the ship?

526
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,640
Incredibly brave man called Captain Kinley.

527
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:14,160
He had a number of officers on board and 60-odd lascar sailors as well.

528
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,880
It was absolutely frantic, the scene you would have seen here -

529
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,280
the flames going everywhere, trying to get fire engines in,

530
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,080
men running all over the place trying to put things out,

531
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:25,600
it must have been unbelievable.

532
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,920
In the end, around about half seven in the morning,

533
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,560
Kinley said, "Abandon ship," and it was just as well he did,

534
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,000
because a few minutes later the whole thing went up.

535
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,840
Absolutely... It was the biggest explosion that the city had seen.

536
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,040
That was throughout the war, not just on that night.

537
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,920
2,000 tonnes, you can't imagine it, can you, going up?

538
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,040
When you can see the damage one shell can do or one grenade can do.

539
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,400
And the debris was flying all over the place.

540
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,120
It was hitting other ships - an anchor actually flew about 400 yards.

541
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:56,520
One piece even sliced through a horse that was pulling a cart

542
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,200
on the dock road.

543
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,320
But what was also worrying at that time,

544
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,800
they wondered how much longer Liverpool could withstand this,

545
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,240
especially the docks. Because much longer on that,

546
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,560
and maybe that would have brought Liverpool to its knees.

547
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,200
But thankfully, the Luftwaffe

548
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,480
didn't really have a particularly organised long-term plan,

549
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,640
and Hitler's attention then turned towards Russia,

550
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,600
and thankfully the Luftwaffe was shifted over there instead.

551
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,720
Their loss was our gain. It's a terrible thing to say,

552
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,640
but thank God it happened that way

553
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,400
because we mightn't be standing here now talking, mightn't we?

554
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,760
I never knew that Liverpool was literally days from being beaten.

555
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:42,160
But we got through,

556
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,400
thanks in large part to the resolve of the people.

557
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,040
And I'm not only talking about the dock workers,

558
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:49,360
but all the others too,

559
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,120
like the women of the city who worked tirelessly

560
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:53,800
to support the war effort.

561
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,320
Women like my mam, who struggled to keep the family alive at night

562
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,640
and feed them during the day.

563
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,720
Some of them were just girls at the time.

564
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:04,080
But I want to hear their stories,

565
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:05,800
so I've come to the Poppy Centre

566
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,720
to meet a group of women who all survived the Blitz.

567
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,080
- Cup of tea. 
- Cup of tea? 
- Cup of tea already for me!

568
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:13,920
- Oh... 
- What more do you want?

569
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,720
I want some lovely stories off you about the war.

570
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,760
I was 11 when it started, 16 when it finished.

571
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:21,280
And I can remember

572
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,680
the first day of the war, when we were at church

573
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,960
and the priest come and said the war had started.

574
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,080
Next thing was when we went out, my brothers were queuing up already

575
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:32,360
to go and join the Army.

576
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,160
When it first started we used to go down in the air raid shelter -

577
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,280
three of us, my mum and dad, the cat and the dog.

578
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:41,840
They'd stay there till morning.

579
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,560
Was it a brick air raid shelter?

580
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,480
No, it was the Anderson shelter in the garden,

581
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,320
and you covered it over so you couldn't see

582
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,400
and you had plants, flowers and things on.

583
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:53,440
What about the ones

584
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:55,680
in the street, all the way over...?

585
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,040
That's what we had.

586
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,000
- They were brick. 
- They were made of bricks,

587
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,720
and sometimes we stayed there all night.

588
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:05,920
Where I lived, in Lamb Street off Heyworth Street,

589
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,000
in the panic and the pandemonium in the pitch dark,

590
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,000
you couldn't find your way around.

591
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,600
There was an old man lived across the street called Mr Hart

592
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,600
and he used to get your hand and take you in.

593
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,760
And I could never understand how he could do it, but he was blind,

594
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,720
so he didn't need any lights!

595
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,960
One night my dad said, "Ooh, they seem to be getting awful close,"

596
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,240
so he said, "I'll go out and have a look." And as he did,

597
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,440
they dropped all the shrapnel and he got a big piece under his eye

598
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,320
and it went right through his eye and was there on his cheekbone,

599
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:38,440
it was a big square.

600
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,880
He used to say to us all, "Feel it there!"

601
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:42,400
And what did you say to him?

602
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,680
"That's what you get for nosing!"

603
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:46,720
THEY ALL LAUGH

604
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,000
Yeah. Yeah.

605
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,760
- So you could still have a laugh in the middle of the war. 
- Yeah.

606
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,480
Come on, Doreen, you can tell me your little story now.

607
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,120
Dad was on fire watch, and me mother had the poor boys

608
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,920
in the parlour, and me and my sister,

609
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,800
we sneaked up to bed. Nobody knew we'd gone up there.

610
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,800
And the bomb come down...

611
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:09,960
We could hear it whistling down.

612
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,880
And we just grabbed each other in the bed,

613
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:17,520
and the whole house on top of us,

614
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:21,840
- and we both thought, "Oh, we're going to die." 
- OTHERS: Yeah.

615
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,240
And then my father realised that we were still in there,

616
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,000
and he started moving the bricks one by one.

617
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,320
They heard us crying, and they finally found us,

618
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:33,920
and, er...

619
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,200
brought us out. We had no clothes on, they were blown off us.

620
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,880
One of the reporters came to take our photograph

621
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,200
and me dad chased them.

622
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,320
He said, "You're not photographing my daughters," he said,

623
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,720
- "they've got no clothes on!" 
- Quite right. Absolutely right.

624
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,920
Listening to these women talk, I recognised their resolve

625
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:54,440
in the memories of me mam.

626
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:57,120
But while we had parents looking out for us,

627
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,080
Nancy was a young mum herself.

628
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,400
What about you, young lady, what can you remember?

629
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:07,160
- Well, I lost my little boy, my baby. 
- Aww.

630
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:10,320
That was me saddest thing of the war.

631
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,480
I had a little girl, and I was having me second baby.

632
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:18,520
And it came early, it was seven weeks early.

633
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,200
It was a terrible night. It was in the Blitz,

634
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:27,080
and the nurse didn't want to come out, she was frightened.

635
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,120
And he only lived a couple of hours,

636
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:33,000
and then he had to be buried.

637
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,560
But, er, I didn't have a lot of money,

638
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,480
so I hadn't got enough money to pay for the funeral.

639
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:44,440
George got a box, they gave him a wooden box.

640
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:48,160
And I worry over it now, even although it's a long time,

641
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,160
thinking he didn't have a proper coffin.

642
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,520
He knows you loved him, it doesn't matter what they buried him in.

643
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:55,960
But that's the main.

644
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,440
And he was buried with a lady.

645
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,480
In his...in her coffin.

646
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,760
So that was lovely. I called him David George.

647
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,640
- Yeah. But he'd have been 74 now. 
- 74!

648
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:15,200
And me other daughter, she's 75 next month.

649
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,840
Your stories are unbelievable. They make me quite angry,

650
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,320
because of what's gone on,

651
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,400
but they make me feel very, very sad at the same time.

652
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,520
Honest to God, I can't thank yous enough.

653
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:31,560
What yous done, I mean, I was only a kid and it rolled over me,

654
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,840
you were wonderful! You were absolutely wonderful.

655
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,720
You were the bulldog breed, I mean that.

656
00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:40,840
That meeting with them five wonderful old ladies

657
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,200
made me feel so humbled.

658
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,760
They were absolutely magnificent.

659
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,040
And do you know, no wonder we won the war,

660
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,200
because with people like that, camaraderie like that,

661
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,640
and a fighting spirit like that, how could you lose?

662
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:56,840
They were wonderful.

663
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:11,080
Before I finish my Blitz journey, I've decided to catch up with

664
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:15,680
an old mate of mine from Liverpool's comedy circuit, Stan Boardman.

665
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:17,840
I've known Stan for nearly 50 years,

666
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,160
and he's always good for a bit of banter and a few old jokes.

667
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:25,480
- I started at the MAA Club... 
- BOTH: ..in Sheil Road!

668
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:26,720
You know, it's funny.

669
00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:30,000
We're about the same age and we were both brought up during the war,

670
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:31,840
just a mile or so apart, and yet

671
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:34,360
we've never spoken to each other about it.

672
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,840
That means I've never heard his incredible story -

673
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:39,080
until today.

674
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:42,040
- This is where me mam's house was, and see that tree? 
- Yeah.

675
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,840
That probably was in her front room, that tree.

676
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,560
Who'd ever thought that there'd be a tree...

677
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:48,680
where you live?

678
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,160
And I wish that this would have been here when I was a lad.

679
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:53,600
I would have loved it.

680
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,440
Just round the corner here, it was Morley Street,

681
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,120
and it was a shelter, a communal shelter,

682
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,360
and everybody in the street, when they heard the sirens going,

683
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:04,160
they'd all rush out the houses.

684
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:08,320
Gives me the creeps even now, when I hear the fire sirens

685
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:09,840
from the local fire station.

686
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:13,640
Them days, they used to say, "The Germans are coming."

687
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,760
I had a babysit...

688
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,160
I was being baby-sat by a girl called Mary Munroe,

689
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,520
my mother used to tell me about her.

690
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:26,080
And we ran to the thing and I sat...she sat me on her knee.

691
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,880
My mother was there, sitting on, like, stools,

692
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,720
and it was pitch-black and dark. She had a baby on her knee -

693
00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:36,280
our Ada - and Tommy, my brother, was sitting next to them.

694
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:41,760
On that fateful night, the Germans did come and they bombed Liverpool.

695
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:43,880
And all the shelter was blown up

696
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:47,800
and all the people in the shelter were either killed or injured.

697
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,760
And I found out...

698
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,160
My mother told me when I was a little bit older

699
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,200
that the girl who...

700
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:56,920
I was sitting on her knee,

701
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,880
- Mary Munroe, she was killed. 14. 
- No way.

702
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,520
All her family sat on that side of the shelter,

703
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:09,040
they were all killed, and my brother Tommy, he lost his life as well.

704
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:11,920
So the bricks and everything must have hit him on the head.

705
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,280
I woke up next morning...

706
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,440
on the side of the road here on a slate

707
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:21,240
and the sun was...morning was just coming up.

708
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:24,440
You could smell the burning, grit in my teeth,

709
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,680
and every time I feel a bit of grit in my teeth...

710
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,440
- It reminds you. 
- It reminds me of that night.

711
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:32,560
And my Uncle Arthur,

712
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,040
he came down cos he only lived up there.

713
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:40,280
He was 16, 17 and he came over and he found me in the morgue

714
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:44,000
because the place was just littered with bodies and people were...

715
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:49,040
And he found my brother Tommy, who was dead,

716
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:53,440
and he found me. Luckily enough, I wasn't injured,

717
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:58,600
only because Mary Munroe must have fell on me and saved my life.

718
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,600
- She took the blast, didn't she? 
- Mary Munroe, God bless you.

719
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,520
- Mary, if you're up there, thank you, love. 
- She will be, eh? Ah.

720
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,640
Around 4,000 people from Liverpool and its surrounding areas

721
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:17,080
lost their lives during the Blitz - more than anywhere outside London.

722
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:22,240
Like many victims, Stan's family didn't know where Tommy was buried.

723
00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:25,480
But a few years ago, his sister traced their brother to

724
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,200
an unmarked grave in the Kirkdale Cemetery.

725
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,320
This is the one here. Look, this.

726
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:40,360
It's only a little plaque. We only put it down four years ago.

727
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:48,480
All my sisters came around here, said a prayer for Tommy,

728
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:52,640
for Mary Munroe and the rest of the people

729
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:55,120
who were all killed round the Kirkdale area.

730
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:57,920
This here is a trench...

731
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:01,520
and all the people in the street were buried in here.

732
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,880
I bet you there's a lot of relatives don't know

733
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,240
that their loved ones have been buried here.

734
00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:10,760
So, your dad, he was in the army while all this was going on?

735
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,640
My dad was in the Royal Artillery.

736
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:17,040
He was in Woolwich in London, so he was protecting London

737
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:22,240
and I often wonder and think what it would have been like for him.

738
00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:26,440
His house is gone, his family is gone, the streets have gone

739
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:28,480
and your son has been killed.

740
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:35,960
What it was like for him that day to get back to Liverpool on leave,

741
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,600
to come on a train, which probably took him hours and hours and hours,

742
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:43,560
and for him to sit on that train, wondering what he's going to expect.

743
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:47,000
Everything going through his mind. Was he finished with the war?

744
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,040
Well, the sad thing about it was he stayed.

745
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:52,160
He got two weeks' compassionate leave

746
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:56,520
to get his family housed and homed

747
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:58,840
and get my brother buried,

748
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:01,520
and he was three days over his leave.

749
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:04,480
So then the police came, they arrested him,

750
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,520
took him to jail in Liverpool and...

751
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,040
Just for staying three days over his leave.

752
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:13,000
That's scandalous, that's scandalous.

753
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:18,080
So he had to do his stint, even though he's lost his house,

754
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,760
he's lost his son.

755
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,600
Nearly lost his wife.

756
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:24,680
Nearly lost his wife, nearly lost me.

757
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,400
And he was a very quiet man - never spoke about the war,

758
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:32,720
never spoke about the air raids, never spoke about Tommy.

759
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:35,480
- Nothing? 
- Nothing. 
- Couldn't do it, couldn't bear it.

760
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:37,640
Couldn't bear to talk about it.

761
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,040
I think a lot of people couldn't talk about the war,

762
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:42,960
bring back bad memories.

763
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,920
I thought I knew my city, I thought I knew my friends.

764
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:55,360
But I've learnt so much on this journey,

765
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,840
I'm not sure I'll ever look at my home in the same way again.

766
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:02,440
And as I take to the sky for the last time, I can see how much

767
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:05,040
Liverpool has changed, how much rebuilding

768
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,920
and regeneration has gone on over the years.

769
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,960
But something that hasn't altered at all is the spirit

770
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,480
and the character of those below.

771
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:15,760
I've always been proud of the people of Liverpool.

772
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,880
In fact, I have the honour of being a Freeman of the City

773
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:22,000
and being up here now, I owe them so much.

774
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,760
They've gave me this honour, but it should be the other way round.

775
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:29,440
It's awful to know what went on and it must have destroyed

776
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:33,120
families for generations, torn about their lost ones

777
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:36,240
and those who have never seen their parents again

778
00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:38,760
or their fathers again or their sons again.

779
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,000
But there's thousands and thousands of unsung heroes -

780
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,160
the ARP wardens, the nurses, the fellows patrolling the streets.

781
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,480
The way they banded together, the way they kept the morale up,

782
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:55,680
the way they made sure the children went to school...

783
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:59,680
Everyone, thousands and thousands of unsung heroes out there

784
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:03,240
and sometimes we forget...sometimes we tend to forget about them.

785
00:42:03,240 --> 00:42:07,000
But being up here now just gives me a little... It makes me feel....

786
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:09,640
..quite emotional.

787
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:29,720
It was all so bloody futile, wasn't it?

788
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:36,400
They were doing what they were told to do,

789
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:40,800
and the fear and the horror and the sad stories,

790
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:44,240
there must be as many in Germany as there are here,

791
00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:46,800
in Dresden and other places like that.

792
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,840
So while this has been a wonderful experience for me,

793
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,360
I don't want to do it again.

794
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,360
I don't want to do it again.

795
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,640
That experience I've just had has made me feel so humble.

796
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:08,880
They talk about the bulldog breed...

797
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:11,240
There's never been a truer expression made,

798
00:43:11,240 --> 00:43:14,000
they must have all had that bulldog spirit.

799
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,320
They got Liverpool through and they got Great Britain through,

800
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:18,840
and thank God for that.

801
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:20,560
I can't praise them enough.

802
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:24,040
MUSIC: Yours by Vera Lynn