1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,360 AIR RAID SIRENS 2 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:08,640 75 years ago this week, 3 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:11,960 Britain came under the heaviest attack in its history. 4 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:15,480 This was Hitler's blitzkrieg, his "lightning war". 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,920 London endured 57 nights of bombing. 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,240 But then the Blitz spread, 7 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,280 devastating 16 cities in England, Scotland, 8 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,240 Wales and Northern Ireland. 9 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:42,120 So we're going to do now, as it were, a sort of dummy bombing run. 10 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,240 I'm John Humphrys 11 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,560 and I'm taking to the skies above my home city of Cardiff 12 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:51,320 to follow the flight paths of the Luftwaffe bombers. 13 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,640 What we're looking at now was just wiped out. 14 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,120 We had a direct hit and the bomb went right through the shop, 15 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,120 right through into the cellar and exploded. 16 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,240 I'll also fly over Swansea, where the "three nights Blitz" 17 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,480 destroyed its centre and changed the landscape forever. 18 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:15,160 It was burning from Swansea Castle down to St Helen's Road. 19 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:16,840 And people were running for the beach, 20 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:18,560 because, if the worst came to the worst, 21 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:20,080 they could get into the water, see? 22 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,120 I'll see the reminders of the war, 23 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,640 meet those who lived through the bombings 24 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:27,920 and discover how they changed the face of our cities. 25 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,320 I was born in 1943, a war baby. 26 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,560 I came into a world ravaged by conflict 27 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:55,960 and into a city shattered by bombs. 28 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,160 The fighting and the fear would last for another two years. 29 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:12,200 This is the house where I was born, 30 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:14,120 193 Pearl Street, 31 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:16,840 the middle of five children. 32 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,120 I THINK I remember the bombs dropping. 33 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,000 Certainly, I learned about it later. 34 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,760 And I know what happened to us when the bombs did fall. 35 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,000 We were taken to the shop on the corner. 36 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,760 It's a house now, but it was a shop then, a chemist's shop. 37 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:33,640 Vivian Morgan's chemist shop. 38 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,680 And they had a cellar and that's where we took shelter. 39 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:41,880 And I was told afterwards that they put me in a cardboard box - 40 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,000 I was only a baby, after all - 41 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,720 and took me down to the cellar and there we were safe from the bombs. 42 00:02:57,680 --> 00:02:59,600 Those bombs fell everywhere, 43 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,640 first causing carnage in London, 44 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:03,760 then throughout Britain. 45 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,800 Any city with strategic or economic importance 46 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,200 was on the Luftwaffe's target list. 47 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,920 And that meant Cardiff was near the top. 48 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:16,600 This port was the reason. 49 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,160 In the years before the war, 50 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:23,240 more coal passed through here than almost anywhere else in the world. 51 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,920 The docks were a vital part of the British economy. 52 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:29,840 The Germans wanted to destroy them. 53 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:31,320 They didn't succeed. 54 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:32,960 But they got perilously close. 55 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,560 On January 2nd, 1941, 56 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:42,400 around 100 of their planes took off from airfields in occupied France 57 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:44,760 heading directly for South Wales. 58 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:49,440 The pilots were highly focused, with clear targets in mind. 59 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,120 And the reason for that was simple - they'd done their research. 60 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:59,200 These are the tools of the trade, if you like. 61 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,320 These are the documents they took with them. 62 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,320 You've got the docks, you've got the steelworks... 63 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:07,720 Chris Going is an aerial archaeologist. 64 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:09,680 He has the reconnaissance photographs 65 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,000 the Nazis rather chillingly took even before the war started. 66 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,600 This is Cardiff and they have very clearly delineated the targets 67 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:22,560 that they were going, ultimately, to try to hit. 68 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,000 Erm, this one is labelled 45 61. 69 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,600 Now, 45 is the code for dock targets. 70 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:37,080 And Cardiff, for the Germans and for the German intelligence, 71 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:38,400 was the ports. 72 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,120 Hence, what we're seeing down here? 73 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:42,280 Exactly what you're seeing down there. 74 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:45,320 They are analysing and pulling apart very carefully 75 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,040 the dock facilities and so on. 76 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:50,240 Obviously, they've got the steelworks there. 77 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,040 And I have a particular interest in those steelworks 78 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,880 because my father was ordered to work in them during the war, 79 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,760 because he'd lost his sight as a young man, as a boy. 80 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:04,440 And they made people like him work in the steelworks. 81 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:06,400 Which is what he did. He was working there. 82 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:08,360 So he was a target. 83 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:12,120 Your father worked in target GB 7032. 84 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,080 - There we are. - Hm... 85 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,080 And could easily have been one night under the aiming point. 86 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,880 - And I wouldn't have been here. - And you wouldn't have been there. 87 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:21,960 - A sobering thought. - Very chilling. 88 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:24,720 So, let's go to this picture, then. 89 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,240 And if I'm right... 90 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:30,040 and you can certainly tell me if I'm wrong, 91 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,160 my home, can't quite see the house, but that's Pearl Street. 92 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:36,760 That's Pearl Street. 93 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,840 Which is not that far from lots of targets, 94 00:05:40,840 --> 00:05:42,240 which would explain, of course, 95 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,080 why many bombs dropped within the neighbourhood. 96 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,000 - We're talking about, what? - One kilometre. 97 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,440 You're talking about three quarters of a second of flying time, really. 98 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:51,600 Mm... 99 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:53,720 No wonder some of the bombs went astray. 100 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:55,240 Indeed, a lot of them went astray. 101 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,920 The Luftwaffe clearly had strong intelligence 102 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:00,720 and lots of accurate information 103 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:03,280 about the port and industrial targets. 104 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,560 So why did so many of their bombs drop on civilian homes? 105 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:15,440 I'm taking to the air to find out. 106 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:17,800 OK, everyone secure and happy? 107 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:19,640 Secure and happy, yep. 108 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,640 75 years after the German pilots flew over Cardiff, 109 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,600 I'm following their flight path to see the city as they saw it. 110 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:54,840 It's fantastic visibility. 111 00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:56,760 - Isn't it just. - Wonderful. 112 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:03,400 So that's the Millennium Stadium. 113 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:05,320 And this is Cardiff Castle grounds. 114 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:07,920 Yep. I think it is there, just by the river. 115 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:09,320 It has to be. 116 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:10,960 There's the river. 117 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:12,920 So we're... 118 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,200 We're going to do now, as it were, 119 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:17,800 - a sort of dummy bombing run. - Yep. 120 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,720 Because this is almost certainly how you'd have done it. 121 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:24,720 Looking at it now from this angle, Chris, 122 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:29,560 we can see the whole of the port over to the east. 123 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,000 It is so compressed, isn't it? 124 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,120 And you have so little time to get rid of your bombs. 125 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:39,800 - You have almost no time at all. - Almost no time at all. 126 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,640 You've got Victorian streets just there, which are, you know... 127 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,680 And they've been completely cleared and replaced to the north of them. 128 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:49,800 Yeah, but they were very heavily populated. 129 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:51,520 - They were very heavily populated. - Yep. 130 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,920 Erm, so this was the very reason why Cardiff was bombed, 131 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:57,200 all of the docks here. 132 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,360 You've got Queen Alexandra Dock just down below us, 133 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:04,560 which was a major aiming point. 134 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:10,000 But cheek by jowl, all of the workers' houses nearby, 135 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,080 which became targets, too. 136 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:14,400 What amazes me is that it looks so easy 137 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,560 when you're looking at a map, doesn't it? 138 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:19,880 You can imagine them sitting in Luftwaffe headquarters, 139 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,480 or whatever it was and, "Ah, yeah, we'll bomb that bit there 140 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:24,680 "and then we'll move on to bomb that bit there." 141 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,280 - But it ain't like that, is it? - It ain't like that. 142 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,960 And what is cynically called collateral damage, 143 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:36,480 a lot of the sort of descriptions mask the reality of what this was. 144 00:08:37,680 --> 00:08:40,920 And it was high explosives on civilians. 145 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:48,280 Well, I'm trying to imagine 146 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,280 that I'm flying a German bomber at this stage. 147 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,480 And we're flying now at about 160mph. 148 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,520 The Germans would have been flying a bit more than that, 149 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:57,960 about 200, 220. 150 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,040 We're at about 2,000 feet. 151 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,920 They were way above that, 4,000 or 5,000 feet, 152 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:04,840 maybe even more than that. 153 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:06,440 It's a beautiful sunny day. 154 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,720 But then, for them, of course, it was pitch dark. 155 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:12,760 And they had... 156 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,320 In fact, we're just over the docks now. 157 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:19,840 They would have had literally seconds to get rid of those bombs. 158 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:21,120 Seconds. 159 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,600 And now, even as I speak, we're away from the docks. 160 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:28,800 And we're into some fairly heavily populated areas. 161 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,520 A lot of houses down there. 162 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:33,600 And they've got to get rid of their bombs. 163 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:38,760 Demonstrates, yet again, the random nature of aerial war. 164 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:41,680 Where would they drop? Who knows...? 165 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:48,760 Like many people in South Wales, 166 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:50,160 my parents may have thought 167 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,320 they'd escaped the worst horrors of the Blitz. 168 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:57,520 By December 1940, the Nazi bombardment was four months old 169 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,960 and the number of raids over other cities had started to wane. 170 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,560 At Christmas, they stopped altogether. 171 00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:06,280 It was indeed a time for peace. 172 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:12,120 But then came the New Year, a new wave of attacks and renewed terror. 173 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:20,040 Thursday, January 2nd, 1941 was cold and clear with a full moon, 174 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:21,880 a so-called bombers' moon, 175 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:24,280 providing near-perfect visibility. 176 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,880 Sirens wailed as the advance bombers appeared in the skies 177 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,000 above the Bristol Channel. 178 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:37,160 The first bombs fell at 6.37pm. 179 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:40,200 And more followed, for ten hours. 180 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:50,240 If you were in Cardiff on January 2nd, 1941, 181 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,800 you'd probably remember what happened that dreadful night. 182 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:55,880 If you were here in Grangetown, 183 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:59,680 on the corner of Corporation Road and Stockland Street, 184 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:03,680 those events would surely be seared into your memory. 185 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,520 This dockland neighbourhood was the first to be hit. 186 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,800 Then, as now, it was densely populated with family homes 187 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:15,920 and small businesses. 188 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,960 On this corner, a local shop, Hollyman's Bakery, 189 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,640 became the setting for the worst single incident 190 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:23,320 of the Cardiff Blitz. 191 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:29,160 I used to go in there and I used to give him a hand kneading the bread. 192 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:30,960 John Williams is 89 now. 193 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,560 In 1941, he was a teenage delivery boy, working with a horse and cart. 194 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:40,800 On January 2nd, he called by Hollyman's on his way home. 195 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,280 I'd been out on my round, I'd come back and they said, 196 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:46,640 "Oh, come in and have some soup before you go home." 197 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:50,480 So I went down the cellar with them and I had my soup. 198 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,480 But this night, Bill Hollyman said, 199 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,080 "There's a lot of air activity coming across today." 200 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:01,760 He said, "I think you'd better go home, 201 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,520 "because I think your mother and father might be worried." 202 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:07,000 You were 14 at the time? 203 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:08,640 I was 14. So I went home. 204 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,360 Tragically, many didn't. 205 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:14,600 When the sirens sounded, they took shelter in the bakery cellar. 206 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:17,720 It took a direct hit. 207 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,960 I went to work the next day, didn't know anything had happened. 208 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:22,840 I turned the corner 209 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,480 and it was all flat. 210 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:29,400 They were bringing out bodies wrapped up in sacks 211 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,040 and things like that. 212 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:34,520 But it was never ascertained how many people were down there. 213 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:36,880 But probably more than 30? Certainly more than 30? 214 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:38,680 Well, they said there was about 30. 215 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:42,920 Bill Hollyman, the man who owned the bakery, 216 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,280 he was down in the cellar with everybody else. 217 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:47,640 Him and his wife and his daughter 218 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,840 and one of his uncles and his sister. 219 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,800 And all the rest were people who got called down there. 220 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,480 Just neighbours, who were looking for somewhere to shelter? 221 00:12:57,480 --> 00:12:58,760 That's right, yes. 222 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,480 So he thought, obviously, he was doing people a favour 223 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:05,240 by giving them shelter and they all got killed. 224 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:06,560 Oh, yes. Yes. 225 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:08,280 And what were you doing yourself 226 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,440 when the bombs were falling that night? 227 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,520 I was in an Anderson shelter with my mother and father 228 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:15,400 and my sister and brother. 229 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:20,320 In one of these Anderson shelters in 6 Devon Street. 230 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:23,840 And you could hear the bombs falling? 231 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:25,480 And we heard the bombs falling. 232 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:27,200 And we had a little, erm... 233 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:28,960 we had a gramophone in there. 234 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:30,880 We used to play records. 235 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:33,280 Oh, why do I come to think of it? 236 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:34,960 Were you not scared? 237 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:36,160 No. 238 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:38,880 Well, I mean, we went to work the next day. 239 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:40,680 Carry on with life, didn't you? 240 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:43,320 - But they weren't so lucky here, were they? - No, they wasn't. 241 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:49,400 # I'm going to love you like nobody loved you 242 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:53,960 # Come rain or come shine... # 243 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:57,000 This photo shows the gap at the end of the row of houses 244 00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:58,880 where the bakery once stood. 245 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,040 What strikes you so powerfully 246 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:06,200 about a story like John's 247 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:11,600 is the sheer random nature of aerial warfare. 248 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:16,520 If John had gone down into the shelter that night, 249 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:18,120 as he very well might have done, 250 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,520 he would have been one of those 30-odd people 251 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,200 who were blown to bits by that bomb. 252 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,200 Instead, he was in another shelter, 253 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:30,160 in another place, 254 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:31,840 listening to music... 255 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:36,560 ..and lived to tell us about it today. 256 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:43,680 # You're going to love me like nobody's loved me 257 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:48,120 # Come rain or come shine 258 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,160 # Happy together 259 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:53,520 # Unhappy together 260 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,960 # And won't it be fine? # 261 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:01,280 That first night of bombing claimed 165 lives 262 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:04,960 and caused around 430 casualties. 263 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,440 It also created memories that can never be erased. 264 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,600 Keith Flynn was a schoolboy at the time. 265 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:13,760 Fear is a strange thing. 266 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,600 Although we were in very dire circumstances, 267 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:18,960 we could have been killed at any moment 268 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,560 and although bombs passed quite close and fell quite close... 269 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,920 ..I don't think we ever showed any outward sign 270 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,080 of distress in any way. 271 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,280 Certainly no crying or screaming. 272 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:36,800 Next morning, when the noises stopped, 273 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,760 it was a brilliant, lovely, crystal-clear morning. 274 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,120 I turned the corner into Glamorgan Street, 275 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:48,720 not knowing that a bomb had fallen there. 276 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,520 And this lady was standing to my right. 277 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:53,760 And as I say, she was standing there. 278 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,880 I remember it was a navy-blue overcoat over her nightclothes. 279 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,240 I do remember her rather long, dark hair. 280 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:04,760 And I noticed that she was staring at that rubble. 281 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:08,440 Just staring, not crying. 282 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:10,000 Not making a sound. 283 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:15,400 Until she suddenly said, "My mother's under that lot." 284 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,960 And then my aunt and I walked up to Llandaff Cathedral... 285 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:31,320 simply because we were told that it had been destroyed. 286 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:34,600 It hadn't been destroyed, but it was an awful mess. 287 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:42,040 Whether it was an accident or a deliberate attempt to damage morale, 288 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:46,000 the Luftwaffe did hit this famous city landmark. 289 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,120 A bomber dropped a parachute mine 290 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,200 and it floated down silently by the spire. 291 00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:58,440 The parachute got caught on that spire, 292 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,320 caused some damage to the spire, 293 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,200 just because of the sheer weight of it, 294 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:03,720 but then it dropped. 295 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:06,240 And that's where it fell. 296 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:08,200 And you see that stone down there? 297 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,040 That is the point at which the land mine 298 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,600 hit the ground and exploded. 299 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,480 Dr John Kenyon is the cathedral archivist. 300 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:48,080 The most damaged part is the south aisle 301 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,400 and the south side of the nave roof, 302 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:53,360 because all this collapsed 303 00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:56,800 and all the debris came down on part of the cathedral stalls. 304 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,760 Most of the windows were blown out, so the glass all went. 305 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:06,680 And, obviously, some of the tombs and other items in the cathedral 306 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:08,840 were damaged simply by the falling debris, 307 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:10,520 stonework and timberwork. 308 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,800 So it wasn't just the force of the blast, it was... 309 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,400 It was what then came down as a result of the blast. 310 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,080 And so photographs show just debris 311 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:22,440 occupying the whole of this area here. 312 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:28,800 So, we're going up to the archives now, John? 313 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:30,160 Yes, take care. 314 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:31,520 This is a... 315 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:33,720 This is a very old staircase. 316 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,360 - So this is how you get to the office, as it were? - Indeed. 317 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,160 Up in the rafters, I'm about to see a fragment 318 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,200 of what had caused so much destruction. 319 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:47,240 And here's the evidence for it, 320 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,320 with the part of the cord 321 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:50,960 and the parachute itself, 322 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:52,840 which has remained in the archives. 323 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,360 I'm sure most of it was taken away elsewhere for souvenirs. 324 00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:59,360 Yes, I imagine there are little bits in lots of houses all over. 325 00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:01,760 But they were into the cathedral fairly quickly 326 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,880 trying to remove as much as they could that was salvageable. 327 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:08,280 And, of course, Dean Jones here, the Very Reverend David Jones, 328 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:10,440 according to one of the local recollections, 329 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,640 the dean couldn't find a hard hat, 330 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:15,680 so he borrowed his wife's colander and came down. 331 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,000 No great dignity involved in it, but, hm... 332 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,080 And so here is the garden of remembrance, 333 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:23,440 which is where you were looking at. 334 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,280 - That's where the mine actually landed? - This is the crater here. 335 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:28,840 And, of course, where the land mine landed, 336 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:31,400 there were burials and there were bones 337 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:33,760 recorded as just scattered over Llandaff. 338 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,760 - So they had to be gathered up and... - Oh, they got blown up into the air? 339 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:38,680 Along with all the memorials, as well. 340 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,800 And so that caused a lot of damage to the houses with falling gravestones. 341 00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:44,800 Within weeks, the cathedral was holding services again, 342 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,120 in part of the building, at least. 343 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:49,280 Today, of course, it's fully repaired. 344 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:51,560 Although, one scar remains. 345 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,200 The force of the explosion created a crater. 346 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,560 And you can see how big the crater is. 347 00:19:57,560 --> 00:19:59,760 It's surrounded by those rosebushes 348 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,840 that were planted since then to mark out where it fell. 349 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:05,200 Here's the thing, though. 350 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:08,640 Had it fallen another 20, 30 yards 351 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:10,000 in any direction... 352 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:15,920 the damage to the cathedral would have been utterly devastating. 353 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:18,520 You could say, 354 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:20,880 "There, but for the grace of God..." 355 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,920 Near misses, tragedies, tales of incredible courage, 356 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,280 the Blitz and subsequent bombing campaigns 357 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:43,360 created them all. 358 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:45,840 And many of those stories and visual records 359 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,360 are preserved here at the Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff. 360 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:57,320 Rhian, these pictures are interesting material from that time. 361 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,800 I like the air raid wardens here, 362 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,800 because this is... 363 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:04,360 it gives us a nice idea 364 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:08,640 of the mix of people who were volunteers, in some cases. 365 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:10,840 In other cases, dragooned to become that. 366 00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:12,600 Just run me through that. 367 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,400 It's interesting because, looking at the people who are in there, 368 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,320 you realise all the young men 369 00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:19,400 would have been away serving with the forces. 370 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,000 So it's the older men who weren't in the army 371 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,000 and the women who were involved with the ARP system. 372 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,360 Right. So quite a mixture 373 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,840 - and a social mix and all the rest of it? - Definitely. 374 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,080 And here they are, all ready to go. 375 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,040 Yes, with their gas masks on, ready for action, I think. 376 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,640 - And looking terribly sinister. - Exactly. 377 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:40,200 But how important it was that they had those. 378 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,640 Now, this I find absolutely fascinating. 379 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:45,680 And I know I mustn't pick it up and wave it around, 380 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,560 because it might well fall apart. 381 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,560 But tell me what it is. 382 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:53,280 It's the log of a primary school, a particular primary school. 383 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:55,960 Yes, it's the logbook for the Splott Road Primary School. 384 00:21:55,960 --> 00:22:00,080 Which is where I went from the age of four or nearly five, yes. 385 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,760 And so this was a diary that the head teacher kept. 386 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,040 We see here an alert at 11.30. All clear, 12. 387 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,520 Alert - 3.10. All clear - 3.30. 388 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,560 This would have been hugely disruptive for the school day. 389 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,560 And we see, as well, a note here that attendance was very low - 390 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,480 only 87 of the children present 391 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,920 owing to the raids the previous night. 392 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,360 So, if the children had been up all night in the shelters 393 00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:22,960 with the bombing going on, 394 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,600 they weren't coming to school the next day due to exhaustion. 395 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,440 But it's as though they're sort of saying - 396 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:28,960 because it's all terribly formal, 397 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,480 and records must be kept under any, all circumstances... 398 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:32,720 It's as if they're saying 399 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,240 "Tut-tut-tut. Children weren't coming to school!" 400 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:37,320 There is that attitude coming in there a little. 401 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,000 - Extraordinary, isn't it? - Yeah, yeah. 402 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,360 - And you think, "My God, they're lucky to be alive." - Yes. 403 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:45,160 And here we are. Here's something else that interests me - this map. 404 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,920 Er, a bombing map. This was a bit after the Blitz. 405 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:50,440 This was in...? 406 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,960 This is 1943. May '43, this is. 407 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:54,120 Right. And... 408 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,680 It shows us what their target was, 409 00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,640 which, obviously, was the docks, as we've been hearing. 410 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,080 That's what they were really after. 411 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,880 But this is the Splott area. 412 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:07,240 Yes. 413 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:08,880 Where, of course, I lived. 414 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,520 - And this is Pearl Street. - Yes. 415 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,080 And there's a bomb... 416 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:14,560 It looks as if it is just... 417 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,240 Right at the end of the street. 418 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:19,120 Right at the end of the street, which is where I lived. 419 00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:21,200 It's quite chilling, actually. 420 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:23,280 Looking and seeing how close, 421 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,080 even though I knew about the bombsites, 422 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,840 looking at that map and seeing... 423 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,120 if that... 424 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:32,600 If that bomb had been delayed by 425 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,600 a fraction of a second, 426 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:36,920 well, I wouldn't be here talking to you now. 427 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:38,040 Exactly. Yes. 428 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:39,440 It's... It's scary. 429 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:40,560 Hm. 430 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,760 When the bombs were falling, people called on their own reserves 431 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,360 of courage and resilience, 432 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:51,480 but they relied on others, too. 433 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,440 The war brought out a spirit of selflessness, 434 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,400 typified by young women like Edith Shute. 435 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:00,680 She was 23 when the Blitz started. 436 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,600 She had a driving licence and basic first aid training 437 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,280 and so she volunteered for the ambulance service. 438 00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:09,800 She's now 98. 439 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:14,520 I drove the ambulance twice or three times, I think, 440 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:16,480 before I went out on duty. 441 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:21,040 So you just did it. 442 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:22,600 We just did it. 443 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,520 - I think a lot of other people did the same. - Mm. 444 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,400 You did see some terrible things, didn't you? 445 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:30,760 Yes. 446 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:36,640 On one occasion we were called out to Violet Row in Whitchurch, 447 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:41,760 and we had to stand by while they dug somebody...people out. 448 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,120 Because the bomb had flattened their house. 449 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:45,760 Yes. 450 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:47,600 And we would... 451 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:50,880 They loaded up this patient, 452 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:52,920 and... 453 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,880 ..we were instructed to go 454 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,960 to Whitchurch Hospital, 455 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,520 so we went into this hospital 456 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,080 and the man came out 457 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,880 and said, "Why have you brought this woman here?" 458 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,880 And I cottoned on to what it was all about, 459 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,720 and said, "Who am I to say she was dead?" 460 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:21,040 Because he thought you should have taken her straight to the morgue. 461 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:26,840 I said I'm not qualified to, you know, to...to... 462 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,480 express a person's life or death. 463 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,000 And when there were a lot of raids, 464 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,800 you were taking more people to the morgue. 465 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,880 Oh, I went more to the morgue than the hospital. 466 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,320 Because it was mostly bodies that were being pulled out. 467 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:45,760 Yes, that's right. 468 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:50,480 Because nothing had prepared you for this. 469 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:52,920 No, no, nothing had prepared us for it. 470 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,600 - And no training, proper training or anything. - No, no, no proper... 471 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,760 So you just had to... 472 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,560 You had to learn on the spot. 473 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,360 To people listening to you today, 474 00:26:04,360 --> 00:26:06,920 they would just say, "Well, that's... 475 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,160 "That must've been terrifying! Awful!" 476 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:11,640 Well... 477 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,640 If, erm... 478 00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,760 If you had somebody in trouble beside you, 479 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,160 you have to do what you can to help. 480 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:31,120 The bombing of Cardiff marked the start of a new phase in the Blitz. 481 00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:36,600 Before January 1941, the Germans had targeted only English cities, 482 00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,760 but now nowhere in the British Isles was safe. 483 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,280 For two nights in March, Clydebank near Glasgow - 484 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,040 home to munitions factories and shipyards - 485 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:54,640 came under intense attack. 486 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:00,520 More than 1,200 people were killed and as many injured. 487 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:02,480 The destruction was so great, 488 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:06,080 only seven properties in the town were left undamaged. 489 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:11,440 As a result, its population went from 60,000 to just 2,000. 490 00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:16,560 The Irish Republic, which stayed neutral during the war, 491 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,400 was also hit. 492 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,320 'Houses at Rathdown Park, Dublin fall victims Hitler's bombs. 493 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,480 'Seven people were trapped when the Nazi raiders 494 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,840 'deliberately unloaded their bombs on these houses in Eire.' 495 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:30,400 Then, over Easter, 496 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:35,440 its northern neighbour felt the full force of the Luftwaffe. 497 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,040 In Belfast, in April, 498 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,040 900 people were killed in one single night of bombing. 499 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,960 Meanwhile, back in my home city, 500 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,800 the bombing continued sporadically for weeks. 501 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:50,480 After more than a dozen raids, 502 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,600 countless buildings and many lives were in ruins. 503 00:27:55,760 --> 00:28:00,080 But the Luftwaffe wasn't finished with South Wales. 504 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:04,680 They'd already selected another target 40 miles to the west. 505 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,720 They'd launched a few attacks. 506 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:12,080 Now they were to return with unexpected ferocity, 507 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,680 and with devastating results. 508 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:18,240 AIR RAID SIRENS 509 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,840 Like Cardiff, prewar Swansea was a crucial port, 510 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,000 and a centre for military-based industries. 511 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,160 So it was inevitable the city would appear on the Nazi hit list. 512 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,720 This image, which is, I think, 513 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,600 quite the most chilling graphic 514 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:40,600 you can possibly look at of Swansea, 515 00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:46,720 shows just how dense the dock facilities were, 516 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,280 and how close-by the housing was. 517 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,000 And, literally, if you press the button 518 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:57,000 a second late, two seconds late, your bombs will... 519 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,240 - Yeah. - ..without any doubt, 520 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:00,920 have gone into the town. 521 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,040 And, indeed, the early attacks in February 1941, 522 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:09,080 effectively destroyed the city centre. 523 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:10,120 Mm. 524 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:11,720 They missed the docks. 525 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:13,240 They really did miss the docks. 526 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,120 That is extraordinary, isn't it? 527 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,600 And they flattened the city centre. 528 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,560 Viewed from the air, you can see why this place 529 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,360 was a sitting duck for the Luftwaffe bombers. 530 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,840 Even without any modern navigational aids, 531 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,280 the Germans would've had absolutely no trouble finding Swansea, 532 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:39,760 even at night, 533 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,600 because, of course, you just come up the Channel, 534 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,520 you stick to the coast, and there it is. 535 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:48,960 You've got the hills behind to tell you where the port is, 536 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,440 even if you can't see the actual dock buildings. 537 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,200 So...an easy target to find. 538 00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,840 And, as we now know, 539 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,800 tragically, a very easy target 540 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,120 to cause massive, massive damage to. 541 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,920 Swansea was so badly hit. 542 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:10,320 All of the focus... 543 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:17,080 ..is just that area enclosed by that outer breakwater there. 544 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:18,320 Yeah, that's it. 545 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,640 We can see it in one sweep, really, can't we? 546 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:21,760 Absolutely. 547 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:24,040 That's the entire old centre, isn't it? 548 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,040 Which was completely flattened. 549 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,200 Yes, exactly, what we're looking at now. 550 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,640 In Feb, '41, there were three attacks in so many days, 551 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:36,360 and they destroyed the city centre. 552 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,120 I shudder to think what those few days must've been like, eh? 553 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:44,160 Oh. 554 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:45,480 Horrifying. 555 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,560 Just to give you an idea 556 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:54,480 of the concentrated nature of the bombing, 557 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:58,320 40 acres of Swansea town centre was flattened. 558 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:02,360 That is the most concentrated bit of bombing 559 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,080 of the war. 560 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,440 Between 19th and 21st February, 561 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,920 bombs fell for a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes. 562 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,240 They set whole districts ablaze. 563 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,880 This is the only known photograph taken during the three-night Blitz. 564 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,880 The attacks killed 230 people 565 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:33,920 and injured more than 400. 566 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:38,560 857 properties were destroyed, 11,000 damaged, 567 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,600 and 7,000 people were made homeless. 568 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,400 Elaine Kidwell was an air-raid warden 569 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,560 who lived through every moment. 570 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:55,080 We'd come running out and we'd be blowing our whistles and yelling. 571 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,200 The shelters were open, but we'd stand and say, 572 00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:59,360 "Come on, come on," you know. "Get in there." 573 00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,560 And, er, they were machine gunning 574 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:03,080 the balloons down, 575 00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:04,920 because they were over the docks, you see. 576 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,240 And I remember running along Quay Parade for my life, 577 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,040 because the bullets were coming behind me, you know? 578 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:12,400 And then I dived into a doorway 579 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,440 and they went past! You know? 580 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:16,760 Then I heard a whistle going, 581 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,120 blowing frantically. 582 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:20,920 I rushed down the steps 583 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:25,920 and over to, erm...where the whistling was coming from 584 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,040 and when I got there - this is in Quay Parade - 585 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,920 there was a warden leaning over a body on the ground. 586 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,080 So I went up and he said, "This is for you." 587 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:35,920 He said, "You know what to do." 588 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:39,000 "Where is it?" He said, "I don't know. He's bleeding from somewhere." 589 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,800 Anyway, it was black, you see? You couldn't tell. 590 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:43,360 And I said... 591 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,440 The man, he was unconscious, thank goodness. 592 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,480 Anyway, I felt around, and where his leg was, there was nothing. 593 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:50,920 "What is...? Oh, God, blood. The leg's gone." 594 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,560 So I put a tourniquet on him now, 595 00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:58,640 and put everything right and, any case, this ambulance came along, 596 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:00,120 which was really a van, 597 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,720 and he said to me, "All right?" 598 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,000 I said, "Yes." I said, "I'm fine." 599 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,400 "Right," he said. "Now, listen, now," he said. 600 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:09,040 "You've saved his life. 601 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,760 "All right, he hasn't got a leg, but he's going to live." 602 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,120 Anyway, he came to see me some years later. 603 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:19,560 And he said, "How in hell did you get through the Blitz 604 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:21,600 "because you were always out in it?" 605 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,040 "Well," I said. "I'd rather have been out than been in." 606 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:25,680 Because your imagination can... 607 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,360 when you're in and you've the bangin' and the bangin'. 608 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,160 When you're out, you can see what's happening, you know? 609 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,640 So, there we were. 610 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,440 Elaine was 17 when she became an air-raid warden, 611 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:38,120 the youngest in Britain. 612 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:42,200 She was a girl seeing things most of us would hope never to see. 613 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,040 There was one thing I haven't forgotten, 614 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:48,160 but I'm coming to terms, even though it's a long time ago. 615 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:51,960 I was coming off duty 616 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,360 and they were bringing the dead from where 617 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:57,640 there was a lot of casualties. 618 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,560 And in the back of this car, now, 619 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:02,800 I could see - the hood was down - 620 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,480 and I could see two little babies 621 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,080 in a white box like that. 622 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:10,760 And one was... 623 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:12,520 The little girl was lying like this. 624 00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,080 And the little boy, who was a bit older, 625 00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:18,120 had his arm on her, but he was dead, too. 626 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,840 And I still can't get over it. 627 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,680 But I'm not grieving, 628 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,360 and I'm glad that they both went together. 629 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:27,440 You know what I mean? 630 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:29,560 But the sight, the waste of it! You know? 631 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,080 It was so wicked. 632 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:33,400 And they were still bombing us. 633 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,400 That night, I remember going up 634 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,840 and seeing that from Swansea Castle down to... 635 00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:47,320 Oh, the bottom of St Helen's Road, 636 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:48,360 was burning. 637 00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:50,720 The whole swathe of it? 638 00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:53,360 Yeah. And it burned from... 639 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:54,680 one... 640 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:56,920 that side to that side, the same. 641 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:58,720 Everything was in flames. 642 00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:01,200 And people were running for the beach, 643 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:03,480 because if the worst came to the worst, 644 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,000 they could get into the water, see? 645 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,000 The heat must have been tremendous! 646 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:08,080 Terrible. 647 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:09,680 It sounds like a hell. 648 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,800 It was hell. There was no other word for it. 649 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,320 RECORDING: 'Morning is breaking over Wales at war.' 650 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:32,400 The Swansea poet and writer Dylan Thomas, 651 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,600 who was haunted by the destruction of his home town. 652 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:38,600 '..but the terrible near war 653 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,360 'of England and Wales and her brothers and sisters...' 654 00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:45,280 Thomas had been declared medically unfit for military service, 655 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:47,960 so he spent much of the war writing scripts 656 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:49,800 for government propaganda films. 657 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:53,280 'In the roaring cauldrons of the Swansea Valley, in the...' 658 00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,560 Those who studied his life believe he was actually in Swansea 659 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,760 at the height of the Blitz. 660 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,600 There's testimony from a very close friend of his 661 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:03,200 who saw Dylan and his wife Caitlin 662 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,720 walking through the streets of bombed Swansea after the Blitz 663 00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:09,680 in that February and Dylan turned to his friend and said, 664 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:11,600 "Our Swansea has died." 665 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:13,960 So parts of the town that he knew and loved, 666 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,240 and was so familiar with, had written about in his short stories, 667 00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:19,880 were just flattened. 668 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:22,760 In a sense, what would one would love to see 669 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:27,080 is his chronicling of the terrible events of early 1941 670 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:28,800 here in Swansea. 671 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,720 But he didn't do that, did he? He wrote later. 672 00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:35,480 That's right, it took him six years to absorb 673 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,200 those traumatic events of Swansea. 674 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,960 The destruction of the Swansea he knew and loved. 675 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:47,400 Return Journey was the great play that he wrote in 1947. 676 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,920 Yes, that's right. This is the original script. 677 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:52,760 - The actual broadcast script that he'd have read from? - Yes. 678 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:55,760 He was very keen to get every detail right in this script, 679 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,320 to the extent that he checked the order of all the shops 680 00:36:58,320 --> 00:36:59,760 that had been bombed to make sure 681 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:01,400 that he had them in the correct order 682 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:03,320 when he was writing about them in this piece. 683 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,760 'Burton Tailors, WH Smith, Boots Cash Chemist, Lesley's Stores, 684 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:11,160 'Upson's Shoes, Prince of Wales, Tucker's Fish, Stead and Simpson... 685 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:13,480 'All the shops bombed and vanished.' 686 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,960 He even wrote to a former grammar school master of his 687 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,800 to get the names of those former boys who'd died in the war 688 00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:21,360 who were on the role of honour 689 00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,080 so he could include their names in this broadcast. 690 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:25,640 CHURCH BELL TOLLS 691 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,840 'Evans, KJ. Haynes, GC. Roberts, IL.' 692 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:31,600 CHURCH BELL TOLLS 693 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:35,040 'Moxham, J. Thomas, H. Baines, W.' 694 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,240 And it's not an attempt to put a gloss on what happened 695 00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:40,040 in any sense at all. 696 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,880 It is not lyrical in that sense, is it? 697 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,240 - In fact it is brutally truthful. - Yes. 698 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:47,720 But there is... Well, there's a beauty in it. 699 00:37:47,720 --> 00:37:50,800 Yes, it's an elegy. A very beautiful elegy, I think, 700 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,000 to a lost Swansea, a lost childhood, 701 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,240 which resonated with so many people. 702 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:03,960 'It was a cold, white day in the high street 703 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,920 'and nothing to stop the wind slicing up from the docks, 704 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,880 'for where the squat and tall shops had shielded the town from the sea, 705 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,600 'lay their blitzed-flat graves marbled with snow 706 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:17,560 'and headstoned with fences.' 707 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:23,240 It's a very, very long time since Dylan Thomas wrote that play - 708 00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:25,000 he was in his 30s then - 709 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,160 and, obviously, nothing that he describes is as it was then. 710 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:31,120 This is the new Swansea. 711 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,480 None of the old remains. 712 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:39,200 But his words remain, and they are as colourful and evocative today 713 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,080 as they were when he wrote them. 714 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:45,040 Let's give you another flavour of it. 715 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,880 "Boys romped calling high and clear 716 00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,680 "on top of a levelled chemist's and a shoe shop..." 717 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,400 THOMAS ON RECORDING: '..and a little girl wearing a man's cap 718 00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:56,920 'threw a snowball in a chill, deserted garden 719 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,200 'that had once been the Jug and Bottle of the Prince of Wales. 720 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:02,160 'And in the falling winter morning 721 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:04,280 'I walked on through the white centre 722 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,600 'past the hole in space where Hodges the clothiers had been, 723 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,680 'down Castle Street past the remembered invisible shops - 724 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,760 'David Evans, Gregory Confectioners... 725 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,640 'Burton's, Lloyds Bank and nothing.' 726 00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,920 One of the pubs reduced to dust and rubble was the King's Head. 727 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,400 It had been home to Marion Garnett's family. 728 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:30,400 She was just a baby at the time. 729 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,000 On the third night of the Blitz, 730 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,000 my mother was standing opposite our pub, 731 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,320 and a man came down and said to her, 732 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,600 "You'd better move from there, 733 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,720 "because that pub will be up in flames." 734 00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:51,480 And then we all went down to the air raid shelter. 735 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:56,320 In walking down, my mother told me that she walked over bodies. 736 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,560 The family survived, but the pub was gone. 737 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,320 All they had left were the clothes they wore. 738 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,560 My mother was in quite a bad emotional state 739 00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:10,160 because, of course, she had lost everything. 740 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,040 But she had a glimmer of hope 741 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,720 knowing my father would be coming home, 742 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:18,280 and then perhaps life would start as normal again. 743 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:21,000 But it never did. 744 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,960 Marion's father had been serving in Africa. 745 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:29,120 The year after the Blitz, the family received the worst possible news. 746 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:33,560 My mother and I had been to the Post Office to collect her army pay 747 00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:39,080 and we came back, and Nana - I can see it now, in my mind's eye - 748 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,160 was waving a telegram. 749 00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:45,160 And my mother took it, 750 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:51,760 she opened it, and she sat down on a big armchair near the fire... 751 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,520 ..and started to cry. 752 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,680 And that scene is really my first memory. 753 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:05,840 And it's something that will always be with me. 754 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:09,440 The sadness was so intense. 755 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:13,080 Not only had my mother lost her house and home, 756 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:16,440 now she'd lost her husband, and my father. 757 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,720 A family devastated, a town destroyed. 758 00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:28,680 In Swansea many lives were changed for ever. 759 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,360 But what the bombs and the flames never killed 760 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,080 was the spirit of the locals. 761 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:38,640 It survived. 762 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,280 And the place itself was rebuilt. 763 00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,160 The centre is now full of tall buildings, 764 00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:46,280 unrecognisable from what it was before the war. 765 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,400 Despite all the careful preparation and planning and boasting, 766 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,520 Hitler's "lightning war" failed to break Britain. 767 00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:04,440 I know now just how close his pilots came to dropping a bomb on my house, 768 00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,560 yet it, like the people and the nation, 769 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:08,560 stood firm against the onslaught. 770 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,360 You get a slightly different perspective 771 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,000 when you are looking down on it 772 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,560 and you see it there, this little clump of houses, 773 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,800 secure, safe. 774 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:24,720 It's, er... 775 00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:29,480 It's quite a reassuring feeling, in a way, to know that 776 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:30,880 they're still there. 777 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:35,720 Back on the ground in Splott, 778 00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:38,760 the bombsites that were once my forbidden playgrounds 779 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:40,920 are long gone. 780 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:44,080 In their places, family homes for the next generations. 781 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,600 Childhood produces a million false memories, 782 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:52,640 and, of course, I was a baby when the bombs were actually falling, 783 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,600 so it's been fascinating to talk to people who were older 784 00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:57,080 and who really do remember 785 00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,680 what it was like when the bombs were dropping. 786 00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:02,040 What I remember, and this is a real memory, 787 00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:04,560 is playing on the bombsites. 788 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:06,160 They were all around here 789 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:08,600 where the bombs dropped on these streets 790 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:10,640 and so there'd be that gap 791 00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:13,880 and the house would be utterly destroyed. 792 00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,520 And now, well, the streets are back to normal, 793 00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:19,440 the houses are painted a little more brightly than they were then... 794 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:22,320 ..and things have changed. 795 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,840 Everything has changed. 796 00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:26,800 Our memories, though, 797 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,160 for those who really can remember, 798 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:31,000 are vivid.