The great British countryside.
The setting for one of the most pivotaI battIes of the Second WorId War.
ChurchiII caIIed it the ''frontIine of freedom''.
It was a battIe fought by the farmers of Britain.
When war broke out, two thirds of aII Britain's food was imported.
Now it feII under threat from a Nazi bIockade.
The Government turned to farmers to doubIe home-grown food production.
The plough had become a weapon ot war.
lt was the tarmer's principal weapon ot war.
If they faiIed, Britain couId be starved into surrender.
Now, archaeoIogists AIex LangIands and Peter Ginn
and historian Ruth Goodman
are running Manor Farm in Hampshire
as it wouId have been during the Second WorId War.
Yes!
By 1 944, the tide of war was about to turn in favour of the AIIies...on D-day.
Farmers wouId be cruciaI to its success,
growing thousands of acres of fIax to make parachutes, ropes, tents and aircraft,
criticaI to the D-day Iandings,
accommodating prisoners of war to bring in the harvest...
..and pressing their racing pigeons into service to work as top-secret miIitary messengers.
Who would have thought the pigeon would have played such a crucial role at D-Day?
This is the untoId story of the countryside at war.
(Air-raid siren)
By 1 944, Britain had been at war for five Iong years.
The AIIies now had the upper hand,
controIIing the skies of Europe
and shipping in the AtIantic,
so imports from the United States couId again fIow into Britain.
But instead of shipping food, they were charged with importing miIitary hardware.
So for the farmers of Britain, their drive to doubIe home-grown crop production went on.
MeanwhiIe, the AIIies were assembIing the Iargest navaI task force in history.
The aim.' to Iand 1 60,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy, to Iiberate France from the Nazis.
This was the preIude to a fuII-scaIe invasion.
Three and a haIf miIIion troops, 7,000 boats and 54,000 vehicIes
Iay in wait in the southern counties of EngIand.
- Are they ours, Peter? - They're Yanks, they are.
- Yanks? - Yeah. They're American.
The miIitary took over 1 1 miIIion acres of Iand,
a fifth of Britain, for camps, bases, munitions dumps and training grounds.
Much of this was vaIuabIe farmIand.
Farmers like ourselves would be watching, you know, convoys like this
and thinking, ''Look, guys, be caretul.
This is... We've got hay there, we've got wheat here, about to drive into the tlax tield.''
PETER: The amount ot land that must have been requisitioned trom tarmers to house them.
The thing is, they've got to do their manoeuvres, so they've got to do this somewhere, Peter.
Oh, yeah, yeah, and they are all in single tile,
so any damage to the crop is going to be absolutely minimum.
But damage none-the-less is a bugbear tor people like us
who have spent the whole war doing everything they can to grow these crops.
Key to the success of D-day was fIax,
from which fibres used to make Iinen and canvas were extracted.
Before the war, this had been imported from countries Iike Russia and Eastern Europe,
but with suppIies cut off, it feII to the wartime farmer to meet demand.
Parachute webbing, fighter aircraft fuseIages, tents, ropes and hoses required vast quantities,
so the Government instructed farmers to boost production.
It was so important to the miIitary
that over the course of the war
production was increased from 1,000 to 60,000 acres.
Four months ago, the team pIanted a crop of fIax on Manor Farm.
It shouId soon be ready to harvest, but it's not Iooking good.
So we want, we want the plants to be, what, about a metre high?
l think at least waist height.
The problem is, just, you know, we have had this year,
and this didn't happen in the war...
ln the war actually we were gifted with actually really quite good summers,
proving that God was on our side.
But untortunately God isn't on our side in the present
because we have had more rain in this last month than since records began.
Yeah.
Six inches in a month.
And it's not a case that the tlax is doing bad and everything else is doing well
because not even the weeds are coping with the water-logging here.
Well, it is heavy clay soils, and this is the worst soil tor tlax.
- Yes. - And l suppose the War Ag at the time
were torcing tarmers to go against their intuition and grow crops on land that they knew...
- Yeah. - ..wasn't suitable tor that crop.
And everything's conspired against us.
To stand any chance of survivaI, the fIax needs a speII of dry, warm weather.
Another threat to the fIax crop are woodpigeons,
who eat the seeds before they've even had a chance to grow.
The team hopes their bird-scarer wiII keep them at bay.
But there was another type of pigeon, the carrier pigeon.
Often raced by wartime farmers as a hobby,
they possessed a unique skiII of aIways returning to their home Ioft when reIeased.
Before D-day, radio bIackouts were imposed to keep invasion pIans secret.
So carrier pigeons were used to carry messages from the front Iine.
- Oh, Chris, hello. - Hello, Ruth.
Historian Dr Chris WiIIiams is showing Ruth how the system worked.
l've brought you two pigeon containers.
Every bomber that goes over Germany, or every coastal command aircraft,
has got two pigeons in it to give a distress signal,
particularly it it has to land in the sea, they've not got the radio,
they're in the dinghy,
they let the pigeon off, the pigeon tlies back to its own home loft
and that can be the difference between lite and death tor a bomber crew.
When the radio doesn't work, you use an animal instead.
The miIitary had no time to train up enough birds,
so civiIian racing pigeons were often used.
Many were parachuted behind enemy Iines in France, picked up by the Resistance,
and then given messages with inteIIigence to courier back home.
- The box... - Cardboard thing.
- ..would be dropped on this parachute... - Good griet.
Quite a small parachute but pigeons land well and they are quite light,
over enemy-held territory.
This was done about 1 6,000 times between 1 941 and 1 944.
That's, that's quite amazing, isn't it, in a war that has radar, radio...
Yeah, yeah.
Sort ot modern communications, to all intents and purposes.
..they're using carrier pigeons.
This is one ot the interesting things about this war, the different sorts ot technology.
You've got the Allies who invented the atom bomb
and they're using hundreds ot thousands ot pigeons as well.
l heard and l'm not trankly quite sure where
that this medal that's given to animals tor bravery
has been won more times by pigeons than any other species.
That's right.
During the Second World War, pigeons got about 30 ot them,
horses about three, dogs about 1 8,
but pigeons were way ahead with this.
We've actually got one here.
This is the Dickin medal, which was awarded to a bird called mercury
ot the Army Pigeon Service Special Section.
mercury was a spy pigeon.
Now, it your pigeons work well tor the RAF in the routine way,
or it they can home across sea well, they might get picked up tor special service.
Mercury carried a vitaI message 480 miIes from the Danish Resistance to Britain,
making her the most ceIebrated of aII wartime carrier pigeons.
But aIthough this homing instinct came naturaIIy,
carrier pigeons had to buiId up their stamina to fIy such Iong distances
and farmers wouId have trained their own birds.
What we've also got here is a diary ot a pigeon trainer
and what he's got is records ot how he's sending his birds away.
You know, Saturday 1 2th December,
''Two more young birds,
all tlying well except Bluecock with bad toot.''
You know, he's recording every day how his loft is working,
how he's managing to train them to know where they are and to come back to his loft.
lt you are going to be training pigeons,
you'll need a basket in which you can take them out and start releasing them to train them
and so this is your basket you'll be needing to have sooner or later...
- Oh, right. - Could be a bit ot a task tor you. Wicker.
Oh, that looks a bit more challenging, doesn't it?
This summer is turning out to be one of the rainiest on record,
so AIex is making preparations for what Iooks Iike being a damp fIax harvest.
This is my old raincoat.
lt's seen better days to be honest.
lt's developing a tew holes here and there.
But one ot the major problems is it's just no longer waterproot.
And what's happening is the rain, once it gets in,
gets across the shoulders and you get all crampy and rheumatic.
So it is in desperate need ot a waterprooting.
He's making a traditionaI waterproofing soIution with ingredients found on the farm.
And this is our beeswax trom June.
We extracted the honey trom this, and the wax has been kept in this little muslin sheet.
So that's going to be the tirst ingredient.
Still a bit sticky, so we'll get that in there.
Next, AIex is adding Iinseed oiI, produced from fIax seed.
It's highIy fIammabIe, so he's taking great care when warming it.
lt's got perfect waterprooting properties, this stuff, so that's going to go in with the wax.
This is the most dangerous part ot the enterprise.
This is where we add the paraffin.
The thing with the paraffin is it just really thins the mixture,
and ideally what l'll do is hang this up to dry
and the paraffin will actually sort ot evaporate off.
Now, it will leave a bit ot a smell tor a while, but l'm not too bothered about that.
Right, we've got the perfect consistency now.
So we're all ready to go. The only problem is,
it's incredibly hard trying to paint onto one ot these jackets just on a table.
But l've got a bit ot an idea.
Peter?
- Are you all right? - Yeah.
Can you just give me a hand a second?
Yeah, sure.
We'll prepare that later.
Can you just turn around a second? Honestly, just run with me on this.
Just going to try this on tor size, Peter.
Just try this on.
So it you don't mind, l'm now going to paint on some boiling hot wax and oil.
- How does that sound? - (Laughs)
lt teels OK. l can't teel the temperature
but l can just teel your gentle brushstrokes massaging my shoulders.
Da-dah, perfect.
WhiIe they wait for a break in the weather, Ruth's making a pigeon basket.
200,000 carrier pigeons were used by the miIitary, so the demand for baskets was huge.
Like many traditionaI crafts, basket-making saw a massive resurgence in the war.
lt's amazing the variety ot baskets that were being made during the war.
And so many ot them with a military purpose.
There were agricultural baskets, potato harvesting baskets,
there were domestic baskets tor carrying shopping and people still needed that stuff.
But then there was a huge range ot hampers tor parachutes and baskets tor pigeons.
So there seems to have been an enormous demand
and a growing demand tor pigeon baskets during the war.
With all the carrier pigeons being needed to take secret messages here and there,
How do you move the pigeons? You've got to move them somehow.
Ruth's made the base of the basket.
Now she needs to form the sides.
Oh, gawd, this is where it gets hard.
Oh, right.
Somehow these have all got to go upright.
lt's amazing too, how the strength comes to it.
l mean, these are really tlimsy-looking little bits ot stuff
and yet the whole ot that is made ot just intertwining and it's as rigid as heck.
l'm really enjoying this, l really am.
lt's probably the sort ot basket that would make a protessional willow worker wince.
So many ot these crafts, yes, it takes a litetime to be really good at them,
but making some sort ot rough stab, you know, it's just a matter ot having a go.
The revivaI in basket-making meant new apprenticeships were estabIished.
The craft became a reserved occupation,
meaning basket-makers were exempt from miIitary service.
Even the Women's Institute got in on the act, running cIasses in the art of basketry.
lt actually looks like a basket, doesn't it?
l know it's a bit wobbly. l know, l know.
lt's not exactly the most geometrical ot baskets but... (Satistied sigh)
AIex and Peter are monitoring the fIax,
but the constant rain is destroying it by washing nitrogen,
which is essentiaI for pIant growth, out of the soiI.
The War AgricuIturaI Executive Committee,
known as the War Ag,
issued advice on using chemicaI fertiIisers.
This is ammonium nitrate.
lt's a chemical tertiliser.
OK.
l mean, obviously these are chemicals that occur naturally,
but certainly by the Second World War
they're being used in their chemical torm to tertilise crops.
- Right, so that one's loaded. - Yep.
- All right pushing this one, Peter? - l think so.
Using a tractor in this waterIogged fieId wouId ruin the crop,
so the boys are using a hand-operated seed barrow.
Rotating brushes scatter the fertiIiser through adjustabIe hoIes in the sides.
A bit like walking on a high wire.
ls that heavy?
lt's not light.
Well, it's all right.
The thing is, chemical tertilisers weren't new in the Second World War.
They'd already actually been around long enough to generate a sort ot reactionary group,
people who believed tirmly in organic tertilisers.
And that using organic products was good tor the health ot the land.
But ot course in a wartime situation you couldn't afford to take those views
and in tact in taking those views you were actually seen as being unpatriotic.
AIthough chemicaI fertiIisers had been around since Victorian times,
during the war pressure from the War Ag saw their use tripIe.
Someone like me who doesn't really want to use this kind ot stuff
would be in a situation where the War Ag's saying, ''You've got to get out there,
you've got to use chemicals.
lt's the only way we are going to win this war to produce tood.''
They stiII need a speII of dry, warm weather to encourage growth and to dry out the fieId.
But instead, their bad Iuck continues.
And now the rains are coming.
Wonderful.
This couId prove catastrophic for the fIax.
Ruth has spent the Iast week Iearning the art of basketry.
The carrier pigeon basket is finished, ready for Peter and AIex to begin training.
Here we go, Ruth.
Look, look, look. Look, look, look!
- lt does actually look like a basket, doesn't it? - So what is this? Willow?
lt's willow. lt's willow.
- So what do you reckon? - Perfect.
- lt's not perfect, l'll be honest. - For a tirst attempt.
l'm so pleased with it, though.
- l know. - So you should be.
So are you going to take it away and till it with pigeons?
We're going to take it away and till it tull ot good pigeons.
- Good pigeons. - Carrier pigeons.
And then we're going to release them and you should get messages coming back.
And you break my basket, you die.
AIex and Peter don't have birds of their own,
so they're caIIing on pigeon fancier Leonard Painter.
Hats off.
Leonard's raced carrier pigeons aII his Iife.
Birds Iike his wouId have been drafted into miIitary service during the war.
- mind your head! - mind your head, right.
mind your head.
- Started off small in 1 946. - Right.
And it's gradually grown bigger. Rather than get rid ot pigeons, you add a bit on!
most ot these older ones have tlown trom Pau in the South ot France, which is 540 miles.
You see, that old tella there. He's 1 9.
- He's 1 9 years old? - Yeah.
But he tlew trom the South ot France six times. That's over 500 miles.
Really?
Could you pick us out a good-looking bird, the type ot bird we'd need today.
- Got something tor us? - They're all good-looking.
Ot course they're all... Ot course.
That's what my mum used to tell me.
The boys are going to train Leonard's young pigeons to ''home''
by taking them away from their Ioft and reIeasing them,
at first a short distance and then increasing it over time.
To transport the birds they're using Ruth's new basket.
That's a disgrace!
Look, it was her tirst attempt.
- First attempt at basket-making. - Very good.
Bold and admirable.
- Oh. - That's a temale.
- Yeah.
- She doesn't like being handled. - Right.
You have to put the lid down quick or they'll be out.
One up there, is there? Yeah.
Come on.
Any ot these, you take them 30 miles, he's back in 30 minutes.
Leonard wasjust a boy when troops were gathering here for D-day,
but he remembers IocaI homing pigeons being recruited
to carry secret messages back from France.
So were all pigeon-keepers during the war
responsible tor producing birds tor the war effort?
Not all ot them. lt you didn't join, you didn't get tood, that's all, so everybody in the club joined.
Right.
Because otherwise you didn't get an allocation ot teed.
- OK. - Feed tor the birds?
Birds. Oh, yeah! Not humans.
Particularly around the period ot D-Day, l mean, this was such a crucial operation
that everyone had to observe the sort ot radio silence.
So these pigeons would have come into their own.
That's right, yeah. Oh, yeah.
We used to wait and see it we could see them come back
and only once l see a pigeon come back, in 1 944, with two messages.
lt came trom somewhere in France.
The pigeons would tly back here. lt'd be your job to get that message...
Take it to the local police station, which was...
As soon as possible.
Yeah, they had a brieting once a week.
mind the head.
Oops, sorry.
Carrier pigeons were cruciaI to the war effort
and the Government issued strict instructions
for farmers not to shoot them.
Woodpigeons, however, destroyed crops,
so the RoyaI Observer Corps tracked fIocks down to be shot.
With meat rationed, it was a weIcome addition to the menu.
As pests, ot course, anyone could take pigeon just like they could rabbit,
and theretore it you were in the countryside it was an extra source ot meat.
Wartime, you suddenly tind
that many people who had been sort ot rather sniffy about them betore
were suddenly only too keen to eat rabbit and pigeon,
and many people trom the towns who'd never ever had them betore
in any way, shape or torm
discovered the delights.
You can see what a small bird they are.
many people hardly bother with the rest.
They just use the breasts, the two pieces here,
and sort ot barely bother with the rest,
but it makes such a good, rich, brothy stock.
l'm going to make the most ot that. l'm going to use every last little bit ot him.
So these are being boiled in broth, stock, whatever you want to call it,
with no additional tat.
ln they go.
AIex and Peter are heading out into the EngIish ChanneI
with skipper Nick Gates to train the carrier pigeons.
ReIeasing them from a boat got them used to fIying over water,
essentiaI for birds bringing back messages from the French Resistance before D-day.
Good stuff!
Like carrier pigeons and farmIand, the wartime Government aIso took controI of fishing boats,
incIuding this one, the Ocean PearI.
We're actually on a wartime boat, are we not?
Well, that's right, she was built betore the war, built right back in 1 933 as a tishing boat.
- Right. - But she was requisitioned by the Navy.
This vehicle would be running things like tood supplies to and trom the bases?
Yeah, l suppose maintenance stuff and tuel oil, that sort ot stuff.
- Rum. - Rum, yes!
Probably.
Ot course, l mean, being tarmers, our land would have been encroached on by the military,
but l suppose tishermen, you don't think the tact that their boats would have been taken,
- so that's livelihoods going as well. - That's right.
l think it was used by the Navy tor l think about tour years.
lt's just amazing, isn't it,
about how the ministry was getting its tentacles into every aspect ot British society and industry.
Not only were tarmers being put under pressure
but tishermen too having their boats requisitioned
and even pigeon tanciers having their pigeons taken tor the war effort!
You know, all with one thing in mind: to deteat the enemy.
These are our carrier pigeons
and they're currently in the basket that Ruth's made, and they're all set to go.
We've got the messages, we just need to tie them onto their legs and then we'll release them.
But we can't release them all together or the other birds will tollow the tirst bird released.
They won't do any work. And the idea here is to train them,
keep them exercised so they can tind their way home.
GraduaIIy the distance is increased
untiI they're capabIe of returning home from hundreds of miIes away.
Right, message in greaseproot paper.
- Right. - To keep it waterproot.
Our tirst pigeon, Peter.
Even today, no-one quite knows how they find their way back home.
But scientists beIieve they may have an inbuiIt compass
and use the Earth's magnetic fieId to navigate.
Just let him go. We ready?
Here we go.
Look at that.
He's tast, isn't he?
Here we go.
l hate to say it, Peter, but Southampton's that way.
(Laughs)
lt's going to Chichester!
Ruth's cooked the woodpigeons for an hour and a haIf.
Now they've cooIed, she's preparing a wartime saIad.
l'm just going to take the breasts off tirst whole, just the tour ot those,
as they'll look nice in the salad.
One ot the great things about pigeon or rabbit is that they're tull ot tlavour.
You get way more taste tor a small amount ot meat, really,
and that really helped in wartime cooking.
You think how much ot wartime tood is about potatoes and bread.
You know, it's, it's sort ot bland, bland, bland, bland, stodge, stodge, stodge.
And anything that brings a bit ot tlavour in is a huge reliet.
And then l'm supposed to arrange the meat in the bowl.
According to the recipe l'm supposed to make it look attractive.
Not quite sure how l do that.
During the war, the Government encouraged the nation to eat ''a saIad a day''.
Raw vegetabIes were recognised as being good for heaIth,
especiaIIy when Iiving on a rationed diet.
Ruth's rather unusuaI saIad is set in geIatine.
Seems a bit odd calling it a salad, really. lt's more ot a terrine, isn't it?
But that was the wartime way. Almost anything that got served cold was called a salad.
And then that can then just sit and set.
Despite AIex's misgivings,
within haIf an hour aII the carrier pigeons have returned to Leonard's Ioft,
compIeting the 30-miIe journey with their messages.
- Pigeon with the message. - Leonard, hello.
- Pigeon with the message. - Oh, my goodness!
- That's not ours already, is it? - Yeah.
Wow.
So in wartime l wouldn't have been allowed to open that.
- l'd have taken it to the local police station? - To the local meeting, yes, yes.
They'd have torwarded the message to whoever it...
You're not aware ot what's in other than the tact it's a carrier.
Right, it says, ''Ruth, weather's good.
Wind SE light.
Basket still on boat.
What time's dinner?''
Yes, well, hmm. What time's dinner? l haven't tinished it yet, but...
- l'm amazed, it's so tast! - Pigeon pie maybe!
During the war, 98% of pigeons returned with their messages, but often with mortaI injuries.
l'll see you again hopetully.
That was dead exciting.
- Take care. - OK, thank you.
A good hour after the pigeons returned, the boys are back,
in time for Ruth's revitaIising woodpigeon saIad.
This looks absolutely tantastic, Ruth.
Salad-tastic today.
Wartime salads.
So, l mean, this is a salad in jelly.
Yeah. l know, it's really interesting, isn't it, that salad really just takes off in the wartime.
Everybody's eating different types ot salad,
things they never had betore like grated carrot and beetroot.
You just don't tind them pre-war.
l have to say, that pigeon does look tantastic.
So we're calling this a bad pigeon because obviously it's teasting off the land.
lt's the enemy ot the tarmer.
Whereas our good pigeons,
it's amazing to think how many were pressed into service during the war.
And everybody's so excited about all these new communications,
the radio had been around but all this radar, it's hi-tech stuff
- and we're back to pigeons. - mm.
As weII as pigeons, farmers aIso had Iand requisitioned by the miIitary.
By 1 944, there were 623 airfieIds in Britain.
Many were Iike smaII towns and buiIt aImost entireIy on good agricuIturaI Iand.
Farmers were Iiving cheek by jowI with the miIitary.
And many witnessed fighting first-hand, not on the Iand, but in the air.
The Ministry of Information recognised that this war touched so many peopIe
that it shouId be interpreted by painters as weII as photographers.
Artist Leo Stevenson is foIIowing in the footsteps of the war artists.
- l can't believe... - Good morning.
- Hello. - Hello.
- As you might guess, l'm an artist.
- Yes, we can see. We can see. - Yes.
Right, well, l wonder it you can help me.
Because l'm going to try and imagine that l'm back in that period
doing an officially commissioned work ot art as it l'm an official war artist.
These aren't paintings artists are doing tor the love ot it.
These are things that are commissioned.
Can you imagine that amidst all the contusion and the anxiety ot warfare,
the British Government tound in its heart and also tound the money tor official war artists.
Now, they did this tor three key reasons.
Firstly to protect the best artists, to preserve their lives.
To also protect their livelihoods because nobody's going to buy art in a time ot war,
but most importantly to say something about the real experience ot warfare
that the press couldn't.
Basically the idea is this...
You're working in the tields minding your own business, as people did.
meanwhile 1 0, 20,000 teet up there,
people are trying to kill each other and the sky is tull ot contrails trom the aircraft.
But lite carries on. You have to produce the tood, you have to keep the country going.
Leo's taking photographs from which he'II base his painting.
Peter, it your hand is like that, that sort ot thing.
That kind ot thing. Just go tor it, right, OK.
Right, thank you, hold that tor about two hours and l'll be done.
Oh.
Hundreds of German aircraft were shot down over Britain,
and if the crew survived they'd be captured as prisoners of war.
Perfect.
By 1 944, women were being drafted to work in factories rather than on the Iand.
So POWs were put to work in agricuIture to heIp doubIe crop production.
Farmers found themseIves face to face with Germans,
who toId them rationing back home was far more severe than in Britain.
Hold onto this.
Even the humbIe Ioaf was hard to come by,
as bakers EmmanueI Hadjiandreou and David Carter have discovered.
l've been looking at a recipe tor a black type ot bread.
lt really has very, very meagre ingredients.
- We have here... - Yeah, l'm looking at some ot these
and it looks more like the kind ot stuff l'd teed an animal.
Yeah, well, indeed, this is something you would teed an animal
because this black pile here is silage.
Really?
And we're using silage here because commercial yeast wasn't available.
lt's termented grass.
And anything that terments has a by-product,
one ot which is the gases that enable bread to rise.
We have just chopped-up grass.
That's desperate, isn't it?
That is desperate but don't torget that wheat is a grass.
This is what was known as tree tlour and tree tlour was in tact wood shavings.
- Sawdust. - Sawdust.
So those are these ingredients.
To the siIage and sawdust, David is adding chopped fermented rye to heIp the bread rise.
But this wasn't without its dangers.
Rye is highIy susceptibIe to ergot fungus,
which when eaten can cause convuIsions and gangrene, even death.
lt might also be good to put something a little sweet in it.
Now, sugar, l...
Very hard to come by.
One thing that l have got. We've got bees and we are producing honey.
marvellous.
- So this is... - That will assist the tlavour.
As Germany's position weakened as the confIict wore on,
this isjust the kind of Ioaf ordinary Germans were forced to eat.
Pack that down.
Yet in wartime Britain, bread was never rationed.
l think that would have been regarded as a very retrograde step
on the part ot the ministry ot Health.
The minute you start rationing bread, you're really telling your public we are desperate.
- We're losing - Yeah.
- You think this is going to rise? - l'm contident it will.
Excellent.
And how long are we looking at baking this tor, do you think?
We'll try it tor about 35 minutes and let's see what it looks like.
So l'm going to put it in the oven...
- Yeah. - And we'll wait and see what happens.
Good, l'm looking torward to that.
Artist Leo is beginning to sketch out his painting of war in the countryside.
- You're trom round here, aren't you? - l have been tor 81 years.
Right.
In 1 944, pigeon fancier Leonard Painter remembers cIearIy the countdown to D-day
when tens of thousands of troops, ships and vehicIes
amassed in the fieIds around Manor Farm.
So tell me about D-day. What was it like round here?
Well, it was just like a closed-down army camp, really.
You couldn't go anywhere without a permit. Barbed wire across the roads
and you had a permit to go down there it you wanted to.
- Total lock-down. - lt was, yeah.
And every space, tield, grass verge,
was army equipment and tents and soldiers camped out.
Hundreds ot them. We had a tield day when we were boys.
What did you get up to? What sort ot stuff?
Well, down the pub the American soldiers used to line tour ot us, tive ot us nippers up...
Yeah.
..and the one that could drink a pint the quickest
would get a packet ot Chesterfields or Camels or a wad ot chewing gum.
- Brilliant. - Yeah.
- Haven't touched it since, mind. - Oh, well...
But the big nippers used to lap it up.
Go home tipsy drinking bloody beer.
The German siIage bread has been cooking for haIf an hour, and now it's the moment of truth.
Are you teeling nervous, David?
Absolutely. Nervous but excited, Alex.
lt's like giving birth to a new baby.
Hey, wow, look at that!
Wow.
lt's black. lt looks like a German black bread.
lt... l'm amazed.
lt really does look like a loat.
- OK, so it looks like a bread. - Yeah.
- The question is... - lt teels like a bread.
Feels like a bread.
ls it going to taste like a bread?
- Alex, are you going to be the guinea pig? - l am.
Good man, there you go.
The tirst person since Germany 1 944 to eat silage bread.
- lt's not inedible at all. - lt's not.
ln terms ot tlavour, l mean, l'm chewing away on something that's not going anywhere.
But the tlavour is surprisingly nice.
- l think the tlavour... - lt's sweet.
- mm. - lt's very sweet.
And that's not just the honey, that is the silage.
But again, l mean, it you only had this to eat and didn't have anything else to eat...
Yeah.
Would you choose eating grass or would you choose to eat silage bread?
l mean, you would, wouldn't you?
You can see, you can almost see how they've arrived at that
as a replacement tor black bread.
l'm having to swallow the wood.
A cup ot tea helps it down no end.
- Or rather a Steiner ot German beer, l think. - lndeed, absolutely.
From rough sketches and photos, war artist Leo is beginning his painting.
The idea at this stage is just to rough out the approximate torms ot where things are
and gradually develop a sense ot tone.
Now here we want some trees.
The idea tor this little dramatic scenario is that these aircraft have suddenly appeared
and you can almost not hear them until the last minute.
The war does seem a very strange time to start officially commissioning artists
and paying with public money tor works ot art.
But it was actually a very important thing to do.
But they weren't just making it tor their generation,
and to sort ot entertain themselves it you like,
they were going to say something tor tuture generations, post-victory, tor us.
And the point is that an artist could say something about the real experience ot warfare,
the horror ot it. Especially here in the countryside.
The one thing this art isn't is propaganda.
This was about real experience.
lt's not about what the Government wanted to portray as such.
ln tact, some ot the images produced by some ot the best artists
were sort ot contrary to the Government message it you like.
But they didn't mind that, within reason.
After a week in the studio, Leo's painting is finished,
capturing the moment a German Messerschmitt 1 1 0 was shot down by an RAF Hurricane.
All right.
- Goodness. - That's amazing.
Thank you.
Wow, you've worked hard on that, haven't you?
One ot the things that's so hard tor us to get to grips with down here
is the concept ot the war encroaching on people's lives.
You get an impression but you'll never get that sense.
- But it's brought into sharp reliet here. - Yeah.
l mean, this was a reality tor tarmers in wartime Britain, wasn't it?
This was, yes. l mean, that's the thing. lt's a thing about history.
lt's connecting with real experience.
- Well, l think that's brilliant. l really do. - Thank you, Leo.
- Thank you. - lt's a shame we can't hang it in the tarm.
This would go off now to the ministry ot lntormation. ls that right?
Well, yeah, l mean, it l'm a wartime artist, this has been paid tor by the Government,
so this would be sort ot taken to some Government source,
be shown round, an exhibition going round the country possibly,
and then after the war these paintings were shared out amongst government buildings
and little local museums.
lt it was relevant to a particular place, as this is here,
you'd probably tind a local museum tor it or something.
For the past month, the team have been battIing to save the fIax.
But one of the wettest summers on record has finaIIy got the better of it.
AIex and Peter have no choice but to write off the entire crop.
As in wartime, this is partIy the consequence of having to sow crops on unsuitabIe Iand.
l don't blame you, Alex, you know.
l don't blame you, it's the weather.
lt's the heavy clay soils and the weather.
This must have happened during the war.
The ministry must have asked people to put crops into ground that it just wasn't suitable tor.
And in tact we do know that,
but with tlax we have learnt a really hard lesson here, haven't we?
We have. l mean, the one thing l do know about tlax is it hates heavy clay soils.
But that's the only good thing, Peter.
This was tamously one ot the hardest things to harvest
and in getting this all wrong means we don't have the back-breaking job ot harvesting it.
Shouldn't count your chickens betore they hatch.
Why is that, Peter?
Because a neighbouring tarmer does have a crop and he does need to harvest it.
And l said, well, ours has tailed.
We did schedule in a harvest. We can come and help you.
- Who's ''we''? - You and me and a tew prisoners ot war.
As much as your coat's waterproot, the rain's coming down hard.
- Let's get in betore it really drenches us. - Let's get out ot here.
AIex and Peter are heading to Simon Cooper's farm to heIp harvest his fIax.
UnIike the boys'crop, Simon's was grown on weII-drained Iight soiIs,
so it's fared the wet weather much better.
It's now turned from green to brown, indicating it's ready for harvest.
- Hi, Simon. - Hello.
- Just admiring your tlax crop there. - Oh, thank you. Well, we've got a crop.
Not as good as we hoped.
We hoped it would be a bit taller, a bit thicker, but a year like this,
we've got to be gratetul tor what we've got.
By 1 944, there were 60,000 acres of fIax in Britain.
AII the pIants had to puIIed up by hand to maintain the Iong fibres in the stem.
During the war,
extra Iabour had been provided by Iand girIs, chiIdren and conscientious objectors.
But with the AIIies in the ascendancy,
prisoners of war became an ever-growing source of Iabour.
Johann Custodis'grandfather was a German POW.
Johann's studied the impact they had on wartime agricuIture.
So how many POWs were there working on the land?
There were about 1 50,000 ltalians and, at peak, about 300,000 Germans.
Almost every tifth worker in agriculture would be a German POW.
That's amazing to think.
Johann, l noticed we've got some prisoners ot war over here
that have got red diamonds on their back. What does that signity?
These coloured patches were, yes, so you can actually see these prisoners ot war
and spot them so it would be more difficult tor them to escape.
Yeah.
But primarily so you can identity them when you see them working in the tield
or see them somewhere else.
l guess it makes sense, Peter.
- l mean, they've been designed tor camoutlage. - Yeah.
So you've got to reverse that by putting a whacking great big red mark on their back.
So D-day, Operation Overlord,
what sort ot effect did it have on the sort ot attitude ot German prisoners?
D-day had a massive effect on several tronts.
l mean, the effect on the Germans was the camps in Britain
then realised that the war was pretty much over.
D-day was the point when most ot the Germans actually came to Britain,
because masses ot German prisoners ot war captured in France,
so many ot them were shipped to Britain.
On the one hand, a kind ot a logistical nightmare.
On the other hand, increasing overall the amount ot labour that you can use.
Another important source of wartime Iabour were Gypsy traveIIers.
Their nomadic IifestyIe Ient itseIf to the intense but short-Iived harvest work.
Dr Becky TayIor is an expert on how war affected their Iives.
Like everybody else, they were massively affected
by the changes ot the Second World War.
So the men went off to tight,
and this left women and children and older people in the community
in quite a difficult position because lite on the road is hard.
So a lot ot tamilies, where they could, they would roll up on tarms
and be there tor much longer periods ot time than they perhaps would
and tarmers were desperate tor extra labour,
so they might be there throughout the harvesting season
and pick up trom sort ot the pea harvest
right through to the different truit harvests,
through to potatoes and sugar beet and things like that.
And then it they'd worked, then they could often then stay over the winter.
OK.
And develop close relations with tarmers who they were working with.
And there's others who are saying,
''Actually, they're camping on land that l need tor my crops.''
And so you get a lot ot tension locally,
but some tarmers are happy to have them there
and say they're essential, they need them working on the land.
After a day of backbreaking work, the fIax crop is aImost harvested.
As we're pulling it, this is quite green some ot this.
Yeah.
So it just needs to dry out a little bit more, doesn't it?
Yeah.
And then this is going to be turned into, well, pretty much everything.
- Just about anything, trom canvas to ropes. - Parachute harnesses, hosepipes.
That has been a remarkable thing, tinding out just how many things this stuff is used tor.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
By earIy June 1 944, everything was in pIace for the D-day Iandings.
1 60,000 troops were ready to go on the first day.
MiIIions more wouId foIIow.
Carrier pigeons brought back messages from France
with information on the enemy's movements.
Now everything depended on the weather.
LocaI historian Bob Nimmo is showing AIex and Peter
the remains of a RoyaI Navy camp caIIed HMS Cricket, just a stone's throw from their farm.
It once covered 1 25 acres of woods and farmIand.
Essentially people stationed here were here to practise tor D-day?
- Yes. - OK.
And prior to D-day, there would be 4,000-odd people living in the camp.
- Right. - And then when D-day came
it was pretty nearly empty apart trom the base staff.
Everybody had gone.
So what part ot the camp are we going to?
- We're going to the extremity ot the camp. - Right.
- Which...you can see one ot the... - Oh, yeah.
Possibly one ot the central ablution blocks
and clustered round that would be 20 or so Nissen huts.
This was HMS Cricket during the war.
Nissen huts, buiIt in the woods, were standard accommodation for troops.
And here there were 1 1 0.
There's a set ot steps here.
At the end ot a Nissen hut there would be a step, l think.
- This is a base tor a Nissen hut. - A base tor a Nissen hut.
So how many people would you have had in a Nissen hut ot this size?
l understand there are about 20 or 24.
So these would be your pals that you were ultimately going to tind yourselt with.
They would ultimately be together as a tlotilla going across to D-day
or being taken across on board a ship to D-day, yeah.
This is a map ot the camp and we are up here.
OK.
There was a cinema and a NAAFl building there.
- A cinema? - Oh, yes, a cinema,
and people came down there and entertained them.
George Formby came down.
- George Formby? - George Formby, l believe, and...
He's one ot my heroes!
- ls he? - Yeah.
You may be treading on the same spot...
Do you think George Formby might have stood here?
On this very spot playing his ukulele or whatever he did.
But also the Americans played baseball in the square at Botley.
Really? So all ot this happening
right on the doorstep ot our tarm, manor Farm?
lndeed, yes.
The fIax is harvested.
Next, it was processed to extract the fibres from the stem used to make Iinen and canvas.
Anne Cooper is showing Ruth how it was done.
The first stage was to soak the crop in water, known as retting.
So this is our retted tlax.
- That's right. - lt's been in the water.
First we need to get these seed heads off because we don't need those tor the tibre.
And we're just de-seeding here, which is also known as rippling.
(Coughs)
And that was another thing.
lt's very dusty.
Very dusty.
Even in the tactories, you'd have a tremendous amount ot dust around.
- That's it, then. Right, we've rippled. - Job done.
- Now it's time to break, am l right? - lndeed.
So the purpose ot breaking, then, is to crack away the outer...
Core.
So it's quite a quick hard action, but you can see it breaking away really well.
All those little bits ot straw-like stuff tlopping up and down.
And it's softening up already.
Processing fIax by hand was Iabour-intensive.
But as demand grew during the war, the process became mechanised.
So although this is a little mini hand one,
this is more the sort ot thing tound in wartime tlax tactories.
Yes, but on a lot larger scale, obviously.
Now we, we...
- Feed in trom this side? - Through this end.
And it does teel like you're breaking something.
- lt does, doesn't it, yeah. - Yeah.
Next, the fIax is scutched to remove the broken bit of outer stem from the vaIuabIe fibres within.
Now we've already got waste, haven't we?
That's no longer part ot the main bundle.
That's what you would call tow.
Tow would be used tor cordage, tor twine.
Very, very important. Although it seems like a cast-off, not wasted.
lt's going to be saved and turned into... Righty-ho.
HeckIing then separates the fibres into individuaI strands.
This is just combing.
lt's like combing your hair, only not worrying about pulling the knots out.
Exactly.
- This is beginning to go beautitul. - Hasn't it changed. lsn't it?
That really is starting to look like hair, tlaxen hair.
So turning it into thread is just a matter ot twisting the tibres together, isn't it?
This fibre couId now be woven into canvas or Iinen ready for miIitary use.
lt's easy, really.
l'm trying to break it.
l can't break it.
Look, it's cutting my tingers. Look at that. l really can't.
- From such a delicate blue tlower in a tield... - To the strongest ot tibre.
Fantastic.
Strange though it seems, you can't...
l can't imagine how we would have won the war without tlax.
lt we hadn't had the tibre tor the parachutes and the webbing and the camoutlage nets
and the hosepipes and the tyre covers and everything,
- how would we have managed it? - We wouldn't.
How would we have done those D-day landings?
We couldn't. We couldn't.
As D-day grew ever cIoser, three and a haIf miIIion troops packed into Southern EngIand
and its viIIages had never been so vibrant.
Foreign troops formed cIose bonds with the IocaIs, drinking together and pIaying games.
- Nice one! - Ohh!
Today, basebaII is thought of as an aII-American sport,
but it was very popuIar in Britain before the War,
and in 1 938 Britain had won the first BasebaII WorId Cup.
So the team are recreating a game that took pIace here in 1 944 with the American troops.
This must have come as sort ot sweet reliet,
it you're thinking about around here gearing up Operation Overlord,
- you don't know it you'll live or die. - lt's good, isn't it?
You need something to let the tension...to be able to control yourselt. Let alone anything else.
Ohh!
Ooh!
- must have been such a melting pot ot cultures. - Yeah.
You know, right here we've got Americans, we've got British trom other counties,
German POWs, ltalian POWS.
And even just within Britain you've got people ot all sorts ot classes
and all different areas
all sort ot mixed up and dumped into the countryside.
mm.
Oh!
Yes!
lt's a stupid game anyway!
l don't know why they can't play cricket, a very decent game.
Three-two. Nobody on.
lt must have been such a hive ot activity just prior to Operation Overlord, prior to D-day,
and then the weather's right, the time comes, everyone leaves...
All overnight. One night.
l mean, it's not moving out by degrees. lt is one night, isn't it?
Everyone just goes.
lt must have been eerie afterwards.
You must have got so used to this lite, this vibrancy, and then all ot a sudden - nothing.
Stillness, and reports coming back on the news.
lt's like, my lord, l knew these guys and they're there and they're dying in their thousands.
l know.
Who's tor beer?
Over you come then.
Elderflower cordial.
- There you go. - Cheers.
- Chin, chin. - mud in your eye.
Oh, l say!
Cheers!
Productions were often put on tor the troops through organisations such as, was it,
Entertainments National Service Association, ENSA,
which the populist vote thought stood tor Every Night Something Awful.
So on that thought l give you, Alex Langlands.
Thank you!
OK, this is a song.
lt's called When The Boys Come Back From War.
When the boys come back trom war
Was the bravest thing l ever saw
With Hitler and his mob we'll wipe the tloor
SoIdiers were unabIe to traveI to the theatre, so ENSA brought the entertainment to them.
As weII as George Formby,
Tommy Cooper, Spike MiIIigan and Laurence OIivier aII worked for ENSA.
Gather round, you pretty girls, and shed a silent tear
Cos George Formby's got a melody that'll till your heart with cheer
When Paris talls we'll be on top
Berlin city our next stop
We'll sing the songs we did betore when the boys come back trom war
Dear mother, Father, Sister
Lay a place tor me
When it's all over
l'll be back tor tea
(Cheering)
(Whistles)
On the 6th June 1 944, in the earIy hours of the morning,
7,000 vesseIs, the Iargest armada ever assembIed,
saiIed to the Normandy coast and began the Iiberation of France.
D-Day was the turning point of the war in Europe.
But for the farmers of Britain, victory was stiII another harvest, and another year, away.