All language subtitles for Wartime Farm Christmas Special.en

Christmas

[Music]

1944 the Great British Countryside

setting for one of the most pivotal

battles of the second world

war Churchill called it the front line

of

freedom and it was fought by the farmers

of

Britain it was the battle to feed a

nation

over the course of a year archaeologists

Alex langlands and Peter gin and

historian Ruth Goodman worked Mana Farm

in Hampshire as it would have been

during the second world

war now Ruth and Peter are returning to

Mana Farm to recreate the conditions of

Christmas

1944 the 6th of the war a bit of fun at

Christmas this time they're without Alex

so they'll have their work cut out

with shortages biting deeper than ever

the southeast of England was in the grip

of the worst bombing campaign since the

blitz of

[Music]

1940 Ruth and Peter are about to

discover how the countryside came to the

aid of people living in cities in their

hour of

need they provided food real Country

Christmas for the town's people this

isn't

it

drink we've got a magical Christmas brew

and gifts to lift the spirits happy

Christmas this is the untold story of

the wartime farm at

[Music]

Christmas in 1939 at the outbreak of War

the government set Farmers strict

targets to double homegrown food

production by

1944 they grew an additional 6 and2

million Acres of crops an area the size

of Wales but by December 1944 Farmers

faced a new

challenge 5 years of fighting had

devastated farmland and transport across

Europe food was becoming

[Music]

scarce the government demanded an extra

700,000 Acres of pasture to be plowed

up farmers were fighting a battle to

grow crops on unsuitable land that was

prone to

flooding hedging and ditching are really

winter jobs especially around here where

we have such trouble with drainage

keeping the ditches open and clear is

vital to the productivity of the land

there's a whole network of ditches here

around all the fields all kind of carry

the water So the plan is to make all

this water drain out into the river just

that faster rather than sitting in the

land from more time Britain there were

no machines that you could really turn

to for this it still had to be done

traditionally in the old hand way with

people and Spades and rakes and Bill

hooks

you can start to see this water flowing

already which just proves how blocked up

this ditch

was undertaking hard physical work on a

rationed wartime diet was particularly

challenging

pies I've got your pies come together

well deserved so the ministry of food

set up the rural pie scheme to fill the

stomachs of hardworking Farm labor

[Music]

go Professor Karen SE has researched how

the scheme

worked by 1944 it was Distributing over

a million pies a week can you imagine

the logistical effort involved there and

it runs from 1941 through Beyond the

Wall so they're keeping people going and

this was all part of the attempt to

provide more calories for those involved

in heavy physical labor oh absolutely

literally feed them take pies and it

really did mean that women in uniform

turned up in fields carrying tray apart

it really did yes exactly I just love it

it's so British isn't it you know hey we

haven't got enough food I know what

we'll do we'll have a national pie

scheme the pies were distributed by one

of the most important organizations of

the second world

war the women's voluntary

service founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs

marchess of reading at its peak the wvs

had over a million

members often older middleclass ladies

they did whatever they could to support

the war

effort Christmas 1944 saw them called

into action in cities helping families

who had lost everything in the bombing

they fed them found them accommodation

clothing and even toys for

children so by 44 the women and the

voluntary services in the cities are

stretched to the absolute maximum and

they're getting really punch drunk and

they're having to call on the women in

the countryside through the wvs to come

in and help them so somebody like me

then who' spent the rest of the war out

in the country side might not have been

particularly comfortable in town maybe

um suddenly finds themselves helping

people who've been struggling on for

years side by side you know having had

this great movement of towns people out

into the countryside there's a beginning

also of a movement of country people

moving back into the towns to give help

to offer real practical help for people

who by this point are inconsiderable

distress who are absolutely worn down

and at their wits end they deal with

everything and they just try to make

everybody's life a little bit

better in 1944 London was under threat

from terrifying new Nazi weapons the V

bombs

first came the v1s known as doodle Bugs

unmanned flying bums difficult to detect

by

radar when they reached their target the

engine cut putting the bomb into a

deadly

dive at their Peak more than a 100

doodle Bugs a day were hitting London

causing almost 23,000 casualties

[Music]

Christine White lived in London as a

small child and remembers the

devastation they

[Music]

caused The Doodlebug is like oh I hated

that sound and you know you could see

him I mean I can remember watching one

once you know just watching this thing

going over it and suddenly it

stopped my mom I was out on the street

my mom came hairing out drag me in get

in you know

at one point my school was bombed but

luckily they got all the children into

the shelters and things like

[Music]

that in September 1944 the Nazis

Unleashed a new even more terrifying

weapon the V2

rocket at least 500 hit London killing

some 9,000 civilians traveling at over

3,000 mph they seemingly appeared from

nowhere bringing Terror and loss of life

wherever they

[Music]

fell many also had to cope with the loss

of family and friends on the

[Music]

battlefield by Christmas 1944 hundreds

of thousands of British servicemen and

women had been

[Music]

killed for Christine this was to be the

first Christmas without her father he

had been killed 6 months earlier during

the D-Day Landings

I presume your mother heard fairly

quickly yes I mean it's it's odd because

I remember she was running down the road

with this paper in her hand and then I'm

thinking what's going on you know and

she was obviously very upset it must

have been a telegram I presume but they

didn't tell children that someone had

died in those days cuz you just suddenly

Wonder well why isn't daddy around you

know why is he not

home Christine still Treasures the

letters her father sent to her before he

died

a crumb of comfort as the bombs rained

down and Christmas approached is he from

your father yes this is from my dad and

he's saying things like look after mommy

for me and hope you learn all your ABC

by the time I come home yes tell Mommy I

love you both oh yeah loads of love

Daddy yeah Chistmas 44 must have been a

pretty Grim Christmas for you I yes I

mean I don't remember much about it at

all so it must have been very much a a

non-event you

know to protect people from bombing in

1939 the government issued over 1 and A2

million domestic air raid shelters

although they offered some protection

their shortcomings were quickly

exposed lots of people during the war

really after that initial enthusiasm

branders and shelters found them less

than

ideal for a start they tended to flood

any heavy rain and you could find

yourself more than ankle Deep in

water and then there was also the

problem of just how secure they were

there were awful stories of people who

were buried alive inside the Anderson

shelters and that put a lot of people

off using them so increasingly they

became rather abandoned and like me

people started using them more for

storage than anything

else by Christmas 1944 many had been

abandoned London by far the most

populated city in Britain took the brunt

of the

attacks so people there sought out

deeper communal air raid shelters where

they decamped sometimes for weeks on

end it fell to organizations like the

women's Institute Red Cross Salvation

Army and women's voluntary service to

provide relief especially at Christmas

[Music]

I was talking to Karen about the wvs you

know they were talking so much about

what that group and other groups were

doing for people in emergency situation

and I was sort of wondering if we ought

to do our bit well definitely I mean the

countryside you've got that access to

ingredients haven't you we might not

have very many of the traditional

Christmas ingredients but we have got

plenty of food here one way or another

it's good food it's fresh food it's food

that's going to lift people's spirits

and this is the one day of the year when

I I suppose everyone just wants to

forget there's a war on and just

Celebrate life we want to do something

for the children though as well really

yeah sort of former distraction toys or

something that old games yeah I mean

there wouldn't have been much in the

shops in 1944 to buy a child you would

have to have made it this is the thing

you don't buy Christmas you make

Christmas Christmas isn't about what you

can buy in shops Christmas is about the

people you gather around you and what

you do with your time yeah well that is

the truth isn't it everything else can

go

until now it had been the role of the

countryside to grow food for the nation

and to take in evacuees from the

[Music]

cities by 1944 with many London streets

reduced to rubble and services at

Breaking Point the country people headed

for the city to

help the government recognized that one

thing in particular was vital to keeping

up British morale

[Music]

beer they instructed it should never be

rationed and during the war production

Rose by a

third Churchill demanded all Frontline

troops should receive four pints a

week and women Factory workers were

encouraged to drink beer for the first

time becoming known as the Pint pot

girls the main ingredient of beer is

molting barley and before the war nearly

40% was grown

abroad the war cut off Imports so

Brewers were forced to water down their

beer to meet

Demand by 1944 shortages became so acute

that the ministry of food urged Brewers

to experiment with alternative

ingredients Peter's going to make his

own beer a morale booster for those

forced to spend Christmas underground

he's calling on expert in rural crafts

Colin Richards for

help as you can see it's sort of dark

it's damp and nobody knows where they

are during the war it was imperative

that nothing went to waste so when the

ministry of food got wind of a surplus

of potatoes they suggested they should

be used to make beer Colin's Surplus is

stored in a tunnel was it common to keep

potatoes on theground in the war well

the ministry of Supply uh requisitioned

a lot of underground workings for the

storage of sort of military goods

particularly sort of ammunition

Torpedoes Etc but for sort of farms and

farmers in the rural areas that had old

mine workings you know it it was an

opportunity to keep things safe and not

just for themselves but for other

Villages and for whole communities so

that if there was an incident you know

if there were bombs or if there were um

you know the Smashing of services you

know sewers water then the food wouldn't

be

lost the first stage in making the beer

is to crush the potatoes a job that

calls for a bit of

improvisation and Collin's coal

powerered

ambulance Henry and I have been given

our instructions by calling

potato beer sounds a bit strange

apparently makes you fart we've been

told wash potatoes which we've done bag

the potatoes in small sacks which we've

done and lay the potatoes out on this

metal

track which we're doing cuz basically

these potatoes have to be somehow broken

up so we can release the starches and

the sugars to make our WS which forms

the basis for our beer Colin has got an

idea along those

lines well that's exactly what we want

really isn't it absolutely perfect we

crushed it enough to expose the inner

surface of the potato but not so much

that it's just going to turn into one

big stodgy mess rationing and shortages

made celebrating Christmas a

challenge despite this the women's

voluntary service tried to make it as

normal as possible for displaced

[Music]

families magazines published ideas on

creating make do and mend

[Music]

decorations lanterns from any bit of

colored paper I got a bit of wallpaper I

found at the back Karen's getting tips

from the 1944 land girls newsletter on

using the papery covering around the

fruit of the filis plant commonly known

as Chinese

lanterns during the war they were a

garden

favorite here's a letter to the editor

it says I would like to suggest the use

of Chinese lanterns which are these uh

for Christmas decorations strip the

lantern from the stalk of the plant and

thread cotton through the stalks of the

lanterns they look very ice hung around

pictures or make a bright splash of

color strung across a room as paper

chains used to be strung and in fact

they're absolutely right it's making the

most beautiful Christmas decoration look

at this that is going to be gorgeous and

it is very

colorful but you can imagine in families

that have been bombed out that have been

that suffered all sorts of trauma if

they could have salvaged something like

this that's part of the family in a

sense it would help them to remember

that it would help them to remember

perhaps lost family members that are no

longer with them so I think it's

something that becomes very powerful

actually Christmas trees were scarce as

wood was taken by the war

effort tight controls on the use of

paper meant decorations were reused year

after year and with the fall of the Far

Eastern rubber plantations to the

Japanese balloons were scarce

but the enemy inadvertently dropped an

ideal Christmas decoration from the sky

strips of metal foil called

chaff well this was dropped by enemy

planes to confuse the radar to make it

look like a huge force was coming over

um to draw out res sing German plane

would come over Chuck this Chuck this

stuff out we looking at our radar

screens we think oh my goodness there's

a huge Squadron coming scr everybody

they' all go up in the air and there'd

be nothing yeah so pick this up over the

fields and it's kind of one in the eye

for the Germans right I'm now going to

turn this into a Christmas decoration

you think this is a a force where evil

it's not it's a Christmas decoration so

I suppose these sort of things you know

they just sort of to cheer people up

aren't they really a bit of fun at

Christmas something a bit

different some sort of feeling of a

special day you can't do it by buying

loads of stuff you can't do it by giant

expensive presents you can't do it by

overindulging in Posh food you've got to

do it somehow haven't you and using any

resource that you have to

hand in the spirit of wartime

improvisation Colin 2 is using any

resources he has to hand to build a

makeshift Christmas

[Music]

Brewery right this is uh our sort of

mash ton I suppose we're going to pop

the potatoes in here pop some water in

here and it will gently heat but it

won't boil and that will hopefully bring

out the starches and the sugars stick

some water in the bottom

first this sugar starch solution known

as W will form the basis of the

beer time for the

tassis oh they're nicely crushed I've

Got Confidence Colin how about you I

think so because uh you know everything

you need to make beer we've got here

we've got sort of heat we got the

potatoes so everything else is down to

Nature really I like the fact you class

potatoes is something you need to make

beer and I suppose in 1943 with

shortages and 1944 it kind of was you

know keeping morale up and particularly

at Christmas you know it was very

important there's a lot on our shoulders

isn't there there will be if you drop

that right I suppose we just need to

fill this up with water now it wasn't

just ingredients for the beer that were

in short

supply containers to put the beer in

were becoming increasingly scarce by 199

44 I've just been hunting around the

farm for a container to put our beer in

and the obvious choice is a barrel and

they are beautiful pieces of

craftsmanship and they are built to last

but sadly cuz it's an organic

material they

don't that's that's dry

rods this is pretty much useless I

mean back in the day we could have just

fixed this but during the war you can't

get hard hold of this Oak because

although we've got Oak in Britain it's

the wrong type of Oak I know it sounds

absurd but it's all it's all naughty and

gnarly and it's tough to work and this

stuff was coming from the baltics but

that is completely cut off so we're

going to have to be slightly inventive

about where we get a container for our

beer and it is quite critical because

beer it will condition in its

container wartime Brewers turn to an

ancient alternative

using a raw material Britain still had

in

abundance

clay Peter's calling on the services of

Potter Mike Fletcher to make some

wartime beer

flaggin so I suppose during the war

Pottery wasn't a reserved occupation so

all those young Potters that have been

training up they would go off they've

gone off they've gone off so I suppose

the the old boys people like

myself they're too old to TI but still

can pot throw a left behind so we're

extremely

busy the next stage put it we open the

[Music]

clayo and then I can then start

squeezing from the

bottom and then you start pulling the

clay up

yeah this flagin will hold a gallon but

during the war even bigger stoneware

containers were made to hold nine

gallons so big they had to be reinforced

with iron Rings you make it look so

easy then just make the

neck like

so in 1944 the V weapons destroyed

thousands of homes in London leaving

many children not just homeless but

without any possession

many had never known a peacetime

Christmas the women's voluntary service

recognized the importance of toys in

distracting children from the horror

that surrounded them and began a drive

for makeshift Christmas

[Music]

presents second world war expert Biff

Raven Hill has come to help Ruth turn

household waste into doll's house

furniture it's all just rubbish really

isn't it the sort of things that most

people would throw out in a modern

world just sort of finding a new life

and a use tiny little bits and Bobs

making toys from junk had been a popular

Pastime before the war and this 1930s

book practical suggestions in toy making

is full of ideas for

children but now in Wartime it became a

necessity you I mean nowadays there is a

sort of doll's house industry and and

people can buy readymade bits and Bobs

but doll's houses will really do it

yourself weren't they during the war now

I found this and this is a Christmas

1943 and of course there were lots of

articles in here I mean it looks so

modern doesn't it it's wonderful let the

doll's house go I love it and it's

basically made out of wire and bits of

canvas and it's just bent

round just a few yards of flexible wire

a bit of gummed paper tape the sort

pasted onto Windows during the Blitz and

a frag of material from the peace box

can be converted into an enchanting set

of furniture for the dolls and of course

during the war all resources were so

precious and every single bit of

everything was saved and scavenge and of

course things like these cigarette

packets so many people smoked that there

would have been tons of these around and

the same with matchboxes of course I

mean that's all been made out of

matchboxes and then cigarette cards I

noticed as well which everybody used to

collect at the time well these make

super pi

for a bedroom wall or a sitting room

wall because again you can use mat scale

aren't they to make little frames to

make tiny frames now you're making a

little bed spread aren't you I am I've

made a

pillow it's a gingham kind of doll's

house isn't it it is a bit yes okay and

then you'll cover it on the

[Music]

top look a little

bed here's the truth let's go for it the

beer flagen has dried now it must be

glazed to make it

watertight

and and there it is

glazed what exactly is a glaze a glaze

is glass it's sealing the pot so there's

tiny tiny particles of glass in here

really at the end of the day yes because

it's the same recipe as

glass the neck is also glazed

traditionally a darker shade we've added

red iron oxide and 2% and and 2% magnes

oxide and that will give it that lovely

honey colored take it like that it's

heavier than you think nice and level so

look at the top top yeah and that and

you want to go about an inch past the

shoulder there we go go on down down

down and then

up

fantastic one glazed

[Music]

pot the pot must be at 1300° C so Colin

is rigging up a makeshift Kil Pete here

we are Colin wow what do you think you

made that I'd like to say I did but I

didn't all right to reach this

temperature they're using a highly

combustible fuel brought to Britain

during the second world war by American

troops

propane W propane gas such as this was

discovered in 1910 uh it is a byproduct

of the refining process of making petrol

and it it was very very big in America

and it was essentially introduced to the

UK when the troops came across because

we basically had Town gas that was

produced by cold and after the second

world war propane gas had its golden age

it became a major fuel source not only

in America but also this country as

well anyway we should get a lid on this

yes well it's not just lid um you've

wanted to get as much benefit out of

this gas that's going in so I thought

what we could do is actually create

another chamber where we could put

resinous pine and try and extract some

pitch and some oil out of the

pine during the war fuel was precious

and wasn't to be wasted so in true

wartime Spirit Colin is also using the

K's heat to make pine oil

when Pinewood is heated to around 300° C

oil is released and can be used as a

lubricant or to protect wood and metal

from corrosion a great resource to have

around a wartime

Farm in the areas where there were a lot

of Pine Forest you would do this on a

colossal scale

really with the pine oil and the pot

cooking away the beer is flavored with

hops and the fermenting of sugar in the

potatoes into alcohol is begun with

yeast producing beer and Gifts would go

a long way to bring Christmas cheer to

those under attack in cities but people

also looked for comfort and Hope from

another more spiritual

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

Source places of worship had a vital

role to play especially at Christmas

[Music]

St Bartholomew's Church is where workers

at Mana Farm have prayed for centuries

GL this is the sixth Christmas of the

war and much has changed since peace

time many of our loved ones are still

far from home and will again not be

joining us this

Christmas the danger of invasion has now

passed and with quiet confidence we can

see the end in sight before the war

religion had been declining in

popularity but by Christmas 1944 there

had been a marked

change

the angel sing glory

to the church had quite a special place

in Wartime Britain for many people it

was a source of great comfort and

strength but then there were other

people who found that the war turned

them right off religion

and you notice that the numbers of

people going to church begin to fall

very rapidly after the second world

war there was a time when people went

one way or the other a sort of

polarization when some turned to the

church with more further perhaps than

they'd have before and others turned

[Applause]

[Music]

away the government was looking to the

church for Bing together of the

community of all people and this was

happening well right across the whole of

the Western World Stalin amazingly in

Russia you know having banned religion

actually re- encouraged Christianity

during the war hoping for this effect

amongst the Russian population before

once again Banning religion afterwards

and our government thought that the

church could offer something that bound

the British people together

with to

DW

jesusman

the Angels Sing glory

[Music]

to

K it wasn't just the British people that

church bound

together by Christmas 1944 one in five

Farm Workers were German or Italian

prisoners of War

as Godfrey white recalls he became

friends with two Germans stationed

nearby do you remember prisoners of War

oh yes yeah yeah we um I know two by

name Frank Shon who's died now but

George gabar is still alive they both

married ladies from from the area some

were accepted by the local church and

there are accounts of them singing

carols to the congregation in German

[Music]

did you know how they were sort of

regarded by The Wider Community there

was a little bit of not quite everything

didn't go quite smoothly but the ones I

knew were very good got on very well

with them

[Music]

I suppose it's very easy to always think

of Germans as Nazis but oh Frank Shan he

was in the SS right he was in the Hitler

Youth and was forced into it every light

right rather than volunteer yeah so it

was a sort of you had to yeah

yeah both Frank and as I say um George

gabar both involved themsel with the

church at Bley so the church is very

much a center of the community very much

a center of the community yeah

especially at a time like this at

Christmas and you can put your

differences

[Music]

aside after 6 hours of Brewing Peter's

come to see how the potato beer is

coming along

[Music]

should we give it a go

right almost looks like beer it

does yes smells good it does doesn't

it oh it's very hoppy and it's quite

sweet and it's very

hot actually it's very nice it's lovely

it is I'd I'd certainly you know welcome

this type of beer yeah so our little

clay pot for our beer is cooking away in

the Kil the oil's coming out and it

almost tastes like we've got a magical

Christmas brew it certainly

does work looking for the war effort

came in addition to the day-to-day

duties of running the farm 365 days a

year even Christmas

day let's wash her adders off first let

make sure she's reasonably clean so that

nothing gets into the

milk but unlike those living in cities

country people didn't have to survive

purely on

rations our cows really represent one of

the major differences between life and

food particularly for Country dwellers

to those who are living in the towns all

the milk officially from all of our cows

goes into the central rationing system

prioritizing mothers and babies in

particular but as an incentive farmers

were allowed to take as much milk as

they wanted from their cows for personal

use so there's no shortage on milk

butter and cream for us

Peter's also busy on the farm heating

The Pinewood on the Kiln has extracted

oil that's quite nice it

is he's using it to weatherproof farm

tools I can't believe that we managed to

get so much oil and such great oil out

of so little wood

fantastic Ruth and Peter are going to

leave the countryside and head to London

to bring some Christmas cheer as many

farmers did in

1944 they've made improvised presents

for

[Music]

children and created makeshift

decorations to brighten up underground

air raid

shelters the clay flagons are fired and

filled with morale boosting potato

beer uh communal feeding was also

important to keep spirits up a job

undertaken by the women's voluntary

service in London Ruth's going to help

cook a wvs style Christmas

Feast by the sixth Christmas of the war

food rationing was more severe than

ever traditional fair was not an option

so they had to find

Alternatives yet at times there were

huge surpluses of vegetables this was

thanks to the government's dig for

victory campaign

nothing went to waste in Wartime so

ruths kept a surplus of carrots in the

Anderson shelter for

Christmas boy have I got a lot of

carrots at least we got something for

Christmas let me have that one he

down well I think this beer is really

going to boost Mor Colin's coal

powerered ambulance is only capable of

traveling short distances

[Applause]

so Ruth and Peter are taking the train

to

London unlike petrol which was in short

supply coal was a fuel that Britain had

in

[Applause]

[Music]

abundance you all right with that

just a bit

fragile before the war the railways had

employed over 500,000 men but with

100,000 of them called up to fight like

so many other roles in Wartime their

shoes were filled by

women really struggling with those

couplings aren't

they oh amazing J you get women doing

absolutely everything on the railways

all the heavy work except for driving

trains I it's the only thing that they

didn't draft women in for it takes so

long to train an engine driver that that

remained with the male workers who had

the experience women doing the shunting

women doing the portering women in the

booking lodges women in the signal boxes

women losing fingers women losing

[Music]

fingers with rail travel the only viable

option over long distances by 1944

before passenger numbers had

doubled getting a seat was a

luxury troops and War rated Freight took

priority so Journeys were often delayed

and sometimes painfully slow

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

we're lucky to be able to go on a train

really aren't we I mean when you think

how much pressure the railways were

under during this period of the war

they're moving all the Munitions they're

moving all the troops around the place

they're trying to do such a large

proportion of the freight to get it off

the roads to keep the roads free you get

this huge pressure they're running extra

trains but they're also busily saying is

your journey necessary is our journey

necessary um yes of course is necessary

yeah important more work Ruth you know

work

[Applause]

I'm going to go and have a look in the

GPO you know the mail yeah see you in a

bit during the war the Royal Male was

entirely dependent on the railways to

move post around the country on top of

the surge in passenger traffic there

were some 350 million items of post to

move at

Christmas with families split apart by

War more Christmas cards than ever were

sent

Ruth is meeting post office historian

sirel Parsons to see how it coped hello

IO this is such an iconic image

traveling post office thing I mean did

they keep running right throughout the W

so the actual sorting of letters on the

train ceased in about the middle of 1940

and the Reckoning is that the service

was cailed because the trains were were

disrupted by bombing and so forth trains

had to be re-rooted and of course

traveling post offices had previously

run to very very strict timetables over

strict Roots but of course the trains

were still vital for actually carrying

the

[Music]

letters but all the extra male to and

from those in the armed forces was bulky

so the post office came up with an

ingenious solution the air

graph to save space letters were

miniaturized into microfilm flown to

their destination then blown up and

printed at the other

end quite early in the war The Proposal

came to photograph the letters which

were written on standard forms and you

could perhaps have 1,500 letters on one

roll of film taking up far far less

space so you get something sort of that

size that's right in the air repelling

flying across arriving in a post office

in Britain and then somebody has to to

sort of open the film and and develop it

and each frame then becomes a letter a

letter that goes through the standard

mail that's right these are just

incredible aren't

they this is a really lovely one Dear

Dad just to wish you a happy Christmas

and may all your wishes for the new year

come true your loving son Eric and at

the bottom he is

hoping this busy system creaking at the

seams how much more important at

Christmas than at any other time I I

mean keeping these communication lines

open must have

been well just so emotionally important

to

people the Lord Nelson locomotive built

in 1926 actually worked on these routes

during the

war come thank you the task of running

an overloaded and overstretched rail

system 24 hours a day 7 days a week was

made even more difficult at Night by the

blackout

fireman Bob cwright joined the railways

50 years ago and was trained by drivers

who worked through the

[Music]

war you can imagine at night the glare

from the Firebox on one of these Eng was

considerable and there was a danger of

enemy aircraft seeing that so the whole

cab was sheeted in there would have been

a sheet top of the cab back to those

irons there and anything stop light

showing where you so you couldn't really

see where you were

going apart from the little bit of nine

Vision that you had um and of course one

of these engines actually ran into a

bomb crater then in the W it just went

straight in but I suppose all that extra

pressure during the war all those extra

Journeys must have had quite a toll

there was but you share the wor you know

and and there was a tremendous

camaraderie you help one another out you

look after one another um it it's a very

oldfashioned system and one unfortunate

sort of died to death with modern

thinking in the modern

[Music]

[Applause]

world Peter and Ruth are heading to

chiselhurst Southeast of London just 10

mil from the City

Center thank

you oh was lovely and rainy again W it's

Christmas isn't it we're lucky it ain't

snowing 100 ft below ground is one of

London's largest wartime air raid

[Applause]

shelters chiselhurst caves are made up

of 22 Mi of tunnels dug by hand between

the 13th and 19th centuries to extract

chalk and Flint to build London

[Applause]

in 1944 the women's voluntary service

along with the Red Cross and the

Salvation Army were here to offer food

and support to those Sheltering from V2

[Music]

Rockets today Jim Gardner owns the caves

and his father was a warden here during

the war Jim you're right hello Peter

good to meet you how are you very well

thank you well welcome to jle her's

caves so what was it like down here in

Christmas 1944 packed it was probably at

the height of its use uh the V2s were

coming down like rain um there were

15,000 people down here at the busiest

times um from all over South London U

North Kent living down here Sheltering

from the bombs one or two bombs landed

right above us and uh they didn't hear a

thing down

here 15,000 people living in the caves

warmed the air temperature by 10°

centigrade and after the war it took a

whole year to cool down

again the sign here says that they were

selling tickets sixs a week to shelter

down here and that covered the cost of

the sanitary works that they had to do

cuz if you imagine several thousand

people in a cave um come morning there's

a bit of stuff to

move and I suppose since you couldn't

hear the bombs down here you could

actually get a silent night at Christmas

uh yes apart from 15,000 people

breathing and sighing and uh and snoring

yes it was a very peaceful night come on

Henry cooking food in the caves would

have burnt too much oxygen so the

women's voluntary service prepared meals

above

ground so the wvs actually initially

just set up sort of tea tea wagons

outside such places so the people

Geniuses yeah so the people can at least

go and get a hot cup of tea and then

gradually that involves into organizing

more food and particularly at christm

with turkey scarce stuffed rabbit was a

wartime

substitute we got loads of rabbit meat

it's going to be a real Country

Christmas for the town's people this

isn't

it we've got to do enough stuffing for

eight bunnies that's made out of parsley

and celery which is out of this cool

little

magazine the ministry of food produced a

booklet in 1944 to help cook a Christmas

meal using non-ra

ingredients they estimated that only one

family in 10 would get turkey or Goose

for their Christmas dinner but a stuffed

baked rabbit made a tasty

alternative it doesn't do any harm to

have loads of stuff in there because

those rabbits have got to go between

everybody chances are that many of the

people that we are feeding being townies

are not used to eating rabbit whereas

you know country people always rabbit

yeah um and there was also a sort of

social snobbishness about it as a meat

before the war rabbit was a meat of the

poorer country sort you know and other

people didn't touch it they sort of

slightly snobby and Sneed at it because

the war goes

on it starts to look a lot more

attractive and you find that towns

people begin keeping rabbits for meat in

their backyards whereas originally it

had only been country people who did

that yeah you know you sort of see it

moving through so rabbit became really

popular for a while and only it's a real

shame really that since the war it's

disappeared from the modern British

church cuz it is

[Music]

nice underground in chiselhurst caves

Peter seeing how the 15,000 londoners

were accommodated sometimes for weeks on

end so did people live just wherever

they wanted well they were assigned an

area for instance this is where it all

started you can see the number on the

wall A1 they thought that A1 down to

a29 three or four beds bunks underneath

each number that would probably be

enough but from then on it just grew and

grew they were into the xys and Zeds in

the end so there is quite a lot of

infrastructure down here oh yes by 1944

the government had spent the money they

had put in all modc

cons and it became an underground town

and people live down here for weeks

possibly months at a

[Music]

time their homes in London had been

bombed out they had nowhere to go and

this was warm not particularly

comfortable but it was safe um and

everything was

provided there was an underground Cinema

Chapel citizens advice Bureau even a

hospital

[Applause]

[Music]

um set up as a full-time facility um it

had a doctor and two nurses on call

every day yeah did you get any births

down here one one that we know of and

they named her cavina to celebrate the

fact she'd been born in a cave not

something I think she overly appreciated

in later

Life by Christmas 1944 most of the

ingredients needed to cook Christmas

dinner were severely rationed

so Ruth's making a wartime version of

candid orange candid

carrot candy and carrots is really easy

like candy and peel you don't have to be

that delicate with it if you try and

Candy whole soft fruit it's a really

long slow

process wrong very easily but carrots

and orange peel you can do in a

day so you sort of need something that's

got a little bit of structural Integrity

to it yeah and then you boil them very

briefly really in a sugar syrup the wvs

actually got an additional sugar ration

for this sort of work which would have

helped rationing called for culinary

Innovation some made their cooking fat

go further by mixing paraffin with it

while ground dried beans mixed with

almond Essence replaced maip

pan looks much more like orange peel

doesn't it out of mar now

to bulk out the meager rationed

ingredients Ruth's making the most of

the carrot glut there will be boiled

carrots to accompany the rabbit carrot

soup carrot cake and carrot fudge made

with grated carrot in

gelatine this is just such an odd recipe

I think it's another one of these

wartime things in which they're trying

to sort of mimic familiar Foods you know

you can't make fudge you can't afford

fudge because it's made entirely of fat

and sugar

so how do you make something that gives

people a feeling of fudge even though

there's next to no fat and next to no

sugar goodly handful of my grated

carrots and then that's my orange

Essence a handful of grated

carrot so I just need to turn it into a

basin or a tray and let it set

[Music]

Christmas Day traditionally a time of

peace and goodwill to all

mankind but in Wartime celebrating

Christmas was an act of defiance in the

face of death bomb damage and constant

shortages in 1944 the population of

Britain was more determined than ever to

create festive Spirit Against All

Odds on Christmas Day itself the bombing

stopped the 15,000 people Sheltering in

chiselhurst caves weren't to know this

so it would be another day spent

[Music]

underground the food prepared by the

women's voluntary service is ready and

Ruth's joined by Peter who's brought

along his potato

beer go

got to be very careful this

beer makes you very gassy and we are in

cave

so have a

taste tastes all right it just smells

horrific it smells more like cider

that's what it is it smells more like

really scrumpy

cider food was recognized as vital to

maintaining the health and morale of

those in emergency

situations once again notice here's the

wvs making the most of things jumping in

when there's an

emergency ordinary circumstances you

like some rabbit certainly would thank

you very much there we are keeping moral

up in these sort of conditions is really

important isn't it I mean if you're

going to ward off the cold and cope with

the dark you've got to have something

that just sort of gives you a g up every

now and again but I mean you know we've

created a Christmas out of out of next

to nothing but also out of um a surplus

stock so Surplus potatoes to make this

beer and surplus carrots to make

everything

carroty pretty much everything down here

it's a very carrot themed meal shredded

carrot you've got boiled carrot carrot

cake carrot

fudge candy carrots you can yourself

that's thank you Merry Christmas Merry

christmasm you definitely like some beer

tastes better and it

smells with so many Sheltering

underground there was no communal eating

area so people simply ate by their

[Music]

beds those who had lost everything to

bombing also needed clothing and bedding

and again the wvs came to the rescue i'

got another blanket here for you can I

just tuck it on the bed at the back

there you're going to need that later

aren't you right stick the blindfold on

even children's games took on a wartime

theme none more popular than pin the

mustache on Hitler right here you go in

your hand you good with that you can

fill the pin yeah you're going to stick

that on Hitler but first the these guys

are going to spin you around oh no

historian Dr John Martin is an expert on

wartime farming in the direction is is

this quite a common thing in the war

variations of games like this were very

common in the war particularly

encouraged by the government to

reinforce the idea who the evil people

were good

effort it was propaganda designed to

particularly in terms of humiliating a

figure who was actually sending over V

Rockets particularly in the latter stage

of the war which were completely

indiscriminate so I supp poke fun yeah

poke I think that's very important to

poke fun of them well

done that's pretty

good the Salvation Army too specialized

in disaster relief providing spiritual

support basic Comforts and of course

[Music]

music at Christmas

1944 they played here in the

[Music]

caves what an atmosphere though I know

it's a strange mix isn't it it's a a

lovely jial part atmosphere especially

in such a confined space but thinking

about what must have been going on up

there I have to say the whole of this

exploring the the wartime thing I find

myself in deeply mixed emotions there's

a bit of me that feels full of patriotic

pride and there's a bit of me that is in

all of people who somehow Found the

courage and the energy to go through it

on boxing day at 20 9 in the evening the

bombing of London resumed with a V2

hitting a pub in Islington killing 68

people it will be eight more long months

before the war would finally be

over Christmas 1944 would be the last of

the second world

[Music]

war well

here's to make doing amending here's to

make doing amending here's to a peaceful

future and may there never have to be

another Christmas

Underground happy Christmas Happy

Christmas Happy

Christmas

cheers to find out more about how

Britain fed itself during the second

world war the open university has

produced a free booklet and online

interactive challenges call 0845

36257 or go to bbc.co /w time Farm happy

Christmas well a favorite way to spend

Christmas Eve getting in the mood with

the traditional carols from Kings

College Cambridge tonight at 6:15 on BBC

2 but next it's a spring watch guide to

The elusive otter

[Music]