Original subtitles

[Music]

The great British

countryside setting for one of the most

pivotal battles of the Second World

[Music]

War. Churchill called it the front line

of

freedom. It was a battle fought by the

farmers of Britain.

[Music]

With the Nazis attacking British

shipping and attempting to cut off food

imports, it fell to the farmers to save

the country from

starvation. They were tasked with

doubling the amount of food grown in

Britain's

fields. If they failed, the nation could

be starved into surrender.

[Music]

Now, historian Ruth

Goodman and archaeologists Alex

Langland's and Peter Gin are turning

back the

clock. Working Manora Farm in Hampshire

as it would have been in the Second

World

War. It's not a glamorous business, this

reserved occupation of farming.

[Applause]

Coming up, the team faced the conditions

of 1941 when continental Europe had been

virtually engulfed by the Nazis. Britain

stood isolated against Germany with no

prospect of victory in

sight. The demands on the nation's

farmers had never been so

urgent. Some things go wrong with this

machine, you can do more damage than by

hand milking. The third year of the war

saw government intervention stepped up

and farmers felt the burden of constant

surveillance. Uh kind of like the iron

fist in the velvet

glove. From here on in, there's no

tolerance for

failure on the wartime

[Music]

farm. Ruth's foraging for

wood. With fuel in short supply, this

was a crucial job in the early months of

the year.

Actually, finding woodland out like this

during the

war full of dead

wood would be rather a

windfall. Nowadays, nobody touches all

this fallen stick. They haven't got any

use for it. But during the war,

everybody was desperately trying to heat

their homes any way they could. With

coal rationed and all other fuels under

ration as well, any extra little bit of

stick you could gather made a huge

difference.

Even when they're finished burning,

they're still a really useful resource.

The ash that's left after it's burnt

contains a really large concentration of

potassium, which makes a fantastic

fertilizer. So, as soon as I finished

burning the wood, I should be collecting

all the ash from underneath the pot,

spreading it on the garden.

Fantastic free

fertilizer. Right, that's that

bundle. There we go.

Oh god, what a beautiful

day. For wartime farmers, day-to-day

life wasn't just about their own

survival. The nation's ability to feed

itself rested on their shoulders. And in

1941, the pressure of official was

suddenly

increased. Just before the outbreak of

war, the government had passed an

emergency law taking control of every

aspect of

farming. To administer it, every county

had a war agricultural executive

committee known as the war act. They

would dictate the way the land was

farmed. Now with Britain isolated and

the nation's food supply in more peril

than ever, the gloves came off.

Look, look, look lively. Ruth historian

Brian Short has studied the wars and the

powers they had.

Man from the ministry. Oh, hello. Good

to see you. Hello. Good to see you.

Hello. You come to keep an eye on us? I

have. I have. In the battle to feed

Britain, it was crucial to know exactly

how much food was being produced. So in

1941, the government launched the

National Farm Survey, the most thorough

survey of British farming ever

undertaken. And it had a sting in the

tail. One of the most contentious

questions of all was how good was your

farming. Okay? Um and this graded you as

an A, B, or C farmer. And if you're

grade C, watch out.

Se-rated farmers could face the ultimate

sanction by order of the war a they

might well come in take over part of the

farm without agreement they could force

it. Oh absolutely no agreement necessary

or they could actually ask the farmer to

leave his farm

altogether. Uh they could take over the

farmhouse as well and the farmer farmer

just didn't have a leg to stand on. I

mean he was there uh for the purposes of

winning the war. something like 2,700

farmers are going to be turned off their

farms during this war. Um, and something

like 10,000 farms are going to be

affected by bits of their farms being

taken over by the war eggs.

To avoid this fate, it was crucial for

farmers to impress the war inspector.

Well, we we have a field plowed. We're

just desperate to put another crop in.

Is there anything you suggest? Yes.

Well, one of the things that uh I think

would be really good um that that is

needed a great deal I know is is flax

during during this war. So that's for

for textile production. It's for

textiles. Yes.

Flax was grown for its fibers which were

used to make fabric such as parachute

webbing. But Britain's farmers had

little experience of growing it. Before

the war, flax had been imported often

from Russia. With these supplies cut

off, British farmers were expected to

make up the

shortfall. And you'd be doing the nation

a real favor by putting flax in this

area. So, if we were to grow flax, we

might get a little bit closer to that

precious a grade. You'd be Yes. You You

would please the ministry. Right. We

should show you the rest of the farm.

That would be a very good idea indeed.

Well, it's just down a lane. We give you

a cup of tea. No, no, no, no tea,

please. I'm above corruption. Okay,

Henry, come on.

When it came to the farmyard, the

warag's number one priority was milk

production. For a population fed on

rations, milk was a vital source of fat,

protein, calcium, and vitamin C. It was

known as nature's most complete food.

Mana Farms dairy herd are expecting

calves in a few weeks. Once they're

born, the cows will start producing

milk. Come and have a look after you.

Thank you.

So, it's only a small milking parlor,

but we have got milking machine. Very

good. So, with our cows about to calf,

you'd be looking for us to get the

maximum amount of milk out of their

their mothers. Yes, absolutely. It's

very very important. The war eggs like

to portray themselves as the farmer's

friend. Uh but it's uh kind of like the

iron fist in the velvet glove.

It might be a nice suit, but he's a hard

man,

right? We better crack on then.

Brian will return in a few weeks to

allocate the team an A, B, or C grade.

Before then, they must get the milking

parlor up and running and sew the

flax. Alex wants to harness up-to-date

technology to get the crop into the

field. So far, the team have been using

a

Fordson, the most popular tractor of the

war. But Fordsons are notoriously hard

to

start. There were other machines being

developed in the 40s.

Alex has come to meet Rolley Phillips,

an expert in early tractors, who's got

hold of an alternative. Morning, Alex.

How are you? All right. How are you

today? Okay. Yes, very well. And looking

forward to uh seeing what the field

marshall can do. Yes. Far easier to

start the field marshall and the Ford

stand that you love so much that your

shoulder doesn't.

The field marshall was more economical

to run and more powerful than some

earlier tractors.

But best of all, there was a shortcut to

starting it. The other way that you

should start this Marshalls is a a

shotgun cartridge. Right. Okay. Show me

then. Show me how this works. So I can

get I can get rid of this handle then. I

have no need for I could actually throw

this in the river. Could I? I won't be

very too happy if you do throw out in

the river.

There's no shot in the cartridge, but

there is black powder to cause an

explosion that will start the engine.

Ah, I see. Yeah. And there's your firing

pin there. And there's your firing pin

there. We're not going to use that yet.

Okay. Then here we need to put a wick.

So the wick is very similar to blotting

paper. You need to roll it up.

And because blotting paper doesn't burn

very rapidly, it just smolders. Right.

Okay. So this is effectively providing

the ignition for the fuel. Whilst this

is providing the momentum, the push of

the actual piston down.

As you can see, it's not burning very

fast. So that goes into the hole at the

front.

And now all you've got to do now is with

the hammer hit the firing pin. Okay. All

down to you. All down to me.

So this is my basically this is my

ignition key. Correct. Yes. Okay. Here

we go then.

Well, we got another cartridge we can

use.

You said this starts first time. It does

other times, but this time it doesn't.

Okay.

Right. Okay. Here we go.

That's brilliant. It's going to save me

my shoulder. Definitely will. Let's take

it for a spin.

[Music]

The new tractor should make sewing the

flax much more

straightforward. But meeting the war

act's other requirement, milk

production, is proving more of a

challenge. So this is Sarah, is it?

Yeah, this is the one who's been giving

us the problems.

Peter and stockwoman Debbie Underwood

are keeping a close eye on the cows. You

look at the end of that te. Can you see

she's missing the bottom half of it?

Yeah, I can. Now, what what we think has

happened is one of the other cows have

trotten on the teeth and have literally

just cut through the end of it, which is

extremely painful. You can see it's not

very nice at all. And we've got a

problem with the other teeth as well.

The tip of it has gone black. So, she's

got an infection in there.

Despite the best modern medical care,

Sarah's injury will not heal. The only

option is to keep her comfortable and

wait for her calf to be born.

Obviously, she's going to have to be

cold because we can't use her for

milking anymore. Yeah. But I suppose

it's a fact of life. And it is. If

you've got livestock, you got dead

stock, haven't you? It's it's a a very

true saying that one. Very, very true.

Yeah. But a nice big baby in there

somewhere.

With the nation in desperate need of

milk, losing a good dairy cow would have

been a disaster for any wartime

farmer. The team's remaining cows will

now have to provide enough milk to meet

the war eggs's

expectations. Come in. But their level

of production will be dependent on the

quality and quantity of food they eat.

This should be interesting. Peter, I'm

looking forward to seeing what's

happened here. Well, it was a complete

experiment, isn't it?

Feed for dairy cows was in very short

supply. Before the war, they ate

imported feed and also grazed on

fields. But with imports cut off and

fields being plowed up to grow crops for

humans, farmers had to find

alternatives. The government urged them

to make silage. And a few months ago,

Alex and Peter did just

that. The moments come to see if their

efforts have paid off. Peter and I are

both very, very nervous about this

because we've never made silage before.

And in fact, actually, during the war,

many farmers had never even entertained

the idea of making

silage. Silage is a method of preserving

green crops at their most nutritious, a

bit like pickling.

It's usually made with grass, but

wartime farmers had to be

imaginative. Well, it's going to be

interesting cuz this isn't your

traditional silage. This isn't just

straight grass, is it? Oh, no. No. This

is a real cocktail of nettles, grasses.

In a wartime situation, if this hadn't

have worked and we'd have uh put all of

our eggs in one basket, so to speak,

could spell disaster for a farm that's

trying to rear a dairy herd, to bring a

dairy herd on.

The boys made the container or silo from

scraps of metal found on the farm. Alex,

someone during construction Yeah. and it

may well have been me. Yeah. Has

actually put that nut facing in. Oh no.

We managed to have locked ourselves out

of our own silo here. Look.

Hopefully this the silage will hold.

Hopefully the the silage can just hold

the nut tight enough on the other side.

This doesn't bode well, Peter. Really,

does it? Oh, it's coming. Oh, it is.

Brilliant. Well done, Peter. Right.

Okay. There was plenty of information to

help farmers spot silage problems early.

Look, see, this is the the test here,

Peter. It's called silage. How to make

and feed it. Okay. Okay, on the back of

this, we've got a fault correction

table. And I'm not saying we've got a

fault yet, but it says here, "Evil

smelling silage throughout." Now, do you

know what an evil smell is? I'm all too

familiar with an evil smell, Alexis.

Give it a sniff. Tell me if you think

it's evil.

No, I I would not I would not say that

was evil. I would say that smells of

grass. I think it's good. We'll see. I

mean to be honest, if the cows tuck into

it with great relish, then we'll know

actually it's not it's not done so

badly.

[Music]

Right. You got the tools. I got the

tools. You got the power.

Gloves up, girls. Oh, what is this? What

is that? Go on. Have a experimental

silage. She's interested. She

is. This bows well. Right, let's get it

in the trough. Oh,

there we go. Look at that, Peter. Look

at that wonder silage. There it goes.

You can't have it all. You two cows

here. It's plenty to go around. That's

it, Peter. You get it in

there. That's a no nonsense bit of

troughing. That is, isn't it? Look at

that. Save some room for later, darling.

I think we could very proudly go back to

the war egg and say, you know, we did

our job. We tried silage

and we've made it work. Yeah. Go spread

the word. Brilliant.

[Music]

Farmers hoping to impress the warag made

sure they kept up with the latest

government

advice. A popular way of doing so was to

watch government films.

I think dig in. Yeah. Grab some

sandwiches. And one such production is

showing at the village hall. Mobile

cinemas were sent up and down the

country screening films that showcased

how farming was helping the

fight. Spring Offensive was made in 1940

by the Ministry of Information. The

English

countryside, its most important crop,

English

countrymen. Now, what will war mean to

the countrymen?

What will war mean to the land?

[Music]

Historian John Martin specializes in

farming on the home front. John, the

Ministry for Information was set up what

at the beginning of the war to inform

people to to instruct people to stress

the success of the wartime food

production campaign and also really to

raise people's morale. Not only farms

well, he pulls his weight in all sorts

of ways. Well, mother is the new

visitor. The main character in Spring

Offensive is a member of the Warag. Well

done. What can you give me? Say 20

acres. Yes, 20 and five or six in

another field which I might be able to

break up later on. That's an easy start.

Give some a human face. It won't be all

lost. You'll get the government grant.

64.

I'll give you 64 quid to mind your own

business and clear off.

The plot stressed the importance of

cooperating with the warag

and the consequences of defying them.

But there's one that baits me that's

hopeless and that is a grow

[Music]

farm. Could use some music.

[Music]

Ominous. The only way is to take the

farm over. Oh.

More than 2,000 films were produced

under the guidance of the Ministry of

Information during the

war. And there we have it. Harvest in

has turned us. So they've turned that

farm around.

[Music]

crucial element really in a film like

this is actually it's all about the

mindset and keeping everyone positive

and keeping everyone sort of moving in

the same direction and in that sense it

achieved the objective ensuring that

everyone's committed to the war effort.

Well, it's certainly done that for me.

It certainly raised my morale but at the

same time it stressed to me that I've

got to get out there and get the kind of

yields that these people are. In

September

1939, you ask the countryside to provide

you with a safe refuge for your children

and security against

famine. And both these things it has

given

you. Now the countryside asks you to do

something in

return. When peace comes, don't forget

the land and its people again.

Well, hopefully we won't get a bad grade

for our farm.

Yeah. Well, we've seen how it's supposed

to be done.

[Music]

Back on the farm, the team must get

ready for the upcoming war egg

inspection. They have the field marshal

tractor lined up for sewing the

flags and for milking. They'll also be

using a new piece of kit.

Here we go, Peter. Okay. This is what

runs the milking machine, is it? Yes, it

is, Peter. It's another engine. I can

see a crank handle. Yeah, and it's got

your name on it,

Peter. It's a fairly simple piece of

kit.

What we do is we create a vacuum that

runs up through a rubber pump pipe up

the back. It then goes in to the milking

parlor here. Okay? And then across the

top and off of that pipe, you can then

tap in however many milking machines you

may need. The demands of wartime

production increased the use of milking

machines. Before the conflict, only one

in five farmers were using them. But the

wartime shortage of manpower meant

labors saving devices were essential.

And by 1945, over half of Britain's cows

were being milked by

machine. The farm's cows still haven't

carved, so the machine can't be used

yet. But there's some sad news about

Sarah, the cow who was ill.

You always knew that Sarah um was going

to have to be put down, but you were

hoping to get a calf from her, weren't

you? Yes, that's right. Even though we

knew her injury was what you would call

terminal. Yeah. What we were hoping for

is that at least we could rescue the

calf. Tragically, we came in one morning

and found that the calf had been still

born, which is, you know, which is very

sad. She was a very good milker, wasn't

she? She was doing well last year she

was averaging about 50 pints of milk a

day. Wow. And she's only you know she

was only a little girl so that was a lot

of milk for her. That really was. But

there still is a herd. We still have

cows on this farm. Yeah. Our other cows

are looking really good. So hopefully

within a very short time we should have

at least a few calves on the ground and

we'll be able to start milking again.

The warag would look unfavorably on any

farmer who lost their livestock like

this. And farmers who consistently

failed to meet government expectations

could face the ultimate

penalty as local farmer John Curtis

witnessed.

John, I've been reading some of the um

newspapers here from the 1940s, and

there's a case of a farmer here uh in

Hampshire shot in an 18-hour farm siege.

Yes. He's um he was our neighbor during

the war. There's a chap called George

Ray Walden. Yes. Commonly known as Ray.

And did you know him personally? Yes, I

did. Although I was quite young at the

time, my father used to do his

harvesting for him. I was a little bit

afraid of Ray. Yeah. Because he was very

formidable really. As I understand it

from these articles, what happened is uh

Ray Walden was required to plow up

roughly half of his farm. That is

correct. As part of the war effort to

grow more wheat. Um but he refused to do

so. Some of the land he couldn't have

plowed up anyway because it was too wet

and damp. Right. But they still said he

had to plow it up. And then that was the

war egg at the time. The warag tried to

evict Ray Walden, but he holed himself

up in his farmhouse with a shotgun and

fired at police, wounding two, and sort

of things spiraled out of control and it

ended up with an 18-hour siege of his

house. And he ended up actually getting

shot by a police officer. Yes. And um

then of course eventually he was taken

to hospital and it was there that he

died. And this must have then sent shock

waves through the farming community. Oh,

it did. It was in all the press, you

know, and the farmers union papers, the

magazines that came out, the story was

there and mostly they were condemning it

because it shouldn't ever have happened.

You think it shouldn't have happened? I

don't think it should at all. I mean,

when I read this story, it it does fill

me with sadness, but at the same time,

there's part of me that thinks there was

a kind of greater good here. Really, if

we were going to avoid starvation on

these islands, we, you know, we had to

do this. We had to sort of plow up.

Well, yes. But it still needn't have

gone that far. Yeah.

It really It's been very interesting.

It's made me think a lot more about the

um the war egg and what they were doing

here.

[Music]

[Laughter]

Throughout 1941, imports declined,

making everyday item

of soap is fat. Any sort of fat, but

particularly the edible fats. And

Britain with all the business going on

with Ubot out in the Atlantic was

really, really short of edible fats. So

any soap you could save meant there was

more fat for people to eat.

The fat shortage became so severe that

in 1942 soap would be rationed, but even

a year earlier, it was hard to come by.

There were some thrifty ways to make it

go further. This is a tip I got from a

newspaper of the 1940s. Basically, you

use a flannel and then all these sort of

little bits of soap that are getting too

small to be useful, all the sort of

little chippy bits or the little tiny

soft slivers left at the end of a bar,

you bung them all into your

flannel and you just squeeze it up and

pop it in some hot water and basically

the soap melts enough to all sort of gel

together and become a sort of

multicolored made out of many bits solid

bar. Let's see. Now, even in that few

seconds there, if I give it a good

squeeze, you'll see it's reformed. There

we are.

Look, it's all sort of molded into one

lump. And that's so much easier to use

than all the little bits and bobs.

In the garden, those in the know could

find another way to deal with the soap

shortage.

This is soap W. So you can sort of see

why it's nice pretty pink flower on it.

And just like the name implies, soap

wart, it's useful as soap. It's a sort

of soap substitute really. The um

strongest part, the sapinin is in the

root, but you can get it in the leaf and

the stem as well. Eeking out your soap

ration with soap work, however, it's

probably not very mainstream. Really

restricted to eccentrics like me who

happen to know the older ways of doing

things.

The next stage is processing the plant.

[Music]

So, I've washed and cut up all my soap

work, nice hot

water, and start bruising

it. What I'm trying to do is release the

uh juices in the soap w in particular,

the one called sapanin. That's the thing

that does the

cleaning. Oh, yeah. Look, it's starting

to go a little bit

bubbly. It's supposed to be one of the

gentlest of all the cleaning agents.

Indeed, conservators use it when they're

dealing with really ancient textiles

where soap would be too harsh. They use

a solution of soap wart or sapanin to

gently soften and lift dirt and grease

out of things like ancient tapestries

and so forth. So, if it's good enough

for that, it's good enough for my

hair. This is the greenest shampoo I

think I've ever

made.

[Music]

Right. It smells very sappy. It's quite

a nice fresh smell, actually.

I mean, it doesn't lather up like modern

shampoos do, but it mostly feels

just cool and cleanish, I suppose. I

don't know. Right, think I'm ready to

rinse it all off.

[Music]

Peter also has a scheme to make the most

of meager scraps and impress the warag

at the same time. Though feed for

livestock was in short supply, there was

one animal that thrived in conditions of

[Music]

scarcity. Rabbits were an excellent

quick growing source of meat and rabbit

farming was officially

[Music]

encouraged. Peter plans to start a small

concern.

with the help of animal behaviorist Anne

McBride.

Rabbits are extremely good converters of

food. They are the best um of the male

mammals that we keep to produce meat.

They they've evolved to live on

lowquality dried food stuffs. They

evolved in southern Spanish peninsula.

If you think about going to Spain in the

summertime, it's dry, it's coarse, it's

very low quality food. And that's what

the rabbits are designed to survive on.

So in terms of food in, meat out,

they're extremely good rapid converters.

Wow.

[Music]

Selecting rabbits for breeding is a

delicate process that begins with

sexing. These are our rabbits. And the

first thing we need to know is which

ones are the boys and which ones are the

girls. Ah.

Okay. There we go. Let's get you up.

There we go. Little man. Sorry. He's not

happy, is he? Or girl. Oh, no. This is a

boy. He's got a very nice pair of

testicles here. Very large. So, we have

here a very nice young

man back. Oops. You only need one boy,

but you do need more than one girl.

Quite wriggly, huh? Yeah, another boy. A

little boy.

Well, rabbit number three. Hopefully,

this isn't a boy. Okay. Not a testicle

in sight. No.

There are two more female rabbits to

choose from.

Oops.

Now, of the two, just based on size,

I'll be going for this one anyway. If

you're going to breed large with large,

you're more likely to get larger

offspring and a bigger litter. And as

the ultimate aim of this is to provide

as much meat as possible. Yeah. Um then

obviously you're going for that, not for

looks ordeed. Or pretty features.

[Music]

at the cottage. Ruth's got a visitor.

Karen, nice to see you. Nice to see you.

Laundry day today. You haven't come to

help do the laundry, have you? I've got

a surprise for you. Come with me. Hang

on.

Hang on. Hang on. Historian Karen Sey

studies 1940s household technology and

has brought Ruth a revolutionary gadget.

Oh, I'm so excited about this. A washing

machine. Finally, a washing machine.

Just like an effort.

With huge numbers of women working

full-time for the war effort,

laborsaving devices at home were

invaluable. Washing machines were hard

to come by with many factories converted

to make munitions. But Karen's found a

pre-war machine for Ruth to use. But

it's still not a powered washing

machine, is it? It's woman power. It is

actually manual turning the handle

labor. Yeah. Where you're fortunate is

in connection with the heating of the

water. This machine was designed to heat

water using gas power. I think the gas

inlet is down there. You could get

electrically heated machines as well.

But it is all about the heating of the

water because it's saving so much work.

But the farm doesn't have a gas

connection. So, the water must be heated

separately and then brought to the

machine.

Here we go. Pop it in. Don't need very

much.

My

blouse. Got some

shirts and my apron. Look at the state

of that. It's such a mess. Let's see if

this washing machine's tough enough to

actually handle it. We can give it a

whirl. See if it really works.

So, moment of truth, I think. Don't you

Right. Go. Agitate. Agitate. Agitate.

Agitate.

I read that advert. It said 3 minutes to

do your weekly wash. Three. Yes. As if.

I mean, it didn't take me 3 minutes to

do me weekly wash. Now,

although washing machines were first

marketed in the late 18th century, it

would be the 1960s before they became

common in British homes.

Well, I suppose the next development on

from this would have been the twin tur,

wouldn't it? Which um would have been a

powered agitator, but that wasn't to

happen for a long time.

We must have done another 3 minutes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's have a

look. Okay. Let's have a look. Right.

So, pull it up, don't we?

Okay. Well, it smells good and doesn't

it? It does. Smells very wholesome.

Is that your apron? That's my apron.

That's looking a lot better. It is,

isn't it? It is. You see what you need?

Yeah, that's shifted it. There we go.

Squeezy, squeezy,

squeezy. Quite like this bit.

[Music]

I love washing machines. I think of them

as a as a implement of women's lib. I

think white.

Where are you planning to put it? Down

here. Peter and Anne are ready to start

breeding their rabbits.

I suppose the first thing we need them

to do is actually

do the business. Yes, exactly.

The sun's come out for you. The buck is

put in first so that he can establish

the run as his territory. I think he's

rather enjoying himself at the moment.

Now, if if they don't mate at this

attempt, does that mean that it's never

going to happen? Um, no. It could mean

that she's just not ready yet, cuz they

do have a cycle. Um, he might spray her

with urine, which in rabbit language

means that he fancies her. Um, don't try

it at home. And we'll just see how they

get

on. Now, there you go. That was pretty

fast. That was pretty quick for that.

Clearly, we've got her at the right

time. Yeah, they're certainly living up

to the stereotype, aren't they? They

are.

And that's it. Over and done with. The

whole thing is quite fast.

Now we've got some nice grooming

behavior. Look him uh showing some

affection. Some affection. Excellent.

Looks really hopeful for baby rabbits.

And not to put a damper on it, but how

long until those babies well are ready

to be butchered? really at the weight

you want them. I guess you know three to

four months you can have an animal

that's a goodly sized.

Peter hopes his frugal new enterprise

will please the war a

inspector but his main concern will be

how well the team have done with the

flax they've been ordered to grow to

produce textiles for the war effort.

Alex is getting ready to sew the field,

but he's worried about pest

control. Any resulting loss of crops

would invite the displeasure of the

warag hides and the rooks and the crows

got to do something about them. And I

know they don't particularly savor flax

seed, but at the same time, what I don't

want to find is we get the little shoot

coming out and it's like a beacon to the

crows and the rooks. They'll see that

shootute and they'll know that at the

bottom of that chute is a nice sweet

little seed. And I don't want to lose

any of this flax crop. I want to keep

the Ministry for Agriculture as happy as

I can. So, I'm gonna find some kind of

way of scaring the birds out of this

field. And I'm not going to go for the

oldfashioned scarecrow this

[Music]

time. At the start of the war, 1 million

tons of food were being lost to pests

every year. Eliminating the problem was

seen as a patriotic duty if Britain was

going to feed itself. It's almost like a

war on pest as much as a war on anything

else when you're so desperate for every

last little bit coming out the fields.

Yeah. You can't afford to let half of it

be token. You know, if we're going to go

for that a category, then we should at

least be seen to be doing something, I

think, about the bird problem.

[Music]

Alex has taken inspiration from a 1940s

product.

You see in this

little advertisement,

right? Bang. And then and looks like a

firecracker going up the center. Yeah.

So it goes bang and pushes the

corrugated iron up and it flaps about

and that's what happens. Look, rabbits

flee in terror.

Noisy enough. Come on. It's not bad, is

it? Let it go from there, don't we?

Alex has ordered in explosives identical

to the wartime ones.

That's gunpowder, isn't it? Wrapped up

in paper stuck into a bit of string.

Now, we've just got to

hope that there's enough power in each

one of these. Blow it open. To blow it

open. Yeah.

Head for the spade, Ruth. Oh, yeah.

The bird scarer will be tested in a

nearby

[Music]

field. The thing is, is it going to be

deep enough?

[Music]

So, moment of truth, Bruce.

[Music]

Well, I reckon a charge has got one of

those whole things that's got to last a

day.

Yeah. So, it's going to be quite some

time, I should think, before we

get Oh,

smoke. Oh, it's a good

bag. It didn't flat, though. It scarcely

moved.

The fuse is lit. It is. Presumably,

it'll work its way up and bang again.

It'd be nice if they did flap around a

bit more, but it scared me.

The Second World War saw farmers all

over Britain battling to reduce

pests. The bird scarer should help the

team make a good impression on the

warag.

In June 1941, the course of the war was

transformed when Germany invaded the

Soviet

Union. But the resulting conflict on the

Russian front was bad news for British

farmers. The government diverted

shipping to send munitions to the Soviet

Union, leaving even fewer vessels

available to bring food to Britain.

The warags now ordered farmers to

redouble their efforts to increase the

nation's homegrown food

[Music]

production. Milk remained a vital part

of this

campaign. The farm's cows have at last

had their calves and the team can begin

milking.

The wartime need to get maximum yields

and keep the herd healthy greatly

increased the role of vets on farms.

Veterinarian Abigail Woods has come to

advise Alex and Peter.

In the 1930s, farmers had no money. Um,

they would only call vets as an absolute

last resort. You know, something was on

its last legs and it was about to die.

Come on. Now, um 1940s vets are on farms

essentially to deal with those sorts of

diseases that weren't thought a big deal

of before because they didn't kill cows.

So, diseases like mastitis,

um

infertility. They're not dramatic

diseases, but they have a major impact

on milk production, right? And you know,

1941, this nation needs all the milk he

can possibly get.

Mastitis, an infection of the udder, is

easily caused by using the milking

machine incorrectly.

That's

great. Before we start milking proper,

the next thing is just to get a little

squirt of milk out of each te out of

each one. Out of each one. Just a little

bit. Don't get it all over the floor.

Make sure it goes into that mug. So the

reason we're doing this is that from the

appearance of that milk, you can pick up

the early signs of mastitis. So any

nasty little clots or flexcks in the

milk or smells a bit funny.

I mean that that's fine. That's fine. So

turn it on. There we go. So you can hear

that's coming through now. So if you put

your thumb on that, you should be able

to feel the vacuum.

And that's just sort of pulsating.

That's right. You just put a straight

vacuum on that and it didn't pulse. It

will damage the teeth. Right. Okay. The

pulsing gives it a chance to recover.

Attaching the vacuum cups is a tricky

task.

Put your thumb over the end first.

That's it. No, it's not. That's it. Oh,

there we go. Back in there. There we go.

Two.

It looks like you're winning the battle

there, but perhaps not war.

There we go. Brilliant. And will that

just will that just hold itself on?

Yeah, that will. Yeah. So I don't have

to stay here. No, you can stand up about

3 or 4 minutes now.

But you got to do everything just right

because if something's goes wrong with

this machine, you can do more damage

that way than by hand milking. Do you

know how much it's it's sucking out a

ratio rate? Sort of. It's quite quick,

is it? Yeah. Um it's about 40 to 60

pulses a minute. That is the frequency

which a calf sucks, right? It's also the

frequency that a cow's heart beats. So,

it's a sort of Okay, there's some logic

behind it. There's a bit of rhythm here.

Natural rhythm. Yeah.

Okay. So, she looks like she's done.

Right. Farmers were under pressure to

send the milk they produced into the

rationing system, keeping only a small

amount for themselves.

There we go. Fresh out the cow. That is

fairly full. Most were prohibited from

turning it into butter or cheese at

home. These foods were now produced in

centralized factories so the government

could keep a close eye on what was being

made. But if any milk went sour before

it left the farm, farmers could get

special dispensation to use

it. Me's

turned. It's

off. But luckily not a

disaster. Cheese, after all, is just off

milk. That's all it is. All you've got

to do is separate the curds from the

whey. And all I'm going to do is strain

it. Agricultural workers really felt the

need for cheese. They'd always been big

cheese eaters. You know, taking a lump

of bread and cheese out into the field

is the easiest way of dealing with lunch

miles away from the farmhouse.

[Music]

It's only going to need a sprinkle of

salt and a dusting of chives. And I've

got cottage cheese that we can have on

the sandwiches.

With the war a inspector due to revisit

the farm soon, the boys must now get on

with sewing the flax. The flax isn't

going to be right. No, it's not nearly

there, though. Certainly got the weather

for it as well, haven't we?

Alex and Peter have enlisted help from

one of the few remaining flax farmers in

Britain, Simon Cooper. So, um, what I've

done, I've brought along a bit of flax

just to show you what we're hoping

you're going to achieve for us. The end

product. Yes. What's so special about

it? Behind the bark. Yeah. You'll see

the fibers. Oh, wow. the flax fibers for

making ropes, canvas, tenting, uh fire

hoses. It's got a whole load of uses. We

have brought you two flags of flax. You

do have a sea drill. Yes. Yeah. And we

have a field, we need to say. Good. Flax

was such a rarely grown crop in

pre-1940s Britain that virtually no

machinery was set up to deal with it.

Peas, oats, barley, wheat.

No flax. No flax. No flax. No.

Uh, we'll go there and see how it goes.

Going to try and lift up, are we? There

we are.

This seed drill needs to be calibrated

so the correct amount of seed will be

sewn in the soil. You want to spin the

wheel 10 times, 10 complete revolutions.

Yeah.

[Music]

9 and 3/4 10.

That's almost perfectly on just under 8

oz. 8 oz. Yeah. So, it's probably a

little bit high. If we we we just go

down a setting be pretty close with

that. We want to get this right. You

really want to get a good good good even

crop. Uh so, it competes with itself.

makes yourself grow tall and straight.

Hopefully keeps the weeds down. Let's

take the time then, Peter, and get this

right. Remember, we're looking for that

A rating.

After hanging for just an hour, the sour

milk is transformed into cheese that's

ready to eat.

There we go.

That's quite nice.

Do your hand starting it. Yes, please.

Peter,

this is the ignition key.

Well, you certainly won't lose that,

will you? You started this before,

haven't you? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

experience. No. So, naked flame diesel

shotgun cartridge.

Okay, let's get that tightened

up. Okay, here we

go. Don't

[Music]

miss that.

The acreage of flax grown in Britain

increased from 1,000 acres to 60,000

over the course of the war. Specially

built factories across the country

turned the crop into textiles that were

vitally important for the war effort.

[Music]

[Applause]

So, how long is this going to take? When

will we harvest it? Well, it's it's

around about 100 days from planting till

harvest. That is very very quickly

growing

[Music]

from

Sies. Hello.

Oh, thank you very much. me own. What's

this? It's me cottage cheese. Oh, you're

a lifesaver.

It's all right.

Better than wasting it.

You going to get it done today, you

think? Yeah. We're going to get this in

today. Good. Right. Save that for later.

Let's get this baby started up again.

Ready?

To make sure they get all the field work

done, the farmers have enlisted some

extra help.

[Applause]

Hello. Come on through.

[Music]

[Applause]

Local farmer Robert Samson has brought

his horses to harrow the ground,

breaking up and leveling out the soil to

embed the seeds. Whoa. I didn't ask

anybody to move.

Come here. Come here. Those are good

looking beasts. Good little man. They're

not shy as though. So what are they?

These are British Persians. Yeah. A a

compact, powerful horse, capable of all

the farm work, and you could trot them

to town if you wanted. Come on, keep

going. I might be talking, but I'm not

talking to you. Come on.

[Music]

Perserons originally came from France

but began to appear on British farms in

the early 20th century. Just after the

First World War, the British army were

looking for a heavy artillery horse that

was capable of fast movement. Of course,

war was mechanized and they were never

needed. But they went on to the farms

cuz the farms were came from. And of

course, a site like this with with a

tractor and horses working in the same

field at the same time is really typical

site of World War II, isn't it? Yes. Oh,

definitely.

[Music]

Despite the influx of tractors, working

horses made a huge contribution to

wartime farming.

Their numbers had declined in the 1930s,

but the Second World War revived them.

And by 1945, there were almost half a

million working horses on British farms,

twice the number of tractors. Nice to

see a horse today working. It

is. I am an absolute bag of bones. I

give my teeth to

be behind those two horses.

[Music]

After a long day's work, the flax is

safely in the ground.

Looking good.

Oh, my head. That's so noisy. You were

right there.

Oh, good lord.

My machine. Well, I think we've all

earned ourselves a

beer

back. It's not the most ergonomically

designed seat, is it? Do you know the

best thing about electric? What? I can't

hear you complaining.

Sorry. Back, please. Back, please.

There we go. All right. Well, I think

we'll get these down us and then I'll

get back to the yard and get that bird

scarer and get it out here as soon as

possible because I don't want to lose

any of this crop. I want to keep the man

from the ministry happy. He'll be

pleased. He'll be pleased, I'm sure.

Cheers. Cheers. Thanks ever so much.

Here's to a flax crop.

[Music]

The Warag Inspector is about to return

to judge how well the team have carried

out his

instructions. Just in time, the rabbits

have started nesting, meaning their

babies should be born soon.

[Music]

And the farmers are keeping careful

records of their milk yields to make

sure they have all the information to

[Music]

[Music]

hand. With everything in place, they're

ready for the longanticipated return of

war expert Brian Short.

[Music]

And that was the bird scare. Yes. Very

effective. Yeah. Well, I'd like to think

so, but um flax was one of the crops

that you said would put us in the

Ministry of Agricultures Good Books.

Yes. Absolutely right. All the all the

time I got my eye on that that grade A

hopeful. Yes. Meanwhile, the cows have

come to milk and we're getting about two

gallons a day off each one. Yeah, that

would have been very good. We have uh

branched out into a rabbit concern. Um,

we've started off with two, but they are

multiplying as we speak and it's amazing

at how fast that process happens. Well,

that's good. That's good. Um, any any

meat for the pot helps. So, Brian, we

now get to the burning issue of the uh

grade, the category that you would like

to assign to our farm. Yes. Well, of

course, it's not just this field. It's

that one has to take account of the

whole farming operations but I would

have thought that given what you've done

you are working to at least 60% of

productivity on a farm like this. Okay.

So that's a B. Okay. Right. Okay.

There are some there are some war eggs

who actually used B+es and B minuses. I

think you might be edging towards a B+

there. Really?

B+. I can live with that. I think so.

Right. Well, come on. Let's have a cup

of tea before we get any wetter. Are you

allowed a cup of tea after you? Yeah.

You'd have got you'd have got a biscuit

with it as well if you give me an eye.

The war a's central role in British

agriculture continued throughout the

Second World War, becoming more and more

demanding.

It was a grueling challenge, but one

from which the nation's farmers would

not

[Music]

flinch. Next time, the team set up an

emergency feeding

center. Ruth helps out at the women's

timber core.

[Applause]

And they convert a van to run without

petrol. It's not the fastest ride in

wartime Britain, but it's certainly one

of the most exciting.

Find out how Britain fed itself during

the Second World War with the Open

University's free booklet and online

interactive challenges. Call

0845360257 or go to

bbc.co.uk/warttimefarm and follow the

links.

Staff from the Royal Mail in Bristol are

in fine voice when Gareth Malone

arrives. The choir sing while you work

is next here on BBC 2. Then at 10,

there's comedy. Milton Jones and Josh

Whitikham join the regulars ready to

mock the week.

[Music]