Original subtitles

Now here on BBC 2 and the BBC HD

channel, every last grain of wheat

counts on the wartime farm.

[Music]

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.

Timber.

[Applause]

When war broke out, the Nazis attacked

British shipping, attempting to cut off

food imports. The government turned to

farmers to double homegrown food

production. If they failed, Britain

could have been starved into surrender.

Now, historian Ruth

Goodman and archaeologists Alex

Langland's and Peter Gin are working

Mana Farm in Hampshire as it would have

been in the Second World War.

It's summer and the team must bring in

the wheat harvest, the climax of their

farming year. But they faced the

conditions of 1945 when despite Allied

victories, the Nazis were hitting back,

creating growing uncertainty about when

the war would end. Food production came

under greater pressure than ever before.

So, we got to put some heart back in the

land, and this is the machine that's

going to enable us to do it. After 6

years of conflict, Britain's fields were

exhausted and output was falling.

So the team must restore fertility to

their land and ensure that every last

scrap of wheat is brought home. Here is

the battle for foods and this is the

final push to get this in. As a new food

crisis

looms on the wartime farm.

[Music]

The team are hoping that in a few weeks

all their work on the farm will pay off

when they bring in the wheat

harvest. Joys of summer, Peter. Good to

see the sun on the wheat. Yeah, it's the

first time this year basically.

It's been the wetest summer for a

century and their flex crop has already

failed. Everything now depends on the

success of the wheat.

Still pretty green, is it? Still pretty

green.

See, that's really wet. Yeah, isn't it?

That's a long way off. I mean, we've got

what? Another few weeks on this. I would

have said so. So, what are we going to

harvest this with? Well, I think we

should go for one of the new fangled

machines of the day, a combined

harvester. You know, something that not

only cuts it, it threshes it in the

field. It will combine cutting and

threshing. Using a combined harvester

will be crucial to getting every last

scrap of wheat from the field, a job

that in 1945 was more important than

ever.

All through the war, wheat yields had

been

rising, but now they started to

fall. After 5 years of record crops, the

fertility of Britain's fields was in

decline. To compensate, imports would

have to

increase. But there was a new threat to

shipping. Early in the war, Ubot like

this destroyed shipping. But in 1945,

the Nazis launched a high-speed version,

posing a major new threat to

imports. Braced for a crisis, the

government ordered farmers to restore

fertility to their

[Music]

fields. There she is.

Well, well, hi Ruth.

The team are using a muk spreader. We

got to put some heart back in the land,

and this is the machine that's going to

enable us to do it. Right. We'll load

you up, and then we'll send you off.

Marvelous.

Mock or animal dung is a crucial source

of nutrition for the soil. It improves

soil structure and adds organic

substances to help plants grow.

[Music]

It's the wind. You're downwind. What can

I do?

Mitigate against

[Music]

it. Vicious.

It's giving a good evening dressing,

isn't it? It is. It's really chopping it

[Music]

up. Although it was desperately needed,

the amount of manure available to

farmers declined sharply during the war.

Early on in the conflict, the government

had brought in a policy of slaughtering

livestock that could not be

fed. Millions were cold and the knock-on

effects were now being felt. Towards the

end of the war, many farmers were

beginning to ask whether it had been

wise to lose so many animals from

British farming. We'd seen so many sheep

and so many beef cattle lost in

agriculture. And as a consequence, we'd

lost their manure. We lost their dung

and that for years, centuries had been

used to put heart back into the land.

With the land exhausted and crop yields

in danger, the government knew that

record food production couldn't be

sustained through another year of war.

[Music]

Then in the spring of 1945, the Russians

broke through into Berlin, and it seemed

likely the Nazi regime would soon

fall. On the 7th of May came the news

Britain had been fighting for for so

long.

Germany

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

surrendered. This is the BBC home

service. We're interrupting programs to

make the following announcement.

It is understood that in accordance with

arrangements between the three great

powers, tomorrow Tuesday will be treated

as victory in Europe day and will be

regarded as a holiday the day. Wow.

Beginning of the end.

Hard to think really of the relief

people must have felt. I mean to be told

officially that you know victory was was

about to happen. The the V-word sort of

secession of danger. Yeah. Killing. The

killing has stopped. The killing has

stopped course in Europe. In only in

Europe. Yeah. Must have been strange for

them. Living in this world where you go

outside at night and there's not a

single pin prick coming from any house.

There's never been any fireworks.

There's been relatively few parties.

Then all of a sudden the next couple of

days it must have just erupted. Yeah.

And as you say, the sheer relief. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe we should have some sort of

celebration, but perhaps try and bring

in people who do have some memory of of

victory in Europe and and really see how

they remember it. See what they think.

Yeah, that's a very nice idea. Yeah, you

might need a scrub up though. I know. I

know. And I need a new collar. Here's

the victory in Europe. Here's the

victory in Europe. The victory in

Europe.

Though Britain was still at war with

Japan, the end of the conflict with

Germany meant the end of the threat of

bombing at home. Blackout precautions

could come

down. I imagine one of the first things

you must have done is just take this

paper off, let the sunlight back into

your house.

[Applause]

But in other areas of life, restrictions

were still in

place. In May 1945, there was no

immediate change to rationing, so anyone

preparing to throw a party had to be

[Music]

ingenious. I got a copy of the Home and

Country magazine. This is a WI magazine

and there's some really interesting

recipes in here. Particularly a series

of

pastries that use next to no fat. Got

the wonderful one here for baked potato

pudding, which sounds really economical.

Fat was heavily rationed, so this pastry

uses just onethird of the amount

normally required. Just that much fat

for all that

flour. Wow.

And then instead of water, I'm to put in

golden syrup.

Never made pastry like this

before. The wheat crop is still a few

weeks away from being ready to

harvest. So, Alex is working on

restoring fertility to another of his

fields. This time using the cows

themselves.

[Music]

There was a product that wartime farmers

could call on to make this simple. Well,

this is the field. Phillip looks uh

looks nice. Partial land in there.

Philip Thornton Everson is an expert in

historic technology and has come to help

Alex set up his very first electric

fence. Electric fences were first

officially recommended by the Ministry

of Agriculture in 1939.

In the battle to restore fertility, they

were an important weapon, allowing

farmers to divide their fields into

strips.

I do like nice straight lines on a farm.

Yes. This meant cows could be placed in

one section at a time, ensuring an even

spread of manure across the whole field.

I mean, you know, if I wanted to do this

prior to this technology, would I lay a

hedge? It takes six years to grow. dry

stone walling in a county which doesn't

have any stone available.

Build a fence. I need a lot of timber,

you know, and manpower. And of course,

manpower. Of course, manpower was

something that actually after the war

was lacking, wasn't it? It was.

So, it, you know, it really is. This is

opening my

eyes. That'll do. A world without it is

probably hard to imagine for farmers

today.

With the stakes in the ground, it's time

to string up the wire. Keeping that

keeping that tension on there all the

time before connecting it to the fencer

unit which will provide the power. There

we are. That's all it needs to be done.

That'll hang there quite happily. What

does it say? Uh warning battery operated

only. 6vt. 6vt. Okay.

The electric fence was invented in the

19th century, but portable battery

powered units were relatively new.

Earlier designs had been powered by

unwieldy sources like steam engines. The

new technology was accessible to all.

And we got a ticking sound. That's

right. The ticking sound is the unit

operator. Tick tick. It's sending pulses

of high voltage along the fence. When

you or the animal touches the wire, you

make the circuit between here and ground

so you get the shock. I'm with you. And

how do I know that's working? Well, the

countryside way of doing it is with a

blade of grass. Right. So, all you need

is a nice blade of grass. Yep. So, just

rest the grass on the wire. So, you are

now completing the circuit.

Is that going? Yeah. That's nasty. It

is. That's a nasty little nip. That is I

don't think it would take many shocks

for for a No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't.

That's great. I mean, that really is

fantastic. We'll be able to muck evenly

the field. Exactly. And that's what

wartime Britain desperately needed. It

needed that fertility back in the soil.

Preparations for the VE Day party are

underway. And Ruth's putting the

finishing touches to her baked potato

pie.

Now, the odd thing about this recipe is

that it calls for orange juice and

orange zest. I don't know where I kept

an orange living in the countryside

during the war. However, I had a bit of

a scout around and I've come up with a

recipe for mock orange juice, which I

think will do the trick. It's sweet

really that you peel and slice and then

sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of sugar

over and leave it overnight and the

juice of the swede comes out and that is

supposed to taste slightly

orangey. Smells like

swede, but there is a certain oriness

about it. It's quite amazing actually.

I'm just going to put a splash in, I

[Music]

think. Right, I'm to spread jam and then

my mixture on

top. Hopefully, people will like it.

With the fence up, it's time to bring in

the cows.

It's not easy. Come on.

There's better grass in the field.

There they go. Oh, look. Straight from

the fence. Did she get a shot? I don't

know. That's clear of the fence, aren't

they? They are. You're welcome. Thank

you very much. Yeah. Thanks for it.

Thank you.

[Music]

The VE Day celebrations have begun.

That's the one.

25.

What is that? Baked potato pie. You

sure? I am. Should you join in a bit?

AJ, where your fate? I can't work out if

that's good or not.

[Music]

Okay, everyone come and gather around.

Up and down the country, people join

together to pay tribute to Britain's war

leader, Winston Churchill.

And now, oh, what wonderful luck at this

moment. At this moment, how wonderful.

Mr. Churchill has come out onto the

Ministry of Health balcony.

He stands now in the flood lights and

he's giving the victory sign for all his

might from the flooded falcon. This is

your

victory. The

victory of the cause of freedom.

[Applause]

Well, I think Winston Churchill deserves

a rabel rousing chorus of for He's a

jolly good fellow. So, one, two, three.

For He's a jolly good fellow. Well, he's

a jolly good fellow. For he's a jolly

good

[Applause]

fellow and so

[Applause]

the team have invited along guests with

firsthand memories of Vday. Mary Davyy

and Stamper and John Curtis. What was it

like in the countryside V Day? Because

obviously I mean I've only ever seen it

from the perspective of uh Trafalago

Square London. Oh, it was quite good fun

in the country. All the little villages

and towns had their celebrations and the

streets and things and dancing went on

for ages at night and everybody was

chuffed a bit.

A big party. was on the recreation

ground with a firework party and um

there was a a setpiece with fireworks

going off and so yeah it was that that

was really I first time I'd ever seen

anything like that and the thing I

really remember about it was that one of

these set pieces was an elephant right

and when it went off the trunk moved and

I think the tail moved and I could

remember everybody laughing and clapping

and I'd never seen anything like it and

I just thought that was wonderful very

their memory. Still,

many people on VE Day were looking

forward to loved ones coming home. But

for those with relatives fighting in the

Far East, the end was not yet in sight.

Mary Davy's father had been sent to

Malaya on VE Day. Her mother had no idea

where he was. And she actually put an

advert in a local paper talking about my

dad. And she said, "If anyone lately

returned from Malaya can give any

information, I will be most grateful

with a photograph of my dad." A

heartfelt plea, isn't it? Yes. And from

that came a letter from Captain

Pierce and the read. It says, "I was for

a time at the camp in Thailand." He died

on the 21st of September 1943.

This was 1946 by the time my mom had

this information. So she was a long time

not knowing. Is this you at the time?

This is Yes. This is my brother Jimmy

and I and herself. Salv day. Then her

husband's missing. She hasn't got a clue

what's going on. She's looking after two

small children. And yet somehow in the

midst of all that, she manages to find

reasons to be cheerful. Yes. though she

was helping to put on this street party,

but for her it wasn't

over. There's a certain strength there,

isn't there?

For farmers, too, the battle was far

from finished.

I found this lovely bit of editorial

here from Farmers Weekly. It's um 1945,

May the 11th. So, it's the first edition

after VE Day. And of course, the

headline is victory. But the key message

in here is about the fact that the

struggle still goes on. And then it says

here, "The soldier returns from battle.

The farmer's battle goes on. It will be

a very long time indeed before his

unending fight can see its own kind of

victory in a healthy, strong, well-fed

population throughout the countries of

the world. Tomorrow, we must face a

future exacting and difficult as

anything we have known in the last 5

years. We know that and we do not

propose to evade it.

After V day, a new food crisis

began. Across Europe, farmland and

infrastructure had been destroyed, and

many wartorrn nations could no longer

grow their own

food. Mass starvation loomed.

Britain's farmers were called upon to

intensify their efforts as the nation

suddenly had to send thousands of tons

of food abroad, including as an

occupying force to

Germany. The wheat crop of 1945 now

became even more

[Music]

critical. Mana Farms wheat is almost

ready to harvest. Alex and Peter are

making plans for the arrival of the

combine. Carry my measuring stick with

me, Peter, just in case we need to size

up any problems that we are confronted

with. So, over 12 ft. Yeah. Which means

we should be able to get it in here.

Yeah. As much to pin back some of the

shrubbery.

[Music]

But before they get the machine in the

field, there's another problem to

address. Until the invention of the

combine, harvesting machinery simply cut

the wheat and left it to dry in the

field. Only after drying would it be

threshed. Now the combine would cut and

thresh in one go and the drying stage

would be missed out. This meant the

grain could be too wet to store away.

Farmers had to find a solution.

We should be able to make quite an easy

makeshift grain dryer. Something quite

simple. Yeah, I think I think it would

be I think it'd be a good idea. If we

did bring the grain in moist and we

hadn't made a grain dryer, the Ministry

of Agriculture would be breathing down

our necks asking us why we

hadn't. Making a grain dryer will

require some

ingenuity. After V-Day, a huge

rebuilding program got underway in

Britain's bomb damaged

cities. Conventional building materials

had been rationed throughout the war and

were now even harder to come by.

Hey, Hi, Colin. How are you?

Conservation Officer Colin Richards has

come to help the team improvise.

Well, these are the bits and pieces

which should hopefully make the grain

dryer. I noticed they're all irregular

in shape and size. So, sorry about that.

We're going to have to scratch our heads

as to how we can make this old gate our

platform to dry the grain on. Right.

Okay. We've got to create a platform

with a fire underneath, drive off the

moisture, and that's our grain dryer.

The first job is to dig a hole for the

fire to sit in.

But before long, the rain

arrives. This is why we need the grain

dryer. Almost there. All year we've been

battling with the weather. Had so much

rain this year. It has not been fun.

This is a nightmare. It's been the worst

year on record for weather. It really

has. And I can only hope that those

heroes of wartime farming are looking

down on us now. Peter

and laughing.

Yeah. Lost

[Applause]

turf. The base of the grain drying

platform will be a layer of scrap iron,

but it needs to be

flattened.

Right. Yeah. I'll give you a minute.

Another one. You know the lyrics to

camptown

races. Oh dy. Oh

dy. Perfect. Look at that plan up for

you. Brilliant. Peter. In 1945 with the

threat of German invasion gone. Land

defenses were broken up leaving behind

handy debris. Right. That's perfect,

isn't it? Yeah. This is the type of

material that was round in 1945 when

they started to dismantle the roadblocks

and the checkpoints. Sure. And it was a

sort of ready source of material. It's

recycling at its best. Good. Well, we'll

have some orders, I think, then Peter.

Okay.

The platform will be supported by

pillars.

[Music]

Back to my 12

days number eight.

[Music]

What we're doing is we're separating the

fire from the grain. And the bricks act

as a radiator, radiating that heat

through the grain, drying it, and

allowing you to sort of store it without

it going

[Music]

molding. The drying surface must be

perfectly level to ensure the crop is

dried

evenly. You know, he's cockeyed, don't

you?

We first started out with um whole bunch

of scrap metal, blocks of

concrete, an old

gate, and we're actually attempting to

do a very technical thing in reducing

the moisture level in grain. And I was

really sort of skeptical, but now

looking at this, being a little bit more

confident about getting this grain to

the right standard for the Ministry of

Agriculture.

When the grain dryer is finished, the

team will be prepared to harvest the

[Music]

wheat. By 1945, farming had been

controlled by the government's war

agricultural executive for 6

years. They dictated almost every aspect

of farming, from where to grow crops to

what to feed chickens. Then in July,

just a few weeks after VE Day, farmers

were given the chance to shape future

food production when a general election

was held. Hello. Hello. Must be Nick.

Hello. Nice to meet you. Come on in. I

think we've got the kettle on.

Excellent.

Historian Nick Mansfield has studied the

election. Nick, please meet you. Cup of

tea. Do sit down. Do sit down. Wartime

Britain was governed by a coalition led

by the Conservative Prime Minister

Winston Churchill. Agriculture was

central for both main parties and

farmers were faced with a stark choice.

So we've got Mr. Churchill's declaration

to the uh to the elect, the Tory party,

the Tory one. The emphasis is on the

empire which will bring in food and so

forth. They then went on to say the

wartime directions and controls will be

progressively reduced as our food

situation improves. So the tour is then

proposing to sort of be very handsoff

and leave it all to market forces.

That's right. Um where whereas Labor are

saying wartime the county war executive

committees have organized production in

that way. as you know they brought in

mechanization on a huge scale uh

fertilization and and so forth. Now the

Labour party intends that their work

shall continue in peace time. So bearing

in mind that we got the Tory party sort

of suggesting that we should go entirely

with market forces in the countryside

and then the Labour party suggesting

that we should hang on to the government

procedures that have been in place

during the war. I mean what do you think

in 1945? What would you have gone for?

It is a very tough question, isn't it?

Because I can see the benefits of

getting rid of the war, but equally I

can see how keeping a status quo was

definitely working. The government has

put up a framework upon which in which

farming can operate. So maybe you you

you're thinking actually this is

working. Well, the first line of the

part of the Labour Party manifesto is

agriculture is not only a job for the

farmers. It is also a way of feeding the

people. It's it's still calling on that

whole wartime we're all in it together

sort of a spirit. Yes. The Labour Party

emerged victorious with one of the

biggest landslides in election history.

The party won more purely rural seats

than it ever has before or since. The

idea of government control over farming

in peace time would now be enshrined in

law. Nothing was ever the same again.

When the conservatives returned to power

in

1951 again, um they accepted the

agricultural bill entirely and and the

rest is history. it it's the basis of of

post-war uh prosperity for British

agriculture.

Many aspects of the 1940s legislation

are still in force

today. The grain dryer is built and the

wheat is almost ready to bring

in. But before they begin cutting, the

team have one last job they want to

tackle. setting up a party to celebrate

the harvest. There's a wartime scheme

they're using for

inspiration. Holidays at home was a

government initiative to counter extreme

wartime working

conditions. With many factories

operating 24 hours a day, employees

often worked 7 days a week.

Ministers knew people would become

exhausted without regular breaks, but

they didn't want to encourage travel as

the roads were needed for troops and

freight. The answer was holidays at

home.

Anyone at home? Local volunteers were

asked to put on festivities.

You might have seen these around. So, oh

yes, holidays at home. Dog show. We can

definitely enter the dog show. All

right, we're in for that. There's no no

problem.

Holidays at home will be the perfect way

to round off the harvest. And Alex wants

the party to go with a bang.

Hello, Steve.

Thanks for coming along. He's enlisted

the help of pyrochnics expert Steve

Allison to put together a wartime

fireworks display in the shape of an

elephant.

I've heard about elephants being used

for exactly these purposes. So I'm

really intrigued to see how the whole

thing works. Yeah, it's quite a popular

lance work. The elephant. So you say

lance works. Lance work. Yes. Glance

work is

uh pictures in fire. Okay.

Got to bear in mind that fireworks were

weren't quite as spectacular and this

was a way of getting the sort of a

moving picture as it were. Right. Okay.

So is it it's got moving parts then? Has

it? the tile. Well, hopefully the

trunk's going to be moving at the end

there. Wonderful. Great. So, you're

working from a template that you've

sketched out here. We have. And then the

fireworks will be placed on the outline.

And then when they're lit, you'll see

the pinpoints of light and the picture

outlined. So, the ears. Now, we're going

for African elephant here or Indian.

That ear size is just perfect. Yeah. I

think the African elephant. African

elephant. Yeah. Okay. That's fine by me

in there. You happy? Yeah. It's been

good.

Fireworks were banned at the start of

the war and all existing supplies had to

be handed over to

police. Factories that made them were

converted to produce

[Music]

munitions. Now, the business end of this

structure, the fireworks, you've got

some here on display. Are these the ones

we're going to be attaching? Uh, no, I

don't think so. Ones we're going to be

attaching much planer. These were

pre-war that would have been in the

shops buying them rather like a

selection box. So these are the sort of

things then that had actually been

banned by the time we get to 199 1940.

Absolutely. War in the air. The shape of

things to come unfortunately. Yes.

Rather prophetic actually. Very much so.

What's this one? This is the jumping

jack. That's the jumping jack. You like

that? And it would chase you around the

garden. Wow. But we're not going to use

these fireworks here to attach to our

No, we're not. We're going to go for a

plain white. Right. Okay. And that's

your lance. rather like a cigarette, but

I wouldn't smoke it.

The lances will be fastened to the

trellis with doubleointed nails and

linked together with quick match cotton

covered with gunpowder mixture covered

in paper.

This is all incredibly technical because

your worst case scenario is you light

one corner of this thing, it gets say

halfway up the leg and then just goes

out. Absolutely. And you certainly

wouldn't see an elephant. A bit of a

disaster really.

It'll take several hours and 180 lances

to complete the firework

[Music]

elephant. For 3 months after VE Day,

Britain remained at war in the Far

East. Then on August the 6th, a

terrifying new weapon was unleashed over

Japan.

the atomic

bomb. Japan soon

surrendered marking the end of the

Second World

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

War. Wild celebrations erupted in the

[Applause]

USA. But in Britain, a new set of

challenges

emerged. Since 1941, the government had

been dependent on financial support from

America, and this was soon cut off.

Britain was essentially bankrupt and

unable to afford imported food. So, the

nation's farms, exhausted from the

conflict, were called on to step up

production to even greater heights.

[Music]

At the farm, the crop is ready to cut.

The wartime combined harvester has

[Music]

arrived. It's going to be

tight. Look at that. Oh, we are talking

about half an inch there. You are

through. But we're in. You are through.

My word. The Alice Charmer's AllCrop 60

was manufactured throughout the 1940s.

Its owner is local farmer Lou Hazel.

Right. So, this is the combined

harvester. I mean, this is the thing

that's combining not only the cutting

but the threshing of the crop. Correct.

Now, you're going to show me how this

works. Yeah. Right. Quite

simple. The knife there goes backwards

and forwards. cuts the grain. The reel

goes round and round. You're sort of

knocking it into the blade. Yeah. Okay.

And soon as it's cut, it falls back onto

the canvas which conveys it up to the

top and it goes into the cylinder. The

thrashing cylinder. The thrashing

cylinder removes the grain from the ears

of wheat. Say that. But that cylinder

goes round. Oh, I'm with you. It

contains iron bars coated with rubber.

The rubber covering there gives the seed

a gentle thrash. So it's not making

aggressive action to it to to to crack

the kernel. It doesn't it doesn't bruise

or break the seed. Correct. Okay. Once

the grain has been knocked out, it's

separated from the straw by slatted

conveyors moving towards the other side

of the

combine. Finally, the grain encounters a

series of saves which get rid of any

remaining straw.

All of those processes that had once all

been done back at the barn, back in the

threshing barn, are all being done here

on the back of the harvester. Correct.

Does it work is the question. Oh, yes.

Okay. Oh, yes. Well, I think we'll Well,

they claim it will thrash over a 100

different crops. Okay. So, it's got

about 100 different plants out there to

thrash through with all the weeds. But

let's hope we just get some grain in the

bags. Absolutely. Yes. All right. Well,

let's see it started. Modern combine

harvesters are self-propelled, but this

one is pulled by a tractor, which means

there are two engines to

start. Close. If I never see another

crank handle for as long as I live,

Luke, I'll die a happy

man. 3 minutes for the engine to warm

up, then we can start cutting.

on that one

there. Incredibly tense for Peter and

myself. This is a whole year building up

to this harvest. And the thing is is

you're working with kit and equipment

which is over 70 years

old. But here we go.

[Music]

[Applause]

The combine is off to a good start.

Making progress, but so like green

material in the bottom there.

But the weeds in the crop could cause

trouble. Something's burning. Something

is

burning. That belt is burning.

Damn grass is all jammed in under the

reel.

We've had a jam. And the problem is is

there's so much filth. There's so much

weed in the base of this crop that the

cutter is struggling to get through it.

Wet grass. Yeah. Losing traction. Not

going well.

No. Weed-ridden wheat was a symptom of

the wartime directive to plow up land

that had never been used to grow crops

before.

[Music]

I mean, this is the type of land you

wouldn't dream of putting a crop in

here, would you? Outside of wartime

conditions, it is the battle for foods.

And this is the final push to get this

in. And it's going to take a herculean

and heroic effort to get in, isn't it?

How's it looking? Terrible. Terrible.

That's not the word we are on it.

If they can't get the combine working,

the team will have to harvest the field

by

hand, taking around 4 days to cut and

two to thresh. The combine is capable of

doing both jobs in less than one day.

[Music]

[Applause]

Ruth setting up the harvest celebration

holidays at

home. The government issued guidelines

on how to get the most out of time

off. Have you seen this menu leaflet

suggested for holidays at home? It's

quite incredible. I like this bit. Um,

what about mother? Too often she has to

spend long hours in a hot kitchen trying

to cope with all the tremendous

appetites the rest of the family. This

is all wrong.

Mother needs a change from the kitchen

just as much as father needs one from

the office or the children from school.

But then you see, how can this be

managed? By careful menu planning.

Basically, you've got to spend the week

before your holiday. Indeed, getting all

doing extra work some holiday.

I thought we'd have a go at look

Monday's Monday sandwiches

suggestion. Sandwiches made with

piltured and cabbage spread. Oh, sounds

hot.

The recipe calls for piltured

cabbage, vinegar, salt, and mustard.

That looks less appetizing, doesn't

it? Should be brave and taste a little

bit. Let's go. Here you

[Applause]

go. Actually, all

right. Generally, that's all right. It

is actually very good.

Are we ready to go or what?

An hour of adjustment have unclogged the

combine and the harvest can continue.

[Music]

our first bag. This is it.

You just put your hand in here though,

you can feel the moisture. It feels

damp. We'll have to get this We'll have

to get this dried pretty smartish. But

having said that, this was beyond our

wildest expectations about a month ago.

It really is. This is fantastic.

[Music]

There we go. To the grain

[Music]

dryer. Collins on hand to get the grain

dryer up to temperature.

I like this, Alex. Is this you? Yeah.

Little message there. Thought it was

quite pertinent.

The fire needs to die down before the

grain can be dried.

When you said a grain drying kil, it's

not quite what I had in mind, I must

admit. No, it's incredibly makeshift.

Ruth's brought along a batch of the

piltured sandwiches. I'm starving. Wow.

This is definitely one of those recipes

that I was really worried about, but it

seems to come out all right.

Unusual, aren't they? Yeah, I know.

Taste the sea. Cheers, actually.

So, we're going to have a lovely

holidays at home then, are we? I think I

think we will. Try the holes. Well, we

got fireworks as well. Oh, good stuff.

But we've got a lot of hard work ahead

of us. They didn't last long, did they?

That was delicious.

The fire's under control and the drying

surface hot. But before the team can dry

any grain, there's one final calculation

they must make. The wartime target was

to store grain with a moisture content

of around

14%. Any more than that and there was a

risk it would go moldy over

winter. Right, you got it? Yeah. The

team need to know how wet the crop is to

start with.

Historian John Martin has come to help

with this crucial stage.

Hello, John. How are you? All right.

Yeah, not too bad. Good to see you

again. It's not the prettiest grain

you'll ever see. That's very typical of

lots of the grains which were cut in the

war. Weeds were really quite common. So,

as a wartime crop, it's not looking too

bad. No, it's looks reasonably good.

Okay. John's plan is to measure out 3 lb

of the grain. There they are. Yep. On

the nail. dry it and then reweigh it.

The amount of weight that's been lost

will be the amount of moisture that was

in the original grain. You know, we've

just got a set of scales here and we're

doing a very arbitrary test, but surely

the ministry would have had much more

high-tech equipment. Well, they would,

but it wouldn't have because it was in

short supply, it wouldn't have been

available for all farmers and they've

got to kind of in the war improvise as

best they can.

[Music]

You can feel the heat in that. That is

really drying quite quickly. The grains

begin to feel different. You feel it?

Yeah.

[Music]

The team are about to find out how much

moisture is in their precious crop. We

have got here 2 lb 4 oz.

The grain has lost around a quarter of

its original weight, meaning it had a

moisture content of 25%. This would have

been too high for the Ministry of

Agriculture who were looking for it to

be around 14%.

Okay, so we know what we've got to do

now in terms of drying on here. We know

the thickness of the bed of grain we

need. We need we know how long we need

to cook it on here and what type of heat

we need to keep up. Yeah. thing is we

got a lot of sacks to get through. So I

think we should start by getting on with

it.

With the makeshift dryer working, the

farmers are on course to bring in the

crop at a standard the ministry would

have accepted.

Back in the day when men were men,

Peter, you are Peter. Good. Hold fast,

man. On it goes.

That's good. That's good. We're giving

it. Okay.

There's another dozen of them sacks.

How you feeling about this thing, Colin?

If we do this for sort of half an hour,

an hour, then I think we'll actually dry

this batch. That's good. That's good

news. Let's get drying. You know what

this calls for? I've got a beer. A beer.

A beer. Oh my word.

[Applause]

[Music]

G. Thank you.

The success of the food production

campaign went far beyond officials

pre-war

plans. Never before had output increased

so rapidly in such a short period of

time. John Martin is one of the

country's leading authorities on wartime

farming.

So let's get this straight. If we were

to try and sort of rank the the battle

for food and the battle for harvest as

you call it up against things like the

battle for Britain um Dunkirk or D-Day,

we can see it as a success, a victory

one. Oh, I think it was a a clear

victory. Um we it saved us from

malnutrition and really starvation,

right? It's a crowning achievement

because Britain entered the war with

twothirds of its population being fed on

imported food. As much as it must have

been hard, it must have given so many

people a purpose.

I think that's very true. It's a

neglected story that people uh committed

themselves to a war effort and the

countryside committed itself to winning

the war. Yeah. Well, I think we are

sitting on the brink of our own victory.

Everything seems to be going to plan.

So, cheers crossed. Here's to the heroes

of wartime farming. Cheers. All of them.

Yeah.

[Music]

By the end of the war, the fields of

Britain were producing double what they

had in the

1930s. It was an unprecedented

accomplishment, but it created a legacy

which has never left the countryside.

[Applause]

Tractors enabled 6 and 12 million acres

of grassland to be plowed up in areas

often now protected by

law. The use of chemical fertilizers

nearly

tripled. They've remained part of

agriculture ever since. But despite

increasing yields, some people feel the

chemicals have caused irreparable damage

to the farming landscape.

These are all implements that actually

do allow you to grow crops in in areas

that you probably wouldn't normally have

grown crops. It's almost as if you

become absolute master over that

landscape. And and that's that that's

[Music]

frightening. The policy of slaughtering

animals that couldn't be fed caused

livestock numbers to plummet.

You are many livestock now classified as

rare breeds became rare because of the

wartime cull. The focus has been not

upon the the farmard and the farm stock,

but out in the fields that's felt quite

different. A yard that's empty of

animals, empty of that routine. Um, a

very quiet farmard in some ways.

[Music]

The war forged a link between government

and farmers that was closer than ever

[Music]

before. I mean, governmental control at

this sort of level, it was a necessity.

And to be brutally honest, it worked.

What it did ensure is that we did have

enough food to feed every single person

on this island.

As a result of the wartime agricultural

revolution, farmers in Britain found

themselves on a technological treadmill,

constantly seeking to maximize

output. Eventually, the revolution

became the basis of agriculture as we

know it today.

[Music]

With the combine making quick work of

the field and the grain drying going

well, the team's work on the farm is

coming to an end.

[Music]

The harvest celebration is underway at

Holidays at Home.

Wow. Wow. Look at this. That's quite a

sight, isn't it? Weather like this, I'd

have a holiday at home.

Decent location for our fireworks. What

have we got though for fireworks? I

mean, well, you'll have to wait and see,

won't you, Peter? I'll have to wait and

see. Surprise.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

The holidays at home harvest celebration

is underway.

Do we all know how to do the okey koke?

Y

excellent. The okey koke was a smash hit

of the 1940s. Do the oie koke and you

turn around. That's what it's all about.

Everybody now.

[Applause]

knees bend, arms stretch.

[Applause]

As well as transforming agriculture, the

war caused social upheaval across

Britain. That summer saw the first wave

of people released from war work. Among

them were some of the 2 million women

who'd been mobilized, often into jobs

traditionally done by men. Women's lives

were so turned upside down during the

war. And I know immediately after the

war things seemed for a while to go back

to exactly the same way they had, but

they didn't really because inside

people's heads something had changed and

it could never completely go back.

[Music]

No letup in shortages of everyday items.

[Music]

[Applause]

Food rationing would continue until

1954. Other commodities like clothes

also went on being rationed. The wartime

mentality would have to endure long

after the conflict was over.

I think the thing I've enjoyed most

about the year is the resourcefulness.

Uh there's no doubt about it.

Come on, get your prizes.

Just didn't exist a concept of throwing

things away. And that for me is probably

the biggest lesson that that I can take

away from that period.

[Music]

[Applause]

Have your dogs go down. Down. Good boy.

Hope he's not giving marks for handler's

appearance.

And the winner

is Henry. Oh, well done.

We've forgotten the a steer measures

that people had to take during this

period. They had to sacrifice things.

They had to make do amends. And it's not

just a mindset that was in the

individual. It was a mindset of the

nation.

It was a

collective. Let's just do it.

[Applause]

[Music]

As night falls, it's time to reveal the

firework elephant.

[Applause]

[Music]

Are we ready?

[Applause]

Woohoo!

[Applause]

It is brilliant. I mean, what a

fantastic way to end our year, you know,

after 6 years of war seeing something so

magical.

[Music]

You can read about the Second World War

in books, but to actually come out here,

to actually try and walk even just for a

few footsteps in their

shoes, to really understand what it must

have been like to be in this country, to

be up against it, it does change you.

It feels like being

demobbed. Feels a bit like that, isn't

it? Back into city street. Yeah.

I should have worn my spare pair of

clothes. You know,

look a bit smart. Finally.

I think the thing that has had the

biggest impact on me this year has been

that talking, that connecting with

people who were really there.

[Music]

I don't think I'd ever really truly done

that. I just feel a sense of connection

with that generation that I never

thought I would.

It's been a great year.

Enjoyed yourself? Yeah. I'm going to be

sad to go up. Yeah. And of course, it's

a countryside that will never be the

same again. change forever.

It's so basic, isn't it? Food. It

underpins everything.

Is that it? Yeah, that looks like our

ride.

I've really found myself admiring the

feats of the people that worked on the

land, the farmers, the war, the land

girls. I mean, everyone who

contributed. I lift my hat to those

people. They really did win the battle

for

food. Ding ding.

Where to next? I think the seaside. I

like the seaside. I seaside. Ruth, you

better do that. That'll be good.

[Music]

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.

[Music]

Prepare to be moved next on BBC 2 as the

choirs sing their hearts out in the

final competition with Gareth Malone.

Then, new comedy and Man's Not Best

Pleased, leaving the bride and groom

with Wedding Blues in Heburn at 10:00.

[Music]

and learn how people lived in wartime

Britain in this BBC book to accompany

the series.