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During the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill leaned on all infrastructures. Despite the opinion of his generals, he knew that one was more crucial than the others: the railway.
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00:07Transcrição e Legendas Pedro Negri
00:36Transcrição e Legendas Pedro Negri
01:01Transcrição e Legendas Pedro Negri
01:02So the railway workers were particularly heroic in the Second World War where they faced a lot of difficulties in
01:08just keeping the railways going, let alone kind of getting killed by enemy attacks and so on.
01:14In the four corners of Europe and throughout the entire Second World War, trains were a strategic weapon at the
01:21heart of military operations.
01:23Far from the simple means of transportation we know, they met all the logistical needs of troops and civilians under
01:29threat during the Battle of Britain.
01:31They symbolized the United Kingdom's stability and continuity while facing Nazi Germany.
01:37They played the starring role in the little-known story of Trains at War.
01:42Trains at War.
01:43Trains at War.
01:53Trains at War.
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02:08Trains at War.
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02:09Trains at War.
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05:22It was a favorite place of Winston Churchill, our great war leader.
05:26Even though he had offices in Whitehall, he would come here to supervise the work of the Railway Executive Committee
05:31and to get a bit of peace and quiet, because he had his own location here.
05:37He had his own bath, and it was a great place for him to come.
05:42While the committee prepared for war in the bowels of the earth, Londoners above ground were unaware that their daily
05:49lives were about to be upended.
06:01On September 1st, 1939, Hitler's Germany invaded Poland. War was imminent.
06:19Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister at the time, gave a solemn radio address two days later to announce that Great Britain
06:27had entered the war.
06:35Practically speaking, in terms of logistics for the upcoming months, this meant transporting more men and more equipment.
06:44The British government knew the railways were the key to the war effort throughout the country.
06:50It's difficult to think of this these days, but really the road network, even what we call the A roads,
06:58which are the equivalent to the Route Nationale, were in very poor condition.
07:03They didn't even have bypasses around towns, so, you know, they would go straight through the middle of towns.
07:08You know, the road network was really not up to carrying this very heavy material.
07:13All that went by rail.
07:15The problem was, at the time, rail traffic was controlled by four different large private companies, the big four, the
07:25Great Western Railway, the London and Northeastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and finally, the Southern Railway.
07:37Together, they served the entire country.
07:42They had been formed into these big groups after the First World War because the railways had been very run
07:47down during the First World War.
07:49As soon as war was declared in September 1939, within 24 hours, the railways were taken over by the government
07:58because they were far too important to be run privately as private businesses.
08:05They had to be part of the war effort, right from the start.
08:11Fearing the trains and stations would be abandoned, and the nightmare of World War I repeated, the government didn't allow
08:18railway workers to leave their jobs.
08:21Fearing the railway workers were not allowed to sign up to the army, except in very exceptional circumstances.
08:29They had to work for the railways because it was realised that they were absolutely vital for the war effort.
08:37And so then the government could use the railways to transport the troops, to transport goods, to transport the war
08:46material when it wanted to.
08:49But it was still, and that's very important, run by railway managers who knew how to run the railways.
08:55The military can never run the railways.
08:59The Emergency Powers Act, which authorised the government to take emergency measures, allowed them to carry out an initial extraordinary
09:07mission that had been planned since 1938 by the Railway Executive Committee.
09:12It fell to railway workers to perform the difficult mission of evacuating hundreds of thousands of children from major urban
09:19centres, liable to be bombed by the Germans.
09:25Over the space of a few days, 1.3 million young people, mostly children, were evacuated from the big cities
09:32to the countryside.
09:36The only means of transport there was, was trains.
09:39And the trains radiated out of the cities.
09:42It was a perfect form of transport because they radiated out of the big cities into the countryside.
09:47And it was the perfect means of getting all these children out of the cities in large numbers.
09:53Operation Pied Piper was an unprecedented railway feat.
09:58In London, 1,500 trains were mobilized in a single weekend.
10:02No fewer than 98 train stations welcomed the small travelers on the move.
10:07A train filled with children left the city every four minutes.
10:11Every railway worker was called upon to participate.
10:14Train stations were bustling.
10:17Getting a railway together is not just about kind of laying down the tracks and putting a locomotive down it
10:24with a few wagons at the back.
10:26It's a big logistical exercise.
10:29And it was planned with logistical perfection that these people got out.
10:34And it was very sad in many ways because tiny children were taken by their parents to the station crying
10:40with a label around their neck because it had to be done in such a hurry.
10:44Little, tiny teddy bears packed in suitcases.
10:47It was tragic.
10:49It was tragic.
10:49It was tragic.
10:49It was tragic.
10:49Parents were weeping.
10:50Children had to go on the trains to places hundreds of miles away they'd never been to before.
11:00Most people who stayed as evacuees and some stayed throughout the war, the experiences could really vary.
11:06For some, it was the best years of their lives, and they find it quite difficult to readjust when they
11:12went back home at the end of the war.
11:14For others who were ill-treated by their foster carers, it was an extremely traumatic experience and took them years
11:20to get over it.
11:26The country feared the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, like in Spain, a few years earlier.
11:35The government launched a major poster campaign to convince parents to put their children on a train and send them
11:42to safer places.
11:46Well, I think the main reasons the families accepted evacuation is because of the fear of the bombing.
11:53During the 1930s, it was one of the huge fears across the culture of the country.
11:58I think because of the experiences in places like this in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and the devastation
12:03that the bombing had actually caused.
12:05And so this made people willing to accept separation from their children.
12:11The split-up families were given moral support by the royal family back in London.
12:17In a radio message given a few months earlier, Princess Elizabeth, just 13 at the time, publicly addressed the country
12:25for the first time.
12:27My sister, Margaret Rose, and I feel so much for you, as we know from experience what it means to
12:36be away from those we love most of all.
12:40To you, living in new surroundings, we send a message of true sympathy.
12:49The Railway Executive Committee fulfilled its mission, and Operation Pied Piper was a success that boosted British morale.
12:59But the respite was short-lived, because the situation on the continent was getting worse and worse.
13:10Across the English Channel, Germany went on the offensive.
13:15On May 10, 1940, it invaded Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
13:22That same day, the charismatic and controversial politician Winston Churchill was appointed prime minister.
13:29The speech he gave left no doubts as to what his fellow countrymen had in store.
13:38I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
13:46You ask, what is our policy?
13:49I will say, it is to wage war by sea, land, and air, with all our might, with all the
13:56strength that God can give us.
13:58You ask, what is our aim?
14:01I can answer in one word, victory.
14:04Victory at all costs.
14:11The new tenant at 10 Downing Street knew from the start that the battle would be waged largely on the
14:17railways.
14:19Churchill really understood the role of the railways, and I think that's because he was a veteran of the First
14:25World War,
14:26where essentially the First World War was a railway war.
14:31Churchill instinctively understood how important the railways were.
14:35When he'd been in South Africa, he'd had an involvement with trains, and he understood that trains were the key,
14:42that the efficient operation of the railways were the key to the efficient operation of the military.
14:47Because trains moved things, trains moved guns, they moved bombs, they moved people, and they operated in a very organized,
14:54just like the military, they operated with precision.
14:56And he understood the parallel between the way the railways operated with their form of precision, and the way that
15:02the military operated with its form of precision.
15:05A lesson he would put into practice, just a few days after he took the helm of the country.
15:12May 27, 1940.
15:14The British Army suffered its first setback.
15:17Hundreds of thousands of soldiers found themselves trapped by the German army on the beaches of Dunkirk.
15:24Churchill, who knew the war was just beginning, wanted to preserve as many troops as he could.
15:30Great Britain launched Operation Dynamo, the emergency evacuation of as many soldiers as possible.
15:38When we celebrate the memory of Dunkirk, which was the most amazing operation, where vast numbers of people were brought
15:44back across the channel,
15:46we think of it in terms of a flotilla of little boats, of brave small boat operators bringing back people
15:52at great cost to themselves.
15:54But actually, it's a story about the railways.
15:56Behind the well-known naval operation lay another, more secret logistical feat, the mobilization of thousands of trains to transport
16:05the defeated soldiers from the British coast back to their homes.
16:09The railways played two important roles in the Battle of Dunkirk.
16:13First of all, Hitler did not have the support of the railways area of northern France and northern Belgium.
16:20So his advance somewhat ran out of steam, which led to the kind of trapping of all these troops on
16:27Dunkirk beaches.
16:28And then at the other end, it was really important that once the troops got to Dover and Folkestone and
16:35the ports,
16:36that they were taken away quickly.
16:38Otherwise, the whole area would have been just completely jam-packed and it would have held up the evacuation.
16:47They were demoralized, they were defeated, they were very emotional.
16:52And they had to be taken inland to hospitals, to camps, to depots,
16:58and they had to be dispersed as quickly as possible away from the ports,
17:01so more boats could land and more trains could arrive.
17:04It was the most amazing logistical operation, where train after train arrived at the ports,
17:09carrying these poor, unfortunate men away.
17:11In just three days, 300,000 men were evacuated on board 600 trains.
17:17We hadn't been defeated like that for a long time.
17:20We hadn't been chased out of France during the whole of the First World War.
17:24And we were chased out of France at Dunkirk.
17:26The victory had to be found elsewhere,
17:29and it had to be found in things like the smooth operation of the military medical response to the casualties.
17:35But people must have known, that's a lot of trains with a lot of wounded on them.
17:41Things went very badly for us in France.
17:44All along the railways in the villages of southern England, the soldiers were given a hero's welcome.
17:50When the trains stopped, they handed out food, as I say, cigarettes, socks, clothes, everything,
17:55and tried to provide some sort of comfort to these men.
17:58The local people and the Women's Royal Voluntary Service and all these kind of support organizations
18:04came out and gave these soldiers, who were often half-starved, having been stuck on the beaches,
18:10cups of tea and buns.
18:12It was a real kind of British kind of effort.
18:17The most seriously wounded soldiers were loaded onto specially equipped trains called ambulance trains or hospital trains.
18:27Since the First World War, the British had realized that quick medical attention helped save lives.
18:33The question was how to adapt trains to meet the needs of military medicine.
18:38This was, again, another throwback from the First World War,
18:42where there were massive numbers of ambulance trains prepared, you know, right behind the front to take people away.
18:48And this was replicated in the days after the evacuation from Dunkirk by, you know, similar ambulance trains.
18:55We see the idea of the ambulance train as a medical unit in its own right, a mobile medical unit.
19:03The wounded soldier, whose life has been saved somewhere on the battlefield or very close,
19:09is loaded onto the ambulance train, where he will receive medical treatment that will keep his life saved.
19:17And when he reaches his destination, he doesn't need more treatment.
19:21He can go straight into surgery, straight into the operating theater, or straight into the hospital.
19:28Between the First and Second World Wars, the size of hospital trains practically doubled
19:33to accommodate as many wounded as possible.
19:39The length of the train really depended on how many wounded you had and how badly wounded they were.
19:45Whether they could sit up or whether they were lying down.
19:49Because, of course, the carriages that were really like hospital wards,
19:52that carried the patients that were bed-bound,
19:55they couldn't carry nearly as many as the ones that had seats.
19:58So it really depended on your wounded.
20:00But 15 to 20 carriages, plus kitchen, plus supplies, plus dressing carriages.
20:06So you could be looking at a train as long as 30 carriages.
20:12The wounds had to be kept very clean, so they needed rooms where patients could be taken.
20:18Not really to have surgery, because the trains always wobble a little too much for surgery.
20:24But they can have their dressings changed, and they can have their wounds cleaned,
20:28and they can be kept clean.
20:31So the responsibilities are enormous,
20:34and we know that ambulance-trained nurses are some of the most remarkable medics in the whole of the war.
20:42Besides hospital trains, the War Department faced an immense challenge.
20:46The volume of merchandise increased by 46%.
20:53The British launched a vast project of research and development
20:57to create a steam locomotive that could meet the needs of transporting troops and heavy merchandise.
21:02This was austerity.
21:05Unlike the quest for speed that railway engineers were interested in at the time,
21:09the specifications were quite clear.
21:12Make them sturdy and, above all, economical.
21:15The costs were reduced in several ways.
21:18The use of fabrications, for instance,
21:22where traditionally there had been heavy castings.
21:26Castings were both much more expensive,
21:29and they took longer to produce.
21:36And these connecting rods are much lighter
21:39and more slender than a traditional one would have been.
21:45The firebox was made of steel rather than copper to save money.
21:52Locomotives were equipped with three or four axle boxes,
21:56depending on their size.
21:58All of them were painted black during the war.
22:01Finally, they were limited to speeds of 50 kilometers per hour.
22:06The use of fabrications had an additional advantage in the design
22:12because it made the engine lighter.
22:15Production needed to be launched as quickly as possible.
22:18But qualified workers were lacking in the factories as they'd all gone off to war.
22:23Engineers had to design a machine that was easier to construct.
22:26It didn't need so much skill to produce it,
22:32so the workforce could be expanded
22:35to bring less skilled people in
22:37to speed up the manufacture and the construction.
22:44Over 900 austerity locomotives
22:47were built by the North British Locomotive Company
22:50and Vulcan foundry starting in 1943.
23:04Across the channel, the French defeat was underway.
23:08The Dunkirk debacle heralded the June 22, 1940,
23:12surrender of France to Germany.
23:14The signing took place in the Compiègne Forest,
23:17in the same railway carriage
23:19where the Germans had signed the 1918 armistice.
23:23Pour les Allemands,
23:25le symbole même des wagons-lits,
23:27c'est les vainqueurs.
23:28Eux, ils sont les vainqueurs.
23:30Et on l'a réinflige exprès
23:32un wagon de la compagnie des wagons-lits,
23:34un wagon-salon,
23:35on l'a réinflige ça pour la signature de 1918
23:39dans la clarière de Compiègne.
23:41C'est pourquoi, en 1940,
23:43la même scène va être reconstituée
23:45par un Hitler qui désire absolument
23:47avoir ce wagon où il a été humilié.
23:49And so the humiliation of Germany
23:51was something that I am sure
23:54the Germans remembered
23:55while they were fighting
23:56in the Second World War.
24:01France was split in two.
24:03In the occupied zone,
24:05Germany took over all rolling stock.
24:08France became the Third Reich's rear base
24:11for attacking Great Britain.
24:14Les Allemands n'ont pas détruit
24:16les réseaux ferrés français
24:18pour la bonne et simple raison
24:19qu'ils en avaient besoin.
24:20Leur but pour eux,
24:21c'est d'obtenir la France,
24:23de l'exploiter,
24:24une France entière, intégrale,
24:27et entièrement épargnée
24:29sur le point industriel.
24:32All eyes were now on London.
24:35Hitler had already set his sights
24:37on invading Great Britain.
24:39Codename, Operation Seilewe,
24:42sea lion in English.
24:44Before setting foot on the island,
24:46Hitler sent Goering's Luftwaffe
24:48to conquer the airspace.
24:50The Battle of Britain had begun.
24:54On July 10,
24:55Junker dive bombers
24:56and Messerschmitt fighter planes
24:58set off to conquer
24:59the United Kingdom.
25:02Though the battle took place
25:04in the air,
25:05the British war effort itself
25:06happened on the railways
25:08to keep the planes
25:09of the Royal Air Force
25:10supplied with bombs
25:11and ammunition.
25:13And that was the key
25:14to the success.
25:15Keep the railways working,
25:17keep the bombs moving,
25:18keep the troops moving,
25:19keep everything moving,
25:20keep the food supplies moving,
25:22and that's what the railways did.
25:25I mean, thanks to the railways,
25:27food supplies were still available,
25:29the munitions were still
25:30getting to the ports
25:31and wherever they needed
25:33to be taken,
25:34and very important,
25:36still in those days,
25:37coal was the main way
25:38that people got their heating.
25:41and so the railways
25:42played a role
25:43in every aspect
25:44of British life.
25:46And putting them
25:47out of action
25:47would really have,
25:48you know,
25:49destroyed the whole morale
25:51of the country.
25:52While the entire country
25:54was suffering
25:54under the intense bombings,
25:56railway workers
25:57were more indispensable
25:58than ever.
25:59They conducted themselves
26:00like heroes
26:01and were exposed
26:02to enemy fire.
26:04At the beginning
26:05of the war,
26:06the instruction was
26:07that if the Germans
26:08were attacking,
26:09all trains were supposed
26:10to stop.
26:11But actually,
26:12this rather proved
26:14counterproductive
26:15because it was quite easy
26:17to spot trains
26:17from the air
26:18even at night
26:19because of the flames
26:21in the fire.
26:22It was very difficult
26:23for the railway workers.
26:24These weren't soldiers,
26:26but they were doing,
26:27almost doing a job
26:28that was as dangerous
26:29as the soldiers.
26:30First of all,
26:30they had to operate
26:31in the blackout,
26:32which was during the,
26:33the station lights
26:34had to be turned off,
26:36the signals had to be muted.
26:37It's very dangerous
26:38driving a train
26:39at night
26:39when you can't see
26:40and these drivers
26:41had to pursue,
26:43had to chase through
26:44the night
26:44on their trains
26:45and not,
26:46you know,
26:47with the risk
26:47of falling into a crater.
26:49If a bomb dropped
26:49in front of a train,
26:50the driver wouldn't
26:51necessarily know
26:52it's happened.
26:55At night,
26:56in order to run
26:57the trains
26:57as secretly as possible
26:59and save their own lives,
27:00railway workers
27:01came up with
27:02clever ideas
27:03to hide them.
27:10The driver
27:11on this locomotive
27:13on the right-hand side,
27:14so this is
27:15the driver's position.
27:20And the fireman
27:21over on this side here,
27:22his job as well as
27:24looking after
27:25the fire
27:28during the war
27:29because of the danger
27:31from attack
27:32by enemy aircraft,
27:35the light emitted
27:36by the fire
27:37had to be actually
27:38covered in
27:40as best as possible.
27:41So the locomotive's
27:42cab windows
27:44would all be filled
27:45with wood
27:46and the tender
27:48and the cab
27:49would have a large sheet
27:50between
27:51to enforce
27:52as far as was possible
27:54a blackout
27:54and limit
27:56the exposure of light.
28:02The ventilating space
28:03would also have been
28:04filled over
28:05to actually restrict
28:07the amount of light
28:09that could be seen
28:10by an aircraft.
28:11But it also restricts
28:12the amount of air
28:13so that you don't get
28:15very much ventilation.
28:17Thanks to the railway
28:18workers' skills,
28:19very few locomotives
28:21were destroyed
28:21by German bombs.
28:24But on the rails,
28:25military convoys
28:27and passenger trains
28:28followed one after the other,
28:30vying for space.
28:31How to adapt the stations
28:32and trains
28:33to the considerable spike
28:34in traffic.
28:36Faced with an increased
28:37need for personnel,
28:39new faces were called in
28:40to join the ranks
28:41of the railway workers.
28:43Numerous women
28:44stepped forth to apply.
28:48People recognized
28:49that the railway
28:50was a very important
28:51part of society
28:52and the job on the railways
28:54was regarded
28:54as a job for life.
28:56And there was something
28:57called the railway family,
28:58which meant that
28:59if your father
29:01worked on the railways,
29:03he was likely
29:03to be able
29:04to get you a job
29:05and possibly
29:07your uncle
29:08or whatever.
29:08So it's a very
29:09important concept.
29:10And most of the women
29:12that were recruited
29:13during the war
29:14got jobs
29:15fairly easily
29:16because somebody
29:18in the family
29:18put a word in
29:20for them.
29:21Between 1941
29:22and 1944,
29:24the percentage
29:25of women working
29:26on the railways
29:26was multiplied
29:27by three
29:28to hit 15%.
29:30And it was
29:31a great liberation
29:32for women.
29:32Lots of women,
29:33they came into
29:34their own
29:34during this time
29:35because they saw
29:36it was a great opportunity
29:37for them to do a job
29:38which they knew
29:39they could do
29:39and which had been
29:40denied to them.
29:41Recruited at first
29:42in the same positions
29:43that they'd previously held,
29:45women were quickly
29:46employed to do tasks
29:47formally reserved
29:48for men
29:48who were now
29:49off at war.
29:52Women took over
29:53many of the jobs
29:54and they took over
29:55many of the backroom jobs
29:56like collecting tickets
29:58or operating the signals,
30:00operating level crossings
30:01and so on.
30:02In the early 1940s,
30:04it became apparent
30:05that the railway companies
30:06were really short
30:07of workers in porters
30:09but eventually guards.
30:11And this is where
30:12there was a bit
30:13of a conflict with men
30:14because traditionally
30:16in peacetime,
30:17a man would take
30:18a long time
30:19to train up
30:20from being a porter
30:21to a guard
30:22and now in wartime
30:24we've got 17-year-old women
30:25undergoing a few weeks
30:27training
30:27and then becoming
30:28a guard.
30:29At the time,
30:30despite the great need
30:31for workers,
30:32the unions opposed
30:33letting women access
30:34the most prestigious positions.
30:37There was always
30:38this uneasy feeling
30:39that it was important
30:41obviously to protect
30:42the way that men
30:44were able to work
30:45in the railway industry
30:46and certainly
30:47the men had gone off
30:49to fight for the country
30:50but there was always
30:51the concept
30:53that when they came back
30:54those jobs
30:55would be there for them.
30:57The one job
30:58they never did
30:59was to drive the trains
31:01or to be a fireman.
31:03All trains had two people,
31:05one driving the train
31:06and one being a fireman
31:07stoking the coal.
31:08A very heavy,
31:09very difficult job
31:10and women never
31:12actually undertook that.
31:14For some,
31:15the experience
31:16was a revelation
31:17even if many of them
31:19were pushed
31:19to leave the railway
31:20to found a family
31:21after the war.
31:24By the end of the war,
31:25women felt
31:25that these jobs
31:27were really interesting.
31:28It gave them
31:29a sense of responsibility.
31:30They learned new skills.
31:32They were working outdoors
31:34quite often
31:34which was better
31:35than being stuck
31:36in a house
31:36doing the washing
31:37although they still
31:38had to do that
31:38when they got back.
31:39so they got
31:41a tremendous amount
31:42of enjoyment
31:43out of working
31:44for the railways
31:45during the war.
31:49While rail workers
31:51contended as best
31:52as they could
31:53with the bombings
31:53throughout the country,
31:54the Royal Air Force
31:56battled Hitler
31:56and jeopardized his plans
31:58to invade Great Britain.
32:00By late summer 1940,
32:02Hitler sensed
32:03he was losing control
32:04and shifted tactics.
32:06He sent the Luftwaffe
32:08to bombard civilians
32:09in order to drain
32:10their morale.
32:30In the early hours
32:32of September 7,
32:33350 bombers
32:35and 600 fighter planes
32:36flew over the Thames.
32:38The London Blitz
32:39had begun.
32:46As the first siren
32:47sounded,
32:48frightened Londoners
32:49all had the same reflex,
32:51head for shelter
32:52in the underground
32:53which seemed
32:54their best chance
32:55of survival.
32:59Some families
33:01would begin
33:01queuing in the early
33:02afternoon
33:02to purchase tickets
33:03that would let them
33:04escape the Nazi bombs
33:05for a few hours.
33:14The London Underground
33:16played an absolutely
33:16crucial role
33:17in the Blitz
33:18because people
33:20obviously saw it
33:21as a wonderful shelter,
33:23as a way
33:23of protecting themselves
33:24against the bombs.
33:26And so they naturally
33:27started going
33:28to the underground
33:29and trying to stay
33:30the night there.
33:45initially this wasn't
33:47condoned by the
33:48tube authorities.
33:49They didn't want
33:49people to go
33:50because obviously
33:51it got in the way
33:52of running the trains.
33:53But eventually
33:54so many people
33:55wanted to shelter
33:55in the tube
33:56that they had
33:57to give in
33:57and they sold tickets.
34:03In the fall
34:04of 1940,
34:06bombings happened
34:07almost every night.
34:13German bombers
34:14targeted the most
34:15popular neighborhoods
34:16of the city,
34:17such as the East End,
34:19to spread terror.
34:20At the height
34:21of the attacks,
34:22a total of
34:23380 tons of bombs,
34:25including 70,000
34:26incendiary bombs,
34:27were dropped
34:28on London
34:28in a single night.
34:48But of course
34:49there are no
34:49toilets down there
34:50and so the
34:51sanitary facilities
34:52had to be
34:53kind of adopted.
34:55There's no food
34:56down there
34:56so they had to
34:58start bringing
34:58special trains
34:59and people
35:01were allowed
35:01to start
35:02going down there
35:03about 8 o'clock
35:04or 9 o'clock
35:04in the evening
35:05while there were
35:06still other people
35:06using it.
35:08And people
35:09were very keen
35:09to get their
35:10particular spot
35:11and get somewhere
35:12where there was
35:12a chance
35:13of a good night's
35:14sleep.
35:15Thousands and thousands
35:16of people
35:17were sheltering
35:17in the tubes.
35:18I mean,
35:18it's not to say
35:19that it was perfect,
35:20but it was as best
35:21we could get.
35:22And there was
35:22a great atmosphere
35:23in the tube stations.
35:25They played chess,
35:26they set up libraries,
35:27they set up
35:28children's creches,
35:29all sorts of things.
35:31They founded
35:31community groups.
35:33It was a great
35:33sense of community
35:34and people
35:35got to know each other.
35:36And although
35:37the stories about it
35:38are all that
35:38everybody was very
35:39jolly and cheerful
35:40and that it was
35:41all kind of great fun,
35:42certainly that might
35:43have been the case
35:44in some instances,
35:45but it was also
35:46quite difficult
35:47and sometimes fights
35:49erupted over spaces
35:50and it was by no means
35:52kind of all
35:52entirely fun and games.
36:09in the morning,
36:11Londoners would emerge
36:12to take in the damage.
36:14The city was ravaged.
36:16Entire buildings
36:17were destroyed.
36:19The streets
36:19covered in ash.
36:21After the bombs,
36:23the locals were left
36:24to fight the flangs.
36:39More than 1.5 million people
36:41were left homeless.
36:4312,000 Londoners
36:45lost their lives
36:46in the Blitz.
36:54One day is remembered
36:55as a particularly dark one
36:57for the capital's
36:58train stations.
36:59On May 11, 1941,
37:02the Luftwaffe
37:03had already lost
37:04a quarter of its number
37:05and Hitler knew
37:06the end was near.
37:08All night long,
37:10planes kept returning
37:11to bomb the city.
37:12The bombs pummeled the city
37:14and targeted the capital's
37:16major train stations.
37:21In May 1941,
37:23there was one night
37:25where all the main
37:26railway stations
37:26were targeted.
37:28I suspect this was
37:29on purpose.
37:30That seven or eight
37:31of the main railway stations.
37:32London has a dozen
37:33major railway stations,
37:35more than any other town,
37:36more than even in Paris.
37:38And most of these
37:39were attacked
37:40on that one night.
37:41So it was clear
37:42that this was
37:43a Luftwaffe attempt
37:45to try and destroy
37:47the rail network
37:48right at its heart.
37:51London's major railway stations
37:53were targeted.
37:54King's Cross,
37:55Paddington,
37:56Victoria,
37:57Waterloo,
37:58not to mention
37:59St Pancras.
38:02There was a terrible,
38:03terrible wave of bombing
38:05of all these
38:05beautiful stations.
38:07This St Pancras,
38:08where we are now,
38:09is the most beautiful
38:09of them all.
38:10And the bombs
38:11hit this lovely roof here,
38:12which in its day
38:13was the largest
38:14single-span roof
38:15in the world.
38:17They fell through
38:19the roof
38:19where we could just see
38:20over there
38:21behind the train
38:22into the bottom
38:23of the station
38:24and destroyed everything.
38:26The bombs smashed
38:27the station.
38:28It was terrible.
38:29The rails were destroyed.
38:32The entrances
38:32to the station blocked.
38:35But railway engineers
38:37were ready to act quickly.
38:38They got to work
38:39in record time
38:40to get the trains
38:41running again.
38:42Within a week,
38:43it was back to normal.
38:45The station was running again.
38:46One of the great tributes
38:48I think we must pay
38:49to all the people
38:50who worked on the railways
38:51during the war
38:51were the civil engineers
38:52who came along
38:54and repaired the stations
38:55and made the railways
38:56run again.
39:00The Luftwaffe
39:01didn't meet their goal.
39:03In less than a month,
39:04the London traffic
39:05was back to normal.
39:15They didn't manage
39:17to put out of action
39:18the railways,
39:19which was very important
39:20for the morale
39:21of the British people
39:22as well.
39:25London wasn't the only
39:26British city
39:27to pay a heavy price
39:28during the Blitz.
39:30Everywhere in the country,
39:31the never-ending bombs
39:33marked people's minds
39:34and worried inhabitants.
39:35In a show of support
39:37and to bring royal comfort
39:38to Britons,
39:40King George VI
39:40himself traveled
39:42the country by train.
39:49Because of the war,
39:51special permission
39:52was given
39:52to build a set
39:54of coaches
39:55to transport
39:55the royal family
39:56safely
39:57with armor plating
39:59so they could get
40:00around the country
40:01to see the devastation
40:03in the cities
40:03and meet the people
40:05safely themselves.
40:08Like every sovereign,
40:10he had his own royal train
40:12that could safely
40:12accommodate himself
40:14and his family
40:15for trips lasting
40:16several days.
40:18The coach originally
40:19was protected by armor
40:20over the roof
40:21and down the sides.
40:23Also, the windows
40:25had shuttering
40:26to stop any shrapnel
40:29or whatever
40:29from bombs
40:30that went off nearby
40:31and keep the royal family safe.
40:34On board this train,
40:36George VI
40:37traveled to Coventry,
40:38Liverpool,
40:39and Plymouth.
40:47The trips were always risky
40:49and planned
40:50in utmost secrecy.
40:53The movements
40:54of the train
40:54were kept
40:55highly secret
40:56right up
40:57until the last minute,
40:58obviously,
40:59so that no one
41:00could target the king.
41:01But once the route
41:02was set,
41:04the railway
41:04did all it could
41:06to make this
41:06the absolute priority
41:07train on its route.
41:09They had a special
41:10head code
41:10that showed
41:11to everyone
41:12the fact
41:12that the king
41:13was on board
41:14and it was
41:14the royal train.
41:19Many important meetings,
41:20we believe,
41:21took place here,
41:22obviously,
41:23for reasons
41:24of secrecy.
41:26We don't know
41:27exact details,
41:28but it is believed
41:28that he met
41:29with Churchill,
41:30Roosevelt,
41:32Eisenhower,
41:33and General de Gaulle
41:33during the war
41:35to get various updates
41:36on how the campaign
41:37was going.
41:49The British kept
41:51their morale
41:51and remained united
41:53behind their king
41:54and their prime minister.
41:56By spring 1941,
41:59although he may have
42:00kept it to himself,
42:01Hitler knew he'd lost
42:03the Battle of Britain.
42:04At last,
42:06on May 21st,
42:07the Blitz ended.
42:16You know,
42:17without the railways,
42:20it's very difficult
42:21to see how Britain
42:23would have survived,
42:25both in terms
42:26of getting food
42:28to people
42:28and getting supplies,
42:30but also in terms
42:31of the war effort.
42:34Yet history
42:35could have easily
42:36turned to Hitler's advantage
42:37if he'd only realized
42:39from the start
42:39the importance
42:40of the major rail lines.
42:42If the railway system
42:44had been put out
42:45of action,
42:45if Hitler had kind of
42:47targeted the railways
42:48and said,
42:49right,
42:49we're going to wreck
42:49the railways,
42:50then he might well
42:51have kind of managed
42:52to conquer Britain
42:54in a way that proved
42:55impossible,
42:55that he never really
42:56attempted it
42:57because the railways
42:58were still functioning.
42:59because don't forget
43:00it was about
43:01keeping the trains
43:02running that was
43:03important.
43:04It wasn't so much
43:05about destroying things,
43:06it was keeping
43:07those supply lines
43:08open that was
43:09important to us.
43:10Hitler didn't stop
43:11that.
43:12He didn't stop
43:12the railways.
43:13The railways kept
43:13on running
43:14all through the war.
43:15No matter how bad
43:16the bombing was
43:16in certain places,
43:17it was repairs
43:18very quickly.
43:20In October 1941,
43:23Operation Sea Lion
43:24was officially postponed.
43:26The Germans didn't manage
43:27to invade Great Britain.
43:29For Churchill,
43:30it was a first victory,
43:32a victory that rested
43:33largely on his adept
43:35and visionary use
43:36of the railways.
43:38There was a great sense
43:39of what the railways
43:40had done,
43:40and Churchill wrote
43:41to the railway workers.
43:42He wrote a letter
43:43to them,
43:44and he said,
43:45you've done this amazing,
43:47heroic job,
43:48for which I give you
43:49my gratitude.
43:51400 men and women
43:53rail workers
43:53gave their lives
43:54to maintain the war effort
43:56and stand up
43:57to Hitler's bonds.
43:58It is largely
43:59thanks to them
44:00that Great Britain
44:01won the battle
44:02and then the war.
44:04It was a profound thing
44:06that they had died
44:07or become injured
44:08because they were
44:09not soldiers.
44:10They were not conscripted
44:11to fight the war.
44:12They were working
44:13on the home front.
44:14They were just
44:14ordinary people
44:15who served the public,
44:16who did a great job
44:18keeping Britain moving
44:19during the war.
44:49For that,
44:50they were fighting
45:06Legenda Adriana Zanotto
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