Yesterday's Newsreel Battle of Britain (1940)

Synopsis

This black and white film is one of the episodes of "Yesterday's Newsreels", an early 1950s TV show made from the General Newsreel collection. It features eight segments of historic highlights. Battle for Britain 1940 (:28). Hitler walks out of a building with his entourage. He looks through binoculars at the White Cliffs of Dover. In London, sandbags are piled to the second floor of a building (:58). An air-raid shelter is shown at Buckingham Palace ( 1:10 ). London’s children gather to be evacuated ( 1:21 ). A neighborhood army practices drills ( 1:26 ). A woman civilian solder helps launch barrage balloons ( 1:34 ). Men and women civilian defense units man anti-aircraft and coastal guns. Cannons are fired. ( 1:44 ). August 8, 1940. Air sirens go off and people look up. The defense units move civilians off the street ( 2:11 ). Live footage of Germany’s Nazi bombers fill the sky and drop bombs on the merchant fleet below ( 2:28 ). England’s Air Force responds in Spitfires. Live footage is shown of a Nazi plane being fired up and crashing into the English Channel ( 3:08 ). Air raid calls cause civilians to stop working and grab military gear. One blows a whistle ( 4:08 ). Enemy aircraft approaches. People are shown in shelters, covering their ears. Above, buildings burst into flames ( 4:29 ). Firefighters spray water at the fire ( 4:46 ). The aftermath of burnt out buildings is shown ( 5:14 ). A “We are Open” sign is shown, and people emerge smiling from the underground…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time

12 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage