I'm currently half way through watching Lucy Worsley's latest programme Blitz Spirit.
To be honest I'm finding it heart-breaking to watch, hearing it through the words of the people who lived it, and to find out that our own Government kept so much from the general news as it was happening during the war years. I understand the need for some things to be delayed ... reports, information etc ... for all sorts of national security and morale issues, but it must have been horrendous for the people going through the absolute terror of the worst days of the blitz for it to be hushed up for so long and not reported on. As though they were going through it alone.
As for photographs of bombed buildings being censored to show only part of the destruction and having to include an untouched building and 'happy people' ... words fail me.
It seems the more you learn the harder it is to accept that humans do this sort of things to each other so very regularly. There has never been a time on this planet without a war raging somewhere.
Why?
Sue xx
I haven't seen this programme but your review is excellent.
ReplyDeleteSeems horribly similar to the way our Government behaved during Covid.
I ended up buying it on Amazon Prime in SD for £2.99 as I really wanted to watch it ... worth every penny!
DeleteI will definitely be watching this on I player, not easy viewing at times I'm sure. You have hit the nail on the head with your last sentence Sue. I always think of a line in the Lord of the Rings " all we can do is the best we can with the time that is given to us" and that keeps me going.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find it on iPlayer, it was only available to buy or rent, but it was worth it.
DeleteYou know sometimes when you read a really good book, and as you finish the last sentence you close the book and just sit there .... this is the only time I have felt like that at the end of a television programme or film. I sat for a good ten minutes just absorbing everything that I had just seen.
Thankfully I found it on iplayer, it has 27 days left. I have had those moments, something that changes your viewpoint completely, some very profoundly.
DeleteI'm glad you found it. xx
DeleteSo true Sue. It is sobering to reflect that throughout history there have been power-mad dictators who have bent whole countries to their will, yet are not satisfied with that and strive to crush even more people under their heels.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to fathom how the 'dictators' can bend the will of a whole country to their skewed way of thinking. Why do we let ourselves get led like sheep.
DeleteSounds like a really interesting program to watch. Sometimes, it takes years for some truths to be revealed, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt was really good. It really does, in my line of work I know that for a fact.
DeleteI didn't know about the programme but would like to watch it, now that truths are being revealed. War is hateful for any reason. Nothing seems to change does it....
ReplyDeleteSadly we do not seem to be able to learn from the mistakes and atrocities of the past. As you say nothing changes. :-(
DeleteMy mother--one of the strongest people I've ever known--drove an ambulance in London during the Blitz (one of three jobs she held at the time). It took several decades before she was able to talk about some of her war experiences and they were harrowing to hear. Her brother in the Royal Navy was killed when his ship was sunk by U-boat attack in 1940--no survivors; her East End home was bombed. I find it almost impossible to imagine myself living through her circumstances.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1990s, when she was in her 80s, she asked me to take her to the Imperial War Museum (her first time) as they had just opened a special Blitz exhibition that you had to pay to enter. An elderly man was selling the tickets but before he would take our money he turned to her and asked, "Did you live through it?" When she said yes, he said, very solemnly, "Luv, don't go in. Just don't go in." So we didn't. Thankfully, as it turned out we barely made it into the main hall of the museum and she stopped. She had seen the enormous V-1 and V-2 rockets on display (then) and immediately asked me if we could leave. It was then I remembered her telling me about walking down the street during the latter years of the war and hearing the V-1 rockets come over making a puttering sound which would then cut out--making for a brief silence before they dropped and exploded. She said she would plaster herself up against a building and try to "melt into the brickwork." Just imagine the terror. I quickly took her out of the museum. The look on her face that day is something I will never forget.
Too many in power choose not to remember the ravages of war.
Oh gosh, it sounds like your Mum was made of stern stuff, she must have HAD to be strong to go through all that. Thank goodness the gentleman warned her off going to the exhibition, so very nice of him.
DeleteMy Mum could never listen to the air raid siren going off at the end of each Dad's Army episode, it triggered the terror she felt as a child and brought back some awful memories. My Dad used to leap out of his chair and turn the television channel over.
It seems that those in power have very selective memories ... and their own agendas.
I don't think people learn from their mistakes. War is not the first reaction to have, or the second or third. We need to learn to sit and listen, something we as humans are not very good at.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I agree completely Jackie. xx
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