V-1 THE ROBOT BOMB

[Music] [Music] "London is doomed," said Dr. Gerbal. And Adolf Hitler's intuitive propaganda experts claimed that in its first few days of attack last June, V1, the flying bomb, the robot bomb, the buzz bomb, had almost entirely removed the city of London from the war scarred face of the earth. But soon, even German propaganda changed its spots. Once again, the great, patient, enduring city of London was suffering. Suffering, but alive. You can sit back in your seat in the theater and see and hear V1, but you cannot imagine how London suffered and worked and fought. Find yourself as V1 might have found you, coming at you from dawn to dusk, from dusk to dawn. Any day, all day, any night, all night for 80 days and 80 nights. You're an office worker coming home around 6 and this is your house. You're a passenger on a cross town bus and this is the end of your last trip. You're a kid at school and this is your lesson for the day. You're an airman on leave and this is your welcome mat. You're a diner in a restaurant and this is where you had your last bite. You're a patient in a hospital. And this is your final treatment. You're a worshipper in a church. And this is where you kneel and never got up again. Yes, London suffered under V1. 23,000 buildings utterly destroyed, 1 million damaged, over 5,000 lives lost, over 16,000 broken. But London worked. You're a member of a heavy rescue squad and you dig with your hands to save a life. You're an attendant in a first aid station and you haven't slept for three days. You're a [ __ ] and you break to help the London Bobby. You're the man on the street and you do what you can. [Music] London suffered and London worked and London fought. You're part of the crew of a knack battery on the south coast and you can't close your eyes. [Music] In the 80 days of the V1 Blitz, you bring down more than 1,500 bombs with Hackac. You work hard down on the south coast in the white sun and gray mist and in the nervous night. You're a member of a unit in the balloon barrage. In the 80 days, you bring down nearly 300 Bombs with only steel cables stretched from the sky. You're the pilot of a Tempest or a Mustang or a new type of Spitfire splitting through space and you bring down nearly 2,000 pilotless bombers in the 80 days and it isn't easy. Yes, you fight back and you bring them down in the thousands, but some get through to the villages and towns of southern England and some get through to London and their numbers are also in the thousands. They come droning and sputtering and roaring and you don't know when they'll suddenly stop and drop on you. You're a farm laborer and it's like sitting in a dentist chair when they come over. Only worse. You're a hairdresser in for a swim on Sunday afternoon. It's like seeing snakes if you don't like snakes. Only worse. You're a citizen of southern England and it's a matter of life and death. Your life and your death. You're a roof spotter or any kind of spotter and there's nothing you can do except watch out for them and pray. London wasn't doomed as Dr. Gerbalt said. And London wasn't finished, but London was hurt. 50% of V1's total of 8,000 launchings were brought down, but there was death and pain and chaos. [Music] schools, hospitals, churches. Time famed landmarks were high among Adolf Hitler's targets of blind chance. Women and children headed the casualties. The city was hurt, but the city were healed. The people of London, of all England, are beginning the work of reconstruction now, are on the job at this moment. Nearly 100,000 of them. [Music] 150 million tiles and slates are on order for buildings like these and 200 million square ft of ceiling and wallboard. 50 million square ft of glass. [Music] Winter is here and once again thousands are the figures. Tens of thousands haven't any homes in [Music] England. But home is where you hang your heart. And the people of a great city and a great land are at work, patient and enduring, knowing that their sons and their daughters are the future of a noble nation. [Music]