V.1. THE ROBOT BOMB

for [Music] [Music] London is doomed said Dr Geral 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 scard 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 this theater and see and hear the1 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 Matt 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 3 days you're a GM and you break Patrol to help the London Bobby you're the man on the street and you do what you can London suffered and London worked and London fought you're part of the crew of a nakak battery on the south coast and you can't close your eyes in the 80 Days of the V1 Blitz you bring down more than 1500 bombs with aak you 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 bu bombs with only steel cables stretched in 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 pilot 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 the dentist chair when they come over on me 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 Geral 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 schools hospitals churches time famed landmarks were high among Adolf Hitler's targets of blind chance women and children headed the casualty lists the city was hurt but the city will heal the people of London of all England are beginning the work of reconstruction now are on the job at this moment nearly a 100,000 of them [Music] [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 [Music] glass winter is here and once again thousands are the figures tens of thousands haven't any homes in England [Music] [Music] 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]