England at war: photographs from 1940-1945 

Beautiful, just beautiful. An era that has long gone. Very nostalgic.

I am teenager ,..even not english but I can not forget Very lynn's voice and 1940s england pictures...

How beautiful to see Old England without monstrous tower blocks, estates and betting shops on every block... Sigh.

They pulled together because they weren’t lied to or treated like cattle. Pride in country and their fellow countrymen

Excellent. This should be shown to our children as part of their history lessons.

Absolutely marvellous, l wasn't born then but people were so brave. 😊😊😊😊🐱🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Mum hide me in the Anderson shelter when dad was away...he was lucky he came back but never the same,even sad thanks for the memories

Extraordinary collection of wonderful photography. Thank you

Absolutely superb video Nigel. Wonderful photography accompanied by the bitter-sweet Vera Lynn tune.

Excellent video.. photographs from 1940-1945 '' thanks

Is it just me? Despite the horrors of war I see so much in these old photographs that has been ruined over the course of time. When these photos were taken, UK cities were not blighted with massive tower blocks, houses did not have crazy extensions built on them, the population was fairly homogeneous, large parts of the countryside were still unspoiled, etc, etc...................

Excellent video, it brought back some memories for me as a child during the war.

This was when this beautiful island nation of ours had a back bone and people where immensely proud to be living here. All we have today is people fighting within. So very sad.🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The woman you hear singing is Vera Lynn, who died 18 June 2020, age 103. One minute of silence, please, for a great British woman.

Deserves more views

Love that song. It quietly reflects the resolve and hope of the British which carried them to victory.

The resolve of the British people really showed through during these very difficult times. I see that period as one on Britain's greatest periods. All who helped did so magnificently!

Absolutely amazing photo's. Thanks so much for sharing.

How clean and tidy everything looked no cars.. No clogging up the streets kids playing... lovely little towns..... Its not like that now.....

There''ll be bluebirds over, The white cliffs of Dover Tomorrow. Just you wait and see There'll be love and laughter, And peace ever after Tomorrow. When the world is free. Thank you, Nigel. Warm greetings! L

Terrific. Thanks. Looking at this on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in September 2020, Detroit. Proud of my roots and parents who served in this conflict. Then again, all those in Britain did as these great photographs attest. The smiles weren't strangers.

"...we shall fight them on the beaches" - not any more we don't.

In a word precious a treasure my mam and dad was alive then somewhere out there in England.

Great video. My mum lived in Bethnal Green during WWII (born in 1932) and she told us of the doodle bugs, the awful moment when they went quiet. These photos are wonderful. I love watching Foyle’s War with Micheal Kitchen as Detective Foyle. Set in Hastings, we are are given an interesting take on the war years.

Thank you for sharing these photos....it makes me very nostalgic. My Grandad used to tell me (when he was alive) how beautiful his country was and what great lives they had even though they were poor and had nothing. Before he died he told me that the country has gone to the dogs and I have to agree.

Absolutely beautiful photo,s

The country looked so clean and cared for, even in the cities. People had pride back then. Gone times.

I shouldn't have watched it ,it made me cry..

Great sharing dear Nigel, wonderful song! we love the peace! Thanks my friend Have a nice weekend, Peter and Phillip :-)

I live near an old RAF base in south london (RAF Corydon), in a house built during 1935. I often sit and stare into the sky, trying to imagine how the contrails would have appeared at the height of the BoB 80 years ago.

Lovely Song & Lovely Photos.... Me Mam was a Land gurl & Me Dad went over the Aden,such a hard time,but folk helped each other,sadly Hull got badly bombed.. The World changed a lot afterwards... We still need to Cherish the Simple Pleasures in life😘

We live in a beautiful country; I know time and age tend to make our viewpoint a little jaundiced, but it still is. Change is inevitable, but the old place is still glorious.

I am Dutch and born after the war but after Churchill and Vera even i have tears in my eyes ....

War is the worst thing that could think of humanity... we Will seek peace on the planet. Thank you very much, dear Nigel! Happy weekend! Hugs!

Very moving, don't think I'll bother reading the comments below, as I can guess most of them.

Beautiful. God bless you!

This brought back my childhood age 4 to 10.

Hello Nigel... Your video is excellent..!! I've watched it well. Thank you for sharing. Cordial greetings..(BF)

I am so proud of what my grandad did in the war, he worked all day at his job on the railway, then come home, quick tea & put on his ARP coat and hat then off to do his bit for the war. My grandad never told me how hard and dangerous it was, but my god my heart bursts with pride for him & every other person who endured the 2nd world war. Thank you every one of you 💞 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Blimey! The blitz photos looked like Portland, Oregon today!

Winston Churchill would turn in his grave at how weak we have become. We can’t even make our own face masks. Terrible

Excellent Nigel 👍👍👍👍👍 love from India 🙏

These are great photos and they conjure up a bygone time. I am in my early 70s born in 1949. I recall my mother saying say that for those on the home front during the war it was all pretty grey and folk were always hungry but there was the occasional splash of colour with a wedding or coming of age and some things carried on ........like the procession shown here.

Beautifully made ... The speech of Sir Winston Churchill, full of hope and which in the end would lead to a United Europe in Peace .. A hope which the Likes of Farage and Bojo have shattered into smithereens ... Poor Britain

SIGH, A look back at my childhood in Surrey during the war years. I was 5 years old at the start and remember having to carry my gas mask with me every day when going to school. We boys had a great time when we had the morning drill and had to put the masks on. It wasn't long before we discovered that if you blew into the mask it emitted a farting sound from the sides. This caused a lot of laughter and sharp words from the teacher. I can still recall the wet concrete smell of the shelter's we went down into during the blitz.. The concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil the government issued to help with our health. Sweet rationing, The drone of the bombers in the night passing over us, the searchlights crisscrossing the sky. The guns firing and the ping of shrapnel bouncing on the roads. Fossicking in the garden and picking up burned out incendiary bombs as souvenirs. A German pilot dropping into our road and being taken into a house and given a cup of tea and a piece of cake whilst waiting for the army to come and pick him up. By 1942 there were a lot of German and Italian prisoner's working on the railway and nearby farms. We still had the occasional raid, but on a much smaller scale. One time a lone fighter buzzed and shot at our school at low level, but he was soon chased off by Hurricane's. In 1944 the buzz bombs started and at first they were very frightening, but we soon learned that as long as the distinctive sounding engine kept going you were safe. Luckily we were just too far out from London to get the V2 rockets in Woking. There are many other memories of those days, some exciting, some terrifying and Looking back, I am so glad I am of that generation and proud to have experienced a , (hopefully,) once in a lifetime adventure.

Fantastic piece of work. Brings it very much to life.

Thank you for taking the time to upload these videos. Amazing work!

In Manchester we had the lovely Piccadilly Gardens which was sunk below ground level with a riot of blooming flowers. It is now a concrete mess full of junkies. Heaton Park and Boggart Hole Clough had, and still have, boating lakes. The only difference is that the boats have gone. Come in number 91, your time is up. We haven't got a 91. Number 16, are you in trouble?

We should never forget those people on that island who defied Hitler when all Europe had fallen and everybody was saying ´give up , you cannot resist the greatest military force the world has ever seen´, including the snarky Joe Kennedy ! They resisted , held off the Luftwaffe and preserved that stepping stone for the eventual invasion in Normandy. What people , what courage !

Thank you Nigel that bought back some lovely memories of my childhood, though I wasn’t born until 49

There is a rare photo of the High Street in Moreton-in-Marsh, Cotswolds. The Redesdale Arms Hotel shown on the left is still the same today as it was then and worth a visit. Remarkable!

There were none of the conveniences or technology, everything manual BUT there was community spirit and the bits unaffected by the bombs looked lovely.

The photos are great-being American, I can appreciate the tremendous struggle that the British people had to win. So sad that the UK of today is not like this.

Very good video and audio Nigel. Nicely put together.

Good to see the Union Flag flying, a criminal offence today

and thank you nigel...

Vera Lynn had a lovely voice, God rest her soul.

Great people,great photos,great Churchill words!!Thanks to those heroes the monster was finally defeated.Honour to them !

At 3.08 is a view of High Street,Stratford-upon-Avon almost as I remember it as a child,the half-timbered building with horizontal flagpole showing Union Jack and Stars and Stripes is Harvard House where the mother of John Harvard founder of the university was born.Immediately to the left of that was the Garrick Inn named after the actor and right at the end of the street the tall building was Lloyds bank.

Very nice work with the colour rendition.

And all of it thrown away by every British politician since Churchill, with the sole exception of Thatcher.

thank you sir,very beautiful to see,before my time but how i wish it could be like that now,people proud of this beautiful country instead of self absorbed selfish humans.

Excellent presentation of times gone by

Very evocative, well done.

Beautiful. Thanks for posting.

A time when Britain really was great, inept and self serving politicians have allowed it to turned into a basket case of the worlds misfits. Sadly but thankfully I no longer live there or call it home. Was there on V.E day and have great memories of growing up in the post war.

Thankyou for sharing.

Beautiful. Thank you Nigel.

Captions or a list of places in the 'about' section would be nice and helpful.

Another great set of nostalgic photos Nigel.Change is everywhere but that period in England invokes special feelings in many I am sure. Life would have been extremely stressful for many during that time but, oddly enough, it just does not look like that in these images. Thank you.

Wonderful photos, great music. When I was young my mum would often sing this! Dear mumxx

Even through the trials and tribulations of the second world war, England looked such a green and pleasant land.

Wonderful photos

The photograph at about 3:21 of the men on the tractor . Looks like they are prisoners of war , that worked on the land . Many, eventually were allowed to lodge with British families . And becoming good friends with us . Some stayed on after the war , married, settling down . I knew three of them , they never lost their German accents . But we thought of them as some us , we never thought of them as the enemy , the ones I knew were good blokes .

At 3.01 is the annual procession on Shakespeare's birthday (April 23rd same as St George's day) passing Shakespeare's birthplace on Henley St., Stratford-upon-Avon. From there it makes its way through the town past King Edward VI grammar school where a contingent of boys head the procession as it goes to Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare is buried to lay wreaths and posies in remembrance. The man in red is the town 'Beadle' who I think might be Fred Baker who held the post for many years,always looked like W C Fields in fancy dress!

Чудесный исторический фильм...! Прекрасная песня...музыка и исполнение,очень нежное и душевное...!!! Спасибо,дорогой Найджел! С большим интересом, смотрю ваши прекрасные видео....! Благодарю за нашу дружбу...! Всегда рада видеть,Вас! С большим уважением и теплом,Нелли.

Excellent choice of photos and so many re-enchanced in colour very realistically. The 6 year struggle of 1939- 45 puts us to shame today with the amount of whingeing going on over Covid-19 - If we had another war now - would we cope? I doubt it. Millions died in WWII - everyone knew a family who had lost a member to warfare.

Winston Churchill was the essence of a leader, and statesman. Thanks for posting.

De la sueur ,du sang et des larmes.... Beaucoup et très grand Respect . Sacrés " grands bretons" 👏👏👏👏

My bladder is so full it’s leaking out of my eyes.

The very thing we fought for will be for nothing if we do not change our ways

"If your going through hell keep going " Winston Churchill

And now? Everyone has a degree in useless subjects, oh so educated, and the country manufactures nothing anymore, all reduced to service industries.

My "white privilege" is a result of all the struggles and hardships these people endured. Of all the lives that were laid down by that generation and many before, in the name of king and country. People living in this country today claiming to be oppressed are incredibly arrogant in ignoring the enormous struggles previous generations went through to build the country into what it is. If you don't like it, leave!

Lovely pictures, some are just so timeless and idyllic. I really like this sort of thing but they can soon get you thinking about the transience of life. All those people,living their lives..all gone I imagine. Oh well,mustn't dwell on things!

Thank you very much indeed !

4.04 Goudhurst Kent

BRAVO.

My Mother was born during this timeframe and often talks about being carried down to shelter at all hours of the night by my Grandmother. She told me there was just a cold concrete slab in the shelters to sleep, or sit on. I can't imagine what my Grandparents went through during that time. My Grandfather had just gone to bed after working 12 hours when the sirens went off to head to the shelter, and he is quoted as saying, "Oh, let Hitler kill me tonight, as I am too tired to move."

Beautiful Job

Now what do we have. ‘POTTERS VILLE’ , a scene from Its a Wonderful Life’ .

Incredible photos

BEAUTIFUL TUNE AND SINGING---MAY GOD BLESS ENGLAND!

Those soldiers who sacrificed so much would be horrified to see what leaders have done to the country, Churchill would never have tolerated its demise!!!

Great photos

Nan worked for a while in white cliffs of Dover on telephones but wanted a driving job so went to civil defence driving ambulances in Canterbury only canvas topped the firemen played water on it as she was near the cathedral during the Canterbury blitz.

This is so very sad. Not because of the war, but because of what England has become.

Lovely pictures of Moreton in Marsh

Thanks for the amazing photos, you did a great job. Do you have locations for any of them. I spotted Morton in the Marsh at 2:43 (buildings are unchanged today), and a couple looked like Oxford, possibly.

Отличное видео! Желаю хорошо провести выходные!