1940: Britain's Finest Hour

W

w3tina

New Member
Hello everyone,

I hope it's okay for me to post this information here. I work for a digital agency promoting the British Imperial War Museum's activity surrounding the 70th anniversary of 1940. After browsing your forum, I feel that your it would be a great place to highlight what is happening both with the rich online content and at the five branches of the IWM.

A dedicated microsite, 1940: Britain’s Finest Hour, outlines the key events of 1940, featuring archive photographs and film to tell the story of this momentous year, and includes up-to-date information on the events and exhibitions that are happening to mark the anniversary as well as newly commissioned films and interactive features.

Key events at the Museums this year include:
- A re-enactment of Winston Churchill's famous ‘The Few’ speech, followed by a fly-past (20 August 2010)
- The breathtaking Battle of Britain Air Show at IWM Duxford (4 & 5 September 2010)

There’s also a chance to explore the personal histories of the men and women who were involved in the events of 1940. The new Explore History Centre at IWM London gives unprecedented access to the Museum’s Collections, allowing visitors of all ages to delve into the digitised archives and find films, photos, audio clips, documents and art at the touch of a button. Explore History 1940, a special display alongside the new space, exhibits objects from 1940 and tells the untold stories associated with them. This is really great as it opens up a new perspective, at least that is what it was like for me.

You can get in touch with the IWM directly on Twitter and Facebook or ask me questions here, if you like, and I will try to answer them the best I can.

Cheers,
Tina
__________________
W3haus New Media Team
www.w3haus.com
@w3hausuk
 
Wish I could go back

I wish I could return to England to take part in these great events. I'm writing because I have kind of a funny story about the blitz in modern memory.

I was going to school at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) in 1986 as an exchange student from the US. I was dating a girl who was also American and also on the exchange trip. We went in to a laundry to pick up some clothes and the fellow working behind the counter proceeded to tell us what Sheffield was like in 1940. He was a bit hard to understand (as you know, Americans and Britons speak two different languages) but I understood that he was on a fire brigade. He kept talking about all of the attacks by "Gerry." Quite fascinating.

Then, when we left the shop, my girlfriend turns to me and says, "Who is Jerry?"
 
Jeff Simmons said:
I wish I could return to England to take part in these great events. I'm writing because I have kind of a funny story about the blitz in modern memory.

I was going to school at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) in 1986 as an exchange student from the US. I was dating a girl who was also American and also on the exchange trip. We went in to a laundry to pick up some clothes and the fellow working behind the counter proceeded to tell us what Sheffield was like in 1940. He was a bit hard to understand (as you know, Americans and Britons speak two different languages) but I understood that he was on a fire brigade. He kept talking about all of the attacks by "Gerry." Quite fascinating.

Then, when we left the shop, my girlfriend turns to me and says, "Who is Jerry?"
Click to expand...
Hello Jeff Simmons,

:-D:-D I love it, and then you told her, that Jerry is Fritz, and she probably got even more confused - :-D

Regards
Kruska
 
Kruska....My actual family lived through it okay....but other members of our family group so to speak were not so lucky. It was not unusual for the Germans planes to use any one as target practice with their machine guns. One day when I was speaking to a German POW I asked him about this and he pointed that the person shooting at us could have lost his family in one of our air raids and was just hitting back, now this I could understand
 
LeEnfield said:
Kruska....My actual family lived through it okay....but other members of our family group so to speak were not so lucky. It was not unusual for the Germans planes to use any one as target practice with their machine guns. One day when I was speaking to a German POW I asked him about this and he pointed that the person shooting at us could have lost his family in one of our air raids and was just hitting back, now this I could understand
Click to expand...
Hello LeEnfield,

Thanks for the information. These war experiences are all kind of mirrored. My mother used to tell me about constant straffing by Allied pilots when she used to be by bicycle on the countryside organizing food for the family. I consider myself very fortunate for not having had to live in those times.

Regards
Kruska
 
Churchill's commencement speech, 1940

I read a story once about Churchill being invited to give a commencement speech by one of Britain's major universities (I can't remember which one) during the blitz. Everyone expected Churchill to give one of his long, windy speeches; instead, when he got up to podium, all he said was, "Never...give...up," pounding his fist with each word. That was his whole speech. And what else was there to say, anyway?
 
Jeff Simmons said:
I read a story once about Churchill being invited to give a commencement speech by one of Britain's major universities (I can't remember which one) during the blitz. Everyone expected Churchill to give one of his long, windy speeches; instead, when he got up to podium, all he said was, "Never...give...up," pounding his fist with each word. That was his whole speech. And what else was there to say, anyway?
Click to expand...
Hello Jeff Simmons,

Never give up , bamm - yeah we had those in Germany even on 7th of May 1945. I can imagine Churchill's emotions and confidence going all the way up and down in Sommer of 1940.

Regards
Kruska
 
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