BBC Archive: The outbreak of WWII
Post categories: archive
| 14:05 UK time, Thursday, 3 September 2009
As well as the key contemporary broadcasts such as Chamberlain's declaration of war and Richard Dimbleby at the scene of Chamberlain's return from Bad Godesberg a year earlier (pictured) the BBC Archive collection "World War II: the Outbreak of War" includes a set of BBC documents. Made up of internal memos, staff guidelines and the covers of Radio Times the week before and the week after the start of war, they give us unique insights into the Corporation at the time.
There are discussions around planned programme changes ("Variety programmes will be of great value in the maintenance of the civilian morale in war time...") and also the role that the BBC should adopt in wartime.
You've also got until this Sunday to listen to Radio 4's Broadcasting House's piece on the collection.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~32~RS~)
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Thank you for the URL to a very useful BBC resource by the looks of things.
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Thanks, Paul for the excellent URL (Link) for this useful resource....and, for allowing for the time given to learned about the outbreak of World War II....
=Dennis Junior=
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I think there is some great audio in that collection. The report on the evacuation of children from London was inciteful and I was amazed and surprised by what I heard in that report. It would be great if the morning broadcast, from 10:00-12:00 on September 3rd 1939 could be added, with the PM's announcement included.
I think that the On This Day section for World War 2 should be updated with more audio, and news items from before and after the war.
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From a internal planning document;The BBC 'War Book': Variety Programmes.
"Immediately following the outbreak of war, all existing arrangements will be cancelled and the lighter side of broadcasting will consist entirely of commercial records, e.g. dance music, as for reasons of copyright it is unlikely that it will be possible to use recordings of past programmes."
What an extraordinary situation for the BBC to be worried about, at the out-break of war... Even in a crisis 'Auntie' was the perfect Gentleman!
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Just been reading the document "The BBC 'War Book': Defence" which makes mention of 'Document C', the Synopsis states that this document was "a 22 pages long and contained detailed instructions for each department on what to do in the event of air raids or loss of specific transmitters.", does this document still exist in the records and if so is it (or is there any plans to make it) available online - assuming that it's not still classified of course!
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