Blitz, The: Volume 1: 1940-41

An evocative double-disc set, The Blitz features 145 minutes of rare audio recordings made between 1939 and 1941. Much of the material covers the period of night air raids on British cities between September 1940 and May 1941, including the heavy raids on London known as Black Saturday (7 September 1940) and the so-called Second Fire of London (29 December 1940). All the recordings are first-hand accounts made at the time and include civilians, evacuees, ARP and civil defence personnel, along with RAF pilots, anti-aircraft gunners and politicians. The album also includes actuality recordings made during raids and inside shelters.

Recordings by named individuals include: teenage ARP messenger Ronnie Hayes; a survivor of the horrific bombing of the Cafe de Paris, Helen Stevens; RAF fighter pilots D.F.B. Sheen and H.M. Stephen; the first George Cross winner, T.H. Alderson; a man buried alive for eight days in Glasgow, and several 'bombed-out' women and children. There are also several recordings made in Coventry after the devastating raid in November 1940. Other historic recordings include a stirring speech by Winston Churchill, the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, an appeal for more fire guards by Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and William Joyce, the infamous Lord Haw Haw. Featured correspondents include Ed Murrow, Robin Duff and Raymond Glendenning. All materials are authentic wartime recordings which have been carefully digitally remastered for CD. The CD booklet includes archive images and historical notes by James Hayward.