This film is part of Free

Last Year of Peace

An amazing film that contrasts the last months of peace in 1939 with scenes from the first year of the war - featuring dog-fights over Sussex and the effects of falling bombs.

Amateur film 1939 17 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Screen Archive South East

Overview

Starting with spring blossoms and sheep, this film shows a burning windmill, a festival attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a Channel crossing to France. We also see the people of Egerton coping with blizzard conditions in the winter of 1939/40. Such peaceful images contrast sharply with scenes of aerial warfare during the Battle of Britain and the fire-bombing of local buildings. We see neighbours crawling over bomb craters and a girl posing between two bombs.