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.

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.