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Censored unused material with camera flashes on World War Two Plymouth blitz. Very, very good evacuation of children scenes with boarding trains and labels around the neck, evacuees looking mainly cheerful. Dramatic bomb damage with bus blown onto a roof.
Completely flattened buildings, bomb damage and people looking over mounds of bricks that were their homes. Emergency workers and smoking ruins. Soldiers receiving rations. Homeless people are given warm cups of tea from vans.
Film 1
Two old double decker buses (a number 17) drive slowly down a road. The buses are full. They stop and three young girls hang out of the open window. Other children are looking through the windows at the camera. The children disembark from the buses and they are organised into two's by several adults. The children carry their gas masks and a small parcel. They wear their name badges on the coats. The children line up in pairs next to the bus. Some of the children are very young. One little girl clutches her doll. A high view of the children and the adults who are supervising. View of the length of the line of children, there are many children lined up. The adults are trying to organise them. Slowly the children move off in their pairs, carrying all their possessions with them. The adults accompany them. They walk past a railway station that is advertising Golden Shred jam on its wall. The procession of children and adults walks along the platform. They are boarding a train. A policeman and a man smoking a pipe look on. Some of the children are carrying very heavy bundles. The adults and the children all board the train. Some children lean out of a carriage window and wave good-bye. Children and adults are at the other windows of the train and are all waving. The steam locomotive blows its whistle, the signal is down which indication to the train to move off. As the train moves along, children and adults all lean out of the windows and wave. Various views of the children waiting on the platform. Some ladies hand out dolls and teddy bears. One little girl looks adoringly at her doll.
Film 2
War damaged Plymouth. Buildings have been bomb damaged. A view of a bombed house, the exterior wall is missing and the stairwell and interior rooms are visible. Temporary camp set up by the 'Food Flying Squad, USA to Britain'. There are big drums that are full of fire to cook food. On the drums there are kettles and pots. A man fills buckets full of water from a tanker. Another soldier stokes on of the oil-drums that is full of fire. He adds more coal. Three women stand around one of the cooking drums. Two of them are stirring the contents. Another woman pours liquid into an urn. Men are shovelling the debris from the bombs away from the houses. There is a big bank of rubble. The houses have all their windows blown out and nearly all the tiles are missing from the roofs. Men fill wheelbarrows full of rubble. Others use shovels and picks to clear a bomb crater. They are digging. The retrieve what appears to be an un-exploded bomb from the rubble. View of a bungalow or low set house that is completely destroyed by bombs. Other views of severely damaged houses and a car that is very crumpled and bent out of shape. Two men attach a heavily loaded trailer to a car. Men and women leave the bomb damaged houses carrying suitcases. They drive off in the car pulling the trailer. View of another street that has suffered severe bomb damage. The whole street is a mass of rubble and destroyed houses. There are many Home Guard soldiers on the street trying to clear away some of the debris with shovels and spades. Views of a street that is totally destroyed. The houses have been reduced to rubble. The Home Guard line up for a hot brew as they take a break from clearing away the bomb damage. They are given sandwiches. They stand around and eat and drink, they are very dirty. A man carrys a rolled up mattress on his back. Three women watch and laugh at him. He has salvaged the mattress from a bomb-out house. View of another road that has suffered a bomb hit in the middle of a row of terrace houses...
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