United Kingdom flags flutter over the Old War Office Building, on Whitehall, in London, United Kingdom (Old War Office Building, Whitehall, London SW1A 2EU, United Kingdom). Variations of the flag displayed include the British Naval White ensign and the British Red Ensign. Vehicles drive past on street. Building with flags of various nations on it. Vehicles drive in front of the building. Cars parked in front of a building.
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain sits pensively at his desk. Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, walking together in London. King George VI stepping from a car and entering 10 Downing Street. Mobilization of British forces for war. British civilians marching casually wearing steel army helmets. A man volunteering for the Army. New recruits being issued uniforms. Others, in civilian clothes, learning to drill with rifles and then marching away from a village. Recruits in bayonet practice. Winston Churchill speaking about the tragedy brought upon Europe by Hitler (this Churchill speech was at St. James's Place, London, June 12, 1941, in an address to Allied delegates). Aerial views of the destruction of Poland by Luftwaffe aircraft of Germany. Civilian Polish victims of German bombardment. A boy and women mourning over the dead. A child being held near a bonfire to warm her. Children rescuing a few possessions from a destroyed home. Parents carrying children. Women and girls crying and in mourning for the loss of loved ones and destruction from war.
Aftermath of London bombings by Nazi Germany during World War II. Lord Halifax, British Foreign Secretary, visits the damaged houses in East end of London. Rubble collected along roads. Pile of rubble in a park. Halifax and two men confer in a street.
Aftermath of London blitz or blitzkrieg bombings by Nazi German Luftwaffe during World War II. Rubble outside a shop with a sign 'Bombed but not beaten' other signs read 'We are open' 'open for business'. As people walk past the shops in London. Bourne and Hollingsworth on Oxford Street.
The British Overseas Airways Company (BOAC) receives their first delivery of the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jetliner. Employees working at de Havilland gather to witness the departure of the aircraft from the company’s Hatfield airfield aerodrome (Hatfield, Hertfordshire; 3NM NE of St Albans). The de Havilland chief test pilot, John "Cats Eyes" Cunningham, climbs the airstair to board the aircraft. The BOAC de Havilland Comet airplane, registered G-ALYP ("Yoke Peter"), taxis for takeoff. The de Havilland Comet airplane takes off from the airfield. The Comet jet airplane in flight.
Scenes from British feature film "The Somme" made in 1927, about the Battle of the Somme in World War 1. Part of it depicts events involving the South African Brigade in the battle. The extract opens with shells bursting all along No Man's Land among fragments of trees. Explosions and smoke everywhere. On July 18, 1916, Nine German Battalions deploy to drive the South African Brigade from the Delville Wood. Several soldiers of the Brigade seen entrenched in a sand-bagged position as a German shell explodes only yards from them. German soldiers advance through the broken trees and brush, while under fire by British gunners using Vickers machine guns. Some German soldiers falling and others seeking cover in abandoned trench. A line of South African troops firing their rifles from a trench, as several German soldiers reach them and are shot dead just feet away. A British soldier is shot while climbing out of a trench containing several fallen comrades. Other British (or South African) troops scrambling to find a safer place. One crawling across the ground. A British gunner firing a Lewis gun. German troops starting to go over-the-top, from their trench. British soldiers advancing. German gunner firing Maxim gun from fortified position, as shells burst in the distant background. A horizontal line of British troops advancing toward the German position. Some are cut down by the machine gun fire. German gunner firing a captured British Vickers machine gun. British soldiers hunkered down in a deep shell hole behind a ridge. They use their trenching tools to dig in deeper. Several German shells burst in the air. Two British soldiers watch as a tank approaches through the smoke. Large numbers of British troops attack downhill through smoke and haze. German soldiers preparing to defend an occupied structure, as more British troops charge forward. Post-battle view of the area, with fallen soldiers marked by rifles stuck in the ground with helmets on them. (Note: The tanks shown in this film are models Mark V which did not enter service until 1918.)