The British propaganda film, The First Days, was made in the early months of the Second World War, before the expected bombing of Britain's cities had begun. This period became known as the 'Phoney War' because little military activity had taken place in Western Europe since war had been declared in September of 1939.
The film's producer, Alberto Cavalcanti, instructed his production team to go out and film what was happening on London's home front in 1939. The resulting film captures the mood around London at the time and shows how ordinary people were preparing for the challenges ahead: laying sandbags, boarding-up windows and evacuating their children to the countryside.
This extract from the film shows what life was like on the British home front at the start of the war.
“But some Londoners must keep their feet on the ground. The Monday morning workers left their tube trains to face a new world where everything seemed strange. But trade went on. They bought covers for their gas masks. The shining facades of the West End put up barricades. Sometimes of paper and glue. London's White War paint was to be a guide on the darkest night, sometimes. Even Scotland Yard's stout walls were made stouter still. While citizens turned into policemen came out to man the streets. The resources of the Great City were mobilised to deal with fire and explosion. The aged and ill from the hospitals of London were taken to the country to escape alarm. Meanwhile, the children too were leaving London. Three quarters of a million children had been moving out of the London region during the weekend. For this was a city of children. London has many monuments to the dead past, but the real London is its young life, its future. London is the cradle of tomorrow, and not just the slate and stone, the bricks and mortar of an ancient and toiling city. The mothers stayed.”
“No, you're right. But it gets that quiet, doesn't it? Funny, it takes the war to give us a bit of peace and quiet.”
“Some of the anonymous millions did get into uniform. For weeks, women had practised driving ambulances. 3000 taxi drivers became godfather to a fire pump. At almost every corner, a balloon was tethered. Sometimes on London's waterway. One side of the street might be sunny and civilised, the other like a road in France with army convoys hiding under the trees. In quiet backwaters of a civilian city, its young men trained. It was a time for saying goodbye. Goodbye.”
The First Days (1939)
This is an edited clip. Watch the complete film.
