Machines | Wartime Farm Part 7 of 8
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The team face the farming conditions of 1944, when Britain had been at war for five long years and the fields surrounding Manor Farm filled up with thousands of troops as the Allies assembled the largest naval task force in history for the D-Day landings. Farmers did their bit by growing vast amounts of flax, which was used to make parachute webbing, fighter aircraft fuselages, tents and ropes, with production in Britain increasing from 1,000 acres to 60,000. But the wettest summer for a century has devastated the crop at Manor Farm, and if Alex and Peter are to save it they must take drastic action. This wasn't the only way farmers helped the D-Day preparations. Racing pigeons were requisitioned by the military to carry vital intelligence to and from occupied France. Ruth revives the traditional craft of basket making to create a pigeon transporter while Alex and Peter head out into the English Channel to find out how birds were trained for their long missions. The war brought farmers face to face with the military as never before, and artist Leo Stevenson follows in the footsteps of the war artists commissioned by the government to capture the wartime landscape on canvas. As D-Day drew ever closer, 3.5 million troops packed into southern England. Foreign troops formed close bonds with the locals, drinking together and playing games. The team recreate a baseball game that the Americans played here in 1944 and conclude that the villages of Britain had never been so vibrant. Wartime Farm was produced by the BBC in partnership with The Open University.
Comments
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Peters pockets always look like a little boys, stuffed with all kinds of treasures. Wonder what he had got in them?
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"And now I'll add a happy little tree..."
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I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH. and I can't imagine better hosts. "You break my basket, you DIIIEE!" LMAO and then later "that's a disgrace". hahaha "bold and admirable" <33
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So much British cuisine seems to be boiled.
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The turning point of the war not in 1944, but in the summer of 1941 when USSR has stopped Nazi's Blitzkrieg attack, and then in the winter when Nazis failed to capture Moscow, and then in Stalingrad when they failed to capture Stalingrad and started to flee.
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"you break my basket, you DIE!!!" rotflol
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alex singing and playing :} oh my heart!
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D day would've happened with or without flax....
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I've enjoyed this programme, however, I was very shocked that the contributions of the Canadian soldiers to the British Call since 1939 were not mentioned at all... even the beaches of Normandy showed only American vehicles! What about The Maple Leaf Club?
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Alex singing is very cute. He is not bad either.
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Brilliant series. Ruth is awesome, she is always so happy and chirpy.
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A small thing, but this shows the difference in table manners between the US and UK. I assumed everyone ate with a fork and only used the knife to cut the item, then set it aside..the Brits eat two handed with knife and fork at all times...interesting...
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The dog is my favorite character
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Brilliant series
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You break my basket you die!
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Why do they call individual soldiers 'troops'? A troop is a group.
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We have a farm whith a war time tractor and we still use it now it was bit so well
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Bloody good painting, can you buy a print of it?