- Text
Rare Color Footage of London Blitz Uncovered
Bombing victims are treated during the London Blitz.
(Credit: Westminster City Council)
The footage shows the destruction of several London landmarks, including the flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street, and of bombing victims being treated by medical personnel.
The film was released Monday by Westminster City Council to mark the anniversary of the devastating German bombing campaign that began September 7, 1940, and continued until May 1941.
The footage was taken by an air raid warden and mayor of Marylebone, A.E. Reneson Coucher. It was recently found by his family in their attic, unseen for decades.
In the 20-minute long film, titled "Pages From St. Marylebone's War Diary," Britain's wartime leader, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is seen reviewing a parade of civil defense workers in Hyde Park.
The ruins of London landmarks are shown, as a bright red double-decker bus drives through rubble-strewn streets.
There are also training exercises of civil defense workers extinguishing fires with buckets and hand-pumps.
"West End at War" (Westminster City Council)
Excerpts from the film can be viewed by clicking on the video player below.
-
David Morgan David Morgan is a senior editor at CBSNews.com and cbssundaymorning.com.
- Pakistani fishermen reel in 40-foot whale shark
- Iran: We can attack U.S. interests "anywhere"
- Syria rebels bloodied, battered, but defiant
- "Voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse abandons Qaddafi
- Girl with Two Heads Born in Philippines
- Booze and bikinis in a new Egypt
- Cockpit error sent 737 into Pacific nose dive
- Israel To U.S.: Don't Delay Iraq Attack
- 23 women convicted of child pornography in Sweden
- Syria's Christians stand by Assad
- Stephen Hawking: Heaven is "a fairy story"
- 130 Doctors Without Borders staff go missing
- GlobalPost: Qaddafi apparently sodomized
- Greek Cruise Ship Sinks
- Costa Concordia wreck seen from space
- Iran helping al Qaeda? War "hysteria" builds
- Report: U.S. to slash Iraq Embassy staff
- Ahead of the Bell: Trade Deficit
- Romney: My conservatism will shine through
- Leadership lessons from Alaska Airlines
- India's global pharmacy role threatened by EU pact
on Facebook
- Tenn. father charged with murdering couple who"unfriended" daughter on Facebook
- "Person to Person" with George Clooney
- Adele opens up about vocal cord surgery
on CBS News
