THE PEOPLE S WAR

There was a German bomber flying right towards us a Dornier one of their biggest It was so low we could see the pilot flying it and the gunner in the nose of the bomber pointing his machine gun at us Schoolboy in Kent during the Battle of Britain My legs pressed harder around my father s waist my arms nearly choked him The humming of Japanese aircraft was loud enough for everyone to hear now and panic spread like ink on a blotter Child saying goodbye to her parents Singapore 1942 In the early 2000s the BBC set up one of its biggest oral history archives recording the lives and experiences of the ordinary people who lived through World War Two It amounted to 47 000 testimonies and over 400 diaries and letters all of which have remained hidden in the archives for twenty years until now In The People s War John Willis unearths untold stories of everyday bravery moments of terror and tales of life affirming community that guide us through the years of the Second World War From soldiers in North Africa and prisoners of war in East Asia to evacuees in the British countryside and women in the factories The People s War is a truly ambitious and comprehensive journey through a devastating and pivotal period of our history as you ve never read befor