Blitz Street

Series Summary

Tony Robinson presents a series that aims to give some idea of what it must have been like to live under the ferocious and constant bombardment of the Blitz, and to explain why it failed ultimately.

Blitz Street itself is a row of terraced houses specially built on a remote military base and is subjected to a frightening range of large-scale high explosive bombs and incendiaries similar to those dropped by the Luftwaffe.

With precise measurements of the supersonic blast waves and flying shrapnel, Blitz Street reveals the devastating impact of real explosives on bricks and mortar, allowing Ministry of Defence scientists to study the awesome power and mechanics of Second World War bombs.

High-speed cameras operating at 1,000 frames per second show in amazing detail how houses could progressively collapse from one end to another; how people survived by sheltering under the stairs; or how they had their clothes ripped from them or were lifted onto the roofs of their homes.