Dig 1940

1940 was the pivotal year of World War II – Britain’s back was absolutely to the wall.  Neither America nor Russia had yet entered the fight – Britain was the only European power standing against Hitler.  Behind Churchill’s defiant speeches was the belief that the Nazi invasion and defeat of Britain was just weeks away.

Telling the nail-biting story of 1940 through real archaeological discovery offers a completely fresh approach.  The key events of 1940 are the most iconic of WWII. The Battle of France; the evacuation of Dunkirk; the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.  Digging for fighter planes, tanks, sunken ships and underground shelters allows us to really touch history – and understand much more deeply what it was like for everyone, solider and civilian, who lived through 1940.

This series brings the men who fought, back to the skies, beaches and fields in which they served, and in which their friends died.  They will be there to witness the planes and guns they used being brought to the surface, bringing alive their memories and experiences in a way that armchair interviews sometimes don’t.  We also hear from the men and women who supported the soldiers at home and who, in the days of the Blitz, found themselves on the front line.