This new double CD features a unique collection of rare and digitally remastered British actuality and broadcast recordings from WWII.

  Contents include: News bulletin 03/09/1939; Neville Chamberlain’s announcement of war; Address by King George VI; Evacuees leave London 1940; Home Guard appeal; Lord Haw Haw Blitzkrieg; Winston Churchill – We shall fight on the beaches; If the invader comes; Salvage of household materials; Dover – Hellfire Corner; Volunteer ARP warden; Battle of Britain – Spitfire pilot; News – the Battle of Britain 15/09/1940; Farmers under fire; The Blitz – Black Saturday; London wedding blitzed; Max Miller – my first ARP experience; Manchester air raid shelter; Ed Murrow – Somerset in wartime; Work of the WVS – billeting; Mass-Observation 1941; Workers’ Playtime 1941; Women at the benches; News – raids on Britain 10/01/1941; To I on the Land; News – Japan enters the war 07/12/1941; The kitchen front – Gert & Daisy; London cabbie in the Blitz; Baedeker raid on Exeter 1942; Canteen concert in Scotland; Evacuees – Christmas messages 1942; News – Italy surrenders 08/09/1943; The Brains Trust – happiness; Tommy Handley – Put It Out; News – D-Day landings 06/06/1944; V-1 flying bomb actuality; V-1 attacks – AA Command; RAF fighter flips V-1; World & home news 30/08/1944; V-2 attacks on London; Newsflash – Hitler is dead 01/05/1945; German surrender 07/05/1945; VE-Day – Winston Churchill & crowds; VE-Day – weather forecast; Glasgow mother.

Total running time: 150 minutes.

PRICE: £13-50 (inc UK p&p), or £15-00 (inc overseas airmail).

A superb compilation of swinging performances set as march tunes have been put together in a new collection of melodies. Jack Parnell’s big band rouses the listener with his rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In, Jan Savitt entertains with his novelty march Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, and Buddy Morrow gets feet tapping with his Boogie Woogie March.

Written by musicians such as the ‘March King’ John Philip Sousa and Edwin Eugene Bagley in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the songs demonstrate the development of swing and jazz as a distinctive style, over several generations.

Total running time: 1 hour 13 minutes. Transferred from original 78rpm records and digitally remastered.
PRICE: £11-50 (inc UK p&p), or £13-00 (inc overseas airmail).

Listen to 21 of Winston Churchill’s greatest wartime speeches in this moving and poignant double CD boxed set collection of original recordings that trace his inspiring words from the beginning of the war through to victory in 1945.

As well as the better-known speeches like ‘…blood, toil, tears and sweat’, ‘…we shall never surrender’, ‘This was their finest hour’, ‘Never in the field of human conflict…’, ‘Give us the tools…’ and ‘This is your Victory…’, there are a further 15 inspirational speeches from the great man.

·        Specially compiled for the Imperial War Museum, these tracks have been digitally enhanced and remastered from original recordings.

·        DOUBLE CD PRICE: £12-99 (inc UK p&p) or £15-99 (inc overseas airmail p&p).

The second volume of Bomber Command at War features 75 minutes of rare audio material, most of it unheard for more than sixty years. As well as first person accounts of early raids on Germany 1940-42 by Hampden and Wellington crews, the selection also covers operations by heavy bomber types such as the Stirling and Lancaster, and low-level strikes by Mosquitoes and Beaufighters.

Notable missions include the famous Lancaster raids on Augsburg (1942) and the ‘Dambusters’ attack on the Ruhr dams (1943) as well as the pinpoint Mosquito strikes against Amiens jail and the Aarhus Gestapo headquarters (both 1944).

PRICE: £11-00 (inc UK p&p), or £13-00 (inc overseas p&p).

This new archive CD presents a unique collection of restored actuality and broadcast recordings from WWII.

An evocative double-disc set, it features 140 minutes of rare material recorded between 1939 and 1941. Most of the forty tracks cover the period of night air raids in British cities between September, 1940, and May, 1941, including the heavy raids on London known as Black Saturday and the Second Fire of London. All featured recordings are first-hand accounts made at the time, and include civilians, evacuees, ARP and civil defence personnel, RAF pilots and politicians, as well as actuality recordings made during raids and in shelters.

Recordings by named individuals include teenage NFS messenger Ronnie Hayes; a survivor of the horrific bombing of the Café de Paris, Helen Stevens; RAF fighter pilot H. M. Stephen; the first George Cross winner, T. H. Alderson; and several bombed-out women and children. Also included is a collection of recordings made by the citizens of Coventry after the city was devastated in November, 1940.

Other historic recordings include a stirring speech by Winston Churchill, the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, an appeal for fire guards by Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and William Joyce, the infamous Lord Haw Haw. Featured correspondents include Ed Murrow, Robin Duff and Raymond Glendenning.

All materials are authentic wartime recordings, which have been carefully digitally remastered for CD. The CD booklet includes archive images and detailed historical notes.

PRICE: £13-50 (inc UK p&p) or £15-00 (inc overseas airmail).

Dunkirk & the Battle of France and Flanders, 1940

Dunkirk & the Battle of France and Flanders, 1940
This new archive audio CD from CD41 features unique actuality and broadcast recordings from the first year of WWII.

It features seventy minutes of rare material recorded between October, 1939 and June, 1940. Many are contemporary firsthand accounts by officers and men of the British Expeditionary Force, both during the ‘Phoney War’ period and during the disastrous campaign in France and Flanders in May, 1940, culminating in the miraculous evacuation of 338,000 men from the beaches of Dunkirk.

Recordings by named individuals include RAF Hurricane ace Edgar ‘Cobber’ Kain of 73 Squadron, George Parkes of 7 Royal Tank Regiment, Richard ‘Gunbuster’ Austin of 92 Field Regiment RA, and Edward Parker, coxswain of the Margate Lifeboat. The CD also covers the airborne invasion of Holland, including an account of the escape of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company by Constance Lambert.

Other historic recordings include the first stirring speech by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister on May 19^th, the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, the Fall of Calais, landmark BBC news bulletins, J. B. Priestley’s historic Postscript to the News on the fabled Little Ships and ‘blue pencil’ humour from Jack Warner in Garrison Theatre.

The recordings have been digitally remastered and the CD is accompanied by a booklet that includes archive images and detailed historical notes.

  Price £11-00 (inc UK p&p) or £13-00 (inc overseas airmail).

For Valour CD - Archive Recordings by winners of the VC Cross 1914-1945

For Valour CD

Archive Recordings by winners of the VC Cross 1914-1945

This new CD features unique first-hand accounts from both World Wars, by winners of Britain’s highest and most prestigious bravery award – the Victoria Cross. It includes 15 original recordings made by VCs from all three armed services and will appeal to military historians, researchers and collectors of historic sound recordings, as well as those with a general interest in our military history.

Playing time 70 minutes. A donation from the proceeds of the sale of this CD will be made to The Royal British Legion.

PRICE: £11-00 (inc UK p&p) or £13-00 (inc overseas airmail).

The Battle of Britain: Archive British Radio Recordings 1940s (Vol 1)

This new CD includes original broadcast recordings made in 1940 by several well-known RAF fighter pilots, including Robert Stanford Tuck, Richard Hillary, J.W.C Simpson, H.M. Stephen, Don Kingaby, George Stoney and J.B. Nicolson – the latter being the winner of the only Victoria Cross awarded to Fighter Command during the battle and indeed the entire war.

Other recordings include, extracts from two landmark speeches by Winston Churchill; the entirety of Charles Gardner’s infamous ‘sporting’ commentary on a dogfight off Dover in July, 1940, Alvar Liddell’s news bulleting of September 15^th, and the evocative Spitfire Prelude & Fugue by William Walton, composed for the 1942 film The First of the Few.

- Playing time: 74 minutes. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the CD will be donated to the Royal Air Forces Association.

- PRICE £11-00 (inc UK p&p), or £13-00 (inc overseas airmail).

D-Day & the Battle for Normandy

D-Day & the Battle for Normandy

Archive British radio recordings June 1944 (Vol 1)

This new double CD audio book features over two hours of carefully restored archive British WWII broadcast recordings covering the D-Day landings and Battle of Normandy in June, 1944.

They include despatches by war correspondents, actuality recordings made on the beaches and battlefield, and personal accounts by British service personnel. These range from battle recordings from Ouistreham, Tilly and Cheaux; broadcasts by Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery, and Winston Churchill; and personal accounts by the winner of the sole Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day, a Typhoon ground attack pilot and paratrooper of the 6^th Airborne Division.

The recordings add up to a detailed account of the first month of the Second Front, including: preparations for Overlord; the airborne and beach assaults on June 6^th; French Resistance operations; reinforcement; MTB sweeps; fighter operations from advanced landing grounds; Operation Epsom; the advance on Caen and several rare German propaganda broadcasts intended to deter invasion troops.

Many of these historic recordings have not been heard since 1944. Explanatory notes and relevant images accompany the recordings in the CD booklet.

• The 48 tracks include: D-Day Preparations (Frank Gillard); Airborne Troops Take-off (Richard Dimbleby); Gold Beach VC (Sergeant-Major Hollis VC); Beach-head Fighting (4 British soldiers); Church Bells in Normandy (Alan Melville); and King’s Visit to Normandy (Michael Standing). Playing time: 2 hrs 30 mins.
• A proportion of the proceeds of the sale of this CD will be donated to the Royal British Legion.

PRICE: £13-50 (inc UK p&p), or £15-00 (inc overseas airmail).

52 Original Hits of 1955 CD

Remember 1955? It was the year that Sir Winston Churchill resigned and Sir Anthony Eden became prime minister…James Dean died when his Porsche crashed near Los Angeles…the first-ever floodlit soccer match (England vs Spain) was played at Wembley…Princess Margaret called off her wedding to Group Captain Peter Townsend…and commercial TV made its bow in Britain.

Music-wise, it was the year when rock and roll first made an international impact, adding another dimension to the popular music scene that was still enjoying the sounds of love songs, ballads and jazz from revered solo artistes, as well as singing and orchestrated groups.

How many of these 52 tracks sound familiar?

Tweedle Dee (Georgia Gibbs); A Blossom Fell (Dickie Valentine); Relax-ay-voo (Dean Martin & Line Renaud); If Anyone Finds This I Love You (Ruby Murray & Anne Warren); Mama (Vic Damone); Suddenly There’s a Valley (Petula Clark); Hernando’s Hideaway (The Johnston Brothers); Hey There, Where Will the Dimple Be? and Mambo Italiano (Rosemary Clooney); Love is a Many Splendored Thing (Four Aces featuring Al Alberts); The Man that Got Away (Judy Garland); Blue Star - The Medic Theme and Pickin’ A-Chicken (Eve Boswell); Never Do a Tango with an Eskimo and Twenty Tiny Fingers (Alma Cogan); The Man from Laramie (Jimmy Young); Rose Marie and Indian Love Call (Slim Whitman); Happy Days and Lonely Nights, Evermore and Softly Softly (Ruby Murray); Let Me Go, Lover and Chee Chee-oo Chee (Dean Martin); Cool Water (Frankie Laine); Close the Door (The Stargazers); Two Hearts, Two Kisses and Dreamboat (5 De Marco Sisters); Cloudburst (Don Lang); Prize of Gold (Joan Regan); Arrivederci Roma (Rino Salviati & his guitar); Every Day of My Life (Malcolm Vaughan); Yellow Rose of Texas (Mitch Miller, His Orch & Chorus); The Dambusters March (Central Band of the RAF); You My Love and I’ll Never Stop Loving You (Doris Day); Under the Bridges of Paris (Eartha Kitt); Unchained Melody (Don Cornell); Stars Shine in Your Eyes (Ronnie Hilton); Learnin’ the Blues (Frank Sinatra); Lonely Ballerina (Mantovani); Stranger in Paradise (Tony Martin); Teach Me Tonight (De Castro Sisters); Earth Angel (The Crew Cuts); Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White (Eddie Calvert); The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane (The Ames Brothers); The Breeze and I (Caterina Valente); Give Me Your Word (Tennessee Ernie Ford); Rock Around the Clock and Shake Rattle & Roll (Bill Haley & His Comets); Ain’t That a Shame (Pat Boone); Mobile (Ray Burns).

Total running time: 148 minutes. Transferred from original 78 records and digitally re-mastered.

PRICE: £13-99 (inc UK p&p), £15-99 (inc overseas airmail).

SUBSCRIBER DISCOUNT: £1-00 will be deducted off the price at time of order processing when you indicate you are a Best of British subscriber - please quote your subscription number if known.

RAF Bomber Command at War  1939-45 (Vol 1) CD

This collection of rare archive recordings from WWII features broadcast and actuality recordings made during RAF Bomber Command raids on Essen, Stettin, Kleve and Berlin in 1943, together with crew debriefs and war correspondent reports.

Largely unheard for more than sixty years, these astonishing actuality recordings were made by plucky BBC engineers, who bravely joined the crews of Lancaster heavy bombers for night raids on German targets. The recordings were made on portable ‘midget’ disc cutting machines plugged directly into the Lancaster’s intercom system, and capture the drama as it unfolds of anti-aircraft fire, night fighter attack, evasive action, ‘bombs away’ and the ever-present danger of mid-air collision.

The war correspondents featured include such celebrated names as Wynford Vaughan Thomas, Edward R. Murrow and Richard Dimbleby.

The CD also features recordings made by aircrew after returning safely to base, including an air gunner’s account of the devastating raid on Dresden in February, 1945, and a remarkable report on the daring raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal in August, 1940, for which the speaker (Flt Lt Roderick Learoyd) was awarded the Victoria Cross.

The booklet features detailed recording and historical notes, as well as rare photographs. All audio content has been carefully digitally restored.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the CD will be donated to the RAF Association.

Running time 72 minutes, 28 tracks.

Churchill and Friends - The Drama of WWII in Speech, Sounds and Song CD

The speeches, sounds and songs on this recording date from the period immediately before Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, until shortly before he was ejected by the British people from Downing Street when on the verge of victory. The voices, other than Churchill’s, are those of his friends and allies, and together give a brief overview of WWII.

The CD opens with the menacing march from H. G. Wells’ film The Shape of Things to Come, which opens with the terror bombing of an imaginary war of the sciences, fading under Churchill’s formidable speech at the time of Munich in 1938. We hear more speeches from Britain’s mouthpiece, and songs of the time intermingled with the actual sounds of warfare from the home front and from the furthest edge of the Empire.

We hear General Slim talking to his Forgotten Army in Burma, and speeches by Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery on the eve of the largest landings from water ever likely to be made in history, together with the sounds of air battles to the death and tanks grinding to the Front.

The American reporter, Ed Murrow, can be heard walking through Trafalgar Square shortly before the Battle of Britain began, while Wynford Vaughan Thomas ducks behind the scuttle of a landing craft to describe the British Army’s crossing of the Rhine. The eventual conquering of Monte Cassino by the soldiers of many nations is announced and celebrated.

The CD ends with Churchill’s joyous announcement of the end of the War in Europe and the crowd singing Britain’s alternative National Anthem, Land of Hope and Glory.

The 25 tracks include:

March from Things to Come (Arthur Bliss & the London Symphony Orchestra); A Call to War (Churchill); There’ll Always be an England (Jack Payne & his Orchestra); Be Ye Men of Valour (Churchill); Live eye-witness account of German dive bombers in the Channel; Broadcast to the USA from Trafalgar Square (Ed Murrow reports); Their Finest Hour (Churchill); The World Will Sing Again (Betty Driver); The Crux of the Whole War (Churchill); Live eye-witness account of a dogfight over the Channel; Westward, Look! (Churchill); This is the Army, Mr Jones (Irving Berlin & Chorus); Tanks at El Alamein (Godfrey Talbot reports); End of the Beginning (Churchill); Victory at Monte Cassino (Ralph Howard reports); Burma Campaign (General Slim); Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There (Deanna Durbin); Of All the Wars (Churchill); D-Day address to the Allied Forces (General Eisenhower); D-Day address to the Allied Forces (General Montgomery); Serves You Right - You Shouldn’t Have Joined (George Formby); Crossing the Rhine with the British Army (Wynford Vaughan Thomas reports); Adolf (Billy Cotton & his Orchestra); Destruction of Nazi indoctrination centre (Wynford Vaughan Thomas reports); This is Your Victory (Churchill).

Running time approx. 75 minutes.

PRICE: £11-50 (inc UK p&p) or £12-50 (inc overseas airmail).