WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- This is the Linby Trail,

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near the little village of Linby
in Nottinghamshire, in England.

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I'm filming on the trail
because it'd be really weird

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to do a walk-and-talk
to a camera on a stick

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in a little village.

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This is one of those stories
about war where no one dies,

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no one even gets hurt,

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and, for a little while,
there's this bit of light

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in the middle of something terrible.

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So, World War II, 1941.

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Britain is being bombed
every night by the Luftwaffe.

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Over in Germany, William Joyce
broadcasts fascist propaganda

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over the radio to the UK,
trying to demoralise the British public.

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The press nickname him Lord Haw-Haw

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because of his affected
upper-class accent.

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Sometimes, Lord Haw-Haw would forecast

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which towns and places
would be bombed next,

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and he was eerily accurate.

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And on one of his broadcasts,
he threatened Linby Docks.

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Dockyards were strategic bombing targets;
of course they were.

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But Linby Docks aren't
dockyards at all.

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They're these little streams
that run through the village of Linby.

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The docks are just a local name.

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But Luftwaffe commanders
had looked at the map,

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seen Linby Docks, and decided to waste
some of their limited war-fighting resources

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on bombing something that,
while quite pretty,

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was strategically useless.

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Oh, and they missed.

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The bombs landed a couple of miles away.

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No one was even slightly hurt,

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although presumably one farmer's field

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had some unexpected and
rather violent ploughing done to it.

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It's a lovely story.

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It's part of the local
mythos here in Linby.

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You'll find articles about it online

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and it's referenced on the
lovely little parish map

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that is next to the bus shelter.

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And I'm really, really sorry to Linby,

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but I'm not sure it's true.

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Because if you look at
the maps from back then,

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they didn't say 'Linby Docks' on them.

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Of course they didn't.

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These streams are so small that
they are barely even marked

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on the largest-scale maps.

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If Germany was using maps
that were that detailed

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and that precise, well,
then they could tell

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that the docks weren't big
enough to have any ships in them.

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And if they weren't
using maps that detailed,

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well then the docks wouldn't
be marked on them at all.

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Lord Haw-Haw, that propaganda broadcaster,

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he didn't actually give away secret plans

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or announce bombing raids in advance.
Of course he didn't!

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The Luftwaffe didn't want
to give advance warning

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so they could be shot down.

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So, he just lied or relied on reports

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that came back in the news

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in the hope that he would be right enough

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to convince the British public,
who weren't fools.

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A lot of folks tuned in to him,
a few million,

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but it was mostly for entertainment.

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There's an argument that
rather than hurt morale,

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he actually helped British solidarity.

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And there aren't many recordings of him;

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there's certainly no audio of him
saying 'Linby Docks' that I could find.

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The Blitz was logged in detail
by all the local authorities

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and all the records were compiled.

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Hucknall, the nearby town,
is mentioned twice,

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but Linby isn't mentioned at all.

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I searched through all the
relevant local newspapers,

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they've been digitised,
and they have no articles

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about any bombings near here.

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I even asked the local historical society,
and they were wonderful,

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they went through a lot
of documents for me.

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But there's nothing from
the time that backs it up,

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just folklore and stories
told from parent to child,

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from elder to youth, for
maybe the last 80 years,

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which does hurt a little, because
it's such a wonderful story.

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Now, if I present something
like this to the world

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and say, "I don't know," there's a tendency
for certain overenthusiastic people

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to see it as a mystery
and try to solve it.

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The only people who know for sure
are over 90 years old

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and, look, no one should bother them

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trying to disprove or prove
one bit of local folklore.

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Besides, I'm only in my thirties and
I've occasionally had moments

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where I've recalled
clear memories of things

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that evidence later showed me
I have had completely wrong.

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But the bomb records are not perfect.

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Newspapers back then might
not have mentioned it

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because "Bomb Lands in Field,
No One Hurt" is not a story,

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at least not in 1941; it would be today.

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Maybe it did happen.

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Or maybe someone came
up with a story once,

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told it as truth, and everyone thought,

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"Sure, that sounds fun, let's go with it."

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I am expected to provide
evidence for claims, rightly so.

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But there are countless
tales that never happened.

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We call them urban legends
or eventually just legends.

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Did King Alfred really burn the cakes?

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Probably not. Does it matter?

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Over a long enough period
of time, no, not really.

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I don't think something like this

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needs to be proven or debunked,
even if it somehow could be.

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It's just a good story.

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Thanks to the historians and archives
who helped me with my research.

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I have put links in the description.