Went the Day Well? (1942) Movie Script
1
Good day to you.
Come to have a look at Bramley End,
have you?
Pretty little place,
and a nice old church, too.
13th century, parts of it.
Still, it won't be that that's brought you,
I don't suppose.
It'll be these names on this grave here
and the story that's
buried along with them.
Look funny, don't they?
German names in an English churchyard.
They wanted England, these Jerries did,
and this is the only bit they got.
The Battle of Bramley End,
that's what the papers called it.
Nothing was said about it
'till after the war was over
and old Hitler got what was coming to him.
Whitsun weekend it was, 1942.
As peaceful and quiet
here then, as it is now,
even though there was a war on.
It was Saturday morning
when those army lorries
came rumbling along the road from Upton.
We'd have laughed if you'd told us
we'd got a real live German
right under our very noses
and we'd have thought you was
a bit weak in the upper storey
if you'd said the chaps in those lorries
was anything else
but ordinary British Tommies.
Pretty soon we learned better
and no mistake.
- Morning, Peg.
- Morning, darling.
Well, we'll be sharing a
bottle after tomorrow.
- Promise me something.
- What?
You'll never come home with the milk.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Could you tell me
where the village policeman lives?
Yes, the cottage beyond the one
with the porch.
Oh, thanks awfully.
We have to see about billeting our men.
Looks as though I shall have company
while you and Tom's on your honeymoon.
Now you behave yourself, my girl.
Well, I'll do my best.
Wonder what they'd come here for.
Nothing that'll make any difference to you,
my girl.
You get on with your work.
Whatever can soldiers be doing in Bramley?
Exercise probably, Mrs Carter.
Funny way to take exercise
riding in lorries.
Good morning.
Are you the police officer here?
Yes, sir. I was just
shaving, overslept like.
Begging your pardon
for coming to the door like this, sir.
That's all right. Here's
the billeting notice.
What for, sir?
Didn't the Billeting Officer warn you
about our arrival?
No, sir. Care to step inside?
We shall need billets for 60 men.
For about three nights.
60 men, sir? That's a large order
for a small village like this.
I dare say, but there's a war on, you know.
I could squeeze about half of them in, sir,
but as for the rest...
You'll have to, I'm afraid.
Oh, there's the village hall, sir. There's
room there for a tidy few, I reckon.
Maybe you'd care to have a word
with the vicar, sir?
Certainly. Where is the vicarage?
- Just along past the church.
- Maxwell, you take the car and go
- with the constable to the other billets.
- Right, sir.
- Mr Ashton'?
- Yes, my father's in.
Could I see him?
- Well, will you come this way?
- Thanks.
Good morning, sir.
Oh, I didn't realise.
I'm afraid I'm disturbing you.
- Not at all.
- My name's Hammond.
- Do sit down, won't you?
- Thank you.
I'm in charge of a party of sappers. Hello!
We've been sent to do
a job of work down here.
- In Bramley?
- Yes.
Really? My dear, another cup.
Oh, that's very charming of you.
We've been on the road for hours.
So, what can I do for you?
Well, sir, it's a question of billets.
The local policeman said that you might be
kind enough to lend us the village hall.
Well, what do you think, Nora?
Well, I don't see why not, Father.
First Aid can always meet here.
Yes, I see no reason why not.
Oh, splendid, thanks very much.
You needn't worry about damage
or anything of that sort.
They're a very good lot of fellows.
- Milk and sugar?
- Please.
And your own sleeping quarters,
have you made arrangements about them?
Not yet, sir. One likes to get the men
fixed up first, you know. Oh, thanks.
We have a spare room here.
It's rather a cubbyhole, I'm afraid,
but you'd be most welcome.
Well, that's extremely kind of you, sir,
if you're sure it won't cause
a lot of inconvenience.
I mean, I expect you're understaffed and...
We shall be most offended if you refuse.
Then I accept, of course. Thanks very much.
Good morning. I'm afraid I've come again
to borrow the... Oh, I'm so sorry.
- Oh, do come in.
- All right.
Let's see, the keys of the hall
are with Mrs Collins.
That's the village shop.
You shouldn't have deserted the Army.
I only came to borrow
those garden scissors.
The Army wanted Father, not me.
I think the scissors are in this cupboard.
Oh, wait a minute, you've got them.
Don't you remember,
I brought them across on Thursday.
Oh, yes, of course, you did.
I must be getting absent-minded.
The penalty of middle age.
Don't be absurd, you're not middle-aged.
I've got a wedding
after morning service tomorrow.
Young Tom Sturry, our innkeeper's son,
but, of course, if you're thinking
of holding a church parade...
Oh, I'm afraid we'll have to work
right through Sunday, sir.
You see, we've only been given a few days
to do this job and, much as we'd like to...
Oh, yes, quite, quite, I quite understand.
- This is Mr Wilsford, Mr Hammond.
- How do you do'?
You should have said
Corporal Wilsford, Father.
Mr Wilsford is the leading light
of our Home Guard.
Though considering
all he's done for the village,
he ought to be a brigadier at least.
Home Guard, eh?
You're just the man I want to see.
We've been sent along to put
the village in a state of general defence.
General defence?
Dear me, that sounds very alarming.
Merely a routine matter.
You know, Father,
machine-gun posts, barbed wire,
like they have over at Upton Ferrars.
Who's your O.C.? I'd like to get
hold of him as soon as possible.
There's a fellow called Drew.
Lieutenant Drew.
He's the baker over at Upton.
He'll be here on his rounds quite soon.
Good. In the meantime,
perhaps you could give me
- a rough idea of the tactical layout.
- By all means.
Then I won't disturb your breakfast
any further.
I'll send my kit over later, if I may,
and thanks again for your hospitality.
- Goodbye.
- Goodbye.
I'd like to be at the manor
this morning, Father.
Why, my dear, what do you mean?
Well, poor Mrs Fraser. Haven't we
rather stolen the guest of honour?
On!
Sit down, Mr Maxwell. Give me your pencil.
- The cigarettes are on the table by your side.
- Thanks.
Let's tackle the problem
in a practical way.
Six at least at West's Farm.
- Well, ma'am, I enquired at the farm and...
- Six at West's Farm.
Then Mrs Rogers need only have one.
She said she'd prefer to have two.
She thought it'd be more proper like.
At 73? She's old enough to know better.
Mrs Rogers, one.
One at Farm Cottage?
That's out of the question.
I thought the young ladies
could share for tonight,
seeing that Miss Peggy's going on
her honeymoon tomorrow.
Quite. Leaving Ivy all by herself.
And she certainly isn't old enough
to know better.
As you wish, madam,
but it do seem a waste of a good bed.
Very well,
but you must take the responsibility.
- About here, Mr Maxwell.
- Oh, yes.
I'm cram full of evacuees,
but there's always that sofa,
and if your O.C. isn't outsize,
I shall be only too glad to...
Excuse me.
Hello? Oh, good morning, Nora, dear.
Yes, they're here now.
Garbett wanted to consult me
about the billeting.
I thought you could take...
Who is?
Oh, is he?
Oh, I'm sure that'll be very nice for him.
Yes, I'll give the message.
Goodbye.
Your O.C.'s staying with the Ashtons,
so you'd better have my sofa.
It's a great deal more comfortable than
the vicarage spare bed, I can assure you.
- Oh, thanks.
- You must both dine with me tonight.
- The Ashtons are coming...
- I wish we could,
but we've a lot to do,
I'm afraid we shall be late tonight.
Besides, we've only our battledress.
Oh, as if that matters.
As for dinner, I'll make it whenever
you like, so that's settled.
- You've a car outside?
- Yes.
Very well then, I'll come with you
and knock some sense into old Mrs Rogers.
Oh, it's an Army car.
I'm afraid civilians are not allowed to...
I don't mind.
Come in.
My, uh...
My housekeeper's out, I sent her to Upton,
so you can speak quite freely.
Good, my orders are to give you
all the necessary information.
- How much do you know already?
- Practically nothing. Do sit down, will you?
Berlin has a maddening habit
of making us work in the dark.
Airborne and seaborne invasion in force
is to be launched on Monday night.
- Monday night?
- No, thanks.
- The day after tomorrow?
- Yes.
Our task is to jam radio-location.
With the apparatus we've got, we can put
the British locators out of action.
My unit deals with the central area.
Radius, 300 miles.
But this apparatus
must be extraordinarily complicated,
if it needs all those men to assemble it.
Not to assemble, but to protect it.
If we are found out, we shall be attacked,
and my orders are to hold this village,
and to continue to hold it
for 48 hours after invasion starts.
Uh-huh. Oh,
so that's why you want to contact my O.C?
Exactly. It's always useful to know
one's enemy's plans in advance.
Hello?
- Hello?
- Telegram for you.
- Hold on a second, Violet, while I get a pencil.
- Okay.
I had that pencil of mine a minute ago,
everything seems to be losing itself
this morning.
Daisy, see if you can find those keys
for me, will you? There's a good girl.
What keys was it you was wanting, sir?
- The hall. The village hall.
- Well, they're usually kept...
- Yes, she's already looked there.
- Oh.
That couldn't be them, could it,
hanging up by those ladies'?
Why, so it is.
Found them? That's right.
Sergeant, I'd better come with you,
the lock's a bit tricky.
Daisy, find an envelope for that
and pop up with it to the manor house.
But we've run out of envelopes.
You told me to remind you.
Oh, never mind, they tell us to save paper.
But, wait a minute,
we can't both of us be out at once,
I'll take it, it's only a step further.
- Sorry to have kept you waiting.
- I hope you won't be long.
- No, why?
- You've got the telephone.
Oh, so I have.
What are those colours for?
- Royal Engineers.
- You ought not to tell.
Oh, the cards, I mustn't take them away.
You boys'll be glad of a game.
Oh! The great, big...
You great, bullying brute, you.
Knocking a child about,
you're a disgrace to your uniform.
Why, you're no better than a German,
that's what you are.
Did you see what this man did?
You report him to your officers at once.
- He was tampering with equipment.
- Well, what if he was?
There's no call for a
great, hulking brute...
All right, all right, you'll be on charge
for this. Orders tomorrow morning.
And so I should think.
And let it be a lesson to you, young man,
not to go nosy-parkering.
I shall tell Mrs Fraser about you.
Disgraceful!
Well, here we are, sir.
Yes, you can see the whole place from here,
except the manor house,
that's just beyond those trees.
Nice and compact,
easy to defend from up here.
- Have you worked out a plan of defence?
- Oh, yes, sir.
To begin with, I've established
an observation post over there.
- Just behind that hedge, there.
- Good.
- Then I've light machine-gun posts.
- How many'? Whereabouts?
One along the Upton Road,
at the bend there.
And the second one
at the top of the school lane.
- The one that runs south from the green.
- Oh, yes.
And the third down the road
past the village hall.
Just near the manor house gates.
If you were the enemy, which direction
would you deliver your main attack from?
The woods around the manor house, sir.
- They give much the best cover.
- Yes.
Well, I think you've told
me all I want to know.
You can always give Drew a ring,
if there's anything else.
- That's right.
- Thanks.
I appreciate your cooperation, Mr Drew.
It's going to make my
job a good deal easier.
If there's nothing more
for the moment, sir,
I think I ought to be getting along
with my deliveries.
Yes, and if any of your customers are
angry, please put the blame on me.
- Good day, sir.
- Good day.
I'll see you tomorrow at the exercise.
- Splendid fellow.
- Oh, yes, keen as mustard.
What is this exercise, anything special?
No, action in the event
of a parachute landing.
You'd better report sick,
in case I need you.
All right, I'll have a sprained wrist
or something.
If you've any general suggestions to make,
I'd like to hear them.
Well, most of your men could pass
for 100% British
- like the sergeant, couldn't they?
- All, except one. A radio technician.
Well, I suggest that some of them
should pay a visit to the local pub,
The Ring of Bells, tonight.
Look very odd if they didn't.
Right! Anything else?
Well, they should make themselves
useful in their billets.
So?
You know, minding the baby and keeping
an eye on the kettle, and so on.
Ah, I see.
What part of the world do you come from?
Manchester.
Eee, then we're neighbours.
I come from Stockport.
Good old Piccadilly of a Saturday night.
I said I come from Manchester, not London.
Well, I know you did,
but I mean Piccadilly in Manchester, silly.
Oh, of course, I was forgetting.
I left Manchester when I was a child.
Oh, I see.
Well, that's done anyhow.
You carry those in, will you?
I'll take these. Come on.
There we are. Put those on the dresser.
Now come and sit down
and make yourself comfy.
Seven days' leave isn't much, is it?
No, it's all we chaps get.
I know.
But have I been waiting for it.
Dear Tom. Dear, dear...
It's like old times to hear
Bill Purvis's shotgun again.
He gave me a rabbit yesterday.
Black market?
Wedding present.
That must be Joe Garbett
coming to have a look.
That's torn it.
If we budge, he'll hear us and if we don't,
he's sure to come and catch us.
Not if I knows anything.
Now you stay where you are.
And 'ang on to Betty.
When I whistle for 'er
ten times, let her go.
- Then you nip off home, see.
- Okay. What about tomorrow night?
Eleven o'clock. Same place.
Betty?
- Still, Betty. Still.
- Betty!
Where are you, lass?
Five...
Not yet, Betty.
Six...
- Oh, good evening, Mr Garbett.
- Evening, Bill.
That dog of mine run off again,
so I just come in to have a look for 'er.
Beth'!
I heard a couple of shots up this way
a moment or two ago.
- Didn't happen to have a gun with you?
- A gun, ha!
When I'm just out looking for me dog.
That dog of yours doesn't seem
to be around here at all.
Nine.
Ten. Phew!
Trespassing in Manor Wood
and no reasonable excuse.
Psst.
Where you been, you wicked lass?
Gettin' your master into trouble
with the constable.
Very nearly.
Well, I must be getting along to me supper,
got a nice stewed rabbit.
- Rabbit?
- Found on the Upton Road.
Got run over, I suppose.
- Goodnight, Mr Garbett.
- Goodnight, Bill.
Come on, Betty.
- Evening.
- Good evening.
What will you have?
- Bitter.
- Light ale.
- Same.
- Yes, sir.
Here you are, Jim.
- Ah, thank you.
- Evening, ma'am.
- Oh, good evening.
- Will you take a drop of something?
Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure.
I wouldn't say no to a small port.
MAN: Seventy-two.
Billets nice and comfortable, I hope?
Billets? Oh, yeah.
Fred was saying quite home from home,
weren't you, Fred?
- That's right.
- Bit of excitement for us.
We never had so many foreigners
in the village before.
- Foreigners?
- Well, strangers to these parts, like.
We always call 'em
foreigners round this way.
That'll be two and six, please, sir.
- Two beers, Jim.
- Righto, Pat.
Thank you, sir.
Your very good health and down with Hitler.
Goodness, how dreadful,
I've only just realised.
Realised what?
It was seeing you again made me remember.
I never took it up to the
manor house after all.
- The telegram. Oh!
- You had it at the hall.
I must have left it there then. I'd better
pop round and see if I can find it.
There's a guard on the door.
He won't let you pass.
Be a good Samaritan and come with me,
won't you?
Come on, be a dear.
- Another game?
- No thanks, I've had enough.
How much do we owe?
- Let's see now, in English money that's...
- Pay attention!
This lady's lost a telegram.
Anyone seen such a thing?
A telegram? Has it been opened?
It wasn't in an envelope, just the form.
It was addressed "Fraser"
and signed "Maud."
I can't think what on earth I could have...
Why, I believe that's it.
It is, thank goodness for that.
We've been scoring on the back of it,
I'm afraid.
Never mind, I've found it,
that's the main thing.
Oh, but what about your game?
You'll need it for the score.
We'd just finished.
Oh, that's all right then.
Bit of a makeshift in here.
Not very comfy for you, is it?
No.
Oh, well, I'll be getting along then.
I haven't had this done for me
since I was about six.
- There you are.
- Thank you so much.
If you ask me,
I think he sprained his wrist on purpose.
When I think of those Germans
gorging themselves on French wines,
it makes me quite furious.
I'm afraid I haven't much sympathy
for the French.
That's one of the many points
we disagree about, isn't it, Nora?
Well, they let us down so abominably.
I think they deserve to suffer for it.
My dear, I don't think anybody's so bad
that they deserve to live under Nazi rule.
Talking about France,
were you over there before Dunkirk?
Up to our necks in it, weren't we, Maxwell?
Yes, spent most of our time blowing up bridges
the French had forgotten to attend to.
- Absentminded fellows, the French.
- VICAR: You mean fifth column?
That must have been
the most unpleasant thing of all,
never knowing
who was working for the enemy.
I can't understand what a fifth columnist
hopes to gain, in the long run.
Power, I suppose.
Well, that's one thing
we haven't got to worry about.
No one can tell me there's a
potential fifth column in England.
Oh, I'm not so sure, Mrs Fraser,
you're just the type.
You love exercising power, now.
Now, you admit it.
There's something in that.
You'd better keep an eye on me
when the invasion comes.
This famous invasion that the papers
keep trying to scare us about.
You don't think it's a genuine possibility?
Personally, no.
The boche is devilishly good on propaganda.
They start the invasion rumours
in order to make us keep millions of men
tied up here in Britain.
Which is why we have the luck
to be sitting here
enjoying your excellent dinner, Mrs Fraser.
Well, excellent or otherwise,
I'm afraid that's all there is of it.
Oh, Mrs Fraser, it arrived this morning.
You've every right to be angry.
But it's only about your cousin
coming to tea tomorrow.
My clear Mrs Collins,
what are you talking about?
- A telegram. I've got it in here somewhere.
- Come inside.
That's me all over, what with the sergeant
calling for the keys, and all...
Coffee in ten minutes, Bridget.
I'm ever so sorry about the envelope,
but I've run right out.
I must remember to order some more.
There isn't any answer, is there?
No, there's no answer.
Well, I'll run along, then.
I haven't had me supper yet.
What are all those figures?
Oh, it's the soldiers.
I left it at the hall.
They've been using it for their cards,
to score on.
Yes, but why should they form their figures
in the continental way?
The continental way?
Yes, the seven, for example.
They've put a stroke
across the middle of it. Look!
There you are,
and there's one of those elongated fives.
What an extraordinary thing.
I don't see anything
extraordinary about it.
It's probably a Czech or a Pole.
There are lots of them here.
Yes, but would they be
in the Royal Engineers?
Goodness, makes you think.
Well, I refuse to see anything sinister
in an elongated five!
I don't agree with you.
You never do, my dear.
What was the man like?
The one who was scoring?
- Oh, seemed a bit slow in the uptake.
- How do you mean?
Well, didn't seem to grasp
what I was getting at.
Did he say anything to you?
He only said "No" when I asked them
if they found the place quite comfy.
"No," just like that?
Manners, I thought to meself at the time.
Then he might have been a German,
for all you could tell.
I see, so you think there's a German spy
among Major Hammond's men.
A spy who can't understand English?
No. No, that's absurd, of course.
Perhaps they're all German spies,
carefully disguised as Royal Engineers.
Well, I don't know what to think.
The one that went for young George
this morning,
I told him to his face
he was behaving like a German.
Now, listen, Mrs Collins,
you remember that scarecrow in my field
signalling to the Germans?
Made a proper laughingstock of meself,
didn't I?
- You certainly did.
- Yes, but this is quite different.
And quite as ridiculous.
Well, once bit, twice shy.
I'll be trotting along.
We'll let sleeping dogs lie,
If you get my meaning.
We will.
Well, I think we ought to tell
Oliver Wilsford about it at least.
Please yourself, my dear.
Of course,
if you want to appear a fool in his eyes.
That was certainly a good one, Wilsford.
VICAR: What do you think, Nora?
Mr Maxwell was up at Cambridge with John.
He stroked the Jesus boat
the year they bumped Emma.
Nora. The radio.
- Coffee, everyone?
- VICAR: Thank you.
JUNG: We drove through Cambridge
on our way here, sir.
- MRS FRASER: Sugar, Vicar?
- If you please.
JUNG: Honestly,
you'd hardly recognise the place.
Nothing but civil servants and the RAF.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks.
- Would you mind stirring it for me?
- Certainly.
(THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND)
Come on, Ted.
Hey, take a squint at Dad.
Done up like a dog's dinner.
Well, cheerio, Dad.
They'll take him for the bridegroom,
not the best man.
- Ah, good morning, Mrs Owen.
- Oh. Good morning.
- Bob!
- Coming.
- They're here.
- Hello, boys.
- Goodbye, my dear.
- Bye-bye, Bob.
Be back about four.
Oh, Bob, wait a minute.
You're forgetting your sandwiches.
Oh, thank you.
What's your missus given you,
enough for the whole platoon?
Morning.
- Goodbye.
- BOB: Good luck, Tom.
That's a fine way to spend
your wedding morning, isn't it?
The governor's upstairs dressing himself up
like a Christmas tree.
These blinkin' collars.
I've a mind to put on me uniform
and come with you chaps after all.
- I'll come up and help you fix it.
- Come on.
- All the best.
- Cheerio. Save us a bit of cake, Tom.
- Ah, there you are, miss.
- What is it, George? I'm busy.
His nibs says I've got to have
a clean surplice for the wedding.
His nibs. George.
Well, your old man then.
But you had a clean
surplice only last week.
I know, miss, but them birds' eggs
in my pocket, didn't half make a mess.
You'll have to wait
until I've done the bedrooms.
I'll be late, I will.
- Whose room is this then?
- Major Hammond's.
Cor, you got 'im?
Posh pyjamas.
- George. Don't meddle. What are you doing?
- Nothing, miss.
Leave that alone and don't meddle.
Hmm, funny sort of way to spell chocolate.
C-H-O-K-O-L-A-D-E.
And what does "Wien" mean?
Chokolade is the German for chocolate.
And Wien is the German for Vienna.
Perhaps he snitched it from a Jerry
what crashed.
Don't meddle, blimey!
- It's extraordinary, most extraordinary.
- I felt I had to tell you at once.
- Well, I'm very glad you did.
- You see, it's not only this chocolate.
There was the writing on the telegram
and all that Mrs Collins was saying.
It's more than evidence, Nora. It's proof.
I'll get on to Zone Headquarters at once.
Wait a minute, what a fool I am.
That D-46 that came in
from the sub-area the other day.
- Yes?
- Well, they're tightening up on security.
Staging a series of tests
all over the country.
- This must be one of them.
- Tests?
Yes, you remember that thing in the paper
about those two men
who wandered all round Gerrards Cross,
acting in a peculiar manner?
They turned out to be Security Police.
But surely they wouldn't send lorry loads of
Security Police to a tiny little village like this?
Oh, no, presumably Hammond's doing
a routine job
and simply has some of these security men
attached to him.
However, we can soon check up.
Do sit down, won't you?
I must say, I should hate to think that
we were sharing our dinner last night
with a couple of Nazis.
Hello? Hello?
I imagine he's doing
a sort of mass observation.
Taking a cross-section
of every type of the community
from the big cities downwards.
Hello? Hello?
Really, Mrs Collins gets worse every day.
Never mind, I'll try again later.
You did give me rather a shock, Nora.
Do you know, I could
almost cry with relief.
I may be wrong, of course, but my explanation
does sound rather more feasible, doesn't it?
It's close on eleven. You, uh...
You can't go to the wedding
without a flower, can you?
Oh, thank you.
Father'll wonder what on earth, and
there's George waiting for his surplice.
I'm afraid I've made an awful fool of
myself rushing to you in a panic like this.
Nonsense, Nora.
You've been a very good citizen.
Thank you, Oliver.
As for Mrs Fraser,
she ought to be ashamed of herself.
- Good morning, Miss Nora.
- Good morning, Mrs Carter.
I'll be across the church
as soon as I've done this call.
Goodbye.
Ring Post One.
Report cipher radio message
from White Cottage.
Warning for Plan B.
- Lieutenant Jung.
- A message for you, sir.
Yes? Yes. Right.
Herr Kommandant, message from Wilsford.
Warning for Plan B.
Plan B. Each man will
deal with his own billet.
If persuasion fails, use force.
All the villagers to be assembled
in the churchyard by 1200 hours.
- Right, sir.
- Plan B.
Plan B.
Plan B.
Come along with me.
Major Hammond's orders.
Go along with you? Where to?
- The church.
- We can't do that, son, we're chapel.
- Never goes inside church.
- State of national emergency.
Major Hammond's
addressing the whole village.
Addressing the whole village? What about?
Don't know. Orders. Come along.
But I tell you I can't.
I've just put the joint in,
besides, there's baby.
- Come on.
- How dare you!
I'll report you.
I said, hurry.
There, there, lovey, don't cry.
Mummy's all right.
We're going along with the soldier.
You two. Get in the back.
- What?
- Get in.
- You know how to drive?
- Yes.
Then get in.
Why the warning for Plan B?
What went wrong?
Well, you did, among other things.
Look at this.
Found in your haversack.
Well?
- Chokolade... Wien.
- Who found it?
Nora Ashton.
Naturally, in her distress, she turned
to me, which only goes to show...
- You stopped her reporting it?
- Well, obviously.
I'm supposed to be trying to contact
Zone Headquarters,
which reminds me, I'd better stage
a little attempt in support of that.
There's no need. We must get to the church.
All the same, your plan does rather depend
on my cooperation, doesn't it'?
- Might be advisable to...
- You take orders from me!
Oh, quite.
Always remembering, my dear fellow,
that I should keep up appearances
with the villagers.
Very well, hurry!
- Hello?
- Thank you.
Oh, by the way, your men will have covered
the exchange by this time, I take it?
- Of course.
- Hello!
Hello? Oh, Daisy. Look, this is urgent.
Get me Zone Headquarters, Blackford 228,
and make it priority.
Yes, sir.
Don't forget. Say there is a breakdown.
- It isn't true.
- Do as I say.
Sorry, Mr Wilsford,
there's been a breakdown.
And obey orders in future.
Now I'm at your disposal.
No, after you. Oh, prisoners
first, I suppose.
Portrait of an English gentleman,
yielding reluctantly to superior force. Oh!
Let us pray.
Oh, God, who art the author of peace
and lover of concord,
in knowledge of whom
standeth our eternal life,
whose service is perfect freedom,
defend us, thine humble servants
in all assaults of our enemies,
that we, surely trusting in Thy defence,
may not fear the power of any adversaries.
- Silence!
- Through the might
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Excuse me, sir, don't you know
there's a service on?
Get back to your places.
Major Hammond, what is the meaning
of this monstrous interruption?
Get back to your places.
Reiber! Hoffman!
Muller!
Over there. Over there!
Major Hammond!
I am Kommandant Ortler
of the Fifth Parachute Regiment.
- Parachute?
- We are Germans, my men and I.
But, surely...
Jung, bring in the others.
They stopped me before I could telephone.
We have work to do here and we intend
to do it without interference.
Obey my orders and you will not be harmed.
Any person who attempts to escape
or communicate with the outside world
will be shot.
Is that clear?
You ask me to bow down
before the forces of evil,
- here in this House of God?
- I ask nothing.
I give you my orders.
I am a minister of the Christian faith.
I'll take no orders from those who are
the enemies and oppressors of mankind.
Darling, don't worry, it's all right,
don't be frightened.
Quiet, you fools!
Get back to your places, do you hear?
Listen.
What's up, Ted?
Bramley Church bell. Didn't you hear it?
- Get away with you.
- Oh, the Corporal is hearing things.
Oh, pack it up, fellows.
It rang twice. See if it goes again.
Here, get down, you two.
Ted thought he could hear
the church bell ring, sir, over at Bramley.
No, he couldn't have. That's the signal
enemy parachutists have landed.
I know that, sir.
We're only doing an exercise,
not a full dress rehearsal.
Here, take cover properly.
I could've sworn I heard it.
Any further attempt will be as futile.
Any further offender will forfeit
more than his own life,
every member of his family will be shot.
I give you three minutes
to come to your senses.
You will choose a spokesman
and receive my instructions through him.
Now, you boys, go back to your places
and put the candles out.
Yes, sir.
- Don't, don't.
- Wait a minute, son.
- If only I could get to my switchboard.
- Come with me. I must go to Nora.
The Home Guard,
what'll happen when they come back?
You can't fight Tommy guns
with bare fists.
We're not going to stick here
and let them walk over us.
- Better dead.
- That's right, Joe.
There's more of us than there are of them,
some of us might get through.
Well, we've got to decide something.
I'm game to try anything.
- Me, too.
- Same here.
- I'd like to lay me hands on them.
- The bell.
- Let me ring it.
- No, no, no. It would be mad.
- We're helpless.
- It's all my fault.
I should have listened to them last night.
I feel so stupid, so useless.
We've only got a minute.
Now, listen, everybody, it's no good making
martyrs of ourselves, that won't help us at all.
What's the alternative,
to wait for a miracle to happen?
No, not a miracle, a chance.
A sporting chance.
That's right. Do exactly what he tells us.
- Make him think we've knuckled under.
- I see.
I might get through to Upton.
No, no, it's no good doing things
on our own, individually.
They'd be bound to fail and just
put these brutes on their guard.
- We've got to plan the thing properly.
- Mr Wilsford's right, Jim.
- Yes, maybe he is.
- If only I could work something out.
- Some sort of scheme.
- MAN: He's coming back.
- Who's going to speak for us?
- Mr Wilsford.
- I second that.
- Yes, yes...
Well, somebody must, I suppose.
- Well?
- We agree to obey your orders
provided you keep to your side of
the bargain, no harm to anyone.
Very good. I shall give
you your instructions.
Outside.
You will be held responsible
for order here.
Convenient, that gesture of the vicar's.
Gave them an object lesson.
- At any rate, I think I've convinced them that...
- I want some details.
This list of yours.
A man named Purvis is missing.
Oh, yes, Bill Purvis.
He'll be out poaching.
He might easily be away all day and night.
And the Home Guard?
Oh, there are four of
them, armed with rifles.
They'll be back some time this afternoon.
Now, Sunday. No trades people, I presume?
There's the postman.
He makes a collection at Mrs Collins
at five o'clock.
Then there's the boy with the Sunday papers
from Upton. He goes to nearly everyone.
Very well.
Conditions in the village
must appear normal.
Cyclists and hikers will be diverted.
People will return to their home
until 8:00 p.m.
Well, if they do, I can't
guarantee they won't...
You will not be required to.
My men will attend to that.
Then the children,
they might blurt out anything.
Yes, that's a point.
Make Mrs Fraser responsible for them.
One of the maids can help.
Send them all up to the manor.
The Vicar's daughter must go, too.
She might become hysterical.
What time does this newspaper boy arrive?
Between one and two.
- What'll mum say?
- You go with him.
And stop your crying.
Repeat your instructions.
If any calls come from outside,
I'm to say
the number's engaged
or the line's out of order.
- Afternoon, Mrs Collins.
- Afternoon, Johnnie.
What's the matter with your Daisy today?
Looks very sorry for herself.
Been in the wars, has she'?
Ask no questions, you'll be told no lies.
Oh, thank you, Mrs Collins.
You stay where you are!
Oh, afternoon. Where's all the others?
Busy kissing the bride?
SOLDIER: That's about it, I'll take this.
- Do I pay for it now?
- That's right. COD. like.
There's a shilling. Keep the change.
Thanks, give them all my best.
There's no point in
letting ourselves starve.
There's just a chance, anyway.
Well, it's better than not trying anything.
Go on, Marlene, do your stuff.
The sweet's just coming.
More cider?
I'm glad you like it.
It's last year's brew.
It was a good year for apples, last year.
By the way,
when the boy comes with the papers,
we always send a few eggs to his mother.
She's an invalid.
You'd like us to do the same as usual,
wouldn't you?
Do you want to look inside the box?
Yes.
Plum tart. My speciality.
That'll be young Johnnie.
Sugar'? We've got plenty.
- Good afternoon, Johnnie.
- Afternoon, didn't expect to see you here.
Thought you'd be over at the wedding party.
Well, I had to give our billet his dinner.
There's the tuppence for the paper
and here's some more eggs for your mother.
They're a bit on the small side again.
- But Mum didn't...
- Oh, I know she didn't mind about that,
but they are nice eggs, all the same,
though I say they shouldn't...
Would you like tea or coffee?
Coffee.
Still, if the hens can't,
they can't, can they?
And if they help to make your mother better,
that's all that matters, isn't it'?
Now, don't drop them on your way home,
will you'? There's a good boy. Bye-bye.
You know when that rick
caught fire in Upton,
we could see the smoke
from the top of the hill.
Well, if I could sneak down to the farm
and start a bonfire,
the Upton A.F.S. would be sure
to come along to see what was up.
No, George, you don't get yourself shot
while you're in my charge.
What're we supposed to do then?
Sit and twiddle our thumbs
while the Jerries walk all over us?
There's plenty you can do.
Do you know what morale is?
Yeah, something what the Wops ain't got.
Well, I'm going to make you responsible
for keeping up the children's morale.
Sit down.
The little ones are frightened.
I want you to make it seem
a sort of game to them.
Give them a double ration
of sweets and leave it at that.
Still, you're the boss, anything you say.
Afternoon, miss.
Johnnie, listen, it's very important.
You've got to take a message to Mr Drew.
Yes?
Tell him we shall want six extra quartern
loaves tomorrow, if he can manage it.
Six extra quartern loaves, okay.
Afternoon.
If there was only something.
Something they hadn't thought of.
Perhaps there is. Perhaps there is.
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe
Ripe, ripe, I cry
Edward, let go of that, you little brute.
Edward!
Hey! Look out!
Oh, I'm so sorry. I do
hope you're not hurt.
I'm okay, lady.
Here, give us a hand with this bike.
Look!
The Home Guard.
Identity card, please.
Heavens, I hope I've got it.
Edward! Edward, give me that bag.
I suppose it's manoeuvres,
I thought I heard shooting.
- That's right, madam.
- Ah, here it is.
Thank heavens I shan't be
taken prisoner after all.
You'll have to tell us where you're
making for, if you don't mind.
Bramley End. The manor house.
- The manor house. All right. Thank you.
- Thank you.
And you see, the Hampshire senior
demonstrator sprained her ankle.
So they transferred me to Winchester.
In fact, I'm to give my first demonstration
there this evening. Vegetarian dishes.
Oh, thank you, Dolly, just how I like it.
My cousin gives cookery demonstrations
for the Ministry of Food.
- Oh, that must be very interesting.
- Fascinating.
It's amazing what you can do
with the most humdrum vegetables,
if you set your mind to it.
- Really?
- Which reminds me,
the other day,
when I was rummaging for salvage,
I came across an old book.
I must show you.
It's my grandmother's recipe book.
Poor dear, she went all through
the Siege of Paris, in 1870, you know.
Rationing wasn't in it.
Oh, here it is.
They were reduced to the
most terrible straits.
And, of course, horse flesh was
unobtainable after the first few weeks.
Rats were quite a delicacy, apparently.
Look, elephant cutlets. Good heavens!
Oh, yes, they ate all the
animals from the zoo.
Parrot pie. Roast leg of bear.
Antelope steak. Tiger en casserole.
Your grandmother must have been
a very courageous woman.
I believe hyena was too
much for her, though.
She was ill for weeks afterwards.
Hyena? I can quite imagine
that was no laughing matter.
I wonder which is the best end
of neck of giraffe'?
Goodness, I must fly!
They've booked the hall for half past six.
Fascinating book. I shall certainly
refer to it in my lectures.
- Do borrow it then, won't you?
- Oh, may I?
I'll take the greatest care of it.
- Let me hold it for you.
- Oh, thank you very much.
Oh, don't bother to come and see me off.
By the bye, I do hope your side wins.
- My side?
- In the manoeuvres.
Oh, yes, of course.
Thank goodness Edward's asleep.
I'll put this in the back for you.
Thank you. Goodbye, Dolly, my dear.
Goodbye, dear.
Oh, this window, the handle's broken.
It's been rattling all the way here.
Now, what can I fix it with?
Oh, this will do.
It's a 1932 model, so you
can't really blame it.
- Well, goodbye, Mr Maxwell.
- Goodbye.
So glad to see you again.
Goodbye, darling.
One can't be too careful, can one?
Parrot pie, parrot pie
Pie, pie, I cry
Drat, that window.
Parrot pie, parrot pie
Pie, pie, I cry
I haven't much cooked, I'm afraid.
But I've got these leftover.
You Germans are partial to sausage,
aren't you'?
Help yourself, don't wait to be asked.
You're a sensible woman.
You'd do better for yourself
to accept the situation.
Well, it's been a very
pleasant surprise, really.
After the way the papers
have been carrying on
about you Germans being fiends
in human form
and sticking babies on
the ends of bayonets.
- Sugar?
- Mmm.
Babies on bayonets?
What would be the advantage?
That's just what I say.
Oh, you'll need the cruet.
You don't look at all
that sort of man to me.
A regular family man, I
should take you for.
I'm not married, but I have two fine sons
who will soon be old enough to fight.
You don't say?
Well, I'm broad-minded myself and, uh...
And accidents will happen.
Here. That silly pepper pot. I'll do it.
I never had any children myself.
Mr Collins blamed me for
it and I blamed him.
And then he was taken.
So we never found out.
Hello, Upton.
Hello, Upton!
Are you there?
Are you there?
Hello, Upton.
"And what are you doing
for the war effort?" she said.
Well, the nerve!
That's old Mother Collins.
She can wait.
Hello, Upton!
Are you there? Are you there? Hello!
Calls herself a lance bombardier, too.
Oh, well, better see
what the old girl wants.
Hello?
Hello?
- Good afternoon.
- Good afternoon.
Is Mrs Collins in?
She's out. Can I help you?
It's the five o'clock collection.
Mrs Collins asked me to tell you
there isn't any mail today.
- Isn't any?
- None at all.
Oh, well, good day, then.
Good day.
- Frank Leslie.
- Here.
- John and Michael Farrar.
- Here.
- Billy Curtis.
- Here.
- Norman Williams.
- Yes.
- George Truscott.
- Here.
Everything will be all right, boys.
- Goodnight.
- BOYS: Goodnight, Mrs Fraser.
- Mrs Cobham.
- Here.
- John Underwood.
- Here.
- Mrs Underwood.
- Here.
- Oliver Wilsford.
- Here.
- Mrs Owen.
- Here.
Where's my husband?
Where's the Home Guard?
The Home Guard have been dealt with.
No!
Go on, Sergeant.
Jack Brown.
Jack Brown!
Here.
Silence!
- Phyllis Long.
- Here.
- Charles Sims.
- Here.
It isn't true, it can't be true.
I'm afraid it is, Mrs Owen.
- Mrs Bates.
- Here.
- James Sturry.
- Here.
- Mrs Sturry.
- Here.
- Thomas Sturry.
- Here.
Joseph Garbett.
- Joseph Garbett!
- That's me.
What do you mean "dealt with"?
You understand well enough.
- Mrs Rogers.
- Here.
- Mrs Barnes.
- Here.
- Walter Pavitt.
- Here.
439993! PW-
- Here.
- Ivy Dorking.
- Here.
What about the guards?
Well, they meet under the window,
go around the house,
meet on the other side.
- I'll have to time it okay, though.
- What do you do then?
Well, what I always do,
crawl down behind the tennis court
through the kitchen garden
and into the woods.
But suppose there's more Jerries about?
Then what?
Make a detour.
Bill Purvis, he learnt me all the dodges.
And bring the Home Guard back?
Gosh! Perhaps there'll
be a battle at Bramley.
You betcha. And we won't half
give those blinkin' Jerries the works.
Put the light out, Frank.
I've got Mrs Fraser's torch.
Well, chaps.
- So long.
- So long.
Have you hit on a plan yet, Mr Wilson?
Yes, I've got something worked out.
Uh, Mrs Rogers, a cup of tea?
- But we must wait until...
- Wait while there's more killing?
- What's the use of that?
- Easy, Joe.
What about the bell, like the vicar tried?
No, no, no. They've removed the clapper,
I heard them giving the instructions.
Don't forget we're counting on you,
Mr Wilsford.
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
When Harry Drew comes around with his van
in the morning, that's our big chance.
No need to wait till the morning,
it's dark enough to try the other way.
- What's that, Charlie?
- Down the boiler room
there's a kind of hedge
where we had the coke shot in.
Gives onto the bushes on the north side.
It's plenty wide enough
for a man to get through.
Wait till the guards are round the other
side and then make a dash for it.
There may be guards all over the place,
for all you know.
It's a chance, though. Come on, Charlie.
No, Jim. I thought of it
and I'm going to do it.
- No, I'm fitter than you, Charlie.
- I'm the one that's going.
- Now, listen, Joe...
- If you got caught,
they'd not only shoot you,
but your missus and Tom in the bargain.
I've got nothing to lose now.
- Let's go.
- Oh, Garbett.
You stay here. I'll take on this job.
I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going.
Well, then, we'll both go together.
After all, two stand a
better chance than one.
You make for Upton, I'll
make for Highfield.
- One of us is bound to get through.
- Right you are, sir.
This way, then.
Down them steps.
There's a sentry outside.
Mind how you go.
Listen, Garbett, we'll cut across
the churchyard to the copse,
- then separate.
- Very good, sir.
The gravestones will give us
some cover in case we're spotted.
Guns?
Thunder and raining hard.
All the better.
Good luck.
Get down!
Get down, a patrol!
Who's there?
Oh, it's you, sir.
He tried to escape.
Where's Kommandant Ortler?
- I don't know, sir.
- Lieutenant Jung, then?
At the manor house.
Better put something heavy
on that coal hatch.
Try and find a garden roller or something.
Very good, sir. Come on.
That is the end of the English News
on the European Service of the BBC.
You're listening to AI Fitzroy
and his band
playing to you from the
Palace Hotel, London.
Nora, my dear.
Gone.
- How are you feeling now, my dear?
- I'm all right, thank you.
I've just been listening to the news,
there isn't anything.
Anything important, I mean.
They're playing dance music in town.
I can't believe we're not in the middle of
the most terrible nightmare.
The Germans in Bramley.
It's hot.
Where's Oliver?
In the church with the others.
What are you doing?
Opening the window. We want some air.
- Who's that?
- The sentry outside.
Put the light out,
then we can draw the curtains.
I can't hear a sound from the village.
They talk about a woman's intuition.
That's what warned you last night, Nora.
Not the writing on the telegram.
Intuition.
I don't believe in intuition.
If I did...
There's something...
What's the matter, Nora?
I don't know.
There's someone coming up the drive.
It's Oliver!
- He must have got permission to...
- Permission?
To walk about freely
on his own?
Well, what other explanation can there be?
Sit down.
I came to tell you that the policeman
found a way of escaping from the church.
I escaped with him.
He's now dead.
I think these villagers could do
with a sharp lesson, don't you?
They shall have a sharp lesson.
Something that will put a stop to this
once and for all.
You know these people.
What do you suggest?
What about hostages?
That ought to keep them quiet.
Hostages?
Good.
- I must say you've been invaluable to us.
- Thank you.
Hadn't you better hurry?
- You might get the Iron Cross for this.
- Oh, yes. Quite.
You were warned.
The warning was ignored.
An attempt was made to escape.
It failed.
You all know the penalty.
The family of any offender is to be shot.
The man Garbett has a son.
Where is he?
He was in the Home Guard.
So...
I shall pick out five of the children.
They will be shot tomorrow morning.
They'll do it, too.
Take us older ones.
Do what you like with us.
We can spare you a bullet.
But that will not save the children.
My baby!
You are responsible for their deaths.
Nothing will save them.
Fancy a nipper at your age
making all that up out of your own 'ead.
Every word of it's the truth, so 'elp me.
Get away with you. And you gettin'
'alf drowned to come and tell me all that.
Go on, there's nothing...
Cor, you're right, sonny.
How we goin' to get past them all
and through to Upton to Mr Drew?
I'll tell you. I'll cause a diversion
and you make a run for it.
You're spryer on your pins than what I am.
Which way when I'm past these 'ere trees?
Across the common
and use the gorse for cover,
then across the stream,
through Bailey's Wood,
and that'll bring you out
on the Upton Cross Roads.
- S' easy.
- Yeah!
And run with your hands on your knees
like I taught you.
- Look here, Bill.
- Hello?
How you going to cause this 'ere diversion?
Oh, don't you mind, matey.
I can look after meself.
So long, Bill.
Come on, Betty.
What's that?
That's what I was waiting for.
One of you down there,
go and light those candies.
I can put the gas right if you want me to.
- It's my job.
- What needs to be done?
The plant down there wants seeing to,
it's a petrol vapour system,
needs tending every so often.
Very well.
Paul, go with him.
The lights'll go out suddenly.
The rest of you, stay where you are.
Keep way from those doors.
Leave him to me, Dad.
CORPORAL: Paul!
Paul!
Now keep still!
All of you.
Or I'll shoot.
Go on, Tom, go on!
That's right, lad, clout' im.
That's that.
Hold this.
Charlie!
Hello!
Can you manage single-handed?
I managed all right.
- What about the lights?
- They'll be on in a minute.
George!
Grace, come down, will you?
What's happened?
It's young George Truscott.
Why, he's soaking wet.
He's hurt his leg.
Lift him up, Grace.
It's a bullet wound. Phone the doctor.
Yes.
Hello, Exchange?
- Jerries.
- That's all right, son.
- Jerries at Bramley.
- What, son?
Grace, bring the brandy.
The time. It must be almost light outside.
We've got to save the children.
First things first, we've got to save
those children, but there's something
- even more important.
- I got this off him.
- We must get through to Upton.
- You're wrong, Tom.
- It's the children matter most.
- That's right.
We've got our duty, not only to our kids in
Bramley, but to kids all over the country.
Dad's right. We got to get in touch
with Harry Drew straight away.
Warn the Army and the Home Guard.
- We'll tackle the manor afterwards.
- Why not split up'?
That's right, one to the manor
and the others make a dash for Upton.
No, no, phoning's quickest.
They're sure to have guards
on the switchboard.
We'll take 'em by surprise.
- We've got two Tommy guns and one revolver.
- Hold hard, son, once you start firing,
- you have the whole lot boiling down on us.
- Yes, we got to do it quietly, if we can.
I got the whole thing clear.
Dad and me will tackle Mrs Collins's.
- Two more to make sure. Who's game?
- ALL: I am.
Right, I'll take you, Mr Owen, you, Jack.
Charlie, you take charge of the other party.
- Right.
- Mother, you go with Charlie.
You, Peg, you and you, make your way
to the summer house and the manor garden.
We'll join you as soon as
we've done the phoning.
But the children, Jim?
Any luck,
we'll have some more weapons by then.
We'll do in the guard,
barricade ourselves in the manor house
and hold off the Jerries
until the Army comes along.
But the rest of us, Mr Sturry.
Can't we do something?
You'd best stay here.
When we've gone, barricade the doors.
- There'll be a couple of sentries outside.
- We'll have to settle them first.
Jack and you take the Tommy guns.
Don't use 'em unless you've got to.
You wait behind the door
till we tell you it's clear.
See you later.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- We got them.
- Good. Good.
Here, you get the women to the manor,
I'll keep this.
We'll tackle the shop from the back.
Steady. There's a machine-gun post
down the lane.
- They won't expect trouble from the village.
- Let's make a dash for it.
It's locked.
- What about the kitchen?
- Yes. You stay there.
Okay-
Right.
Where's the coffee?
The old woman's coffee, where is it?
She never takes... Took
coffee, I don't think.
Get some from the shop.
You stay here and keep your eyes skinned.
Come on, Dad.
Get behind there.
TOM: Are there any more of them?
Daisy, pull yourself together.
- Are there any more of them?
- No.
Daisy, the phone.
We must get through to Upton.
Yes.
Get Harry Drew, quick as you can.
- Dad, get the other two in.
- Okay.
Hello? Hello, Upton 16,
please, it's urgent.
Thank you. Number's engaged.
Here, let me talk to them.
Hello.
What's that?
I can't cut him off, he's
talking to the Army.
Yes, sir, we're mustering our men now.
In about 10 minutes, sir.
Rendezvous Three Mile Cross? Right, sir.
I'll answer it.
Hello? I'm sorry.
But it's a priority call, madam,
from Bramley End.
Here, let me answer it.
Hello, Drew here. Tom. Are you all right?
- Yes, we know about that, the kid told us.
- Right.
We're coming along as fast as we can,
Home Guards and the regulars.
Okay, Harry.
They're coming.
- Dad, they're coming.
- Good!
He says carry on with the plan
and keep the phone working.
Daisy, are you game
to stand by the switchboard?
- Yes, Mr Tom.
- That's a girl.
- They're coming.
- You stick here with this.
Dad and me will take the Tommy guns
and try to work our way up to the manor.
I'll go upstairs and get Jack's.
- The Germans.
- Where?
- Coming along past the church.
- Let's go up.
Relief going up to the machine-gun post.
That means
the others'll be coming back soon.
We can't risk going that way again.
Jack, you keep that rifle.
We'll need the Tommy gun.
Good.
- Good luck, boys.
- Thanks.
Keep a good look out, Jack.
- Up the track by Joe Garbett's.
- Yes, and round by the back gardens.
- That's done it.
- Let's go through the house.
- It's no good, it's locked.
- Let's try Wilsford's.
Tom.
- Mr Wilsford.
- Hmm? What? What is it? Who is it?
They didn't get you, then?
No, I must have nine lives.
They got poor Garbett.
They landed me a swipe on the head,
and I managed to crawl back here
and passed out.
- We must get through to the manor.
- Do you feel all right to go with us?
- Yes, I'm all right. I'll come...
- Here you are, Mr Wilsford, lean on me.
Thanks.
- But, you two, what on earth...
- Oh, we managed to break out.
The main lot of Jerries don't know yet.
We're gonna try and hold the manor
till the troops get here.
- What, you got through to them then, eh?
- Yes.
13 Platoon will attack the enemy
in the windmill area,
and 14 in and around the village.
And my men to be divided
between the two platoons?
Yes, you and seven men
come with me to the village,
and your sergeant and the remainder
to the windmill.
Get ready to move at once.
Right, sir.
Right, take 13 Platoon off at once
and assemble in the woods
north of the windmill.
You'd best attack from that direction.
It affords the best cover.
- I'll leave the details to you.
- Right.
- Get going straight away.
- Very good, sir.
- And good luck, John.
- Thank you, sir.
We got through to Harry Drew.
He's on his way and the Regulars, too.
- Mr Wilsford, I thought...
- I'll explain about that later.
How many guards they got there, Charlie?
Two lots of two, as far
as I could make out.
Well, we better sneak round the back.
You better not come, sir, with that arm.
- I'll come with you.
- What about us? Can't we do something?
- No, you stay here with Mr Wilsford.
- We'll wait for a signal from you.
- Right. You ready?
- Yes.
Eat up your porridge, Michael.
You mustn't waste food in wartime.
Yes, Mrs Fraser.
- Mrs Fraser?
- Yes?
- Do you think George has got to Upton yet?
- I've no idea.
You boys were very naughty to let him go.
He might have hurt himself.
You mean he might have got shot by a Jerry.
He was a mean beast not
to take me with him.
Why? You'd be no use.
- Bet you I would.
- Bet you you wouldn't.
Be quiet, Audrey.
Stay where you are, children.
Tom Sturry! Keep away from the window.
You stay with the children, Nora.
Come on, children, let's get back.
- Where's Dad?
- He stopped one, I'm afraid.
Well, you collect the others.
Come on, quickly.
- Does it hurt bad?
- A kind of shooting pain.
- We'll get your coat off.
- No, not my arm. I can't feel that. It's my ankle.
- Charlie!
- I twisted it falling.
Give me a hand, will you?
We'll get him up to the house.
Now, you people get inside the house.
I'm going to collect the guns
and ammunition from the bodies.
- We'll help, won't we, Ivy?
- Not 'arf.
All right, tackle that side.
You two, go in.
We got through to Upton.
- Help's coming.
- Thank goodness! Your arm...
Never mind my arm, ma'am,
it's my blinking ankle.
In the drawing room, there's a sofa.
No. We're going to barricade
the downstairs rooms.
- Take him up, will you?
- Bridget!
- Tom, I'll take this upstairs.
- That's right.
Sorry, ma'am,
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a heavyweight.
Don't worry, so am I. Come along.
Jim!
Let me come.
I'm glad that's over.
Oh, don't know
when they're more unpleasant,
when they're dead
or when they're guzzling our rations.
Drop 'em down here,
we'll take them upstairs later.
Janet!
Oh, don't wake her, Mrs Bates,
she's only just got to sleep.
What's happened?
- It's all right, help's coming.
- Oh.
We're going to give the Germans
a bit of their own back.
Hello? Orlter?
They've got through to Upton.
They're sending Home Guards and Regulars.
So.
I can't hold this place.
I'll transfer the apparatus
to the manor house.
It must work tonight,
according to instructions.
I can protect it there for 48 hours.
They have weapons, they'll put up a fight.
I'll give them no chance to fight.
Listen, here are your orders.
You'll go to the manor house,
open the French windows.
- Yes. Yes.
- Drawing room, nine o'clock.
I'll have the French windows
in the drawing room open at nine o'clock.
The lorries can drive
right up to the house.
- Okay. Get moving.
- Very good, sir.
Now then, what are we going to put on top?
- I know. Grandfather.
- Yes.
I wonder why people keep these things
when they've stopped going.
TOM: All in now, sir.
We're barricading all the downstairs
windows, sir, is that okay?
Sure.
We've got enough weapons to command
all the approaches from upstairs.
Better concentrate our fire.
The back's the danger point.
No need to worry
about the drawing room side.
Not a scrap of cover.
Jerries never risk an attack
from that direction.
That's right enough.
At any rate,
I'll be keeping a watch on that side.
We've done the dining room.
Can I help you now?
No, it's all right, I can manage.
You get on with the drawing room.
- Okay, admiral.
- All right.
I'll give them a hand, as far as I can.
All out! Side of the road!
Take four men. Corporal, four men.
Make for the lawn facing
the French windows.
- Four men!
- Wilsford will open them in 10 minutes.
Right, sir. Follow me.
- Here you are.
- Thank you.
Well, that's about all we can do there.
If there's any firing this side,
see they get down behind here.
- What about the downstairs windows?
- We barricaded the lot.
Mr Wilsford's going round to make sure.
- He's downstairs?
- Yes. Now, listen, you kids,
whatever happens, you stay put.
If one of you so much as budges an inch,
I'll take you out to sea with me
and make you walk the plank.
Silly! Who does he think
he is, Captain Bligh?
Now, one Tommy gun with Charlie.
One, two more here, one spare magazine.
One pistol, and one,
two, three, four rifles.
Ha! Woolwich Arsenal!
- Ever fired a rifle, either of you?
- Only a shotgun.
- I once won a bottle of scent at Blackpool.
- Well, I'll have to show you as best as I can.
Peg, keep watch out of
that window, will you?
Ivy, I'll show you first.
- Is this loaded?
- Yes, think you can handle it?
Well enough.
- That's right. Now you, Peggy.
- Okay. Ivy, watch the window.
Now, watch this carefully.
When you wanna load,
you push the safety catch forward,
open the bolt, push in your clip,
- and close the bolt and it's ready to fire.
- I see.
If you're not going to fire,
put the safety catch on again.
- Hello, Nora.
- What are you doing?
- Barricading the window.
- It was barricaded already.
- The latch was undone, I was bolting it.
- Unbolting it.
Nora!
- The fun's starting all right.
- Lie still.
I've got a good part of the lawn
covered from here.
- Ought to be farther back, Charlie.
- All right, I've finished with that.
Give me the lamp.
Get Bridget to make him some tea.
Tom! Tom, they're coming.
Look! Over there by the tree.
Peggy, we'd better see if there are any
coming round the other side of the house.
Duck, madam, duck!
All right, Sims, I am ducking.
Come on.
- How you doing, Peg?
- Fine.
- What's up?
- I shot one.
Good girl.
You know, we ought to keep a score.
That's one to you.
Half a minute, now I'll have a go.
Missed him. Can't even hit a sitting Jerry.
Oh, thank goodness they're here.
- Harry!
- Oh, Mr Drew!
We've done a bit of scouting,
they've packed up in a lorry
and driven off towards the manor.
- Can't we join you?
- No, you stop here.
And carry on with the phones.
This is the last one.
Oh, that's what he needs.
You stay with him. I must go to
the children. Go on all fours.
- Duck!
- Not again!
- All safe and sound?
- CHILDREN: Yes, thank you, Mrs Fraser.
Well, George got to Upton all right.
- Good. Good old George.
- When are the soldiers coming?
- They'll be here any moment now.
- I wish they were here now.
Oh, she's yellow.
- I've run out of ammunition.
- Here, I've got some.
- Ivy, give me your rifle.
- I've only two rounds left.
Get down!
Yes, that's the only bit
of England they got.
On Monday night, Hitler tried his invasion.
You know how that went up in smoke.
We're proud of ourselves here,
proud we had the chance to do our bit,
but proudest of all for those who died,
died in the battle for Bramley End.
Good day to you.
Come to have a look at Bramley End,
have you?
Pretty little place,
and a nice old church, too.
13th century, parts of it.
Still, it won't be that that's brought you,
I don't suppose.
It'll be these names on this grave here
and the story that's
buried along with them.
Look funny, don't they?
German names in an English churchyard.
They wanted England, these Jerries did,
and this is the only bit they got.
The Battle of Bramley End,
that's what the papers called it.
Nothing was said about it
'till after the war was over
and old Hitler got what was coming to him.
Whitsun weekend it was, 1942.
As peaceful and quiet
here then, as it is now,
even though there was a war on.
It was Saturday morning
when those army lorries
came rumbling along the road from Upton.
We'd have laughed if you'd told us
we'd got a real live German
right under our very noses
and we'd have thought you was
a bit weak in the upper storey
if you'd said the chaps in those lorries
was anything else
but ordinary British Tommies.
Pretty soon we learned better
and no mistake.
- Morning, Peg.
- Morning, darling.
Well, we'll be sharing a
bottle after tomorrow.
- Promise me something.
- What?
You'll never come home with the milk.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Could you tell me
where the village policeman lives?
Yes, the cottage beyond the one
with the porch.
Oh, thanks awfully.
We have to see about billeting our men.
Looks as though I shall have company
while you and Tom's on your honeymoon.
Now you behave yourself, my girl.
Well, I'll do my best.
Wonder what they'd come here for.
Nothing that'll make any difference to you,
my girl.
You get on with your work.
Whatever can soldiers be doing in Bramley?
Exercise probably, Mrs Carter.
Funny way to take exercise
riding in lorries.
Good morning.
Are you the police officer here?
Yes, sir. I was just
shaving, overslept like.
Begging your pardon
for coming to the door like this, sir.
That's all right. Here's
the billeting notice.
What for, sir?
Didn't the Billeting Officer warn you
about our arrival?
No, sir. Care to step inside?
We shall need billets for 60 men.
For about three nights.
60 men, sir? That's a large order
for a small village like this.
I dare say, but there's a war on, you know.
I could squeeze about half of them in, sir,
but as for the rest...
You'll have to, I'm afraid.
Oh, there's the village hall, sir. There's
room there for a tidy few, I reckon.
Maybe you'd care to have a word
with the vicar, sir?
Certainly. Where is the vicarage?
- Just along past the church.
- Maxwell, you take the car and go
- with the constable to the other billets.
- Right, sir.
- Mr Ashton'?
- Yes, my father's in.
Could I see him?
- Well, will you come this way?
- Thanks.
Good morning, sir.
Oh, I didn't realise.
I'm afraid I'm disturbing you.
- Not at all.
- My name's Hammond.
- Do sit down, won't you?
- Thank you.
I'm in charge of a party of sappers. Hello!
We've been sent to do
a job of work down here.
- In Bramley?
- Yes.
Really? My dear, another cup.
Oh, that's very charming of you.
We've been on the road for hours.
So, what can I do for you?
Well, sir, it's a question of billets.
The local policeman said that you might be
kind enough to lend us the village hall.
Well, what do you think, Nora?
Well, I don't see why not, Father.
First Aid can always meet here.
Yes, I see no reason why not.
Oh, splendid, thanks very much.
You needn't worry about damage
or anything of that sort.
They're a very good lot of fellows.
- Milk and sugar?
- Please.
And your own sleeping quarters,
have you made arrangements about them?
Not yet, sir. One likes to get the men
fixed up first, you know. Oh, thanks.
We have a spare room here.
It's rather a cubbyhole, I'm afraid,
but you'd be most welcome.
Well, that's extremely kind of you, sir,
if you're sure it won't cause
a lot of inconvenience.
I mean, I expect you're understaffed and...
We shall be most offended if you refuse.
Then I accept, of course. Thanks very much.
Good morning. I'm afraid I've come again
to borrow the... Oh, I'm so sorry.
- Oh, do come in.
- All right.
Let's see, the keys of the hall
are with Mrs Collins.
That's the village shop.
You shouldn't have deserted the Army.
I only came to borrow
those garden scissors.
The Army wanted Father, not me.
I think the scissors are in this cupboard.
Oh, wait a minute, you've got them.
Don't you remember,
I brought them across on Thursday.
Oh, yes, of course, you did.
I must be getting absent-minded.
The penalty of middle age.
Don't be absurd, you're not middle-aged.
I've got a wedding
after morning service tomorrow.
Young Tom Sturry, our innkeeper's son,
but, of course, if you're thinking
of holding a church parade...
Oh, I'm afraid we'll have to work
right through Sunday, sir.
You see, we've only been given a few days
to do this job and, much as we'd like to...
Oh, yes, quite, quite, I quite understand.
- This is Mr Wilsford, Mr Hammond.
- How do you do'?
You should have said
Corporal Wilsford, Father.
Mr Wilsford is the leading light
of our Home Guard.
Though considering
all he's done for the village,
he ought to be a brigadier at least.
Home Guard, eh?
You're just the man I want to see.
We've been sent along to put
the village in a state of general defence.
General defence?
Dear me, that sounds very alarming.
Merely a routine matter.
You know, Father,
machine-gun posts, barbed wire,
like they have over at Upton Ferrars.
Who's your O.C.? I'd like to get
hold of him as soon as possible.
There's a fellow called Drew.
Lieutenant Drew.
He's the baker over at Upton.
He'll be here on his rounds quite soon.
Good. In the meantime,
perhaps you could give me
- a rough idea of the tactical layout.
- By all means.
Then I won't disturb your breakfast
any further.
I'll send my kit over later, if I may,
and thanks again for your hospitality.
- Goodbye.
- Goodbye.
I'd like to be at the manor
this morning, Father.
Why, my dear, what do you mean?
Well, poor Mrs Fraser. Haven't we
rather stolen the guest of honour?
On!
Sit down, Mr Maxwell. Give me your pencil.
- The cigarettes are on the table by your side.
- Thanks.
Let's tackle the problem
in a practical way.
Six at least at West's Farm.
- Well, ma'am, I enquired at the farm and...
- Six at West's Farm.
Then Mrs Rogers need only have one.
She said she'd prefer to have two.
She thought it'd be more proper like.
At 73? She's old enough to know better.
Mrs Rogers, one.
One at Farm Cottage?
That's out of the question.
I thought the young ladies
could share for tonight,
seeing that Miss Peggy's going on
her honeymoon tomorrow.
Quite. Leaving Ivy all by herself.
And she certainly isn't old enough
to know better.
As you wish, madam,
but it do seem a waste of a good bed.
Very well,
but you must take the responsibility.
- About here, Mr Maxwell.
- Oh, yes.
I'm cram full of evacuees,
but there's always that sofa,
and if your O.C. isn't outsize,
I shall be only too glad to...
Excuse me.
Hello? Oh, good morning, Nora, dear.
Yes, they're here now.
Garbett wanted to consult me
about the billeting.
I thought you could take...
Who is?
Oh, is he?
Oh, I'm sure that'll be very nice for him.
Yes, I'll give the message.
Goodbye.
Your O.C.'s staying with the Ashtons,
so you'd better have my sofa.
It's a great deal more comfortable than
the vicarage spare bed, I can assure you.
- Oh, thanks.
- You must both dine with me tonight.
- The Ashtons are coming...
- I wish we could,
but we've a lot to do,
I'm afraid we shall be late tonight.
Besides, we've only our battledress.
Oh, as if that matters.
As for dinner, I'll make it whenever
you like, so that's settled.
- You've a car outside?
- Yes.
Very well then, I'll come with you
and knock some sense into old Mrs Rogers.
Oh, it's an Army car.
I'm afraid civilians are not allowed to...
I don't mind.
Come in.
My, uh...
My housekeeper's out, I sent her to Upton,
so you can speak quite freely.
Good, my orders are to give you
all the necessary information.
- How much do you know already?
- Practically nothing. Do sit down, will you?
Berlin has a maddening habit
of making us work in the dark.
Airborne and seaborne invasion in force
is to be launched on Monday night.
- Monday night?
- No, thanks.
- The day after tomorrow?
- Yes.
Our task is to jam radio-location.
With the apparatus we've got, we can put
the British locators out of action.
My unit deals with the central area.
Radius, 300 miles.
But this apparatus
must be extraordinarily complicated,
if it needs all those men to assemble it.
Not to assemble, but to protect it.
If we are found out, we shall be attacked,
and my orders are to hold this village,
and to continue to hold it
for 48 hours after invasion starts.
Uh-huh. Oh,
so that's why you want to contact my O.C?
Exactly. It's always useful to know
one's enemy's plans in advance.
Hello?
- Hello?
- Telegram for you.
- Hold on a second, Violet, while I get a pencil.
- Okay.
I had that pencil of mine a minute ago,
everything seems to be losing itself
this morning.
Daisy, see if you can find those keys
for me, will you? There's a good girl.
What keys was it you was wanting, sir?
- The hall. The village hall.
- Well, they're usually kept...
- Yes, she's already looked there.
- Oh.
That couldn't be them, could it,
hanging up by those ladies'?
Why, so it is.
Found them? That's right.
Sergeant, I'd better come with you,
the lock's a bit tricky.
Daisy, find an envelope for that
and pop up with it to the manor house.
But we've run out of envelopes.
You told me to remind you.
Oh, never mind, they tell us to save paper.
But, wait a minute,
we can't both of us be out at once,
I'll take it, it's only a step further.
- Sorry to have kept you waiting.
- I hope you won't be long.
- No, why?
- You've got the telephone.
Oh, so I have.
What are those colours for?
- Royal Engineers.
- You ought not to tell.
Oh, the cards, I mustn't take them away.
You boys'll be glad of a game.
Oh! The great, big...
You great, bullying brute, you.
Knocking a child about,
you're a disgrace to your uniform.
Why, you're no better than a German,
that's what you are.
Did you see what this man did?
You report him to your officers at once.
- He was tampering with equipment.
- Well, what if he was?
There's no call for a
great, hulking brute...
All right, all right, you'll be on charge
for this. Orders tomorrow morning.
And so I should think.
And let it be a lesson to you, young man,
not to go nosy-parkering.
I shall tell Mrs Fraser about you.
Disgraceful!
Well, here we are, sir.
Yes, you can see the whole place from here,
except the manor house,
that's just beyond those trees.
Nice and compact,
easy to defend from up here.
- Have you worked out a plan of defence?
- Oh, yes, sir.
To begin with, I've established
an observation post over there.
- Just behind that hedge, there.
- Good.
- Then I've light machine-gun posts.
- How many'? Whereabouts?
One along the Upton Road,
at the bend there.
And the second one
at the top of the school lane.
- The one that runs south from the green.
- Oh, yes.
And the third down the road
past the village hall.
Just near the manor house gates.
If you were the enemy, which direction
would you deliver your main attack from?
The woods around the manor house, sir.
- They give much the best cover.
- Yes.
Well, I think you've told
me all I want to know.
You can always give Drew a ring,
if there's anything else.
- That's right.
- Thanks.
I appreciate your cooperation, Mr Drew.
It's going to make my
job a good deal easier.
If there's nothing more
for the moment, sir,
I think I ought to be getting along
with my deliveries.
Yes, and if any of your customers are
angry, please put the blame on me.
- Good day, sir.
- Good day.
I'll see you tomorrow at the exercise.
- Splendid fellow.
- Oh, yes, keen as mustard.
What is this exercise, anything special?
No, action in the event
of a parachute landing.
You'd better report sick,
in case I need you.
All right, I'll have a sprained wrist
or something.
If you've any general suggestions to make,
I'd like to hear them.
Well, most of your men could pass
for 100% British
- like the sergeant, couldn't they?
- All, except one. A radio technician.
Well, I suggest that some of them
should pay a visit to the local pub,
The Ring of Bells, tonight.
Look very odd if they didn't.
Right! Anything else?
Well, they should make themselves
useful in their billets.
So?
You know, minding the baby and keeping
an eye on the kettle, and so on.
Ah, I see.
What part of the world do you come from?
Manchester.
Eee, then we're neighbours.
I come from Stockport.
Good old Piccadilly of a Saturday night.
I said I come from Manchester, not London.
Well, I know you did,
but I mean Piccadilly in Manchester, silly.
Oh, of course, I was forgetting.
I left Manchester when I was a child.
Oh, I see.
Well, that's done anyhow.
You carry those in, will you?
I'll take these. Come on.
There we are. Put those on the dresser.
Now come and sit down
and make yourself comfy.
Seven days' leave isn't much, is it?
No, it's all we chaps get.
I know.
But have I been waiting for it.
Dear Tom. Dear, dear...
It's like old times to hear
Bill Purvis's shotgun again.
He gave me a rabbit yesterday.
Black market?
Wedding present.
That must be Joe Garbett
coming to have a look.
That's torn it.
If we budge, he'll hear us and if we don't,
he's sure to come and catch us.
Not if I knows anything.
Now you stay where you are.
And 'ang on to Betty.
When I whistle for 'er
ten times, let her go.
- Then you nip off home, see.
- Okay. What about tomorrow night?
Eleven o'clock. Same place.
Betty?
- Still, Betty. Still.
- Betty!
Where are you, lass?
Five...
Not yet, Betty.
Six...
- Oh, good evening, Mr Garbett.
- Evening, Bill.
That dog of mine run off again,
so I just come in to have a look for 'er.
Beth'!
I heard a couple of shots up this way
a moment or two ago.
- Didn't happen to have a gun with you?
- A gun, ha!
When I'm just out looking for me dog.
That dog of yours doesn't seem
to be around here at all.
Nine.
Ten. Phew!
Trespassing in Manor Wood
and no reasonable excuse.
Psst.
Where you been, you wicked lass?
Gettin' your master into trouble
with the constable.
Very nearly.
Well, I must be getting along to me supper,
got a nice stewed rabbit.
- Rabbit?
- Found on the Upton Road.
Got run over, I suppose.
- Goodnight, Mr Garbett.
- Goodnight, Bill.
Come on, Betty.
- Evening.
- Good evening.
What will you have?
- Bitter.
- Light ale.
- Same.
- Yes, sir.
Here you are, Jim.
- Ah, thank you.
- Evening, ma'am.
- Oh, good evening.
- Will you take a drop of something?
Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure.
I wouldn't say no to a small port.
MAN: Seventy-two.
Billets nice and comfortable, I hope?
Billets? Oh, yeah.
Fred was saying quite home from home,
weren't you, Fred?
- That's right.
- Bit of excitement for us.
We never had so many foreigners
in the village before.
- Foreigners?
- Well, strangers to these parts, like.
We always call 'em
foreigners round this way.
That'll be two and six, please, sir.
- Two beers, Jim.
- Righto, Pat.
Thank you, sir.
Your very good health and down with Hitler.
Goodness, how dreadful,
I've only just realised.
Realised what?
It was seeing you again made me remember.
I never took it up to the
manor house after all.
- The telegram. Oh!
- You had it at the hall.
I must have left it there then. I'd better
pop round and see if I can find it.
There's a guard on the door.
He won't let you pass.
Be a good Samaritan and come with me,
won't you?
Come on, be a dear.
- Another game?
- No thanks, I've had enough.
How much do we owe?
- Let's see now, in English money that's...
- Pay attention!
This lady's lost a telegram.
Anyone seen such a thing?
A telegram? Has it been opened?
It wasn't in an envelope, just the form.
It was addressed "Fraser"
and signed "Maud."
I can't think what on earth I could have...
Why, I believe that's it.
It is, thank goodness for that.
We've been scoring on the back of it,
I'm afraid.
Never mind, I've found it,
that's the main thing.
Oh, but what about your game?
You'll need it for the score.
We'd just finished.
Oh, that's all right then.
Bit of a makeshift in here.
Not very comfy for you, is it?
No.
Oh, well, I'll be getting along then.
I haven't had this done for me
since I was about six.
- There you are.
- Thank you so much.
If you ask me,
I think he sprained his wrist on purpose.
When I think of those Germans
gorging themselves on French wines,
it makes me quite furious.
I'm afraid I haven't much sympathy
for the French.
That's one of the many points
we disagree about, isn't it, Nora?
Well, they let us down so abominably.
I think they deserve to suffer for it.
My dear, I don't think anybody's so bad
that they deserve to live under Nazi rule.
Talking about France,
were you over there before Dunkirk?
Up to our necks in it, weren't we, Maxwell?
Yes, spent most of our time blowing up bridges
the French had forgotten to attend to.
- Absentminded fellows, the French.
- VICAR: You mean fifth column?
That must have been
the most unpleasant thing of all,
never knowing
who was working for the enemy.
I can't understand what a fifth columnist
hopes to gain, in the long run.
Power, I suppose.
Well, that's one thing
we haven't got to worry about.
No one can tell me there's a
potential fifth column in England.
Oh, I'm not so sure, Mrs Fraser,
you're just the type.
You love exercising power, now.
Now, you admit it.
There's something in that.
You'd better keep an eye on me
when the invasion comes.
This famous invasion that the papers
keep trying to scare us about.
You don't think it's a genuine possibility?
Personally, no.
The boche is devilishly good on propaganda.
They start the invasion rumours
in order to make us keep millions of men
tied up here in Britain.
Which is why we have the luck
to be sitting here
enjoying your excellent dinner, Mrs Fraser.
Well, excellent or otherwise,
I'm afraid that's all there is of it.
Oh, Mrs Fraser, it arrived this morning.
You've every right to be angry.
But it's only about your cousin
coming to tea tomorrow.
My clear Mrs Collins,
what are you talking about?
- A telegram. I've got it in here somewhere.
- Come inside.
That's me all over, what with the sergeant
calling for the keys, and all...
Coffee in ten minutes, Bridget.
I'm ever so sorry about the envelope,
but I've run right out.
I must remember to order some more.
There isn't any answer, is there?
No, there's no answer.
Well, I'll run along, then.
I haven't had me supper yet.
What are all those figures?
Oh, it's the soldiers.
I left it at the hall.
They've been using it for their cards,
to score on.
Yes, but why should they form their figures
in the continental way?
The continental way?
Yes, the seven, for example.
They've put a stroke
across the middle of it. Look!
There you are,
and there's one of those elongated fives.
What an extraordinary thing.
I don't see anything
extraordinary about it.
It's probably a Czech or a Pole.
There are lots of them here.
Yes, but would they be
in the Royal Engineers?
Goodness, makes you think.
Well, I refuse to see anything sinister
in an elongated five!
I don't agree with you.
You never do, my dear.
What was the man like?
The one who was scoring?
- Oh, seemed a bit slow in the uptake.
- How do you mean?
Well, didn't seem to grasp
what I was getting at.
Did he say anything to you?
He only said "No" when I asked them
if they found the place quite comfy.
"No," just like that?
Manners, I thought to meself at the time.
Then he might have been a German,
for all you could tell.
I see, so you think there's a German spy
among Major Hammond's men.
A spy who can't understand English?
No. No, that's absurd, of course.
Perhaps they're all German spies,
carefully disguised as Royal Engineers.
Well, I don't know what to think.
The one that went for young George
this morning,
I told him to his face
he was behaving like a German.
Now, listen, Mrs Collins,
you remember that scarecrow in my field
signalling to the Germans?
Made a proper laughingstock of meself,
didn't I?
- You certainly did.
- Yes, but this is quite different.
And quite as ridiculous.
Well, once bit, twice shy.
I'll be trotting along.
We'll let sleeping dogs lie,
If you get my meaning.
We will.
Well, I think we ought to tell
Oliver Wilsford about it at least.
Please yourself, my dear.
Of course,
if you want to appear a fool in his eyes.
That was certainly a good one, Wilsford.
VICAR: What do you think, Nora?
Mr Maxwell was up at Cambridge with John.
He stroked the Jesus boat
the year they bumped Emma.
Nora. The radio.
- Coffee, everyone?
- VICAR: Thank you.
JUNG: We drove through Cambridge
on our way here, sir.
- MRS FRASER: Sugar, Vicar?
- If you please.
JUNG: Honestly,
you'd hardly recognise the place.
Nothing but civil servants and the RAF.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks.
- Would you mind stirring it for me?
- Certainly.
(THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND)
Come on, Ted.
Hey, take a squint at Dad.
Done up like a dog's dinner.
Well, cheerio, Dad.
They'll take him for the bridegroom,
not the best man.
- Ah, good morning, Mrs Owen.
- Oh. Good morning.
- Bob!
- Coming.
- They're here.
- Hello, boys.
- Goodbye, my dear.
- Bye-bye, Bob.
Be back about four.
Oh, Bob, wait a minute.
You're forgetting your sandwiches.
Oh, thank you.
What's your missus given you,
enough for the whole platoon?
Morning.
- Goodbye.
- BOB: Good luck, Tom.
That's a fine way to spend
your wedding morning, isn't it?
The governor's upstairs dressing himself up
like a Christmas tree.
These blinkin' collars.
I've a mind to put on me uniform
and come with you chaps after all.
- I'll come up and help you fix it.
- Come on.
- All the best.
- Cheerio. Save us a bit of cake, Tom.
- Ah, there you are, miss.
- What is it, George? I'm busy.
His nibs says I've got to have
a clean surplice for the wedding.
His nibs. George.
Well, your old man then.
But you had a clean
surplice only last week.
I know, miss, but them birds' eggs
in my pocket, didn't half make a mess.
You'll have to wait
until I've done the bedrooms.
I'll be late, I will.
- Whose room is this then?
- Major Hammond's.
Cor, you got 'im?
Posh pyjamas.
- George. Don't meddle. What are you doing?
- Nothing, miss.
Leave that alone and don't meddle.
Hmm, funny sort of way to spell chocolate.
C-H-O-K-O-L-A-D-E.
And what does "Wien" mean?
Chokolade is the German for chocolate.
And Wien is the German for Vienna.
Perhaps he snitched it from a Jerry
what crashed.
Don't meddle, blimey!
- It's extraordinary, most extraordinary.
- I felt I had to tell you at once.
- Well, I'm very glad you did.
- You see, it's not only this chocolate.
There was the writing on the telegram
and all that Mrs Collins was saying.
It's more than evidence, Nora. It's proof.
I'll get on to Zone Headquarters at once.
Wait a minute, what a fool I am.
That D-46 that came in
from the sub-area the other day.
- Yes?
- Well, they're tightening up on security.
Staging a series of tests
all over the country.
- This must be one of them.
- Tests?
Yes, you remember that thing in the paper
about those two men
who wandered all round Gerrards Cross,
acting in a peculiar manner?
They turned out to be Security Police.
But surely they wouldn't send lorry loads of
Security Police to a tiny little village like this?
Oh, no, presumably Hammond's doing
a routine job
and simply has some of these security men
attached to him.
However, we can soon check up.
Do sit down, won't you?
I must say, I should hate to think that
we were sharing our dinner last night
with a couple of Nazis.
Hello? Hello?
I imagine he's doing
a sort of mass observation.
Taking a cross-section
of every type of the community
from the big cities downwards.
Hello? Hello?
Really, Mrs Collins gets worse every day.
Never mind, I'll try again later.
You did give me rather a shock, Nora.
Do you know, I could
almost cry with relief.
I may be wrong, of course, but my explanation
does sound rather more feasible, doesn't it?
It's close on eleven. You, uh...
You can't go to the wedding
without a flower, can you?
Oh, thank you.
Father'll wonder what on earth, and
there's George waiting for his surplice.
I'm afraid I've made an awful fool of
myself rushing to you in a panic like this.
Nonsense, Nora.
You've been a very good citizen.
Thank you, Oliver.
As for Mrs Fraser,
she ought to be ashamed of herself.
- Good morning, Miss Nora.
- Good morning, Mrs Carter.
I'll be across the church
as soon as I've done this call.
Goodbye.
Ring Post One.
Report cipher radio message
from White Cottage.
Warning for Plan B.
- Lieutenant Jung.
- A message for you, sir.
Yes? Yes. Right.
Herr Kommandant, message from Wilsford.
Warning for Plan B.
Plan B. Each man will
deal with his own billet.
If persuasion fails, use force.
All the villagers to be assembled
in the churchyard by 1200 hours.
- Right, sir.
- Plan B.
Plan B.
Plan B.
Come along with me.
Major Hammond's orders.
Go along with you? Where to?
- The church.
- We can't do that, son, we're chapel.
- Never goes inside church.
- State of national emergency.
Major Hammond's
addressing the whole village.
Addressing the whole village? What about?
Don't know. Orders. Come along.
But I tell you I can't.
I've just put the joint in,
besides, there's baby.
- Come on.
- How dare you!
I'll report you.
I said, hurry.
There, there, lovey, don't cry.
Mummy's all right.
We're going along with the soldier.
You two. Get in the back.
- What?
- Get in.
- You know how to drive?
- Yes.
Then get in.
Why the warning for Plan B?
What went wrong?
Well, you did, among other things.
Look at this.
Found in your haversack.
Well?
- Chokolade... Wien.
- Who found it?
Nora Ashton.
Naturally, in her distress, she turned
to me, which only goes to show...
- You stopped her reporting it?
- Well, obviously.
I'm supposed to be trying to contact
Zone Headquarters,
which reminds me, I'd better stage
a little attempt in support of that.
There's no need. We must get to the church.
All the same, your plan does rather depend
on my cooperation, doesn't it'?
- Might be advisable to...
- You take orders from me!
Oh, quite.
Always remembering, my dear fellow,
that I should keep up appearances
with the villagers.
Very well, hurry!
- Hello?
- Thank you.
Oh, by the way, your men will have covered
the exchange by this time, I take it?
- Of course.
- Hello!
Hello? Oh, Daisy. Look, this is urgent.
Get me Zone Headquarters, Blackford 228,
and make it priority.
Yes, sir.
Don't forget. Say there is a breakdown.
- It isn't true.
- Do as I say.
Sorry, Mr Wilsford,
there's been a breakdown.
And obey orders in future.
Now I'm at your disposal.
No, after you. Oh, prisoners
first, I suppose.
Portrait of an English gentleman,
yielding reluctantly to superior force. Oh!
Let us pray.
Oh, God, who art the author of peace
and lover of concord,
in knowledge of whom
standeth our eternal life,
whose service is perfect freedom,
defend us, thine humble servants
in all assaults of our enemies,
that we, surely trusting in Thy defence,
may not fear the power of any adversaries.
- Silence!
- Through the might
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Excuse me, sir, don't you know
there's a service on?
Get back to your places.
Major Hammond, what is the meaning
of this monstrous interruption?
Get back to your places.
Reiber! Hoffman!
Muller!
Over there. Over there!
Major Hammond!
I am Kommandant Ortler
of the Fifth Parachute Regiment.
- Parachute?
- We are Germans, my men and I.
But, surely...
Jung, bring in the others.
They stopped me before I could telephone.
We have work to do here and we intend
to do it without interference.
Obey my orders and you will not be harmed.
Any person who attempts to escape
or communicate with the outside world
will be shot.
Is that clear?
You ask me to bow down
before the forces of evil,
- here in this House of God?
- I ask nothing.
I give you my orders.
I am a minister of the Christian faith.
I'll take no orders from those who are
the enemies and oppressors of mankind.
Darling, don't worry, it's all right,
don't be frightened.
Quiet, you fools!
Get back to your places, do you hear?
Listen.
What's up, Ted?
Bramley Church bell. Didn't you hear it?
- Get away with you.
- Oh, the Corporal is hearing things.
Oh, pack it up, fellows.
It rang twice. See if it goes again.
Here, get down, you two.
Ted thought he could hear
the church bell ring, sir, over at Bramley.
No, he couldn't have. That's the signal
enemy parachutists have landed.
I know that, sir.
We're only doing an exercise,
not a full dress rehearsal.
Here, take cover properly.
I could've sworn I heard it.
Any further attempt will be as futile.
Any further offender will forfeit
more than his own life,
every member of his family will be shot.
I give you three minutes
to come to your senses.
You will choose a spokesman
and receive my instructions through him.
Now, you boys, go back to your places
and put the candles out.
Yes, sir.
- Don't, don't.
- Wait a minute, son.
- If only I could get to my switchboard.
- Come with me. I must go to Nora.
The Home Guard,
what'll happen when they come back?
You can't fight Tommy guns
with bare fists.
We're not going to stick here
and let them walk over us.
- Better dead.
- That's right, Joe.
There's more of us than there are of them,
some of us might get through.
Well, we've got to decide something.
I'm game to try anything.
- Me, too.
- Same here.
- I'd like to lay me hands on them.
- The bell.
- Let me ring it.
- No, no, no. It would be mad.
- We're helpless.
- It's all my fault.
I should have listened to them last night.
I feel so stupid, so useless.
We've only got a minute.
Now, listen, everybody, it's no good making
martyrs of ourselves, that won't help us at all.
What's the alternative,
to wait for a miracle to happen?
No, not a miracle, a chance.
A sporting chance.
That's right. Do exactly what he tells us.
- Make him think we've knuckled under.
- I see.
I might get through to Upton.
No, no, it's no good doing things
on our own, individually.
They'd be bound to fail and just
put these brutes on their guard.
- We've got to plan the thing properly.
- Mr Wilsford's right, Jim.
- Yes, maybe he is.
- If only I could work something out.
- Some sort of scheme.
- MAN: He's coming back.
- Who's going to speak for us?
- Mr Wilsford.
- I second that.
- Yes, yes...
Well, somebody must, I suppose.
- Well?
- We agree to obey your orders
provided you keep to your side of
the bargain, no harm to anyone.
Very good. I shall give
you your instructions.
Outside.
You will be held responsible
for order here.
Convenient, that gesture of the vicar's.
Gave them an object lesson.
- At any rate, I think I've convinced them that...
- I want some details.
This list of yours.
A man named Purvis is missing.
Oh, yes, Bill Purvis.
He'll be out poaching.
He might easily be away all day and night.
And the Home Guard?
Oh, there are four of
them, armed with rifles.
They'll be back some time this afternoon.
Now, Sunday. No trades people, I presume?
There's the postman.
He makes a collection at Mrs Collins
at five o'clock.
Then there's the boy with the Sunday papers
from Upton. He goes to nearly everyone.
Very well.
Conditions in the village
must appear normal.
Cyclists and hikers will be diverted.
People will return to their home
until 8:00 p.m.
Well, if they do, I can't
guarantee they won't...
You will not be required to.
My men will attend to that.
Then the children,
they might blurt out anything.
Yes, that's a point.
Make Mrs Fraser responsible for them.
One of the maids can help.
Send them all up to the manor.
The Vicar's daughter must go, too.
She might become hysterical.
What time does this newspaper boy arrive?
Between one and two.
- What'll mum say?
- You go with him.
And stop your crying.
Repeat your instructions.
If any calls come from outside,
I'm to say
the number's engaged
or the line's out of order.
- Afternoon, Mrs Collins.
- Afternoon, Johnnie.
What's the matter with your Daisy today?
Looks very sorry for herself.
Been in the wars, has she'?
Ask no questions, you'll be told no lies.
Oh, thank you, Mrs Collins.
You stay where you are!
Oh, afternoon. Where's all the others?
Busy kissing the bride?
SOLDIER: That's about it, I'll take this.
- Do I pay for it now?
- That's right. COD. like.
There's a shilling. Keep the change.
Thanks, give them all my best.
There's no point in
letting ourselves starve.
There's just a chance, anyway.
Well, it's better than not trying anything.
Go on, Marlene, do your stuff.
The sweet's just coming.
More cider?
I'm glad you like it.
It's last year's brew.
It was a good year for apples, last year.
By the way,
when the boy comes with the papers,
we always send a few eggs to his mother.
She's an invalid.
You'd like us to do the same as usual,
wouldn't you?
Do you want to look inside the box?
Yes.
Plum tart. My speciality.
That'll be young Johnnie.
Sugar'? We've got plenty.
- Good afternoon, Johnnie.
- Afternoon, didn't expect to see you here.
Thought you'd be over at the wedding party.
Well, I had to give our billet his dinner.
There's the tuppence for the paper
and here's some more eggs for your mother.
They're a bit on the small side again.
- But Mum didn't...
- Oh, I know she didn't mind about that,
but they are nice eggs, all the same,
though I say they shouldn't...
Would you like tea or coffee?
Coffee.
Still, if the hens can't,
they can't, can they?
And if they help to make your mother better,
that's all that matters, isn't it'?
Now, don't drop them on your way home,
will you'? There's a good boy. Bye-bye.
You know when that rick
caught fire in Upton,
we could see the smoke
from the top of the hill.
Well, if I could sneak down to the farm
and start a bonfire,
the Upton A.F.S. would be sure
to come along to see what was up.
No, George, you don't get yourself shot
while you're in my charge.
What're we supposed to do then?
Sit and twiddle our thumbs
while the Jerries walk all over us?
There's plenty you can do.
Do you know what morale is?
Yeah, something what the Wops ain't got.
Well, I'm going to make you responsible
for keeping up the children's morale.
Sit down.
The little ones are frightened.
I want you to make it seem
a sort of game to them.
Give them a double ration
of sweets and leave it at that.
Still, you're the boss, anything you say.
Afternoon, miss.
Johnnie, listen, it's very important.
You've got to take a message to Mr Drew.
Yes?
Tell him we shall want six extra quartern
loaves tomorrow, if he can manage it.
Six extra quartern loaves, okay.
Afternoon.
If there was only something.
Something they hadn't thought of.
Perhaps there is. Perhaps there is.
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe
Ripe, ripe, I cry
Edward, let go of that, you little brute.
Edward!
Hey! Look out!
Oh, I'm so sorry. I do
hope you're not hurt.
I'm okay, lady.
Here, give us a hand with this bike.
Look!
The Home Guard.
Identity card, please.
Heavens, I hope I've got it.
Edward! Edward, give me that bag.
I suppose it's manoeuvres,
I thought I heard shooting.
- That's right, madam.
- Ah, here it is.
Thank heavens I shan't be
taken prisoner after all.
You'll have to tell us where you're
making for, if you don't mind.
Bramley End. The manor house.
- The manor house. All right. Thank you.
- Thank you.
And you see, the Hampshire senior
demonstrator sprained her ankle.
So they transferred me to Winchester.
In fact, I'm to give my first demonstration
there this evening. Vegetarian dishes.
Oh, thank you, Dolly, just how I like it.
My cousin gives cookery demonstrations
for the Ministry of Food.
- Oh, that must be very interesting.
- Fascinating.
It's amazing what you can do
with the most humdrum vegetables,
if you set your mind to it.
- Really?
- Which reminds me,
the other day,
when I was rummaging for salvage,
I came across an old book.
I must show you.
It's my grandmother's recipe book.
Poor dear, she went all through
the Siege of Paris, in 1870, you know.
Rationing wasn't in it.
Oh, here it is.
They were reduced to the
most terrible straits.
And, of course, horse flesh was
unobtainable after the first few weeks.
Rats were quite a delicacy, apparently.
Look, elephant cutlets. Good heavens!
Oh, yes, they ate all the
animals from the zoo.
Parrot pie. Roast leg of bear.
Antelope steak. Tiger en casserole.
Your grandmother must have been
a very courageous woman.
I believe hyena was too
much for her, though.
She was ill for weeks afterwards.
Hyena? I can quite imagine
that was no laughing matter.
I wonder which is the best end
of neck of giraffe'?
Goodness, I must fly!
They've booked the hall for half past six.
Fascinating book. I shall certainly
refer to it in my lectures.
- Do borrow it then, won't you?
- Oh, may I?
I'll take the greatest care of it.
- Let me hold it for you.
- Oh, thank you very much.
Oh, don't bother to come and see me off.
By the bye, I do hope your side wins.
- My side?
- In the manoeuvres.
Oh, yes, of course.
Thank goodness Edward's asleep.
I'll put this in the back for you.
Thank you. Goodbye, Dolly, my dear.
Goodbye, dear.
Oh, this window, the handle's broken.
It's been rattling all the way here.
Now, what can I fix it with?
Oh, this will do.
It's a 1932 model, so you
can't really blame it.
- Well, goodbye, Mr Maxwell.
- Goodbye.
So glad to see you again.
Goodbye, darling.
One can't be too careful, can one?
Parrot pie, parrot pie
Pie, pie, I cry
Drat, that window.
Parrot pie, parrot pie
Pie, pie, I cry
I haven't much cooked, I'm afraid.
But I've got these leftover.
You Germans are partial to sausage,
aren't you'?
Help yourself, don't wait to be asked.
You're a sensible woman.
You'd do better for yourself
to accept the situation.
Well, it's been a very
pleasant surprise, really.
After the way the papers
have been carrying on
about you Germans being fiends
in human form
and sticking babies on
the ends of bayonets.
- Sugar?
- Mmm.
Babies on bayonets?
What would be the advantage?
That's just what I say.
Oh, you'll need the cruet.
You don't look at all
that sort of man to me.
A regular family man, I
should take you for.
I'm not married, but I have two fine sons
who will soon be old enough to fight.
You don't say?
Well, I'm broad-minded myself and, uh...
And accidents will happen.
Here. That silly pepper pot. I'll do it.
I never had any children myself.
Mr Collins blamed me for
it and I blamed him.
And then he was taken.
So we never found out.
Hello, Upton.
Hello, Upton!
Are you there?
Are you there?
Hello, Upton.
"And what are you doing
for the war effort?" she said.
Well, the nerve!
That's old Mother Collins.
She can wait.
Hello, Upton!
Are you there? Are you there? Hello!
Calls herself a lance bombardier, too.
Oh, well, better see
what the old girl wants.
Hello?
Hello?
- Good afternoon.
- Good afternoon.
Is Mrs Collins in?
She's out. Can I help you?
It's the five o'clock collection.
Mrs Collins asked me to tell you
there isn't any mail today.
- Isn't any?
- None at all.
Oh, well, good day, then.
Good day.
- Frank Leslie.
- Here.
- John and Michael Farrar.
- Here.
- Billy Curtis.
- Here.
- Norman Williams.
- Yes.
- George Truscott.
- Here.
Everything will be all right, boys.
- Goodnight.
- BOYS: Goodnight, Mrs Fraser.
- Mrs Cobham.
- Here.
- John Underwood.
- Here.
- Mrs Underwood.
- Here.
- Oliver Wilsford.
- Here.
- Mrs Owen.
- Here.
Where's my husband?
Where's the Home Guard?
The Home Guard have been dealt with.
No!
Go on, Sergeant.
Jack Brown.
Jack Brown!
Here.
Silence!
- Phyllis Long.
- Here.
- Charles Sims.
- Here.
It isn't true, it can't be true.
I'm afraid it is, Mrs Owen.
- Mrs Bates.
- Here.
- James Sturry.
- Here.
- Mrs Sturry.
- Here.
- Thomas Sturry.
- Here.
Joseph Garbett.
- Joseph Garbett!
- That's me.
What do you mean "dealt with"?
You understand well enough.
- Mrs Rogers.
- Here.
- Mrs Barnes.
- Here.
- Walter Pavitt.
- Here.
439993! PW-
- Here.
- Ivy Dorking.
- Here.
What about the guards?
Well, they meet under the window,
go around the house,
meet on the other side.
- I'll have to time it okay, though.
- What do you do then?
Well, what I always do,
crawl down behind the tennis court
through the kitchen garden
and into the woods.
But suppose there's more Jerries about?
Then what?
Make a detour.
Bill Purvis, he learnt me all the dodges.
And bring the Home Guard back?
Gosh! Perhaps there'll
be a battle at Bramley.
You betcha. And we won't half
give those blinkin' Jerries the works.
Put the light out, Frank.
I've got Mrs Fraser's torch.
Well, chaps.
- So long.
- So long.
Have you hit on a plan yet, Mr Wilson?
Yes, I've got something worked out.
Uh, Mrs Rogers, a cup of tea?
- But we must wait until...
- Wait while there's more killing?
- What's the use of that?
- Easy, Joe.
What about the bell, like the vicar tried?
No, no, no. They've removed the clapper,
I heard them giving the instructions.
Don't forget we're counting on you,
Mr Wilsford.
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
When Harry Drew comes around with his van
in the morning, that's our big chance.
No need to wait till the morning,
it's dark enough to try the other way.
- What's that, Charlie?
- Down the boiler room
there's a kind of hedge
where we had the coke shot in.
Gives onto the bushes on the north side.
It's plenty wide enough
for a man to get through.
Wait till the guards are round the other
side and then make a dash for it.
There may be guards all over the place,
for all you know.
It's a chance, though. Come on, Charlie.
No, Jim. I thought of it
and I'm going to do it.
- No, I'm fitter than you, Charlie.
- I'm the one that's going.
- Now, listen, Joe...
- If you got caught,
they'd not only shoot you,
but your missus and Tom in the bargain.
I've got nothing to lose now.
- Let's go.
- Oh, Garbett.
You stay here. I'll take on this job.
I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going.
Well, then, we'll both go together.
After all, two stand a
better chance than one.
You make for Upton, I'll
make for Highfield.
- One of us is bound to get through.
- Right you are, sir.
This way, then.
Down them steps.
There's a sentry outside.
Mind how you go.
Listen, Garbett, we'll cut across
the churchyard to the copse,
- then separate.
- Very good, sir.
The gravestones will give us
some cover in case we're spotted.
Guns?
Thunder and raining hard.
All the better.
Good luck.
Get down!
Get down, a patrol!
Who's there?
Oh, it's you, sir.
He tried to escape.
Where's Kommandant Ortler?
- I don't know, sir.
- Lieutenant Jung, then?
At the manor house.
Better put something heavy
on that coal hatch.
Try and find a garden roller or something.
Very good, sir. Come on.
That is the end of the English News
on the European Service of the BBC.
You're listening to AI Fitzroy
and his band
playing to you from the
Palace Hotel, London.
Nora, my dear.
Gone.
- How are you feeling now, my dear?
- I'm all right, thank you.
I've just been listening to the news,
there isn't anything.
Anything important, I mean.
They're playing dance music in town.
I can't believe we're not in the middle of
the most terrible nightmare.
The Germans in Bramley.
It's hot.
Where's Oliver?
In the church with the others.
What are you doing?
Opening the window. We want some air.
- Who's that?
- The sentry outside.
Put the light out,
then we can draw the curtains.
I can't hear a sound from the village.
They talk about a woman's intuition.
That's what warned you last night, Nora.
Not the writing on the telegram.
Intuition.
I don't believe in intuition.
If I did...
There's something...
What's the matter, Nora?
I don't know.
There's someone coming up the drive.
It's Oliver!
- He must have got permission to...
- Permission?
To walk about freely
on his own?
Well, what other explanation can there be?
Sit down.
I came to tell you that the policeman
found a way of escaping from the church.
I escaped with him.
He's now dead.
I think these villagers could do
with a sharp lesson, don't you?
They shall have a sharp lesson.
Something that will put a stop to this
once and for all.
You know these people.
What do you suggest?
What about hostages?
That ought to keep them quiet.
Hostages?
Good.
- I must say you've been invaluable to us.
- Thank you.
Hadn't you better hurry?
- You might get the Iron Cross for this.
- Oh, yes. Quite.
You were warned.
The warning was ignored.
An attempt was made to escape.
It failed.
You all know the penalty.
The family of any offender is to be shot.
The man Garbett has a son.
Where is he?
He was in the Home Guard.
So...
I shall pick out five of the children.
They will be shot tomorrow morning.
They'll do it, too.
Take us older ones.
Do what you like with us.
We can spare you a bullet.
But that will not save the children.
My baby!
You are responsible for their deaths.
Nothing will save them.
Fancy a nipper at your age
making all that up out of your own 'ead.
Every word of it's the truth, so 'elp me.
Get away with you. And you gettin'
'alf drowned to come and tell me all that.
Go on, there's nothing...
Cor, you're right, sonny.
How we goin' to get past them all
and through to Upton to Mr Drew?
I'll tell you. I'll cause a diversion
and you make a run for it.
You're spryer on your pins than what I am.
Which way when I'm past these 'ere trees?
Across the common
and use the gorse for cover,
then across the stream,
through Bailey's Wood,
and that'll bring you out
on the Upton Cross Roads.
- S' easy.
- Yeah!
And run with your hands on your knees
like I taught you.
- Look here, Bill.
- Hello?
How you going to cause this 'ere diversion?
Oh, don't you mind, matey.
I can look after meself.
So long, Bill.
Come on, Betty.
What's that?
That's what I was waiting for.
One of you down there,
go and light those candies.
I can put the gas right if you want me to.
- It's my job.
- What needs to be done?
The plant down there wants seeing to,
it's a petrol vapour system,
needs tending every so often.
Very well.
Paul, go with him.
The lights'll go out suddenly.
The rest of you, stay where you are.
Keep way from those doors.
Leave him to me, Dad.
CORPORAL: Paul!
Paul!
Now keep still!
All of you.
Or I'll shoot.
Go on, Tom, go on!
That's right, lad, clout' im.
That's that.
Hold this.
Charlie!
Hello!
Can you manage single-handed?
I managed all right.
- What about the lights?
- They'll be on in a minute.
George!
Grace, come down, will you?
What's happened?
It's young George Truscott.
Why, he's soaking wet.
He's hurt his leg.
Lift him up, Grace.
It's a bullet wound. Phone the doctor.
Yes.
Hello, Exchange?
- Jerries.
- That's all right, son.
- Jerries at Bramley.
- What, son?
Grace, bring the brandy.
The time. It must be almost light outside.
We've got to save the children.
First things first, we've got to save
those children, but there's something
- even more important.
- I got this off him.
- We must get through to Upton.
- You're wrong, Tom.
- It's the children matter most.
- That's right.
We've got our duty, not only to our kids in
Bramley, but to kids all over the country.
Dad's right. We got to get in touch
with Harry Drew straight away.
Warn the Army and the Home Guard.
- We'll tackle the manor afterwards.
- Why not split up'?
That's right, one to the manor
and the others make a dash for Upton.
No, no, phoning's quickest.
They're sure to have guards
on the switchboard.
We'll take 'em by surprise.
- We've got two Tommy guns and one revolver.
- Hold hard, son, once you start firing,
- you have the whole lot boiling down on us.
- Yes, we got to do it quietly, if we can.
I got the whole thing clear.
Dad and me will tackle Mrs Collins's.
- Two more to make sure. Who's game?
- ALL: I am.
Right, I'll take you, Mr Owen, you, Jack.
Charlie, you take charge of the other party.
- Right.
- Mother, you go with Charlie.
You, Peg, you and you, make your way
to the summer house and the manor garden.
We'll join you as soon as
we've done the phoning.
But the children, Jim?
Any luck,
we'll have some more weapons by then.
We'll do in the guard,
barricade ourselves in the manor house
and hold off the Jerries
until the Army comes along.
But the rest of us, Mr Sturry.
Can't we do something?
You'd best stay here.
When we've gone, barricade the doors.
- There'll be a couple of sentries outside.
- We'll have to settle them first.
Jack and you take the Tommy guns.
Don't use 'em unless you've got to.
You wait behind the door
till we tell you it's clear.
See you later.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- We got them.
- Good. Good.
Here, you get the women to the manor,
I'll keep this.
We'll tackle the shop from the back.
Steady. There's a machine-gun post
down the lane.
- They won't expect trouble from the village.
- Let's make a dash for it.
It's locked.
- What about the kitchen?
- Yes. You stay there.
Okay-
Right.
Where's the coffee?
The old woman's coffee, where is it?
She never takes... Took
coffee, I don't think.
Get some from the shop.
You stay here and keep your eyes skinned.
Come on, Dad.
Get behind there.
TOM: Are there any more of them?
Daisy, pull yourself together.
- Are there any more of them?
- No.
Daisy, the phone.
We must get through to Upton.
Yes.
Get Harry Drew, quick as you can.
- Dad, get the other two in.
- Okay.
Hello? Hello, Upton 16,
please, it's urgent.
Thank you. Number's engaged.
Here, let me talk to them.
Hello.
What's that?
I can't cut him off, he's
talking to the Army.
Yes, sir, we're mustering our men now.
In about 10 minutes, sir.
Rendezvous Three Mile Cross? Right, sir.
I'll answer it.
Hello? I'm sorry.
But it's a priority call, madam,
from Bramley End.
Here, let me answer it.
Hello, Drew here. Tom. Are you all right?
- Yes, we know about that, the kid told us.
- Right.
We're coming along as fast as we can,
Home Guards and the regulars.
Okay, Harry.
They're coming.
- Dad, they're coming.
- Good!
He says carry on with the plan
and keep the phone working.
Daisy, are you game
to stand by the switchboard?
- Yes, Mr Tom.
- That's a girl.
- They're coming.
- You stick here with this.
Dad and me will take the Tommy guns
and try to work our way up to the manor.
I'll go upstairs and get Jack's.
- The Germans.
- Where?
- Coming along past the church.
- Let's go up.
Relief going up to the machine-gun post.
That means
the others'll be coming back soon.
We can't risk going that way again.
Jack, you keep that rifle.
We'll need the Tommy gun.
Good.
- Good luck, boys.
- Thanks.
Keep a good look out, Jack.
- Up the track by Joe Garbett's.
- Yes, and round by the back gardens.
- That's done it.
- Let's go through the house.
- It's no good, it's locked.
- Let's try Wilsford's.
Tom.
- Mr Wilsford.
- Hmm? What? What is it? Who is it?
They didn't get you, then?
No, I must have nine lives.
They got poor Garbett.
They landed me a swipe on the head,
and I managed to crawl back here
and passed out.
- We must get through to the manor.
- Do you feel all right to go with us?
- Yes, I'm all right. I'll come...
- Here you are, Mr Wilsford, lean on me.
Thanks.
- But, you two, what on earth...
- Oh, we managed to break out.
The main lot of Jerries don't know yet.
We're gonna try and hold the manor
till the troops get here.
- What, you got through to them then, eh?
- Yes.
13 Platoon will attack the enemy
in the windmill area,
and 14 in and around the village.
And my men to be divided
between the two platoons?
Yes, you and seven men
come with me to the village,
and your sergeant and the remainder
to the windmill.
Get ready to move at once.
Right, sir.
Right, take 13 Platoon off at once
and assemble in the woods
north of the windmill.
You'd best attack from that direction.
It affords the best cover.
- I'll leave the details to you.
- Right.
- Get going straight away.
- Very good, sir.
- And good luck, John.
- Thank you, sir.
We got through to Harry Drew.
He's on his way and the Regulars, too.
- Mr Wilsford, I thought...
- I'll explain about that later.
How many guards they got there, Charlie?
Two lots of two, as far
as I could make out.
Well, we better sneak round the back.
You better not come, sir, with that arm.
- I'll come with you.
- What about us? Can't we do something?
- No, you stay here with Mr Wilsford.
- We'll wait for a signal from you.
- Right. You ready?
- Yes.
Eat up your porridge, Michael.
You mustn't waste food in wartime.
Yes, Mrs Fraser.
- Mrs Fraser?
- Yes?
- Do you think George has got to Upton yet?
- I've no idea.
You boys were very naughty to let him go.
He might have hurt himself.
You mean he might have got shot by a Jerry.
He was a mean beast not
to take me with him.
Why? You'd be no use.
- Bet you I would.
- Bet you you wouldn't.
Be quiet, Audrey.
Stay where you are, children.
Tom Sturry! Keep away from the window.
You stay with the children, Nora.
Come on, children, let's get back.
- Where's Dad?
- He stopped one, I'm afraid.
Well, you collect the others.
Come on, quickly.
- Does it hurt bad?
- A kind of shooting pain.
- We'll get your coat off.
- No, not my arm. I can't feel that. It's my ankle.
- Charlie!
- I twisted it falling.
Give me a hand, will you?
We'll get him up to the house.
Now, you people get inside the house.
I'm going to collect the guns
and ammunition from the bodies.
- We'll help, won't we, Ivy?
- Not 'arf.
All right, tackle that side.
You two, go in.
We got through to Upton.
- Help's coming.
- Thank goodness! Your arm...
Never mind my arm, ma'am,
it's my blinking ankle.
In the drawing room, there's a sofa.
No. We're going to barricade
the downstairs rooms.
- Take him up, will you?
- Bridget!
- Tom, I'll take this upstairs.
- That's right.
Sorry, ma'am,
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a heavyweight.
Don't worry, so am I. Come along.
Jim!
Let me come.
I'm glad that's over.
Oh, don't know
when they're more unpleasant,
when they're dead
or when they're guzzling our rations.
Drop 'em down here,
we'll take them upstairs later.
Janet!
Oh, don't wake her, Mrs Bates,
she's only just got to sleep.
What's happened?
- It's all right, help's coming.
- Oh.
We're going to give the Germans
a bit of their own back.
Hello? Orlter?
They've got through to Upton.
They're sending Home Guards and Regulars.
So.
I can't hold this place.
I'll transfer the apparatus
to the manor house.
It must work tonight,
according to instructions.
I can protect it there for 48 hours.
They have weapons, they'll put up a fight.
I'll give them no chance to fight.
Listen, here are your orders.
You'll go to the manor house,
open the French windows.
- Yes. Yes.
- Drawing room, nine o'clock.
I'll have the French windows
in the drawing room open at nine o'clock.
The lorries can drive
right up to the house.
- Okay. Get moving.
- Very good, sir.
Now then, what are we going to put on top?
- I know. Grandfather.
- Yes.
I wonder why people keep these things
when they've stopped going.
TOM: All in now, sir.
We're barricading all the downstairs
windows, sir, is that okay?
Sure.
We've got enough weapons to command
all the approaches from upstairs.
Better concentrate our fire.
The back's the danger point.
No need to worry
about the drawing room side.
Not a scrap of cover.
Jerries never risk an attack
from that direction.
That's right enough.
At any rate,
I'll be keeping a watch on that side.
We've done the dining room.
Can I help you now?
No, it's all right, I can manage.
You get on with the drawing room.
- Okay, admiral.
- All right.
I'll give them a hand, as far as I can.
All out! Side of the road!
Take four men. Corporal, four men.
Make for the lawn facing
the French windows.
- Four men!
- Wilsford will open them in 10 minutes.
Right, sir. Follow me.
- Here you are.
- Thank you.
Well, that's about all we can do there.
If there's any firing this side,
see they get down behind here.
- What about the downstairs windows?
- We barricaded the lot.
Mr Wilsford's going round to make sure.
- He's downstairs?
- Yes. Now, listen, you kids,
whatever happens, you stay put.
If one of you so much as budges an inch,
I'll take you out to sea with me
and make you walk the plank.
Silly! Who does he think
he is, Captain Bligh?
Now, one Tommy gun with Charlie.
One, two more here, one spare magazine.
One pistol, and one,
two, three, four rifles.
Ha! Woolwich Arsenal!
- Ever fired a rifle, either of you?
- Only a shotgun.
- I once won a bottle of scent at Blackpool.
- Well, I'll have to show you as best as I can.
Peg, keep watch out of
that window, will you?
Ivy, I'll show you first.
- Is this loaded?
- Yes, think you can handle it?
Well enough.
- That's right. Now you, Peggy.
- Okay. Ivy, watch the window.
Now, watch this carefully.
When you wanna load,
you push the safety catch forward,
open the bolt, push in your clip,
- and close the bolt and it's ready to fire.
- I see.
If you're not going to fire,
put the safety catch on again.
- Hello, Nora.
- What are you doing?
- Barricading the window.
- It was barricaded already.
- The latch was undone, I was bolting it.
- Unbolting it.
Nora!
- The fun's starting all right.
- Lie still.
I've got a good part of the lawn
covered from here.
- Ought to be farther back, Charlie.
- All right, I've finished with that.
Give me the lamp.
Get Bridget to make him some tea.
Tom! Tom, they're coming.
Look! Over there by the tree.
Peggy, we'd better see if there are any
coming round the other side of the house.
Duck, madam, duck!
All right, Sims, I am ducking.
Come on.
- How you doing, Peg?
- Fine.
- What's up?
- I shot one.
Good girl.
You know, we ought to keep a score.
That's one to you.
Half a minute, now I'll have a go.
Missed him. Can't even hit a sitting Jerry.
Oh, thank goodness they're here.
- Harry!
- Oh, Mr Drew!
We've done a bit of scouting,
they've packed up in a lorry
and driven off towards the manor.
- Can't we join you?
- No, you stop here.
And carry on with the phones.
This is the last one.
Oh, that's what he needs.
You stay with him. I must go to
the children. Go on all fours.
- Duck!
- Not again!
- All safe and sound?
- CHILDREN: Yes, thank you, Mrs Fraser.
Well, George got to Upton all right.
- Good. Good old George.
- When are the soldiers coming?
- They'll be here any moment now.
- I wish they were here now.
Oh, she's yellow.
- I've run out of ammunition.
- Here, I've got some.
- Ivy, give me your rifle.
- I've only two rounds left.
Get down!
Yes, that's the only bit
of England they got.
On Monday night, Hitler tried his invasion.
You know how that went up in smoke.
We're proud of ourselves here,
proud we had the chance to do our bit,
but proudest of all for those who died,
died in the battle for Bramley End.