The run
- Network
- BBC
- Years active
- 1939–1940
- Surviving broadcasts
- 37
- Genre
- news
BBC news bulletins and announcements recorded off air in 1939 and 1940, including the Overseas Service bulletin of 9 April 1940. Held by the Internet Archive's wartime audio collections.
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
7 dated broadcasts across 2 years on the air. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1939, in original transmission order.
- 1. Gas Mask Drill · 8 Mar 1939
- 2. Chamberlain After Czech Invasion · 15 Mar 1939
- 3. Czech Ambassador In London On Poland Situation · 27 Aug 1939
This Is London Calling
9 Apr 1940 · 14 min
BBC Overseas Service bulletin, 9 April 1940, reporting the German invasion of Norway and Denmark.
Churchill Sinking of Graff Spee
18 Dec 1939 · 0 min
BBC bulletin, 18 December 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
Winston Churchill The Sinking Of The Graf Spee
18 Dec 1939 · 5 min
BBC bulletin, 18 December 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
War Comes to London Voluntary Hospitals
29 Nov 1939 · 8 min
BBC bulletin, 29 November 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
Winston Churchill Ten Weeks Of War
12 Nov 1939 · 9 min
BBC bulletin, 12 November 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
HM Queen Elizabeth Calls on Women
11 Nov 1939 · 8 min
BBC bulletin, 11 November 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
Queen Elizabeth Fortitude Of Women
11 Nov 1939 · 0 min
BBC bulletin, 11 November 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
Richard Dimbleby By A French Road
15 Oct 1939 · 1 min
BBC bulletin, 15 October 1939. Preserved in the Internet Archive's 1939 radio news collection.
Also on BBC
BBC in 1939–1940
Other series the network carried while London Calling: BBC News at War was on the air.
Same seasons
news on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The broadcast desk
Wartime correspondence and Cavalcade of America established the daily explainer and the narrated history hour long before either had a feed.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of London Calling: BBC News at War
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
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