Letters of Love in WW2
By Sky HISTORY
From North Africa, back to Britain and then through Europe, Letters of Love in WW2 tells a unique story of the Second World War from the perspective of two real people that lived through it.
Three months after they wed, Cyril and Olga Mowforth found themselves separated by the Second World War. Between 1940 and 1946, their love was kept alive on the pages of a thousand letters and postcards, found decades later by their family after they had both passed on. With their family’s poignant and emotional interviews bookending each episode and featuring the voices of Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Downton Abbey’s Amy Nuttall and Afropean author and broadcaster Johny Pitts, Letters of Love in WW2 gives an incredible first-hand insight into what it was like to live through this tumultuous period.
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Latest episode
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Extra: Memories of Cyril and Olga
Remembering who they were outside of the war. -
Extra: The importance of the letters to the family
"It's massively important, historically, to find these letters. It's going to be one of the last eras where that's going to happen." The Mowforth family share their thoughts on what finding Cyril and Olga's correspondenc... -
The family's connection to Cyril and Olga's experiences
Understanding what they went through and forging a deeper connection with their past. -
8. Home at Last: Grief and Relief
As Germany officially surrenders, Cyril and Olga find hope once again in the fact that their love has survived so many years apart. They will go one to start the family they always dreamed of, with neither of them ever forgetting, and barely speaking… -
7. Bergen-Belsen: Sorrow and Shock
As Olga gets a taste of Germany’s ‘Flying Bombs’ in Sheffield, Cyril knows the end of the war is coming as he drives the lead tank of his unit through Germany. As the couple reaches the five year point in their separation, Cyril’s unit becomes..… -
6. Germany: On the Approach
Cyril joins the British Liberation Army as a Corporal, beginning the trek from Normandy across Belgium and Holland en route to Germany. The pace of his unit means that his letters become less frequent as he moves from “C” Squadron, 42nd Royal Tank Re… -
5. D-Day: Visitations
As troops prepare for the invasion of Normandy, Cyril is suddenly sent back to British soil to retrieve a new, heavier, tank, surprising Olga for a short time. As he is based at the Catterick Army Camp, Olga gets a shock to have learnt that he had be… -
4. El Alamein: Silence and Roses
Frustrations are high for Cyril who suffers periods of illness and depression triggered by long periods of idleness. As the couple cross the eighteen-month mark of their separation, the sense of helplessness is forever on the surface. Written by An… -
3. Siege of Tobruk: Battlefields and Reality
The realities of war hit when, after a long gap in correspondence, Cyril reveals he has been involved in the siege of Tobruk. In England, Olga is aware there is heavy battle going on and has hopes Cyril is safe. Written by Anna Priestland, edited b… -
2. North Africa: Lost Messages
Cyril and Olga face months of delays in their letters to one another, and they get a taste of the frustrations to come. Olga, facing air raids at home in Sheffield, settles into her role in the Civil Defence emergency services. Written by Anna Prie…