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Episode details

World Service,22 May 2020,9 mins

Britain's World War Two crime wave

Witness History

Available for over a year

During times of crisis in the UK, World War Two is often remembered as a period when the country rallied together to fight a common enemy. British politicians still refer to the so-called "Blitz Spirit" when calling for national unity. But as Simon Watts has been finding out from the BBC archives, there was a crime wave during the war years, with a massive increase in looting and black marketeering. PHOTO: A government poster from World War Two (Getty Images)

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