Britain's World War Two crime wave

Published: May 22, 2020, 8 a.m.

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)