The sounds of some of Britain's finest hours - or at least the soundtracks to the film versions - have been saved for the nation by a dot.com in a victory over Hollywood rivals.

Sound-effects-library.com has bought, for an undisclosed sum, a collection of 4m sound recordings from Cinesound, said its managing director, Lloyd Billing.

The library spans decades of film and real-life history. From the movies come the sound effects from every James Bond film, Zulu and the Battle of Britain.

Original sounds include recordings of the second world war bombing of Portsmouth harbour, Sir Winston Churchill's state funeral and a rare recording from the Bismark.

The archive has been kept on record and tape in Cinesound's vaults. It will now catalogue and transfer the entire library online.

This will be available to filmmakers, musicians, web designers, theatres, schools, museums and production companies, who can listen before buying.

Mr Billing, of the Tape Gallery in London, said he would honoured to digitise the archive. "This collection is truly unique. It has been recorded by the world's greatest sound recordists, it contains sounds that no other library could possibly achieve, like huge crowd scenes from the movie Cromwell and multiple Spitfires passing dangerously close overhead."