The Home Front – Cambridge During World War II

Question 1:

From the sources ‘A’ and ‘B’ I can learn a great deal about the role of Cambridge women on the Home Front. However, the reliability of this information can be cast into doubt as it could be considered propaganda.

From source ‘A’, a photo with a caption, I learn that the members of the Women’s Land Army are undergoing a months training at Cambridge. The women have been working at the university farm, learning how to grow essential foods, and they are all smiling in the photo. This implies that they are all happy, but we cannot be sure of this. The photograph could be propaganda as anyone looking at the photograph, would think that all the women are having a good time and enjoying their work. Therefore, this photo helps to keep morale up and could be considered propaganda because they are not necessarily happy, and they could be smiling because it is a photograph that will go in a newspaper. This source therefore shows me that the role of Cambridge women on the Home Front is to continue the jobs that the men used to do in order for the country to maintain stability. The example here is that they are working on farms, so that the food supply does not run out.

Source B, a newspaper article, talks about how well prepared Cambridge is for the war. From it, I can see that in Cambridge, the woman’s role on the Home Front also involved preparation for the war. The Woman’s Voluntary Service for Civil Defence had the job of trying to arrange cars and drivers to help take messages and help with transport arrangements. Again, as with source ‘A’, the problem with source ‘B’ is that it could be considered propaganda. The article only talks about the things in Cambridge that are well prepared, but it does not tell us about the things that are unprepared. Also, another problem with this source is that there are many things that we cannot tell from it. We cannot tell how much of the preparation for the war that took place was done by women. We cannot tell if it was the woman who organised the preparation that took place or whether it was the men who took the lead role in the organisation of the preparation that took place.

Question 2:

Sources ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ help me to understand how Cambridge prepared for the effect of bombing in different ways. Some are more helpful than others, but from each of them I can learn something about the way in which Cambridge prepared for the effects of bombing.

Source ‘B’ is the most helpful source of the three. It is helpful because it is a Newspaper article telling us ways in which Cambridge prepared for the effects of bombing. It is therefore a reliable and accurate source, so I can believe everything in it. However, there are reasons why parts of the source are not helpful, such as the lack of any information telling us about the things that are unprepared. This leads us to believe that information is missing from the article, making the source less useful. The source would be more helpful if we had some information from the human side, such as personal stories. This would have enabled us to get a better overall view of the preparation for the effects of bombing in Cambridge, making the source more helpful.

Source ‘C’, a picture with a caption, is not very informative. It requires a certain amount of background knowledge to be useful. However, the source does tell me that the people of Cambridge are afraid of bombing in the centre of Cambridge, and that there was a concern for maintaining the historical value of the city. From the source I can see also that removing the windows of Kings College was an attempt to keep morale up within the city. Again, this source doesn’t tell us about a human element, which means that I cannot get a sense of how the general public felt about the removal of the windows at Kings College. In order to make the source more helpful, a date could be added, as well as a provenance.

Source ‘D’, two photographs with a small caption explaining the photographs, is a quite helpful, as it helps me to understand the way that Cambridge prepared for the effects of bombing. It shows University students putting sandbags outside buildings to protect them from bomb blasts. I know that these are University students due to the caption beneath the photograph. Unlike the other sources, this shows us the human side, as we know that it was the undergraduates that helped. The undergraduates were seen as pretentious and above everyone else, but this source shows that they care. From the source we can’t tell if they volunteered, or if they were forced to do it to keep morale up in the city. The photographs came from a newspaper, and the newspapers only showed the positive side during the war, this means that it could be considered propaganda. From my own knowledge I know that this is not true, as the undergraduates did help prepare for the war in Cambridge. The source would be more helpful if it told us additional information, such as where and when the sandbags were placed. Although I can have a reasonable guess about both of these, as it was probably at the start of the war, and they were probably placed in front of all buildings with glass that could smash.

Question 3:

During the war, many different groups were evacuated to Cambridge. There were the usual groups of people that were evacuated, such as children under the age of fifteen, pregnant mothers, blind people and mothers with children under the age of five. There were also many university students who evacuated to Cambridge during the war. The students that were evacuated were the students that were studying subjects that could be helpful to the war effort, such as medicine. Many of them came from London University, because the undergraduate numbers were declining in Cambridge and Cambridge was deemed ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Question 3:

From the two sources, ‘G’ and ‘H’, it is evident that evacuees were left with different impressions of what it was like to be evacuated to Cambridge during the war. In the two sources we see two very different impressions. Source 'G' was written on April 5th 1997 by a woman who was a student evacuee in Cambridge during the war. From my own knowledge I know that source 'H' was probably written while the boy, who was eight years old at the time, was still in Cambridge, due to the tense that he uses. “I miss my home in Tottenham…” is the start of the source and this suggests that he is not yet back in Tottenham so therefore he is still in Cambridge and it was probably written sometime during the war. The dates that the sources were written are crucial because people’s memories change over a period of time. The lady may have forgotten the bad things that had happened to her while she was an evacuee or she may have blanked them out. However, we know the things that the boy didn’t like about Cambridge and his stay were at the forefront of his mind when the piece was written. This means that we can’t be sure whether this source consistently represents his time in Cambridge as an evacuee.

Source 'G' was written in the knowledge that it would be viewed by the public. This is crucial, because when something is produced for public reading it effects the content of it to some extent. People don’t want to write about the worst things that have happened to them if it is going to become public reading, so they skirt around them making sure that the good things are mentioned. However, source 'H' was written in a way that is consistent with a diary entry. It may not be a diary entry, but it is very unlikely that the boy knew this was going to become public reading when he wrote it. I think this because he would not have written things about the “lady” that was looking after him because he would have been in trouble with her and he would not want to get into trouble at that age.

There is an age difference between the two people who wrote sources 'G' and 'H'. The boy who wrote source 'H' was only eight when he wrote about his time in Cambridge as an evacuee, but the undergraduate was about twenty. Therefore, the student knew and understood why they were evacuated to Cambridge but young children didn’t really understand the reasoning for them having to be away form their parents. This means that the impressions would be different because the student knows that it is safer there, but the young boy doesn’t really know why he is there at all.

There are also a number of other reasons why the impressions of the two evacuees in sources 'G' and 'H' were so different. From my own knowledge I know that the undergraduates that were evacuated to Cambridge were wanted more by host families than the children evacuees. This is because they were seen as less of a hindrance as they could look after themselves unlike younger evacuees. The students were also happier there because they could continue their studies instead of either going out to war or work in factories helping directly with the war.

There was also a difference in luck, as the student seemed to have far more luck than the young boy meaning that their impressions of what it was like to be evacuated to Cambridge were different. The student went to a richer family therefore she was living in better conditions than the young boy. The young bot did not enjoy the cooking provided whilst he was in Cambridge. This lowered his opinion of life in Cambridge as an evacuee during the war. The student does not mention the cooking, suggesting that it was satisfactory or that it was not of great importance to her.

Question 4:

The sources 'I', 'J' and 'K' are all evidence of the impact of war on the civilian population of Cambridge. Some of them are more useful than others, but each of them help me to see how the civilians of Cambridge were affected by war.

Source 'I' is a piece of writing that was written by a woman who worked in a munitions factory in Cambridge during the war. It is useful because it tells us a human story and gives us details about shifts and fire duties. It also tells us a story about going to the toilet at the factory at night and how they had to go in threes because it was “scary”. However, some of it is not useful because this is only one woman’s story. We cannot tell how typical this is. For example, the toilet story is not typical for all civilians living in Cambridge at the time. I also know that one of the sentences is incorrect, as it states that Cambridge is in a hollow and it looks like woods from the air. It is very unlikely that she had ever been in an aeroplane before the end of the war therefore it is unlikely that she would know this for sure. This sentence could be seen as propaganda to keep morale up in Cambridge, because it gives the people of Cambridge a false sense of security. However, this may not be propaganda, as it is possible that it was an urban myth and someone else had told her it. Source 'I' would be more useful if there were more women’s accounts, around twenty, possibly from different factories as well. Then we would be able to get a better idea of the impact of war on the civilian population of Cambridge.

Source 'J' is the list of bombing statistics for Cambridge. This is very useful because they are facts. They are therefore very reliable and accurate. However, it is not as useful as it could be because it is very vague, for example, “alerts” and “incidents” are mentioned and given a statistic. Both of these words could refer to anything. It doesn’t tell us whether alerts are when the siren goes off or when a plane is seen overhead. An incident could be anything from hearing a plane to actually getting bombed. Also, there are no human sides to the source so that makes it less useful too. Source 'J' would have been more useful if it had a comparison with another place in England. The source tells us that bombs during the war killed 30 people in Cambridge, but the reader doesn’t know if this is a high death count. I know that five hundred people were killed in Coventry in one night due to bombing, so I can tell that Cambridge wasn’t badly affected by bombing in comparison to other major cities.

Source 'K' is a photograph out of a newspaper article. The photograph was censored during the war, but it was published after it had ended on 14th September 1945. This source is useful because it tells us that Vicarage Terrace was bombed. The photograph gives us an impression of what the bombing was like and it shows us the extent of it. However, it lacks a certain amount of information because it doesn’t tell us how many air raids there were, how many houses were destroyed, or how many people were killed. It certainly would have been more useful if these things had been included. From my own knowledge, I know that nine people were killed in this air raid, but there is no way of telling this from the source provided, meaning that the source is only minimally useful.

Question 5:

Censorship, is a way of stopping people gaining access to certain information. The government used censorship during the war to stop the public gaining access to information that would either lower morale or help the enemy. These are the principal reasons for the censorship that took place during the war. Source 'K' is an example of the government using censorship to keep morale up, whereas source 'L' shows us how the government tried to censor things in order to stop the enemy gaining useful information.

The main things that were censored were things that showed death, or that the Germans were getting through the British defences. This meant that many of the pictures that newspapers wanted to use were censored. However, from my own knowledge I know that the government censored surprisingly little, even though the Daily Worker was closed down due to the nature of censorship employed. The government also tried to get as much information as possible into the public eye, portraying the Germans to be evil or Britain to be great.

Source 'K' is a picture of Vicarage Terrace after it has been bombed by German bombers. The government censored this picture because it lowers public morale. It shows that the German bombers are getting through the British defences and the public then become concerned about their own safety. However, if the German bomber plane that did this damage had been shot down then it probably wouldn’t have been censored, as it would have shown that Britain are great and better than the Germans.

Source 'L' is a story about a man who comes across censorship in Cambridge. The writing itself was not censored, but the map he talks about was censored. The map was a street map that he wanted to use to work out his route around Cambridge. The apparent reason for the ‘Authorities’ to censor this map is so that if the Germans invade East Anglia then they will not be able to find their way about town. Therefore, the map was censored for military purposes. It is not a very good example of censorship as the Germans certainly already had their own maps. This leads me to believe that the government was playing psychological games under the surface. I think this because the Germans already had their own maps and the government knew this, but they wanted the maps in tour guides to be censored so that the bookkeepers that censored them could feel important. Another example of this was during the Battle of Britain, where the general public had to collect saucepans so that more aeroplanes could be made from them. This made the people collecting the saucepans feel important and it kept morale up, but they were unaware that the metal that the saucepans were made of couldn’t be used to make aeroplanes and there were already too many aeroplanes compared to the amount of pilots.

From my own knowledge and the information I can gather from the sources provided, I can see that censorship was used by the government to do much more than just stop people gaining access to certain information. It was used to manipulate situations so that people were given the wrong impressions in order to keep the countries morale up.

Question 6:

The civilians in Cambridge certainly played a vital part in the war effort. The contribution provided was vital within Cambridge and its surrounding area because the community prepared considerably well meaning that it could support itself sufficiently, as well as people working to provide munitions for the frontline battle.

Source 'A' is evidence that the residents of Cambridge played a vital role in the war effort. It shows members of the Women’s Land Army undergoing a months training on a University Farm. This source shows us that the women were learning to produce essential foods so that the people of Cambridge could still maintain healthy diets. This is a form of preparation, as they are preparing for the effect of having a reduced food supply throughout the war. From my own knowledge I know that the women took over the majority of the essential jobs that were usually done by men. This was vital to the war effort so that the country could continue to function. It was even more vital because Britain is an island and the food supply from abroad had been considerably reduced because many of the ships were being sunk.

Source 'B' shows us that Cambridge had prepared well for war and the effects of it. Preparation was a vital contribution to the war effort because it involved making sure that all precautions were taken and people knew what to do in the event of an air raid. The preparation shown in source 'B' is performed mainly by the residents of Cambridge, many of those were women.

Source 'C' enables us to see more evidence of preparation within the city. This type of preparation, preserving important historical features within the city, was important because it keeps morale up, showing that the country will not be defeated by Germany. This therefore means that the role played by the residents of the college in removing these windows was vital to the war effort because it kept morale up within the city. From my own knowledge I know that the windows that were removed are back up and still standing today so this preparation was good as it worked well.

Source 'D' tells us more about the contribution of the residents of the colleges to the war effort. It shows that more preparation took place, this time putting up sandbags. This was done by the undergraduates, which kept morale up because it showed that everyone was pulling together. It also meant that the damage of bomb blasts would be reduced greatly by the sandbags. Therefore, this evidence shows us that the residents of the college played a vital part in the war effort as they placed the sandbags that helped to reduce the effects of bombing.

Source 'F’ is evidence that the residents of Cambridge played a vital role in the war effort, as it shows children that have been evacuated to Cambridge, these children will be looked after by the residents of Cambridge. This was vital because it got the children away from the high-risk areas, such as London, and brought them to Cambridge which was deemed to be safer than these high-risk areas.

Source 'I' explains how the female residents of Cambridge had a vital part to play in the war effort. It is an account of a woman who worked in a munitions factory. This therefore tells us that there was a big contribution from female civilians in the war effort because they helped to make the weapons and military equipment. From my own knowledge I know that in December 1941 conscription was introduced for unmarried women between the ages of eighteen and thirty. They had a choice of going into the women’s services, civil defence or industry. This is a case of industry, and it was vital that this took place otherwise there would have been a shortage of weapons and military equipment for the battles on the front line.

Source ‘L’ shows us that some of the residents had to help with the censorship, in this case it is a bookseller. Although much of this censorship was unnecessary, it made people feel important and kept morale up. However, the censorship was a vital part in the war effort as it stopped news about the Germans doing well getting out to the public and it made them feel safer because they thought that the Germans weren’t getting through.

Source 'M' shows us that the residents of the colleges were also playing a vital role in the war effort. From the source we can gather that the Fellows took it in turns to go on fire watching duties on the roof of the chapel. We also learn that the carol services still continued throughout the war. It keeps morale up because the residents are thinking lives were not affected completely, and some normality was retained. The sense of normality continuing and keeping morale up is evident in source 'N' as well, as chamber music continued even though the RAF took most of the old buildings. Watching for fires also keeps up morale and this is vital for the war effort because if the general public were to become demoralised then they would lose the will to overcome the problems that the Germans were causing.

I also know from my own knowledge that the residents of Cambridge and the colleges had a vital part to play in the war effort. The contribution of civilians was vitally important because they had to make the munitions for the soldiers, and it was them who had to produce the food for the country to survive on. These were the two main things that the civilians had to do to contribute to the war effort, but there were many other things that were important and vital to the war effort, such as taking in and caring for evacuees and preparing for the effects of war.

The residents of Cambridge and the colleges had a vital part to play in the war effort. It was crucial that there was a good contribution from civilians both throughout the country, and in Cambridge. The contributions of the civilians in Cambridge made sure that the city was well prepared and that morale was kept high. Morale is very important during a war and it provides a much needed incentive for the civilians to help with the war effort.

By Greg Hill