Total War, Britain during the Second World War
Total War, Britain during the Second World War Part 1: The outbreak of war When war broke out on 3 September 1939, the mood in Britain was very serious. Nobody expected that the war was going to be 'Over by Christmas'. The British government reacted quickly. There had been a war scare in September 1938 at the time of the Munich Crisis and this provided valuable practice for the real thing. In the meantime, gas-masks had been produced for everybody in the population and air-raid shelters had been constructed. The Emergency Powers Act, which allowed the government to control public life throughout the war was passed in August 1939. On aspect of it was the introduction of Identity Cards, which had to be carried at all times. These were also used for National Registration which allowed people to be called up for the armed forces or for war work. Fears of bombing It was widely believed that British towns and cities would be bombed immediately after war was declared and that hundreds of thousands of people would be killed or wounded. In 1937 the Air Ministry had estimated that on the first day of a war with Germany, 3,500 tonnes of bombs would be dropped on Britain and that a further 700 tonnes would be dropped on every day after that. Deaths were estimated at fifty people for every tonne of bombs. 1,250,000 cardboard coffins were produced and plans were made for mass burials.
Women During World War Two
Women During World War Two During World War II, women all over Britain contributed significantly towards the war effort by taking over the jobs that the men who were fighting had, and more importantly, by keeping order in the household. Question 1. British women played a very important part in the war effort by the contributions they made in their homes, which were acknowledged and greatly appreciated. Women in Britain had to take on the role of both mother and father during the war, as the man of the house would be fighting for his country. A woman would have to come home and look after the children, and was solely responsible for their safety. She had to do all of the washing, cleaning and mending around the house, as well as provide a nutritious and filling meal for the children, so she had to be sensible and responsible with the rationings, putting her family before herself. Women also started gardening as well, this was greatly encouraged by the government and the media, because if a woman would cook and eat home-grown vegetables, it would help a lot with rationing elsewhere, and the children would have more to eat. The most important thing the women had to do was ensure the safety of their families. There were many different things to remember in order to achieve this. A woman had to be extremely aware of things like air-raid sirens, because if one went off,
What was the impact of government propaganda in Britain during World War Two?
What was the impact of government propaganda in Britain during World War Two? During the Second World War, the British government had to implicate increased measures to protect civilians, prepare the country for war and to keep morale up. All of this had to be carried out while a serious threat of invasion and destruction loomed over the country. Despite all this, the government had a powerful weapon at their disposal; propaganda. This was a very serious tool they had, especially with new ministries such as the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Food. Propaganda took the form of posters, movies, radio programmes and other media. The success of propaganda is easier to judge when broken down into categories. In this essay I shall look at three different forms of propaganda to get an in depth look of the impact of it on people’s lives. The three categories are home life, morale and the defence of Britain and its people. In home life, propaganda was probably the most prominent source of information on ways to live through the war. Posters and leaflets were a key part of winning the home front battle. They instructed people and showed them how to keep occupied during blackout. They also showed other things such as how to make do with the little that everyone had. One example of this being successful is that leaflets were sent out to the public, urging people to save
Evacuation in Britain during World War II
Introduction. World War II was the most widespread war in history, and countries involved mobilized more than 100 million military personnel. Total War erased the distinction between civil and military resources and saw the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort; nearly two-thirds of those killed in the war were civilians. Evacuation - The act of evacuating; leaving a place in an orderly fashion; especially for safety. At the start of the WWII, lot's of children living in main cities and towns were moved temporarily from their homes to places considered safer. These were called reception areas and were usually in the countryside. Evacuation is one thing that I have not yet experienced; I can only imagine it like a horror movie where your family is split, your life is stolen and all replaced with something completely new to you. Now I am going to research evacuation and get try to get the best possible understanding of it I can. I am going to do this by Judging a wide range of primary and secondary sources, focusing on British evacuation. At the start of the war evacuation was not made compulsory. This changed throughout the war, with it being compulsory at times. The idea of evacuation was to move people from the evacuation area; the area that was very likely to be bombed; usually a city
Evacuation in Britain in World War Two
Evacuation in Britain in World War Two Towards the end of 1939 most British people found that it was very hard to stop Hitler and they decided to use force because they thought that this could only stop him. Britain and France declared war on Germany on the 3rd September 1939, before this Germany had invaded Poland, which the British promised to protect. The British army sailed across the English Channel to join our ally France. Back home, the civilians of the British Isles prepared for a war which they knew was going to affect them directly. World War One had ended 21 years before, and many people remembered gas attacks, bombings from the air, rationing of food supplies and fear of enemy invasion. The word "Evacuation "means that when Britain wanted to move all the children from the dangerous areas to a safer area which was outside the country and they would be safe from peril or hazard. Before world war two children were moved from the dangerous area that was close for the enemy to be bombing. At this time factories and industries were making equipment for war. Britain expected towns and cities to be bombed. The idea was that evacuees would be in a safer place and stay with the local families. Many people were still worried about the First World War because of gas attacks, rationing, fear of enemy invasion and the bombings. This situation was not forgotten and
The Measures Taken by Britain to Counter the Threat of Invasion during World War Two.
Matt Drage 10a History Coursework The Measures Taken by Britain to Counter the Threat of Invasion. When, on September 3rd 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, the mood of the British government and public was serious. Unlike in World War I, no one expected the war to be over by Christmas, and measures to counter the threat were quickly brought in. The speedy response of the British government was due to earlier war scare in 1938 during the Munich crisis, which had provided a valuable practice run. Gas masks had been issued to the entire population, air-raid shelters had been constructed, and, in August 1939, the Emergency Powers Act was introduced, which allowed the Government to control the lives of the British public. One aspect of this was the introduction of ID cards, which everyone had to carry at all times. Also, every person of central European birth in the country was imprisoned on the isle of Wight. This was called internment. The British government estimated that, on the first day of the war, 3,500 tonnes of explosives would be dropped on Britain, and that hundreds of thousands would be killed. They constructed 1,2500,000 cardboard coffins, and cleared 2,8,000 hospital beds to house the injured. Cinemas and theatres were closed, and it became an offence to be seen without a gas mask. Blackout was introduced so that bombers would not be able to see
Evacuation in Britain during the Second World War
History Coursework - Evacuation ) Study sources B and C. Which Source is the more useful as evidence about the start of the children's evacuation journey? Source B is a photograph depicting evacuees walking to the station. Obviously, as it is a photograph, it is at least useful in part, as it is definitive evidence showing children at the start of the evacuation journey. It also shows many children and some adults, who are probably teachers. This fits with what was happening at the time: 827,000 children and 103,000 teachers were evacuated in September 1939. The date also fits, as the photograph was taken in September 1939, and evacuation began on 1st September 1939. There are also lots of evacuees, which is accurate as the first evacuation was the largest in the war. However, the source has many limitations as well. The key limitation is related to the provenance of the source. It is unknown who took the photograph, which raises the possibility that it could have been taken for government propaganda. There is much more evidence that supports this theory: the photograph looks very posed as all the children are looking in the camera, waving and smiling. This is inconsistent also, as evacuation was often stressed and traumatic. Another imitation is that there are no parents on the photograph, though one would think that parents would want to say goodbye to their children
Employment opportunities of women in Britain during the first world war.
The Home Front Assignment One: Objective 1 . Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war. (15) 2. Why did the number of women employed in Britain begin to rise significantly from mid-1915? (15) 3. In what ways did the First World War change the employment opportunities of women in Britain? (20) Name : Cary Yu Form : 10M Candidate Number : 3805235 School : West Island School Question 1: Describe the employment opportunities of women in Britain in 1914 at the outbreak of war. During the outbreak of war in 1914, women were considered as less capable than men were. It was a traditional trend that women would get married and had children. Therefore parents would not send young girls to school after the age of 12 even if they did win a scholarship. Only 1% of those staying on were women. That was the reason why most of British women had lack of sufficient education to put themselves in professions like doctors, lawyer or teachers. People just thought women just were not as good as men. As second class citizens, they were not allowed to involve in any politics as they were expected to stay home and be a good wife of a husband, a good mother of children. They could not divorce with their husband easily and divorced women were not allowed to see their
Britain During The Inter-war Years
Britain During The Inter-war Years After the First World War Britain suffered economically. This was due to its material export sales being reduced as trade was severely disrupted in the war years encouraging customers to shop elsewhere for their goods such as Japan and other countries who took advantage of Britain's uncertainty and added taxes to their imports. Britain was also in debt by one million pounds owed to other countries, which did not help the situation. The first major slump began around 1921 when over two million people were unemployed this was partly due to many men being injured in the war over one and a half million men from the United Kingdom alone were permanently weakened by wounds or the effects of gas. Also Britain saw a large reduction in their traditional exports such as coal, iron or steel which resulted in many jobs being forfeited. The coal industry was being left behind by oil, electricity and gas, these could be obtained cheaper or even for free from other countries like Poland where labour was cheaper and Germany who were still in debt for the reparations of the First World War. Suprisingly though Britain recovered quicker and more so than many of the other countries such as America, France and Belgium, it is argued that this was powered by residential construction and the newer developing industries against rearmament for the Second
Explain the differing Reactions of People in Britain to the policy of evacuating Children During World War Two
Explain the differing Reactions of People in Britain to the policy of evacuating Children During World War Two This assignment looks at the opinions and differing reactions of three groups of people. The first group of people involved is the parents of the evacuees and what they felt about their children being evacuated. The second group of people is the children and their reaction towards leaving home and staying with strangers. The last group of people is the carers or foster parents and how taking evacuees into their homes affected them. On the first of September 1939 parents from industrial towns and ports like Liverpool, London, Manchester and Birmingham were asked to take their children to the assigned assembly points which were often the child's school or youth group. They were asked to take suitcase, to wear labels around their necks and to wait for the train to come to take them to their destination that they had been billeted to in the country. Originally, four million people were expected to be evacuated but the government evacuated only 1.5 million. This was because not all parents allowed their children to go because they thought that evacuation would be worse than the bombs. In addition, 2 million people found their own places to stay in the countryside with friends and family. A mother in 1939 said... ' Its bad enough that we will be getting bombed but if
