Britain in the Age of Total War - source based work.

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History GCSE Coursework

2.

Study Sources B, C

How useful are sources B and C in helping you to understand the effects of the Blitz on people in Britain? (10)

2. Source B and C are both photographs but B is of a bombing which did not take place during the Blitz because it is dated “21 January 1943” when the Blitz actually ended in the summer of 1941. Nevertheless, it does show a similar situation to the Blitz and illustrates the idea that people worked together during this time and helped each other, as is demonstrated in Source C, which also shows a “team”, and how even though the tenants’ houses were wrecked, they “still showed the British grit”. The photograph in Source C was taken during the Blitz and demonstrates the British people’s morale as it is filled with a mixture of people, young and old giving a thumbs up showing that differences no longer mattered at such a time; everybody needed to work together in order to keep determination up. Source B, however, seems to be a more realistic photograph of the war, one which shows dead children who had been bombed at a school, and was even “banned by the censors” because the Government feared images of innocent lives being lost might get the British mood down, whilst it seems the people in Source C might have been told to act courageous and determined in order to show others around Britain that they indeed could survive such a catastrophe, that morale was always kept up even if homes and lives were being lost.

The fact that Source B was censored whilst C was allowed to be published is very useful in helping us understand the effects of the Blitz on people as it shows that the British Government anticipated a bad reaction from the public if people were shown to be actually dying from the bombing, and so only photographs that illustrated the valour and survival of the British were published, as propaganda to show the bravery of the country and to keep the war effort going.

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