Q2 Source D is about an eight year old boy, who was been evacuated from Tottenham. He doesn’t enjoy living where he does because he misses the little things that make him feel at home. He mentions that his carer does not spend Saturday and Sunday at home so he has to go out even if it’s cold. This account says that the evacuation family this boy got put with were unwelcoming and lonely. In contrast source B and C, B was from memories of an evacuee, just saying the plans for evacuation of London university and the London school of economics had gone through and the were now studying in Bedford college and in Cambridge. And C was the memories of Joan Grundy, written in 1997, these sources are different from source d because was 8 years old, he had a different background but also he was unhappy, sources b and c give the impression of happiness and hospitably, all the sources are writing for a different audience, Source c is different from all of them because it was written in hindsight of the event unlike the other sources, and Joan Grundy wrote about what she remembers, so she would remember the good things that happened. So the evidence in source D does not support the evidence in source B and C because are giving completely different opinions on evacuation.
Q3 Source E is useful because its explaining what she did, why, and what it was like, this woman called Dorothy Anderton worked during in the war a night in Cambridge making bits for tanks etc. she had to work from 8 at night to 6 in the morning, also she was on fire duty, she says that Cambridge was saver than lots of places because of where its situated, she says sometimes they got incendiary bombs. Source F in contrast is not as useful, it does have all the statistics but you have nothing to compare them with source F back up what Dorothy Anderton said you incendiary bombs because the statistic stated that there were ‘1107’ incendiaries bombs, and they were no flying bombs. I can’t really tell if these statistics good or bad but 30 people were killed if that was compared with my knowledge of World War 2 then it doesn’t seem like many were killed. Cambridge had a lot of property damaged but hardly any property was destroyed. So in conclusion I find source E more useful in helping to understand how civilian life was affected by the war as it comes from of a woman who worked through the bombing, fire drills etc. and her memories give you a better insight into life during the war than source F which just gives you they overall picture of Cambridge.
Q4 The Germans intended in the air raids to stop the will to flight. The government didn’t any panic, so they carefully controlled the newspaper, down playing all stories of serious. Damage through ‘spin’ or censorship like source h and encouraging positive stories like source I which suggests people are working together and cheerfully playing their part. The government took detailed steps to stop all bad information reaching Germany, through publication like source g when Philip Gosse came to visit Cambridge, he needed and map to know his way around, when he brought one it had no map the bookseller told him the ‘authorities’ by order had torn out al the maps out of all the Cambridge guide books, mail, radio, weather forecasts etc. were others in the steps to stop information getting to Germany, and encouraging the public to ‘keep mum’. It was important because there were German agents in Cambridge; the blitz spirit was what the government wanted, to keep up morale and to boost up morale. Cambridge was a place extreme interest for the Germans, for the college did a lot of science looking into new weapons and the Germans were wanting to no more. So in conclusion the government controlled the flow of news and information during the war to keep bad news away from Germans and the public in some ways to stop panic.
Q5 The sources from local newspapers shows that Cambridge played its part in maintaining morale, source A in particular it does hint that Cambridge is not as ready as it says it is, but overall the source tries to give the impression that Cambridge is ready for anything. The references to evacuees in source B show that the colleges were able to help continue the education of students who were to go on to make an important contribution to the war effort in contrast source D gives a very different view of evacuees, a little boy is really unhappy and this seemed to be the only negative view of evacuees. The statistics on bombing need careful interpretation, but suggest that there were relatively few attacks on Cambridge, which is supported by evidence from source c which suggests that Cambridge was not seen by the Germans as a particularly important place but the government thought that maybe night be source G says how all the maps of Cambridge been torn out so the Germans could not find there way around, they wouldn’t have done that if Cambridge wasn’t a important place. The information was controlled by the government to stop the Germans finding out what was really going on and to keep up the public morale, this is backed up by source I which is a picture of different undergraduates working together. So in conclusion I agree that Cambridge played an important part on the home front during the Second World War.
