Describe the Effects of the Blitz on Everyday Life in Britain

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Describe the Effects of the Blitz on Everyday Life in Britain

 The Battle of Britain and the Blitz took World War Two right to Britain’s doorstep.  New threats from the air meant that people had to adapt to an almost entirely new lifestyle, intended to enable society to function but still vulnerable to attack from above. As life changed, how did citizens cope with day-to-day transformation caused by the Battle of Britain?

 Direct effects of the Blitz varied, but an obvious effect on life would be death. On September 7th 1940, 430 Londoners were killed in the first ever German air raid. The death of a loved one for most people means a time of sorrow, and life can simply grind to a halt, especially throughout the depressing tasks of funeral arrangements, etc. Constant danger would have meant a greater respect for human life, all part of the “Blitz spirit”. Measures to lower casualties, most notably evacuation of specific social groups, would also have disrupted life a great deal, both for the evacuated cities and the recipient town or village. For example parents in London would have to part with a son or daughter, which would not have been easy to do, while families outside major cities would have another mouth to feed on rations. Schools would be overcrowded and there would in many cases be a problem with contrasting lifestyles and homesickness. Neither set of circumstances would have been preferable.

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 Maintaining a working life would also have been difficult in a city seen to be of importance by the Luftwaffe, as well as managing to stay out of the street. Offices, factories, shipyards and the like would all have been destroyed, and if not then it would be houses and flats which took damage which air raids readily dished out. A harrowing example of this is that by mid-October 1940, a quarter of a million people had been made homeless. A lot of people would be left only with the Anderson shelter they had been covering themselves in the ...

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