These two sources both agree and disagree as B4 says morale was high whereas B5 says morale was low morale was low, and they agree by saying people didn’t make a big fuss or complain about the war. Both sources also mention Coventry, and they are both reliable as they both have lots of good information, but source B5 would have been more reliable as it’s an intelligence report. The author of source B4 may have even used B5 for research. So to conclude source B5 is more useful n my opinion, but B4 gives us more knowledge.
Source B1 tells us about another effect of the blitz. It is written y a historian J.Stevenson. It tells us about how children were evacuated from big cities and the government forced evacuees out of the countries. Families were forced to take in evacuees, with many doing it against their will. One of the effects of the evacuation was that the middle-class families were shocked at the poverty, they had read about it, but never seen it. They were horrified to see many children arrive in rags with lice, impetigo and scabies etc. They also had no sense of hygiene. It also tells us how Britain was not united by the war; middle and working-class were still separated with the working class often taking in the poor. This source is reliable as he is reliable as he is a historian and would have done lots of research, such as looking at intelligence reports and newspaper articles from this time, newspapers are good, because they give us knowledge from the time, but the knowledge in intelligence reports is better.
Source B2 is a government intelligence report that also tells us about the blitz on evacuees. This source mostly agrees with source B1 as it suggests Britain was not united and states the dirty habits of evacuees. It is a reliable source as it was written by an intelligence officer who was basically a spy and would have known the truth, such as poor hygiene. Source B3 agrees with both sources B1 + B2 it is a photograph of evacuee children waiting to be put with a family. There is a nurse checking for head lice which also suggests the dirty or unclean. It also shows how children were treated like parcels. This photograph is reliable as it agrees with B1 + B2, which tells us that most of the evacuees had lice.
Source C1 is a statistical source it is a graph that shows the percentage of women worked where and which year. We can learn that banking insurance was most popular in 1944 and the least popular was farming. It is the same in 1938. This source is not very reliable because it doesn’t say about where it came from or tell us about their wages etc. But because it has a graph it’s a bit useful. The figures were probably taken from government records, but we don’t know much about their work. Source C2 tells us about women having to work during the war. It tells us how some became independent because of it but some of them had poorly-paid boring jobs. Many women took skilled jobs which was a change to their usual domestic roles, but the pay was not equal also men did not treat them equally. It was written by a historian who had access to government records etc, and she was a worker during the war so she had first hand experience. So this source is quite reliable. Source C3 shows us how women worked alongside men, but still were not treated equally because a man is supervising. To conclude sources C1-C3 state how women did there best to help in the war but were still treated unfairly.
Source D1 tells us how one way which the Germans tried to win the war was to starve British people. It also tells us that Britain got alot of food from America. It tells us how rationing was introduced first on sugar and butter, and then extended until almost all basic food was brought using ration coupons. It also tells us how women were expected to grow their own food, which suggests that there was a shortage. Source D2 is 2 propaganda posters encouraging British people to grow their own vegetables and “dig for victory”. In D1 there is a paragraph that says rationing was fair, balanced and brilliantly organised by Lord Woolton. Source D3 is called inequality and sacrifice which disagrees with D2 as it says it is fair. The source is an extract from a home intelligence report, and it tells us how people that were rich were treated better and used to go out to eat all the time. We can also learn that not everyone got the same. Things such as salmon were not rationed. D1 suggests that rationing was fair, but D3 disagrees. The people of Britain weren’t united by the war.
Ami Gregory
