In what ways did the British Government attempt to hide the effects of the blitz from the people of Britain?

Question Three.

The German night-time bombing on Britain during September to May in 1940-41 was called the blitz. In this time more than fifty to sixty thousand people died and five hundred thousand were made homeless. As the blitz carried on the British government tried there best to keep the real and more devastating truth under raps. As in they tried to hide the real effects of the blitz from the people. In the middle of this the government tried to use propaganda or censorship to keep British morale high. The blitz was a new kind of tactics used for the first time in the world. This was called terror bombing. Its main task was to scare people. From the started the government predicted that the most effected area would be people homes, factories, ports, railway and communication. These areas were attacked because then food and other materials would stop coming into Britain and so pushing the government to the point of giving in to Hitler demands.

The attacks were scaring people and so the government started making posters and putting pictures of happy, uninjured people, usually quoting we’ll still fight for our country. And so this leaded to the so-called blitz spirit. An example of his is the staged picture of people in 2. Source C. The picture shows happy well-dressed and uninjured people with on rumble from destroyed buildings. This was a obvious effort of the government to tried to keep people from quit their jobs, such as working in the weapons industries, food supply industries etc.

The government also used censorship ...

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The government also used censorship to stop people from finding out the truth about the devastating results of the bombing. One example the picture of the destroy girl school with dead bodies lying about. 2. Source B. As the blitz carried on looting and arguments over old property started. As shown in 2. Source D. This shows two men arguing most probably over the old wreckage of some item. The government want to cover this up so that it seem that the blitz sprit was still going and everyone was united in a community.

Television was also censored. If an attack had just end the filming of the report would have to end with a happy note. If there were any dead bodies in the film it would be edited out. They could show little damage and no collapsed building. In most of London there was not any electricity or telephone. This was mainly because they had been destroyed. At this point there wasn’t much food and supplies left but the newspaper and television reports had to describe people lives carrying on as usual. Most of the posters were used as propaganda. The posters were used to make people feel encouraged and to keep them from leaving work. Even letters from soldier abroad had to be checked for information that might be intercepted by spies. The things that were to be censored were where the soldier is at the moment. The current situation the soldier was in, and maybe whether or not someone has died. This was all done just so that people morale wouldn’t go down.

Censorship and propaganda wasn’t only used in Britain during the war. It was used all over the world in a effort to stop the public from finding out the truth or the devastating effects of the war going on. And censorship and propaganda is still used all over the world. Especially in third world countries. But now the majority of censorship and propaganda is done throw television and the internet.

Diwan Umar Khan.

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