"The British government protected its civilians very effectively from the effects of air-raids" - To what extent do you agree with this statement?

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Andrew Bradbury

“The British government protected its civilians very effectively from the effects of air-raids.”  To what extent do you agree with this statement?

I agree with this statement in some ways, but not in others.  To begin with, Operation Sealion failed meaning that Britain was protected because it did not go ahead.  This may, or may not, have been because Germany was afraid of British defence, but either way Britain was safe.  Moreover, the Battle of Britain hit Germany hard as they did not expect Britain to break-up German planes with a new formation.  This was the chief cause that made Hitler switch to night-time attacks, hence the blitz.  Finally, The main targets that the Luftwaffe wanted to bomb was ports, factories and cities.  This disrupted production and trade, and lowered morale.

The morale of the British nation was also lowered by the expectations they had about the Luftwaffe.  During the Spanish Civil War the city of Guernica was virtually destroyed by the Luftwaffe.  This made the public of Britain uneasy because they thought this would happen to cities here.  Also, approximately one million deaths were expected within the British population.

        Britain protected its inhabitants by using seven different forms of protection.  Firstly, propaganda.  This can be viewed as protection because things such as leaflets (Source A for example), not only highered morale, but informed the public of how they could protect themselves.  Though this informed and reassured the public, also highering morale, it also had its down-sides.  The fact was, propaganda did not stop German bombing.  This factor could have lowered British morale.

Secondly, the government introduced firewatchers.  Though these could have prevented certain damages by informing the emergency services as soon as the incendiary bombs were dropped, they did not actually preclude the attacks.

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Thirdly, ARP (Air-Raid Precautions) Wardens were appointed to patrol local areas making sure that everyone in the neighbourhood turned off their lights during blackouts, and followed all air-raid rules/regulations.  They were often local people and so they were well respected by other local people, but they were not formally trained; probably did not know as much as people would have originally thought.

Fourthly, the government introduced the act known as the ‘Blackout’.  This was the process of the British nation basically closing the curtains, turning off their lights, and not using their cars etc. too much.  Though this made the ...

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