There were many very similar stories everywhere so many people got very scared and fled to go live with families in barns or went camping in the fields. Many homes were destroyed leaving many people homeless. But these air raids also were hitting smaller towns. These German planes were causing many casualties and destroyed many buildings and leaving many building work needed. But there was a problem these German planes were so fast they could not be shot down.
Shelters was an important thing in the time of the World War many people found old scrap parts of metal, sandbags were also used to build your own shelter, the advantage of having a shelter in your back garden is because its closer to run to than your local tube station as it says in source 2 general queues formed from 7:30 in the morning just to get into the station which is what many people did. The tube stations got very packed and must have been very uncomfortable, in the underground all the electricity was turned off at 7:30 so people put there sheets over the tracks like a hammock they tried to keep as positive as possible but all they were thinking about would be if their house is still going to be there the next day.
The government also produced propaganda, but not the same propaganda as the Nazis. People who lived in a wartime town would have noticed posters saying ‘’conserve your food and fuel and beware of enemy spies’’. They would have also seen posters previewing films about the war this sent a patriotic message to the people. Propaganda also uses the image of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill by mentioning him in newspapers and on BBC reports. On source 6 General Winston Churchill’s face is on the front off the poster all confident and not scared with English planes flying off to battle to help win the war.
Most men mainly the young wanted to join the army, they felt like real men showing to their girlfriends or wife’s that they are brave and strong and wanted to fight for Britain. But men doing this and leaving there old jobs left problems especially in the mines because too many of them wanted to join the army. So the government tried really hard to get them back but not enough of them came. So the government sent young men who signed up for the army into the mines instead of going to war. How they went around this is by using a ballot of these young men and 1 in10 men were sent to the mines instead of war, this system came across in 1943, the men were known as the ‘’Bevin Boys’’. You couldn’t refuse to do this you were jailed as it says in source 1 Men ‘’ some boys who refused were jailed this was written by Angus Calder in 1969’’. But the crisis of the coal was avoided.
Older men also wanted to do what they could in the war, so they joined the local defence volunteers but the public saw this as a joke as it shows you in source 2 men, a cartoon off these men looking over weight and poorly trained and the public who read these cartoons were basically laughing at them. There were receiving poor training using sticks for guns and training in the local farms.
But whilst this was happening younger fitter men were being trained by army officers being taught how to use a riffle and how to cope in war they were the sort of men you would expect to see in war, it also shows a picture of these men in source 3 Men. Men also did lots of other duties for the public service such as milkman, postman and some men joined the CVP or the ARP air raid precautions. These men carried on with there duties even though when a milkman or postman delivered there milk or letters there might not even be that house standing anymore.
Women had a big role in the factories as many men left to go join the army so women took their jobs. There were many posters asking women to go join the factories or even the fire service there were many jobs available as well such as telephonist, despatch rider, driver, canteen worker any many other duties, they also ask for part or full time workers it just shows how desperate they were. This made women look more powerful and the posters show that, 1 of the posters made was a lady slapping Hitler in the face and it says ‘’just an afternoons work’’ meaning if you work just for 1 afternoon your helping Britain beat Hitler. They also helped out in the ARP and the CDW civil defence worker this just showed the men that they were very skilled and can do jobs in which men do.
But some men weren’t so happy about working with women and they expressed there feelings as well, they made them feel very hostile and they were also laughing at them when they had to go and see to the generators wearing big dungarees there’s quotes of this happening in source 3 Women. But some men were happy for the ladies and come and help them out and they complimented them when they did well and told people how well they’ve improved in driving tractors or humping potatoes bags they could do everything a man could there’s evidence of this in source 4 Women as a women remembers her work in the land army 4 years after the war had happened.
Thousands of women wanted to volunteer found it impossible for them to undertake a war job. The main reasons for this was because they were giving out low wages, long working hours, inadequate transport and if they had children there was no nurseries for them to leave them for the day there’s a picture of ladies with there children campaign that they had no place to leave there children.
There were many things going through the children’s mind and they had many different feelings about the war and especially about the evacuation. The younger children had hardly left there parents for more than a day so for them to leave there parents for an extremely long time must of made them feel very homesick and upset (shown in source 2 Children) and they had no idea where they were going. But the older children who left there parents had come from boarding schools and were used to not seeing them for quite along time so when they were on the train they were happy and excited shown in source 2b teenagers hanging out of the window waving, smiling and joking around . Many children went to homes like in the posh countryside which they were not used to because they lived in the city so when they see toilets inside and hot and cold water they were very shocked as it tells you in source 3 Children. The rules of the house would have been very different like taking your shoes off and washing your hands before dinner. Many of the children unfortunately suffered from child abuse and some weren’t feed so when there parents came to visit they were shocked to see the children was looking unhealthy and skinny and had bruises over his or her body, in source 4 a girl who was an evacuee tells you how she wasn’t feed properly and her parents did not realise this until her oldest brother who was in the RAF read between the lines and came to get her out off there . Many parents didn’t realise what was going on and left there. But in many cases it was hard to find a home for the child to stay at they knock on door to door seeing if they would take a child so as the numbers go down there was only a few left which happened to be either black or Asian kids they didn’t blame the people though there wasn’t many different race’s of kids in those days this is a quote from source 5 in the Children booklet written in 1998.
As I have come to my conclusion I have found out that everyone was affected during World War II not matter how big or small everyone’s lives changed some how. But what these people did to help win the War really did help, and we can only thank those people who put their lives at risk to help Britain win the War.
