2. Source B is useful in helping me to understand the effects of the blitz because it is a reliable photograph taken after a bombing at Catford Girl’s School. The photograph is reliable because it isn’t staged and was censored by the government, if it was faked it might no have been banned. Source B shows soldiers surrounding body-bags. The source has a negative tone showing bad effects of the blitz. Source B was censored from the public, this suggests that the government thought it might dampen morale in Britain. The photograph is dated 21st January 1943, which means it was taken in the aftermath of the bombings on 20th January. The source is useful because it shows that even though the blitz was over bombing was still going on; and taking lives. However, the source is limited because it only shows the bad effects of the bombing, and the photo was taken after the blitz was over. Source B also shows soldiers and presumably relatives looking over the bodies of the dead girl’s. This shows how some people were badly effected by the Blitz.
Source C is not very useful in helping me to understand the effects of the blitz, because it is unreliable, as it looks staged. All the people in the photograph are smiling towards the camera with the same pose, a ’thumbs up’. The photograph is most likely to be used as propaganda, and to encourage blitz spirit. Source C doesn’t give the full picture, it is very positive and talks about ‘grit’. the fact that the photograph is of smiling happy people rather than of bombed houses or number of dead, suggests that they are hiding the truth from the public. Source B is almost a complete opposite of Source C on the effects of the blitz. Source C clearly has a good outlook on the effects of the blitz, but is limited as it doesn’t give the full picture and is unreliable. The source is however useful because even though the photograph is staged, it shows that people obviously didn’t feel too badly because they all had time for a Photo.
3. Source B and D are both photographs with negative tones. They have been taken at different times during the blitz, source B; the end, and source D; the beginning. Source D is captioned ‘sorting personal property’, it shows what looks like a man stealing anothers belongings. Source B was banned by censors, probably because of its graphic content, that could lead to a dent in morale. Source D was also not published until a later date, this suggests that the publishers may have believed it would be censored. Source B shows how the blitz could effect people emotionally, whereas source D shows more physical damage. Both sources B and D were taken to inform people of what was really happening. Although the sources have a different way of showing how the blitz affected people Sources B and D do agree with each other.
Source C and D were both taken, or published, at the beginning of the blitz, and they both havr captions. Source C was published on the 15th September 1940 with its original caption. Source D however doesn’t say whether its caption is original, this suggests that the caption may have been changed before it was published to allow it to get through the censors. Another thing both sources have in common is that both sources have peoples belonging out on the street. Source C has lots of furniture piled on a heap, this is stange because surely if there was an air raid, you would only take a couple of items and get out quickly. If there was to have been an air raid the streets would probably look more like source D. Source C doesn’t actually say where it had been taken, it just says that some North London houses were bombed, it could have just been taken anywhere. The people in the picture are all smiling and gathering around looking at the camera, which makes it unreliable. Sourc C’s purpose was to encourage blitz spirit, unlike Source D which was published to inform the public of what was going on. Neither sources say who took the photograph, which makes them less reliable. Overall the sources do agree on a couple of things, but they have a different tone from each other, and give a different view. Therefoore these two souces don’t agree with each other on the effects of the blitz.
4. In the autumn of 1940 the British government were concerned about the morale of their people. The government had a good rason to fear morale in the autumn of 1940. Source E is a secret report to the government.