Britain in the Age of Total War

Sohaib Mohammad – History Coursework

Assignment Two: Objectives 2 and 3

What can you learn from Source A about the response of the British people to the effects of the blitz?

From Source A we can learn a lot about the response of the British people to the effects of the Blitz. The Source is about a book published in 1990 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Blitz called “Waiting for the All Clear”; this tells us that this book was published to celebrate Britain’s victory against the blitz as the word “Anniversary” usually refers to a tribute or a toast to commemorate something. This tells us that even though the British citizens were experiencing terror and tragedy they remained determined and battled these predicaments by keeping a high morale and tried to live a normal life, also the statement “They didn’t have to be in uniform to be heroes” suggests that the civilians were just like soldiers fighting on the front.

Source A may not be purely accurate as it’s a secondary source, which described the Blitz as a time of unity and courage however it was also a time of terror and panic due to the imminent danger imposed by the Germans, the author has deliberately written this book on a biased point of view so the author can sell and win the minds and hearts of the readers.

Study Sources B, C,

How useful are sources B and C in helping you to understand the effects of the Blitz on people in Britain?

Sources B and C are quite helpful in understanding the effects of the Blitz on the people in Britain I can say this due to the fact they are both primary sources and they were published near the same period of the blitz. However these sources have their limits.

Source B shows a bombing as it shows a photograph of Catford Girls’ School hit by an air raid on the 20th January 1943. The source tells us that the photograph had to be banned by the censors as it depicts bodies in sacks which give out a negative impression; this tells us the bombing was a really bad aspect on Britain and its Government not just through flattened buildings but also the affect it had on people’s morale. Although the Government censored the media, rumours on what the truth is would have frightened the people as much so that everyone had to be on high alert this would have had affect on the people’s health and motivation to carry on. Such tragedies as the one shown in Source B, gave the people the urge to quit and leave cities and even to give up war, from this source what we can really learn is that it was absolutely essential for the Government to ban photograph such as this one depicted in Source B.

Source C depicts the result of the North London bombing, it’s the contrary it shows in a way a good aspect of bombing as the source shows the people smiling after an air raid the previous night and they all seem to be working together showing a good community spirit, also the word “grit” is used in the caption to emphasise on the confidence of the British. However from Source C we can tell that the photo was planned and the fact the people were told to pose also they all seem to be confident after the fact their houses have been bombed. This source can bee seen as propaganda by the Government to promote morale amongst the citizens bombed and the ones living in the outer areas of London and other cities.

From both sources I personally believe Source B to be more of an accurate source although it doesn’t depict the effect it had on people due to the fact it was banned but we can imagine what devastating effect it may have had if not censored.

Study Sources B, C and D

Does Source D support the evidence of Sources B and C about the damage done during air raids?

Source D shows the bombing of Coventry on the 15th of November 1940, massive destruction was caused. This relates to Source B showing the bombing of the ...

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Study Sources B, C and D

Does Source D support the evidence of Sources B and C about the damage done during air raids?

Source D shows the bombing of Coventry on the 15th of November 1940, massive destruction was caused. This relates to Source B showing the bombing of the school but does not agree with deaths. Although this was not as bad as Source B it was also censored as it was thought to be very sensitive and was only published 4 months later in February 1941 after being captioned “sorting personal property”. It doesn’t support C as much and doesn’t show such a calm and good atmosphere.

The reason that Source D was withheld from the public at first was because they did not want the people to realise that the German’s could Blitz as far as Coventry. The picture shows a more chaotic scene as the citizens look confused and are arguing apparently due to looting of personal property as it was a great opportunity for thieves to get into action. This is exactly what Hitler and the German government wanted. To send the general public into panic and to fear the mighty Luftwaffe’s bombing. Both the British and Germans knew that the Royal Air Force could not protect Britain’s skies as it was out numbered and outclassed at the time. The damage that Hitler was trying to cause was not just destruction but psychological damage. If he could convince the British people that what happened in Coventry (Source D) then he would have secured his victory over Britain.

Source C is supported by Source B because the government used the label of “sorting personal property” on both sources to keep morale up. The source’s are also alike as they show the British “grit”, although Source C could have been staged and Source B had a more angered and fearful image than the image from the label. According to the British government due to their label of “sorting personal property”, the civilians in Source D survived the bombing, their homes were destroyed but they still went about with their normal lives worrying about personal processions instead of trekking to the countryside.

Source D supports Source B as it shows what damage was caused by the Blitz. The censorship by the government also restricted Source D from being published due to the fear of its “sensitivity” as the wrong message could affect the public’s morale. Source D also supports Source B as it shows that British people were all affected by the bombing and that no one was invulnerable from the Blitz. The bombing that occurred is illustrated in Source D and B, but in Source D was published as “sorting personal property” but you could obviously see that there was panic and anger within the civilian population due to the bombing. This supports Source D as the British would have panicked and have been angered by the killing of school children this was potentially very bad for morale.

All three sources support each other in the aspect of bombing, Sources C and D agree in the way that they show persistent from the citizens fighting the blitz, Source D does not agree with B as it doesn’t show any casualties or deaths.

Study Sources E, F and G, and use your knowledge.

Use Sources E, F and G, and your own knowledge, to explain why the government was concerned about the morale (spirit and attitude) of the British people in the autumn of 1940?

The Government was concerned about the morale of the British people in autumn of 1940 for many reasons. Firstly the raid on the British people began without any prior warning leaving the nation in shock.

For 76 consecutive evenings the Blitz raged over London, resulting in more than 43,000 civilian deaths and demolishing about 800,000 residential estates. Bombing was especially severe in East End of London as illustrated in Source E. This concerned the government because Hitler’s objective was becoming reality as it was affecting the morale of the British people. Another censorship that was never released was the bombing of Balham underground station in October 1940, where 64 civilians drowned, due to a burst in the water mains, a fact never was released until long after the war had ended. If the news had broken out massive panic would have set in at the stations because it was used by the civilians as air raid shelters. This would affect morale severely and the Government made sure it didn’t.

Source E shows a report stating that panic was seen everywhere in September 1940. This is from a secret report by the M.O.I. and we know already that the Blitz had only just started in the autumn of that year and so this source is from very early on in the Blitz therefore it could just be the population of London being scared of facing such a daunting prospect. They could have become used to the bombing and so the panic would die down. The words "madly for shelter" and "hysterical" show the panic within the East End at the time.

Source F is from Harold Nicolson's diary and as he knew several members of the Government we can assume that he was likely to be well informed. It states, "The King and Queen were booed the other day". This would be very worrying from the Governments point of view as the royal family is figureheads of Britain and to boo them shows that the people are not in support of the nation.

Source G comes from an extract from the book “Don’t you know there’s a war on?” published in 1988. It says that people would trek to the countryside at night but continue to turn up to work the next day. This shows that people were frightened of the bombing but still wanted to back to the war.

The Government was concerned about the morale of the British people in the Autumn of 1940 because they realised without the people at home there could be no war as there would be no-one to work in weapons factories or to maintain supplies also they had realised that the civilians were the ones who would be greatly affected, by bombed houses and families destroyed. They realised that if the bombing got to them now there would be no return. So the Government expected an invasion of the country and huge preparations were made for evacuation of children, expectant mothers, disabled, blind and elderly. Also massive reparations were made for shelters for example the “Anderson Shelters” and “Morrison Shelters”. After the 'phoney' war where British inhabitants expected to be bombed they had slipped into a false sense of security so they were unprepared to an extent and many children who were sent to the countryside began their journeys back home as they thought it was safe.

Study all the Sources and use your own knowledge.

The impression that the British faced the Blitz with courage and unity is a myth.

Use the sources, and your own knowledge, to explain whether you agree with this statement.

During the heavy bombing of Britain from 1940 to 1941 known as “The Blitz”, it has always been stated that the Blitz had brought people and communities together. It has also been known that British people had faced the Blitz with “Courage and Unit” is a myth. The British faced the Blitz with courage and unity as the raids made little difference to the British armament production. Many reasons such as the fact Britain was able to rebuild its army fairly quickly suggest the statement above as true. The British morale was not broken and the Government was not forced to make peace along with the fact most people could find shelter from the attacks at home, in the country side or in tube stations increased the courage and unity of the British citizens. On top of this news reports of the Blitz encouraged the USA to send assistance to Britain.

Many parts of Britain were bombed by the German Luftwaffe even some famous buildings were hit including the House of Commons, Bucking Palace and London Zoo along with Transport and utilities services were disrupted which in all leads to the horrific deaths of 43,000 civilians and nearly two million citizens left homeless. The main areas of targeting were London and Coventry who were the main industrial areas in Britain. The Blitz was aimed at destroying the British morale in an attempt to increase the struggle. The general idea is that the British people did not exactly face the Blitz with unity and courage.

Source A may be biased; although it backs up the general idea of the British determination. It depicts that ordinary people could be heroes and they didn’t have to be in uniform. It also tells us that out of the terror and tragedy came an unshakeable determination. The fact that the government had been preparing for the worst case scenario from the air raids on the British people shows a confidence, the government had organised the mass evacuation of millions of young children and a smaller proportion of their mothers. The other reason it may have seemed in the media. Not only would all news such as the destruction of Catford Girls’ school in 1943 be censored and therefore not be known to most people, but the government would stage events and photosynthesis such as the one in Source C where if any damage had happened they would seek out and find situations where people had accepted the damage and had come to terms with it. London was the first great city to be subjected to continual and heavy bombardment. The British are continually stereotyped, for their “stiff upper lip” not showing any emotion and putting on a brave face. Judging by some of the newspaper reports every little old lady dragged out some horrific situation had a merry quip on her lips “London can take it” the propagandists boasted as though a ton of high explosives was an unpleasant but bracing medicine.

Source E gives a more realistic image of the bombing raids. It states the panic stricken “people ran madly for the shelters” etc. Source E supports the above mentioned statement as it illustrates panic and confusion of the British public due to the Blitz. Source F is another source that supports the abovementioned statement as it shows that royals and symbols of their country were even becoming unpopular. Source G suggested that the British people were becoming accustomed to the Blitz. Source G does not agree with the above statement, because it illustrated people fleeing in fear and not showing “courage” as is said in the statement. It also tells us that Citizens Advice Bureau’s are swamped with mothers hysterically trying to get their children evacuated. However the majority of children were evacuated before the start of the blitz. Also during the later stages of the Blitz many Londoners stayed at home during the air raid as if nothing was happening and a quarter of a million of the half a million children that were evacuated returned to the city. This shows us that the British were not in the mass panic portrayed by this scene.

Source’s E, F and G showed that the British people’s morale had collapsed somewhat but it was only a minority to those who had high morale. The British government knew that and took steps to ensure that morale would not collapse and learned from their previous mistakes. The Censorship become more intensive but also more cunning.

Sources such as Source C show that the British people learning to live with the fact that their houses have been destroyed. This could be supported, as people were unusually friendly and co-operative towards each other in ARP rest centres. London notorious for its unfriendliness even in nation, which elevated privacy into a moral code, was composed of thousands of interlocking group. It was impossible to maintain the traditional British reserve, to cherish the much loved class distinctions of pre-war Britain under the conditions forced intimacy within the ARP rest centres for the homeless. Where in these places all different types of people met from middle class families. From these sorts of conditions we can see why after the war the less well off families.

Most of the sources suggest that morale did not break during the blitz, and even suggest that it made ordinary people more determined to support war effort. However, this evidence tends to be from official sources, which may have wanted to reassure the public. Other reports come from the media that were censored by the government. Another category of sources would be eye-witness reports from ordinary civilians. If these were produced a long time after the war, then we must take into account that their memory may not be accurate. On the other hand, reports produced at the time may also have been influenced by propaganda. Some sources do suggest that morale was damaged by the devastation caused by the Blitz. It may be the case that these are isolated opinions, or that they were just the immediate response to a particular attack. In my opinion I believe overall that majority of the British faced the Blitz with courage and unity whether they fought it by keeping alert and helping around or simply just staying at homes and living a normal life as the Blitz never existed but this in all goes down to the Government it self who promoted the British with this courage and unity through their impressive propaganda and censorship schemes.