Source B is a picture taken at the time of the blitz dated 21 January 1943, catford girls school was hit and children were killed. I can infer that many other buildings were destroyed. This shows 3 ARP wardens showing bravery by picking up dead bodies of young children in a bombed area. I can infer that the government didn’t deal well with the evacuation of children. APR wardens (air-raid-precautions) risked their lives to save others by getting people out of the ruins this shows a lot of courage. Most of them were volunteers, doing this work on top of their regular. The British government didn’t publish this photograph because it would put the morale of the British people down. This showed the government would only show a positive side of the Blitz for propaganda. This tells me that the government wanted to put the British people morale up so there would be no panic in Britain. However, despite the negative images this source does show some courage and unity.
One method of keeping the morale high to show people courage and determination was propaganda. This was where the government used radio to keep the nation informed as much as possible but only informs the nation of the positive stories of the war. Cinema also played a very important role in propaganda to keep the morale high by showing films of ordinary people working together to defeat the enemy. BBC did a great job to keep the nation spirits up. Its news reports were thought to be honest and fair, so the people trusted what they heard. Churchill also helps raise spirits, his speeches were often passionate and they were just what people needed to boost their morale. This tells me that the British people got help through propaganda to face the blitz courage and unity. Perhaps if propaganda and censorship hadn’t been used the British would not have been brave and courageous.
Source C is a photograph showing tenants of wrecked houses done by German planes on 15 September 1940 in London. This photograph is also useful it tells us at this time other buildings were destroyed in parts of London. The people in the photograph look happy and united instead of looking upset and angry after their homes have been wrecked. At this time of the war 10,000 people were killed and over 1.5 million houses damaged or destroyed from the bombing of German planes, leaving thousands of people homeless. This source disagrees with the statement because it was used to show British people courage and determination during the time of the blitz. Although many people were homeless the government wanted civilians to carry on working to help the war effort and keep the morale high. This source possibly could have been used for propaganda to show the other British citizens that had their houses wrecked to be more courageous and unified as the people in this source look.
Source D is a photograph taken on 15 November 1940, the same year as source C was published. This was the year many buildings were bombed and the government called for civil defence that planned to defend the country from possible air attack and invasion. One aspect of civil defence was the black out regulation that would confuses the German aircraft because people would have their lights off at night. This source was censored as was source B for the same reason, which was to keep the morale up. This photograph was not published until February 1941. This source is similar to source C as the purpose of both photographs was to show British people courage and determination.
Source G is a book ‘ Don’ You Know There’s a War’ this book is to tell people about the blitz, which would be useful in understanding the statement. This source tells us people in Britain in 1940 were not panicking but instead carried on with their lives. Even though there was a lot of bombing in east end people were continuing to turn up for work. I can infer that this was important for the government because this shows people were supporting the war effort by building armoury. The government was concerned If no one turned up for work they would lose the war this shows how important to keep the morale of the British citizens high was important for the war effort. This source also tells me most of the sources are coming from the east end. I can infer that east end was the most bombed place along with Coventry. In other towns the reactions would have been different from the east end and Coventry. They may have been more brave and courageous and unified.
However source E agrees with the statement because it’s from a secret report to the government by the ‘Ministry of Information on 10 September 1940’ the time was looking bad for Britain. This is very useful because this report is going to the government and the ‘Ministry of Information’ is very unlikely to lie to the British government. This source tells us people ran madly for shelters and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau had been swamped with mothers and young children. This shows how people were running like cowards by evacuating the city and that the government was loosing control. The British people learned what damage the German airplanes could do when the Spanish town of Guernica was bombed heavily in 1934. This worried the British citizens perhaps because of this fear they were not brave and unified.
Many of these sources are from early in the Blitz and are linked to the phoney war because this started happening before the blitz had began. During that time the British citizens assumed they would get bombed in days but didn’t so they carried on with their normal lives. This was known as the ‘phoney war’ that was when war was declared people in the next eight months were not worried a lot of invasion. There was hardly no fighting or bombs or an invasion when Germany invaded Poland. British people therefore thought, was war happening or not so they just started their lives normally.
Source F is a diary from Harold Nicolson who knew several members of the government. This suggested that Nicolson might have written in his diary what other members of the government felt about the blitz. This source also agrees with the statement. It tells us why the government was concerned about the morale of the British people because Harold says in his diary ‘everyone was concerned’ in the ‘East End of London’. Also Nicolson tells us the ‘King and the Queen were booed’ this suggests they were getting blamed as many people became homeless while the king and queen were safe in their palace. I can infer that things must be really bad in autumn 1940 in the East end because the King and Queen are the last two people they would be expected to boo. I can also infer that the government at this time might not be liked or trusted either. However, this source refers to the East End. One of the worst hit areas and so may not give a full picture.
I have come to the conclusion that the British people had faced the blitz with courage and unity but with some help from the government by using propaganda. This was the main weapon for the government to keep the morale high so that people showed courage and determination in the blitz. However the British’s people did panic once war broke out as sources E and F support this by telling us people were worried and were fleeing London.
