Study sources E, F and G use 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?

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Waqas Nasir 11E

Study sources E, F and G use 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?

In this question I am asked to examine why the government was concerned about the morale of the British people in the autumn of 1940 by using sources E, F and G and my own knowledge.

The situation in 1940 was looking bad for Britain because France had pulled out of the war and now Britain were fighting Germany on their own. German forces had now invaded Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Hitler’s next aim was to invade Britain he called this the Blitz. The Blitz main aims were to break the morale of the British people and destroying their homes, transport and the industry. the Blitz specifically was to lower the morale. It is no surprise that the government was worried. The British at this time had troops in France fighting against the Germans but were pushed back onto the beaches at Dunkirk. To rescue the troops small boats set off from Britain to help the royal navy. Normal British citizens contributing to help the war effort owned these small boats this showed how high the morale of the British people was. However the British had lost 68,000 men, left behind 120,000 vehicle, 90,000 rifles and 2,300 guns. These showed how bad things were looking for Britain in fact the British government was already using propaganda to keep the morale high of the British citizens. So in the autumn of 1940 it is very understandable that the government should be concerned by the morale of the British citizens.

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Source is E is from a secret report to the government by the ‘ministry of information on 10 September the 1940’ the time when conditions in Britain were looking at their worst. This is very useful because this report is going to the government and the ‘ministry of information’ is very unlikely to lie to there own government. This source tells us people ran madly for shelters and the citizen’s advice bureau had been swamped with mothers and young children. Also taxis drivers report taking group after to Euston and Paddington with their belongings. This shows how people ...

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