1.
During the blitz everyday life in Britain was affected dramatically due to many things, Blackouts were a major part of this disruption as lights were out, streetlights were off, car lights were dimmed and nothing could be seen. With no lights nobody or thing could be seen under the cover of darkness. This caused many accidents and deaths for motorists. One town in Northumberland was bombed when a German bomber caught sight of some lights from a bus at the end of its route.Nearly 1,500 people had been killed on the roads by December 1939.
After the government saw that people were being injured because there was no light, they finally allowed cars to use dimmed headlights and civilians could also use dimmed torches to find their way around. Also to assist the pedestrians and drivers, the causeways, kerbs and roadsides were painted black and white so that they were easier to see with dimmed lights. People would trek out into the countryside to avoid the chance of being hit by an air raid, as most air raids were carried out at night people thought that it would be best if they would go out into the countryside and then return back to work and civilisation the next morning.The people in which didn't trek out into the countryside would have stayed in either air raid shelters or they would have cramped themselves into the railway station, as this place was underground away from the raids and was also a place to commute.
The raid shelters had two main different types; they were Anderson and Morrison shelters. These two shelters were made from 2 sheets of corrugated steel, these bowed in the middle and were fixed together with high density bolts, the main structure of the building was dug 2 metres into the ground and this allowed head room for most sheltered victims. Then it was covered in a 40cm thickness of mud and soil, this would help disguise the shelter and decrease the chance of being hit. Nearly 500,000 of these shelters had been distributed by the end of the year and only a few Londoners decided to stay in the railway stations.With people trekking from place to place evacuation was a problem.
The evacuation plans meant that the younger school children would be evacuated out of London to prevent any more deaths while the elders were on the front line fighting for the country. The children were taken away from London to other places with a high population density. There was also a lot of resistance when it came to evacuation. Many parents didn't want to let their children go and preferred to take the chance of keeping them there, as they feared that they would never see their children again.It wasn't only actions that were carried out but harsh words were spoken and with all allied countries in fear of Hitler the authorities got issued with thousands of tents that would act as temporary homes for the victims of air raids.
People waited for months but nothing happened. It was all a hoax, and nothing came from the words spoken by the communist leader Adolf Hiter. This period, which was originally called the 'Bore War', has become known as the Phoney War.During 1941 and continuing into 1942 the German V1, also known as the "doodlebugs" or "duzz bombs" gave England 76 continuous nights of bombing, this destruction caused major worry on the publics mind, and it wasn't only industrial towns in which was hit, but 7 other major towns were hit, Coventry, Hull, Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham were all hit, leaving over 2,000 civilians dead.
The v2 bomber didn't come into use until later on in September 8, 1944 but this weapon would cause the same damage as the v1 but it could travel up to nearly 5,000km per hour and at a height of about 95 kilometres.Because of their speed, there wasn't much warning of their arrival. Fortunately, they weren't very accurate. Around 500 landed on London, almost 3,000 people were killed and almost 6,000 were injured.
The v2`s were very fortunate if they hit their target as due to their speed they generally hit around 0.5 kilometres away from their target. About 10,500 V1's were launched at Britain and at least the British fleets and army bases had destroyed 4,000 of these.Once again conscription was introduced and as there was so few men left in the industries the role was placed upon the shoulders of women. It was now the duty of the woman to take up work in factories and this role was vital as without women no laboured jobs could be completed.
It wasn't just conscription that had been re-introduced, but rationing had also been brought back and if a person was caught wasting any resources they would be fined a fee. This fee would have been raised due to how much food or materials was wasted. It wasn't only food that was rationed but petrol, oil, clothing and even boots were rationed. With limited supplies people were extremely worried about where their next meal was going to come from, this caused major riots and chaos in the streets. People had to walk instead of drive to work, as no petrol meant no cars and no cars meant no lights and no lights meant a reduced risk of being hit by air raids, so rationing in way did help the British public.2.
During the war the media played a vital role on the home front, its main issue was to inform, educate and entertain. The media informed people by using cartoon figures, comedies and many other ways, the "squander bug" was a cartoon figure in which tried to stop people wasting food and resources, many other cartoon figures were drawn up as well to imply other messages and other scenarios, the worlds most famous scenario is the:"Care less talk costs lives"This literally meant that no matter where you are there maybe a spy behind your back, this was used in all areas of the country but in fact there was few spies but a lot of paranoid people.The "dig for victory" campaign also informed people on how they should use their private land, the government would tell people that no matter how much land they owned they should dig it all up and they should plant vegetables, then these vegetables would be sent to the army in order to help them maintain their diet and keep healthy.The media also used a lot of propaganda to enhance the fact that the "dig for victory" is more important than a lot of other campaigns that are running as well.
It wasn't just campaigns in which were using propaganda it was also the ministry of information, they were not only using the papers as a way of showing the news but they were using the papers as a way of exploiting the German bombardment of bombs and only showing devastated areas, this would only show the public of damaged areas of cites and wouldn't show them how little the Germans had done to other areas, this would help the government as people would get more angry at the Germans and this would help to encourage the war and the governments actions would then be supported and not rebelled against. The ministry of information had to be careful of what they printed, as they didn't want the public to see horrific views, as there were no pictures published of the looting in Coventry, the deaths of children at Catford School nor the 173 deaths when people pushed into the Bethnal Green tube station.The radio and cinema also proved vital to help the war keep going, as the radio also helped propaganda, it wasn't only the British that used this tactic but Hitler and Germany also used it. . The Germans also used propaganda. The broadcasting of Radio Hamburg had been able to be picked up in Britain and so the British could hear the latest news from over seas and hear what they were commenting and intending to do.
The radio helped to entertain the nation with such programs like 'Its That Man Again' this made fun out of Hitler, the Germans and the British armies, this was used to enhance morale on both sides as both enemies knew that if morale dropped so would the war. It wasn't only radio in which helped boost morale by using comedy but the Cinema also proved helpful as nearly 1.5 billion cinema tickets were sold in Britain in 1945.These films proved vital, as before, during and after the films it was all about the war, conscription and it showed a great deal of propaganda. The previews before the films were all about Hitler and how he was disobeying the Treaty of Versailles and how well the British armies were doing in the war.3.
In the years from 1939-1950 agriculture had changed dramatically as the "Women's Land Army" was created. This was created so that women can help their families who are in the war by helping on farms, crop plantations and also on one of the many newly established pig farms. These pig's farms were built to help stop the wasting of food and resources. These pigs were helpful as pigs can eat waste food and they then provide us with fresh new meat, this meat was full of protein and all the dietary needs for a soldier of the British army.
These pig farms grew in numbers, from 815,00 in 1940 to an astonishing 1,400,000 in 1947.As the majority of food was rationed apart from bread and potatoes the majority of the population was mainly under the act of malnutrition, people soon turned to other sources of food, these included Cod liver tablets, orange juice and blackcurrant extracts also proved popular.The farms in which was built before the war was soon joined by many more upcoming farms and these farms specialised in certain aspects of food groups, for example...
. Essex grew 49% of the vegetables grown in 1945.The industrial business also changed throughout these years as after the nightly air raids by the buzz bombs, the housing business had seen a "boom" in priority jobs as thousands of houses were bomb, they soon had to be erected again and this was the job of the building services. In 1946 there was a new housing policy passed in which insured that all bombed victims would have a guaranteed house to live in whilst their new one was being built and erected. This boom of housing industry was short lived and didn't hold out for long and because the Germans had caused much of the damage in the air, the British also wanted to have the same affect.The British government soon assigned Rolls Royce to start building aircrafts to cope with the demand and this helped to show how much strain the civilians were under from the air by the Germans.
The boat builders had a sudden boom as well, the government wanted more boats built for the war so that they could also fight at sea like in world war 1 but this was only for a short while though as it soon fell again when the war was over and not many people wanted them anymore but only for cruising in and taking on voyages across the 7 seas.
