How did the War change life in Britain

1
How did the War change life in Britain?
2
Lesson overview
3
Recruitment

• Conscription (from 3 September 1939)
• All men, aged 18-41
• Essential workers exempt (e.g. emergency
  services)
• May 1940, Local Defence Regiment (LDV) set up,
  men aged 16-65

Men of the Southern Railway LDV
4
Do you think people would be more willing to sign
up during WWII than today?
5
Role of women

• 1941, all unmarried women, 19-30 conscripted into
  Womens Land Army (WLA) or factories
• By 1943 women 57 of UK workforce
• Men paid better for same jobs

At the Shorts factory, Rochester women received
2 3s a week while men 3 4s for the same work
6

• Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)
• Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)
• Womens Royal Naval Service (WRNS)
• By 1944, 450,000 women in armed services

7
Cabaret act put on for pilots at Biggin Hill,
c.1940

• Greater sexual freedom
• Equal Pay Commission, 1943 to investigate pay for
  women
• By 1944 1450 nurseries (compared to 104 before
  war)

8
? Your task

• Read the commentary and sources on pp.168-9 and
  answer questions 2-4
• Extension task. Write a short radio advertisement
  highlighting the advantages for women of helping
  with the war effort. Think about the different
  jobs women could do, the skills they could
  acquire and how they would be helping King and
  Country.

9
Evacuation

• Increased likelihood of aerial bombing
• 1st evacuation announced 31 August 1939
• Children moved from major cities with teachers
• Parents reluctant

London evacuees on a farm outside Canterbury,
summer 1940
10
Why had many children returned to their parents
by December 1939?
11

• Poorly organised
• Evacuees unused to life in countryside
• Social differences
• Hygiene
• Lack of financial support for hosts

Sittingbourne Country School, April 1941,
evacuated to South Wales
12
Why do you think some children coped better than
others?
13
? Your task

• Look at the photos on p.154-5 and discuss Qs2-4.
• Read the commentary and sources on pp.155-7 and
  answer Qs 1-5.
• Extension task. Imagine you are an evacuee. You
  have been with your family for a few days now. In
  a letter to your parents back in London, describe
  what it was like when you arrived and how you are
  adapting to your new home.

14
Rationing

• 1939 Britain grew enough food to feed 1 in 3
• Rationing introduced January 1940
• Board of Trade issued recipes

15
What sorts of food would be rationed first?
16

• Window boxes, lawns, parks golf courses
• Moat of Tower of London became allotments
• Families kept hens rabbits
• Pig clubs
• Clothing rations from 1941
• Dig for victory

17

• Metal collection pans, park railings
• Fund raising War Bonds, Spitfire Funds
• Black market

Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft
production famously said give us your spare pots
and pans and we will turn them into Spitfires and
Hurricanes. Collecting depot, Canterbury.
18
How did clothing rationing effect the way people
dressed?
19
? Your task

• You are a housewife who is a war worker. You have
  kept a diary during the first three years of the
  War. Write down six entries from 1939-41.
• Extension task. Design a poster persuading people
  how important rationing is.

20
Blitz
Who would have worn this gas mask?

• Gas masks
• Air Raid Precaution (ARP)
• Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS)
• Air raid shelters Anderson (1939) Morrison
  (1941)
• Blackout

Anderson shelter
21
How effective do you think the air raid shelters
would have been?
22
Junkers bomber, St Andrews Close, Maidstone

• 25 August 1940 British bombers began attacking
  civilian targets
• 7 September 2 November London bombed nightly
• London Zoo, HoC Buckingham Palace
• George VI Elizabeth visited victims
  especially East End

Bomb crater, Bearsted Village Green
23
If you were PM during the War, would you allow
the royal family to visit victims of the Blitz?
24

• Portsmouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester
  Birmingham
• 14 November 1940 Coventry
• Baedeker Raids
• V-1 (Doodlebug) V-2 rockets

25
If you were commander of the Luftwaffe, which
would you target first industrial or historic
sites?
26

• Blitz spirit
• London Underground
• Business as usual
• Coventry factories returned to production within
  2 days
• Artists, e.g. Henry Moore

This bus drivers house in Bexley Heath was
bombed just before he went on duty.
27
? Your task

• Read p. 152 and answer Qs 1-3.
• Read p.166-7 and do Activities 1 2 and answer
  Qs1-2.
• Extension task. Write a short radio advertisement
  setting out the precautions people need to be as
  safe as possible during the Blitz.

28
Propaganda censorship

• Ministry of Information
• Mass Observation
• Poster recruitment campaigns
• Public information

29

• Newspaper censorship
• Focus on heroism spirit of the Blitz
• 1941, Daily Worker banned after claiming war
  fought for benefit of businesses

30
(No Transcript)