World War 2

World War 2• In the 20th century there were two

'world wars'. Many countries were affected by the wars.• The first war lasted from 1914 to 1918.• Though it was fought mostly in Europe,

people called it the First World War (World War 1).• The Second World War (World War 2)

lasted from 1939 to 1945.• It was fought in Europe, in Russia, North

Africa and in Asia.• 60 million people died in World War 2.

About 40 million were civilians. Children as well as adults were affected by the war.

Fun fact

• In 1939 almost every man wore a hat when he went out. Most schoolboys wore caps.

Who fought in WW2?• World War 2 was fought between two groups of

countries. On one side were the Axis Powers, including Germany, Italy and Japan.

• On the other side were the Allies. They included Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, China and the United States of America

• Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Hitler wanted Germany to control Europe.

• Japan wanted to control Asia and the Pacific. In 1937 Japan attacked China.

• In 1939 Germany invaded Poland. This is how World War 2 began.

• Some countries did not join the war, but stayed neutral (on neither side). Spain, Sweden and Switzerland were neutral countries. So was Ireland, though many Irish people helped the Allies.

The war spreads• Britain and France went to war with Germany in

September 1939.They wanted to help Poland after it was invaded, but they were too late.

• Poland was occupied by the Nazis. By the summer of 1940 they had conquered Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway.

• Enemy planes dropped bombs on cities in Britain. Allied ships were sunk by submarines.

• In July 1940, German planes started bombing British coastal towns, defences and ships in the English Channel in order to gain control of the skies in the South of England. By mid-September 1940, after many battles, Germany postponed their planned land invasion of Britain as the RAF effectively fought off the German Luftwaffe. This period is known as The Battle of Britain.

• Commonwealth nations, such as Canada and Australia, helped Britain. In 1941 the Soviet Union (Russia) was attacked by Germany. In 1941 America also joined the war, after Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Use the timeline to find the important events and battles of the war.

How did the war end?

• By 1943 the Allies were winning. One reason was that Allied factories were building thousands of tanks, ships and planes. In 1944, a huge Allied army crossed from Britain to liberate (free) France. Then Allied armies invaded Germany.

• By May 1945 the war in Europe was over.• The Pacific war went on until August 1945.

There was fierce fighting on Pacific islands and big naval battles at sea.

• Finally, the Allies dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The damage was so terrible that Japan surrendered. World War 2 had ended.

The Holocaust• In 1945 Allied troops freed prisoners

from Nazi concentration camps. In these camps, millions of Jews and other prisoners had been killed or had died from hunger, disease and cruelty.• This terrible war crime became known

as the Holocaust. It's thought 6 million Jews were killed. Among the victims were many children. One young girl left a diary of her life in hiding, before she was captured. Her name was Anne Frank . She died, aged 15, in 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen prison camp.

Evacuation• People expected cities to be bombed, as

enemy planes tried to destroy factories. But bombs would hit homes and schools too, so children would be in danger.

• The government tried at the start of the war to 'empty the cities' of children and mothers, This was 'evacuation', to protect them from air raids.

• The plan was put into action in September 1939. About 800,000 children left their homes. However, many returned home after a few weeks. Others stayed in the countryside for the rest of the war.

Where did they go?• Children were sent from cities to places

where there was less risk of air raids. Many London children went to Devon, Cornwall and Wales. Other children moved to villages in the North, East Anglia and Scotland.

• Evacuees went to live with host families. Their new homes were called 'billets'. 'Billeting officers' arranged for people to look after the children.

• Things did not always go to plan. Some children ended up in the wrong places. Sometimes evacuees just stood in a line, and local people picked which children to take.

• A smaller number of children (perhaps 10,000) went to other countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.

Life for Evacuees• Though evacuees missed their homes,

many enjoyed the country.• Country life was full of surprises. Some

city children had never seen a cow, and were startled to see where milk came from. Seeing carrots growing in muddy fields, one child said in disgust 'ours come in tins'.• Locals and evacuees went to school and

played together. Most became friends, though local children sometimes said it was unfair when the 'townies' were given sweets and parties!

Fun fact

• Evacuee Norma Reeve from London stayed in a grand country house. The butler served her meals at table.

The wartime kitchen• In some kitchens people cooked on a 'stove'

heated by a coal or wood fire. The stove heated the room and cooked meals. Most kitchens had a gas cooker though some had electric cookers.

• Not many people had a refrigerator. People went shopping to buy fresh food most days. To keep flies away from meat, they kept meat in a small cupboard called a 'meat safe'. They kept bread in a bread bin and biscuits in tins. Families ate some tinned foods, such as tinned meat, peas and baked beans, but hardly any frozen foods.

• You could only buy fresh fruit grown in Britain, such as apples or pears. Fruits that had to come in ships, like bananas, vanished from the shops. Many ships were being sunk by enemy submarines, and precious ship-space was needed for war materials (such as oil or guns) not bananas.

The radio• Almost every home had a radio or 'wireless'.• Most radios came in a case made of Bakelite, a

kind of plastic.• In Britain, all the programmes came from the

BBC. People listened to the radio news, and read newspapers, to find out what was happening in the war.

• The BBC also broadcast war news in foreign languages. People in France and other occupied countries listened in secret, because the Nazis punished anyone caught listening to the BBC.

• Radio was not all news. There were comedy shows, talks and plays, and sports broadcasts. Lively music on the radio helped weary factory workers keep working!

Letters

• Not every home had a phone (and there were no mobile phones). Pay-phones in red 'telephone boxes' did not always work after air raids, because of bombs. To keep in touch, people wrote letters. Evacuees wrote postcards and letters home. Men and women in the Forces wrote home too

• The sight of a messenger hurrying to a door with a telegram made people feel anxious. Telegrams often brought sad news - that someone had been killed in an air raid or in a battle.

Friends and Neighbours• With many parents away or at work,

children were often left to look after themselves.

• They played in fields or in the street. Street games were safer than they would be today, because there were so few cars.

• Children helped clear up after air raids. They ran errands to the 'corner shop'.

• Older children looked after younger ones. Often neighbours and grandparents helped too.

• Many families were 'bombed out' (their homes were damaged by bombs). When this happened, neighbours offered food and beds, and lent clothes or furniture

Britain in 1939• At school, children learned about the

British Empire, now the Commonwealth.• But in 1939 few British children had ever

travelled outside Britain. If they had a holiday, most went to the seaside or the country.

• In a typical family, dad worked while mum looked after the home. Most young people left school at 14, and started work.

• Not many people had cars. Most people travelled by bus, train or bike, or walked. Television started in 1936, but very few people had a TV set. Instead families listened to the radio or 'wireless'.

Children at war• Thousands of children left home for

the first time as evacuees.• School lessons and exams went on

more or less as usual, though children also learned 'air raid drill' and how to put on a gas mask. At night, many children slept in air raid shelters.

• There were fewer toys for Christmas or birthdays, and not many sweets either.

• Many seaside beaches were closed. However, children found new playgrounds on 'bombsites' - waste ground where buildings had been flattened by bombs.

Change• Many families were split up. Fathers, uncles

and brothers left home to join the Forces (army, navy or air force). People travelled more, to do war work and to fight overseas.

• Mothers and older sisters went to work in factories.

• There was rationing of food, clothes and other goods.

• Air raids made it hard to get a good night's sleep. Bomb damage often meant no gas or electricity.

• Train and bus journeys took longer. Going to school or work often meant walking over bricks and broken glass in the streets. At night, the blackout made towns and cities dark.

Fun fact

• Milk, meat and groceries were often delivered - by bike, by van or by horse and cart.

Civilians• The government expected civilians to face

air attacks from enemy planes. So air raid shelters were built.

• Plans were made to evacuate women and children to the countryside.

• Gas masks were given out, to protect people from poison gas. Fortunately, poison gas bombs were not dropped on Britain.

• During World War 2 more than 60,000 people in Britain were killed in bombing raids. Houses, factories and schools were destroyed. Many people lost homes and possessions. However, people were thankful that Britain was not occupied like other countries - such as France, Norway, China and the Philippines.

Air Raids• An air raid was an attack by enemy

planes dropping bombs. Warning of enemy planes was given by sirens. When people heard the sirens' wailing sound, they went into air raid shelters.

• Big bombs exploded with a loud bang and blew buildings apart. Small bombs called 'incendiaries' started fires.

• Firefighters worked bravely to put out the flames. Rescue teams pulled people from fallen buildings. Ambulances took the injured to hospital. When the planes had gone, the sirens sounded the 'All Clear'.

The Blitz• Air raids on London began in September

1940. This was the start of the Blitz.• Lots of other places were bombed,

including industrial cities and ports such as Birmingham, Coventry, Southampton, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull and Glasgow.

• There were air raids on seaside towns, such as Eastbourne, and on cathedral cities such as Canterbury.

• n 1944, Britain faced attacks from new weapons. First came the V-1, a robot 'flying bomb'. Then there was the V-2, a rocket which flew so fast no-one could see or hear it coming. London was the main target for V-1 and V-2 attacks.

Where did people shelter?• Many people had their own air raid shelter.

Called an Anderson Shelter, it could be built in a small garden. It was made of steel panels. The panels were 'corrugated' (made wavy), which made the shelter strong, especially with soil spread over the top. There was an entrance at one end. Inside was a bench-seat, which could become a bed at night.

• Public shelters were made of brick and concrete. No-one liked them much. They were dark, smelly and not as strong as they looked. In London, more than 150,000 people went into Underground stations every night for shelter. They slept on the platforms.

The home shelter• To put up an Anderson shelter, you had

to have a garden. From 1941, • People could have an indoor shelter,

called a Morrison shelter. It looked like a steel table with wire mesh around the sides.• You could play table tennis on top, and

crawl inside to play. People slept inside too, though it was a bit squashed and you felt like monkeys in a cage!• The Morrison shelter was very strong.

People inside were usually safe even if the ceiling of the room fell down on top of them

Civil defence• Civil Defence was like a civilian army of volunteers.

'Observers' watched for enemy planes, and sounded the air raid alarm with sirens. Fire-watchers on high buildings looked for fire-bombs. They put out small fires using stirrup pumps and buckets of sand.

• Air Raid Precautions (ARP) wardens hurried along the streets, checking the blackout. It was important not to show lights at night, in case enemy planes used the lights as guides to their targets.

• ARP wardens organized rescue efforts. It was very dangerous for firefighters, ambulance crews and rescuers, with bombs, fires and buildings collapsing. Sometimes after a raid, unexploded bombs lay around, and had to be made safe.

• After an air raid, everyone was tired. Rescuers and helpers were glad of a cup of tea made in mobile canteens by the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS).

Fun fact

• The Disney films Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) became children's favourites.

Homes in the 1940’s• Many children in the 1940s lived in small

houses or flats. In towns, many people lived in small terraced houses.

• There were blocks of flats too, though not as tall as the 'tower blocks' built after the war.

• A typical family house had a sitting room and kitchen, with two or three bedrooms upstairs. Not all houses had bathrooms or indoor toilets.

• Many houses had windows stuck over with paper tape. In an air raid, the blast-force of a bomb exploding could shatter windows along a street. Tape across the windows stopped the glass shattering into thousands of pieces, and causing injuries.

The sitting room• In many homes, people sat to relax in the

sitting room (also called the lounge, parlour or simply the 'front room'). Here they would read, listen to the radio or chat. They ate meals in the kitchen, or the dining room if there was one. The sitting room was often the 'best room', kept for visitors.

• In most homes a coal fire warmed the sitting room. There were gas and electric fires too, but few homes had central heating. In cold weather, people sat around the fire.

• It was a good idea to keep a candle in every room. During air raids, bombs often hit power cables and gas pipes. Then people were left in the dark, without electricity or gas to light their homes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhdxmKcmVzw

The Blackout• Some homes had gas lamps, but by the

1940s gas lights were a bit old fashioned. Many homes had electric light.

• Every window had 'blackout curtains', which were drawn at night. If not, the ARP warden came along, shouting 'put that light out'.

• Blackout curtains' stopped light from rooms showing from outside. There were no street lights either. The idea was to stop lights from towns guiding enemy planes to drop bombs.

• Coal fires kept people warm in winter. Coal was a very important fuel. It kept people warm. More important, it kept factories and trains working.

Children’s rooms• In families, children often shared

bedrooms. In bed, they snuggled down under blankets and eiderdowns - very few people used duvets. Some bedrooms had a jug and basin for washing your face and hands in the morning. Not every home had a bathroom. Children kept books and toys in their bedrooms, but there were no TVs, and no computer games of course.

• Some homes had only an outside toilet, and in many homes it was chilly going to the bathroom at night. So small children often used a 'chamber pot' (potty). The pot was made of china and was kept out of sight under the bed.

Baths and toilets• Not every 1940s home had a bathroom.

Many poor families washed in the kitchen, and had baths in front of the fire. The metal bath was filled with hot water from pans and kettles. In bathrooms, hot water often came from a gas heater.

• The wartime ration for a bath was 5 inches (12.5 cm) of water once a week. The idea was to save water. In some families, it meant several people used the same bathwater, one after the other!

• Not all homes had an inside toilet. You used an outside toilet in the backyard or garden. To avoid a chilly walk in the night, you could use a pot kept under the bed.

Doing the washing

• Washday meant hand washing or boiling dirty towels and sheets in a 'copper' or 'boiler'. This was a metal tank filled with water heated by gas. Few people had washing machines. A washboard made scrubbing easier.

• After rinsing (in clean water), wet clothes were squeezed through a 'mangle'. The mangle had two rollers, turned by a handle. As you turned the handle, the rollers squeezed water out of the wet washing. The clothes were then hung on a line over the fire or outside to dry. They were 'aired' on a fold-up wooden 'clothes horse'.

Fun fact

• In January 1946 the first shipload of bananas after the war landed in Britain.

Wartime shopping• There were no supermarkets. You went

to different shops for different items. For fruit and vegetables, you went to the greengrocer. For meat, to the butcher. For fish, to the fishmonger. For bread and cakes, to the baker. For groceries such as jam, tea, biscuits and cheese you went to the grocer. Other shops sold clothes, shoes, medicines, newspapers and all the other things people needed to buy.• In most shops, the shopkeeper or shop

assistants served customers from behind a counter. Many shops were small family businesses. Most big towns had department stores.

Rationing• Food rationing began in 1940. This meant

each person could buy only a fixed amount of certain foods each week.

• Much of Britain's food came from other countries in ships. Enemy submarines sank so many ships that there was a shortage of some foods.

• Rationing made sure everyone got a fair share. You had to hand over coupons from your ration book, as well as money, when you went shopping.

• When you had used up your ration of one food (say, cheese or meat), you could not buy any more that week. Vegetarians could swap meat coupons for other foods.

What could people buy?• People had to register with local shops to

use their ration books. Often long queues formed as soon as people heard that shops had more supplies.

• The first foods rationed were bacon, sugar, tea, butter and meat. Lots more foods were rationed later, including sweets! One egg a week was the ration in 1941.

• There were no bananas, so younger children did not see their first banana until the war ended.

• Clothes were rationed too, so clothing factories could switch to war work. Paper, petrol and other things, such as soap (one bar a month) and washing powder, were also rationed.

Grow your own food• Many people grew vegetables at home

or on allotments. Children helped 'Dig for Victory' by digging, planting and weeding. Some children worked on farms picking potatoes and fruit.• Some families kept chickens, ducks and

rabbits (to eat). People started 'Pig Clubs', collecting food leftovers in pig bins to feed the pigs.• There were plenty of potatoes and

carrots, and lots of suggestions for new ways to cook them! 'Potato Pete' and 'Doctor Carrot' advertised these foods, to encourage people to eat more of them.

Fun fact

• No icing on birthday cakes, after the government said no more icing sugar (1942).

The war effort

• Everyone was asked to help win the war, by making extra efforts and working harder on the 'home front'. Children saved pennies, collected scrap metal and food waste, and knitted woolly hats for soldiers and refugees. BBC Children's Hour ran a scrap-collecting competition. The winners collected 9 tons of scrap.

• With so many men away in the Forces, millions of women worked in factories, on buses and trains, and in hospitals and schools. Around 80,000 women joined the Women's Land Army to work on farms. By 1942, 400,000 British women were serving in the army, navy and air force. Women pilots flew planes from factories to RAF bases.

Posters and propaganda• Posters showed people how to put on

a gas mask, how to plant vegetables, and how to collect scrap metal. A government information campaign told people what to do - and what not to do. 'Don'ts' included: don't burn too much coal on the fire, don't take a bus when you could walk, and don't gossip about work, because 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'. A spy might be listening!

• Posters, radio, films and newspapers were used to keep up people's spirits, make the most of victories and make fun of the enemy. This was propaganda. Governments controlled what was written in newspapers and said on the radio. This was censorship.

Planes• Scrap metal such as old cooking pans

could be melted down and used again. Children with push-carts and old prams collected scrap metal from people's homes. They hoped old pots and pans would soon roar into the sky as a Spitfire plane!• Iron railings from parks and gardens

were also melted down. In places, you may still see stumps of metal on old walls where railings were cut off. Paper, glass bottles, tins and silver wrapping paper were all 'salvaged' (saved) to be recycled.

Make do

• This wartime slogan encouraged people not to waste anything. With clothes rationed, it was a good idea to reuse old clothes or make new ones yourself. Sewing classes and leaflets showed people how to make coats from blankets, or baby clothes from old pillowcases. A tip for making shoes last longer was to paint the soles with varnish.

• If a chair broke, you mended it. If your sock had a hole, you got a needle and wool to 'darn' (repair) it. Clothes rationing lasted from 1941 until 1949.

Oversea help• Wartime Britain was one huge military

base, full of soldiers from many countries. There were Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Africans, Indians and West Indians. There were also people from occupied countries: French, Poles, Czechs, Norwegians and others. City streets were crowded with people in military uniforms. There were overseas civilian workers too, in factories.• American planes flew from British

airfields. The American airmen arranged children's parties, and many children got to like chewing gum and American 'candy' (sweets).

Fun fact

• More than 2 million soldiers of the Indian Army served in World War 2