2. Fear of Invasion at Home.
• The British citizens at home were in constant fear of the
Germans.
• They were afraid of the Nazis invading Britain.
• After Britain was pushed back after Dunkirk.
• Some people saw it as a victory.
• Others thought of it as a defeat.
• The media was making it out as a victory to keep morale up.
• Even though they were in fear, they went on with their daily
lives like nothing happened.
• The children lived in fear of their new families they would be
evacuated to.
3. The role of women at home.
• Women were expected to take over the jobs that men would
do.
• Some women were recruited into the WRENS (Women's
Royal Naval Service) which was the Women’s branch of the
Royal Navy.
• WRENS included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar
plotters, electricians and air mechanics.
• Women were also sent to work in factories to help make
resources for the war.
• Women were part of the WLA (Women’s Land Army), which
worked in agriculture.
4. Government Control
• The Government needed to control civilian life in WW2
because they needed to keep everything under control and
make sure nothing bad broke out.
• They would do such things as putting up propaganda posters
around the cities about the children being OK in the
countryside and not to worry.
• They introduced Rationing to keep control of the food
supplies in the war because of the Germans taking down
Britain’s supply lines to try and starve them out.
• The government would work with various film companies to
create movies to assure people that they were winning.
5. Pearl Harbour
• It happened on December 7th, 1941 in Hawaii.
• It was a surprise attack conducted by the Japanese Navy
against the US Naval Base, Pearl Harbour.
• The attack was intended to stop the US Pacific Fleet from
interfering with Japan’s attacks against the UK, Netherlands
and the US.
• This led directly to the American’s entry into World War 2.
• Afterwards the Americans supported Britain with their
resources.
• This attack was valuable to the Allies because it gained them a
powerful ally.
7. Stalingrad
• This was when Nazi Germany and her allies attacked the
Soviet Union for control of Stalingrad (Now called Volgograd).
• The battle started on 23rd August 1942 and ended on 2nd
February 1943.
• It is one of the most bloodiest battles in history with over 2
million casualties combined.
• This battle was a turning point in the war because of
Germany’s heavy losses and they were never able to recover
those resources back and it caused the Soviet Union to join
the Allies.
• It was a decisive Soviet victory, and this was a valuable victory
for the Allies because Nazi Germany had lost a lot of resources
Constant Fear:The British were always afraid of the Germans because of the British Army being pushed back. After this the Germans were at the throats of the British, and this is what instilled much fear into their hearts. Although when they caught word of Hitler attacking other countries, Russia and America, because this meant that Hitler was backing off the British and focusing on others.Dunkirk:Dunkirk is a beach in France where a battle took place between the Allies and Germany. The Battle of Dunkirk was a defence, to keep the germans back while Allied forces were evacuated from France to Britain. The Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk because they were afraid of the Allies breaking through, the army halted for 3 days and this allowed the Allies to make a defensive line. In the end over 330,000 troops were rescued.Some people saw it as a victory:Some people thought of it as a victory because of the amount of troops that were saved and evacuated. And also because of how long they managed to hold out for. Thinking about it this way also kept the morale up.Others thought of it as a defeat:Most people obviously thought of it as a defeat because of the army being pushed back by the Germans. And because of the amount of equipment and men they lost. This meant a decrease in morale because of lost friends and the thought of being defeated by Nazis.Morale:Morale is the word to describe one person’s belief and faith that they can achieve a goal. In this case the goal was to win and get everyone out. Therefore morale was decreased because of the obvious defeat given by the Nazis. People’s ability and skill is affected by this as they can begin to feel fear if they think that they cannot achieve the goal.Daily Lives:People’s daily lives consisted of waking up in the morning, going down to the market and using their ration books to buy certain things. Sometimes people would awake to find that their next door neighbour’s house was now just a pile of rubble. But despite this they still went along with their normal lives.New Families:The new families that children would go to would either be very nice and welcome them with open arms or be extremely abusive and not care at all about the children. The children didn’t know about these families so they would naturally be quite nervous. The children’s lives were affected by this even if they had a good family or a bad family.Evacuated: Churchill ordered the evacuation of children and mothers because of the bombing of the cities by the Germans and Churchill didn’t want to lose them because he wanted to be prepared for the future.
Jobs:The jobs men would do would be things like Doctors, Miners, Farmers, Scientists, Railway and Dock workers. After the men were all called up for war, the women were expected to take over these jobs to keep resources up.WRENS (Women’s Royal Navy Service)The Wrens were the women’s branch of the Royal Navy. It was brought back in the beginning of the second world war. It consisted of many roles such as cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, electricians and air mechanics. They were very useful and helped a lot during the war. They were an important asset.Wireless TelegraphistsThese were people who relayed messages all over the world so the leaders could retrieve reports and orders.ElectriciansThese would make sure all the electrical equipment in the area of where they were working was alright and would not go out unexpectedly.Air MechanicsThese are the people who would look after the planes and make sure they wouldn’t unexpectedly blow up while in the air. These would also repair the planes that would come back after battle.FactoriesThese factories would be used to create bullets and armour to use in the war effort. As the men would be at war the women would be called up to work in these. Unfortunately during the bombing raids these were targets because it would do damage to the war effort.WLA (Women’s Land Army)The women’s land army was the group of women who worked primarily in agriculture, growing food for the war effort. This was needed because of all the men going to war and there was hardly any farmers left so Britain needed a source of food quick.
PropagandaThis is where the government put posters and other things in the cities to persuade people that they were winning and try and make it out that the other side was bad and weak. This was used a lot to keep morale up and the citizens calm. But it was used in other countries as well.CountrysideThe countryside was the most safe place in Britain and that was why it all the children were evacuated there because the government wanted them to be safe in case the war went on for years.Supply Lines:These were where boats would travel across from one country to Britain bringing all sorts of stuff including food and ammo. What Hitler tried to do was to bomb the boats and stop the supplies getting to Britain.Starve Them Out:This was a tactic used by Hitler where he would block everything going into Britain and wait there until the people inside would begin to starve because of the lack of food.
