What was it like living through

World War II?

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.

The role of women

• 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.

A picture of some women on their tea break. And another poster designed to persuade women into joining the land army.

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.

Two British propaganda posters.

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 America’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.

Picture of Pearl Harbour taken from a Japanese plane.

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

Soviet Union soldiers taking cover behind debris, shooting Nazis.

D-Day• This commenced on June 6th 1944 in Normandy, France.• This was when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy,

attacking Germany.• It was also known as Operation Neptune, a part of Operation

Overlord.• Consisted of 156,00 troops. Including British, American Canadian

and French.• Troops landed on five sectors of the coast.• D-Day had a major impact on the war and brought World War 2 to

an earlier close.• The success of this enabled Allies to build a harbour for unloading

more troops and supplies.• The mastermind behind the attack was General Dwight D.

Eisenhower.

Soldiers waiting to be parachuted in France. (6th June, 1944.)