home front, World War II

Ration book with the serial number BK 761085 issued by the Ministry of Food, 1949-50. A system of rationing was set up by the British government during World War II to guard against shortages and as a means of distributing supplies more efficiently. The population was issued with ration books, which guaranteed food and other necessities on surrender of the appropriate coupon. The system persisted long after the war as the government struggled to repay its debts.

The 4th Battalion of the Kentish Home Guard, in 1945, which had an average strength of 1,500 volunteers. Known at first as the Local Defence Volunteers, the British Home Guard grew to about 2 million volunteers who received basic training and some weapons to defend their home areas against the threat of invasion. Part-time service was eventually made compulsory for certain categories of civilians.

A World War II air-raid protection (ARP) warden in Chelsea, London, in 1939. In 1938, when war with Germany was imminent, the British government set up defence procedures to protect the civilian population against air attacks. At the height of the Blitz, London suffered 57 consecutive nights of bombing from German planes.

Clothing book with the serial number L 7961100 issued to a citizen by the British government, 1945-6. To regulate the retail trade during World War II, the British Board of Trade initiated clothes rationing to make sure that reduced supplies were fairly distributed. It operated on a flexible points system and continued for several years after the end of the hostilities.

National Registration Identity Card, first issued in Britain by the government during World War II as a basis for compulsory military service and then for rationing. The cards were used until 1960 in the call-up of men between the ages of 18 and 41 for peacetime national service.

Mobilization of all sectors of the UK economy and population by the British government to support the war effort in World War II. There was no escape on the home front from involvement in or experience of the war. Civilians suffered more than in World War I, particularly those living in cities bombed by the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain (1940) and the Blitz (1940-41). Evacuation, gas masks, Anderson shelters, rationing, and the Home Guard were ever-present features of life on the home front.

Safety measures
In 1939, at the start of the war, the government issued its stockpile of 38 million gas masks. The masks had been prepared in expectation of war and the possible use of poison gas, a tactic used in World War I. To ensure the safety of all citizens, it was made illegal not to carry a gas mask.

Parents were encouraged to evacuate their children from urban and industrial areas to places of greater safety in order to protect them from the effects of the expected bombing raids. Evacuation from London began on 31 August 1939, three days before the declaration of war with Germany. Most children were accepted and well treated by their host families, in line with the government's messages about the need for the British people to work together. However, some evacuees were not made welcome, and a number were simply used as a source of farm labour.

Air raids
On the night of 7-8 September 1940 German bombers made a night raid on London, beginning a period of bombing of UK cities known as the Blitz that lasted until the early summer of 1941. Until the outcome of the Battle of Britain established British superiority in the air from October 1940, raids on London also sometimes occurred during the day. From November 1940 other industrial cities were targeted, such as Coventry, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Liverpool, with occasional raids on London. About 40,000 people were killed, and more than a million homes destroyed. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler hoped that the repeated bombing would be so unbearable that the British people would force Winston Churchill's government to make peace with Germany. The government issued Morrison or Anderson shelters for protection and Londoners spent nights crowded into the stations of the London Underground railway. Government propaganda encouraged the spirit of struggling through and overcoming common threats to ensure that unity was maintained. Symbolic gestures such as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth remaining in London at Buckingham Palace, even when it was bombed, and then touring the streets of the capital boosted morale. Prime Minister Winston Churchill also stayed in London, and regularly visited victims of the Blitz to help instil the resolve to carry on. However, although most put on a brave appearance, the people of London were terrified and many did feel like giving in.

The Home Guard
In May 1940 the government established the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard, to support the regular army during the expected German invasion. The Home Guard was made up of men too old to fight, or in reserved occupations such as farming or coal-mining. Its role was as much designed to boost morale as to act as real deterrent to German invasion plans. The Home Guard increased the sense of unity and involvement felt by the British people. Men of World War I were able to take arms again in their country's ‘darkest hour’ as Churchill termed Britain's perilous situation in 1940.

Women in the workplace
As in World War II, women were required to undertake jobs that were normally the preserve of men. Factory and farm work lost millions of men to the armed services and women filled these positions. Women drove lorries for the army, and flew fighter planes from factories to airfields for the Royal Air Force. They were nurses and doctors to wounded soldiers.

Rationing
Britain's inability to feed itself was a major problem. During World War I rationing had not been necessary until the last year of the war, but in World War II it was introduced in 1940, the first full year of the war. Everyone was issued with a ration book of coupons. The responsibility of dealing with the rationed food fell mainly to women, who had to make limited supplies stretch over many meals. As well as foodstuffs such as bacon, butter, and sugar, other items were rationed, including petrol, clothing, and furniture.

Censorship and propaganda
In a repeat of the tactics used during World War I, news from the war was censored, this time through the government's newly-established Ministry of Information. Its role was to control the spread of information and news about the war and produce public information films to ensure that people complied with wartime restrictions such as black outs (the covering of lights and lit windows at night). It was vital for the British government to avoid the spread of news that could cause panic or defeatism. The retreat from Dunkirk in June 1940 was presented by the newspapers and radio as a glorious escape from under the noses of the advancing Germans. The role of the trawlers and pleasure craft, or ‘little boats’, that helped to evacuate the Allied troops from the beaches was highlighted to show the unity of purpose and heroic acts of ordinary British people. This raised spirits at a time when Britain really did stand alone against Germany. The enormity of events such as the fall of Singapore in 1942 and Churchill's regular bouts of pneumonia and his heart attack were kept from the population in the interests of maintaining morale.

The British people were also greatly strengthened by Churchill's powerful and rousing speeches. These are remembered for such historic phrases as ‘We shall fight on the beaches... we shall fight in the fields and in the streets... we shall never surrender.’ (June 1940), ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ (August 1940), and ‘If the British Commonwealth and its Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ (June 1940).