Civilians and the Homefront Flashcards
What are civilians
People who are nor soldiers. While other men were fighting in the war, they were at the home front
What is a total war?
A war where everyone is involved. A war that affects the civilian population as well as the front line(soldiers fighting at war)
What are zeppelins
Huge inflatable airships that bombed British towns. Bomber planes also attacked Britain and German battleships shelled seaside towns.
Why was Britain short of food during the war?
German submarines and battleships were sinking the boats that brought it by sea. So the government introduced rationing to make sure that the food was equally shared out e.g. butter, lard, bacon, ham
Why did prices have to go up for goods during the war?
Some goods were in short supply
Why did taxes go up?
The government had to borrow millions from the USA to pay for the war, so taxes went up to pay back the loans.
Why did lots of women work diring the war?
There were many jobs with shoes to fill that the men would have done if they weren’t fighting in the war. Women worked as munition workers, they worked in shipyards, police services and ambulance services
What new law did the government introduce to do whatever they felt was necessary to win the war?
The ‘Defence of the Realm Act’ or DORA
What was DORA(the Defence of the Realm Act). Name some examples of what the government did
It was a new law that the government introduced thst sllowed them to do whatever they felt was necessary to win the war. They could take over mines, railways and shipyards and control newspapers and audio. To limot drunken behaviour of the working population they introduced strjct pub opening hours and even watered down beer!
The new DORA law gave the government censorship. Why is this significant?
They could make sure that only positive war papers were sent out and not negative or anti war papers about the war. The government wanted Britain to keep their spririts high
Name some things that the givernment did with their power from the new DORA law
They had the power to lock people up if they were ‘suspicious’ or if they thought they might be spies. Also you could get locked up for whistling in the streets or having bonfires.
When did the government introduced the DORA law?
8th August 1914 (4 days after Britain declared war on Germany)
Some of Britain was prepared for any zeppelin attacks. How?
There were machine guns on buildings to fire at the Zeppelins if they were attacked. Zeppelins had lots of hydrogen in them so if they were shot at then they would burst into flames
By the end of the war, home many people were killed and injured by zeppelin air raids?
Zeppelin air raids dropped over 5000 bombs. 557 people were killed. Over 1300 were injured
How did people try to protect themseleves from bombing raids?
They tried to find shelter, they went under ground
