KQ5 - Keeping Up Morale

Question 1

WHAT WAS THE IMPORTANCE OF RADIO?

Answer 1

• The most useful tool the British government had to keep people informed during the Second World War was BBC radio as almost every family had access to it
• The BBC also broadcast entertainment shows such as Tommy Handley’s ‘It’s That Man Again’, a comedy that made fun of Hitler, and ‘Music while you work’ which played music to raise the morale of workers
• The Ministry of Information, a government department which oversaw propaganda and censorship, had control over the BBC. However, the government did not need to step in as the BBC carried out self-censorship

Question 2

WHAT WAS THE IMPORTANCE OF CINEMA DURING WAR?

Answer 2

• Cheap form of entertainment
• The Ministry of Information (MOI) made many short information films to be shown before the main film. These covered topics such as evacuation, the Blitz and promoted the role of the Land Girls
• The British film industry also made patriotic war films to maintain morale

Question 3

WHAT IS CENSORSHIP?

Answer 3

During wartime governments try to control what people see and hear in the news

Question 4

HOW WAS CENSORSHIP USED?

Answer 4

• Bad news about disasters and defeats were limited or kept secret so as not to lower morale
• Information that would be useful to the enemy was also banned
• Good news like military victories and other successes were not censored, but the truth was often exaggerated

Question 5

WHAT WAS THE MAIN FORM OF PROPAGANDA AND WHY?

Answer 5

Posters. They were easy to mass produce and a cheap way of portraying messages in an entertaining way

Question 6

WHO WAS CHURCHILL BEFORE HE WAS PM?

Answer 6

After the war he re-joined the Conservatives. As Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1924 and 1929, he cut government spending. He became hated by the coal miners for trying to break the General Strike in 1926. By the 1930s, he had fallen out with many members of his own party as he disagreed with the policy of Appeasement

Question 7

WHEN DID CHURCHILL BECOME PM?

Answer 7

May 1940. He was seen as the right man to lead war

Question 8

HOW DID CHURCHILL HELP BRITIAN WIN THE WAR?

Answer 8

• He helped save 300,000 soldiers at Dunkirk
• Speeches = inspirational
• He refused to surrender
• Kept the country united

Question 9

WHAT HAPPENED IN SEPTEMBER 1945

Answer 9

Britain won the war