Life on the Home Front Flashcards
What did Hitler do between 1934 and 1935?
He introduced conscription which pushed the army size over the 100,000 cap introduced by the Treaty of Versailles. The allies did not respond.
What did Hitler do in 1935?
They signed an agreement with Britain to allow them to build a navy - which was forbidden under the Treaty of Versailles.
Why did the Anglo-German naval agreement annoy France?
Because they were not consulted.
What did Hitler do in 1936?
He remilitarised the Rhineland which was against the Treaty of Versailles. It was actually a bluff and the German army had orders to retreat if they met any resistance but they never had to.
What did Hitler do in 1938?
- He took over Austria to no resistance
- He took the Sudetenland with the blessing of Britain and France as long as he didn’t go on to take the rest of Czechoslovakia
What did Hitler do in 1939?
- He took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
* Hitler seized the Polish Corridor. Britain declared war two days later.
What was appeasement?
Baldwin and Chamberlain’s foreign policy between 1935 and 1939. It was intended to avoid war and confrontation by discussion, negotiation and compromise.
Why was appeasement popular at the time?
People were keen to avoid another war
Some sympathy for the Germans after the Treaty of Versailles
Seen by some politicians as a way of stopping the spread of communism
Fears that new wealth would go towards armaments
Why was there opposition to appeasement?
Some people said that war was inevitable if Hitler was not stopped
People didn’t want to associate with Hitler
At the beginning of the war, what was the only service ready for action?
The Navy
What was the problem with the RAF at the beginning of the war?
It was too small despite being very well trained
What were three problems with the army at the beginning of the war?
It was small
It was poorly equipped
The soldiers were poorly trained
What measure did the government introduce to try and increase the size of the army?
Conscription - by the end of 1939, 1.3 million people had be conscripted
What was the EPDA?
The Emergency Powers (Defense) Act was passed in 1939 and gave the government the power to take
certain measures to defend the nation and to maintain public order.
What was the ARP?
The Air Raid Precautions was an organisation set up to help people during the air raids.
What were the major responsibilities of the ARP wardens?
ARP wardens were to patrol the streets and
warn householders against showing any lights. ARP wardens were also expected to advise
householders and co-ordinate the emergency services.
How many casualties a week did the Air Ministry predict in 1938?
65,000
When the Air Ministry revised its figures in 1939, what did it predict?
In the first month of war the government could expect a million casualties, three million refugees, and the destruction of over half of Britain’s cities.
How did the government react to the Air Ministry’s predictions?
They ordered 1 million coffins
What did the government distribute to protect people against bombing?
Air raid shelters (most commonly Andersen shelters) which homeowners had to build themselves.
How did the government use trenches during air raids?
The government already has concrete-lined trenches dug after the Sudetenland crisis so the government kept them and allowed civilians to shelter in them.
How many people are estimated to have volunteered with the ARP?
500,000
What was RADAR?
An object-detection system that used radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction and speed of objects.
How was RADAR used?
The RADAR detected where the most German bombers were coming from so the RAF could focus on them. This was because the RAF were vastly outnumbered so feasibly could not tackle all of the bombers at once.
What two things were installed in London to protect against German bombers?
Barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns.
What were barrage balloons?
Large barrage balloons that were lifted and secured above the city of London to deter German bombers from coming in too low on their bombing runs. This affected the accuracy of German bombing, making it less effective.
What were anti-aircraft guns?
Huge guns backed with powerful searchlights for attacks during the hours of darkness,
What was “phony-war”?
The period between October 1939 and April 1940 where no conflict took place.
What was the Home Guard?
An organisation of volunteers who were armed and trained to resist invasion.
How did the Battle of Britain begin?
The Luftwaffe bombed British ships in the channel to try and stop imports getting to them and to free up the channel to move their own warships into to isolate Britain.
What was Blitzkreig?
“Lightning war” - the German tactics of periods of intense bombings before moving in to take over.
What was the Blitz?
The term used by the press to refer to the period of intense bombings of British cities between September 1940 and May 1941.
For how many consecutive nights was London bombed for? How many bombs were used?
London was bombed every night from 7 September to 2 November; in all some 13,500 tons of high-explosive bombs were dropped in fifty-seven raids.
Other than London, which other city was a major target during the Blitz?
Coventry
What were the casualties of Coventry’s first night of bombing?
In that one night 554 people were killed, 50,000 houses and 400 shops were destroyed.
What was the national death toll at the end of the Blitz? How many houses were damaged?
45,000 civilians were killed and three and a half million houses were either damaged or destroyed.
What were the Civilian Defence Units?
Units like the ARP wardens, the Auxiliary Fire Service,
the First Aid posts and the Auxiliary Ambulance Service that were set up to help people on the Home Front during the Blitz.
How were tube stations used during the Blitz?
They were used as mass air raid shelters.
How did Churchill try to help people during the Blitz?
He tried to raise people’s morale using his stirring speeches, patriotic radio broadcasts and by touring the
damaged areas.
Describe how the British government used censorship during the war.
Government censorship ensured that newspapers were not allowed to show pictures of damaged houses or mutilated corpses because they were afraid that such images would damage morale. Radio and cinema
were told to concentrate on stories about the heroism of the rescue services.
What was Blitz Spirit?
The alleged feeling of companionship in the bombed areas during the Blitz brought about by fear, hate,
destruction and government propaganda. The British people were determined to show Hitler that they could
not be beaten and they tried to carry on their daily lives as normally as possible.
What was the Pied Piper Act?
The government wanted to avoid women and children being killed because this would affect morale. The plan was for all women and children to be evacuated from likely targets like London to safe areas such as Wales.
Why was Wales considered a good place to evacuate people to?
Wales was thought to be safe because it was mainly rural and it had fewer military targets than England.
What were trekkers?
People who refused to be evacuated and instead fled the cities at night to local woodlands and then returned the following morning when the all clear was given.
How many people were evacuated to the Rhondda?
33,500
Why did some people benefit from evacuation?
Better quality of life
Less chance of being bombed
Young people saw country life as an adventure
Why didn’t some people benefit from evacuation?
Countryside-prejudice towards people from the city who were seen as dirty
Overcrowding
Some people did not get on with their host families
When was food rationing introduced?
In January 1940 and was quickly followed by clothes, petrol and coal rationing.
How did food rationing work?
People were issued with rationing booklets and coupons which could be exchanged for goods like meat, eggs, butter and sugar at shops where people had registered.
What was the “Dig For Victory” campaign?
The Ministry of Food’s Dig For Victory campaign encouraged self-sufficiency; the number of allotment rose from 815,000 to 1.4 million. Pigs, chickens and rabbits were reared domestically for meat, while vegetables were grown anywhere that could be cultivated.
What did the Ministry of Food make a criminal offence in 1940?
Food wastage
When did rationing come to an end?
1955
How did the government use women during the war?
They worked in factories making war materials, on the land growing food to feed the nation and in the hospitals tending to the sick and injured.
What was the Women’s Land Army?
An initiative to try and get women farming in order to increase crop yields as imports had been cut off.
What were the ATS and the WAAF?
The Auxiliary Territorial Service and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force were military divisions set up especially for women.
What was the WVS?
The Women’s Voluntary Service was a women’s volunteer group that did odd jobs to aid with the war effort. One example was their response to the Government’s call to collect scrap metal - the Portsmouth WVS collected in four weeks enough scrap metal to fill four railway carriages.
What was the Ministry of Information?
A government organisation in charge of censorship and propaganda. Their aim was to ensure that the people only got to know what the government wanted them to know or what it thought they should know. Bad news was kept to a minimum so that information
on military disasters and defeats was suppressed or kept secret.
What different media did the Ministry of Information control?
Television
Radio
Cinema
Posters
When did Churchill become Prime Minister?
May 1940
