Londond The Second World War 2

Question 1

South Hallsville disaster 1940

Answer 1

-schools were used as temporary centres for homeless
-1000 moved to South Hallsville school
-plan to evacuate them failed on 9th Sep, on 10th Sep it was thought to dangerous to move them so coaches were sent away
-hit by a bomb that night, up to 700 killed

Question 2

Consistency of air raids

Answer 2

There were 57 consecutive nights of air raids, then a night of bad weather, then night raids consistantly until mid November

Question 3

Disruptions to civillian life caused by the Blitz

Answer 3

-disrupted transport: getting to work was difficult
-the blackout: difficult to travel at night
-disrupted gas+electricity+water
-first six weeks, 250,000 Londoners lost homes
-sep1940-may 1941, 54,000 killed and injured

Question 4

Class clashes caused by Blitz

Answer 4

-East end working class moved westward to find shelters, they encountered westend theatre-goers and nightclubbers using the underground
-people sheltering in underground stations often had nowhere to wash and stations weren’t connected to sewers

Question 5

Importance of morale

Answer 5

Morale was important because people needed to be motivated to work, fight ect.

Question 6

Incendiary bombs

Answer 6

Started fires that acted as targets for later waves of attack

Question 7

High explosives

Answer 7

Some had delayed action fuses

Question 8

Mines

Answer 8

Dropped with a parachute to make them silent. Sometimes didn’t explode when they fell

Question 9

The government used propaganda to:

Answer 9

-keep up morale
-encourage people to carry gas masks and use anderson shelters
-stressing importance of ‘war effort’ (encouraged people to collect scrap metal for reuse and growing food)
-warn of dangers from spies
-win support of other countries, especially the USA

Question 10

Ways propaganda was used

Answer 10

-posters (e.g. keep kids in the country, eat ‘National’ wholemeal bread
-films (e.g. the next of kin 1942)
-news reels in cinemas

Question 11

Balham tube station disaster

Answer 11

-4th October 1940, 1400 kilo semi armour piercing bomb penetrated 32 feet underground and exploded just above the cross passage between the two platforms
-water and gas mains along with sewage pipes had been broken. Tunnels flooded and gas hampered rescue efforts
-60 died in total, stories soon developed of trapped people drowning

Question 12

The Lull

Answer 12

May 1941- January 1944
-a period with air raids which weren’t every night. Raids often followed allied raids on German cities
-many only slept in shelters the night after hearing of a raid on Germany. A minority continued sleeping in shelters all the time

Question 13

The ‘Baby Blitz’

Answer 13

21 Jan- 19 April 1944
-the last attack in Londom by German aeroplanes
-killed and injured 3973
-by this point, allied air forces were stronger than the German’s so only a few planes got through to London

Question 14

Bethnal Green disaster background

Answer 14

-Bethnal Green, one of few underground stations in the east end
-held up to 7,000 during first Blitz but only 200-300 regulars in the Lull

Question 15

Bethnal Green disaster events

Answer 15

3 March 1943
-there’d been a heavy allied raid in Germany so 1500 people used it
-new anti-aircraft rockets were confused by people for bombs, they rushed to get into the station and 173 people died in the crush

Question 16

Bethnal Green disaster: Governement response

Answer 16

-the Government censored the incident, there was an enquiry which was kept secret
-lead to more ticketing systems at shelters, but this wouldn’t have helped as ticketing meant more people came last minute

There was no publicity on the new rockets, shows the impact of Gov censorship, shows how important the government saw mainting morale to be and how vital secrecy about new weapons was

Question 17

V1

Answer 17

Was a flying bomb
-pilotless aircraft aimed at London from Northern France and the Netherlands
-9000 fired in a ten month campaign from June 1944
-first day time bombing since Autumn 1940

Question 18

V2

Answer 18

The first ballistic missile used against London between September 1944 and March 1945. Gov tried to keep attacks secet initially
-they were too fast to stop
-biggest attack: Deptford November 1944, 160 killed and 200 injured

Question 19

Impact of V1 and V2 attacks for civillians

Answer 19

-morale: absenteeism amoungst factory workers was the highest in the summer of 1944
-new wave of evacuation: July 1944, 559,000 people evacuated
-more people slept in the underground: 81,240 per night in July 1944
-combined V1 and V2 attacks killed or injured 28,891 people

Question 20

Impact of V1 and V2 attacks impact on Government

Answer 20

Gov popularity fell because of delay in officially admitting to the V2 attacks and inability to protect London when the war was nearly won