The Historic Environment

Question 1

what were the four main preparations for war?

Answer 1

Evacuation, gas masks, shelters, blackouts

Question 2

Evacuation - what were the three types of area, and in what year was it done

Answer 2

in 1938, likely target areas, neutral areas, reception areas

Question 3

Evacuation - when did evacuation happen

Answer 3

2 days before war was declared

Question 4

Evacuation - How many children were evacuated

Answer 4

1.3 million on special trains, 600,000 on double decker busses

Question 5

evacuation - why did so many evacuees return?

Answer 5

because during the phoney war, there was little threat of air raids

Question 6

Evacuation - How many evacuees returned?

Answer 6

by January 1940, 300,000 had returned, by March 1940, only 300,000 remained in reception areas

Question 7

gas masks - What year did the government issue gas masks to all adults?

Answer 7

1938, for children 1938 and 1939

Question 8

gas masks - what happened to the use of gas masks

Answer 8

during the phoney war, less people carried their gas masks, by March 1940, as few as 5% of the population took theirs out

Question 9

gas masks - During the height of the blitz, how many people carried their gas masks/

Answer 9

1/3 of people

Question 10

shelters - What were the two main types of shelters?

Answer 10

Anderson , Morrison

Question 11

shelters - what were Anderson shelters made from?

Answer 11

corrugated iron sheets with earth piled on top

Question 12

shelters - how were Anderson shelters issued to the population, and what year.

Answer 12

in 1938. if you made more than £250 a year, paid £7. but were also given out free to many people

Question 13

shelters - How many anderson shelters were put up?

Answer 13

1.5 million

Question 14

shelters - What year was the morrison shelter introduced?

Answer 14

1941

Question 15

shelters - What was a morrison shelter? What was its capacity?

Answer 15

large steel table, sides covered with wire netting, could hold up to 3 people

Question 16

shelters - Why was a morrison shelter effective?

Answer 16

Stopped people from being crushed by collapsing buildings

Question 17

shelters - why didnt the government want to dig deep shelters?

Answer 17

fear that once people were underground, they wouldn’t come back up.

Question 18

shelters - what was a surface shelter?

Answer 18

shelter made of brick walls, sometimes protected by earth or sandbags, they had concrete roofs

Question 19

shelters - what tips did the government give on how to shelter at home?

Answer 19

board up bottom of windows with old doors, create blast barriers using piles of dirt, cover windows in parcel tape to protect against shards of glass

Question 20

Blackouts - when did the government explain to the public the need for a blackout?

Answer 20

July 1939, more than a month before the war started

Question 21

blackouts - What was the point of a blackout?

Answer 21

They made it harder for german bombers to find cities during night raids

Question 22

blackouts - how could you stop light from emerging from windows

Answer 22

use dye and chemicals to make paint for soaking bed sheets.

Question 23

blackouts - what did volunteer ARP wardens do?

Answer 23

1) sounded air raid sirens to warn of a raid at manned observation posts
2) told fire services when fires broke out
3) led people to shelters
4) patrol and make sure the blackout was effective

Question 24

When did the blitz begin?

Answer 24

7th September 1940

Question 25

what did the first night of the blitz become known as?

Answer 25

Black Saturday

Question 26

What is an incendiary?

Answer 26

A kind of bomb designed to start fires

Question 27

What were the 3 types of incendiaries used during the attacks

Answer 27

• Brandbombe
• Flammenbombe
• Sprengbrandbombe C 50

Question 28

What was the Brandbombe?

Answer 28

weighed 1KG, dropped in large numbers over buildings, strong enough to break roofs.

• filled with mixture of magnesium and metal oxides
• counted by covering them with sand or moving them off roofs.
• Germans counted british counter by fitting them with small explosive charges

Question 29

What was the Flammenbombe?

Answer 29

barrels filled with oil and set with a detonator that would go off on impact.
- often failed to explode on landing

Question 30

What was the Sprengbrandbombe C 50?

Answer 30

first used in 1942. 50Kg bomb case filled with smaller bombs, each filled with magnesium and six fire starting bombs.
- had small TNT explosive charge spraying these over a 100 meter radius

Question 31

Targets - Why were the docks in the east end a target?

Answer 31

it was where food, raw materials and weaponry were loaded and unloaded.

Question 32

Targets - why was westminster a target?

Answer 32

where Buckingham palace is, where centre of national government was-so where war effort was organised

Question 33

targets - why was the city of london a target?

Answer 33

• Bank of england

- Faraday building which contained londons telephone exchange