Life in London during WWII

Operation Pied Piper

The fear of air attack from German bombers at the start of war encouraged parents to send their children to safety. The evacuation of Britain's cities at the start of World War Two was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain's history. In the first four days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the countryside.

Most were school children, who had been labelled like pieces of luggage, separated from their parents and accompanied instead by a small army of guardians - 100,000 teachers. 


Many evacuees stayed with very kind families and were cared for and happy like the children in this postcard. Others, however, stayed with families who did not want them there and were less kind to them. 


How did rationing and shortages affect Londoners? 

During the six years Britain was at war, 1939–45, life was frequently hard for Londoners. Food and clothing were rationed and in short supply. Bombing caused fear, injury, death and destruction. Families were often separated due  to evacuation and fathers going away to fight. Londoners learned to live with uncertainty and hardship. 

Rationing was introduced to control supplies of food and clothing during the war. Dried and tinned food became common as fresh meat and fish were in short supply. 

The government’s ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign encouraged people to grow their own food to avoid fresh produce shortages.  

Due to rationing, boys had to wait until they were 12 years old before being allowed to wear long trousers. 
Adults were allowed to use 66 coupons a year – children were allocated additional coupons to allow for them outgrowing their clothes during the year. All clothes were rated. A pair of shoes used five coupons while a suit used 18 coupons.  People were encouraged to ‘make do and mend’ to help their clothes last longer. 

Pages of the book had different colored coupons. The coupons shown here are blue. Only one color could be used at a time. The government announced when the next color could be used, to prevent people using all their coupons too quickly.  




Why did Londoners wear identity tags? 

Bomb injuries suffered by Londoners often made identifying wounded people difficult. The authorities encouraged civilians to wear identity tags to speed up the process.  

Many Londoners wore metal bracelets like this one engraved with their personal details, to help with identification. 



How did Londoners keep themselves safe during the Blitz?

Many Londoners used air raid shelters called Anderson shelters to keep themselves safe during air raids.  These shelters were given free by the government to all householders with a garden who earned less than £250 a year.  

At six feet  high and buried in four feet  of soil, the conditions in the shelter were not always pleasant. Like the people in the engraving, Londoners were cramped together and shelters often flooded.  

These shelters could only be used by those with gardens to put them in. For Londoners without a garden, protection was found in any available cellar space, in Underground stations or in public surface shelters found in open spaces such as parks.  

Thousands of Londoners sheltered from the air raids on platforms and staircases and in the tunnels and ticket halls of the London Underground stations.  
  

Complete your Life in Britain worksheet. 

Each part has a web address for you to visit in order to answer the questions. I have them here so you can click on them rather than type them in your search bar. 

Life in Britain

Evacuations 

Comment on the blog: How do you imagine you would feel having to spend time in this type of shelter? 

credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/evacuees_01.shtml