Explain Why British Civilians Were Affected by World War Essay Example

Explain Why British Civilians Were Affected by World War Essay Example Explain Why British Civilians Were Affected by World War Essay Explain Why British Civilians Were Affected by World War Essay World War II affected British civilians in a number of ways. It affected every single person including children. There were five main reasons why civilians were affected; this was due to economic impact, responsibility to protect civilians, government preparation plans, the improvement and increase in war technology and the changing tactics of Hitler. World War II was different from World War I; it was a total war. Britain had gone to war because Hitler invaded Poland. Britain had made a treaty to Poland saying that she would protect her if she was ever invaded. Hitler had wanted the 3 million Germans living in Poland, to be united with Germany because he believed that Poland was persecuting the Germans who were living there. Also the Allies had realised that Hitler wouldn’t stop until he got all of Europe and they were afraid of his rising power. It was estimated that 67,800 civilians were either killed or missing, injured or in hospital. One of the reasons that affected civilians was the changing tactics of Hitler. This affected civilians because they were the target now. In July 1940, after defeating France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Hitler planned for an invasion of Britain, called Operation Sealion. He sent the Luftwaffe to destroy Britains Royal Air Force this later became known as the Battle of Britain. It was essential for Hitler to control the sky because this was the only way he could make a successful invasion of Britain. Hitler first tried to defeat the military army however, this didn’t seem to work so he decided to attack the civilians instead, he hoped that these damages to the population would weaken the morale and lead to the British publics demand for surrender. Hitler had before attacked in the daylight however the RAF, who controlled the skies during the daylight, put a good fight and this forced Hitler to change his tactics and start bombing at night. London, amongst Portsmouth, Coventry, Bristol, Manchester and Southampton, were being constantly bombed. London was being bombed every night for 57 days in a row. Hitler decided to attack London on the 7th September 1940; this was known as the Blitz. Now that the war was a total war this would change every aspect of life because Britain would have to fight alone and would have no help from other countries because by now most of the allies were already taken over by Hitler. However Hitler’s change in plans would not have worked if there weren’t any improvement and increase in war technology. Blitzkrieg used new technology such as tanks and more advanced airplanes to get a reakthrough in the fighting, which differed greatly from the stalemate trench fighting in World War I. The changing tactics affected civilians because they were the main target. On May 1941 Hitler decided to end attacking Britain as he was more interested in Russia. He decided to launch operation Barbarossa which was the invasion of Russia on 22nd June 1941. This was based on Blitzkrieg the same way he def eated France, Belgium and Netherlands. Blitzkrieg meant â€Å"lightning war†. This was based on speed and surprise. For Blitzkrieg to be successful light tanks supported by planes and infantry was important. Civilians were affected by war due to the improvement and increase in war technology because more technology had now been developed in such a way that aircrafts could fly over countries for longer times and carry more and more munitions, making it possible to carry out bigger destruction than before. Hitler wouldn’t be able to change his tactics and wouldn’t be able to carry out the Operation Sealion if there wasn’t any improvement in war technology because planes before were unable to fly for long distances, the time they could fly overhead now was 30 minutes which wasn’t that long either. Aircrafts were now being built which could carry up to nine men. Improvement and increase in war technology now made it possible to cause bigger destruction to countries and made bombing much easier than before. Improvements were being made in weaponry, aircraft and tanks. Radar stations were also set up by in Britain. The radar was invented by Robert Watson watt; this allowed Britain to track any German warplanes and time to attack them before they caused too much damage. This was an improvement in war technology because this was never used before. The type of war had changed this would affect civilians because if the type of war changes so will the tactics. Due to all the aircrafts being made and the type of weapons it was going to be a quicker war which involved no trench warfare or stalemate. There were two main types of aircrafts used in the war they were bomber planes and fighter planes. In total there were 18,449 bomber planes and 53,249 fighter planes. Now that aircraft was being used this meant that civilians were more at risk and this lead to the British government taking control of peoples lives in order to protect them. Hitler had a secret weapon which he was going to use on Britain called the V1 and V2 bombers. They cannot be classified as a plane or as a rocket. They didn’t leave the atmosphere neither was it steered by a pilot. The V1 was launched on Britain on June 1944. The V2 was different to the V1; you could not see the V2 after it had been fired unlike the V1. The impact of the V1 was limited because you could see them from a distant and were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, also fighter planes were sent to touch the tip of the wings on the bomber so that they would fly off course. The V2 was designed to bring devastation to Londoners; these bombs were Hitler’s revenge. There were reports coming in about this secret weapon but no one knew exactly what it was so Churchill could not plan anything. The RAF was sent to destroy the sites where these weapons were made. In total 73 were destroyed however 23 still remained. This would affect civilians because they didn’t know what to expect because it could be very devastating or just cause a bit of damage. Also another reason for why civilians were affected by World War II was because of economic impact. The economic impact affected civilians because the government now had to control the amount of food coming in because of the sinking merchant ships which were being attacked by the German U-boats. The government introduced rationing of items such as food, clothing, petrol and cosmetics. In January 1940, food items including bacon, butter were rationed. Later, cheese, fresh eggs, breakfast cereals, milk, sweets, jam, meat, sugar and tea were rationed. Half of Britain’s food was rationed by the end of the war. The government tried to reduce the number of British merchant ships by using the convoy system. However not everyone got what they wanted and this resulted in the black market. It was important to introduce rationing because people who lived in the cities had less chance of growing their own crops compared to people in the countryside. Propaganda was used to encourage people to safe certain costs on certain things, this resulted in campaigns which were set up by the government. An example of a campaign was ‘Dig for Victory’. This was a campaign which urged people to use their gardens and any spare land to grow food. Many people thought that this was a fair system because it meant that many items were controlled at affordable prices. At that time many people kept chickens, rabbits and goats in their back garden. Later on more and more campaigns were introduced for various things e. g. ‘Make Do and Mend’ and ‘Mrs Sew-and-Sew’ which were campaigns to innovate women to create new clothing’s using old material and to repair any old clothes that had holes etc. As well as growing their own vegetable they were told to save on water by only using 12 cm of water while bathing. Propaganda for food was introduced because this the government had thought would free up ships transporting supplies to Britain could be used as military ships and in war. . A man was allowed to buy a new suit every two years, and to buy a shirt every twenty months. Trousers came without cuffs, pleats or zippers. The need to protect British civilians affected civilians because this now meant that there would be restrictions to ensure that the civilians are safe and information was controlled so that any spies wouldn’t be able to know about any plans. Now that new war technology was being used this would make the government take certain precautions so that civilian injuries and deaths were kept to a minimum. To protect civilians the government had blackouts and evacuations. Blackouts were when people were ordered to cover windows with heavy materials and stop any light from going out; people would do this by putting up blackout material which was supplied by the government and cover their windows etc. This would make the job for the German bombers harder to spot where people were and navigate around. At first all usage of lights were banned. Other blackout rules included streets lights being masked to give a pinpoint of light at the base of each lamp post, traffic lights were masked so that only a small amount of colour could be seen, torches had to be pointed downwards and glass covered with two layers of tissue, smoking was banned at first and if you were caught you would be fined, top of pillar boxes were painted green or yellow so that is any mustard gas was present it would stain the paint and show many more precautions were taken. However these restrictions had to be eased up because the number of road accidents went up. The government introduced new rules such as white lines were painted into the middle of the road so that drivers could see where they were going in the dark, Curb edges and car bumpers were also painted white, headlights were permitted as long as the driver had headlamp covers with three horizontal slits. Evacuations affected civilians because families who had children were being torn apart. Evacuation first started in the summer of 1938 by the Anderson Committee. The British Government were afraid that British cities and towns would be targets for bombing raids by aircraft and therefore evacuation was introduced. People who were going to be evacuated were children, some mothers of small children and pregnant women, the elderly, some teachers and invalids. The children were only allowed to take a few things with them including a gas mask, books, money, clothes, ration book and some small toys. Britain was divided in to three zones, â€Å"evacuation†, â€Å"neutral† or â€Å"reception†. Evacuation areas were where heavy bombing was expected. Neutral areas were areas that would not need to send or receive evacuees. Reception areas were rural areas where evacuees would be sent. By 1940 nearly half a millions children who had been evacuated had returned this was because there hadn’t been any air-raids, some were homesick. Evacuations often tore families apart because the children were evacuated and sometimes mothers too so this meant that there was an emotional impact on the British civilians. Propaganda and censorship was also used to protect civilians. This affected civilians because everything was being controlled by the government. The government used the media, newspapers and any other form of advertisement they could to ensure people were safe. Posters were put up to encourage people to join the war for example ‘Your country needs you’. Posters were also put up to encourage women to send their children for evacuation and also for gas masks reminding people to carry them etc. The government would censor any newspaper articles which were likely to weaken the civilians morale for example, the media invented the ‘Spirit of the Blitz’ to boost the morale. Censorship was also used to stop enemies from gathering any valuable information. All images and newspaper articles were being censored by the Ministry of Information. Their job was to make sure anything which could possibly weaken the morale wasn’t shown. The civilians had a limited amount of freedom to express themselves because the government closely kept an eye on them through censorship and propaganda. War preparation affected civilians because now that this war was a total war civilians would be affected and this was inevitable and also the government have a duty to protect civilians. The government had made plans before the war had even started for example conscription, air raid precautions and shelter plans. Air raid precautions were introduced because the Air Ministry had forecast that Britain would be under air attacks and this would cause high civilian casualties and destruction from enemy night bombings. They were being planned in 1938. Over 100,000 air raid wardens and 60,000 auxiliary firemen were recruited. Conscription was introduced in 27th April 1939. Conscription first started for men and then later on women. Conscription affected civilians because families were torn apart as men had to go and join the army. The National Service Act made it part of the legislation that, single men aged 18 to 41 were to be conscripted before married men. Shelters were used when bombings were going to happen during the night. People would be alerted by the wailing of air raid sirens just as German bombers were approaching. The first shelter to be made was the Anderson shelter made by the Anderson Committee later on another shelter was made called the Morrison shelter. People who had gardens used the Anderson shelter. The Morrison shelter could be used indoors and people often used them as a table and when it was time to use them they would just go inside. The government had made communal shelters which could protect up to 50 people as well as underground stations were used later on. Gas masks were used to protect civilians because the British government thought that poisonous gas may be used on the civilians during the war. The government had issued 38 million gas masks by 1940. Adults had black rubbery gas masks whereas children had ‘Micky mouse’ masks with red rubber pieces and bright eye piece rims. Gas masks were also used by babies, which mothers would have to pump air using a bellow. It was often hard to breathe when wearing the gas masks. Air raid wardens would also wear gas masks with a long hose and a speaking box attached to his belt. In the tin canister at the end there would be charcoal which soaked up any poisonous gases. War preparation affected civilians because everyone would be involved in it somehow even if it was just being evacuated. It would appear that the most important reason why British Civilians were affected by World War II would be because the government needed to protect civilians. In order for the government to protect civilians they had to control every aspect of their life, this included what they did to what they could eat. This often restricted people’s free will for example some preferred to go and shelter in the railway stations underground but the government didn’t allow this however, in the end the government had to back down. The government wanted to evacuate children and pregnant women because they wanted to protect the future generation. Without the future generation there would be no one to fight the future wars and work.