Great Britain
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Speech made in the House of Commons as the Battle Britain
peaked on August 20, 1940. The home front was totally involved in the
war because of the Germany bombing raids and Britain was "a whole
nation fighting and suffering together." But special gratitude was
directed towards the airmen whose prowess and devotion were capable of
turning the tide of the war.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so
few.
He worked out the phrase in his mind as he visited the Fighter
Command airfields in Southern England.
Winston Churchill
THE HOME FRONT
The whole population was involved from the children who were
evacuated away from town life to various parts of the countryside
which were very foreign to them, and their parents stayed behind in the
towns and endured the hardships of nightly bombing, and trying to get
to work
the following morning in spite of transport breakdown and
walking along streets littered with rubble where Rescue Teams and
Fireman were still working.
Food rationing had been in force since the war started and
farmers who a month or so earlier had watched the ‘dog fight’ over SE
England when the German airforce had tried to obliterate RAF Fighter
Command were now encouraged to grow more food, open spaces in towns were
turned into ‘allotments’ so that people could grow their own food.
The Women's Land Army was formed and the volunteer women
lived and worked on farms often far from where they were previously
living.
Many hundreds of men and women not in the armed forces
volunteered for the Auxiliary Fire Service to supplement the National Fire
Brigade, as Special Constables to augment the Police, as wardens manning
warden’s posts to assist Air Raid Precautions network throughout the
country.
There were the Heavy Rescue teams, part of the ARP
Organisation that worked on through the raids and also the women who became
Ambulance drivers, and this they did after completing their normal day
at their workplace.
People in the towns slept in ‘Anderson’ shelters in their
gardens each evening of the bombing and in central London many people
would sleep deep down in the Tube Stations.
One should not forget the railwaymen who worked whilst
bombing went on, to keep the railway system working.
Work continued in the Docks of London, Liverpool,
Southampton and other ports in spite of the bombing and damage. Damaged
Hospitals continued their work.. We should not forget the Army Bomb
Disposal Units that defused ‘Time’ and unexploded bombs in the
cities.
The Observer Corps again made up of volunteers helped to
sight and plot direction and height of enemy bombers as they crossed
the coast.
Newspaper Headlines give a clear indication of the situation
and the courage and moral of the population.
‘AFS ..... ready to fight incendiaries’
‘London’s blackout pierced by leaping fires’
‘People of the Capital and big cities are undaunted’
‘Scenes of havoc and still they go to work’
‘They dug for 8 hours to rescue the little girl’
Contributed by:
Ron Perry
ExcBuilder ßeta
