Wars and ConflictsΜύ permalink
Comments on WWII
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Message 1.Μύ
Posted by Kate (U14362385) on Monday, 1st March 2010
Hi! I'm Kate and I am doing a school project on World War Two here in the U.S.. I was wondering if anybody could share with me what they can about Britain's involvement in WWII. I have found lots of stuff online, but personal accounts and information from not just the British (who probably know more than I do) but anyone who has something to offer would be happily accepted. Thank You
--Kate -
Message 2
Posted by VF (U5759986) on Monday, 1st March 2010
Kate,
If you are after personal accounts try this,
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Message 3
Posted by JB on a slippery slope to the thin end ofdabiscuit (U13805036) on Monday, 1st March 2010
Hello Kate, and well done for finding this site.
In summary, Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939 after Hitler broke his promises yet again and invaded Poland. This was despite the fact that there was nothing practical they could do to help the Poles, and ironic that at the end of the war the Pland was left in the Soviet sphere of influence as agreed at Potsdam in 1945.
The British went to war with a sense of weary resignation, quite different from the excitement and jingoism of 1914, indicating that in the years between the nation had matured as a democracy.
The great fear was bombing, because earlier surveys had been misinterpreted and it was assumed there would be mass casualties in the big cities. This was why children were evacuated to the country or overseas.
After the fall of France Britain "Stood alone" for over a year (actually with the aid of the Dominions such as Canada & Australia and the resources of the Empire including the enormous Indian Army.) Since Britain had to import about half its food and raw materials, shipping from the USA was vital. FDR had an election to fight in 1940 and so made much of US Neutrality, but in reality he did all he could to help Britain.
For all that, before Lend-Lease, the arms, food and everything else had to be bought with cash, gold and overseas assets. Britain paid the USA about Six Billion Pounds ($24bn at the rates of the time) which was pretty much the entire accumilated profit of two hundred years of empire.
There were air raids, rationing, and a blackout that was, some say, responsible for more deaths than German bombing in 1940.
The war brought the British people closer together but also created tensions. When Buckingham Palace was bombed, the Queen said, "I'm so glad. Now I can look the East End in the face again."
You can get a good sense of what wartime was like for the British people from films. "Hope & Glory" is a good one, as is "The Battle of Britain."
Please feel free to ask specific questions and good luck. -
Message 4
Posted by Tim of Acleah (U1736633) on Tuesday, 16th March 2010
Hi Kate
my father who was a soldier in WW2 left a lot of writings about his life including the war. this is a part when he was in the army at the time in 1940 the British army was evaculated from Dunkirk france following the Germans overruning the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern france.
"At the beginning of June 1940, the whole British Army came back to England, a terrible thing to see the shambles of a great army glad to get back away from the German forces. Suddenly our platoon was turfed out of our room into a shed. We were told not to undo our boots in case Germans paratroopers might suddenly land. The main gate to the barracks was opened and lots of coaches arrived from Reading Station with tired, untidy and hungry soldiers desperate for food, a bed and some shelter. I was told that all around the station there were hundreds of persons cheering the soldiers as if they had won a great victory. Outside our barracks there were also hundreds of persons cheering and clapping as the soldiers came into the barracks.
The Lieutenant Colonel said that no soldiers must leave the barracks but the public could be allowed to come in, which they did. The atmosphere was quite wonderful and strange. What would happen to the UK! France was going to surrender; the USSR was on the side of the enemy! Nearly all of Europe was under German or Russian control. However, in the strange euphoria of that time, the Lieutenant Colonel ordered a large table to be put in the centre of the parade square in the main part of the barracks and that every evening there would be entertainment with any soldier or civilian able to get up on the table and do a turn. One soldier did a very funny turn, pretending that he was a woman! I felt that we, the civilians and soldiers, were united as never before. In the House of Commons, Mr Churchill made a great speech. He said it was not a victory for us but a defeat; victories were not made by retreats.
On three evenings a party of soldiers from our unit, the Royal Berkshire Regiment, had to go to Chequers to guard Mr W. Churchill for the night. Each morning the Prime Minister used to talk briefly to the soldiers and tell them βwe will win the warβ and thanked them for guarding him, then he got in his car and drove away. They said that he was always cheerful. Vera Peachy [they later married] commented to me that she was actually quite surprised when Churchill made his famous βWe shall fight them on the beachesβ speech culminating in his statement that βwe shall never surrenderβ for it had never occurred to her that we would ever surrender, no matter what happened. She also told me how, when the war started, she had said to her father that she hoped that the war would be quickly over but that her father had replied that, in that case, she was hoping for a German victory; for they were prepared for war and we were not. If we were going to win the war then it would be a long war.
Since we were now sleeping in a small shed and could not undress we had to kip as best we could. Out of the 31, three soldiers developed βstinking feetβ and had to go sick. For 13 days soldiers were not allowed to take off their uniforms because of the threat of invasion. Often at 2:00 or 3.00 a.m. a large number of us, who were still untrained, had to go out in lorries around Reading and the surrounding area in case the enemy were to come. There were also at this time a large number of enemy male persons aged from youths of about 14 through to elderly men of 60 or 70 to be interned and the authorities turned the tennis courts in the barracks into an internment camp for them.
Twice I went back into our old barrack room and listened to a sergeant and an officer talking to soldiers who had returned from France, they were mainly in bed and some were still asleep. It took a great deal of tact and diplomacy to try to get these soldiers who came from all over the UK to go back to their own units. After all, they were not members of the Royal Berkshire Regiment! The officer gently suggested to one soldier that he should go back to his unit. The soldier said βno sir, I am still bl**dy tiredβ. Another soldier said that he βcanβt go β I havenβt got a shirt!β The officer said he would make sure that he would get a shirt, a pass, a railway ticket and some money, βwill you go?β The soldier, a sergeant, agreed. All this time the army canteen was open all day and night so these soldiers could get food and drink whenever they wanted it and then go back to sleep.
Hope this helps.
Tim -
Message 5
Posted by LairigGhru (U14051689) on Wednesday, 17th March 2010
Kate,
As JB-on-the-West-Cliff has remarked, we had a lot of help from the U.S. even before it joined in the fighting. Churchill knew that he had 'bitten off more than he could chew' when he took Hitler on, but his hope was that FDR would eventually bring the U.S. into the war, which is what happened after Pearl Harbor. It has always seemed obvious to me that Britain and the Empire forces were unlikely to have won without U.S. help, but I'm sure some would like to dispute that.
The U.S. had an amazing production rate going during the war. On one occasion (with a special effort) one particular Liberty ship was launched four days after the laying of its keel! Sherman tanks were produced at a high rate too.
British contributions to the ultimate victory include the Bletchley Park code-breaking establishment between Oxford and Cambridge, and radar.
The Nazis were an enormously tough nut to crack and bring to defeat, so whichever way you look at it, it was a close-run thing. -
Message 6
Posted by Haesten (U4770256) on Wednesday, 17th March 2010
Churchill knew that he had 'bitten off more than he could chew' when he took Hitler on,
Μύ
It was Chamberlain who took Hitler on.
I'm not sure Churchill ever thought he had bitten of more than he could chew, he certainly didn't expect the mighty French army to collapse, but even then he did not recall troops from Egypt to protect Britain.
FDR and General Marshal had the whole of the US small arms arsenal (save that needed to mobilise one million) shipped to Britain within 7 days of the fall of Dunkirk. Churchill had two Canadian armoured divisions in Britain to reinforce the remaining British armoured divisions, plus more than one million ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Guard who were mainly WWI vets and not Dad's Army.
There is virtually no senario that German armour could get ashore.
Kate.
This story might be of interest, this little fishing boat left from the same village as the Mayflower once left for the New World.
Cinema newsreel from the time, propoganda really as Dunkirk was a serious defeat, the big guns of the Royal Navy would save us is the theme!
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Message 7
Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Wednesday, 17th March 2010
Haesten
"even then he did not recall troops from Egypt.."
Not entirely true.
British (Commonwealth and Empire)forces in Egypt in June 1940 consisted of four regiments of tanks (two of them light), one of armoured cars, the equivalent of two brigades of infantry, two Indian infantry brigades (regarded as unsuitable for European warfare - attitudes would change by 1943). This force could not affect the situation in UK, it was better off where it was.
What was also in the ME were the advance forces of the Australian and New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, and what Churchill did do (with the agreement of the Australian and NZ governments) was divert a brigade each of Australian and NZ troops to UK, as a demonstration of solidarity.
Before wollemi kicks off, as a gesture it may not have impressed the German OKW, but it played well in the USA.
LW -
Message 8
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Thursday, 18th March 2010
LairigGhru,
It has always seemed obvious to me that Britain and the Empire forces were unlikely to have won without U.S. help, but I'm sure some would like to dispute that.Μύ
Depending, of course, on the definition of 'win the war,' or 'victory' as it was then known. -
Message 9
Posted by LairigGhru (U14051689) on Thursday, 18th March 2010
WhiteCamry,
The demand of Unconditional Surrender is plain enough, I think.
As regards Dunkirk, I think at that stage Hitler was hopeful that Britain would see sense and seek terms so that he could stop fighting us and be left to concentrate on his true war aims. Had this not been so, I suspect that our army could have been effectively destroyed as it lay at his mercy on the beach awaiting rescue, and (apart from the Royal Navy and the R.A.F.) this country would then have been defenseless from his planned invasion.
We were lucky with the weather too, for had the sea not been unusually calm the rescue would have been much more difficult and prolonged.
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