Britain at War, 1942 — Part 2

Members of the Women's Land Army ploughing in Hertfordshire, March 1942.

Between January 1942 and D-Day in 1944 more than a million and a half U.S. servicemen arrived in Britain. There were complaints that the Americans were “overpaid, oversexed and over here,” but paradoxically most civilians were sympathetic to black G.I.s, victims of colour bars in their own army.

Although women did not fly in direct combat, 166 served in the Air Transport Auxiliary which ferried aircraft from factories to their bases, and servicewomen like this Wren (from WRNS, Women's Royal Naval Service) radio mechanic flew to test radios.

In 1942 the Germans mounted hit and run “Baedeker raids” on historic cities in retaliation for raids on Lübeck and Rostock. Canterbury cathedral was damaged in June.

Many anti-aircraft batteries has male and female personnel. These women of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) operate a mobile power-plant on an anti-aircraft site in December 1942.

Britain at War, 1942 — Part 1

Britain was emphatically a nation at war. Food rationing began in January 1940, and that autumn saw the beginning of the London Blitz, with endemic air raids thereafter. A 1940 extension of the 1939 Emergency Powers Act gave the government “complete control over… all persons, rich and poor… and all property.” Britain mobilized a higher proportion of its population than any other combatant: by June 1944, 22% of the working population was in the services and another 33% in war work. Women replaced men in factories, public transport and on the land. Men were not only drafted into the forces, but eventually down the mines as well.

Mrs Minnie Murless of the Wynnstay guest house (above) clips the ration books of her guests. There were weekly forms for butcher and grocer, and every two month the local Food Office required detailed lists of consumption. Fuel and animal food required separate permits.

“Local defense,” reads the original caption, “releases men for overseas offense.” Like most Home Guard units, this one includes those too old or too young for regular service as well as men in some key occupations which spared them regular call-up.

Rail travel was cramped and uncertain. Here a member of the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and a soldier sit on their luggage in the corridor of a London to Scotland express.

In May 1942 Molotov, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, flew to England to sign a Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance. Here he is walking next to Churchill in the garden of No 10 Downing Street. Clement Attlee, Deputy Prime Minister, is shrouded in tobacco smoke in the centre of the photograph, and Anthony Eden, Foreign Secretary, is just behind Churchill.

Russian ambassador Ivan Maisky accepts the first tank produced under the “Tanks for Russia” scheme. War material was shipped to Russia, often at great cost, in the arctic convoys through the Norwegian and Barents seas.

Living with “The Blitz”

As the nightly German attacks over London continued, the city’s Underground railway stations were used as air raid shelters (above). The authorities disapproved of the practice at first, but then did what they could to make them more comfortable, and life underground soon developed its own culture. These Londoners are sleeping on the escalators in one London tube station.

In a mimicry of death, shop dummies lie on the pavement (above) after a London department store was hit.

At the height of the Blitz, most of the 1,500,000 people serving in the various fire, civil defence, shelter and casualty organizations were part-time volunteers. Here a rescue party (below) — with the double R designation on its steel helmets — removes a Blitz victim from rubble.

The Blitz

The Blitz — an abbreviation of Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) — was the name given to German attacks on British cities in 1940-41. London was bombed by accident on the night of August 24, and the RAF responded by bombing Berlin the following night. In early September, Goering unwisely shifted the Luftwaffe's main effort from airfields to cities, and “Black Saturday,” September 7, saw the first major raid on London. When the Blitz ended in May 1941, over 43,000 civilians had been killed and great tracts of ancient cities and industrial centres devastated — but popular resolve had not been broken.

The Blitz did not just hit London and major provincial cities like Bristol and Liverpool. Here Churchill inspects bomb damage (above) in little Ramsgate.

On November 13, German bombers struck Coventry in the midlands, destroying not only twelve armaments factories but also part of the city centre and the 14th-Century cathedral (below).

Heinkels Over London

One of the war's classic photographs (above): A Heinkel He 111 over Wapping, England on “Black Saturday,” September 7, 1940 — the first day of the offensive against London. 300 tons of bombs were dropped and about 2,000 civilians killed or seriously injured.

Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Thurz at the controls of a Heinkel He 111 bomber (below).

Watching the Skies Over Britain

The Operations Room at RAF Bentley Priory, Fighter Command's headquarters is seen above. Symbols representing squadrons are moved across the map, while senior officers in the gallery above control the battle.

Civilian volunteers of the Royal Observer Corps (below) reported the numbers, direction and type on incoming enemy aircraft. Here an observer plots the height of a German formation.

Preparations for Invasion

The German invasion of Britain could not succeed without air superiority, and on July 10, 1940, the Luftwaffe began to attack shipping in the English Channel. A week later Hitler issued orders for “Operation Sealion,” and in August, bombers struck airfields of the R.A.F.’s (Royal Air Force) Fighter Command. Both sides consistently over-estimated the number of enemy aircraft destroyed, but the R.A.F. was never as badly weakened as the Germans supposed — and while German pilots who parachuted were captured, their British counterparts could fight on. In early September, German efforts were fatally handicapped by Luftwaffe head Herman Goering’s diversion of resources to bombing cities, and “Sealion” was postponed on September 17th.

A Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) operator in England plots targets (above). Primitive radar was heavily dependent on skilled users.

German preparations for “Operation Sealion” included experiments with amphibious tanks (below).

More British Preparations

As England prepared for impending invasion by Germany’s armed and naval forces, beach defenses transformed the British coast. These little girls (above) look wistfully at the wired-off sand where they normally would’ve been allowed to play in the peaceful days prior.

When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was asked what should be done with “enemy aliens” — German and Italian citizens in England at the outbreak of war (many of them refugees, Jewish and non-Jewish) — his reply was characteristic: “Collar the lot.” Here on May 29, 1940, women and children (below), escorted by police and officials, board a train which will take them to internment on the Isle of Man.

Britain Prepares

With the fall of France, Britain stood alone and Churchill presciently informed his countrymen that Hitler would have to “break us in this island or lose the war.” Serious preparations were made to meet an invasion, although, with so much of its equipment lost in France, the army was pitifully weak. The evacuation of children from London and other major cities, begun the previous year but reversed (despite government pleas) as many children returned to the cities when air attacks did not materialize, resumed, and Britain braced itself for a long war.

The battle of France was still being fought when these little evacuees left London (above). A policeman is checking one little tot's label to make sure she boards the right train.

Signposts and other direction indicators (below), which would have helped the invaders to find their way around the country, were taken down.

Churchill Becomes Prime Minister

Churchill had joined the War Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty on the outbreak of war, and replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister in the furor that followed the disastrous Norwegian campaign. Here he confers with Gort and his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Pownall. The latter pointed out in his diaries that it was not easy to work with Churchill. “Can nobody prevent him,” he wrote on May 24, “trying to conduct operations himself as a sort of super Commander-in-Chief?” However, Churchill’s energy and resolve had a terrific impact on the British war effort: his flaws, like his strengths, were on a grand scale, but he was the man of the hour. This image was taken in France on November 5, 1939, while Churchill was still First Lord of the Admiralty.

IT’S WAR!!!

Newspaper placards in London announce the German invasion of Poland, September 1, 1939.

“Peace In Our Time”

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is shown arriving at Heston airport after the Munich Conference in September 1938. He was to declare infamously that the agreement promised “Peace in Our Time.” When Hitler invaded and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Chamberlain felt betrayed by the breaking of the Munich Agreement and decided to take a much harder line against the Nazis, declaring war against Germany upon their invasion of Poland.

London, 1939 — It’s War!

Today we begin a mostly chronological overview of the Second World War in photographs from a single source. We see here a London newspaper salesman with the special editions of the English papers declaring that war has been declared on Germany.

British Children Evacuated

As war was declared in 1939, the British government knew that cities would be bombed, and thought that gas would be used. A million coffins were prepared. It was feared that many child casualties would affect morale, so pressure was put on parents to send the children away to the safety of the countryside.

Families gathered at railway stations. A label was tied to the children, giving their destination. The evacuations began on September 1, 1939. Some parents refused to allow their children to leave, but amazing numbers sent them away. Over one million evacuees left London by train.

School children travelled with their teachers, and children under five went with their mothers. Pregnant women were also evacuated. For many children the journey was exciting — they had never seen the country before. It was the first time they had seen farm animals. For many others, it was the first time they had been away from home and they were very distressed. Many evacuees felt homesick. Strangers chose them and took them to live in their homes. They went to the local school and had to make new friends. Some never settled down in their new homes. Others were happier with their new families than they had been at home. Very young children sometimes forgot their real parents.

Country people found the city children hard to cope with. They were horrified by their ignorance — for instance, many were amazed to find out that milk came from a cow. Many evacuees were poor — they had never worn underclothes, eaten food from a table or slept in a bed.

There was no bombing between September and Christmas so many parents took their children home again. Some children were evacuated again the next year and some stayed in the country for the whole of the war.

The Morning After a London Night Raid

“Although Germany’s daylight raiders met with little success in their attacks on London, those that came by night succeeded in causing considerable damage to property, besides killing and injuring many civilians. This view of the approach to London Bridge is a typical example of the scenes of devastation that greeted city workers on the way to their offices on the morning after a raid (September 1940).”

Source: Pictorial History of the Second World War

All-Night Raid on Britain’s Capitol

“Herman Goering’s air force launched its first all-night raid on London, when on the night of August 26, 1940 small waves of Nazi bombers operated repeatedly over the London area from 9:30 p.m. to 3:45 a.m. Though bombs were dropped in residential districts over a wide area, the resulting damage was small and out of all proportion to the “nuisance value” of the attack, and the main purpose of the raid seemed to be to hold up war production by depriving workers of their sleep.”

Source: Pictorial History of the Second World War