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How did the Second World War Affect Family Life in Britain Between 1939

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How did the Second World War Affect Family Life in Britain Between 1939-45? The Blitz comes from a German word meaning lightning. It was the sustained strategic bombing of the United Kingdom by Germany during the Second World War. Between 7 September 1940 and 21 May 1941 there were major raids (attacks in which more than 100 tons of high explosives were dropped) on 16 British cities. Over a period of 267 days (almost 37 weeks), London was attacked 71 times, Birmingham, Liverpool and Plymouth eight times, Bristol six, Glasgow five, Southampton four, Portsmouth three, and there was also at least one large raid on another eight cities. This was a result of a rapid escalation starting on 24 August 1940, when night bombers aiming for RAF …show more content…

We lads used to pray for raids during math classes because it meant a small diversion. We used to collect aluminum for “the war effort. Old saucepans, frying pans – anything used to be collected and when a truckload was achieved the authorities used to collect it, and it was used for building aircraft. The Germans used to drop hundreds of meters of foil strips called "window" to put a large amount of metal in the sky - it confused our early and primitive radar into thinking there were a lot of aircraft coming. So our fighters would take off and go to attack, only to find it a false alarm, and be out of fuel when the main raid attacked elsewhere. Window was a favorite collection item. We thought it insane that Mr Hitler would send us all this aluminum for us to turn into aircraft to go and bomb him with. So even we kids were roped into the war effort. I remember one particular day “Baggy” Davis and I had tied a rope to a tail section of a downed German fighter aircraft, and with the help of about 6 other lads dragged it about 2 miles to school leaving silver streaks along the road as we went. We got extra “points” for our houses [teams] for such a large aluminum

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