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World Word 2
World War Two in Europe began on 3rd September 1939.
World War 2 ended in 1918.
The Second World War was started by Germany in an unprovoked attack on Poland. Britain and
France declared war on Germany after Hitler had refused to abort his invasion of Poland.
The War ended in the summer of 1945.
It is estimated that 50 million people lost their lives during World War 2.
In 1933 the German people voted for a leader named Adolf Hitler, who led a political party in
Germany called the Nazis. Hitler promised to make his country great again and quickly began to arm
Germany again and to seize land from other countries.
At 4:56pm on 7 September 1940, the air raid sirens wailed as the German Air Force, the luftwaffe,
launched a massive raid on London. Over 350 bombers flew across the Channel from airfields in
France and dropped 300 tonnes of bombs on the docks and streets of the East End of London.
The heavy and frequent bombing attacks on London and other cities was known as the 'Blitz'.
Night after night, from September 1940 until May 1941, German bombers attacked British cities,
ports and industrial areas.
London was bombed every day and night, bar one, for 11 weeks. One third of London was
destroyed.
The sirens made a very loud and long signal or warning sound.
For an alert, the siren sound pitch rose and fell alternately. The All Clear was a continuous sound
from the siren.
Not every alert brought a raid, and sometimes raids happened when no alert had sounded.
During the Blitz 32,000 civilians were killed and 87,000 were seriously injured.
Different types of bombs were dropped from the enemy planes were:
H.E. (High Explosive) bombs of various weights.
Incendiary Bombs, also termed Fire Bombs as they caused fires.
Oil Bombs.
One in every ten bombs that fell was a 'dud'. which meant that it did not explode on impact. But
some bombs had a delayed action fuse, which meant they could go off at any time. This meant that
it was almost impossible to tell which bombs were which.
People had to be evacuated until the bombs had been made safe.
From 1944, two new types of weapons were used, which had a rocket type of propulsion to launch a
war head. They were known as flying bombs.
1.The V1 ( Doodlebug) - They had no pilot and made a droning noise. As soon as the droning noise
stopped people had 15 seconds to escape from the powerful blast that followed. Many V1's fell
short into the sea, others fell in the countryside. Almost 9,250 V1's were fired against London, but
less than 2,500 reached their target. About 2,000 were destroyed by anti-aircraft gunfire; 2,000 by
fighter planes, and almost 300 by barrage balloons.
2.The V2 - The V2's arrived without any warning sound. They also flew very fast and high up in the
air; much too high to be shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of fighter aircraft.
To make the British weak, the Germans tried to cut off supplies of food and other goods. German
submarines attacked many of the ships that brought food to Britain.
The Ration Book became the key to survival for nearly every household in Britain.
Every member of the public was issued with a ration book.The colour of your ration book was very
important as it made sure you go the right amount and types of food needed for your health.
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Buff-coloured ration books - Most adults had this colour.
Green ration books - Pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 5. They had first
choice of fruit, a daily pint of milk and a double supply of eggs.
Blue ration books - Children between 5 and 16 years of age. It was felt important that
children had fruit, the full meat ration and half a pint of milk a day.
Rationing was introduced to make sure that everyone had a fair share of the items that were hard to
get hold of during the war.
It wasn't just food that was rationed during World War II clothing also became scarce.
People were also urged to Make do and mend so that clothing factories and workers could be used
to make items, such as parachutes and uniforms, needed in the battle against Germany.
Clothes rationing began on June 1, 1941, two years after food rationing started.
Clothes rationing ended on 15 March 1949.
Each page of coupons was a different colour to stop people using up all their coupons at once.
People were only allowed to use one colour at a time. The government would tell people when they
could start using a new colour.
Each person was given 60 coupons to last them a year. Later it was reduced to 48 coupons.
Children were allocated an extra 10 clothing coupons above the standard ration to allow for growing
out of clothes during a year.
Britain was blacked out on 1st September 1939, two days before the outbreak of war.
During the war, everyone had to cover their windows and doors in the evening with heavy blackout
curtains, cardboard or paint.
They needed to prevent any glimmer of light from escaping and aiding enemy aircraft during the
bombing raids.
D-Day is a military term designating the start of a military operation.
The D-day in modern history refers to what happened on 6th June 1944 - the day on which the
Battle of Normandy began.It was a huge effort involving months of secret preparations.
Thousands of Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, in northern France, at the start of
the battle to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation.
D-day marked the turning point in World War II when the Allied forces began to win their fight
against the Axis powers.
There was 3 sides called the Allies, Axis and Neutral, Neutral is the countries that never fought in the
war, Axis were on Hitler’s side and the Allies were against Hitler.
Allies
•Australia.
•Belgium.
•Brazil,
•Canada,
•China,
•Czechoslovakia,
•Denmark,
•Estonia,
•France,
•Greece,
•India,
•Latvia,
•Lithuania,
•Malta,
•The Netherlands,
•New Zealand,
•Norway,
•Poland,
•South Africa,
•United States,
•USSR (Russia),
•Yugoslavia ( dosn't exest any more).
Axis
•German,
•Italy,
•Japan.
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