Homefront Yorkshire, 1939–1945

Homefront Yorkshire, 1939–1945
Author: Len Markham
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2007-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 178159743X

No event in history had such a profound and long-term effect as World War Two, it's consequences still helping to shape the modern world. With our trade routes harassed by U-boats, our skies darkened by the Luftwaffe and our beaches imperilled by the threat of invasion, the period from 1939 to 1945 was a frightening one for ordinary civilians. But the people of Yorkshire responded to the challenge with incredible fortitude, camaraderie, determination and good humour, the tireless efforts of armies of civilians keeping the British lamp of freedom trimmed. This unique compendium of many never-before-published personal reminiscences from the Yorkshire home front paints an astonishing picture of life in the war torn county. It records the tender and sometimes hilarious adventures of boys and girls, the selfless grind of workers in the mines and factories, the exhausting labours in allotments and fields and the bravery and dedication of the emergency services and other dedicated professionals who just put on their tin hats and worked on. Consigned to the memory banks for nearly seven decades, these stirring remembrances reveal the wealth of ingenuity and invention and the passionate bulldog spirit that kept our hopes alive during our darkest hours, the author also touching on the less heroic aspects of the period.

Home Front Yorkshire, 1939-1945

Home Front Yorkshire, 1939-1945
Author: Leonard Markham
Publisher:
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2007
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 9781844156344

No event in history had such a profound and long-term effect as World War Two, it's consequences still helping to shape the modern world. With our trade routes harassed by U-boats, our skies darkened by the Luftwaffe and our beaches imperilled by the threat of invasion, the period from 1939 to 1945 was a frightening one for ordinary civilians. But the people of Yorkshire responded to the challenge with incredible fortitude, camaraderie, determination and good humour, the tireless efforts of armies of civilians keeping the British lamp of freedom trimmed. This unique compendium of many never-before-published personal reminiscences from the Yorkshire home front paints an astonishing picture of life in the war torn county. It records the tender and sometimes hilarious adventures of boys and girls, the selfless grind of workers in the mines and factories, the exhausting labours in allotments and fields and the bravery and dedication of the emergency services and other dedicated professionals who just put on their tin hats and worked on. Consigned to the memory banks for nearly seven decades, these stirring remembrances reveal the wealth of ingenuity and invention and the passionate bulldog spirit that kept our hopes alive during our darkest hours, the author also touching on the less heroic aspects of the period. AUTHOR: Len Markham is a well-known Yorkshire rambler, journalist, author, historian, scriptwriter and raconteur. His previous works include over a dozen walking guidebooks.

Faces of the Home Front, 1939–1945

Faces of the Home Front, 1939–1945
Author: Neil Storey
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2022-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1399001590

Faces of the Home Front presents a fascinating insight into the people, wartime organisations, events, life and work on the British Home Front during the Second World War. This is the story of ordinary people in extraordinary times told through an array of previously unpublished rare photographs, illustrations and ephemera. If you have wondered how Air Raid Wardens, Ambulance crews, Home Guard, Firemen, Special Constables, Women's Voluntary Service and the Women's Land Army were recruited and trained, how they were uniformed and what their duties entailed in wartime were, this is the book for you. Drawing on the authors’ own extensive archives of original photographs, training manuals, documents, decades of research and interviews with those who were there, there are stories of well-known events such as the Blitz on London and many other often lesser known events and incidents around the country, some deeply moving, some harrowing and some that show how the kindness and selfless bravery of people that helped get Britain through its darkest hours. The combination of images and stories vividly bring to life the experiences of people in cities, towns and countryside in wartime as they experienced evacuation, rationing, the black-out and air raids touched the lives of everyone. This volume is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any family historian, collector, re-enactor.

The Home Front: 1939–1945 in 100 Objects

The Home Front: 1939–1945 in 100 Objects
Author: Austin J. Ruddy
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2020-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526740877

A colorful catalogue of objects that illustrate what everyday life was like in wartime Britain. A lifesaving gas mask. A ration book, essential for the supply of food. A shelter stove that kept a family warm while they huddled in their Anderson shelter. A leaflet dropped by the Luftwaffe that was designed to intimidate Britain’s populace during the threat of invasion. A civilian identity card over-stamped with the swastika eagle from the occupied Channel Islands. A rare, previously unpublished, snapshot of legendary bandleader Glenn Miller playing at a UK air base. A twisted remnant of German V2 rocket that went to space and back before exploding over London, the result of equally twisted military science. Colorful flag bunting that saw the VE celebrations in 1945. These disparate objects and many more together tell the moving and important story of Britain’s home front during the Second World War. The ordinary objects featured in this book, supplemented with facts, figures, dates, stories, and statistics, portray the highs and lows the British people experienced during six years of war—from the deprivations of rationing and the bombing of the Blitz, to the cheery songs, elegant fashions, and “Dig For Victory” spirit.

Sport and the Home Front

Sport and the Home Front
Author: Matthew Taylor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2020-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000071367

Sport and the Home Front contributes in significant and original ways to our understanding of the social and cultural history of the Second World War. It explores the complex and contested treatment of sport in government policy, media representations and the everyday lives of wartime citizens. Acknowledged as a core component of British culture, sport was also frequently criticised, marginalised and downplayed, existing in a constant state of tension between notions of normality and exceptionality, routine and disruption, the everyday and the extraordinary. The author argues that sport played an important, yet hitherto neglected, role in maintaining the morale of the British people and providing a reassuring sense of familiarity at a time of mass anxiety and threat. Through the conflict, sport became increasingly regarded as characteristic of Britishness; a symbol of the ‘ordinary’ everyday lives in defence of which the war was being fought. Utilised to support the welfare of war workers, the entertainment of service personnel at home and abroad and the character formation of schoolchildren and young citizens, sport permeated wartime culture, contributing to new ways in which the British imagined the past, present and future. Using a wide range of personal and public records – from diary writing and club minute books to government archives – this book breaks new ground in both the history of the British home front and the history of sport.

The British Home Front 1939–45

The British Home Front 1939–45
Author: Martin Brayley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2012-07-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782001549

The population of Britain was mobilized to support the war effort on a scale unseen in any other Western democracy – or in Nazi Germany. They endured long working shifts, shortages of food and all other goods, and complete government control of their daily lives. Most men and women were conscripted or volunteered for additional tasks outside their formal working hours. Under the air raids that destroyed the centres of many towns and made about 2 million homeless, more than 60,000 civilians were killed and 86,000 seriously injured. This fascinating illustrated summary of wartime life, and the organizations that served on the Home front, is a striking record of endurance and sacrifice.

Leeds at War, 1939–45

Leeds at War, 1939–45
Author: Stephen Wade
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2017-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473867797

Leeds at War 1939-1945 is a comprehensive account of the city's experience of the war, covering in expert detail life on the Home Front set against the background of the wider theaters of war.The narrative of that global conflict is given with a focus on the trials and ordeals that faced the people of Leeds as they cheered their men and women fighters off to war, were bombed and saw their children evacuated to rural areas.Rare insights into the life of war-torn Leeds are included, along with untold stories from the footnotes of that history, from the air-raid shelters to the internment issues. The book incorporates the unique human record of that struggle from memoirs and memories, so that the reader sees the war bottom up from the ordinary people, although the military experiences of Leeds' citizens are not ignored.More controversial topics are also touched upon, such as anti-Semitism, labor troubles and crime, to give a full and fascinating picture of a great city facing profound trials of endurance, courage, and that true Yorkshire grit that has been the hallmark of the city's rise to prominence in Britain.

Home front heroism

Home front heroism
Author: Ellena Matthews
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2024-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526162113

Home front heroism investigates how civilians were recognised and celebrated as heroic during the Second World War. Through a focus on London, this book explores how heroism was manufactured as civilians adopted roles in production, protection and defence, through the use of uniforms and medals, and through the way that civilians were injured and killed. This book makes a novel contribution to the study of heroism by exploring the spatial, material, corporeal and ritualistic dimensions of heroic representations. By tracing the different ways that home front heroism was cultivated on a national, local and personal level, this study promotes new ways of thinking about the meaning and value of heroism during periods of conflict. It will appeal to anyone interested in the social and cultural history of Second World War as well as the sociology and psychology of heroism.

Women at War 1939-1945

Women at War 1939-1945
Author: Carol Harris
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2000-10-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750952814

Long before the outbreak of the Second World War, official calculations showed Britain would be short of the manpower needed to fight the enemy and keep up production of weapons, food and other essentials. It was hoped that women volunteers would full the gaps and so they volunteered as workers in Civil Defence, the Women's Land Army, munitions factories and non-combatant roles in the Forces.But by 1941, the Government had to face facts: any effective response would have to involve conscription of British women. All females between the ages of fourteen and sixty-four were registered and soon the vast majority had work to do. They collected tons of salvage, knitted and sewed, and raised money for warships and weapons. Women ran fire stations and drove makeshift ambulances while cities burned and enemy bombs exploded around them. They kept their families going, often as single parents while their husbands were away for years in the armed forces.By the end of the war, some of the most experienced rat-catchers in the country were female; others were accomplished engineers, carters, rail workers and bargees.When it was over, these wartime roles were not commemorated in films and books. There has been little official acknowledgement of the enormous and crucial contribution those British women made to the lives we live now. Many are getting on in years and their precious first-hand memories will go with them. Their stories are worth telling now for that alone. But they are also tales of love, death, sacrifice and romance, of humour and horror, and of an extraordinary time, when ordinary women did extraordinary things.

The Home Front

The Home Front
Author: Susan Briggs
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1975
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9780070078505