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Dear Old Blighty: Britain's First World War Home Front
Price:
£7.00
In the summer of 1914, Britain felt secure that the old order was firmly in place. Britain, through its navy, ruled the waves, and a fair part of the world through its Empire. Yet this security was an illusion; a war of unimaginable scale was just days away.
The war would affect every level of British society; first through the urgent need for a massive expansion of the armed forces, drawing in ever-more men from civilian life. This in turn denuded the factories, shops and farms of labour, at a time when industry needed to expand to clothe and supply the armed services, and agriculture needed to fill the shortages of food created by the U-boat assault on our merchant fleet.
The armed forces had first call on men, food, and material, so shortages hit the civilian population hardest; replacement labour was found in women, who began to take on work previously the reserve of men; in the factories, transport, commerce, and agriculture. Food remained a problem; shortages led to food queues, leading to increasing Government control and eventually rationing. Civilians were also hit by shortages of petrol and clothing, leading to petrol rationing, gas-cars, and ‘standard’ cloth.
There were also more immediate dangers; raids by German ships on coastal towns, and air raids throughout the country by Zeppelins, and later, aeroplanes.
In ‘Dear Old Blighty’, Mike Brown looks in depth at the experience of the civilians, men, women and children, of Britain throughout those four momentous years.
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Crime in the Second World War: Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse
Price:
£15.00
At a time of national emergency, the average person could be forgiven for thinking that crime rates would go down as everyone tried to help the war effort. However, the reality was that criminals saw the war as an opportunity to exploit the emergency conditions and those with a previously unblemished reputation found themselves tempted off the straight and narrow.
Criminal activity wasn’t just a civilian occupation. The military services had its share of crime and the influx of foreign troops added to the problem. American and Canadian troops found themselves transported to Britain in preparation for D-Day. Lonely and far from home, some rioted and many looked for other distractions with desertion being a significant problem and one which was often funded by crime.
Heavily illustrated with both contemporary and modern photographs Penny takes you back to some of the most infamous wartime crimes such as the blackout ripper, the bath chair murderer and the last person to be prosecuted in Britain for witchcraft. She also delves into the murky world of Spivs, Gangs, prostitutes and Robbers.
At a time when rationing, shortages and the blitz meant feeding the family became ever more difficult it was all too easy for the increasingly blurred line of criminality to be crossed. Penny Legg shows how and why crime was committed during the Second World War and what became of those Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse who strayed into the underworld.
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Ode to Bully Beef: WWII Poetry They Didn't Let You Read
Price:
£5.99
'The Second World War (1939-45) was not greeted with the same lavish outpouring of patriotic fervour that had attended August 1914. Any rags of glory had long since been drowned in the mud of Flanders. The Great War had been heralded as 'the war to end all wars'; veterans were promised 'a land fit for heroes'. Both of these vain boasts soon began to sound hollow as depression, unemployment, poverty and a rash of new wars followed. The sons and daughters of those who had embarked upon their own patriotic Calvary did so again in an altogether more sombre spirit.
One significant difference between the two conflicts is that, whilst both were industrial wars, the Second World War was far nearer, the concept of total war. The growth of strategic air power, in its infancy in 1918, had by 1939 become a reality. In this war, even more widespread and terrible than the last, there were to be no civilians. Death sought new victims everywhere; British citizens were now in the front line, there was to be no respite, no hiding place.
This is the poetry and prose of those who were there, ordinary people caught in the terrible maelstrom of mass conflict on a scale hitherto unimagined; this is their testimony.
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: The History Press (3 Mar. 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0752491899
Dimensions: 13.5 x 1.5 x 19.6 cm
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The Home Front - British Wartime Memorabilia
Price:
£16.95
Peter Doyle and Paul Evans have put together a huge selection of objects associated with the Home Front, each one superbly illustrated and described in detail. This book is a treasure trove of information for collectors, and anyone interested in the Home Front. Full colour hardback book.
RRP £25.00. ISBN: 9781861269270
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Price:
£14.00
by Jon Mills.
Everyone in Britain during the Second World War had to have the correct identification documents and there were a huge number and variety depending on who you were. Civilians, Children, Policeman, War Workers, Army, Navy, RAF, Allied servicemen of every nation (US, Polish, French etc.), and many more, each differant.
Never before has such a superb guide been put together in one book. Jon Mills has once again put together THE essential guide for collectors, historians, re-enactors or anyone interested in Britains Homefront.
SPECIAL OFFER
FREE with every copy ordered from the 1940s Society.
A blank reproduction identity card.
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Price:
£9.99
In June 1940 following the Dunkirk evacuations, Britain stood alone. After witnessing the demoralised survivors first hand, Roxane Houston was determined to 'do her bit'. She volunteered to join the WRNS. From a comfortable background with a sheltered upbringing, she now began a remarkable, and sometimes difficult journey, set against six years of war. Starting in 1940 at the Royal Naval Air Station at St Merryn near Padstow, under seemingly constant attack from the Luftwaffe, via the RNAS at Machrihanish in Scotland, preparing for Combined Ops at Largs and Greenock in the run-up to D-Day, thence to Kandy and Colombo, in Ceylon, she did not return home until early 1946. She met many varied characters, making some lifelong friends, experienced much excitement and great danger, happiness and personal tragedy, and received more than one proposal of marriage. Now, in her twilight years, she revisits those momentous days which tested her and her contemporaries to the full. Her autobiography is a highly personal, often poignant account of her time as a Wren, which not only gives a fascinating insight into service life, but also reflects the reshaping of her own outlook and attitudes.
(Hardback, RRP 17.99)
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Price:
£14.95
I have managed to obtain a further quantity of this hard to find book after selling out rather quickly.
It is a book of colour photographs of Britain during the Second World War. These photographs were taken by U.S. serviceman who either had access to rare colour film or had managed to bring it over here with them. A unique book which I recommend to those with an interest in wartime Britain.
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