Wartime Britain

What was life like in Britain during the Second World War (1939–45)? Here we explore rationing, evacuation measures, the Blitz, crime, and the role of women

Second World War

5 facts about the Bevin Boys

Norsk Hydro's Vermork plant

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The Special Operations Executive: Churchill's secret army. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The postwar world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wendy Webster. (Photo by Claire Wood/BBC)

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Books interview with Wendy Webster: “In its finest hour, Britain’s population was multiethnic and multinational”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A crowd gathers to watch the witnesses arrive for the trial of John George Haigh, the 'acid bath murderer', in Lewes, East Sussex, July 1949. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

10 facts about crime on the home front in the Second World War

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Britain’s secret wartime prison. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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'Darkest Hour': an interview with director Joe Wright. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Churchill’s darkest hour. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winston Churchill leaves a cabinet meeting

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Churchill’s days of destiny. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A British soldier uses a searchlight to spot German aircraft during the Second World War. Britain has lived with the fear of invasion for several centuries, a fact reflected in its architecture, its art and its people’s mental health. (Photo by David Savill/Getty Images)

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The LibraryThe island fortress fallacy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Blitz

Second World War

The cruel cost of the Blitz: how did everyday Britons rebuild their lives?

Second World War

The Coventry Blitz – Q&A with historian Frederick Taylor

Second World War

The wartime wireless and the lost voice of Cyril Lakin

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Migrating to Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Persuading the people: British propaganda in the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Soviet science and feeding Britain at war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Britain’s Second World War and the Country House. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists

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The LibraryBritain’s tearoom fascists. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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World War Two spies and an extraordinary naturalist. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The LibraryThe History Essay: How Europe rose from the dead. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Black Market camera seller

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Criminals of the Blitz: how the German bombings created a golden age of crime. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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North Sea oil and the Blitz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Women wearing unrationed shoe soles during the war

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Dressed for war: fashions of the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Huts in Lambeth built for bombed-out families, 1945. (Getty)

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Britain in 1945: Life in the shadow of victory. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soldiers guard England's south coast behind a bank of banned wire on 2 September 1940

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Britain's fight for survival: Fortress Britain 1940. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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10 tips for surviving on the home front during the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Juliet Gardiner for BBC History Magazine

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History explorer: the Second World War home front. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Escaping the Blitz and recording the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Worshippers inside the Duke Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Surrey, listening to a service in 1954. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images)

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The LibraryD-Day for God?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The aftermath of the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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