1945 Hitler is dead!

Hitler is dead. Today 30^th of April Hitler committed suicide together with his mistress Eva Braun, who he married shortly before his death. The allies were closing in on Berlin. Hitler who was at the time staying in a war bunker in Berlin did not want to be captured by his enemies. 

1945, August 11th

Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on the 6th August, killing perhaps as many as 84 000 people and leaving thousands more slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Three days later they dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. This killed another 40 000 people. The japanese government has now surrendered. Truman’s justification was that he was saving American lives, since the war might otherwise drag on for another year.

1944 D-Day

·         Tuesday, 6 June 1944 D-Day: The Allies reached the shore of Normandy, France. 160,000 of our Allied troops landed along a heavily-fortified French coastline to fight the Nazi Germany. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory” More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircrafts where under operation on the D-Day invasion, and by the end of that day, the Allies had already gained a foot-hold in Normandy. Over 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded – we shall never forget the brave soldiers. But more than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to Berlin.

1944 Iwo Jima

·         Today USA has captured Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. From the 19^th of February to March 26 American troops have been fighting the Japanese on the island Iwo Jima. The mission was to capture the island to take control over the three airfields on the island. 6,822 US soldiers were killed and over 19000 soldiers were killed. The capture of Iwo Jima has marked a tremendous victory for the US over the Japanese. 

1943, July 10th

The armed forces of Britain, the United States and Canada have landed on the Mediterranean island of Sicily.

It is the first major landing of British troops on European soil since the fall of Crete two years ago.

Initial resistance has been surprisingly weak against British forces with little anti-aircraft fire and no enemy naval intervention. However, the US forces faced a tougher fight on their beaches.

The Times reports Allied air forces acted in close co-operation with naval and ground forces.

Late last night airborne troops in parachutes and gliders - many of whom fought in North Africa - were dropped over the island.

1943, February 2nd

The Soviet Government has announced the final defeat of the German 6th Army at the port of Stalingrad, in southern Russia.

A statement late this evening said: "Our forces have now completed the liquidation of the German Fascist troops encircled in the area of Stalingrad.

"The last centre of enemy resistance in the Stalingrad area has thus been crushed."

The declaration brings to an end five months of heavy fighting for the city. The battle has been described as among the most terrible of the war so far.

1942, November 25th

In the end of august this year, the Germans reached Stalingrad. Even though the city was more or less destroyed, the Russians refused to surrender. They have now started a ferocious counter-attack and the last weeks we have seen drastic change. They have trapped the Germans, whose supply lines were dangerously extended, in a large pincer movement. With his retreat cut off, the German commander von Paulus had no reasonable alternative but to surrender with 94 000 men. We believe this may lead to a turning point in the war. 

1942, August 25th

On the 19th August 1942 the Allied attacked the German-occupied port of Dieppe on the northern coast of France. The assault began at 5:00 AM and by 10:50 AM the Allied commanders had been forced to call a retreat. Over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, were supported by large Royal Navy and Royal Air Force contingents. The objective was to seize and hold a major port for a short period, both to prove it was possible and to gather intelligence from prisoners and captured materials while assessing the German responses. The Allies also wanted to destroy coastal defences, port structures and all strategic buildings.

No major objectives of the raid were accomplished. A total of 3,623 of the 6,086 men who made it ashore were either killed, wounded, or captured. The air force failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle, losing 96 aircraft compared to 48 lost by the Luftwaffe, while the Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and one destroyer. 

1941 Pearl Harbour

·         Yesterday the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted a military strike against the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. 353 Japanese fighters, torpedo planes and bombers attacked the naval base in two waves. The US had not expected the attack and it came as a total shock. Four US battleships were sunk, and three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, 188 US aircrafts and one minelayer was heavily damaged. The Japanese attack also killed 4,402 men and wounded over 1000.  Today the 8^th of December, US have declared war against Japan. 

1941 "Blitz war"

·         The worst of the bomb attacks carried out by the German Luftwaffe also known as the “Blitz War” has become a lot less frequent. From the 7^th of September last year until the 10^th of May this year the Germans have attacked us, and killed over 42,000 British civilians. Most of the attacks were carried out against London, but cities throughout the country have been damaged by the bombs of the Luftwaffe. Birmingham and Coventry were targeted because of our Spitfire factories and important industries.  The entire British nation is hurt by the cruelty of the Germans, but we must keep up the fight against them. With the help an increasing number of anti-aircraft guns and searchlights that were radar-controlled it improved the accuracy and helped with the British protection of our nation.

Life in Britain - 1940

Britain didn’t only need help from their soldiers, but the British people at the home front were asked to help, by making extra efforts and working harder. Children saved pennies, collected scrap metal and food waste, and knitted woolly hats for soldiers and refugees. Companies such as, BBC Children's Hour, even ran a scrap-collecting competition. The winners collected 9 tons of scrap. This was to increase the war efforts by the children.

With the men set to war,  millions of women worked in the factories, on buses and trains, and in hospitals and schools. They also worked on the farms, and served the

The government has come out with information campaign that tell us what to do – and what not to.

Here are the don’ts’ :

·      Don’t burn too much coal on the fire

·      Don’t take a bus when you could walk

·      Don’t gossip about work, because ‘Careless Talk costs Lives’. A spy might be listening

The government use propaganda too keep up the spirit. They did this by putting up posters, radio programs, films and newspapers. This is also use to make most of victories and make fun of the enemy. Everything that’s written in the newspaper and what’s said on the radio is all controlled by the government.

here’s a poster from the government that tells people to reuse their clothes. 

November 1940, and children sleep in hammocks in the London Underground. The electric track was switched off, for safety, when people sheltered in Tube stations.

A poster from 1940. The Blitz had begun. Why do you think the government put out this poster?

Britain and France – Spring 1940

During the spring We started cooperated with France. In early April 1940, Britain and France finally agreed on our first joint offensive. We decided to send troops to seize the Norwegian North Sea ports, even though Norway was neutral. Our strategic reason for that was the need stop all transportation of the iron supply from the Swedish mines to Germany. But we waited with putting this plan into action.

As a result the war acquires in Britain and France a name suggesting a dangerous sense of relaxation. This was known as the Phoney War in Britain, and le Drole de Guerre (the Joke War) in France. During the spring of 1940, the  western nations have spent 8 useful months of stronger armaments. Chamberlain declared confidently on April 5 to the house of commons that one thing was now certain – Hitler has ‘missed the bus’.

The Phoney War ended in May 1940 when the Germans launched an offensive into Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, where the allies to fight. At the same time a change in the British politics occurred. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill. 

The picture above is of our new Prime Minister - Winston Churchill

1939, September 4th

The Prime Minister announced today in a message broadcast to the Empire, that as from 11 o’clock in the morning, Great Britain was at war with Germany.

The Commonwealth of Australia proclaimed a state of war three hours later, New Zealand followed and France was at war from 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Canada has given an assurance of effective co-operative.

The House of Commons met at noon to hear from Mr. Chamberlain the declaration that Britain were at war.

In the Lords Lord Halifax made a similar announcement. M.P.s will meet again today at 8 o’clock.

1939, September 2nd

The evacuation of schoolchildren from London went without a hitch. The children, smiling and cheerful, left their parents for unknown destinations in the spirit of going on a great adventure.


'I wish all our passengers were as easy to manage,' a railway official said. 'The children were very well behaved.'

In the picture above: A family goes into an Anderson air raid shelter in their garden, 1939. Each person carries a gas mask in a little box.

At Waterloo, 80 per cent of the normal travellers saw nothing of the schoolchildren. After Earl de la Warr, President of the Board of Education, had toured a number of schools in West London, he said, 'If the arrangements at the other end for receiving the children are as good as at this end, it bodes well for the scheme.'

Waiting rooms, turned into first-aid posts at various stations for the children, were rarely if ever used.