Category: WWII

First published on the Centre for Youth Literature website, Inside A Dog, in 2012.

Even before war was officially declared, the British government banned anyone from showing any lights after sunset. This was meant to stop Nazi bomber planes from identifying targets on the ground. There were no street lights allowed. No illuminated advertising or shop signs. Cars, buses, trams, and even ambulances had to mask their headlights. You weren’t allowed to light a cigarette when you were outside. Only very dim lightbulbs were available (partly to save electricity), and every window, skylight and glass door in every house, apartment, factory and business had to be covered with heavy curtains before any indoor lights could be switched on. Often ordinary curtains weren’t thick enough, so people had to buy special blackout fabric and make new curtains. Not everyone could afford this, so some poor people had to paint or wallpaper over their windows, and they lived in darkness for the rest of the war. The rules were vigorously enforced by police and Air Raid Precautions wardens, who’d hammer on people’s doors and shout, ‘Put that light out!’ if the merest pinpoint of light was visible from the street.

Going out at night was very dangerous in the first months of the war, even though not a single German plane had been spotted. If you’ve ever gone for a walk during a power blackout, or in the depths of the country, you’ll know how it can feel, stumbling around in the pitch black. At first, pedestrians weren’t even allowed to carry torches, although after a while, this was permitted, provided the torch was aimed at the ground and was masked with two layers of paper. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of injuries. People fell down steps, onto roads and got run over by vehicles that loomed out of the darkness without any warning. Road fatalities doubled in the first months of the war. As one doctor pointed out, the Nazis managed to kill six hundred British people a month without even sending any bomber planes into the air.

There were a number of suggestions for coping with the blackout. People were advised to carry luminous walking sticks, untuck their white shirts, pin luminous flowers to their lapels or carry a white Pekinese. (It was recommended that the Pekinese wear a luminous dog collar and gleaming white blackout coat, plus a bell and a shiny identity disc.) (Note that the photo above was not actually taken during the war. It’s actually Alice Roosevelt, daughter of the US President, in about 1902. Also, if you want to get really picky, that isn’t a Pekinese she’s carrying, either. But I couldn’t find any photos of women walking around the streets of London during the war with their Pekineses, so sometimes, you just have to Make Do.)

A particularly annoying cartoon character called Billy Brown appeared on posters to give (rhyming) advice such as:

‘When Billy Brown goes out at night,

he wears or carries something white.

When Mrs Brown is in the blackout,

She likes to wear her old white mack out.

And Sally Brown straps round her shoulder

a natty plain white knick-knack holder.

The reason why they wear this white

is so they may be seen at night.’

Unfortunately, all these precautions didn’t help very much when the bombing started. The German bombers killed 50,000 British civilians during the Blitz. On moonlit nights, cities and towns were clearly visible from the air, and factory furnaces and lighthouses continued to burn brightly throughout the war. Besides, the Nazis had radar, and later they used pre-programmed robot bombs and rockets launched from the Continent. However, the blackout rules stayed in place until the final months of the war.

Next: Animals at War

First published on the Centre for Youth Literature website, Inside A Dog, in 2012.

The British government was worried about the country running out of food during the war, so it brought in food rationing in January, 1940. Small amounts of sugar, meat, butter, bacon, tea and cheese were available each week, but only if you had the correct number of coupons in your ration book (the photograph below shows a week’s rations for one adult in 1943). Eggs, milk, fish and chicken weren’t rationed, but were in short supply. Later a points system came in, which allowed people to choose tinned meat, fish and beans, cereals, dried fruit, biscuits, lollies and canned puddings, based on the number of points they had saved. There were special allowances made for pregnant women, small children, vegetarians and those who had particular dietary requirements (for example, Jews and Muslims could exchange their bacon rations for cheese).

The Ministry of Food also provided information, in the form of recipe booklets, short films and a radio programme called The Kitchen Front to teach people how to cook creatively with such limited supplies. Recipes included ‘mock goose’ (made from potatoes, apples, cheese and vegetable stock), ‘mock apricot tart’ (potato pastry and carrots, with a few spoonfuls of plum jam) and ‘mock cream’ (margarine, milk powder and sugar). The most famous wartime recipe was for Woolton pie, named after the popular Minister of Food, Lord Woolton.

I did attempt to make a few of these wartime recipes myself. Carrot cookies were a success, but I was stumped by Spam. However, in recent times, some people have resolved to eat nothing but wartime food, either to lose weight or to save money or as part of a 1940s re-enactment. The Imperial War Museum in London also had a very popular exhibition in 2010, which included a café that sold meals based on wartime recipes.

Next: The Blackout

First published on the Centre for Youth Literature website, Inside A Dog, in 2012.

‘Looking beautiful is largely a duty,’ Vogue sternly informed young women during the war. Apparently, girls were meant to look as pretty as possible to cheer up their soldier boyfriends. Of course, girls might have wanted to look nice for themselves. Maybe they didn’t have enough coupons for a new dress, but some bright lipstick and a new hairstyle might help them forget the gloomy old war for a while.

The problem was that cosmetics were in short supply, just like everything else. Cosmetics companies such as Yardley’s and Cyclax had stopped making lipstick and perfume, so that they could concentrate on manufacturing sun protection creams and sea-water purifiers for the army. So, with no cosmetics in the shops, girls had to be creative. No mascara? Use shoe polish or burnt cork mixed with castor oil. No hand cream? Try rubbing lard or margarine or lemon juice into your hands. Perfume? Well, you might have to make do with lavender water. Unable to buy new stockings? Paint your legs with gravy powder mixed with water, then draw a ‘seam’ down the back of each leg with a pen.

Girls got creative with accessories, too. Everyone was meant to carry a gas mask at all times, in case the Germans dropped bombs filled with poison gas. Elizabeth Arden produced a special range of velvet-covered cases for gas masks, which included a silk pocket for cosmetics. When the poison gas attacks didn’t happen, people started ignoring the rules and left their gas masks at home – although some girls carried the empty case as a handbag.

Even hairstyles were affected by the war. Women in the services or working in factories needed to keep their hair up, out of the way. One popular style was the Victory Roll, an arrangement of curls held in place on top of the head with bobby pins. It got its name from either the V-shape of the hairstyle or in honour of the ‘victory rolls’ that fighter pilots would perform after an air battle. If you have long hair and would like to see how you look with a Victory Roll, here’s a handy how-to video from a modern-day girl who loves vintage fashions. Yes, I did attempt it myself. No, it wasn’t very successful, but then, I didn’t actually have any hairspray and I ran out of bobby pins. Anyone else have any success with it?

Next: Eating Well in Wartime

First published on the Centre for Youth Literature website, Inside A Dog, in 2012.

It was a bit of a challenge, dressing well during the Second World War. To illustrate why, here’s an excerpt from an early draft of The FitzOsbornes at War:

“Julia and I went to a fashion show this morning, featuring the new official ‘Utility’ outfits. Of course, they are all very plain, to conserve both materials and labour – no more than three buttons per item, only one or two pleats, no lace trimmings or turned-back cuffs, no appliqué or embroidery, and the skirts are rather short, with hardly any hem. Still, they are beautifully cut and most importantly, new. I know I was lucky to own so many clothes when the war began, but some of them seem a bit schoolgirlish and old-fashioned now, and they’re all starting to look very shabby. There’s only so much one can do as far as re-dyeing fabrics and swapping buttons and letting down hems – sometimes a girl just longs to wear something crisp and bright and unfamiliar. So we all sat there at the show (in our baggy tweed suits and grey-seamed blouses), and practically salivated over the display. Just my luck I’ve recently had to use up eleven precious clothes coupons on new shoes and some socks, so I really can’t buy anything else for a while. But Julia said she’d found some lengths of curtain material, including a very pretty pale blue cotton, so she’s going to make me a short, plain summer frock from it. I’ll give her the pearl buttons from my old white blouse that had an unfortunate encounter with a leaky pen, and I’ll see if I can find a lace handkerchief for a little collar.”

German U-boats were sinking the ships that brought supplies to England, and any available materials were requisitioned by the military, so clothes for civilians were in short supply. As a result, the British government brought in clothes rationing. At first, everyone was allowed sixty-six coupons each year, although two years later, this had fallen to a mere forty coupons. You had to pay for the clothes as well as hand over the correct number of clothing coupons, and there were complicated rules about how many coupons were needed for each garment. For example, a woman’s woollen dress required eleven coupons, but a cotton dress only seven coupons. Women’s pyjamas needed eight coupons, but a nightdress only six. Shoes needed seven coupons, stockings needed two coupons and ankle socks needed only one coupon. Balls of knitting wool and lengths of fabric were also rationed. Some women made dresses out of sheets and furnishing fabrics, but soon even these were rationed, so the really creative types used torn parachutes (which were made from silk in those days), old blankets and pillowcases. Have a look at this Ministry of Supply film clip, part of the ‘Make Do and Mend’ campaign, to see how resourceful women were. [The photo above is of some volunteers from the Women of the University War Work Group in Brisbane, 1942.]

In 1943, the first ‘Utility’ clothes went on sale. The name wasn’t very appealing, but the clothes had been designed by famous fashion designers including Hardy Amies, Edward Molyneux, Norman Hartnell and Victor Stiebel, and the outfits turned out to be very popular.

Of course, some women were in uniform because they’d enrolled in the armed services or were working as nurses (the photo above shows three US Navy nurses in 1944). The Wrens (the British women’s navy) were especially popular with women, with some debutantes confessing that they’d only enrolled in it because the uniform was so glamorous. But then, other women, doing equally important war work in munitions factories, wore distinctly unglamorous blue overalls and cotton head scarves.

If you’re interested in 1940s fashions, check out this website, which is filled with pictures of everyday clothes, wedding dresses, hats, hairstyles and more.

Next: Looking Good in Wartime, Part Two