United Kingdom home front during World War II

WW2 Britain
3 September 1939 – 8 May 1945
One of a series of posters by Frank Newbould, intended to arouse patriotic feelings for an idealised pastoral Britain.
Monarch(s)George VI
Leader(s)
Chronology
Interwar era Postwar era class-skin-invert-image
Periods in English history
 
Prehistoric Britainuntil c. 43 AD
Roman Britainc. 43–410
Sub-Roman Britain410–c. 7th century
Anglo-Saxonc. 449–1066
Norman/Angevin1066–1216
Plantagenet1216–1485
Tudor1485–1603
Elizabethan1558–1603
Stuart1603–1714
Jacobean1603–1625
Caroline1625–1649
(Interregnum)1649–1660
Restoration1660–1714
Georgian era1714–1837
Regency era1811–1820
Victorian era1837–1901
Edwardian era1901–1914
First World War1914–1918
Interwar Britain1919–1939
Second World War1939–1945
Post-war Britain (political)1945–1979
Post-war Britain (social)1945–1979
See also
Timeline

The United Kingdom home front during World War II covers the political, social and economic history during 1939–1945.

The war was expensive and financed through high taxes, selling off assets, and accepting large amounts of Lend Lease from the US and Canada. The US provided $30 billion in munitions, while Canada also contributed aid. American and Canadian aid did not have to be repaid, but there were also American loans that were repaid.[1]

Britain's total mobilisation during this period proved successful in winning the war by maintaining strong public support. The media dubbed it a "people's war," which caught on and signified the popular demand for planning and an expanded welfare state.[2][3] By 1945, the Post-war consensus emerged, delivering a welfare state.[4] The Royal family played major symbolic roles during the war. They refused to leave London during the Blitz and visited troops, munition factories, dockyards, and hospitals all over the country.[5]

The British relied successfully on voluntary labour. Munitions production rose dramatically while maintaining high quality. Food production was emphasised to free shipping for munitions. Farmers increased the area under cultivation from 12 million to 18 million acres (from about 50,000 to 75,000 km2), and the farm labour force expanded by a fifth, thanks to the Women's Land Army.[6]

  1. ^ Hughes, J. R. T. (1958). "Financing the British War Effort". Journal of Economic History. 18 (2): 193–199. doi:10.1017/S0022050700077718. JSTOR 2115103. S2CID 154148525.
  2. ^ Mark Donnelly, Britain in the Second World War (1999) is a short survey
  3. ^ Angus Calder, The people's war: Britain, 1939–1945 (1969)
  4. ^ Brian Harrison, "The rise, fall and rise of political consensus in Britain since 1940." History 84.274 (1999): 301-324. online
  5. ^ Alfred F. Havighurst, Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century (1962) ch 9
  6. ^ Calder, The People's War: Britain, 1939–45 (1969) pp. 276–83, 411–30