From ‘make do’ to ‘make merry’: Britons did their best to forget the hardships of war at Christmas in 1942.
Imperial War Museums
By the fourth festive season into the war, rationing was biting – but good news from the front and the generosity of US soldiers helped keep morale buoyant.
A woman sorts items for salvage during the second world war.
Ministry of Information
The ‘pots to planes’ appeal in the summer of 1940 helped inspire a mass recycling effort, but problems soon emerged.
From August 2014, the BBC’s four-year project followed the lives of ordinary people facing the stress of war on the home front.
BBC
Over four years, this BBC Radio 4 drama chronicled the daily lives of ordinary people dealing with the hardships of World War I.
Women were key to morale on the home front.
Imperial War Museum (IWM)
Battling shortages and rising food and fuel prices, housewives played a vital part in Britain’s first experience of ‘total war’.
Keeping busy.
PA Archive
From serial killers to attacks on prostitutes and soldiers, not everyone back in Britain during the war was heroic.