Bombing Raids In Sussex example essay topic

HOW LIFE IN SUSSEX CHANGED IN WORLD WAR 2 'We shall not flag or fail. We shall go to the end. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. ' Winston Churchill - May 1940 Life in Sussex changed a lot during the Second World War. Sussex suffered from the same problems as the rest of the country.

Problems like rationing in which people had amounts of food limited to ensure everyone got their fair share. Amount of food in rations per person per week Bacon 6 oz Cheese 4 oz Butter 4 oz Eggs 2 Milk 1 pint Tea 3 oz Sugar 12 oz Sweets 3 oz Dried milk 4 pints a week Dried eggs 12 every eight weeks While this isn't a lot of food and it puts great limitations on diet a lot of people were in favour of rationing (a lot of people in Sussex became healthier because they were eating better food) every person also got 66 ration coupons per year to spend on clothes Evacuation Many people who were not needed for the war effort such as children, pregnant women, teachers and disabled people were evacuated from large cities where bombing was expected, to Sussex to escape the bombing raids over 42,000 evacuees were evacuated to Sussex, but when no bombers came during the period known as the 'phoney war' a lot of the evacuees went back to the cities. Some working class children found there county billets to be better than city life back home. One working class boy remembered how 'everything was so clean, We were given flannels and toothbrushes- I had never cleaned my teeth before' and how 'there was a toilet upstairs and hot water came from the tap' A lot of people moved back to the country when they grew up, a lot of industry moved as well. In addition to this artworks from the national gallery were 'evacuated' and stored in an abandoned mine.

Bombing The blitz started in September 1940 and continued nightly until May 1941 There was a lot of bombing raids in Sussex with over 20,000 houses being destroyed by German bombers in Brighton and Hove. Sussex was also targeted by flying bombs with 775 of them landing in East Sussex alone. The first flying bomb in this country landed in C uckfield. Sussex was hit by so many flying bombs it became known as 'doodlebug alley'.

Most public entertainment buildings were closed after a cinema in Sussex was hit leaving over 100 dead and many injured. People also erected Anderson shelters (in their gardens) and Morrison shelters (in their houses). The blitz was meant to demoralize people but due to careful propaganda and wartime spirit, people remained high spirited. Military / Defences Because Sussex was on the coast and this was an important line of defence against an invasion, which many people believed was imminent, Sussex was gifted with a lot of defences.

Its beaches were some of the best defended in the country. The defences were called the 'coastal crust' and consisted of pillboxes, machine gun posts, and coastal gun emplacements. As well as the military making preparations, civilians were issued gas masks (after it was thought the Germans would use gas a lot of people made wills and got married thinking they would die). Women were conscripted into either the Woman's Voluntary Service or one of the women's services in the forces Conscription started five months before the war started and by the end of 1940 close to 2 million men had been recruited into the armed forces, as well as this in May 1940 a quarter of a million men volunteered to join the Local Defence Volunteers (Home Guard). Sussex was central to D-Day plans and as well as Canadian and American soldiers coming over (a lot of roads had to be equipped to take tanks and heavy vehicles) Sussex beaches were used to 'rehearse' the landings.