Part II

All a Jumble

Clothes were scarce during the Blitz, and throughout the war. It wasn’t possible for people to really go out and buy new clothes. Wool and cotton was needed for the soldiers socks, clothes and uniforms. Silk for women’s stockings was needed for parachutes, and cloth and thread were both needed for making army kitbags. Due to this severe lack of clothing, people had to exchange clothes, rather than buy new ones. While you COULD go out and actually buy a brand new suit, dress, pair of socks, a new trilby, a tie or a winter coat, it would now be a lot more expensive, and it was better to buy clothes second hand. People organised big ‘jumble sales’ where people offloaded all their unwanted clothes. The clothes would then be sorted out and examined by other people who wanted ‘new’ clothes. The slogan became known as “make do and mend”.

The Black Market

Of course, there were some people who just became war-profiteers. Throughout the war, people had to buy everything through a strict system of rationing. You recieved a ration-book for each month. In that book were little tickets which you ripped out, to buy certain things. There were ration-tickets for everything from eggs, flour, coal, cigarettes, meat and clothing.

Ration-book for Mr. John E. Court.

People who wanted more than their fair share, would go to the black market to get what they wanted. They could get extra food, extra clothes, more cigarettes…but this was very risky. People working the black market were seen as war profiteers…and worse. Although very few people were hanged for treason during the war, running the black market might be considered, by some, to be just that.

“Oversexed, overpaid and over here!”

If you’re English, this is something your grandfather might say! During WWII, thousands of American soldiers poured over to England and Australia, starting in 1942. They caused all kinds of hell for people on the Home Front. Some people viewed the Americans as loud, noisy, obnoxious and ignorant…not much has changed in 70-odd years, has it?

Joking aside…the Americans were both welcomed and unwelcome in the British Commonwealth. The popular slogan of British ‘Tommys’ was that Americans were “oversexed, overpaid and over here!”, meaning that they got all the hot chicks because they had better-looking uniforms, they got paid more money and had more ration-cards, and they were over here in England, stealing all the good-looking English ladies, much to the Brit-boys’ fury. The Yanks often replied that the Brits were: “Undersexed, underpaid and Under Eisenhower!”

On more than one occasion, American and British, or American and Australian soldiers actually started massive riots in the streets of cities such as London, Melbourne and Sydney, because Australian and British soldiers felt that their ‘allies’, these…snotty, alien Yanks…were stealing their women and their resources! Fortunately, these events were few and far-between.

Wartime Entertainment and Morale

At home, civilians didn’t always have to put up with half-rations, blackouts, fuel-shortages, air-raids and a lack of clothing. Occasionally, they did have some fun. Then, as now, people headed out to the cinema to watch the latest movies, they danced the night away in ballrooms, hotels and nightclubs. Many of big-band jazz’s most famous and iconic tunes, now synonymous with the Second World War, became popular during this time. How many of these famous, wartime jazz-songs do you recognise?

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.
In the Mood.
Moonlight Serenade.
Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
We’ll Meet Again.

‘In the Mood’, published in 1939 and made famous by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, was almost the ‘theme-song’ of WWII. Thousands of Americans, Aussies and Brits jitterbugged and lindyhopped the night away to this fast-paced and energetic jazz-tune. Ladies resident at my grandmother’s retirement home testified to the fact that during the War, when they were teenagers, they used to go out nightclubbing and the house band always ended the night playing “In the Mood”, encouraging everyone to get up one last time and dance the night away, to forget their wartime troubles for a few more hours.

Morale was a big issue to the people back home. If you expected to win the war, you had to feel good about doing it! Hollywood and the American and British music-recording industries pumped out dozens of wartime propaganda songs, satrising the Germans and the Japanese, the two main enemies of the Allies during the War. Famous wartime propaganda songs, included…

“You’re a Sap Mr. Jap”.
“Der Feuhrer’s Face”.
“Hitler Has only Got One Ball”.
“Goodbye Mama (I’m Off to Yokohama)”.
“Run, Rabbit, Run!”
“Any Bonds Today?”
“There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin”.
“The Victory Polka”.

“Der Feuhrer’s Face” was probably the most famous of all the wartime propaganda songs. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It goes like this…

(To the tune of “Land of Hope and Glory”):

Land of soap and water,
Hitler’s having a bath,
Churchill’s looking through the keyhole,
Having a jolly good laugh,
Beee-caaaauuuuse…

(To the tune the Colonel Bogey March):

Hitler, has only got one ball!
Goering, has two, but very small!
Himmler, has something similar!
But poor old Gobbels,
Has no balls at all!

Frankfurt, has only one beer hall,
Stuttgart, die Munchen all on call,
Munich, vee lift our tunich,
To show vee chermans, have no balls at all!

Hans Otto is very short, not tall,
And blotto, for drinking Singhai and Skol.
A ‘Cherman’, unlike Bruce Erwin,
Because Hans Otto has no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Hitler has only got one ball,
The other is in the Albert Hall.
His mother, the dirty bugger,
Cut it off him when he was still small.

She tied it, upon a conker tree,
The wind came, and blew it out to sea,
The fishes, took out their dishes,
And had scallops and bollocks for tea!

(Another ending line was: “She threw it, out over Germany…”)

Keeping morale high was very important during the War. Many people lived in constant fear of one thing.

The Telegram.

During both World Wars, opening the door to meet the messenger from the local telegraph-office, meant only one thing. That your husband, brother, son or father, had been killed in action. Wives, sisters, daughters and nieces lived in constant fear of opening the door to an official messenger, who would have been given the painful message of delivering a telegram, much like the one below, to the widow of the dead man:

A telegram informing a widow about the death of her husband during WWII.

Telegrams were used to inform next-of-kin and immediate family, of a loved one’s death in action, or other important events concerning their relations, such as significant injuries or if they were Missing in Action. Telegrams were a cheap, effective, simple way of sending important news quickly to the recipient. The messages were short, and brutally to the point. The message above was what a woman would have recieved in the United States if her husband had been killed in action.

Throughout the war, charity dances were held to raise money for the war. People were encouraged to buy war bonds to help fund the war so that the United States, which was supporting Great Britain, could win the war in the Pacific. Popular celebrities of the day encouraged thriftiness of use with household commodities and encouraged people to save up things which they would usually throw away, like used cooking fat! Fat was used to make soaps and oils and other necessities.

“Trash for your Cash”

‘Trash for your Cash’ was a jazz-song popularised by Fats Waller, the famous 1930s and 1940s jazz pianist. In it, he describes how people can help the Americans win the war-effort, by saving up their old newspapers and scrap metal and other rubbish. While this was a fun way to get a message out to the American public, it was no laughing matter.

Throughout the war, there were serious shortages of almost everything imaginable. Old food cans for fish, fruit, vegetables, old bottlecaps, old glass, old wastepaper, which nobody wanted, wasn’t just shoved into the landfill. Oh no. It was far too valuable. What started out as volunteer scrap-drives soon became a regular thing, as people donated their scrap metal and other, recyclable rubbish, to recycling plants to melt down the metal, reconstitute the paper and reshape the glass. During the War, people didn’t waste anything. Any food scraps you didn’t eat, you gave to the pigs. The pigs had to grow nice and fat so that there would be enough meat to feed everyone. People didn’t slaughter chickens for the table…you had to keep them alive so that you had the eggs! Every inch of your garden was turned into a vegetable patch for growing crops and you did anything and everything you could to save a bit here, scrimp a bit there.

Military Intelligence

Depending on who you were, knowing what was going on in the War was either very important…or very unimportant. Civilians were strongly urged not to gossip. The mantra “loose lips sink ships” became the rule of the day. You weren’t to tell anyone anything that they were not supposed to know. Public service cartoons, such as the famous “Private Snafu” series, graphically and comically illustrated what would happen if people started blurting out, seemingly innocent pieces of information.

The title-card of the black and white ‘Private Snafu’ cartoons, shown during WWII. These were screened to American servicemen to teach them about what to be mindful of, now that they were fighting for their country. They covered topics such as camoflage, booby-traps, censorship, discretion and the importance of maintaining one’s fighting equipment.

Censorship was high, and you couldn’t just send anything in a letter or a telegram. Letters were posted, intercepted, read, censored, edited, re-written, and then sent on to their addresses. In his autobiography, RAF fighter pilot and famous children’s author, Roald Dahl, recalls his mother’s shock at hearing his voice on the telephone after he was invalided back to England. He said that:

“…My mother couldn’t possibly know that I was coming [home]. The censor didn’t allow such things…”

– Author and pilot Roald Dahl.