The Wartime Memories Project - The Home Front




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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945



Life on the Home Front during World War Two was a unique experience. We hope that you will enjoy reading about the experiences others have shared with us.

If you have a tale about life on the Home Front or any photographs, we would love to hear from you.

Please tell us your story






Index of Stories.


The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

Announcements



    25th Annversary

  • 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
  • The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
  • 18th Dec 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 265120 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
  • Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQs
  • The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
    If you enjoy this site

    please consider making a donation.

Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.




Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home.

If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.


Can you help us to add to our records?

The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them


Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?

If so please let us know.

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.




Celebrate your own Family History

Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.

Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.





Rationing (At Home in World War II)

Stewart Ross


Published in association with the Imperial War Museum, this wonderful series uses primary source evidence such as diaries, posters, newspapers cuttings and oral accounts to portray life on the Home Front in a dramatically vivid manner, as well as comparing it with the experiences of civilians elsewhere. Soap, sugar, sweets, clothes and petrol were just a few of the items that were rationed during World War Two. How did everyone cope on a diet that included powdered eggs and Spam? "Rationing" will tell you the answer to these and many other questions.


Wartime Cookbook: Food and Recipes from the Second World War 1939-45

Alison Cooper


Eggless sponge, carrot marmalade, liver savoury or nettle tea are just some of the recipes British people ate during World War Two. This new version of the Wartime Cookbook, with simplified text, looks at rationing and how British people coped with limited supplies. Full of recipes for children to make at home or at school using only wartime ingredients, the Wartime Cookbook shows you just what life was like in wartime Britain


British Women's Uniforms in Colour Photographs (World War 2)

Martin Brayley & Richard Ingham


This reference book contains the uniforms of the women's services during World War II. Nearly 200 colour photographs of rare, original uniforms from private collections are featured with detailed explanatory text. This really is an extraordinarily good book if you're looking for details of women's uniforms from the WWII period. Every page has a large, clear photograph of a uniform (worn by a modern model, but with 40s styling), plus detail shots of shoes, insignia, berets and so on.


The 1940s Look: Recreating the Fashions, Hairstyles and Make-up of the Second World War

Mike Brown


"The 1940s Look" tells you everything you need to know about the fashions of wartime Britain and the impact that rationing, the Utility scheme, changing tastes and the demands of everyday life had on the styles people wore. People had to 'Make Do and Mend' - with varying degrees of ingenuity and success. Hair styles, glasses, jewellery, and tattoos were essential in creating your own fashion statement. Women's magazines advised readers on the difficulties of dressing growing children, offered instructions for making clothes and accessories, and hosted debate over whether by dressing up, women were helping or hindering the war effort. Thoroughly researched and lavishly illustrated, "The 1940s Look" tells you how civilian men, women and children dressed - and why they looked the way they did during the Second World War. It draws on contemporary sources including government advice, periodicals and books, and benefits from an entertaining narrative by author Mike Brown.


Wartime: Britain 1939-1945

Dr Juliet Gardiner


Juliet Gardiner's 'Wartime' provides a marvellously rich, and often entertaining, recreation of life on the Home Front, 1939-45, drawing on an enormous range of oral testimony and memoir.
More information on:Wartime: Britain 1939-1945



Sergeant: A World War II Account of a Young Village Choir Girl to a Responsible Position in the ATS

Elsie M. Crossley





World War II: A Heroes History of - Life on the home front

Les Ives


Life on the home front. World War II was Britain's finest hour, read how people rallied to fight the Nazi invasion.


A Child's View of World War II

Dan Summerfield


Kindle Edition. From December 7, 1941 to September 2, 1945 when the Japanese surrender was signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, America was consumed with the war fronts in Europe and the Pacific. But because those years were spent in the relative isolation of an orphanage, this child's view of the war was necessarily limited to a very small portion of the home front. Despite that limitation, the war affected every aspect of my life and the lives of all the children at the orphanage. Whether child or civilian adult, the war determined the relationships one had, where one lived, what one had to eat and what clothing to wear, and where he or she worked or went to school. For the civilian population World War II was a time of giving, though we children in the orphanage had nothing to give. It was a time of sharing, but all we shared was a poverty stricken environment with thirty or forty other children. When the war was finally over our celebration was short lived because while the rest o
More information on:A Child's View of World War II



The Home Front (World at War: World War II)

Brenda Williams


What was it like to live and fight during World War II? This series uses a variety of illustrations and historical resources, such as newspaper extracts to provide a perspective of World War II. It also includes timelines and 'In the News' features.


Jessie's Story: A Family Saga of a Victorian Child Who Endured Two World Wars

Steve Samuel


In the closing years of Queen Victoria's reign Jessie Carter, a small dark haired and shy twelve-year old leaves school to help her mother on their struggling farm. Jessie's life changes when she attends the village service on the death of Queen Victoria and meets Joe. For a few years national events have little impact on the lives of the villagers who are dominated by the near feudal influence of their landlord in the 'big house'. But the twentieth century will bring unimaginable change as Jessie and her family endure the pain of two world wars and much sadness, but there will also be unexpected opportunities.


World War II (What They Don't Tell You About)

Bob Fowke


Despite the jokey cover, the contents are weighty but highly accessible, and may well inspire conversations with relatives who remember that time. -- The Guardian (March 2000) They provide a 'way in' for less confident readers and whet the appetite of history-phobes. -- Literacy & Learning These bright and breezy books are packed with quirky facts and information. [...] My own personal favourite was 'What They Don't Tell You About: World War II'. [...] Overall a series cheap enough to stimulate interest in their subject. -- BfK, May 00 Product Description Did you know that Adolf Hilter wasn't, in fact, German? The Second World War brought horror and heartache to millions of people all over the globe, and it turned everyday living upside down too. Any history book will give you the boring facts they think you should know, but only this one will tell you what life during World War II was really like ...




















The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.

The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.

If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.



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