What's new
What's new

women at war--UK 1942

JHOLLAND1

Titanium
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
Location
western washington state
Whitehall

the British War Office had a problem--it wanted to be certain uniformed men understood the two types of women encountered during hostilities comprising the Second War
so--posters were commissioned featuring virle, square jawed
command types fawning over a femme fatale -venus fly trap category foreign plant

the clip link below features the other type--





Women And War Effort - 1942 - British Pathe
 

Attachments

  • not so dumb.JPG
    not so dumb.JPG
    93.1 KB · Views: 390
Women are seen smiling. They liked getting out and working with other women. It was a lot better for them than being alone in the house all day waiting for their husband to come home. And,when he did,he was tired,and maybe not the best companion.

The women who operated the calutrons(sp?),at the big Atomic plant in Tennessee,were happy to be with other women. And,in a test,they did a better job at operating the machines than scientists and engineers who tried the work for a day. They paid better attention,and had better reaction times.
 
The film gets the point across, and it is a point well worth admiring. But I have to say it strikes me as yet another in a long string of rah-rah propaganda jobs, with everyone doing what they are told for the camera, and the women being a selected subset we are expected to consider as typical. I was particularly dubious about the scene involving throwing hot rivets.

-Marty-
 
During a war,when people are working very hard and probably putting in a lot more hours,and eating things like less meat and eggs and other favorites,they needed rah-rah propaganda films to help keep up the worker's spirits. I see no problem with it. It has to be done if we are going to win. We were fighting a war on several different fronts with Japan,Germany,and Italy-and the other countries they conscripted into their service,like Bulgaria for Germany.

You have to relate the pictures and the films to the times. I was young,but still remember how worried my mother always was about how many of our young men were being killed.And,were we going to be invaded by Japan. We were out in the ocean off the West coast of Oregon on a mile square island. A Jap sub could easily sent men ashore and killed all 5 of us on Destruction Island. If you google it,today,the light house is still there,but the houses were wooden,and are long gone. So is the dock with it's 19th. C. crane for unloading supplies,and the little tram way with mine cars,like in one of the Indiana Jones movies.

Propaganda and entertainment are considered essential in war time,even with the restrictions on all kinds of supplies,film,etc..
 
Propaganda and entertainment are considered essential in war time,..



That doesn't mean that they are essential.

I do understand, however, that for some people that kind of thing shapes what they think, and that for them, "they needed rah-rah propaganda films to help keep up the worker's spirits". The only point I would defend is the proposition that there are many other people who react negatively to what they perceive as obvious efforts to shape what they think by an appeal to - if this is not too strong a word - theatrics.

-Marty-
 


That doesn't mean that they are essential.

I do understand, however, that for some people that kind of thing shapes what they think, and that for them, "they needed rah-rah propaganda films to help keep up the worker's spirits". The only point I would defend is the proposition that there are many other people who react negatively to what they perceive as obvious efforts to shape what they think by an appeal to - if this is not too strong a word - theatrics.

-Marty-

While I can see your point of view, you (unless you are a lot older than I think) were not living on an island that was also your home and nation under attack from the enemy (nor was I for the record).

But living in that situation alters ones view considerably, ......especially when you are under attack nightly, and sleeping in subways stations or a hole in the ground, surviving on very restricted rations etc etc etc etc etc ...............and working 12 hr 7day weeks.

It all takes it's toll and moral has to be maintained.
 
Limy,

You have a very valid point in what you say, I was born in February 1939, and strange as it may seem I have some memories of 1943 on wards, What I can recall is the basic and pretty bland rotten food, I guess we were lucky living about one mile out of town, and so we could get the occasional eggs, potatoes, milk and cheese from a local farmer friend , add to that occasional bags of coal from an old owner of a local coalmine All on the hush hush.
Heavens knows how the folk in the large cities managed I will never know, With rationing everyone was pretty well kept to the basic minimum The situation in Europe must have been dire especially for the souls in the occupied territories.

About half a mile above the family home, the municipal gas mains for the supply of town gas stopped , Looking at that facility now with adult eyes that was an unusual situation, I can only surmise it was to supply the lighting in a big local municipal water pumping station ( quite a grand old place) I can remember my old maiden aunts going to work in the war supply factories, father also , and he seemed to me to be way from home every day for a long time , some days I never saw him at all, Mother used to complain about the gas pressure on our cooker, it was cut back to conserve energy by the gas company Thinking now it was well down on the safety parameters normally set.

Up from the family home was a big anti aircraft gun, as a kid I remember it firing a few salvo's on a couple of occasions and I was terrified, Heavens knows how the kids in the inner cities were coping with bombs dropping around them and the grim destruction which ensued.

Everything was pretty drab, clothes were utility brand, As a kid one did not know any different, Some people were damned swines , home guard types and civil defense "Wallas" puffed up with their own importance, Father told me of an occasion many years later when I could understand human nature, He was coming home from his workplace on the bus,
When one of these guys who believe it or not had been at school with him, came along the line of passengers demanding all and sundries identification papers, He came to my dad and dad said "Hello Bert" to which dad recieved a snappy Identification papers now!, The reply was "Go to Hell if you know what is good for you" The ensuing raucous which followed resulted in our man being flung off the bus, His silly little uniform and all by the munition workers and my father.

At the outbreak of the war he told me of another fun occurrence, In which he recieved through the post his civil defense fire watching papers + another set for a sewcond member of the family, ( We will come to that person later!) Strange to say he recieved fur sets of papers for areas all one, to one and a half miles from each other, Well being a rebellious old soul ex 1914-18 war, he threw them into a drawer and put the matter to the back of his mind, The war went into fifth gear, and again he was returning home from work in his bus journey, He did not seem to have much fun with that bus! When one of these jumped up officials approached him and said "You are going to be made a proper example off !" He just managed to keep his cool , He arrived home to find a summons to appear before the Chief Constable on the Saturday morning approaching.

Came the Saturday morning he brushed his boots to a real gloss finish best coat and cap, picked up his large portfolio of instructions and it would seem took me along with him as well, He arrived at the great mans office at the appointed hour and proceeded to explain his long list of fire watching locations, The Chief constable eventually used his common sense to instruct him, Should the exigency occur, To have a look for burning streets in the hamlet in which we lived and also around the factory location if he was on nightshift All was going swimmingly wonderful till the old boy asked dad what about this other member of your household ? to which Dad said "That is him lying sleeping on your other chair" I was by this stage six months old __ Pretty Smart Kid!

Our high official never said anything else he was dumbfounded, With what dad told me years later, He quietly picked up his phone, And then bellowed into it to the sub office which issued the instruction, "Get over here now!" The row was as big as a flitting, These inept persons had to apologize to Dad And me , I do not know if I was happy with their apologies

Guess in a war time, cognisense has to be taken as to any strangers who might be fifth columnists, to protect the security and safety of all the citizens of the country , I guess all the folks in the British Isles banded together to save the country being over run by the axis forces and worked pretty hard in frequent unpleasant dumps of factories, The banding together also consisted of helping your fellow citizen to get through As a little boy I liked mechanical things and I well remember Dad and his old farmer friend on a Saturday afternoon carrying out repairs to his machinery with pretty basic tools and equipment

Fortunately we lived on a fairly busy road from Glasgow to Edinburgh, By that time it had become a secondary road , It was a busy artery for some large items of machinery and supplies to be transported , In the North end of Glasgow on London Road was the yard of Pickford & co heavy haulage contractors, And I can remember this firms big Diesel tractor units and flat low set trailers trundling up the steep hills with marine engines as a cargo I guess as to me they were big, in the scheme of things the were likely little trawler engines proceeding from the various Clyde works en route to the East Coast of Scotland shipbuilders.

WE also had about five miles from us a large prisoner of war camp, holding German P.O.W's I remember these men working in the fields, They were always most polite and their guard usually had his rifle perched against a tree and was working along with them, My mother saintly soul, said "They are some other poor woman's sons" caught up in a bloody war caused by a megalomaniac.
 
I like it Mac, ..obviously many stories abound, I grew up in the country and one old farmer told me, how one day he'd put in ''a chitty'' to slaughter a pig - with a wink he told me ''I thought it was about time I shoved in a bit of paper,'' anyway, some jobsworth form ''War Ag Committe'' cycled 11 miles (up hill and down dale) from Sevenoaks to inspect the pig going for the chop :rolleyes5:

The farmer took him to a pen of 20 odd pigs wallowing in mud n shit n pointed ''That one'' at which the jobsworth wrote something in his book and set off on the 11 miles back!

The farmer looked at me sideways, ''Odd thing ya know, all through the war I sent in lots o bits of paper, but I never saw another bloke from the ministry!''

FWIW Now I live in Norfolk, there are a few local families of Italian POW descent, ......apparently none of them wanted to go back to what was left of Italy!
 
Frequently I wonder in a war emergency situation, How does the urgency of supplying the guys on the front line overtake any safety precautions and rules? Recently I have been reading the book The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, which deals with the story of the girls who painted the luminous dials on watches , clocks and aircraft industries using radium paint, It is a ghastly story of exploitation of decent working girls by two big American Radium companies
Now knowing that this story began in the early years of the last century, It makes one wonder knowing that the dangers of exposure to this substance could cause to a human being, How did the various firms approach this problem in the 1939-45 era, In Scotland there is an ongoing problem of ex aircraft cockpit dials & instruments dumped off a Scottish shore (Last war stock) and now showing radiation levels, which has closed off the beach.

Also in one of the factories my aunt worked in she was doping aircraft wings with cellulose, and she always reckoned it somewhat caused her harm, Certainly things had moved on big time from the really early years,noise & white finger troubles must also have been a problem in many of the repetitive jobs carried out by women workers, Well into the mid 1950 era, In the U.K. At lunch time we used to have a radio programme which was a hangover from the war years "Workers Playtime" this was a concert style musical gig which had early on traveled round the big munition works and was a canteen dinner break concert to raise the spirits of the workers.

Amidst the war time film stuff , I still do not believe young women had the strength to throw and also drive in hot rivets in a shipyard situation.
 








 
Back
Top