A 1941 drawing by Alex Macpherson of a class of children wearing gas masks. People caught not carrying one faced a heavy fine. They came in a brown cardboard box with a strap and were to be carried at all times without exception. © IWM D3918.ģ8 million gas masks were issued, one to every adult and child, including babies. She is pumping the bellows, which supply her baby with air. Some tried to run away.Ī mother in a gas mask holds her newborn child whose feet are poking out of a baby gas helmet. For some, it was a time of misery, neglect and homesickness. Others found the experience dull and pined for the buzz of city life. Many from the inner city had never seen the countryside or farm animals. Living with a strange temporary family in a rural location was a great adventure for many children, and most were well cared for. Children were of every age and background. Hosts were sometimes shocked by the behaviour and the apparent poverty of some of their charges. © IWM LN6194.Įvacuees were allocated to host families who were paid. Children were given a stamped postcard to inform their parents where they were billeted. They carried a small bag containing several Ministry of Health-specified belongings and their gas mask in its box. Every child wore a label written with their name, school and evacuation authority. The overseas scheme was largely abandoned due to public outrage following a U-boat attack on an evacuation ship, the SS City of Benares, on 17 September 1940, which saw the loss of 260 lives, 77 of them children. © The National Archives.Ī second wave followed after the fall of France in the summer of 1940, including children sent to America, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Australia. However, it’s unclear whether or not the messages reached Hitler.Child evacuees and their carers en route to New Zealand, 1940. Gandhi was so committed to peace that he tried to write a letter to Hitler, referring to him as a ‘dear friend’ and pleading for him to stop the war. Mahatma Gandhi was one of the greatest peacemakers in the world, but most people are unaware that he was still alive during WWII. Gandhi tried to send a message of peace to Hitler Wojtek was eventually discharged after the war and lived peacefully in Edinburgh Zoo until he passed away in 1963. It helped to carry heavy ammunition and quickly became a celebrity among the troops. The men ended up in Italy from 1943-4, bringing the bear along with them. They officially enlisted him as a private in the unit. Along the way, they befriended a Syrian brown bear that they named Wojtek. In 1942, a company of Polish troops was evacuated from the Soviet Union and found their way to Iran. Poland had a bear that served in the military Read more about: WW2 Operation Mincemeat: Britain's campaign of deception in WWIIĤ. To put this into perspective, around 52,000 American flight crew members died in WWII, meaning almost 30% of pilot deaths occurred outside of conflict. It was such a problem that the B-24 bomber was known as the most dangerous plane in the war, receiving the nickname ‘the flying coffin’. These were mostly due to pilot error or mechanical failure. There was a massive rush to train new pilots so many of the aviation programs weren’t thought out correctly or had enough safety measures in place.Īs a result, over 15,000 deaths occurred during pilot training. WWII was one of the first major conflicts to make use of aviation. An astonishing number of soldiers died during pilot training He survived on his own, foraging for whatever food he could until he was finally found in December 1974. He assumed the war was still raging on while his unit fled into a jungle in Indonesia. This is what happened to Teruo Nakamura, an indigenous Taiwanese soldier that joined the Japanese military at the beginning of the war. But when the last fighting soldier surrenders almost thirty years after the conflict ends, there’s something awfully strange about the whole situation. This is just the reality of what it’s like to fight a conflict across multiple continents and countries. It’s not unusual for soldiers to continue fighting for a cause once their nation has surrendered. The last Japanese soldier finally surrendered in 1974 Read more about: WW1 10 little known facts about WW1ġ.
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