To be gobsmacked that people got through WW2

[utterlybutterly8]

What we're going through now is so, so tough, but it's nothing compared to the hardship and suffering that people endured during WW2. How the hell did people from that generation cope for six whole years and come out the other side? I'm struggling to cope already and like I say, what we're facing now is a drop in the ocean compared to what they went through. I'm genuinely in awe of our parents/grandparents generation after this.

You should be. And I bet none of them wanted you to have even a taste of what that was like.

Well, at the start, no one knew how bad it was going to be. Then, as time went on everyone just kept going as well as they could. I dont think humans have changed that much - we are adaptable and people will adapt now too, eventually.

thing is though at least it was safe for them to get together and no one had to be isolated, that is what is really adding to the confusion and poor mental health at the moment. I personally am ok, but many aren't

what we are about to go through as a nation (we are barely even on the cusp of it at the moment) is awful and shouldn't be minimised. it's in different ways but still awful

I do think we should be in awe of past generations but at the same time I agree with the above poster re people being fundamentally the same...I think there is a tendency to glorify the past and talk about the Blitz spirit but in reality I am sure there were people panicking and we know that there was crime during the War and a black market...I don't believe that every single person went about the war effort with heroic stoicism and community minded spirit...

Humans have always been and always will be a complex mixed bunch, but like all creatures most learn to adapt and survive as best they can....

My mother had me when she was older so I was brought up on stories about WWII though I’m only just over 50. She said as all the Fathers were away the kids misbehaved a lot. Women who had dc out of wedlock which happened openly more than ever were shunned and that the black market thrived.

Also there was much better organisation, both in terms of the government (think ID documents and ration books and the associated registration systems, and the local authority day nurseries set up to enable mothers to work in factories) and voluntary bodies like the WRVS.

My grandmother wasn’t in the UK during WW2 but she was in a British colony that had to implement de facto rationing as the trade / shipping routes were all blocked. According to her the rich still managed to have fully stocked larders / pantries / four big meals a day. It was the poor who suffered. Speaking to several people who were around during WW2 it seems the same thing happened here too but not so blatantly - my friend’s gran for example used to regularly get over and beyond her rations for eggs / milk / meat / sugar because she was related to the owners of the key food businesses in her village. Unsurprisingly the longevity benefits of rationing bypassed her and her family.

Absolutely not belittling the war situation, but I imagine a huge part of the problem with our current situation is that people are used to so much MORE than people would have been used to in that era.

We're used to everything being readily available, including stuff that comes from who knows where, whereas food would have been much more restricted, more local and more self-sufficient in the war.

We're used to freedom. We're used to travelling far more widely, both on a day to day work/friends basis and for leisure, so being 'stuck at home' seems more of a prison than it would have done.

We'll (just have to!) get used to it ...

I also think that the fact we have never had it so good in terms of standard of living, access to medical vaccines and interventions plays a part...the availability of anything you want at the click of a finger...whereas before the war there was extreme hardship and poverty and daily struggle (I know there is still terrible poverty and struggle in this country but for most we live in a utopia compared to then)….I imagine some had started to imagine ourselves as a species immortal...

Well we're not.....

Cross post with @Whitney168 !

All I can say is that a small child during the war I had the utmost faith in the air-raid shelter to keep me safe, even if a bomb were to fall on the house. My mother was on her own most of the time with me, and later on with my baby brother and I never felt scared during the raids. And this was in London.

Also, I think things happenend a bit more gradually in the war. This has been a bit bam.

WW2 was another in a line of hard times - many people had already endured WW1, the Spanish flu pandemic and the depression in the preceding 25 years.

I’ve seen people comparing the two situations and implying or sometimes even outright saying ‘ah, but this is worse/harder because of X,Y,Z...’ I think that’s absolutely disgusting tbh.

In WW2 they had to deal with the daily dread of the postman bringing back a note saying your son/brother/father/partner was dead, injured or missing. From a war they hadn’t even wanted to go to - talk about ‘I didn’t sign up for this’ - imagine being conscripted to go and kill people or be killed!

People forget that there was genuine fear that Germany was going to invade as well. So you’re constantly on edge thinking that Nazi paratroopers are going to be turning up in the streets and your doorstep. Realistically they’re not going be nice and lovely to you, especially if you’re a young woman.

Oh and then there’s the little added stress of hearing the air raid siren and having planes flying over dropping literal bombs on you. Oh look, my house and all my possessions have been destroyed!

Plus, there was the Spanish flu epidemic afterwards which killed far, far more worldwide than Covid-19 will.

So yeah, maybe go easy on the comparisons and thinking we’ve got it worse than anyone ever’s had it?

The NHS didn't come into being until after WW2, modern medicine and surgical techniques were in their infancy, vaccines and antibiotics were still limited, maternal and child deaths were not unusual - so these factors alone meant that people were much more used to family members and people they knew dying. I expect this made people more stoic and more accepting of difficult and harrowing circumstances.

People coped because they had too, I mean really what was the alternative?...there wasn’t one

The war years were not all fabulous and 'coming together' : my mum and dad went though it and people could still be nasty !
They were also used to less before the war was declared so having even less was not such a huge shock. It was horrible but people had more self control I think. They were certainly fitter and harder working ( I'm overweight myself so I'm not judging anyone here!) they worked at more manual jobs so they were healthier for a start. Plus some people wanted to go and fight. This is different as we don't know our enemy or where it is.
My dads stories of WW2 were not funny but they still managed to have a bit of humour over it. They had to as they had five years to get through!

Almost the first thing politicians did in WW2 was form a government of national unity.

so clearly things are that bad ....

Just to gently point out that the Spanish Flu pandemic was after the First World War, not the Second.

There had been some advanced planning before the war. Local authorities had systems in place for e.g. distribution of gas masks. People were only a generation away from WW1, and knew it could happen again.

We have lived in a Golden Age since the 1950s, compared with what happened to our parents and grandparents. ( I was born in 1950.)

Before war broke out there were issues with stockpiling and rich people buying everything up, which is why the Government bought in rationing. There was also a huge, extortionate black market in existence, that the Govrrnment also had to bring in draconian measures to try to control.

They announced the 'new deal' part way through the war to keep everybody on board.

I imagine some had started to imagine ourselves as a species immortal...

I think I've definitely been guilty of that.

WW2 was another in a line of hard times - many people had already endured WW1, the Spanish flu pandemic and the depression in the preceding 25 years.

Just horrendous. Like I say, I'm in total awe of that generation.

People were blasé about things then, my DM was under a mattress under the kitchen table the night her city was badly bombed because there had been so many false alarms they couldn't be bothered to go into the shelter when the siren went off.

Many people were traumatised after the war, OP, but it just wasn't really talked about. People just pretended everything was OK, but it really wasn't.
We will get through this, but it will be traumatic but at least we understand more about trauma and mental health now.