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Original poster

How the fuck did they get through the war??

254 replies

ssd · 17/12/2020 22:25

If it was 6 years...

This hasn't been a year yet and were all losing the will.....

I think the only benefits people in 1939 had were no 24/7 telly and no social media

But 6 years....OMG

OP posts:
chomalungma · 17/12/2020 22:56

Things could be a lot worse - and it is hard now - but nothing compared to the trauma that many people are going through now in the world and nothing compared to what people have gone through.

I think that in really hard circumstances, you just have to find a way to survive. I think that some people have amazing survival and coping skills. And for some people, life must be intolerable.

tunnocksreturns2019 · 17/12/2020 22:57

@AcornAutumn

Namechange I struggled with that book, couldn’t get into it.

One poster says she may be lacking in empathy. I wonder, if I had posted last night saying I couldn’t bear the loneliness anymore, what that poster would think.

I realise a father is not the same as a husband but I’m starting to think the period of caring for dad while he was dying might not have been as bad as this...I’m not sure. At least caring for a dying person had a point to it. This is just battling tyranny and I’m not going to win.

It was me. I’d be sympathetic with your loneliness but only if you didn’t have a loving husband in your house Grin I just couldn’t manage it otherwise, having lost the only person I want to spend my life with in our 30s.

I feel I can’t relate to most people I know at the moment - I felt that already but even more so now they are complaining about so little (these are healthy people, secure jobs, loving families, nice homes).

Countdowntonothing · 17/12/2020 22:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

InTheNightWeWillWish · 17/12/2020 22:58

For my grandparents or great-grandparents that lived through WW2, they just didn’t talk about it. It happened, it was shit, they don’t even open the book on it now. They have the view of not opening old wounds. MH was a lot les talked about then, so the general attitude is going to rug sweep. It doesn’t mean they didn’t moan at the time. Perhaps in 100 years, we will have just rug swept this and nobody will talk of it. It’ll be ‘yep it happened, we survived, move on’.

grassisjeweled · 17/12/2020 22:58

Incomparible.

I know my granny had fun in Blackpool with those American GI's though

DianaT1969 · 17/12/2020 23:00

How were they together? 🤔 Husbands, boyfriends, fathers, sons, fighting overseas, or in prisoner of war camps. If working in the UK, it wouldn't necessarily have been easy to keep the family together.
Rations, no home or mobile phones, no Netflix, no online shopping, no central heating, no online studies, no washing machines and fewer drugs and less healthcare.

Bayleaf25 · 17/12/2020 23:01

Bonkers to compare as there wasn’t the option of venting your feelings on mumsnet then, if there was then there may have been all kinds of different approaches and opinions.

DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon · 17/12/2020 23:02

i wouldnt really say they got through it together. Many many young men went off to war. Young families without their fathers for months, parent without their teenage sons. Many people were isolated and in much more extreme way than we are now, with no social media or mobile phones.

Currently refugees are often seperated from their families, seperated from their friends and everything they know. Their homes in many cases are completely gone. I cant imagine being more isolated than being alone in a strange country. War is a million times worse than what we are going through.

They got through it because they have to, time passes and as long as you keep yourself alive you will get through. I am sure many people struggled, thats a perfectly normal reaction actually. You cant really expect to not struggle. Its okay to have difficult periods in your life

CorianderQueen · 17/12/2020 23:03

Children aren't being gassed and thrown in mass graves.

This is nothing in comparison. Ridiculous comparison.

TrainspottingWelsh · 17/12/2020 23:04

I suppose in a similar way to this. A lot of privileged, or at least secure people facing minor inconveniences telling others less fortunate or secure to make massive sacrifices.
Shrugging it off as misfortune when the poorest become homeless and sacrificing the young. With propaganda so nobody feels they have a right to struggle or moan because 'people are dying'. Not that I'm comparing the horror but it's the same callous attitude.

chomalungma · 17/12/2020 23:04

This hasn't been a year yet and were all losing the will

I don't know about losing the will.

I do wonder about the economy and poverty etc during the war. I think that people were looked after the best the Government could - but I wonder what it was really like. We didn't even have an NHS back then.

chomalungma · 17/12/2020 23:06

This is nothing in comparison. Ridiculous comparison

I don't think the OP is comparing.

I think she's saying that if people are finding this hard, then how the hell did people get through an event such as the war which is obviously much much harder.

CorianderQueen · 17/12/2020 23:07

@chomalungma

This is nothing in comparison. Ridiculous comparison

I don't think the OP is comparing.

I think she's saying that if people are finding this hard, then how the hell did people get through an event such as the war which is obviously much much harder.

Fair point. Because they had to. I'm sure there were many suicides.
CattyP89 · 17/12/2020 23:08

Two very very different situations and two very different times to live. I had a baby in lockdown she’s met people through FaceTime. We all adapt and handle life differently. My partner has worked through it all but our neighbours have been furloughed so we are all facing covid but it’s affecting lives differently if that makes sense?
MH wasn’t spoken about then you were sent to fight as you were a man and as a man you dealt with it. As a women left behind you dealt with it. But they did it and they rebuilt the world afterwards it was different but it was how it was. And as with covid we will face a new normal when things eventually get better.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 17/12/2020 23:08

Ok, people weren’t always together with their families, that is a fair point, but they were allowed to be together with other human beings and to do things communally.
The people I know who are struggling now are mainly people who live alone or in difficult family circumstances (eg friend with mentally ill husband) and wfh so they are simply not getting human contact and support.
You could have a cup of tea and a hug with a friend.
I am not saying the war was easier at all but there are elements of this that are particularly difficult.

tunnocksreturns2019 · 17/12/2020 23:08

Because they had no choice

Namechange2020lalala · 17/12/2020 23:09

Will check your recommendation too, ta.

Horehound · 17/12/2020 23:09

I thought more people have died in the UK from covid than from the war. So one year if covid surpassing 6 years of war..

chomalungma · 17/12/2020 23:10

You have to wonder about the public feelings - although a lot of stuff wasn't widely reported because of the effect on morale.

Dunkirk. The entire British Army that had been sent to France now trapped on beaches.

Battle of Britain - the RAF close to collapse

The Blitz - London and other cities repeatedly bombed. People were told that they could take it - but could they?

The Doodle Bugs - a missile that could land anywhere in the South.

So many awful stories and worry - you can see why people enjoyed VE day like they did.

saffire · 17/12/2020 23:12

They weren't all together. Men were away fighting and children were evacuated.

But, they didn't have a constant newsfeed going on. No social media, no tv. Just the radio. They were quite literally in the dark.

They had had ww1 and the Spanish flu. By the time ww2 came around they had lost so many people they were probably resigned to the fact that either their loved ones or themselves were going to die.

Also, in an odd way it gave women freedom. They were able to work and do things that were before only seen as 'men's' jobs. My nan wanted to join the land army, but she was too young.

All throughout my nans life she hated food going to waste, as she was so used to having nothing when she was a child. She would eat stuff that was moldy, just scraping it off. She also had an incredibly sweet tooth, and blamed it on the fact that she never had them when she was young.

chomalungma · 17/12/2020 23:14

What I miss at the moment is human physical contact, live music, meeting strangers who could become friends and pub gigs......

tinselfest · 17/12/2020 23:14

Back then, people were patriotic and proud to be British; and were prepared to make sacrifices for King and Country.

Just look at us now.

There's your answer.

scrivette · 17/12/2020 23:15

When children study 'history' in many years to come and look at 'The Pandemic of 2020' they will probably read about how people came together on Thursdays and clapped the NHS, how the teachers did a great job of continuing with their roles, how people adapted and worked from home... Probably not so much about how people struggled in isolation and not seeing their loved ones etc.

oakleaffy · 17/12/2020 23:17

My relatives hated the War. Endless rations, being frugal, so much so that the frugality marked them.

Two paintings done by great grandmother of a view from her back window in Mayfair showed bombed out houses, and are titled ''Where is the happy party now?''
Once there were glittering parties to be viewed, and then only tattered wreckage.
Letters from War time were grim, VE Day had a relative depressed and worn out from heavy fighting..
Other relations never got over experiences of battles.

Covid sounds easy in comparison.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 17/12/2020 23:17

Absolutely scrivette 😀