How the fuck did they get through the war??

[ssd]

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

@oakleaffy

Spanish flu was horrific after WW1. It killed millions, often people in their prime,Especially during it's mutated second wave.. The older people had an immunity of sorts, it seemed.

Reading nurses' experiences of 1918 pandemic was shocking at times..Covid seems 'minor' in comparison of number of deaths from Spanish Flu.

50 Million compared to 1.66 Million

It must have been horrendous for them. But every one of us today had ancestors who survived that era.

Yes. Imagine coming through WW1 and then being hit by a two year pandemic.

My grandparents lived through that and then a further world war.

@Lesina

Because civil liberties were not being curtailed and more jobs were being created.

Now civil freedoms are being paralysed and hi s are being decimated.

You don't know anything about internment then, or rationing, or curfews, or 'careless talk costs lives', or having the television cut off, or the blackout?

I think you'll find that civil liberties were curtailed rather a lot.

And it's easy to create jobs if you introduce conscription.

Yes. Imagine coming through WW1 and then being hit by a two year pandemic.

My grandparents lived through that and then a further world war

And through The Depression

Expectations and social norms were entirely different. My Aunt who is 94 always says "oh we didn't talk about much then". V stiff upper lip.

In the 1960s and 70s I lived in conditions that people would be outraged by now, but then so did many of my friends but my expectations were different. So I'd say this year hasn't affected me as much as other dare I say younger people? I have a fairly long life to look back on and think hmm, this will pass at some point. For my daughters its more stressful, they don't have the experience to draw on - nothing to compare it to.

@Horehound

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..

Almost 500,000 Brits died in WW2 - 400,000 in battle and and over 70,000 civilians in the bombing of the UK. Thankfully only 13% of that figure have been lost to Covid - although 65,000 is a terrible number.

I have lived through a civil war in Europe in the ’90s. You might recall it.
It was scary and we had to sleep in the bomb shelters...Food, water, and electricity were scarce.
But I remember the community spirit was strong and everyone helped each other.

@CorianderQueen
Fair point. Because they had to. I'm sure there were many suicides.

The number of suicides declined during both World Wars.

Dps nana says this feels worse than the war, as she could still go out and see people
Yes, and if you were lucky you would still be out when your house was bombed to the ground.

Honestly, there's no real comparison between a war and the current situation.

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

My Dad lived in London all through the Blitz. He once got shot at in Wood Green by a low-flying returning German plane.

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

My Mum talked about sitting in the shelter and hearing the Doodle Bugs coming. They'd get closer and closer and then their engines would suddenly cut out and there'd be a terrible silence while they fell to the ground. Mum just sat there terrified and praying one wouldn't land on their shelter. And after the silence the massive explosion and the shelter shaking and reverberating from the impact - and the feeling of relief that it wasn't them, and the fear of which neighbours had died. My Mum was 12.

1. People had no choice, so they "coped" but most of them hated the experience.
2. People had the camraderie of being around each other. Social isolation crushes people more quickly than physical deprivation. A dog in a rough and ready farmhouse which has people to pat its head and play with it and take it for runs outside will be happier than a dog left alone in a gorgeously appointed flat with only a TV screen for company. I suspect people are not much different.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

‘ During the war people moaned mostly about the food, which as well as being in short supply was generally very nasty, the lack of petrol (heavily rationed), the general uncertainty and difficulty of planning, and their inability to enjoy holidays on the continent.’

That’s interesting, Irene. I can imagine how you might have felt if your loved ones were off fighting and your home bombed and some irritating rich person was banging on about how terrible it was not being able to go to the Rivera again this year.

I was thinking the same, @TheCountessofFitzdotterel.

Irene seems to be overlooking the fact that people were killed everyday, either in fighting, bombings, torpedoed ships, in PoW camps. Not to mention terrifying nights in air raid shelters (not just in London, many ports and other areas were bombed).

But I expect the bad food and lack of holidays was their main source of anxiety...not.

I actually can't articulate how ridiculous I find comparisons between Now and Then. Yes, it's odd that we have to wear masks and try not to spread disease and have to restrict the things we do for a year or so. No-one likes it.

But no, it's not comparable to having to get the family up in the middle of the night and into the underground shelter when the sirens went off, or (like my uncle, aged 7) being sent to Shropshire as a child for two years to live with strangers. To sleep night after night on a tube station platform and to wake with the fear your house would be gone in the morning. To fear you'd be sent to a prison camp or exterminated by invaders.

The constant whining on here, the moaning "I'm so done" "I can't live like this any more!" "I'll kill myself if it goes on!" during this minor (on a world/historic scale) period of difficulty makes me feel like humans have really had it. We've reached the end of our evolution cycle. We are just too stupid, too feeble, we can't adapt any more, and we've lost the skills we once had to survive.

Or could you imagine if your 7 year old was evacuated to the countryside somewhere and you weren't able to phone them , or even write perhaps

My parents were evacuated at a very young age. My DM was born when the war started. She doesn't remember what happened and she's no longer with us. My DF was evacuated but can't remember where to. It would be great if i knew where they went.

People tended to be more resilient in the war years, especially womenfolk.The had to scrap around to get foodstuff for the family, making do with what they could get, eeking out small amounts of food,to try and get a somewhat decent meal. Some older men and women grew veg and fruit in their gardens which they were encouraged to do.The only time we ever had a chicken, was for Christmas dinner.

I wouldn't say people were stressed out all the time, unless they were bombed out of their houses in some parts of the country, they were mainly worried about getting the menfolk and women in the forces,back home safely again. Some never came home, some came back badly damaged in many ways.

I was born in 1942, and my Father was in the RAF, and was posted abroad, way before I was born, and didn't return home until the end of 1947.

I would say that, everyone struggled along, as best that they could, people tended to write a lot of letters, as no phones then, and listened to their old radios all day, for music, and all the latest war news.

My late Mumworked regular nights at the aircraft factory, making plane parts,and ammunition, which was ok, as my lovely Grand parents lived with me and my Mum.

The only other worry, was that there was no NHS until 1948, so people tended to do self medication for any ailments, and childhood illnesses.

@TibetanTerrier yes there were many orphanages for disabled children & that did happen, it was awful.
However there were also orphanages were neurotypical children were placed because their families couldn't afford to keep them. All due to Ceausescu banning contraception & abortion, so birth rates rocketed & many families just could not afford to keep a large family.
My DBiL did charity work with a Romanian orphanage run by nuns, supplying them with basics & medicines. There was a mix of NT & some children with physical disabilities. The nuns looked after these children as best as they could & were kind & did not ill treat the children but there simply weren't enough Nuns to give individual interaction & comfort to each child.
Just imagine getting your basic care needs met but little or no hugs, conversations that don't last more than a few mins, your caters nice enough but always busy & in a rush, never getting enough social attention/interaction.

@Namechange2020lalala

I'm reading a great book just now written in 1947 called the Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. It's as semi comic novel set in a boarding house outside London, the type of place where single people ended up to escape from the Blitz. The boarding house occupants are all quite lonely, bored and fatigued by the monotony of their existence and awake daily to the realisation that war is taking place all over the world. The main character a 39 year old single lady, ends up working from home which I thought amusing (she is a proof reader) and she ends up snogging an american serviceman so that relieves some of the tedium. So appears that whilst some people had a terrible time, others where just in limbo for long periods. And they got through however they could.

Another interesting parallel was the public information notices saying that 'careless talk costs lives', similar to our need for caution. It's a great book actually and I found it reassuring in some ways to relate to the situations and gain some perspective.

That sounds a great book I'm going to give that a read

@NotmyfirstRodeomyfriend

They are, of course, entirely different situations that you can't compare.

This.

@NiceGerbil

Read the OP and pressed read all OP threads.

OP has not posted again.

Why do people enjoy posting goady stuff and then sitting back and watching?

Tell you what OP. Maybe people coped better (did they?) because they weren't on the internet with twats like you inviting some people to feel smug and superior and others to feel inadequate and upset.

Do people like the OP even realise that the people posting are actual real life people i wonder.

Well said.

Many peoole did not cope we just didn't hear about it on the news 24/7.

The constant whining on here, the moaning "I'm so done" "I can't live like this any more!" "I'll kill myself if it goes on!" during this minor (on a world/historic scale) period of difficulty makes me feel like humans have really had it. We've reached the end of our evolution cycle. We are just too stupid, too feeble, we can't adapt any more, and we've lost the skills we once had to survive.
Do you feel superior to everyone or is it just people struggling with say, losing thier jobs, being threatened with losing thier homes, people worried sick because they are being kept away from loved ones who are in care homes with no idea why they have been abandoned, wondering how they can cope with being locked indoors with violent partners yet again and many other things that are affecting people just now.
Or is it just people with fragile mental health you scorn?
The suicide rates this year have rocketed. Foodbanks have never bern busier, people are dying through lack of health care which normally would have picked up heath problems but you are fine so everyone else can just suck it up? What a horrible attitude.
This whole shitstorm will cause more deaths and major health problems than covid ever will for many years to come.

Don't bother willow.

Other point is.

Many people are coping, by feeling they are coping better than others. And/ or by becoming bizarrely keen on rules regs ban people from the NHS arrest them etc.

The people who seem callous, for many I think that's a coping mechanism in itself.

They probably didn't like it but had no choice but to get on with it really.

I'm sure a lot of people bitched and moaned all the way through, though.

[quote TibetanTerrier]@CorianderQueen
Fair point. Because they had to. I'm sure there were many suicides.

The number of suicides declined during both World Wars.[/quote]
During.

Key word that.

After....

I wonder about the mental health side effects of all this.
I know its incomparable but my dad and FIL were both in the war and both suffered PTSD right into the last years of life. My mum was very stoic, which she probably had to become to cope as a teenager in the war.

It kind of makes you appreciate your parents even more. I wish they were here.

@Leflic you know wars aren’t always an external baddie coming to take over? What you’re asking is the equivalent of why the German Jews didn’t stay and defend. Refugees are leaving Syria because the threat comes from their next door neighbours and their government, there is no enemy to try and defend yourself against because you have no weapons and both bad sides are trying to recruit you and will kill you if you don’t join.

Mn sure has changed lot over the years. Time was here when you could start a thread and have a discussion and not be called a today that by someone who has their own agenda going on. Do posters here think we are all glued to mn 24/7? Believe it or not,some of us pop in and out and go back and read stuff, we dont constantly update our threads incase anyone .