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

DGM lived through the blitz in london, i'd say it deeply affected her for the rest of her life. I think she tried hard to fit in her trauma with that rose tinted 'oh wasnt the blitz spirit wonderful' propaganda, but deep down it didnt work. She lived through horrible, traumatic things as a child.

'There was a certain amount of getting together and pulling together. We are very isolated in this particular situation'

Those serving in the forces were apart months if not years! Children evacuated were too. There wasn't any facetime or zoom then, it was all letters if they were lucky. It is easy to have contact now, not the same but better than nothing.

Lots didn’t get through the war.

‘ older relatives there was a sense of getting on with it and being stoic.’

Absolutely not my experience at all. My family all said it was terrible. My mum had a massive family. I had 5 uncles who fought in the war. 2 were still traumatised by the battle of Monte Christo 30 years later.

They ALL hated the war, hated the conscription, hated Churchill and called him a warmonger. Not everyone supported it or ‘got on with it’. Most were forced into it.

'Not everyone supported it or ‘got on with it’. Most were forced into it.'

Of course. People struggled but they endured it. If they'd have had Sky news or social media whipping them into a frenzy and pitting people against each other then their mental health problems would have been a million times worse.

There was a greater feeling of camaraderie and shared experience I would imagine? Teachers didn't complain that they were still required to teach or doctors/ nurses talk about the "unprecedented" working conditions and I doubt "I didn't sign up for this when I became xyz" was ever uttered? Everyone felt a sense of national pride and identity and responsibility (which is sorely lacking today) to do "there bit"

But it was very different times - business that were forced to close were turned over to make things for the war effort so there wasn't the mass unemployment and enforced closure of whole industries we see today?

Also there was not the same removal of civil liberties then as now? Pubs and restaurants were open and life largely went on as normal except for rationing, curfews and obviously the bombings.

Everyone felt a sense of national pride and identity and responsibility (which is sorely lacking today) to do "there bit"

Jesus Christ! Talk about rose tinted spectacles!

People got through the war with each other
Community and friendship

They weren’t banned from seeing their families

What we’ve been living through is a form of torture -its no wonder a lot of people are really struggling

Things humans need to survive.- Water food oxygen warmth and other humans

I don't think for a minute the public did it without complaining, there was huge increase in crime and a massive black market.

However, if you want to believe the propaganda of the time, they had each other, supported one another and communities got them through. They weren't cut off without any social interaction for months on end. Even in the trenches, we hear about the importance of camaraderie, even playing football with the enemy!

The two situations aren't even slightly comparable.

'People got through the war with each other. Community and friendship.They weren’t banned from seeing their families'

If their husbands or sons were in the services then they were unable to see them! For months if not years.

'I doubt "I didn't sign up for this when I became xyz" was ever uttered?'

. But also probably very true.

If their husbands or sons were in the services then they were unable to see them! For months if not years.

Of course and it must have been awful but they weren't forced into social isolation in their absence.

They weren't cut off without any social interaction for months on end. Even in the trenches, we hear about the importance of camaraderie, even playing football with the enemy

That wasn't WW2. It was WW1

I’m really into historic fiction, and especially the lives of women and children on the “home front”. One thing I noticed is that for women who were victims of domestic violence - and let's face it, it was pretty common back then - were given a lot of breathing space when their husbands signed up or were conscripted. They were able to get jobs etc outside the home. Whereas during this pandemic many women are isolated 24/7 with with their abuser.

I think, in general, most of us now are less resiliant than our parents/grandparents. I know I would be useless in a war situation. I don't think I could have coped if my husband was sent away to fight.

Just looking at what my parents went through -

Dad - had TB together with two of his sisters. One sister survived, one died. He lived in London during the Blitz and the family were bombed out twice. On one occasion Granddad was taken to hospital and they didn't know if he was alive or dead or indeed where he was for a week, when he managed to find where they had been moved to and just turned up. The sister who survived TB married during her husband's 48 hour pass from the Army and then didn't see him for 4 years.

Mum - Lost a sister to Diptheria (TB and Diptheria now being survivable due to vaccines!). Brother killed during the war. Another sister mentally impaired due to being caught in a bomb blast.

In those days the majority of people didn't have central heating, or ineed, indoor plumbing. Food was just what was available and very little choice.

Even when I was young, money was very tight and there were many times when Dad had to walk the 4 miles to and from work because he didn't have the money spare for the bus fare. We also didn't have central heating.

I'm not saying that many, many people were not scarred by the war but I think on the whole people were more hardy and we should think ourselves lucky that the science has evolved to at least make a start on getting life back to something like normal.

DM was in an occupied country, bombed on and off by all. Their house was occupied first by the Germans, then by the Canadians and the English. All their possessions were taken by whoever was there at the time. But, she was free to do as she pleased, went out and about, grew up very quickly, and also had quite a fun time with all the various young men who came past. Yes she saw terrible things, her best friend died in a bombing raid, but because of that, they all lived for the day. I think now we are much more trapped within our lives, and also have a fear of dying, which just wasn't so much in evidence then.

I actually think it's really insulting and dismissive to say that people were just more resilient and stoic then, it minimises what they went through. They weren't somehow just stronger people, it was shit and they found it shit and they got through it somehow (except the ones who didn't), just as people would if it happened now.

I also don't know why WW2 is our only cultural reference for suffering.

There was a lot of unrest, looting, racketeering.
The initial taking to the underground during air raids was against the law (they were locked).
The idea that everyone just got on with it, is very overplayed.

I think people were more stoic.They were brought up in worse circumstances than today's. There was no benefits system as we know it today and no National health service. Many children died before they reached their first birthdays, many people died of influenza and consumption. When so many suffer these things you just get hardened to it and learn to accept the things you can't control.

Thank goodness there will never be another war of the same type.

@Calmandmeasured1

I think people were more stoic.They were brought up in worse circumstances than today's. There was no benefits system as we know it today and no National health service. Many children died before they reached their first birthdays, many people died of influenza and consumption. When so many suffer these things you just get hardened to it and learn to accept the things you can't control.

Thank goodness there will never be another war of the same type.

It's interesting - when I was an academic historian I worked on the sixteenth century and for a long time there was an idea in the literature that people then didn't love their children as much as we do or care as much when they died because it was more common and so you expected it. That theory is very much out of favour. However, a book recently claimed that there were lower levels of trauma from war and atrocities than you'd get now, but attributed this to a belief in divine providence and a bigger plan that few have now. I don't think there's any evidence that you 'get used to' suffering; I read a lot of early modern diaries and people did indeed still sweat the small stuff and they certainly sometimes suffered greatly at the big stuff (I did some work on a woman who suffered what we'd now call a mental breakdown during the civil war, for instance)

They didn’t know it would be 6 years. They got through one day at a time.
But I do find the histrionics over a disrupted year or 2 completely unnecessary- there’s a lot of very feeble people amongst us for sure that just don’t like not being able to do what they want and find change impossible. I think the pandemic will do them some good.

People struggled in the Ww2 in the UK too.
As a teenager my Nan lost ALL her young male friends to the Battle of Britain - she was devastated.
She sat in a flooded cellar night after night during the Blitz & got bad chest infections for the rest of her life.

I've cared for elderly British people in the past who suffered mental trauma from the war years as bomb victims, evacuees, refugees or pows.

My grandad suffered for years as he returned from Burma with Malaria & Dysentery plus what would now be called ptsd - even as an 89 yr old with end stage dementia he kept talking about the Japanese soldier he ran over with his tank & having to clean the tank after.

Then obviously there are the millions & millions of Europeans & Asians who suffered under Hitler & the Japanese....

It depends on what you mean by "get through the war".

People came out the other side eventually (except those who didn't) as we will, but in the meantime there was racketeering and other crime, a huge black market, people not following the rules (voluntary air raid wardens were very unlopular), a generation's mental health destroyed, even if they didn't talk about it. The increase in serial killers in the 70s and 80s is generally accepted to be a result of the war.

But through it all, they were allowed a knees up at Christmas, a chat with with neighbours, children played together in the street etc etc

It's hard to believe that anyone is arguing that we have it harder than people living through the war. Christ that's staggering ignorance.

Civil liberties were massively curtailed during wartime.

People couldn't socialise with their own children, as they were evacuated or worse, at war.

Just like now, they had no idea if they would win or what the future might be.

Yes this year is awful, but come on... it is not WW2.

'But through it all, they were allowed a knees up at Christmas, a chat with with neighbours, children played together in the street etc etc'

As are we. I chat to my neighbours, kids play together at school. We've got people round at Christmas, obviously only a couple.

We aren't in solitary confinement living on beans and rice.

It's hard to believe that anyone is arguing that we have it harder than people living through the war. Christ that's staggering ignorance

Ive obviously missed these posts, thats a daft thing to argue