At War – serie

By 1938 Warrington, like the rest of Britain, was preparing for war with Germany. From 1939 to 1945 every Warrington man, woman and child was affected by the Second World War whilst the wartime years also shaped the twenty-first-century town. Of those called up to serve in the Armed Forces, many were killed, injured or suffered in captivity as prisoners of war. Civil Defence Forces were formed to protect Warrington people and property from enemy attacks, but all lived through the terror of German air raids. Thousands worked in local factories to produce essential goods, campaigns to ‘Make Do and Mend’ and ‘Dig For Victory’ exhorted people to support the war effort and all endured rationing and shortages. Wartime Warrington was the site of key installations including Risley Ordnance Factory, Padgate Camp for training RAF recruits and HMS Blackcap, a Royal Navy Air Station. American GIs from Burtonwood USAAF Airbase became a familiar sight about the town and the noise of engines were heard day and night. VE Day and VJ Day celebrations marked the end of war but the impact on Warrington had been immense: the post-war New Town was partly created from acres of derelict land on the old wartime bases and Risley Ordnance Factory became a focus for Britain’s atomic development in the Cold War.Warrington at War pays tribute to the people of this town who served, died and lived through the Second World War, and how they managed to endure the horrors of conflict. It features contemporary archive material from the collections of Warrington Museum, fascinating stories from the town’s official archives as well as personal history collected by public appeals for wartime memories.

The Wirral Peninsula in north-west England experienced the tragedies and hardships of war at first hand during the two world wars. Many residents lost their lives in the conflicts both in active combat throughout the world and as a result of the Wirral being a target in itself, particularly around the docks and Birkenhead and Wallasey in the Second World War. Both wars had a devastating effect on local communities through the loss of life, the destruction of familiar places through intensive aerial bombing that in large areas destroyed or damaged virtually all of the buildings, the evacuation of children and the hardships experienced at home. Many served on ships keeping the vital routes from the docks open, the anti-aircraft batteries defending the docks in the Mersey, or on the RAF airfields on the Wirral. In this book, historian and author Mike Royden has captured the tribulations of the times, telling the stories of many local men, women and children during these trying periods.Wirral at War pays tribute to the people of this region who served, died and lived through the two world wars, and how they managed to endure in the face of the horrors of conflict.

Kent has a long and illustrious military history dating back to the Roman occupation but the first great conflict of the twentieth century brought the horrors of war to a new generation. Thousands of the county’s finest young men were sent off to fight in battlefields around the world including Europe’s Western Front, which was less than a day’s travel from Kent. Because of its proximity to this major war zone, Kent came to play a pivotal role in the conflict. The ports of Dover and Folkestone were the main staging posts for the British Expeditionary Force and the primary points of arrival for the thousands of wounded servicemen being repatriated from the Front. Its hospitals cared for the wounded and its munitions factories produced the armaments needed to fight the war.The county’s geographical position also made it a prime target for German air raids and naval bombardments, which brought the terrors of modern war to the civilian population for the first time.Kent at War tells the remarkable story of the First World War as it unfolded and affected the county and its people.