On our first full day in London we went to see the Churchill War Rooms and the museum attached to the site. We saw the conference rooms in which Churchill gathered with his top staff and advisors to make war decisions during WWII.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7I0LERguVD4YWdBeFZ1VjhoV3c
These rooms were made necessary because, during the Blitz, London was repeatedly bombed by Nazi Germany. And so, after Churchill’s office was nearly destroyed in one of the bombings, he had to move his business underground to his emergency bunker to protect himself and his advisors from the bombings in order to continue making their protection plans for Great Britain throughout the war. Although he viewed this as giving in to the enemy, he knew that it was more important to keep the leaders safe and able to make war plans than to make this public statement of strength and courage for the people.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7I0LERguVD4ZlZwR2dFbF81Qzg
He viewed this war as the people’s war and the museum demonstrated his commitment to the public by displaying his speeches and propaganda to the citizens of Great Britain. They showcase the importance of his speeches in the success of his career as Prime Minister for the people. Our guest speaker also supported this in his speech about his individual experiences during the war in England as a young man. He said that listening to the radio every night to hear Churchill’s speeches was their nightly routine and definitely made the wartime sentiment more calming and encouraging for those suffering from the bombings. All of the speeches encouraged complete cooperation between the people and the war effort. He encouraged everyone to carry on their daily lives in order to prove Germany’s failure to decrease the morale of the public and war effort through the bombings. This was Hitler’s plan all along, but the Churchill talks inspired citizens to take further action and participate in the fighting instead of succumbing to fear. This referred to everyone, but it especially appealed to those helping on the domestic front, on the front lines, in government, and, though it was highly classified information, the people helping with ULTRA intelligence gathering and code breaking at Bletchley Park (which we also visited on our trip).
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7I0LERguVD4ZlZwR2dFbF81Qzg
This allowed for England to continue their initially single-handed fight against Germany at the beginning of the war, as their internal support kept the entire operation afloat (though it was materialistic ally assisted by the United States at the time as well). Later in our week, the imperial war museum also exemplified this push for public strength in its presentation of the homefront struggle during the Blitz through the pro-national propaganda section of artifacts. The museum also featured information about life in the bunker for all of Churchill’s staff, demonstrating just how many people were impacted by and contributed to his executive effort – in addition to the effort by the masses. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7I0LERguVD4REgxZ3RKRmdzYWs