Children of the War Years Childhood in Britain During 1939 to 1945

When Britain declared war on Hitler's Germany in 1939, the lives of a generation of British children were altered forever. Between 1939 and 1945 British children experienced the horrors of a new kind of warfare that caused death and destruction in town and countryside on a scale that had hitherto been experienced only on the battlefield. Hundreds of thousands of them came to know what it meant to be sent away from home and family to live with strangers. Most of them grew up in a world in which food was limited, both in quality and quantity; some knew real hunger and deprivation. Many children saw little of their parents during the war years and many experienced death at close quarters.
For many children the war years also offered inspiration, a sense of freedom, adventure and the feeling that they were part of something bigger than themselves. Children of The War Years explores the events of World War Two through the experiences of British children, taking the reader on a vivid pictorial journey into our nation's past.