The Blitz

Nighttime air raids. Crowded bomb shelters. Burned-out houses. Loved ones killed. That was everyday life for the Britons during the Blitz.

The Blitz, Germany's terror-bombing campaign against Britain in 1940-41, was a horrifying experience. More than 43,000 civilians died during the bombing; one million homes were destroyed or damaged.

The Blitz shook Britons to their very core. They were scared and depressed; their homes and neighborhoods lay in ruins. But their spirit was never broken. Somehow, they found a way to get through it all and show Hitler that the best he could throw at them wasn't good enough.

To Mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, the BBC invited Britons to relive their wartime experiences for a unique online archive titled WW@ People's War Included among the archives thousands of colorful recollections are firsthand accounts from those who survived the Blitz. They depict both perilously close calls and the indomitable fortitude that enabled the British people to persevere.

Task: Visit the following link and explore some of the accounts from the Blitz. Then leave a comment on this blog in the form of your own fictional account of a Londoner during the Blitz. Be sure to include enough factual information to make the accounts seem real while capturing the despair and resolve of the British people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1161/

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War of 1936 was an opportunity for Hitler to test out his new Nazi War machine in action. Hitler tested weapons and military strategies while also seeing how the rest of the world powers would react to fascist aggression.

Despite most countries refusing to send aid to the Spanish Government many volunteers went over to fight in what they saw as a just cause. This included many celebrity artists and writers such as Earnest Hemingway and George Orwell. As a result there is a rich artistic record of the Spanish Civil War.

Visit the following site http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/scw.htm and explore some of the images and writings. What warnings are there in these artifacts? Make a comment giving specific examples of things the world should have payed attention to as the world began on the road to the Second World War.