what items were in short supply in britain during world war 2?

Answer 1

condoms for the yanks

Answer 2

My father was a boy in Guernsey during the German Occupation of the island. He lived on a farm so was better off than the town population. The Germans took a percentage of the local crops for the 10,000 troops tied up on the island and the civil authority regularly sent groups to France to buy whatever was available but after the Allies freed France both islanders and Germans were near to starvation. Without the food parcels sent on the Red Cross ship Vega many more would have died. To this day the Red Cross is well supported by grateful islanders. Charity may begin at home but disaster can hit any of us unexpectedly. To their credit the Germans turned over all the parcels to the population.

My father said they had to chase scavenging soldiers out of their
fields and one died after eating the poisonous roots of hemlock water dropwort which resemble parsnip. My grandfather once brought home a rabbit carcase but later admitted it was a cat. Acorns were ground as a coffee substitute, seaweed to make jelly and all sorts of leaves were dried and smoked as a tobacco substitute. The local chemist had to make his own supplies of medicaments. Old hosepipe was used as tyres on bicycles.Runner beans were grown and the beans allowed to mature as they could then be stored over winter. There were few men to farm as almost all those of military age had gone to England to volunteer although after the experience of WW1 when the Guernsey regiment was massacred they were encouraged to join separate units and thus more survived WW2. The seashore which could have been a good source of food was mined and guarded and the fishing fleet were only allowed out under guard.

My father married in 1952 and the only house paint available was brown which made his new house very dark and gloomy. He never used brown again.

Answer 3

During World War 2 many countries had to supply their armies with everything they might need in order to protect and defend their country.

The army, navy and air force got what they needed first; then, what remained was rationed to the rest of the people.

Rationing meant you had to have a ration coupon to get most things for everyday life.

Gasoline, tires, steel and glass were all rationed because the Services badly needed to build and operate transport for the troops.

Meat, milk, grain, sugar and other foods were rationed too.

Even housing was rationed. Over a million servicemen and women were brought to Britain for training and eventual service in the war for Europe.

Service bases couldn't be built for all of them and they might only be stationed for training a short time, so civilians often volunteered to take in British and American soldiers.

The horrible bombing of places like London also lead to rationing of housing.

Answer 4

pretty well everything, especially anthing that was usually imported such as bananas. All meat, butter etc was rationed, even if you kept and killed your own pigs, yoiur meat ration was decreased so that others could have more. People dug up their lawns and front gardens to turn them into beg plots, and it was the height of the allotment time, clothing was rationed, and people used to cut down, unpick etc so that they could make new from old, partachute silk was in great demand for things such as knickers and wedding dresses. Stockings were unobtainable, so girls used to dye their legs and then paint a seam with eyeliner on the back of the legs so it looked as though they were wearing stockings

Answer 5

Absolutely everything! we are an island, everything from food to tanks had to come to us by sea, usually across the Atlantic from America. Sea convoys were attacked and sunk on a daily basis. Even the food we grew at home was in short supply, because it had to feed so many people.

Answer 6

Meat, vegetables (they had land girls to farm the land cos all the men were at war) fruit, (my mum never saw a banana in wartime) chocolate, alcahol like whisky and rum, steel was in short supply, they melted railings even church bells to make bombs and planes, fuel was rationed, ladies nylons, money, most things really cos the Nazis were sinking all the UK supply ships, also it took over 10 years to get back to normal.

Answer 7

Tights and stockings for the ladies as silk was being used for parachutes, therefore they used gravy browning and painted it on their legs and drew a line up the back of the leg (using a kohl eyeliner) to make it look as if they were wearing stockings!

Sugar, butter, eggs fresh fruit and vegetables were all in short supply.

Answer 8

At the beginning of World War II Britain imported 55 million tons of foodstuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 90% of cereals and fats. One of the principal strategies of the Axis was to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving Britain into submission (see Battle of the Atlantic).

In order to deal with the extreme shortages the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. Each person would register with their local shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was then provided with enough food for his or her registered customers. When purchasing goods, the purchaser had to hand over the coupon as well as the money for the purchase. On January 8, 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, milk and canned fruit. One of the few foods not rationed were fish and chips. Strict rationing caused many people to buy food on the black market; however people were often tricked with cheaper substitutes such as horse meat instead of beef.

As the war progressed, most kinds of food came to be rationed, as were clothing and petrol. Restaurants were exempt from rationing, which led to a certain amount of resentment as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly. In order to restrict this certain rules were put into force. No meal could cost more than five shillings; no meal could consist of more than three courses; meat and fish could not be served at the same sitting. Establishments known as "British Restaurants" supplied another almost universal experience of eating away from home. British Restaurants were run by local authorities, who set them up in a variety of different premises such as schools and church halls. They evolved from the LCC’s Londoners’ Meals Service which originated in September 1940 as a temporary, emergency system for feeding those who had been bombed out. By mid-1941 the LCC was operating two hundred of these restaurants. Here a three course meal cost only 9d. Standards varied, but the best were greatly appreciated and had a large regular clientele. Similar schemes were run in other towns and cities.

Clothing was rationed on a points system. Initially the allowance was for approximately one new outfit per year; as the war progressed the points were reduced to the point where the purchase of a coat constituted almost an entire year's clothing allowance.

Rationing continued after the end of the war. In fact, it became stricter after the end of the war than it had been during it. Bread, which was not rationed during the war, was rationed beginning in 1946. This was largely due to the necessity of feeding the population of European areas coming under Allied control, whose economies had been devastated by the fighting. Sweet rationing ended in February 1953, and sugar rationing ended in September of that year. The final end of all rationing did not come until 1954 with bananas. Some of the ersatz foods like apple crumble and carrot cake continue to be popular today.

Answer 9

Herbs and spices, as they were mostly from abroad, it is for that reason that the English cooking got a bad name, as for years the English had to learn to cook with little or nothing in the way of aromas and flavours so the cooking became dull. Also sugar, fuel, certain metals.

Answer 10

any sort of food, toothpast, boot polish, stockings, petrol, nicker elastic, any sort of clothing, tryes, metal impliments, sugar, sweets , choclate, tea, coffee, eggs, oranges, bananas, coconuts, lemons, pinapples , just about everything that had to be imported

Answer 11

Juist about everything except courage and a determination not to be beaten by Hitler and his monstrous ideology.