Editing Lost Generation (section)

====Second World War====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J31317, Berlin, Volkssturm, Ausbildung.jpg|thumb|left|Weapons training for members of the [[Volkssturm]], a militia all German men not already in military service up to the age of sixty were obliged to join in the final months of World War II.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian |title=Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-39332-252-1 |location=New York |pages=713–714}}</ref>]]

When World War II broke out in 1939, the Lost Generation faced a major global conflict for the second time in their lifetime, and now often had to watch their sons go to the battlefield.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Anne Sharp |title=Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing |year=2014 |page=7}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> The place of the older generation who had been young adults during World War I in the new conflict was a theme in popular media of the time period, with examples including [[Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)|''Waterloo Bridge'']] and ''[[Old Bill and Son]].'' Civil defense organizations designed to provide a final line of resistance against invasion and assist in home defense more broadly recruited heavily from the older male population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cullen |first=Stephen M. |title=Bill Nighy fronts new Dad's Army, but don't forget the real Home Guard |url=http://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192318/https://theconversation.com/bill-nighy-fronts-new-dads-army-but-dont-forget-the-real-home-guard-26007 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=The Conversation |date=29 April 2014 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name="Hasegawa">{{Cite book |last=Hasegawa |first=Tsuyoshi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |title=The end of the Pacific war: Reappraisals |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8047-5427-9 |pages=75–77 |access-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC&q=%22volunteer+fighting+corps%22&pg=PA76 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Companion" /> Like in the First World War, women helped to make up for labour shortages caused by mass military recruitment by entering more traditionally masculine employment and entering the conflict more directly in female military branches and underground [[Resistance during World War II|resistance movements]]. However, those in middle age were generally less likely to become involved in this kind of work than the young. This was particularly true of any kind of military involvement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schweitzer |first=Mary M. |date=1980 |title=World War II and Female Labor Force Participation Rates |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=89–95 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700104577 |issn=0022-0507 |jstor=2120427 |s2cid=154770243 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605192315/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120427 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021}}</ref><ref name="Carruthers, Susan L 1947">{{Cite journal |last=Carruthers |first=Susan L. |date=1990 |title='Manning the Factories': Propaganda and Policy on the Employment of Women, 1939–1947 |journal=History |volume=75 |issue=244 |pages=232–256 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1990.tb01516.x |jstor=24420973}}</ref><ref name="ProQuest1296724766">{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=D'Ann |date=1 April 1993 |title=Women in combat: The World War II experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union |journal=The Journal of Military History |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=301–323 |doi=10.2307/2944060 |jstor=2944060 |id={{ProQuest|1296724766}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Alan |title=World War II: Women at War |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604183333/https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/ |archive-date=4 June 2021 |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=www.theatlantic.com |language=en}}</ref>