Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

== World War II (1939–1945)==
{{Main|British home front during World War II|Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II|Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II}}
[[File:Chamberlain-war-declaration.ogg|thumb|Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] announcing the beginning of the war on [[Nazi Germany]]]]
[[File:Princess Elizabeth Visiting Airborne Troops, May 1944 H38619.jpg|thumb|left|[[Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]] watching parachutists dropping during a visit to [[airborne forces]] in England in the run-up to [[D-Day]], 1944. Stood next to her is Brigadier [[James Hill (British Army officer)|James "Speedy" Hill]], commander of the [[3rd Parachute Brigade]].]]

The King declared war on [[Nazi Germany]] in September 1939, after the German [[invasion of Poland]]. During the quiet period of "[[Phoney War]]", the British sent to France the most highly mechanized army in the world; together with France they had more tanks than Germany, but fewer warplanes. The smashing German victory in Spring 1940 was due entirely to "superior combat doctrine. Realistic training, imaginative battlefield leadership, and unparalleled initiative from generals down to sergeants."<ref>{{Cite book |first=Ralph M. |last=Hitchens |title=Review ... |date=January 2014 |volume=78 |issue=1 |page=406 |url=https://www.smh-hq.org/jmh/jmhvols/781.html}} (reviewing {{Cite book |first=David|last= Edgerton |author-link= David Edgerton (historian) |title= Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War |date=2011 |publisher= Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-7139-9918-1}})</ref> The British with the thinnest of margins [[Dunkirk evacuation|rescued its main army from]] Dunkirk (as well as many French soldiers), leaving all their equipment and war supplies behind. [[Winston Churchill]] came to power, promising to fight the Germans to the very end. The Germans threatened an invasion—which the Royal Navy was prepared to repel. First the Germans tried to achieve air supremacy but were defeated by the Royal Air Force in the [[Battle of Britain]] in late summer 1940. [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] declared war in December 1941, and quickly seized Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma, and threatened Australia and India. Britain formed an alliance with the Soviet Union (starting in 1941) and very close ties to the United States (starting in 1940). The war was very expensive. It was paid for by high taxes, by selling off assets, and by accepting large amounts of [[Lend-Lease]] from the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. gave $30 billion in munitions; Canada also gave aid. (The American and Canadian aid did not have to be repaid, but there were also American loans that were repaid.)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hughes |first=J. R. T. |date=1958 |title=Financing the British War Effort |journal=Journal of Economic History |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=193–199 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700077718 |jstor=2115103 |s2cid=154148525}}</ref>

Britain's total mobilisation during this period proved to be successful in winning the war, by maintaining strong support from public opinion. The war was a "people's war" that enlarged democratic aspirations and produced promises of a postwar welfare state.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Mark |last=Donnelly |title=Britain in the Second World War |date=1999}}; {{Cite book |first=Angus |last=Calder |title=The People's War: Britain, 1939–1945 |date=1969 |author-link=Angus Calder}}</ref>

The media called it a "people's war"—a term that caught on and signified the popular demand for planning and an expanded welfare state.{{Sfnp|Calder|1969}} The Royal family played major symbolic roles in the war. They refused to leave London during [[the Blitz]] and were indefatigable in visiting troops, munition factories, dockyards, and hospitals all over the country. All social classes appreciated how the royals shared the hopes, fears and hardships of the people.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Alfred F. |last=Havighurst |title=Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century |date=1962 |chapter=Chapter 9 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |ol=4728126M |isbn= 0226319687}}</ref>

===Mobilisation of women===
[[File:The Auxiliary Territorial Service in the Second World War H9047.jpg|thumb|[[Auxiliary Territorial Service]] women in York]]
Historians credit Britain with a highly successful record of mobilising the home front for the war effort, in terms of mobilising the greatest proportion of potential workers, maximising output, assigning the right skills to the right task, and maintaining the morale and spirit of the people.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Robin |last=Havers |title=The Second World War: Europe, 1939–1943 |date=2002 |volume=4 |page=75}}</ref>

Much of this success was due to the systematic planned mobilisation of women, as workers, soldiers and housewives, enforced after December 1941 by conscription.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hancock |author-link=Keith Hancock (historian) |first1=W. K. |last2=Gowing |author-link2=Margaret Gowing |first2=M. M. |title=British War Economy |date=1949}}</ref> Women supported the war effort, and made the rationing of consumer goods a success. In some ways the government over-responded, evacuating too many children in the first days of the war, closing cinemas as frivolous then reopening them when the need for cheap entertainment became clear, [[British pet massacre|sacrificing cats and dogs]] to save a little space on shipping pet food, only to discover an urgent need to keep rats and mice under control.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marwick |first=Arthur |title=Britain in the Century of Total War: Peace and Social Change, 1900–1967 |date=1968 |isbn=978-0-37-000386-3 |page=258 |publisher=Bodley Head |author-link=Arthur Marwick}}</ref>

The British relied successfully on voluntarism. Munitions production rose dramatically, and the quality remained high. Food production was emphasised, in large part to free shipping for munitions. Farmers increased the area under cultivation from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 acres (from about 50,000 to 75,000 km<sup>2</sup>), and the farm labour force was expanded by a fifth, thanks especially to the [[Women's Land Army]].{{Sfnp|Calder|1969|pp=276–283, 411–430}}

===Welfare state===
{{Main|Beveridge Report}}
The success of the government in providing new services, such as hospitals and school lunches, as well as egalitarian spirit, contributed to widespread support for an enlarged welfare state. It was supported by the coalition government and all major parties. Welfare conditions, especially regarding food, improved during the war as the government imposed rationing and subsidized food prices. Conditions for housing, however, worsened with the bombing, and clothing was in short supply.

Equality increased dramatically, as incomes declined sharply for the wealthy and for white collar workers, as their taxes soared, while blue collar workers benefited from rationing and price controls.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Sidney Pollard |first=Sidney |last=Pollard |title=The Development of the British Economy 1914–1950 |date=1962 |pages=339–348}}</ref>

People demanded an expansion of the welfare state as a reward to the people for their wartime sacrifices.<ref>{{Cite book |first=F. M. |last=Leventhal |title=Twentieth-Century Britain: an Encyclopedia |date=1995 |pages=74–75, 830}}</ref> The goal was operationalized in a famous report by [[William Beveridge]]. It recommended that the various income maintenance services that had grown-up piecemeal since 1911 be systematized and made universal. Unemployment benefits and sickness benefits were to be universal. There would be new benefits for maternity. The old-age pension system would be revised and expanded, and require that a person retired. A full-scale National Health Service would provide free medical care for everyone. All the major parties endorsed the principles and they were largely put into effect when peace returned.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Brian |last=Abel-Smith |author-link=Brian Abel-Smith |title=The Beveridge report: Its origins and outcomes |journal=International Social Security Review |date=1992 |volume=45 |issue=1–2 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-246X.1992.tb00900.x}}</ref>