I’m not sure how long it’s been around, but this website by the BBC is an absolute treasure. The goal of the website is to give children a way to explore and learn about WWII online. While all of the resources are fascinating, I wanted to specifically highlight some of the posters that were used during the war. They were meant to encourage British civilians to practice safe behavior and support the war effort by making sacrifices in their personal lives.

Here are some of my favorites:

While they certainly served a functional purpose, I also appreciate that the illustrations are artistically beautiful.

Can you imagine being a child during this time? Being wished “Good Night!” after you’ve made sure you have your gas mask handy? My mum doesn’t have to. She was a child during the war and lived through the blitz. She remembers the terrible sound of the doodle bugs–a sound that would suddenly cut out as they fell. The awful silence as they plummeted and then the eternity waiting under the cupboard under the stairs (or the air-raid shelter if they had time to reach it) to see whose house it would hit. Her father (my grandfather) was killed in the second world war in Italy.

“When you go home, tell them of us and say: for their tomorrow we gave up our today,” John Maxwell Edmonds.

How do we even begin to thank them.

(If you or your children want to learn more about what life was like in England during WWII, I highly, highly recommend the BBC’s site.)

I think I need to run this website by my mum and see if she remembers these posters. And also what else she can tell me. Stay tuned.