Salute the Soldier Weeks were British national savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the aim of British Army equipment being sponsored by a civil community. [1] The Royal Air Force equivalent was Wings for Victory Week and the Royal Navy equivalent was Warship Week. [2]
Each county was set a target of money to raise and local civic leaders were presented with plaques as a reward for the fund raising efforts. [3]
The government had an initial campaign launched in September 1940 known as War Weapons Weeks – which was a drive to replace the materiel lost at Dunkirk. [4] The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated War Weapons Weeks was £456,861,000, [5] equivalent to about £20.6 billion in 2019. [6] Warship Week was launched in October 1941, and in summer 1942, the government had a smaller campaign for British Army equipment known as Tanks for Attack: the amount realized from this campaign was not separately recorded. [5] The following year was the RAF's turn and Wings for Victory Week was launched in March 1943. [5]
Building on the success of the earlier campaigns, a large military event was held at Trafalgar Square in London in March 1944 to raise money for field hospitals and other military equipment under the new Salute the Soldier campaign. [7] The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated Salute the Soldier Weeks was £628,021,000, [5] equivalent to about £28.3 billion in 2019. [6]
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.
The V-1 flying bomb was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany as Kirschkern or Maikäfer (maybug).
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, Republic of China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given free of charge on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.
A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is a standoff weapon with flight control surfaces to give it a flatter, gliding flight path than that of a conventional bomb without such surfaces. This allows it to be released at a distance from the target rather than right over it, allowing a successful attack without exposing the launching aircraft to air defenses near the target. Glide bombs can accurately deliver warheads in a manner comparable to cruise missiles at a fraction of the cost—sometimes by installing flight control kits on simple unguided bombs—and they are very difficult for surface-to-air missiles to intercept due to their tiny radar signatures and short flight times. The only effective countermeasure is to intercept launching aircraft before they approach within range, making glide bombs very potent weapons where wartime exigencies prevent this.
The Commandos, also known as the British Commandos, were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from Winston Churchill, for special forces that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe. Initially drawn from within the British Army from soldiers who volunteered for the Special Service Brigade, the Commandos' ranks would eventually be filled by members of all branches of the British Armed Forces and a number of foreign volunteers from German-occupied countries. By the end of the war 25,000 men had passed through the Commando course at Achnacarry. This total includes not only the British volunteers, but volunteers from Greece, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Poland, and the United States Army Rangers and US Marine Corps Raiders, which were modelled on the Commandos.
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are also a means to control inflation by removing money from circulation in a stimulated wartime economy. War bonds are either retail bonds marketed directly to the public or wholesale bonds traded on a stock market. Exhortations to buy war bonds have often been accompanied by appeals to patriotism and conscience. Retail war bonds, like other retail bonds, tend to have a yield which is below that offered by the market and are often made available in a wide range of denominations to make them affordable for all citizens.
Drill commands are generally used with a group that is marching, most often in military foot drills or in a marching band. Drill commands are usually heard in major events involving service personnel, reservists and veterans of a country's armed forces, and by extension, public security services and youth uniformed organizations.
The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board and the Office of Production Management.
Crossbow was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched against Britain from 1944 to 1945 and used against continental European targets as well.
The history of Canada during World War II begins with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. While the Canadian Armed Forces were eventually active in nearly every theatre of war, most combat was centred in Italy, Northwestern Europe, and the North Atlantic. In all, some 1.1 million Canadians served in the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, out of a population that as of the 1941 Census had 11,506,655 people, and in forces across the empire, with approximately 42,000 killed and another 55,000 wounded. During the war, Canada was subject to direct attack in the Battle of the St. Lawrence, and in the shelling of a lighthouse at Estevan Point on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
The 2/4th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army that was raised for service during World War II, as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force. Deploying to the Middle East in early 1940, the battalion took part in the early fighting in North Africa in early 1941 along with the rest of the 6th Division, before being sent to Greece and then Crete, where it was heavily engaged and suffered heavy losses. Rebuilt in Palestine, the battalion undertook occupation duties in Syria.
Series E United States Savings Bonds were government bonds marketed by the United States Department of the Treasury as war bonds during World War II from 1941 to 1945. After the war, they continued to be offered as retail investments until 1980, when they were replaced by other savings bonds.
The defense industry of Russia is a strategically important sector and a large employer in Russia. Combined, the US and Russia account for 57% of all major weapons exports.
HMCS Calgary was a Royal Canadian Navy revised Flower-class corvette which took part in convoy escort duties during the Second World War. She fought primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic. She was named for Calgary, Alberta.
HMS Loyalty was a turbine-powered Algerine-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy, formerly HMS Rattler. She served during the Second World War. Commissioned in 1943, Loyalty saw action off the coast of Normandy during the Allied assault there in 1944. While performing duties off the coast, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank.
The Australian Army was the largest service in the Australian military during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of war the Australian Army was split into the small full-time Permanent Military Forces (PMF) and the larger part-time Militia. Following the outbreak of war on the 3rd of September 1939, 11 days later, on 14 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that 40,000 members of the Militia would be called up for training and a 20,000-strong expeditionary force, designated the Second Australian Imperial Force, would be formed for overseas service. Meanwhile, conscription was introduced in October 1939 to keep the Militia at strength as its members volunteered for the AIF. The Australian Army subsequently made an important contribution to the Allied campaigns in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa fighting the Germans, Italians and Vichy French during 1940 and 1941, and later in the jungles of the South West Pacific Area fighting the Japanese between late 1941 and 1945. Following the Japanese surrender Australian Army units were deployed as occupation forces across the South West Pacific. Meanwhile, the Army contributed troops to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan from 1946.
Warship Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the aim of a Royal Navy warship being adopted by a civil community. During the early parts of the war, the Royal Navy not only had lost many capital ships but was facing increasing pressure to provide escorts for convoys in the Atlantic. While there was not a shortage of sailors, ships sunk by enemy action had to be replaced.
At the beginning of World War II, the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world, with the largest number of warships built and with naval bases across the globe. It had over 15 battleships and battlecruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers, 164 destroyers and 66 submarines. With a massive merchant navy, about a third of the world total, it also dominated shipping. The Royal Navy fought in every theatre from the Atlantic, Mediterranean, freezing Northern routes to Russia and the Pacific ocean.
Wings for Victory Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the aim of Royal Air Force aircraft being sponsored by a civil community. The British Army equivalent was Salute the Soldier Week and the Royal Navy equivalent was Warship Week.
The American Schools at War program was a program during World War II run by the U.S. Treasury Department, in which schoolchildren set goals to sell stamps and bonds to help the war effort. The program was also administered by the U.S. Office of Education, the Federal government agency that interfaced with the nation's school systems and its thirty-two million students. The Office, however, allowed the Treasury to work with the schools directly as the main objective of the program was raising money.