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. [1] The British Army equivalent was Salute the Soldier 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]
A large military event was held at Trafalgar Square in London in March 1943 to raise money for the Wings for Victory campaign. [4] The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated Wings for Victory Weeks was £615,946,000, [5] equivalent to about £27.8 billion in 2019. [6]
The Gurkhas or Gorkhas, with endonym Gorkhali, are soldiers native to South Asia of Nepalese nationality and ethnic Nepalese of Indian Nationality recruited for the British Army, Nepalese Army, Indian Army, Gurkha Contingent Singapore, Gurkha Reserve Unit Brunei, UN peacekeeping forces and in war zones around the world. Historically, the terms "Gurkha" and "Gorkhali" were synonymous with "Nepali", which originates from the hill principality Gorkha Kingdom, from which the Kingdom of Nepal expanded under Prithivi Narayan Shah. The name may be traced to the medieval Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath who has a historic shrine in Gorkha District. The word itself derived from Go-Raksha, raksha becoming rakha (रखा). Rakhawala means 'protector' and is derived from raksha as well.
The pound sterling, known in some contexts simply as the pound or sterling, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence. The "pound sterling" is the oldest currency in continuous use. Some nations that do not use sterling also have currencies called the pound.
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war. They are also a means to control inflation by removing money from circulation from 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 are often 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.
The Sportpalast speech or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies.
Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence.
Worth Matravers is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The village is situated on the cliffs west of Swanage. It comprises limestone cottages and farm houses and is built around a pond, which is a regular feature on postcards of the Isle of Purbeck.
The Ingobamakhosi Carbineers is an infantry unit of the South African Army.
The German city of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, all by the Royal Air Force (RAF). A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF. 20,000 people died during the war in Cologne due to aerial bombardments.
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.
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.
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.
The First Canadian Army was a field army and a formation of the Canadian Army in World War II in which most Canadian elements serving in Northwest Europe were assigned. It served on the Western Front from July 1944 until May 1945.
The National Savings Movement was a British mass savings movement that operated between 1916 and 1978 and was used to finance the deficit of government spending over tax revenues. The movement was instrumental during World War II in raising funds to support the war effort. In peacetime the movement provided an easy and safe way for ordinary people to save small sums of money. The movement grew to around 7 million members before ceasing during the 1970s as more modern methods of saving took over. Savings products promoted by the movement typically offered a low level of return but the safety of a government guarantee.
Rear-Admiral William Pierrepont was a Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth century who is best known for his service in the French Revolutionary Wars as a commander of the frigate HMS Naiad, in which he commanded the British squadron at the action of 16 October 1799 off Vigo, in which one of the largest hauls of prize money ever captured was distributed following the seizure of a Spanish treasure convoy. Pierrepont's career was later hindered by poor health, although he served in large warships through much of the Napoleonic Wars.
Private Joseph Ashitey Hammond is a Ghanaian Second World War veteran, known for his achievements in fundraising during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a veteran of the Burma campaign.
Hilda Annetta Walker FRSA was an English sculptor, and a painter of landscapes, seascapes and horses, flourishing between 1902 and 1958. She was a war artist painting in England during the First and Second World Wars, and described as "escapist". Some of her early work was the production of oilette postcard paintings for Raphael Tuck & Sons, of firemen and horses. She was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, to a family of blanket manufacturers who had the means to foster her art education. She grew up in the Protestant work ethic of Congregationalism, and attended Leeds College of Art, where she studied under William Gilbert Foster of the Staithes group and William Charles Holland King, sculptor of Dover Marine War Memorial. She signed her works "Hilda Walker" or sometimes "Hilda A. Walker".
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.
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. The Royal Air Force equivalent was Wings for Victory Week and the Royal Navy equivalent was Warship Week.