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Kids learn about the history of the Battle of Britain during World War II. Germany bombs England and London for months.

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The Second World War was a time of major upheaval for children in Britain. Over a million were evacuated from towns and cities and had to adjust to separation from family and friends. Here are 11 ways children were affected by the Second World War.

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In September 1939, Britain entered into what would become the world's most devastating war to date. Learn all about the events that changed the lives of millions in our World War 2 facts....
World War 2 facts

1. World War 2 was a battle between two groups of countries

- the " Allies" and the " Axis ". The major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States. The major Axis Powers were Germany, Italy and Japan.

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2. Before World War 2 began, Germany was ruled by a man named Adolf Hitler

Together with the Nazi Party, he wanted Germany to rule Europe. To gain more land and power, on 1 September 1939 German troops invaded Poland. After Hitler refused to stop the invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany - World War II had begun.

3. During the course of the war, German forces advanced through Europe.

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable Second World War primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

4. Millions of Germans were imprisoned and killed because they didn't fit the image of the 'perfect' German

Hitler wanted to create what he thought was the "best" and strongest race - and to the Nazi Party, this excluded certain groups, such as Jews, Gypsies and those with physical and mental disabilities. In an attempt to eliminate a "racial enemy" outside of Germany, such groups were also persecuted in the countries invaded by German forces.

5. The group most heavily targeted by the Nazis were the Jews

Around six million Jewish people were killed during World War 2 in one of history's most terrible events - the Holocaust. Racist in his views, Hitler blamed Jewish people for Germany losing World War I and claimed they were dangerous to German people and society.

6. Around the same time that Germany fought for power in Europe, Japan wanted to control Asia and the Pacific

In 1937 (before World War 2 had officially begun) under Emperor Hirohito, Japan attacked China, bringing the two nations into years of conflict.

7. The US didn't join the war until 1941, when Japan attacked the United States

- at their Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On 8 December 1941 (the very next day), the US declared War on Japan and, in turn, its German allies.

8. Some countries remained 'neutral' in World War 2

Such countries were Spain, Sweden and Switzerland - who chose not to join either side.

9. The Germans surrendered on 8 May 1945

In 1944, an Allied army crossed from Britain to free France from Nazi rule. One year later, Allied armies invaded Germany, forcing the Germans to surrender. After nuclear attacks on Japan's major cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan also surrendered to Allied forces in August the same year. World War 2 had ended.

10. Around 64 million people died in World War 2

- that's more than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

Find out more about the countries involved in World War 2 with our Germany, Japan and USA facts. Plus, learn about the life of Anne Frank, a young German girl who wrote a world-famous diary...

*Yugoslavia was a country established in 1918 in south-east Europe, which included modern-day Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

*USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union) was a former country which included modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Estonia, as well as other socialist states.

What did you think of our World War 2 facts? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Learn astonishing World War 2 facts with Nat Geo Kids. When did the war start? Who fought in in the war and why? How did it change the course of history?

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Narrator: In the Second World War, you could be in serious danger even if you weren't fighting at the front.

In September 1940, German bombers began targeting key cities across Britain. From London, Coventry and Manchester in England. Cardiff and Swansea in Wales, through to Belfast in Northern Ireland and Clydebank in Scotland.

This period of intensive bombing carried on for eight months and became know as the blitz. The bombing during the blitz was incredibly damaging. Historic buildings like Coventry Cathedral were flattened and large parts of cities had to be re-built.

Those who stayed in the cities had to live by strict rules. Every night when it got dark, the cities would go into blackout. All the street lights were switched off and special thick black curtains and paint covered every window, to make sure cities could not be seen from aeroplanes overhead.

If you had a garden, you might have an air raid shelter made from iron buried in the ground, where you would have to sit for hours during a raid, until the all clear was sounded. Other people used communal shelters. In London, many people used the underground to shelter from bombs.

Many men and women responded to the bombings by volunteering to work as air raid precautions, or ARP Wardens, or as extra ambulance drivers, to keep people and communities as safe as possible.

However, thousands of people had already been evacuated to the safer countryside, when war was first declared. Most of these were children separated from their parents.

Kitty was evacuated on September the first 1939, which also happened to be her ninth birthday.

Kitty: Mother said you are going on a trip and I really thought it was a birthday trip. We were all given this little cardboard box and I opened it and inside was a rubber gas mask. All the boys are putting them on and making funny noises and we were all in fits of laughter we really thought it was a joke, we really thought we were going out for a day.

Got to the school, all happy happy with this cardboard box. Label was put on us. All of us enjoying it. Coach came, on the coach, singing away. And then on the train.

Narrator: Once the children arrived in the countryside, they were taken to a school and told to stand in a line.

Kitty: In came lots of strange-looking people, they had like walking sticks and some had dogs and funny hats on and they walked by and they said, 'that one'. Teacher said: 'Off you go Bob, off you go with that lady.' One by one we were all picked off, and sent away.

Narrator: Kitty was separated from one of her sisters and sent to live in a horrible place.

Kiity: We went down into a basement and we looked down and she said there were these sort of cobbled steps she said, 'go down there, that's your room.' And we walked down and it was a mattress on a floor and we were so tired we didn't care. It was like bricks on the wall, it wasn't a wall, a plastered wall. it was just bricks, I had never seen it before. With a little opening with bars on it.

Narrator: But even if the evacuations were upsetting, at least it was safer than being in the cities. Especially, when the Germans sent over flying bombs and rockets towards the end of the war.

Bernard remembers these flying bombs.

Bernard: Well, they had a ramjet engine and it went mmmmmmmh and it got to London and most of them ran out of fuel. Some power dived but most didn't. So, you got this coming along and it stopped and it's got little stubby wings, so it didn't fall down vertically, it glided. So in five seconds you knew whether you were going to be killed or not.

Narrator: Did you know? Throughout the blitz, the King and Queen remained in Buckingham Palace in London, to show the public they were all in it together. On the first night of the blitz, many hundreds of people were killed in the East End of London.

About a week later, two bombs fell on Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen only just avoided death. Afterwards, the Queen said, 'I am glad we have been bombed, it makes me feel we can look the East End in the face.'

By the end of the blitz millions of buildings had been destroyed and thousands of people had died.

But had Britain not been prepared or had so many children not been evacuated to safety, the number of people killed could have been far greater.

However, the blitz was not the only time Britain was bombed. After the allied success on D-Day in 1940, Germans started launching their new weapons. Flying bombs and rockets called the V1 and the V2. They wouldn't stop until a few months before the end of the war.

And until then, ordinary people across Britain just had to hold on.

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This short film offers a digestible insight into the blitz and how the British people responded.