"... there were special bags in which one put babies. Mums worked bellows which filtered the air needed for them to breathe..."
Explore the People's War with bbc.co.uk/ww2, a growing archive of personal reminiscence and eyewitness accounts of a nation and a world at war. Find out more about the project.
Listen to the past
The voice of those who experienced the war first hand shows why we are increasingly valuing oral history.
Whose war was it anyway?
How are we to judge the roles the nation played sixty years ago - whose war was it, anyway?
A calculated victory
The race to break German codes was to lead to the birth of modern computing.
Taking it further
Research everyday life and experiences of the war - you can start from your desktop with our collection of books and weblinks.
On bbc.co.uk/ww2
Explore the main People's War website - bbc.co.uk/ww2. You'll find an ever-growing archive of real people's experiences during the 1939-45 conflict.
Reading the war
The Open2 Book Club offers a list of 100 titles, ranging from memoir to poetry: Reading the war.