Like most other Living History enthusiasts we are very keen collectors. We enjoy attending various 1940s events in and around East Anglia with our exhibits. It is important to us that people and in particular the younger generation understand that there was another war being fought on the Home Front whilst the men were fighting abroad. Education is always on our agenda along with a lot of fun, and it is great for us when people take a keen interest in what we have on show. Our exhibits include things such as food stuffs and cooking items, Civil Defense items and1940s make-up.
We are also part of a larger Living History Group, The Royal Ulster Rifles, who portray both 1st and 2nd battalions of this regiment in north-west Europe from 1944 to 1945. You can see their website at www.theroyalulsterrifles.com.

The fighting in World War 1 ended when the Armistice took effect at 11am GMT on November 11th, 1918. In the aftermath of the war the political, cultural, and social order of the world was drastically changed in many places, even outsid the areas directly involved in the war. New countries were formed, old ones were abolished, international organizations were established, and many new and old ideas took a firm hold in people's minds.

In the United Kingdom, funding the war had severe economic cost. From being the world's largest overseas investor, it became one of its biggest debtors with interest payments forming around 40% of all government spending. Inflation more than doubled between 1914 and its peak in 1920, while the value of the pound sterling ( consumer expenditure ) fell by 61.2%. Reparations in the form of free German coal depressed the local industry, percipitating the 1926 General Strike. British private investments abroad were sold, raising £550 million. However, £250 million new investment also took place during the war. The net financial loss was therefore approximately £300 million; less than two years investment compared to the pre-war average rate and more than replaced by 1928. The material loss was ' slight ' The most significant being 40% of the British merchant fleet sunk by German U-boats.
Most of this was replaced in 1918 and all immediately after the war. The military historian Correlli Barnett has argued that ' in objective truth the Great War in no way inflicted crippling economic damage on Britain ' but the war ' crippled the British psychologically but in no other way ' .

Less concrete changes included the growing assertiveness of Commonwealth nations. Battles during the Great War, such as Gallipoli for Australia and New Zealand, and Vimy Ridge for Canada led to increased national pride and a greater reluctance to remain subordinate to Britain, leading to a growth of diplomatic autonomy in the 1920s. The battles were often decorated in propaganda in these nations as symbolic of their power during the war, but however much the propaganda machine worked the casualty figures told a different story, it was if Britain and its ' donkey ' generals were throwing away the lives of their soldiers in endless and pointless battles. Traditionally loyal dominions such as Newfoundland were deeply disillusioned by Britain's apparent disregard for her soldiers, the Newfoundland Regiment had been totally wiped out to a man on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. This eventually led to the unification of Newfoundland into the Confederation of Canada.

Colonies such as India and Nigeria also became increasingly assertive because of their participation in the war. The populations in these countries became incresingly aware of their own power and Britain's fragility. The world was changing and it was changing fast. In Ireland the delay in finding a resolution to the Home Rule issue, partly caused by the war, as well as the 1916 Easter Rising and a failed attempt to introduce conscription in Ireland, increased support for separatist radicals, and led indirectly to the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence in 1919 and the eventual creation of the Irish Free State. Ireland would remain neutral during World War Two, but her men and women would still flock to the cause.

Britain was living in a mood of great mourning. Her ' generation of youth ' had blown away on the battlefields of Flanders. Her casualties including those of Ireland were 885, 138 military deaths, and 109,000 civilian. Making a total of 994, 138. Those wounded amounted to a staggering 1, 663, 435.
Every village, town and city had a memorial to the ' glorious dead ' nearly every family in the land had been affected by the loss of a loved one. And now a bigger evil was awakening across the Channel. An evil so great it would cast its shadow across Europe. Britain was asleep. She would stand alone. And she would call on the help of her dominions once again to survive.

The Phoney War was a phase in early World War II, in the months following Britain's declarayopn of War on Germany, shortly after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and proceeding the Battle of France in May 1940, that was marked by a lack of major military operations in Continental Europe. The various European powers had declared war on one another, but neither side had committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish military alliance and the Franco-Polish Military Alliance, which obliged Britain and France to assist Poland. While most of the German army was engaged in Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, their fortified defensive line along the French border. At the Maginot Line on