Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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From coupon books to make do and mend tips, IWM curator Simon Offord reveals how rationing shaped daily life in WW2 Britain.

00:00 Introduction to Rationing
03:07 Rationing Books
06:42 Rationing Shapes Everyday Life
10:06 Dig for Victory!
12:30 Weddings, Christmas, and Birthdays
13:55 The Black Market
15:41 VE Day and Post-War Rationing
17:10 Clothes Rationing until 1949
17:53 How Rationing Shaped Britain

Plan your visit to the Second World War Galleries at IWM London here:
iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london/second-world-war

Explore and licence the film clips used in this video:
film.iwmcollections.org.uk/collections/_WAZmv895

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England, Arbeitslose vor Gewerkschaftshaus, 1930, from Wikimedia Commons, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-10246 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de

#ww2 #britain #rationing #food #history