Digging for victory as food became a wartime rarity
Historian Malcolm Goode looks back at events from May 1942 when the message was ‘dig for victory’ as food was in short supply
POSTERS appeared on every billboard and notice board appealing for volunteers to join the Women’s Land Army and “dig for victory”.
Due to the increasingly heavy toll of losses to merchant ships from U-boat attacks, food was getting really scarce despite rationing.
Although many of our local women joined the Land Army, more had to be done to encourage those people at home to do more for the ‘Home Front.’
Our local newspapers did much to encourage people to dig for victory by giving tips on how to prepare soil in their gardens, how to best plant seeds and grow those all important vegetables.
People at home would sit and listen to regular “wireless” broadcasts put out by the BBC from London called “Radio Allotment” giving tips and hints on how to make a success from their efforts.
Families had by now also become used to the fact that there was less meat to be purchased with their ration tokens.
Both the Burton Daily Mail and the Burton Observer and Chronicle would help readers to make meat pies without meat, as potatoes and carrots became a little more plentiful.
Hints were also given in recipes on new ways of cooking vegetables taken from Potato Pete’s Recipe Book.
Servicemen and women who were about to come home on leave were urged to “Lend a Hand on the Land”, asking them to give an hour or two to help with the gardening and harvesting.