Salute the Soldier Week

Salute the Soldier Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the aim of British Army equipment being sponsored by a civil community.[1] The Royal Air Force equivalent was Wings for Victory Week and the Royal Navy equivalent was Warship Week.[2]

Salute the Soldier Poster

Campaign

Each county was set a target of money to raise and local civic leaders were presented with plaques as a reward for the fund raising efforts.[3]

The government had an initial campaign launched in September 1940 known as War Weapons Weeks – which was a drive to replace the materiel lost at Dunkirk.[4] The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated War Weapons Weeks was £456,861,000,[5] equivalent to about £20.6 billion in 2019.[6] Warship Week was launched in October 1941, and in summer 1942, the government had a smaller campaign for British Army equipment known as Tanks for Attack: the amount realized from this campaign was not separately recorded.[5] The following year was the RAF's turn and Wings for Victory Week was launched in March 1943.[5]

Building on the success of the earlier campaigns, a large military event was held at Trafalgar Square in London in March 1944 to raise money for field hospitals and other military equipment under the new Salute the Soldier campaign.[7] The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated Salute the Soldier Weeks was £628,021,000,[5] equivalent to about £28.3 billion in 2019.[6]

References
  1. "Salute the Soldier Campaign". Hansard. 8 February 1944. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  2. HMS TAKU (PDF), South Holland District Council, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-22
  3. "Salute the Soldier". Thirsk Museum. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  4. "Bomber in the City, 1943". History Today. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. "The Bank of England 1939-45 (Unpublished War History): War Savings Weeks" (PDF). p. 9.
  6. United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the Measuring Worth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  7. "Salute the Soldier Week". British Pathe. 1944. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
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