Game prep: Roles & readings
To prepare for gameplay:
Step 1
- If you are a member of a household, identify your assigned household.
- If you are a community member, identify your assigned role.
Step 2
Read, listen to, or view the following materials
- Household or community member role sheet. Read your household or community member role sheet before the game begins. Note the facts that are included in your role sheet as well as those that you think you will need to have to play the game.
- Musical themes. There is a theme song for the game as well as each household. Listen to the music for the game and your household.
- Eyewitness and secret roles. If you are an eyewitness, you will be assigned an individual role sheet and eyewitness account. You may also be assigned as secrete role and assigned a role sheet. Read these documents before the game begins.
- Read the background information in this handbook.
Step 3
As assigned in the household and community member role sheets, read, listen to, and watch the following sources that have been assigned to your role.
British Pathé newsreels (approximately 9 minutes)
- The war (1940) (3:03 minutes)
- Battle of Britain (1940) (2:39 minutes)
- Your Anderson air raid shelter (2:15 minutes)
- What to do during an air raid (.55 minutes)
Newspaper articles (click here to access)
The Times London news articles
- Good hope of victory (June 19, 1940).
- Britain’s air strength (October 24, 1940)
The Manchester Guardian
- Germany’s plan for invasion (September 18, 1940)
- Night raid on Merseyside (October 22, 1940)
BBC radio broadcasts (approximately 9 minutes)
- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: British declaration of war (.49 seconds)
- King George VI speaks to the nation on September 3, 1939 (5.44 minutes)
- The midnight news, September 15, 1940 (1:41 minutes)
- Princess Elizabeth broadcast (2:05 minutes).
Government information
- World War II Radio: Listen to Track 8 (air raid shelters, approximately .44 minutes)
- Winston Churchill, November 1939 (9:26 minutes)
- Winston Churchill, September 1940 (10:41 minutes)
- If you are bombed out (poster) and Look out in the blackout (poster) (click here to access).
German propaganda and British news articles (click here to access)
- Germany calling (aka Lord Haw-Haw) (transcript)
- Lancaster Daily Post
- Germany gambling on quick win: parachutists disguised as women (May 13, 1940)
- The Times
- Non-existent ship “sunk” (January 1, 1940)
- Points of letters: Lord Haw-Haw’s accent (January 2, 1940)
- New twist on German propaganda (November 4, 1940)
- A last appeal to reason by Adolph Hitler
Step 4
You will be given a double-sided handout that contains a Warden’s Report Form and a War Report Form.
Note the following on the Warden and War Report Forms:
- at least three key facts about your household and your role in the household or community;
- your household or community objectives;
- your household or community challenges and issues to be resolved.
If you are assigned an eyewitness role, read the eyewitness account and note the following on the War Report Form:
- at least three key facts about what you have witnessed in Manchester after the bombing;
- your information sources;
- your feelings about what you have seen.
If you are assigned a special information role, read your individual role sheet, note your personal challenge as well as how to meet this challenge.
Step 5
Complete your National Registration Identity Card, based on the information in your role sheet(s) and the assigned pre-game materials.
Click on Next (below, right) to move to the next page.
