The Spade As Mighty As The Sword

After the introduction of food rationing in 1940, and when German U-boats targeting merchant shipping threatened the availability of essential foodstuffs, the Ministry of Agriculture decided something had to be done to make the kitchens of Britain more self-sufficient. The result was one of Britain’s most successful propaganda campaigns – Dig for Victory – encouraging every man and woman to turn their garden, or even the grass verge in their street, over to cultivating vegetables. Now, for the first time, Daniel Smith tells the full story of this remarkable wartime episode when spades, forks and bean canes became weapons the ordinary citizen could take up against the enemy. It’s a war story without fighting or killing, one that shows how even The Little Man with the Spade, in the words of the government at the time, did his bit for Victory.