"On the 70th anniversary of the declaration of war in September 1939, this book looks at the war through the eyes of the people who lived through it. In 1939, they thought it would be a short war; in 1940 Britain was threatened; in 1942 there were fears New Zealand might be invaded ... New Zealanders now have knowledge and hindsight: people then had limited knowledge and they had fears for the future. War was not just about soldiers, sailors and airmen. It was also about the people at home, who had only the vaguest idea of where their loved ones might be and what danger they might be in, when next they would hear from them or if they would hear from them at all. Ever. This is about the war as people at home learned of it at the time through newspapers and broadcasts."--Book jacket.