A startling new poll has revealed a third of Britons don’t know Sir Winston Churchill was prime minister during the Second World War.
The poll shows a worryingly high number of people know little about WWII.
The study, taken by OnePoll, also noted 37 per cent had no idea when the war took place, and nearly half were unaware that Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939 started it.
Winston Churchill's role in World War Two not known by a THIRD of Britons in staggering statistic
PA
The same number of people didn’t know there were nearly 60 million global casualties.
The poll of 2,000 adults show 48 per cent of people think it is important that everyone has a good understand of the conflict, despite 38 per cent saying they were unsure which countries emerged victorious.
Of the people questioned, 64 per cent said they had learnt more about the Second World War from documentaries, and 59 per cent had learnt from films. Only 55 per cent said they had their knowledge from school, but 40 per cent of young adults consider entertainment the most effective way of learning about the war.
Video game consoles carry the same weight when it comes to educating as museums, with 33 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds saying they knew about the Second World War from games, in comparison to 34 per cent from museums.
Interestingly, 36 per cent of young adults believe video games will be used to teach children about the conflict by 2030.
And 40 per cent of young adults say entertainment is the most effective tool for learning about the war.
As part of the study, 40 per cent of adults admitted to not knowing what the Blitz was, and 30 per cent knew an atomic bomb was used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The younger members of the audience had less knowledge, with 10 per cent of 18 to 24 year-olds believing the Battle of Britain led to the start of the conflict.
36 per cent of young adults believe video games will be used to teach children about the conflict by 2030.
Dominic Lipinski
The Metropolitan Police have placed Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square on a secret list of "contentious statues” prone to attack because of their links to war, imperialism or slavery.
The list has emerged in a report by the Policy Exchange think-tank through freedom of information requests as part of an investigation into what it claims is declining law and order and increasing crime around the Palace of Westminster.
The document claims that Churchill's statue features because of his claims that British imperialism was for the good of the “primitive” and “subject races”, although he is wrongly accused in it of murdering three million Indians.
