ABSTRACT
The penultimate section compares the use of crusader rhetoric and imagery between 1939 and 1945 with the First World War. Although widespread use was made of crusader medievalism at the beginning of the war, particularly by Allied leaders and senior politicians, and crusading was employed as a way to understand the conflict in its ‘Phoney’ stage, there are several indicators that it ultimately lacked traction amongst the wartime population. This is especially illustrated by the attempts to paint the war as a crusade by Cyril Alington, Dean of Durham Cathedral, and the Mass Observation reports of 1940, which reported to the British Government’s Ministry of Information that perceptions of crusading were confused and incoherent, and recommended a change of tack in propaganda.
