Given its inability to defend Australia and New Zealand during the war, there were questions about how much Britain had to offer the Dominions in return. Increased foreign travel and intermarriage were other aspects of a relatively un-xenophobic and continually-changing society - trends that continue to this day. Furthermore, large-scale immigration, particularly from the West Indies and South Asia, but also from other areas such as Eastern Europe, has made the population ethnically far more diverse, with important cultural consequences. Was the US justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War? Labour achieved a spectacular recovery in the general election of 1945, when it won 393 seats and a comfortable 146-seat overall majority in the House of Commons.Most commentators have attributed this victory to the electorate’s overwhelming desire for social reform and its determination to avoid a return to the interwar era of economic depression and unemployment. Post-1945, Britain quickly relinquished its status as the world's largest imperial power, but it was the massive cultural and social changes at home that truly transformed British society. But though the Radio Times was moved to announce that “This Christmas after a year of momentous victories we chart The Journey Home,” it was to be more than eight months before the war finally ended. The national debt had risen from £760 million to £3500 million. At the start of 1939, the British Army was a small volunteer professional army. One such recalled: “Meat was rationed, butter was rationed, eggs, milk and so on and we accepted that rationing was just part of the facts of life. At the end of April, news arrived that Mussolini had been shot, that the German armies in Italy had surrendered, and then, on the 30th of the month, that Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. 79-96. On 6 August 1945, the debate over which party was most fit to lead Britain in the postwar world momentarily took a back seat as news filtered through that American forces had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. With Congress gone, control of provinces that later formed Pakistan, the Northwest Frontier, the Sindh, and Bengal fell under League control. Popular request programmes linked those on the home front with their loved ones who were away. As empire receded fast, Britain seemed a diminished power. Find out more about how the BBC is covering the. In line with a general trend around the developed world, life expectancy has risen greatly for both men and women. While, in the darkest days of the war, newspapers and magazines had sought to educate the public and bolster morale, by 1945 they were articulating their anxieties about what life would be like once victory was accomplished. By 1945, however, colonies were an expensive liability for Clement Attlee's newly elected Labour government. Victory is assured for us and our allies in the European war. C. ‘The Five Power Defence Arrangements: The Quiet Achiever’, Security Challenges, 3 (2007) pp. In the 1960s, pop music - not least that of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones - gave Britain a very different feel in the world to that it had enjoyed as the world's predominant empire. “The next thing I knew, I was waking up, trying to turn over, I found I could not move. The size of the Labour majority in the 1945 election (146 seats) gave it a mandate for the first time to carry out its election manifesto 'Let Us Face the Future'. The Labour party, meanwhile, was in high spirits at its Blackpool conference in early June. However does it mean Britain really was in economic decline? “I know we are going to have hell trying to work the peace – trying to give people a worthwhile-ness in their peace time lives comparable with the worthwhile-ness of working together during the war.”, From dancing the night away to turning dried eggs into Yorkshire pudding, how Britons lived their lives in 1945…. He said: ‘Read it – why, this will change all t’world. Most, in turn, were denationalised again under the Conservatives between 1979 and 1997. She is a historical consultant for the BBC Radio 4 drama series Home Front. 2014: How did the Jarrow March (1936) illustrate the social and economic problems facing Britain during the inter-war period? One recalled: “When the coach arrived to take us to the station and home I did not even wait to say goodbye, but just ran and jumped onto the coach.”. Britain used its economic power to expand the Royal Navy, doubling the number of frigates and increasing the number of large ships of the line by 50%, while increasing the roster of sailors from 15,000 to 133,000 in eight years after the war began in 1793. The Essex Newsman assured its readers: “You will enjoy it, and you will be fascinated by the haunting Cornish rhapsody.”. The Labour and Conservative parties shared major overlaps in policy. Germany - Germany - Germany from 1871 to 1918: The German Empire was founded on January 18, 1871, in the aftermath of three successful wars by the North German state of Prussia. April – Sybil Campbell is appointed a stipendiary magistrate in London, the first woman to become a professional judge in the UK. Britain was also a founder member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949, and sent a contingent of troops to take part in the Korean War (1950 - 1953) against Communist North Korea. “Finally tipped out of there we walked home in groups feeling as if a huge cloud had lifted off our shoulders and I must admit I never once thought of the war in the far east still going on as we sang and danced in the streets.”. Her morale was not irredeemably dented, however, and she resolved “just because I am frightened I must go”. By May 1940 the Germans occupied Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and Britain faced the direct threat of invasion. The melodrama Love Story was a romance between a dying concert pianist and an RAF pilot going blind. The challenge for Britain after 1945 was to preserve these ties, reinforcing Britain's prestige as the world's third greatest power and leader of the British Commonwealth. If this leaves you a little spare time, remember the job that’s still as important as ever – growing your own foodstuffs in garden and allotment. ; 19 April – Geoffrey Fisher enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury. Finally, on 14 August, President Harry Truman announced that Tokyo had surrendered and that, for Britons, the long, tortuous journey to victory was finally at an end. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. On 27 March Ivy Millichamp of Orpington, south-east London became the last civilian to be killed in a V2 attack – and, by the end of the month, the all-too familiar wail of air-raid sirens would be heard over the capital no more. Feeling threatened 'You wondered whether you'd go bush' From early in 1940, New Zealanders began to live in fear of attack or invasion, first by the Germans and later by the Japanese. A healthy family life must be fully ensured and parenthood must not be penalised if the population of Britain is to be prevented from dwindling." Britain had millions of men and women in uniform in 1945, scattered over Europe, the far east, and elsewhere. Fragments remained. As soon as I opened my mouth it filled up with dust and grit and I started coughing and spat it out. Post-1945, Britain quickly relinquished its status as the world's largest imperial power, but it was the massive cultural and social changes at home that truly transformed British society. Parliamentary candidate Major Healey’s passionate speech suggested a new mood in the country. How would the Japanese react to the prospect of more of these new and terrifying weapons being dropped over their homeland? His recent publications include The European Question and the National Interest (Social Affairs Unit, 2006) and War and the New Disorder in the 21st-century (Continuum, 2005). 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