With war finally over, the long process of recovery and rebuilding starts
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Britain woke up from the celebrations with a hangover. Victory over Japan was celebrated on 15 August, but in comparison with VE Day it was a subdued affair. People were already thinking about, and hoping for, a new and better post-war world. Britain was the only country to fight in both World Wars from start to finish, and by 1945 after six long, bloody years the country was almost on its knees.
The Treasury warned that the country faced a ‘financial Dunkirk’. Without continued US aid and loans, it was ‘virtually bankrupt’.
Britain was a victor with the finances of a defeated combatant. A walk around any shattered city centre or port town made it obvious the country needed to rebuild its economy and infrastructure.
While some things returned slowly to normal once the fighting had stopped, shortages continued to be a way of life for years. Clothes rationing lasted until 1949, while food rationing did not end until 1954.
It would take a long time for the memories of Spam and powdered milk to fade. But however drab the immediate aftermath of war was, one thing Brits in 1945 did not want was a return to 1939.
Just about everyone – women as well as men – had pitched into the war effort, and they wanted to share fully in the benefits of peace.
Memories were still strong that the promised ‘Land Fit for Heroes’ had failed to materialise after the First World War. So, when Britain went to the polls in July 1945, voters delivered a shock. Britain’s wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill – despite his huge international prestige at this time – was turned out of office in favour of his coalition deputy Clement Attlee and the Labour Party.
People were now less interested in Britain’s imperial role in the world and more focused on their own futures in terms of housing, full employment and social security.
Labour’s landslide victory gave it the mandate to introduce major reforms. These included setting up the National Health Service and ‘cradle to grave’ care in the shape of the Welfare State, giving financial protection in the event of sickness or unemployment.
Today the war continues to have a psychic impact on people, even those born after 1945. Whether it’s references to the Blitz spirit during the current coronavirus lockdown or news that our football team’s victory was their ‘finest hour’, the allusions are always there.
The Second World War’s unique place in the nation’s memory is explained by the fact that this was the people’s war. The population gave its ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to defeat Hitler’s genocidal regime.
Victory came at a heavy price, but that is why it is still celebrated today.
Crowds celebration Victory in Japan Day in Albert Square, Manchester at the end of the Second World War. August 15, 1945
TOP RIGHT A mother and her family seen here living in one room of a Liverpool Terrace slum. November 28, 1948
BOTTOM RIGHT The landlady of the local chalks up a message no man wants to see ‘Sold Out No Beer’. In the summer of 1946 there was a shortage of beer across the United Kingdom. This was largely due to depleting wheat stock, a knock effect from the war, combined with drought in the main wheat producing countries
TOP A little girl stands by a dustbin in a Bradford slum. November 1953
ABOVE The people of Guernsey and Sark in the Channel Islands, receive their first British provisions since 1940. Mrs A J Bell of Mount Arrive in Guernsey, shows off a basket of food stuffs. May 1945
LEFT A crowd gathers at the biscuit counter of the Fenwicks store in Newcastle following the abolition of points rationing announced by Mr Webb The Minister of Food. May 20, 1950
BELOW Private Jim Kavangh of Edward Street in Birmingham could not get home for VJ Day so the children waited until he did return before having their peace day celebration. August 28, 1945
LEFT Mr Clement Attlee after the Labour election victory of July 1945, seen here with his wife and his advisors. July 27, 1945
Doing it ‘just like the builders do’, a hive of industry going on in the new children’s playground opened on the blitz site of St. Luke’s Church, Peckham, London. May 13, 1948
LEFT Children playing, outside Dockland Houses, Isle of Dogs. Families set up home in Nissen huts, pre-fabricated houses, Circa 1946
BELOW A new block of flats being built on Rochdale Road, Manchester. September 11, 1948
The Coventry Climax Engines ET199, the first British-produced forklift truck, seen here being demonstrated by a female worker at the Coventry factory that produces the truck. The demonstration included lifting a large racing car weighing nearly one and a half tons. October 8, 1946
ABOVE Morris Minor Low Light Sedans fresh of the production line being packed for export at Morris’s Cowley factory. March 24, 1949
ABOVE Student nurses Moduph Marke from Freetown, Sierra Leone and Rebecca Solanke of Lagos, Nigeria hold a new born baby during a midwifery course at the National Training School for Midwives in Woolwich, London. February 5, 1948
BELOW The Derby County team return home with the FA Cup trophy following their victory over Charlton Athletic in the Final at Wembley. Derby captain Jack Nicholas showing off he trophy. May 1, 1946
LEFT Aneurin Bevan the Nation Health Minister and founder of the NHS is toured around the 400 bed Park Hospital Davy Hulme, Lancashire. Sylvia Beckingham aged 13 was too shy to ask him any questions. July 1948
Holidaymakers play a game of cricket on the sands at Blackpool. August, 1946
TOP Mona Baptise, Blues singer, on board the Empire Windrush as it arrives in Britain with 409 West Indians seeking jobs. June 1948
BOTTOM Queen Elizabeth II smiles from the coach as the Coronation procession passes King Charles Statue on its its way to Westminster Abbey. June 2, 1953
MIDDLE Customers and staff at the ‘Cider House’ on Harrow Road, London. Circa 1946
RIGHT Hampstead Heath Fair, London. Dinah Goddard, 6, of Leytonstone with her cousins, John, 8 and Barry, 9, enjoying the biggest heaps of candy floss the chap at the fair could make. May 16, 1959
TOP A sailor is determined to take two little girls under his arms for a paddle. August 1946
BOTTOM Rock and Roll singer Bill Haley arrives in London. February 5, 1957
Three friends enjoying a day out at the beach in Margate, Kent during Easter holidays. March 26, 1948