– BBC World Service – London Column – July 25, 1945 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
As the war was going through its final phase in the Pacific, the War in Europe was now over and the herculean task of putting the broken pieces back together had begun.
London Column, a weekly radio program, produced by the BBC World Service for America, featured a walking tour of Berlin – observing the devastation and the task of cleaning up, putting shattered lives back together and the slow road to recovery. This is one of the first eyewitness records of the aftermath of war in what was once a thriving city. The announcer. Capt. Franklin Englemann describes how the Unter den Linden looked before the war and how it now looked.
Other reports on this program feature life in post-war London, including an interview with a London housewife on the status of queuing for just about everything. The new Jet-fighter, the Gloster Meteor, claiming to be the fastest aircraft in existence, a description of Monsoon Season in Burma as fighting continued in the Asian and Pacific theaters. And a description of General Marshall‘s inspection of the 2nd Armored Division, stationed in Berlin.
All on this installment of London Column, as originally broadcast on July 25, 1945 by the BBC World Service.
