BBC World Service: London Column – June 21, 1945
While the war in the Pacific was heading into its final stages, the slow task of rebuilding Europe was only beginning. The painstaking dismantling of the vestiges of War were underway, from clearing beaches of mines in order to make them useable again to closing bases and sending troops home.
In Britain, 264,443 British servicemen and 63,635 civilians had been killed during the war. The transition of those who survived back into peacetime life could be hard with severe shortages of many essential goods and housing. Rationing of bread only began after the war. Many of those returning home were physically and mentally traumatized by their war experiences and sometimes found it difficult to pick up their former lives again.
A weekly radio feature was broadcast by the BBC World Service, called London Column which reported on the goings on in Britain and throughout Europe during the war. This installment features mine-clearing from English beaches and the departing of Royal Canadian Air Force planes, back to Canada and possibly over to aid in the Pacific conflict in the coming weeks.
Even though the War was not quite over, it’s interesting to hear just how eager everyone was to get back to normal.
Here is that London Column Report from the BBC for the week of June 20, 1945.