A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr 2008 602 pgs.

   16/4/24

This book is a social History of Britain from the end of the WW2 till the book was written. . 

I only made notes on the period ending in 1963 the first 230 pages.

   I needed an understanding of the 1950s when I was a kid and my Dad returned from 5 years of war to home in Johannesburg , South Africa.

Prologue

Anybody who experienced the years of shortages, queues , rationing  should not  dismiss the triumph of shopping and consumerism. PM Neville Chamberlin's peace in our time made him a national hero, until Hitler turned him into a national fool. Clement Attlee and Author  Greenwood, were solid for fighting on and not negotiating with Hitler.

 The War changed Britain physically and industrially. The parliament in 1945 was the same one elected in 1935 a Commons frozen in time.

Green England's grip on the national imagination should not be under estimated, but he global economy of cheap grain from the US prairies between 1830 and 1940 resulted the workers leaving the countryside forever.

1933 with the depression a quarter of the British workforce was unemployed. Every town had different trades, Staffordshire pottery, Leicester boots, socks and typewriters. Nottingham female workers in lace, Bradford wool and was strongly influenced by German Jews, Coventry cars  and Sheffield cutlery, Dundee jute. Coal was still primitive pick digging and was a mass of underinvested companies.

Before the war 60,000  German Jews arrived in England .William Beverage set up the Academic Assistance Council to help Jewish refugees from the Nazis, with public donations 2600 escaped to to UK and later 20 of those won Nobel prizes. Irish were arriving and they found jobs as there was such a scarcity of workers. Ireland was neutral during the war. By the end of the war 120,000 Polish soldiers who did not want to return to their Russian occupied homeland remained.

American movies and music arrived long before the GIs. Chain stores selling brighter clothes and more American influence. There was a yearning for a government that worked to end unemployment. The war made democracy fashionable. Even when the war ended the Brits were fighting somewhere. Greece, Cyprus, Palestine , Korea , Malaya ,Iraq, Ireland, Falkland. These maintained a level of patriotism in the 'silent majority'.

British government both Labour and Tory duly got rid of the empire and refocus as a junior partner in the cold war.

Britain's performance providing for the wellbeing of its people, brought employment , a safety net, and brought people out of poverty, despite the ferocious economic conditions.

Recently we have seen the retreat of faith and ideology replaced by consumerism.

During the war 256,000 men died  and 60,000 civilians as opposed to the million lost during WW1 in action.

Britain after the War

1945 Never has military success be so personally associated with one civilian leader, and Churchill was at his peak with triumph. Many Tories believe that the military foisted socialism on the troops . Of 22 MPs killed fighting only 1 was not conservative. The Labour conference is remembered for its youthful delegates including Roy Jenkins  and Denis Healy and they gave out a blueprint of what they intended to do after the end of the war. Churchill campaign was against sinister  socialism conspiracy and the British Gestapo it would established. This suggestion was grossly offensive. All Churchill could offer seemed suitable for post the Boer War. He also realized that better Labour deal with the disappointments to follow the war.

Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Ernest Bevin were the 3 prominent Labour leaders. Attlee went straight to the Palace where the fiercely conservative king handed him control. Attlee would become the nation changing PM in modern time. He changed the health and welfare structure of the country and the UK became more dependent on the US ties. He understood  early that the dying imperium meant that the Brits were no longer a world power.

1946 Families were so crowded many in homes of parents, or sibling and then 45,000 the moved into the abandoned army camps. Of a total of 60 million ,38 million had changed address during the war and 75,000 new homes were needed.

1945 Sept. Truman ended the Lend Lease program, resulting in Britain not having enough $ to feed the county.  The Brits were victors but circumstances were more like losers. They had been early to enter the war and the manufacturing economy was not for export but for munitions. By the end of the war effort everything including food was coming from the US. Maynard Keynes went to American and wanted a $ 6 billion interest free loan and  only got $3.75 billion at 2% which was finally paid off in 2006.

Labour had to deal grapple with the Indian Independence crises in Greece, Cyprus, Palestine, demobilization. 

Ernest Bevin was the most influential Trade Union  leader and Labour leader. He is remembered for stopping the Exodus from landing Palestine in 1947 to appease the Arabs as the British needed Arab oil.    In the first year after the war Labour passed 70 bills. They were Patriots first and Socialists second. Labor would used the lessons from war to work in peace. They understood that they had to turn the waning empire into a free association of independent democratic states.

The Admiralty now ended and it became part of the Defense Ministry. Of 8800 people working for the navy at the end of the war only 1800 ere left 2 years later.  Dockyard ship builders were now all needed to build housing. The US had proved that the navy needed aircraft carriers and so most naval ships were sent to the scrapheap or converted to other uses.  

1947 The King was no longer Emperor as India was independent. It was a clever move sending Lord Mountbatten  a Royal not a politician to be the last Viceroy. They never managed to keep India whole whereas if they had given it Independence before the war might have. 55000 British had to return home. In the 30s there were 8000 Indians in the UK  10% of them doctors and there were no Indian restaurants.

1947 Winter was the bleakest 3 months ever. Everything froze and the power stations which produced 90% of electricity from coal which froze in heaps. Winding gears on the mines froze up and everything had to be rationed even bread which had never been rationed in the war years . This later gave Tories ammunition to turn Labour out. Roads and railways were blocked by snowdrifts and Vegetables were frozen till the weather warmed up.

The £ went into free fall as the world changed them for $.

What was happening in Palestine with the Irgun attacking the British caused anti-Semitic outbreaks in the UK with a synagogue burned .

1947 The Royal Wedding of Phillip and Elizabeth brought a lot of color to peoples lives. Phillips remaining 3 sisters were not invited they had all married Germans even Nazis. The wedding was a big radio event and later seen at the cinema.

1948 The country cheered up with the Olympics in London which was a triumph even though Britain won few medal she was now back. Athletes were put up in empty army camps.

1948 Washington now realized that demoralized west Europe was in danger of Soviet advances and brought in the Marshall plan. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and western Germany received aid.

Before the war 60% of Britain was working class. The war softened class differences with middle class women working in factories. Public school boys sent to work in coal mines. (Bevin Boys) Labour's Welfare State would now require hundreds of white collar workers. Parkinson's Law work expand to fill the time available. More children stayed at school now to 15 and even to 18. However the education reform was  meant to help working class children , but first helped the middle class. There were too few teachers and a shortage of school furniture. Public Radio started bring music and literature to a wider audience.

Public school education still remained the key for anyone who wanted to go into the City or civil service.

Public housing outpaces private housing but there was very little material available and surplus  percepts from airplanes started being used even for shoes. Aluminum was available for furniture and air force material was dyed and used as couch covers.

Cosmetics were not available and cities all smelt of coal smoke. Many wore coats to hide their rumpled baggy clothes and all wore hats A make do ethos and when  teenagers outgrew their pants and ankle's showed.

Wartime rationing had increased the health of the working class and by 1945 children were growing taller. Rationing was as complex as moving armies around and there  was an expansion of school meals. Meat continued to be rationed till 1954.  

1948 Culturally there were a lot of Christian theme with the work of TS Eliot who won the Nobel prize for books  like Murder in the Cathedral . CS Lewis his tales of Narnia were Christian allegories'. Divorced people were not welcome in court and smut and pornographic books were considered foreign. 

1948 National Health NHS was implemented. Labour created the NHS and brought in welfare payments and state insurance "from the cradle to the grave" they nationalized coal and steel. They demobilized a vast army and changed the armament factories back to peaceful purposes. School leaving age was raised to 15 and sent troops to the Korean War.

Churchill and William Beverage never got on and when Beverage during the war nagged about the Welfare state he was told to do research on what was needed . He wanted to slay 5 giants poverty, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. He brought out the Beverage Report. A 100,000 copies of it were sold and it was spread amongst the troops. Churchill said it would be too expensive to implement but it boosted morale of the troops.

 400, 000 German POW were in UK when the war ended and they provided 25% of agricultural workers. Officer were kept to de Nazify them. They had wanted to keep them till 1948. By the end of 1947, 250,000 were repatriated and the last returned home in Nov.1948, 24 thousand chose to remain in the UK.

Consumerism was regarded with disdain my ministers for American influence, but would erupt.  Movies from Hollywood  were taxed to encourage British cinema. Wonderful comedy movies were produced in this period at Ealing studios. There were 4,600 cinemas in the country at its peek. The British film industry was turning out a steady stream of movies of every genre, but was not able to compete with Hollywood. From 1957 to 1985 there was a box office tax on movie goers to subsidize British movies. Michael Balcon a Jewish entrepreneur was moving the British cinema ahead.

For protein horses were butchered. Whale meat, and tinned snoek were imported from South African the snoek (not a canning fish) turned powdery and was sold off as dogs food. South Africa was prepared to take £ while the $ for food from the US where in short supply.

Soldiers left the army with demob. suits hats and ties, and shoes showing prosperity was postponed. These suits were produced like army uniforms.

London theater carried a whiff of Oscar Wilde as Ivor Novella, Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Terrance Rattinger  Beaton were all gay, Later on a number of the Cambridge spies were found to be gay which brought a lot of suspicion onto all gays. Homosexualism was long illegal but was not prosecuted unless acts with children occurred. Attacking homosexuals helped sell papers.

 Because nothing new had been written for post war Shakespeare plays were put on and had a big comeback. Look back in Anger was a play by a new your writer John Osborn, Lawrence Olivier approached him and asked him if you could write a play for him.  Osborn was bowled over, and this was Olivier's shrewdest move.

Harold Pinter Birthday Party baffled the public and almost failed till it was rescued by one review sending Pinter on to the greatest career.

The Cold War shaped post war Europe. Disorganized British industry could not compete with German organization. The the 1949 Marshall plan raised the economy by a tenth.

All the top Labour leaders and Tories were ill from long working hours and dying at a relatively you age from cigarettes and alcohol while Churchill with cigars and whiskey had great longevity. I'll heath and botched operations resulted in Gaitskell , Edan and Macmillan succumbing.

1949  Labour produced NATO as a way to deal with Washington.

1951 Cultural  Festival  was a great  success for the Labour party a  farewell and a flourish that marked to end of the Hungry forties.

1953 Ian Fleming first James Bond book Casino Royale. The  defection of the Cambridge spies did a lot of harm to the Conservative party and MI5 and Ian Flemings books were to restore that confidence with James bond capable of everything and his up to date gadgets. The movies were later made by Hollywood money  and were a great financial success. Bond was supposed to have been a  Public school boy but Sean Connery who acted the first 5 movies was a Scott of working class background.

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1951 The Tories took over to a Land of Lost Content . Tories were grey conformist and gave 13 years of misrule. Of the 16 all males in Churchill cabinet only 2 were not public school boys, and later with Macmillan 35 of 85 minister were related to him. Churchill was only interested in war and the Cold war and tried to bring the powers together to negotiate after Stalin died. he first used the word "summit". After the war he was not adverse to a fully political united Europe. 

1952 the pound under Chancellor of Exchequer was cut free and floated boosting British exports for a short while.

1957 Private homosexualism was legalized between consenting adults above the age of 21.

 Every woman was  a housewife who wore corset and hats and never trousers. Men shirts were bought separate from collars. National service replaced conscription and lasted till 1963.

1963 there were 250,000workers in domestic service. There were major British companies in oil, tobacco, shipping and finance. People were openly patriotic and per capita the UK was the second richest country in the world.

Antony Edan had resigned from Chamberlains government because of appeasement in 1938 so he was welcomed into Churchills cabinet. Eden had a foul temper and a racist disdain for Arabs.  Sir John Glubb/ Glubb Pasha  was the head of the Jordanian army till he was fired by King Hussein in 1956 they wanted an Arab in charge of the army.

Antony Edan met Nasser briefly and lectured him in Arabic. Suez was supposed to return to Egypt in 1968 but Nasser took it in 1956. The discussions on the war in cabinet can't be known as no records were kept and notes destroyed. Large numbers of the public for the first time in history protested against the going to war.  Antony Edan Should have been a very good PM but as he had to wait so long to get the job he was too old

Alex Issigonis  a son of  Greek immigrant who fled  from Ottoman Smyrna  designed the Morris Minor car. With the petrol shortages after the Suez crises he was commissioned to design the Mini Minor. The unique thing of the mini was that its engine faced sideways to fit it into the bonnet space. It was sold for £350 and eventually 5 million were sold. It sales however only came after Lord Snowden and Princess Margaret were seen whizzing in it around London as well as other celebrates and it became an emblem of cool chic youthful impertinence but not a working class car.

Railway lines that never paid were cut and roads started being build and trucking was in private hands and roads and highways began to be build. Premium Bonds came  as in a form of motional lottery.

1956 P&O had 366 vessel and was the worlds largest shipping company. Triumph motor bikes were a big seller and Marlin Brando starred in The Wild Bunch on a 1954 Triumph. However after that Yahama , Honda and Suzuki entered the race of motor bikes.

1957 The treaty of Rome.  This was the beginning of the EEC Europe Economic Community a customs union between Belgium France Italy West Germany, Luxembourg and Netherlands. Britain could have joined but she believed she was more part of the British Commonwealth and  English speaking world.

1958 First parking meters introduced into London as well as yellow lines, roundabouts and flyovers. Ernest Maple did not promote the railways as  he had a conflict of interest he owned a motorway construction company. So the motoring age came about.

In periods when Labour was in opposition it fell into gangs that seem to tare itself apart.

1960 Macmillan speech in Cape Town "winds of change " was noted not because of what he said but because it took place in  a white supremacism South African parliament. The speed of  scuttling of Britain's possessions in Africa happened were remarkable little debate at home.  

The rules to immigration to Britain then were first be white, if not be small in number. West Indian migration did not come to open restaurants but to work for wages. It was mostly men sending home remittances. The NHS and London Transport  sent agents recruiting, drivers and nurses. The alternative was going to the US which closed down in 1952 to West Indians  

 Mandy Rice Davis was asked in court about Lord Bill Astor's denial of sex with her she replied "He would say that wouldn't he"  The assumption that the rich and powerful men were liars, this caught the nations mood.

At the start of the 60s France swapped the great Catholic families for the intellectual elites, German industrialist cooperated to assault world markets. In the US the grand Ivy league Collages joined with Washington and Wall Street.. Democracies elites required prestige to succeed by the  British elites failed the tests and Britain's output was growing more slowly.

1962 The Commonwealth Immigration Act limited immigration to 40,000 immigrants a year with rights of immigration of dependents. Irish Republic was a bone of contention as it had be neutral during the war but they still got a better deal  than the others. 50 thousand a year from India and Pakistan and 20 thousand from Hong Kong.

1964 As a result of the Profumo scandal Labour won by 4 seats in the election.

13 years of Tory rule were wasted according to Harold Wilson but this was followed by 15 years of Labour where modern  British  rose and failed.

 

1964 The Brits were considered well manners and lawful, this was the year that execution by hanging ended.

1965 More than 8 thousand people were being killed on the roads. Barbra Castle Safety Act brought in breath analyses and seat belts because as soon as pubs closed in the evening the hospitals could expect drunk driver to arrive. Britain's roads after that were congested but safe.

 

The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd 1977 294 pg.

This is a novel on China and Japan from 1903 till WW2   16/4/24

This is a Historic novel and very informative and easier to understand than a history book.

1903 and Mary Mackenzie  is taking a ship to her fiancé in Peking. She is from South  Edinburgh and is Presbyterian, she feels safe on the ship as the captain is a Scott. The minister says a prayer and one for the King Edward VII. She is being escorted by Mrs. Caswell who objects to her chatting to men on board Mary tells her I am going to my husband to be and not to a nunnery . Mrs. Caswell later has a stroke in her cabin and Mary had to deal with it later she dies in Penang. This death has made Mary very adult.

Byes Bay 50 km from Hong Kong used to be a Pirate base. Island like the Great Nantuna (remotest part of Indonesia  and Sumatra are part of the Dutch Empire. The sun never sets on the British empire. She is warned that she is going to a place of sudden death  eg. floods. In preparing for the typhoon they close the inner steel portholes and block the ventilation ducts. None of the ships officers are in the dinning room. China's greatest river is the Yangtze the water is coffee colored and the banks are marshland.

Shanghai all the different Great powers have concessions there. People living on boats and trading from them.

Her fiancé Richard 25 years old is an army man. One gets around on rikshaws and pullers only live an average of 15 years and die of tuberculosis.  The ship were anchored at Wei Hai Wei a walled city and British territory taken after the Japanese withdrew in the 1898  war against China. On a 8 cabin ship they go to Tientsin and from there by train to Peking. Jesuits missionaries were on the ship going to convert the heathen.

Rajah James Brook was the white Rajah of Sarawak, Borneo from 1841. His descendant making a total of 6 Brooks ruled till 1946 when the British colonial office took over.

In Peking they lived in the Legation quarter the Boxers had been pacified, the Boxer rebellion 1889 till 1901, after that the Allied forces left.  They got married and lived  in a big house run by servants. She wanted to learn Chinese but Richard discouraged her from that. He was the 2nd son of an aristocrat which meant he would not inherit the title. 

If a Russian, Japanese war began Russia Tsarist army would have 3 times more troops but Japanese troops were better trained. The Brits would support the Tsar as he was a cousin their king.  In Peking the head of the Russian legation a count wore enough medals to have fought in 10 wars though doesn't look like a soldier type. The Japanese legation head had led a party of Japanese marines through Boxer filled streets to defend and relieve the Catholic mission. he was Count Kurihama and was leaving soon to go to war against Russia. Peking gave of a smell of rancid butter, perhaps from the fur rug you covered yourself with in the rickshaw. In the open market of meat and vegetables everything was covered with flies.  

Ben Nevis in Scotland  is the highest mountain in the British Isles and part of the Grampian range it is snow capped part of the year, it is an extinct volcano. However Japan is on the back of a huge dragon subject to uneasy dreams.

Some of the British legation were invited to meet the Empress Dowager Tsz'e including Mary ( she is now Mrs. Richard  Collingsworth) as she had just got married in China, to  and see  the sacred throne of the Manchu Dynasty. Out of date ships become discarded but the Summer Palace floating on its hill will endure forever. As a  sign of power finger  nails are never cut so the Empress can do nothing and has to be helped even to eat. The young Emperor is kept a prisoner by her.

Via the Trans Siberian Railway post now arrives very quickly. She has now given birth to a girl named Jane who is blond like her father.

1904 The Ginkgo is a geological link between conifer and ferns is found in China. Admiral Alexiev is the Tsars Viceroy in the Far East and the Russians are defending against Japanese attacks. The was is being fought on Chines territory. Japan is victorious over Russia at Liao Yang and the Tsars armies are in retreat on Moukden. The Empress would like the enter the war on Russia side but knows the French and British favour Japan.  While this war is on,  mail has to come by ship through the Suez.

While her husband is  away following the war, she has a relationship with Count Kentara Kurihama a Japanese diplomat and is now pregnant by him. The underwater cable at Port Arthur has been destroyed and no telegrams arrive from Richard.

1905 General Stessel the Russian in command of Port Arthur has surrendered the city.

Richard is paying for her to return home second class and says she is a whore. She is supposed to go from Tientsin to Shanghai and from there on P&O back home. The father takes custody of Jane and sends her to Japan, she is put onto a freighter at Tientsin and arrives in Shimonoseki Japan which is next to the Kanmon bridge that joins the biggest Island with Kyushu. Then taken to Nagoya, this is between Tokyo and Osaka. In Tokyo large section of the city are lit up by German engineers and there are electric trams along the Ginza.

A huge Russian fleet which included 11 battleships arrived after 7 months at sea,  and Admiral Togo destroyed it resulting in Total Russian defeat at the battle of Tsushima.

Mary gives birth by caesarean and the baby boy Tomo looks Japanese. She can't have another child as a result. The Sumida River flows through Tokyo. Kentara sent he a gift of money and flowery cloth which would only be worn by a courtesans' as a kimono, and  a symbol of a fish which is for a boy. She receives support as Kentars's second wife, who has a place in society.

The present crown prince Hirohito is not the son of the Empress but that of Emperor Meiji and a court lady.

Baroness Aiko  Sannotera who spoke a perfect English was in prison for staring directly at Emperor Meiji, she called on the Emperor to free Japanese women from slavery. She had joined the suffragettes during her stay in England. They say that she has been punished as the gods have made her barren and she suggested to her husband to try another woman who gave him  2 children.  Her grandfather had been assassinated as well as his wife and servant trying to protect him. He was finance minister and militants wanted more money spent on the army and navy. She considered Japan as feudalism in new clothes.

Russo-Japanese war ended with a peace treaty signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Mary worked at Matsuzakara dept. store in western women's fashion. An American elevator has been installed in the company. She met the wives of war profiteers who were receiving bad publicity in the press. Japanese women's bodies were not meant for the to model European fashion of the day and she had to design suitable fashions. There are lots of whale bones available and the make women corsets.

Korea has now become a permanent Japanese occupation or colony and Kentare is based there. Bicycles are now popular and the Baroness has a 3 speed bike. She considers the victory over Russia will swell Japan's ego and  will take on Britain next. she is not popular in Japanese ruling society.  Samisen a  3 string instrument and bamboo flutes are played.

Amongst the ruling class in society women are not seen with their husbands. Mary makes an effort to learn Japanese.

She wrote to Sir Claude Macdonald British Ambassador to Tokyo, who she knew from Peking, asking him for help as her son Tomo had been taken from her. She received a reply that her son was born in Japan and the father has full rights over him. Her son was adopted out to an aristocratic family as he came from Kurihama blood, illegitimacy  or that the mother is foreign is no problem  in Japan as he looks Japanese.

Kamakura is a holiday beach place south of Yokahama. A student of the Waseda University (founded 1882 as a liberal private collage) is teaching her Japanese and she is improving his English.

1902 -1923 Treaty of Alliance and Friendship between Britain and Japan, this was against Russia.

Japanese bows have different meaning depending on who you are, to men women , servants she says a book could be written on it. Kentaro's wife comes to get fitted for a dress  to go to England so she meets here. Kentaro is 1st Military Attaché in London.

Mary is appointed head of her dept. and the man she replaces is moved to toys, he commits suicide and in  a note writes that he is being replaced by a foreign women who has led an immoral life. The scandal doubles their sales and women come to stare at her. The store sets up a Christmas display of which she know little as  in Scotland Xmas displays are not seriously Presbyterian. An Edison phonograph (Invented in 1887) plays a Xmas song.

She was sent to Osaka (an industrial city ) to open the dress department but the husbands there didn't like their wives in western dress and after 7 month returned. She returned to the Ginza store and realized that the attitude in Japan had changed and anything done in the west can be done in Japan. In the end foreigners will have no role at all. Now Japan was no longer importing foreign cloth but producing it locally.

They needed western food for guests and she though of the delicatessen. It would be rather odd to serve Jewish food to a High Anglican household. She started teaching English at the missionary school.

Bob the American Banker now offered to finance her to open a store. Half the loan would be free but the bank would own 60% of her company. Eventually she agreed to them only owning 40% she would now have to work and work and not have a chance to read. 

1852- 1912 Emperor Meiji  died. He had adopted a constitution and a parliamentary system, instituted universal education, built railroads and installed telegraph lines, and established strong army and navy forces.  

Now General Nogi committed suicide as he could not stop the society deterioration caused by Western influence. He had been Japan's Wellington. Enormous bribes had been paid by Siemans wanting to sell wireless equipment and Vickers unholy alliance with Mitsui in a contract to build a cruiser. That Britain has to give bribes indicates that the British Empire is starting to crumble.

1914 August  John a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and Mary became good partners. His wife back in the US told him that if he could leave her and their kids so long she does not need him. Off he runs to report on Europe as the war has begun. Japan was on the side of Britain and France in WW1. Tsingtoa is the German concession in  China and Japan occupies it immediately later takes the whole Kiaochow peninsula

1915 The Lusitania sunk and America comes into the war. Japan is able to occupy China without UN interference and takes southern Manchuria and parts of Mongolia.

In Yokahama Mary manages to buy a vacant house . After the sons of the owners had both died in the Russo- Japan war they had bled their wrists to death and the house thus was "haunted." She can see mount Fugi from her windows. Her business in Yokahama was doing well as tourists were arriving from the States and she paid rickshaws to bring foreigners to her and were relieved that someone could set them right after they had seen the store.  

He friend Marie died, she and Armond had been diplomats and lived in many countries. Armond   back to her a parcel of all the letters she had written to Marie. She also finds out that her husband Richard died in the war in 1918 and is relieved as he refused to divorce  her.

1923 The Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed most of Tokyo , not the Royal Palace and  140,000 were  killed. In the Ginzo  a fire  before the trapped people could be rescued. Also with a tsunami. Her friend Peter died leaving his house and land to her.

The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and it survived the earthquake. 

Her mother died and she received back all the letter she had written to her in the 20 years , they had been read even though he mother never wrote to her. She inherited her fathers library and asked for it to be sent to her.  

1928 Her legal and banking advisor said she should put her savings on the NY stock exchange but instead she build 2 three story blocks of  flats to rent on the property she owned.

Kentaro had been tracking  her over the years and his wife had died and offered to marry her. She was prepared to if  Tomo was acknowledged as her son, that is impossible.

 1543-1616  Tokugawa Ievasu reunified Japan after the Warring States or Sengoku period. He created a new government controlled by the Tokugawa family that ruled Japan until 1868. He ran an intelligent and liberal government but at the end of his reign he attacked foreigner and mascaraed 30 thousand Christians, He then cut Japan off the the outside world for 200 years They visit Ievasu tomb.

Japan was talking about the ABCD of encirclement by America , Britain, China and the Dutch. They didn't like the American Exclusion Act that branded Chinese and Japanese as unsuitable to land on US soil.

1941 She receives a letter from her daughter Jane who is 37 and her husband died in fighting in Crete. She has a son of 12 and daughter of 9. She can no longer afford to keep her home in Shropshire and has offered to share it with Mary.

The Ginger tree was completely burned in the fire but its roots come to life and sprout. 

After Pearl Harbour she is expecting to be interned as an alien but 2 policemen arrive at the house and politely tell her to pack 2 suitcases and is put on a Swedish neutral ship with diplomats leaving. It was Kentaro who arranged this.. At Singapore a Japanese Major comes and meets her in the ships lounge, He shows her pictures of his wife and children who were now regarded as her relatives. She will be acknowledged as an ancestor after her death. He does not believe Japan can win the war and he is a pilot.

An English Affair : Sex class and power in the age of Profumo by Richard Davenport -Hines 2013 343pg

The Scandal that Changed British politics entirely 4/4/24 

Labour politician Richard Crossman reflected "There's a  legal world , the doctors world , artistic , dramatic , the political world etc. . Each is a discrete segment of British society but all converged in the Profumo Affair of 1963

1  Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan born in 1894 ad was Prime Minister from 1957 when Antony Edan resigned  till 1963. The family had originated from the Scottish Island of Arran. His war experiences proved his courage but shattered his nerves, he was wounded 5 times. He was a bomb officer on the western front. Macmillan admired Lloyd George as a PM. He and Asquith were the best read 20C Prime Ministers.  His wife was Lady Dorothy Cavendish. Dorothy  was having an affair with a Conservative MP Robert Boothby. Macmillan refused to give her a divorce. Because he loved her and promised suicide if she deserted him, and a divorced man could not stand for higher office.

1969 till these Divorce Reforms one of the marriage partners had to be judged guilty of adulatory or marital cruelty before a divorce could be granted.  Dorothy's infidelity till she died in 1966 made Macmillan reluctant to speak to Profumo directly about his affairs with Keeler

1959 Margaret Thatcher was selected for Finchley because a woman seemed less objectionable than her rival who was Jewish. 1959 Conservative won as they were more as a  party of liberty and progress.

1960 Richard Wood was the only minister who supported decriminalizing homosexualism. 

A public schools boys were taught that you can't rule unless you learn to obey. Tory party members were kept by the party whips obedient to the party leadership.  Macmillan claimed that the achievement of full employment with the highest standard of living was due to British brain power. Between Macmillan seizing the leadership in 1957 till the banking crises in 2008 was an exceptional period of a time of abundance.

 Macmillan was a superb speaker, he said the Empire was" not Breaking up but Growing up." He said "you have never had it so good" meaning "it is too good to last"

1963 Traits of homophobia erupted during the summer of 1963 the Profumo resignation and the Denning Report.

1963 Macmillan cabinet was of the youngest average age of the century.

2   War Minister 

In 1954 John Profumo married actress Valarie Hobson.

BBCs first television service was opened in 1936 and Independent TV started in 1956. The Profumo's were a legal and mercantile family from Sardinia and the third baron settled in England and was naturalized in 1877 and founded the Provident Life Association.

People sent their boys to Public Schools like Harrow to learn good manners but they were only good for people who had the same kind of schooling. Of 3000 Harrovians who served in the great war 20% died on the battlefield. The rituals of soldieryness and conformity was embedded in their timetables.

The English of 1951 had a fear of their neighbors and what people would say if the did something different from the rest. This stifles originality and invention and prevents the English from enjoying themselves. Profumo belief that he could bluff senior of  his denial of the affair with Christene Keeler was learned in the stupid humbug of Harrow.

Profumo fought in WW2 and was a decorated war hero both from the British and Americans.

It took till the season of 1956 to revive full smart London and started enjoying themselves. Profumo used the late nigh ministry sittings as an alibi for his amourous adventures. Not intellectual assertive women but rather painted and fun loving amateur females. Other minister had extramarital adventures which was alright as long as they didn't get caught.

When Antony Eden's health suffered as a result of Suez he recuperated in Jamaica at Ian Flemings home.

Attlee and Macmillan were the only PMs in 3 centuries seriously wounded in war. In the fifties children were aware of war wounded amputees or one eyed and disfigured fathers of their friends. Public men had to show that they had a good war. In the 1950s much was considered different "Before the War" You could see the damaged bombed out building everywhere.  There were spinsters and widows who were so lonely and miserable.

1947 All 18 year old men  were conscripted to the army for 18 month and this was extended to 2 years with the outbreak of the Korean War and were on reserve for a further 4 years. Conscription ended in 1960.  

 3       Lord

William Waldorf Astor a NY plutocrat settled in England in 1890 and the bought Cliveden he wanted to become part of English aristocratic society. His son  and heir Waldorf 's wife Nancy became the first woman MP in 1919.

Nancy seemed to undermine her 4 sons wives and they married a total of 11 times as a result. 

1956 The Astor MP in the Tory party objected to Edan's joining the French in the Suez crises as they were supporter of the Anglo American Atlantic Alliance. The Suez crises from Eastern Europe where Russia marched into Hungary.  The Astor's were amongst the 8 Tory MPs to bring down Eden. Bill went to help escaping  refugees crossing the border out of Hungary.  This Suez crises ended Bills parliamentary career as well as his marriage with Philippa Hunloke.

1956 Bill offered Spring Cottage on his property to Stephen Ward. The Beaverbrook staff had a continuous vendetta against the Astors which ended with the Profumo Affair. 

Cliveden entertained the leading people of British society including Isiah Berlin, generals artists writers. 

1960 he married Bronwyn Pugh. Daphne du Maurier   in her novel Rebecca describes Mandelay of the second wife who arrives and finds no role amongst the servants. Bronwyn was taken by Bill to meet Dr. Stephen Ward on the estate but when the Profumo scandal broke out and Ward committed suicide it would bring irredeemable sorrow to their marriage.95

4 Doctor

Churchill son Randolph  hurt his back and could not get relief from doctors and medications. He went to the Osteopath Stephen Ward and got relief in 10 minutes. The General  Medical Council acted like the Boilermakers Union, a closed shop keeping illnesses  in their own hands. Osteology started in 1870 by Andrew Stills. Through manipulation of the joints you got the body to cure itself. Osteology was rejected in 1935 in England and they could not get jobs in hospital under the NHS. So the practitioners depended on fee paying patients.

1912 Ward born in Lemsford Hertfordshire he went to study in Kirksville Missouri. During the war he was a army medic even though they refused to recognize him as a doctor.1947 he set up a practice in Cavandish Square and lived in Orme Road, Bayswater.  His girl  chasing was so showy that several acquaintances suspected that his Casanova complex hid latent homosexuality or impotency. In 1949 Bill Astor consulted him with an injured back.

1956 as Astor's 2nd marriage to Phillipa was unravelling he used Ward as a intermediary for an attempt at reconciliation. Bill now  allowed Ward to occupy Spring Cottage on the property. The Observer described Ward as a compulsive exhibitionist who required and audience to provide stimulus and confidence. He sought glamour and influence and not money.

1948 The National Health Service was established this caused patients to demand more from doctors and the became disrespectful to them. So doctors demanded higher payment. The British Medical Association considered that sex without the possibility of pregnancy was improper. Male homosexuality deserved public hostility as it was repulsive. This type of attitude resulted in 1963 in  Ward being victimized by politicians, framed by the police, reviled by lawyers and osteology falling to the level of quackery. 

1961 The Daily Telegraph commissioned him to draw ink sketches at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem. He did many in sketches of prominent people and royalty, they only needed to sit about 20 minutes for him.

5 Good Time Girls 

Women at the time of Profumo Affair were subjugated by domestic constraints, sexual assumptions and judicial oppression. It was this milieu  that Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davis emerged.  

1956 Sexual Offences Act passed without committee or debate. This criminated activities that many though inoffensive. The legislators in the House of Lords were elderly males and women were excluded till 1958. It was assumed that a woman or pair of women out at night without a man were prostitutes. Marriage was seen as a social institution rather than a loving partnership for the good of the society rather than individual happiness.

Dorothy Macmillan refused to be a downtrodden wife and determined not to be a doormat of live in a gilded cage.

Improved condoms came out in the mid 50s changed sexual attitudes. Women wanted to work to gain independence even if the cost of paying a baby minder used the extra money.

1960 Peeping Tom was the first feature movie with a nude. Pamela Green earned so much from this she had no objection to her body being exposed.

1955 John Bloom in the started selling discounted Bloom washing machines so by 1966 ,60% of households owned washing machines. Christene Holdfords husband killed her because she told him he was little boy" and their son was not his. Holford was sentenced for manslaughter and only for  3 years.

1948 Social Behavior in the human male and in 1953 Social behavior in the human female by Alfred Kinsey. These books caused a furor in the home office. By 1956 the press and magazine became obsessed with models If they got jobs as strippers had to remain static.  At Murrays night club Christine met Ward.

Christene was attracted to black men from the American airbase and in the 1960 that was condemned. By contrast Mandy was attracted to Jewish men like Peter Rachman.

6 Landlords

Lewis Silken won a maths scholarship to Wooster Collage, Oxford but the headmaster of his school decided that the son of East End Jews was unsuitable for university and kyboshed his chance.

There was the social exclusion of Jewish East Londoner and Frederick Raphael said; We tried being patriotic , we tried being philanthropic, we tried doing everything and it didn't do us any good, if they want to kill us they'll , kill us.

Banbury drapers, ironmongers and grocers had money for expansion but not the urge, they were sure of their social position. Whereas the developers were proud of being danger men, not public school boys trained by the number of buttons that should be fastened on blazers, or venerate spurious traditions.

Charles Chlore , Jack Cotton

Peter Rachman was a holocaust survivor whose name inspired the hostile epithet Rachmanism. He started off by renting flats in his own name and subletting to prostitutes', and brothels. Flats were rented controlled at prices from 1939, this no longer applied if tenants were dislodged.  This was done by moving blacks into the area, these were people who could not find accommodation, he was their savior. . Rachman felt the same disclination and they had a lot of respect for him and liked him. The Landlords profited by this racial tension and it caused the Notting Hill riots in 1958. Rachman had been invited to Wards cottage on Cliveden and met Christine there. He died in 1962 of a heart attack.

7 Hacks

The Profumo Affair occurred when the press saw falling circulation, and were aggressively persuading stories. 

1955   ITV started commercial TV causing a sharp drop in paper sales especially for the Sunday press. By 1960 72% of the population had access to the 2 TV channels. This was undermining the old puritanism. TV started showing criminals , prostitutes', the sexually or socially marginalized interviews full face and it was abolishing shame.  Editors long knew that sex stories sold papers. Some papers used this Affair to promote their support of the Labour party. A successful paper had to be provocative and confident in its own importance. Reporters were not people who had been at Public Schools, so pilloried nepotism and the old school tie.

8 Spies

Espionage cases continuously disrupted Macmillan's exercise of power. Sex class and official secrecy were taboos.

1951 The disappearance of Burgess and McClean both public school boys. Defection confirmed in 1956. " For years there has been in the Foreign Office a clique of perverted men, homosexuals that indulge in unnatural love for one another and are known to be bad security risks.

1956 Harold Wilson had visited the Soviet Union 3 time while in charge of the Board of Trade and dealt with importing timber from there. He refused to sign the petition condemning the Soviet for the Hungarian invasion.

1960 the American U2 spy plane

1962 the John Vasall and William Marshal case. This was a prelude to the Profumo Affair. While a junior worker in the British Moscow embassy was passing on naval information to the Russians. He was a homosexual and was being blackmailed. Sentenced to 18 years in prison.  It was claimed that Lord Carrington the first lord of the admiralty knew there was a spy 18 months before Vassal was arrested. later in 1963 Crane brought out an article " How to Spot a Homo". Macmillan started blaming the press for his troubles and reporter Brenden  Mulholland and Reg Forster were arrested, antagonizing the press which was not good for him.

1962 the Cuban Crises. Ward was introducing Ivanov the Russian diplomat to the whole circle of his acquaintances.

Christine Keeler had sold her story to the Sunday Pictorial for £1000 and received £200. Ward was worried if her story was publish both he and Profumo would be compromised.  Keelers solicitors were demanding £5000 to stop the publication.  Ward contacted the Sunday Pictorial and told them there were inaccuracies in her story and they will be charged for liable. So they held up publication.

1963 Kim Philby defected to Moscow.

Lord Astor who nearly collapsed, was told by the police, he could be charged for keeping a brothel on his property run by Ward.

Boys at boarding school became aware of words like " intercourse"and "prostitutes". The writer describes that at his school library the newspaper had articles cut out and so he wrote home to ask what the story was about. His father sent him a letter of what the Profumo story was about which the school matron conviscated.

The upper classes have always been given to lying, fornication, corrupts practices and as a result of the public school system sodomy. Their reputation and the class system fell into disrepute.

The Profumo affair did Macmillan more harm than anything in his entire administration. Had Ward lived the case against him would probably be overturned on appeal. When Macmillan was about to have a prostate opp. he signed a document of resignation in Alex Douglas-Hume  favour. Macmillan recovered and did not have cancer. Meanwhile Hume went directly to the Party Convention in Blackpool, showed the document and took over.

Till 1963 the press protected adulterous politicians, or those caught in the bushes with guardsmen.  Now the press no longer showed respect for them.

Surveys showed that a minority of older people condemned Profumo's action , younger people were not despite the press reporting that the public was shocked by the moral issue. What shocked grandfather 50 years ago is accepted.

Israel : Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Pual Singer + Innovate

 

Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Pual Singer 2009 310pg 1/12/2010 This is a fascinating book and very readable. Why do so many patents get invented in Israel? A whole lot of circumstances are just right to lead to this in fact this has become a new form of modern day Zionism and the book shows that money is a incentive but purpose and idealism are very important in leading to invention. Israel is a very informal society and in business or the army everyone knows people by their first names, so information cross fertilizes rather than waiting for it to move via a hierarchy. Democracy is also very much part of this and Judaism which has always promoted learning has another aspect that everything has to be discussed and even if this leads to chaos. Nothing is accepted on face value and their is no Pope to make laws. Then the role that the army plays in this. Israel is one of the few Democratic Western countries that has conscription with the result that the army is able to choose the best of the society to train into the jobs needed to be done. Young junior army officers have to take responsibility and leadership for their soldier in the field and make life or death decisions, then later might go to university and know their aims and are older already when they study. The army also provides the connections and fraternity for them in later life business. In the early days of the State, Ben Gurion encouraged the development of the aeronautic industry for military purposes which lead to the development science industries. The Hebrew University and Weitzman Institute were started before the State even existed. The fact that Israel is a small country and immigrant state and immigrants arriving have to reinvent themselves to adapt to their new circumstances. He points out that creative people have had government help in Israel but a country like Dubia the government has poured millions into modernizing the country but the academics and workers brought in do it to take out what they can get and have no idealism to develop the Gulf State. This is a fascinating book and tells you a lot about Israeli society.

__________________________________________________

Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorish 196pg 2018 7/3/18

This starts off that the Bible says "let there be light" and so man should always work for improvement. I love reading history that shows the other great things are happening besides just wars and conflict. It discusses that when medical help in needing quickly there are many capable people nearby who want to help till the ambulance arrives and so a system was set up to muster them organized by Eli Beer of Hatzala a purely volunteer organization. The start of drip irrigation development by Simcha Blass which is today used world wide, by Netufim in 1959. Iron Dome defense system developed by Danny Gold was a success in the Gaza war of 2014 Then the development of the Grain Cocoon by Shlomo Navarre to kill bugs in grain storage without pesticides and is used all over the world in grain storage. The grain sealed uses up the oxygen and the bugs die after about 10 days Harry Tzi Tabor invented the solar water heater in 1955 which was made at Timorim and called Miromit. It really became a success after in oil shocks of 1973 and later all Israeli residential building from1980 had to design it into the construction. It save up to 8% of the electricity needed for the country. Dr Amit Gofer designed a exoskeleton for paraplegics because he was paralysed, it only became an acceptable idea when Clare Lomas in 2012 ran the Irish marathon using it. Alpha Omega was started by an Arab Mr Imad and Reem Younis from Nazareth who studied at the Techinion. These are methods to do brain surgery more accurately. This company attracts Arab graduates without experience to help them get started. Check Point build Firewall in 1996 to stop computers being attacked. This was build by Gil Swed and Marius Nacht before people realized how vulnerable their computers were. Pilcam developed by Given Imaging to be able to film what is happening in a persons gut works better than the old gastroscopy. Gabi Iddan and Gavrial Givron in 1998 using the camera that is at the head of a missile. Raphael Mechoulam 1963 worked on marijuana to understand its narcotic function and to make it into a medication. Emergency bandage designed to put pressure on a wound at an accident to be sterile and stop blood loss invented by Bernard Bar-Natan Ornithology which mapped out the time and route birds take in migrating north and south over Israel so that airplanes know what paths to keep to in migrating season this was developed by Yossi Leshem as a PhD thesis but was developed it protect airplane flying over. Interferon a drug for multiple sclerosis was discovered by Michael Revel Date seeds found in Masada from 1900 years ago Sarah Salon managed to get to grow and it is the biblical variety that no longer exists The author has also written a book to stop terrorists banking, by naming and shaming the banks and eventually the US government stepped in to stop this

The Victors: Eisenhower and his boys the men of WW2 by Stephen E Ambrose 199, 270pg

 

From invading Normandy till German Capitulation.  (to be edited)

Note: I only read sections of this book that I never knew about and were very interesting, and not in other books I had read 

 The End of th Day       10

1944 June 6th .90 thousand GIs entered France by land or sea, More than 2 million would follow. There were some teenagers but the average age was 22 to 23 amongst the enlisted me.  From Sept to Spring 1944 they came in at Cherbourg and Le Havre and came as liberators no conquerors. The intelligence  had not realized that the hedgerows was unlike those in England the kind that fox hunter jump over. Hedgerows dated back from Norman times  French farmers would pile up soil around their fields and plant hedges and trees there. The troops had no specialized equipment against this.

Hitler was sure that the spoiled sons of democracy couldn't stand the solid sons of dictatorship. Victory depended on Junior officers and NCOs on the front lines. Here no terrain in the world was suited for defensive action.

Young men just arriving learned to keep head down , dig deep, distinguish between incoming and out going artillery , judge when an where a mortar barrage would hit and that fear is inevitable but can be managed.

Armillary does not fire forever guns over heat , ammunition's runs low.  A soft spoken kid in camp could be a standout in combat. Combat brought out the best in some men it brought out the worst in others.

Montgomery shunned women after his wife died did not smoke or drink and was conceited. His arrogance offended even British officers. Eisenhower was modest. Personality difference strained relationship. Eisenhower's military theory was straight forward and aggressive, you keep up constant attack. Monty believed in unbalancing the enemy abut keep your own balance.  Monty in theory was responsible to Ike but in reality looked to Field Marshal Alan Brooke.  Ike had no choice but to put up with Monty.

Hedgerows  11

Ultra radio intercepts showed that the Germans were stretched to the limit. Bradley was working on plan Cobra to break out to the right. Ike's advantage was that he had control of the air.  They wanted to bring special dozer tanks or some commercial bulldozers which they had at the Normandy beach but not enough. Using explosive was slow difficult and not available in the quantities needed .

1944 The German's produced 24,410 tanks The British 24,843 and the Americans 88,410 mainly Sherman's. American were better at recovering damaged tanks and fixing the to return to action, half the damaged tanks saw action again.by maintenance battalions. An army in the field has individual initiate that comes forward and does what it has to. Sherman's used less gasoline that Wehrmacht's tanks and their tracks lasted 2,500 miles as apposed to the enemies 500 miles. German tanks were better designed for hedgerow fighting.

GIs reported that 8 dud shells fell around them and failed to explode. From the Germans they never heard of US shells failing. American equipment was build by free labour while the Germans used slave labour, who sabotaged some of the shells. 1998the author received a letter from a Jewish slave labourer in the panzerfaust shell factory. He said when they could they added sand to the sulfur. Only German soldiers dealt with the trigger mechanism but when they were on brake the salves speed up their output and they never inspected the shells made during their brake but this increased the soldiers production.

The early success of the Germans in bring troops to Normandy was the rain and fog and bad weather.

There were experiments of welding teeth to the front of the Sherman's. Then they took scrap iron from the German roadblocks and constructed a hedge cutting devise that looked like a rhino. They also plugged a radio handset into the tank so that infantrymen could speak to them. Now the 1st and 3 armies were ready to break through.

Breakout and Pursuit 12

German units were made up of people from the same town. The worst thing that could happen to a German soldier was to be thrown in a unit where he knew nobody, as nobody was motivated to look after him. Patton lusted to seized the opportunity to surround the German Army as he saw a clear road. "Victory in the  next war will depend on execution and not plans" said Patton, Monty agreed with  Patton.

Falaise Pocket this trapped 50 thousand German troops that became prisoners, their commander was told to fight to the end. About 15 Germans  thousand died. The Battle of Normandy had lasted 75 days and Allies lost 209, 672 casualties and 39,976 killed. It cost  the Germans430,000 men 240,000killed..  Of 1,500 German  tanks only 67 got out 3,500 armillary and 20,000 vehicles were left behind. 2.6million pounds of been and 500,000 of German canned beef was left behind and distributed to the troops. The PLUTO pipe line under the ocean to bring gasoline ran from England to Omaha to Chartres. Patton wanted to invade Germany from both the north and south via the Ardennes.

Rhineland battle 17

The Americans banged away confident that more shells would arrive, while the Germans husbanded their shells uncertain of more arriving. US  Troops following tanks through the mud in tracks that were exploding antipersonnel mine. If the tanks skidded of reversed many were killed. There is no such thing as getting used to combat., Psychotic casualties are as inevitable s gunshot or shrapnel wounds.  Soldiers reach the peak of their efficiency after 90 days of combat after that the efficiency began to fall. The Germans knew what they had done as conquerors and occupiers and what they could expect when conquered. At the Siegfried line Germans fired till they were out of ammunition the raised the white flag. The American were through the initial German  defenses.  Patton always said fixed defenses are useless and the only defense is attack. The Germans got very little for  their poured concrete.

The Remagen Bridge was still standing which was reported by an areas photographer and the Allies were able to take it even as the Germans were trying to blow it up. Units in the area now headed for Remagen to get over the Rhine. 

Ike say Patton was a good General and a lucky on, Napoleon preferred luck to greatness.

Overrunning Germany 18

Americans saw the people in the countries they liberated, the French were sullen , slow and ungrateful. The Parisians were cunning and indifferent to whether they were cheating Germans or Americans. The British brave resourceful quaint dull. The liked the Dutch in every way but few GIs met them, only the airborne.  In Germany at first they liked them the best , identified most closely, clean hard working, educated middle class tastes and had flush toilets and soft toiled paper, and seemed just like us.  In Germany everyone goes out and works more ambitious than the English or French.

It is a fact  that British and Americans compaired to  conquering armies of the world behaved correctly. The Germens in areas occucpied by the American were lucky and they knew it. The German supply system lay in ruins and all the German soldiers wanted was a safe passage to a POW camp. While German armies were trying to surrender  German fanatics were still blowing up bridges on German soil.

General Maxwell Taylor saw Dachau and got the people of Landsberg everyone between ages of 14 to 80 to be rounded up and marched to the camp to bury the bodies and clean up, that evening the crew came along the road and saw how people were still vomiting.  Major Winters wrote - "now I know why I am here."

Montgomery wanted to lead his army into Berlin but both Ike and Bradley were against it. Politically at Yalta Germany had been divided into 3 zones with the Elba River as the boundary, The Red army was their in great strength 1.25 million troops. The Hitler Youth and SS were fanatics. Even after the surrender of the Ruhr and never ran out of ammunition. The German troops had received the code Werewolf and it they had lost the war and  meant that they were supposed to head east. Hitler wanted to hold out till the Western Allies and Soviets went to war.

For the GIs Eisenhower's decision was that he put them first.

1945April the British got into Belsen and Edward R. Murrow went to Buchenwald.

In Laingsburg when the German troops withdrew the citizens hang out white flags the SS then came in and hanged civilians on trees.

1945 May 7th Germany capitulates to the Allies. The George C Marshall said of Eisenhower "you have commanded with outstanding success the most powerful military Force that has ever been assembled.

The Russians would not accept the surrender sighed in Reims and insisted on another sighing in Berlin.

The G.Is

It is not accidental that so many paratroopers of E Company became teachers It is not surprising after seeing so much death and destruction at one time led them to want to do something creative. The became the men who build modern America. They had learned to work together, knew teamwork and the value of individual initiative.  The had also seen the evil of dictatorship. They knew that the way to prevent war was to reject isolationism.

The aim of the war had been to eliminate the Nazi tyranny over the oppressed people of Europe and for security for ourselves in the free world.  In June 1945 Eisenhower said "The success of the occupation can only be told 50 years from now. if the Germans have a stable prosperous democracy."

GIs fought because they had to , what kept them together was unit cohesion. They did more to spread democracy around the world than any other generation. They talked about friendship with buddies , No-one ever talked about patriotism and pride. America had sent the best of her young men around the world. They returned to become successful citizens and good family men. Perhaps we thing the biggest price of a war is what might have been. When asked Grandpa "were you a hero" he answered no " but I was in a company of hero's"