Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
towns. By August, RAF airfields were under attack and in September London and
other important cities were targeted. There are several Battle of Britain museums in
England, but by far the most important is the Imperial War Museum Duxford
(p. 508) near Cambridge. The fight for air supremacy was over by fall 1940 with the
RAF on top. “Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to
so few,” was Churchill's famous tribute. However, the Luftwaffe continued to bomb
British cities until the end of the war.
These blitzes were aimed at factories and transport but inevitably hit residential
areas and historic buildings too. In London 30,000 people were killed and countless
buildings bombed. Birmingham, Liv-
erpool, Manchester, Sheffield, South-
ampton, and Hull were among the
major targets, as was Coventry where
the medieval St. Michael's Cathe-
dral (p.  465) was destroyed in 1940.
The ruins remain, but a new cathedral
was built after the war as a symbol of
hope, and it has attracted tourists ever
since its consecration in 1962.
For a better idea of how the people
of England and Wales coped from
1939 to 1945, you can also visit the
Imperial War Museum in London (p. 107), and Imperial War Museum North
in Manchester (p. 567). The hospital in tunnels at Dover Castle in Kent (p. 254) is
also a revelation.
Post-War England & Wales (1945-Present Day)
The war ended in Europe in May 1945, with Britain heavily in debt and the economy
ruined. Many towns and cities needed to be rebuilt. Rationing, introduced in 1940,
became even stricter. It wasn't completely lifted until 1954.
One of the bright spots of the 1940s was Princess Elizabeth's wedding to Prince
Philip of Greece and Denmark, who had served in the Royal Navy during the war as
a lieutenant. The couple became secretly engaged in 1946, and Philip had to give up
his Greek citizenship and title to become a British citizen. He used the surname
Mountbatten, a version of his mother's German family name Battenburg. The couple
were married at Westminster Abbey (p. 103) in November 1947, and moved into
Clarence House at St. James's Palace in London, now the official residence of Prince
Charles.
After the war, the British Empire became the Commonwealth of Nations. One of
the most significant events was the partition of India and Pakistan into two countries
in 1947, when the king's title of Emperor of India ceased. Many other countries were
granted independence in the following decades.
The postwar break-up of the British Empire was reflected in domestic social
reforms. Free secondary school education had only been introduced in 1944, and
after the war the Labour Party won the 1945 General Election by a landslide vote. It
nationalized the coal industry in 1947, and in 1948 the National Health Service
(NHS) was established to provide free hospital and medical provision.
2
Classic Authors for a Taste
of England
Graham Greene
W. Somerset Maugham
H. G. Wells
C. P. Snow
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
 
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