Articles: Britain in WWII

Though Fill in the blank 1 of 16 Second World War was never fought on Fill in the blank 2 of 16 British land, only in Fill in the blank 3 of 16 skies overhead, Fill in the blank 4 of 16 country’s fabric is marked by Fill in the blank 5 of 16 conflict in Fill in the blank 6 of 16 innumerable ways. Near my home is Fill in the blank 7 of 16 stretch of woodland I often run through with Fill in the blank 8 of 16 dog. In 1945, Fill in the blank 9 of 16 Allied plane crashed among its trees, killing several of Fill in the blank 10 of 16 men on Fill in the blank 11 of 16 board. To this day, Fill in the blank 12 of 16 local legend has it that Fill in the blank 13 of 16 visitors to Fill in the blank 14 of 16 crash site will hear Fill in the blank 15 of 16 voices or coughing, or smell Fill in the blank 16 of 16 smoke.

But for how much longer will we remember those ghosts? This week marks Fill in the blank 1 of 7 80th anniversary of Fill in the blank 2 of 7 VE Day — Fill in the blank 3 of 7 moment Fill in the blank 4 of 7 war ended in Europe. Fill in the blank 5 of 7 youngest surviving veterans are now at least 98. And of Fill in the blank 6 of 7 millions of British people who served in Fill in the blank 7 of 7 war, only tens of thousands remain: perhaps 0.01% of Britain’s total population.

But perhaps Fill in the blank 1 of 10 question should rather be: what will we remember? In theory, Fill in the blank 2 of 10 event doesn’t need to be within Fill in the blank 3 of 10 living memory to be memorialised. In Fill in the blank 4 of 10 practice, though, as Fill in the blank 5 of 10 generations change, Fill in the blank 6 of 10 meaning of even Fill in the blank 7 of 10 most notable historic moments will waver and mutate. We still mark Fill in the blank 8 of 10 foiled attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up Fill in the blank 9 of 10 Houses of Parliament, for example, but few remember Fill in the blank 10 of 10 details of what Fawkes was trying to achieve.

Similarly, when I was Fill in the blank 1 of 12 child, there were still Fill in the blank 2 of 12 First World War veterans alive: I remember interviewing Bill, Fill in the blank 3 of 12 local veteran of both wars, for Fill in the blank 4 of 12 school homework assignment. He had lied about his age to volunteer in 1914 when just 14, and was in his nineties when I spoke to him. He would spend all Fill in the blank 5 of 12 day sitting on Fill in the blank 6 of 12 pavement bench, in Fill in the blank 7 of 12 full uniform including Fill in the blank 8 of 12 medals, nodding and smiling at Fill in the blank 9 of 12 passers-by. He talked vividly about his war memories for my project, but seemed largely oblivious to Fill in the blank 10 of 12 modern world. That long-ago war was, for him, still all of Fill in the blank 11 of 12 meaning and reality, along with Fill in the blank 12 of 12 most of his personality.

What did that war mean, though? My school history lessons presented its origins as murky, and largely driven by Fill in the blank 1 of 6 longstanding European rivalries. More recently, though, now that Fill in the blank 2 of 6 last of its veterans has died, I’ve noticed this war increasingly repurposed as Fill in the blank 3 of 6 Goodies Versus Baddies fable about “freedom and democracy”. And before long we may find Fill in the blank 4 of 6 meaning of Fill in the blank 5 of 6 Second World War shifting, too, however many of its ghosts still haunt Fill in the blank 6 of 6 Britain’s woodlands.

This week, Fill in the blank 1 of 20 ceremonial officialdom creaked into gear for Fill in the blank 2 of 20 four-day celebration of “VE 80”, complete with Fill in the blank 3 of 20 military parades, fly-bys and appearances by Fill in the blank 4 of 20 Royal Family. But as I watched Fill in the blank 5 of 20 BBC coverage of Fill in the blank 6 of 20 dress-uniformed soldiers marching down Fill in the blank 7 of 20 Mall past Fill in the blank 8 of 20 King, two things struck me. Firstly: each group was neatly formed, beautifully trained — and teeny weeny, Fill in the blank 9 of 20 mere pocket-sized mini-units dwarfed by Fill in the blank 10 of 20 scale of Fill in the blank 11 of 20 thoroughfare designed for Fill in the blank 12 of 20 huge parading battalions. It felt like Fill in the blank 13 of 20 vivid metaphor for Fill in the blank 14 of 20 Britain that rattles around in Fill in the blank 15 of 20 architecture built for Fill in the blank 16 of 20 entirely grander state. And second: that as Fill in the blank 17 of 20 living memory of Fill in the blank 18 of 20 Second World War fades, much more is about to pass from us than Fill in the blank 19 of 20 last of Fill in the blank 20 of 20 Greatest Generation.

Who were they, that generation? And how do we remember them? Two days before Fill in the blank 1 of 6 military mini-units marched down Fill in the blank 2 of 6 Pall Mall, Fill in the blank 3 of 6 ghostly airmen of my local woodland seemed briefly as though they might see another modern-day echo, when Fill in the blank 4 of 6 Spitfire crash-landed in Fill in the blank 5 of 6 field in Kent. All on board were, mercifully, safe — but it felt like Fill in the blank 6 of 6 omen. For there is something especially emblematic about these twin-engined fighter planes.

Fill in the blank 1 of 12 excitement and admiration that has always clung to Fill in the blank 2 of 12 folk memory of Britain’s role in Fill in the blank 3 of 12 Second World War also flew on Fill in the blank 4 of 12 twin engines: Fill in the blank 5 of 12 technical inventiveness and Fill in the blank 6 of 12 manic bravery. While my step-grandfather was Fill in the blank 7 of 12 POW in Colditz, for example, he hand-built Fill in the blank 8 of 12 glider with which he planned to escape over Fill in the blank 9 of 12 battlements — Fill in the blank 10 of 12 staggeringly risky engineering project only interrupted by Fill in the blank 11 of 12 rescue when Fill in the blank 12 of 12 war ended.

Perhaps more than any other symbol of Fill in the blank 1 of 11 Second World War, Fill in the blank 2 of 11 Spitfire stands as Fill in the blank 3 of 11 emblem for this mix of can-do engineering and wild risk-taking that enabled Fill in the blank 4 of 11 Allied airmen, some still Fill in the blank 5 of 11 teenagers, to take to Fill in the blank 6 of 11 skies in Fill in the blank 7 of 11 legendary 1940 “Battle of Britain”. But though we won Fill in the blank 8 of 11 Battle of Britain, and eventually VE Day too, all of Europe lost Fill in the blank 9 of 11 war. It was civilisation-destroying. With it ended Fill in the blank 10 of 11 industrial, imperial Europe, and in its aftermath arose Fill in the blank 11 of 11 new civilisation centred on America.

Fill in the blank 1 of 14 Second World War itself was Fill in the blank 2 of 14 cataclysm so immense that it obliterated almost everything Britain had previously been. Poor shattered Bill dressed in full military uniform every day into his nineties; and it’s as though Britain somehow did Fill in the blank 3 of 14 same, at Fill in the blank 4 of 14 scale of Fill in the blank 5 of 14 whole country. So as we salute Fill in the blank 6 of 14 last of Fill in the blank 7 of 14 Greatest Generation, perhaps we can also feel Fill in the blank 8 of 14 sense of relief at Fill in the blank 9 of 14 prospect of letting those memories fade Fill in the blank 10 of 14 little, in time. We should not forget Fill in the blank 11 of 14 effort, Fill in the blank 12 of 14 sacrifices, or Fill in the blank 13 of 14 courage. But letting that era pass beyond living memory may also, in time, grant us more room to take stock of Fill in the blank 14 of 14 kind of place Britain is now.

What will we conclude? It need not be defeatist. I dare say some of those ghostly airmen long to rest; if we could only grant this, perhaps those of us alive now might feel more able to take up their legacy of inventiveness and daring. Then, perhaps, in holding our past just Fill in the blank 1 of 2 little more lightly, Britain might one day be free to have Fill in the blank 2 of 2 future again.