In mid-May 1944, a harsh frost hit Britain, causing widespread wilt of plum and berry crops, and rarely, prolonged drought across the UK.
In London, a sign in the bathtub of a hotel exhortated: "The 8th Army will only receive 0.5 litres of water per person per day when crossing the desert." Please save water and the depth of water should not exceed 7.6 cm. ”
According to the British newspaper, even the king "painted a ceiling inside the bathtub, and although he bathed only once a week, he kept a neat appearance".
Although occasionally a group of B-17 "Flying Fortress" aircraft dragged a long cloud of ostrich feathers over the European continent, the north wind was raging, causing most of the Allied bombers from eastern and west-central Britain to make a forced landing halfway.
Formation of Allied bombers over Britain
The war has been going on for almost 5 years, and the British cities are "as filthy and messy as a mouth full of tooth decay".
One American tourist found that "when people say 'pre-war,' they seem to mean a place, not a certain period of time." ”
From Birmingham to Plymouth, wildflowers began to take root among the ruins razed by artillery fire, and bitter cauliflowers, clairvoyants, and tall, purple-flowered willows often preferred to grow after disasters.
But the following scene is not idyllic: in London's 4,800-kilometre sewers, countless rats flock past, and the rodent control department has to throw 60 tons of sausages mixed with zinc phosphate and dry bread soaked in barium carbonate into the sewers.
Like the stench everywhere, material scarcity spread in Britain, where British men bought a new shirt every 20 months on average, and housewives even twisted the strips of their pipes into hairpins.
In the German bombing, the iron fences and grilles of British family houses were unrecognizable, even the cemetery was unobstructed, and pens, wedding rings, bed sheets, peelers and shoelaces became scarce.
To persuade people to be thrifty, some posters refer to extravagant wasters as "luxury bugs," London's Times implores people in classified ads to raise money and "extra dentures" to save Soviet wounded war horses, and the housekeeping company "Siff" says in an ad that it can "clean cushions and carpets damaged in the bombing."
In addition, the official notice issued an exhortation: "Do not waste food, because food is a weapon." ”
As early as June 1940, the British began to implement the food rationing system, which was not completely abolished until 1954. During this period, only 48 grams of cheese per person per month were available, and many children had never seen lemons and had to rely on "radish water" to supplement vitamin C.
The food sector began promoting "simple bread" that tasted like chewing wax and "victory coffee" brewed with acorns, while the so-called "Woolton pie", a mixture of carrots, potatoes, onions and flour, was said to be "like a stone pressed into the chest" when eaten.
However, for people with strong stomachs, sheep's heads, eels caught from local reservoirs, and roast cormorants with more meat and less meat used instead of poultry are not limited.
Since 1940, more than 50,000 British civilians have been killed in Nazi German air raids, many of them in the "mini-blitzkrieg" launched by Germany in January 1944.
The protracted air raid had subsided before the blitzkrieg, when Luftwaffe jet jets dropped parachute flares at targets, bathing buildings and low-altitude clouds in dark brown light before the flares fell.
On May 10, someone wrote in his diary: "As the 'giant searchlight like a sharp sword' pointed the position of the enemy aircraft, shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns crackled like hail and fell on the roof. ”
Wimbledon Tennis Club was also attacked in the latest airstrike, causing a severe dent in the midfield and forcing the janitor to repair the torn net with a rope.
At night, thousands of people take refuge in subway stations, and the 79 platforms are stacked with layers of beds, emitting a smell that is said to have young children (most of them those who have never seen lemons) who have never slept in their beds for a night.
Londoners fleeing bombing in the subway
Even in mid-May, when the days and nights are short, London is strictly lit, and although the United Kingdom is not yet the size of the US state of Oregon, it is home to some 3.5 million Allied soldiers.
Despite all the dangers of war, the British remained proud and remained civilized, and when a stringed harp played "My Mother is a Lady" outside the Cumberland Hotel on Oxford Street, a large crowd sang in unison: "If Jack were still here, how dare you insult me so lightly..."
In May of that year, the cinema of London's West End screened "War Bells" starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.
Regular patrons can even see Hamlet starring John Gilgood or Noel Coward's Joy in Heaven, which has been shown at the Duchess Theatre for three consecutive years.
On Sunday 14 May, thousands of spectators cycled to the Esko Racecourse to watch the Kingsway, nicknamed the "First Class Stud", gallop over the "Merchant Fleet" and "Haunted", and because of the recent cold snap, the Royal Geographical Society also funded a lecture entitled "The Formation of Ice in Lakes and Rivers".
In London's pubs and streets, colourful uniforms add color to the lifeless war years. Norwegian, Indian, Belgian, Czech, Yorkshire, Welsh and American soldiers wore a variety of uniforms.
The French Navy wore a striped shirt with red pompoms on its hat; Dutch police officers wear black uniforms with silver and gray tassels; Polish officers wore square hats and looked like dragoons; The gray costumes of the Canadian Ambulance Corps are also particularly eye-catching; The new paratroopers have big red berets with sky-blue piping ...
Soldier field caps with special name units are colorful and colorful; The crimson lining was revealed under the coat of the English nurse; The Air Force of the Dominion of the Commonwealth wears an iron blue uniform. In addition, you can see light brown jungle hats, brown bandanas, Royal Air Force blue uniforms and light green uniforms of the Soviet Army.
In London's Savile Street, tailors specialize in custom-made military uniforms, including tunics and trousers, and some well-dressed officers can also buy British military raincoats from Burberry and silver portable wine jugs from Dunhill.
Even the soldiers who had just returned from the battlefields in the Mediterranean added a strong color to the place, and their skin turned pumpkin-like yellow due to the effect of antimalarial drugs.
Most impressive, however, was the uniforms of military men on Hammersmith Road in London's West End on the morning of Monday, May 15.
On the 1720th day after the start of World War II, British and American armies held a secret meeting to prepare for a fatal rehearsal to destroy Hitler's Third Reich, and a large number of admirals, field marshals, logistics ministers, and military officials stepped out of their cars and strode into a Gothic building of red brick and red tiles.
U.S. gendarmes known as "Snowdrops," wearing white helmets, belts, shin pads and gloves, scrutinized 146 carved invitations and security passes issued a month earlier.
Afterwards, six uniformed ushers accompanied the famous guests into the sand table room.
Senior Allied generals meeting, front row: Eisenhower (center), Montgomery (right)
Inside this gloomy and dark auditorium, black railings and benches are hard and narrow, supposedly to keep young students clear-headed.
German air strikes blew down more than 700 windows at St. Paul's School, and students have been evacuated to the outskirts of Berkshire, but many ghosts still linger in the shrine of Britain's upper class, including poet John Milton, astronomer Edmond Halley, writer Samuel Pepys, and John Churchill, Duke of Marbarrow.
Presumably, John Churchill's basic knowledge of military strategy was obtained from a book in the university's library.
Around the sand table room, top-secret charts and maps, the school became the headquarters of Britain's 21st Army Group in January, where the Allies drew up detailed plans for Operation Overlord to land in France.
Most of the seats of senior generals are located in rows B to J. To protect themselves from the bitter cold, some people put blankets over their knees, and others wrapped their coats tightly. In the first row, 14 armchairs are lined up one after another, and the big people are taking their seats one after another.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, wearing a black double-breasted coat and a Havana cigar as usual, and he and the Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Churchill Churchill wore a black double-breasted coat and held a Havana cigar as usual. General D. Eisenhower entered the venue at the same time.
When King George VI walked slowly through the corridor, no one applauded, but everyone stood and Churchill bowed to the king and continued to smoke a cigar.
These powerful celebrities, waiting for the bell to ring at 10 a.m., have every reason to rejoice in the victory they have won and hope for greater success.
Almost all senior commanders had fought in the Mediterranean and called themselves "Mediterraneaners," Eisenhower once said: "The Mediterranean theater of operations will always be with my flesh and blood." They share this view.
From the time they landed in North Africa in November 1942, they began to splatter blood, and the Anglo-American forces defeated the vulnerable defenders of the French Vichy puppet regime and continued eastward through the snowy Atlas Mountains into Tunisia.
After the victory at El Alamein, the British 8th Army advanced westward from Egypt to resist the German-Italian Legion together with the Anglo-American forces, and after five months of fierce fighting, 250,000 Axis soldiers surrendered in mid-May 1943.
Two months later, the Anglo-American forces attacked Sicily, winning a resounding victory in six weeks and invading the Italian mainland in early September.
After the fall of Mussolini's fascist regime, the new Roman government renounced the Steel Treaty signed by the Axis powers and joined the Allies instead.
However, in Salerno, south of Naples, a desperate struggle heralded a series of grueling winter battles, and after 320 kilometers north, the Allies fought a brutal battle with the recalcitrant German army in San Pietro, Altona, La Pido, Cassino and Anchio.
During the battle, many generals, led by Eisenhower, returned to England after taking the lead to plan for Operation Overlord, and they could only hope that the Spring Offensive (codenamed "The Crown") launched on May 11 would break the stalemate on the Gustav Line in central Italy and allow the tormented Allied forces to invade Rome as soon as possible and pursue them victoriously.
British Army female cartographer
From 1944 onwards, the Allies' invincibility in other theaters of operations greatly boosted people's confidence in victory, but no one doubted that future battles would be more brutal than all previous battles.
Allied naval and air power already controlled most of the seas, with the United States launching two raids in the central and southwestern Pacific, while Japan was losing ground.
After recovering Gilbert and the Marshall Islands, U.S. forces launched an offensive on the Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian, and Guam) that summer, and approached the Philippines all the way.
Subsequently, the U.S. military occupied several airfields and used them as bases for the new long-range bomber, the B-29 Super Flying Fortress, to launch air strikes against the Japanese mainland.
Japan suffered a serious setback when it crossed the Indian border from Burma into southern Assam, and the empire began to falter as the main force of the U.S. Navy arrived in the Pacific and merged with nearly one-third of its army divisions and six marine divisions.
The huge empire built by Berlin in Eastern Europe was also in jeopardy, with more than 3 million troops in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, but by early 1944, the number of German casualties had exceeded 3.5 million, and the number of Soviet casualties was even four times that of Germany.
However, with the Soviet Union's reconquest of Crimea, Western Ukraine, and territories between Leningrad (now known as Petrograd) and Estonia, the tide of war turned and Germany was exhausted.
To date, Germany's strength on the Eastern Front and South-Eastern Europe is 193 divisions, 28 in Italy, 18 in Norway and Denmark, and 59 in France and the Low Countries.
A command post in London during World War II
However, Germany became increasingly vulnerable to Allied air raids, and in May 1944, Allied aircraft taking off from Britain dropped 70,000 tons of high bombs on Axis targets, four times the average monthly bombs dropped the previous year.
Although the RAF and the US Army Air Corps paid a heavy price, losing a large number of aircraft and pilots, they eventually won air supremacy in Europe.
Because only by taking advantage of the air and sea from Germany, the Allied ground forces that were assembling in Britain could successfully land in Europe.
In 1941, when Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union formed their first alliance against the Axis powers, as Winston Churchill said, "The only solution is to stay the course." ”
It was because of perseverance that after four years of German occupation of France and the Low Countries, they were able to fight the enemy army and completely defeat it at Hitler's European stronghold.
The United States had long advocated a head-on confrontation with the main forces of the German army as soon as possible, but British strategists did not agree with this aggressive and "sharpening" approach, but preferred to launch attacks from the periphery and gradually reduce the power of the Axis powers.
However, it was this strategy that led to the fighting in the Mediterranean that lasted for 18 months, and now, with the moment of decisive battle approaching, the battlefield began to shift north, and Britain and the United States would be in the same position.