When Daddy Came Home: How War Changed Family Life Forever
by Tony Rennell /
2014 / English / EPUB
1.1 MB Download
Compelling and moving real-life accounts of the impact of the
return of the troops at the end of World War II
Compelling and moving real-life accounts of the impact of the
return of the troops at the end of World War II
Summer 1945: Britain was in jubilant mood. At last, the war was
over. Soon the men would be coming home from the battlefronts of
Europe and the Far East. Then everything would be fine: life
would get back to normal. Or would it? Six long years of war had
profoundly changed family life. In the absence of their menfolk,
the wives had run the home. In the absence of their fathers, the
children had ruled the roost in what were effectively one-parent
families. For years, Dad had been a khaki figure in a photograph
on the wall, a crumpled letter from overseas, an occasional
visitor on weekend leave. Now he was here to stay, a stranger in
a group that had learned to live without him—and was not always
prepared to have him back. Most homecomings were joyful,
never-to-be-forgotten moments of humor and hope. Others were
hard. Welcomes were marred by rejection. Relationships were
ruined forever. Divorce and delinquency, the twin horrors of
post-war society, were set to soar. And there was no one to help,
no one to offer advice, no one to deal with the tears and the
trauma.
Summer 1945: Britain was in jubilant mood. At last, the war was
over. Soon the men would be coming home from the battlefronts of
Europe and the Far East. Then everything would be fine: life
would get back to normal. Or would it? Six long years of war had
profoundly changed family life. In the absence of their menfolk,
the wives had run the home. In the absence of their fathers, the
children had ruled the roost in what were effectively one-parent
families. For years, Dad had been a khaki figure in a photograph
on the wall, a crumpled letter from overseas, an occasional
visitor on weekend leave. Now he was here to stay, a stranger in
a group that had learned to live without him—and was not always
prepared to have him back. Most homecomings were joyful,
never-to-be-forgotten moments of humor and hope. Others were
hard. Welcomes were marred by rejection. Relationships were
ruined forever. Divorce and delinquency, the twin horrors of
post-war society, were set to soar. And there was no one to help,
no one to offer advice, no one to deal with the tears and the
trauma.
