Skip to main content

Allies In Arms

April 2023
1min read

Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945

by David Reynolds, Random House, 544 pages .

In April 1942 a BBC poll found that in Britain “it was probably not an exaggeration to say that a great many people are simply without opinions of any kind or even prejudices, about anything so remote as America.” This would not last. There were already twelve thousand GIs in the United Kingdom, and by the end of the war three million had tramped through. Between 1942 and 1944 the Yanks changed in the British mind from overpaid, sex-obsessed occupiers on perpetual holiday to proven heroes, and to the Americans a fusty, class-ridden nation showed itself tough and unified under the blitz. David Reynolds, author of An Ocean Apart: The Relationship Between Britain and America in the Twentieth Century , shows how the GIs and the British people grew together, presenting a social history of the army that came over, breaking it down to its individuals, and explaining exactly who they were.

“My God, but it was easy to fall in love in those two months before D-Day,” remembered one Canadian soldier in London. “There was a feeling that these were the last nights men and women would make love.” In his last chapter the author includes stories of British children of GIs who found their natural fathers decades later. This first-rate book pays vivid tribute to both a people under siege and an army of “young men living life to the full as they waited for war.”

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "May/June 1995"

Authored by: The Editors

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Authored by: The Editors

All the Days and Nights
The Collected Stories

Authored by: The Editors

Reporting the War
The Journalistic Coverage of World War II

Authored by: The Editors

Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945

Authored by: The Editors

Bud Powell
The Complete Blue Note and Roost Recordings

Authored by: The Editors

The Jazz Scene

Authored by: The Editors

Why Elvis?

Authored by: The Editors

Times Ain’t like They Used to Be: Early Rural & Popular American Music From Rare Original Film Masters (1928-35)

Authored by: The Editors

The Belle of Amherst

Authored by: The Editors

Day One

Featured Articles

The world’s most prominent actress risked her career by standing up to one of Hollywood’s mega-studios, proving that behind the beauty was also a very savvy businesswoman. 

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.