(the slow task of picking up the pieces)

On this day, July 8, 1945 Europe was two months into peace. Although there was still a war going on in the Pacific, Europe was slowly starting the process of putting the pieces back together from a continent ravaged by war since 1939. As part of a weekly broadcast to American listeners, the BBC World Service ran a program called London Column dealing with events surrounding European recovery, the slow adjustment to life without war and how it was taking shape.

Sometimes putting the pieces of a puzzle back are more fascinating than the puzzle itself, and Post War Europe was in the midst of sweeping change, sixty-five years ago today.