On 15 August 1945, the British government broadcast news of Japan’s unconditional surrender. This date was declared Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day) and people from all walks of life celebrated the official end of the Second World War.
During the Second World War, Abram Games produced a series of posters for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs. These aimed to remind soldiers what they were fighting for, while also offering a glimpse of the post-war society to which they could aspire.
In the summer of 1945, the Second World War came to an end. After Victory in Europe was declared in May, the final surrender of Japan was secured by mid-August. But the British Army’s work was far from over.
Fought between 1642 and 1651, these wars were primarily disputes between Crown and Parliament about how the British Isles should be governed. But they also had religious and social dimensions, and witnessed the creation of the first national standing army.
Between 1839 and 1842, British-Indian forces fought a war with Imperial China that served the interests of opium smugglers. Their resulting victory opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.
Ted Senior was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War and forced to work on the Thai-Burma ‘Death Railway'. The diary he kept reveals the horrific conditions that he and his fellow prisoners endured.
In January 1945, the overarching priority for the Army remained winning the war, and – for its soldiers in Europe at least – seeing off the cold, wintry weather.
The struggle against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine began with a test of endurance and engineering in harsh desert terrain. It evolved into a fast-moving mobile campaign, which resulted in Allied victory and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The war against Iraq in 1990-91 saw the largest single deployment of British troops since the Second World War. Altogether, about 35,000 British servicemen and women served in the campaign.
