Eighty years ago this week the British take one step forward towards peacetime and one step sideways

 

The Polish Secret Army resistance movement located the crash site of a V-2 rocket in marshland on the bank of the Bug River. After the bombing of Peenemuende, trials had been moved to a more remote and safe location in central Poland. The resistants first pushed the wreckage under water until the Germans abandoned their search then removed key components which were taken  200km by bicycle to a suitable landing ground whence they were  flown to the British in Italy.

The newly ennobled John Maynard Keynes presented the agreement that he had negotiated with the US on post-war monetary organisation to the House of Lords. He was able to assure peers that the scheme of an International Monetary Fund did not involve a return to the catastrophic strait-jacket of the pre-war Gold Standard. The financial ignoramuses who had opposed the scheme because they had feared such a thing, remained silent and Keynes enjoyed a triumph.

Churchill gave a major speech on foreign affairs which foretold the creation of the United Nations organization. His rhetoric was cloudy and he spoke of an organization armed for peace. He presented the bizarre image of himself picking his way through plough-shares being heated (presumably to be turned into swords) as though he anticipated some future transformation from peace to war once again before the current war had even ended.