Peace and War in the 20th Century
Random Highlights
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. In the twentieth century, necessity all too often arrived in the guise of war. Aerial photography was among the transformative technical innovations developed during the First World War.
“When you get back to England, say hello to the Queen for me. I used to work for her father.” This was William Frank Kenwood’s standard salutation in his later years whenever he would encounter anyone from the British Isles. It was one of the few references he would make about his time as an R.A.F. airman or to the two and half years he spent as a German prisoner of war.
The letters of British pilot John Lisle, who spent two years as a German prisoner of war (1943-45), as well as revealing the tedium and sense of isolation of the prisoner’s life, provide insights into the ways the prisoners tried to live as “normally” as they could.
