When the British Motor Industry Ruled the World ; Motoring Isn't What It Used to Be - or Is It? Jonathan Crouch Turns the Clock Back to See How Far We've Come Since the Roaring Forties.

Summary

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In 1949...

Britain still had rationing, though there was a 'summer holiday bonus' ration for petrol, and the Berlin airlift was in full swing, while the Allies were still busily carving up Germany. Sir Malcolm Campbell died on New Year's Day and Donald Bradman was knighted. The Peronists were re-elected in Argentina, Truman was newly elected in the USA; we had Attlee, Russia had Stalin. Britain was the world's largest car exporter and farm workers' minimum wages were increased to Pounds 4.14s, with hours down from 48 to 47, with seven days holidays instead of six. Prohibition was lifted in Kansas after 69 years and Prince Rainier acceded to the throne in Monaco. The RAF's first jet bomber, the Canberra, flew in May; the world's first jet airliner, the Comet, flew in July; and early in March, a US B50 superfortress, Lucky Lady II, completed the first non-stop round- the-world flight, while the world listened enthusiastically to big bands.

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When the British Motor Industry Ruled the World ; Motoring Isn't What It Used to Be - or Is It? Jonathan Crouch Turns the Clock Back to See How Far We've Come Since the Roaring Forties.

By the end of the '40s, the British motor industry was almost back to the heady days that had ended with the invasion of Poland a decade earlier. We were the world's largest exporter of cars and home to t...

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