Life was a little bit different in Britain in 1944.

Eisenhower and Churchill were planning the invasion of Europe which would result in the D-Day landings and ultimately the beginning of the end of WW2.

Rationing meant food was scarce and often unappealing. Exhorted to ‘Dig for Britain’, gardens no longer sported rose beds but rows of carrots, cabbages and potatoes to boost the meagre diet.

 
Housewives worked full-time in factories in support of the war effort and those too old to enlist became fire wardens and ambulance drivers or joined the Home Guard – better known to us as Dad’s Army.  Nightly bombing raids drove families into air raid shelters and underground stations.

But Brits are made of stern stuff and the Keep Calm & Carry On spirit ensured that fun was still to be had. American soldiers, posted to the UK, brought with them a new dance craze, Swing Jive and Lindy Hop, and village halls all over the land, windows blacked out and taped over to prevent shattering from a nearby explosion, throbbed to the beat of a swing band at a local tea dance.