The Lived Experience of British Forces in Germany, 1945-2019

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Historian and curator Dr Peter Johnston draws on extensive research to tell the human stories behind our new exhibition 'Foe to Friend: The British Army in Germany since 1945'.

The Army's relationship with Germany since the end of the Second World War has been complex. From occupying a defeated country in 1945, to standing on the front line in the Cold War, to deploying troops to conflict zones across the world, Britain's reasons for being in Germany have changed. But for 75 years, more than a million service personnel, and their families, have called it home. 

This talk by Dr Peter Johnston will mark the opening of our new exhibition, 'Foe to Friend: The British Army in Germany since 1945'. He will reflect on the decades the Army spent in Germany, drawing on the extensive research that went into his book, British Forces Germany, 1945-2019: The Lived Experience, and will also look to the legacy the British leave behind them. 

Dr Peter Johnston is Head of Collections Research and Academic Access at the National Army Museum. He's a military historian and curator, with a particular specialism in the British Army since 1945, but has also published on military culture, veterans and propaganda.

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