Since June 1940, every British family has kept its shotgun and poker, pitchfork and flatiron ready to use against invaders whenever the church bells rang. This week the bells broke their long silence. Over tattered city streets, shining holly hedgerows, silvering fields and the camouflaged tin huts of army encampments the rolling echoed, celebrating with propriety victory in Egypt.
The Archbishop of Canterbury had recommended that the nation listen with "fresh resolve and renewed prayer for ... our Allies and the cause we serve." Bell-ringing teams, dispersed by war, had reassembled...