Six years of "total war" in Europe, 1939–1945, brought destruction and economic ruin to both victors and vanquished. Only the United States emerged from World War II without domestic damage and stronger economically than before the war. The armadas of huge bombers that night and day had blasted every industrial area and transportation center in Europe had done a thorough job; recovery was painfully slow. Economic output in 1948 was 13 percent below 1938 levels; in Germany it was 55 percent lower. American output, in startling contrast, was 65 percent higher. Signs of permanent stagnation were pervasive throughout Europe, coupled with growing frustration and pessimism about the future. Millions of refugees lived in squalid camps. Britain had won the war and had received billions of dollars in postwar loans, but its economy was shattered; bread had to be rationed. Winston Churchill said Europe was "a rubble-heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground...