[News] VE Day 2020

[el punal]

I find it strange celebrating VE Day nowadays when it wasn’t celebrated before. Remembrance Day was always the day for looking back.
My Dad would have been 100 now, serving from 35-68 in the RN, but sadly died 22 years ago. There are very few left now. He would have been puzzled by today.

It was definitely commemorated/celebrated in 1995 for the 50th anniversary. Also was a public holiday with many events taking place nationwide, and, like today, a beautiful sunny day to boot.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It was definitely commemorated/celebrated in 1995 for the 50th anniversary. Also was a public holiday with many events taking place nationwide, and, like today, a beautiful sunny day to boot.

You're right but I don't remember much about it. Perhaps I had one too many.

 

[sparkie]

It was definitely commemorated/celebrated in 1995 for the 50th anniversary. Also was a public holiday with many events taking place nationwide, and, like today, a beautiful sunny day to boot.

You're right but I don't remember much about it. Perhaps I had one too many.

I remember all day drinking being allowed in the pubs on VE Day 1995.

This was a novelty at the time, and wasn't brought back as standard until 2005.

I 'remember' spending quite a bit of time in the Regency Tavern which had quite a (campish) wartime theme party that day.

 

[Norman Potting]

At first I wasn't sure what the VE day holiday was celebrating in the modern era. Then I saw some of the footage and realised it's about them not us. It's the relief we feel for our parents and grandparents that something terrible is almost over. It's about the respect I have for my uncle who was among those who liberated Belsen but could never talk of the horrors. It's about the fear that my dad experienced when dodging a lone wolf's machine gun on his way back from school. It about the fearless nature of my grandma who ferried kids coming out of the nearby school into her house to avoid them being mowed down by the bullets of a German gunner.

So I don't feel proud in a PPF fist waving on the white cliffs way. That's not my thing. Ultimately nobody wins. Someone just ends it. I just feel happy for 1945. I think we should toast the end of their suffering and everything good that came after- and of course be forever thankful to the few who remain and served us so well.

A big THIS from me. Well said sir, or madam.

 

[LANGDON SEAGULL]

It's the jingoism in the media that I find so galling. I have seen several references to Victory over Europe, when it stands for Victory in Europe. There's hardly any reference to the Allies.
At the Cenotaph in November you will see representatives of the Commonwealth who fought alongside us, Free French and Poles, plus mentions of the Resistance movements.

Peace is the celebration, not nostalgia.

Very much this


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[nicko31]

Sky News are showing the commemoration live from Paris at the moment. I am pleased that they have chosen to illustrate that, as [MENTION=14365]Thunder Bolt[/MENTION] says, it's not just about us.

Indeed a celebration for all Europe, the ugly side of nationalism was defeated. We need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, we've come a long way

 

[SuperFurrySeagull]

Wish the media would stop trying to draw parallels between the war and the current situation. Sat at home with all of your luxuries, plenty of food and technology linking you to anyone you want to see and speak to is not in anyway comparable to family members being called to the front line to what could easily be their death why the remaining families contend with bombing raids.

It is days like today that if anything should remind us how lucky we really are we have not had to go through what our grandparents did

Not to disagree as such, & they may not be comparable events, but I did just want to make the point that there is a genuine frontline today; there are real people going to work knowing that they could die (& who are dying) as a result of doing so. Maybe just an issue of scale, but we're not through the pandemic yet.

My partner is a nurse on this frontline, he & his colleagues are attending other colleague's funerals & organising crowdfunding for others still who are struggling in ITC beds. It is a reality in very ordinary households. They also know that they could be the cause of the death of loved ones back home (as do they).

Incidentally, my partner is showing far greater courage & calmness than I've been able to manage (we're in good hands)

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Just been on the phone to my mum. She was 14 when the war ended, evacuated in Hoxne, Suffolk. She said when she went to bed that night her first thought was there wouldn’t be any more doodle-bugs.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Just been on the phone to my mum. She was 14 when the war ended, evacuated in Hoxne, Suffolk. She said when she went to bed that night her first thought was there wouldn’t be any more doodle-bugs.

During the war my Dad said you didn't have to worry about the Blitz, the only bomb that would get you, he reckoned, was the one that had your name on it. This used to worry our neighbours . . . Mr and Mrs Doodlebug.'

 

[Official Old Man]

Must tell you a story about my Father, who died a few years back. Born in 1933 he lived in Albourne and told of a doodlebug that landed close by. Him and his mates went off in search of it and returned with 'bits'. For his entire life he swore these 'bits' were buried in his parents home under a kitchen sink in the garden. The day his parents moved house, maybe around late 70's when I was 20+ YO, we dug up the old sink and looked for the 'bits'.
Nothing, but he always swore they were there.

 

[Hastings gull]

Must tell you a story about my Father, who died a few years back. Born in 1933 he lived in Albourne and told of a doodlebug that landed close by. Him and his mates went off in search of it and returned with 'bits'. For his entire life he swore these 'bits' were buried in his parents home under a kitchen sink in the garden. The day his parents moved house, maybe around late 70's when I was 20+ YO, we dug up the old sink and looked for the 'bits'.
Nothing, but he always swore they were there.

My tale would refer to a mealtime conversation many years ago -I think the 60s, when the war came up on the radio. It was meant to be jocular and my dad agreed with the interviewer, who said that had it not been the courage of veterans defeating Nazism, we would not be around today. My mum said " I would" -she spent her war years near Leipzig . .

 

[vegster]

My Uncle,my Godfather signed up for the RAF at 17 in 1940, he was not one of the frontline hero's , he was Groundcrew. His first job was to be on standby at Tangmere to ride out to the fighter planes that had just landed to retrieve the gun camera film. At that time they needed to know how many enemy planes they were damaging and shooting down in order to ascertain Nazi losses. The guns on the plane were linked to cameras that would take a photo when the trigger was pressed showing the target, his job was to get out to the landed plane and no matter the condition of the plane and the pilot, retrieve the film and get back to get it developed.

He said it was a horrible job, as obviously he knew the pilots from his base and quite often the planes would land with the aircraft and the pilots badly shot up but his priority was to get that film back for the intelligence people.

As the war progressed his squadron moved up through Italy and he was often rotated in to burial duty. A small team would try as best they could, to recover the remains of downed pilots of his squadron, quite often there was little if any of a downed pilot to recover. He said that no matter what they always tried to bring as much of a downed pilot back as they could as they felt they had a duty to their pilot and their family. I'm not sure how badly this affected him but, he never let it show and he was always the most fun of all my uncles and I still love him to bits.

I had the good fortune to see the Spitfire over Worthing today as part of the commemorations and I instantly though of Uncle Geoff... then instantly remembered his opinion of Spitfires.... " They got all the glory and everyone thought they were what saved us... but the Hurry's ( Hurricane's ) did most of the damage. ".... RIP Uncle Geoff.

 

[jakarta]

My Uncle,my Godfather signed up for the RAF at 17 in 1940, he was not one of the frontline hero's , he was Groundcrew.

They were all heros mate, especially as Tangmere got very heavily bombed in the BoB, most notably on the 16th of August 1940. The Pilot's were the first to say they couldn't have done their jobs without the Groundcrews.

 

[vegster]

They were all heros mate, especially as Tangmere got very heavily bombed in the BoB, most notably on the 16th of August 1940. The Pilot's were the first to say they couldn't have done their jobs without the Groundcrews.

My mum once told me the story of how they thought they were being burgled in the family house in Mile Oak during the war, she woke about 6am hearing someone trying to get in.. it turns out it was her brother, Geoff, he had been given a 48 hour pass at midnight and walked and hitchhiked from Tangmere to get home and was trying to get in without waking anyone. …. he failed miserably !

 

[KZNSeagull]

I have to say that the BBC excelled themselves with the VE Day program just finished.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I have to say that the BBC excelled themselves with the VE Day program just finished.

Yes i agree and the Queen was her usual inspiring self....had to open the door to the world for the singalong after ....on my own

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I have to say that the BBC excelled themselves with the VE Day program just finished.

I loved the Wren veteran Edna who received her medal at last. A perfect salute and a great sense of humour.

 

[Frutos]

I have to say that the BBC excelled themselves with the VE Day program just finished.

Totally agree.

 

[swindonseagull]

My local Facebook page has gone mad tonight because someone let of some fireworks this evening and their kids/ cats were scared!!!!

I find it quite ironic that today we have spent remembering the MILLIONS who died between 39-45
The complainers will sit out all day drinking ( pretending ) they are remembering those who died but the minute someone lets off a firework they moan... I mean it’s so lucky the snowflake generation were not around during WW2..

Imagine Facebook ( if it existed)

Oh those German pilots dropped a bomb and made my cat scared!!! Now he won’t settle !!!!

FFS UNBELIEVABLE!!!

 

[Questions]

My mum once told me the story of how they thought they were being burgled in the family house in Mile Oak during the war, she woke about 6am hearing someone trying to get in.. it turns out it was her brother, Geoff, he had been given a 48 hour pass at midnight and walked and hitchhiked from Tangmere to get home and was trying to get in without waking anyone. …. he failed miserably !

God no one would get past your mum veg.................