Bunting at the ready! Britons make their final preparations ahead of the 75th anniversary of VE Day tomorrow with millions set to mark the day from their own homes as people recall what they were doing on the day WWII ended in Europe
- Thousands set to take part in celebrations for VE Day which marks day WWII ended in Europe On May 8, 1945
- While this year the coronavirus lockdown had made things difficult, many will still be partaking in celebration
- Bunting adorns many buildings across the country while flags are flying in the wind ahead of event tomorrow
- **Share photographs of your VE Day celebrations by emailing them to [email protected]**
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Preparations are underway as Britain prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day tomorrow – with bunting already adorning many households and Union Jack flags flying across the country.
Thousands up and down the country are set to take part in celebrations for VE Day which marks the moment WWII ended in Europe On May 8, 1945.
And while this year the coronavirus lockdown has meant that hundreds of celebrations planned for the 75th anniversary have had to be cancelled, others have adapted and are going ahead.
In the same way that millions of Britons have used technology to satisfy their pub quiz itches, see family members, and even get married, VE Day 2020 is taking place at home and online.
Organisations across the UK will be marking the occasion by taking part in the Nation’s Toast, cooking with ration books or even planning a #VEDay75stayathome party.
Children and staff at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Residents of Portsmouth decorate their home in Union Jack bunting and flags (pictured, Katie Warton with her daughter Evie in preparation of VE Day tomorrow)
Molly Meeking, age seven, proudly waves a Union Jack flag against bunting and flags outside her Portsmouth house in preparation of VE Day tomorrow
While this year the coronavirus lockdown has meant that hundreds of celebrations planned for the 75th anniversary have had to be cancelled, others have adapted and are going ahead (pictured, residents in Portsmouth)
Pageantmaster of VE Day 75 Bruno Peek and his dog Wilson, as he decorates his house in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, with flags and bunting to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Bruno Peek has adorned his house in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, with flags and bunting to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
At 11.15am, the Royal British Legion is inviting the nation to make a cup of tea and listen to its VE Day 75 Livestream, as young and old unite to chat about their shared experiences. Tune in via the Legion’s Facebook page or website (britishlegion.org.uk).
At 2.45pm, BBC1 will broadcast Sir Winston Churchill’s famous victory speech. Then, at 2.55pm, as BBC coverage continues, the nation’s buglers, trumpeters and cornet players will perform the Last Post from their gardens.
At 3pm it’s time to raise a glass as Dame Joan Collins, whose childhood home was destroyed in the Blitz as she slept in a Tube station, leads the Nation’s Toast from the balcony of her London apartment.
The toast, due to be broadcast on news channels, is on behalf of the women of the nation, acknowledging the many roles they played in the war. The public are encouraged to join in with the words: ‘To those who gave so much, we thank you.’
An evening of VE Day-themed viewing on the BBC will lead up to an address by the Queen at 9pm, the exact time her father spoke to the nation 75 years ago.
Then Dame Vera Lynn will lead what promises to be a very loud national rendition of We’ll Meet Again. A bit like the weekly Clap for Carers, the hope is that people will sing from their doorsteps.
Royal Navy warships around the world will sound their sirens and beam searchlights to mark VE Day
Royal Navy warships around the world will sound their sirens and pierce the darkness with searchlights on Friday to mark VE Day.
From Bahrain to the Caribbean to the Falklands, to the White Cliffs of Dover, the men and women of the Naval Service will join their countrymen in remembering the sacrifices made between 1939 and 1945.
The Royal Navy lost more than 250 warships defeating Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and more than 40,000 sailors and Royal Marines were killed in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean.
While the pandemic has forced large numbers of commemorations to be cancelled, the Royal Navy refuses to let the occasion go unmarked.
Among those pausing to reflect will be Warrant Officer 2nd Class Jules Cook, Bandmaster of The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines CTCRM, based at Lympstone in Devon.
‘My granddad Eric Cook sadly passed away last year at the age of 99,’ he said.
‘He served in Africa as a gunlayer in the Royal Artillery and if I could speak to him now I’d say to him, ‘I’m still really proud of you, granddad. Miss you loads and I cannot wait to tell you some more stories one day’.’
Sailors, soldiers and Royal Marines aboard support ship RFA Argus, patrolling the Caribbean to provide assistance in the event of a hurricane, have already paid their respects by spelling out 75 on the flight deck.
On Friday, river-class patrol ship HMS Severn will patrol the White Cliffs of Dover to coincide with a Spitfire flypast and a lone piper on the clifftop.
At 3pm, Royal Navy warships and support vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary at home and deployed around the world will blast their sirens for a minute to celebrate victory – the time marks the moment on Tuesday May 8 1945 when then prime minister Sir Winston Churchill addressed the nation.
The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines have produced special versions of We’ll Meet Again and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, while the Corps of Drums will perform a special event on Horse Guards Parade, all while operating under Government rules.
At 9.30pm, searchlights on naval ships – both those in harbour and those at sea – will be directed skywards for five minutes. The war’s end marked the lifting of the blackout after nearly six years.
It will be too light for HMS Kent’s searchlights, as she is exercising with the Americans in the Barents Sea, off the North Cape.
Instead, the frigate is flying a battle ensign, a particularly large White Ensign traditionally used to identify a ship’s nationality amid the smoke and fire of battle.
The ship will also hold a service of thanksgiving for those who gave their lives on the brutal Arctic convoys between 1941 and 1945.
The anniversary of VE Day brings back memories of parties, bonfires and the ringing of church bells for those who were celebrating at home 75 years ago.
Gillian Holding, 83, from Sheffield, was eight years old when victory in Europe was announced in 1945.
Despite being very young, she remembers growing up to the sound of planes flying overhead and bombs falling and carrying gas masks to and from school.
In 1945, Britons at home knew that the Germans were nearing defeat with the final surrender acting as the ‘climax’ of expectations, Ms Holding said.
‘Union Jack flags were put out of bedroom windows and there was a lot of consternation, I remember that some people didn’t get their flag right on the pole,’ she said.
‘I could hear them that night when I was in bed, singing and dancing down the main road where we lived. Very happy people.
‘My father, as soon as he knew the war had ended, went on the train to London to celebrate.
‘When I saw pictures of the crowds outside Buckingham Palace and the joy there, I could understand perhaps why he wanted to go.’
A party was organised on the green opposite her grandfather’s house, with a spread of sandwiches, tinned peaches and cakes laid on.
Ms Holding added: ‘What I do remember – this is me being dead miserable at eight – somebody had provided some jelly and they gave it to the very little ones, and I thought if only I could have had some jelly.’
For a young girl, understanding what the end of the war meant was difficult.
Ms Holding said: ‘I can remember asking my parents what on earth would be on the news now that there wasn’t war.
‘Children today might be thinking what on earth will be on the news when the coronavirus is gone, because war was all that was on the news.’
Just over a year after the war, she remembers receiving a special letter from King George VI sent to thank all children for enduring the war.
George Bradford, 89, was evacuated from London to his grandparents’ home in Lincoln during the war and was 14 years old when VE Day arrived.
He remembers silence falling while people listened to Winston Churchill announce the end of the war on the radio.
‘Then everybody started chatting, ‘I wonder when my husband will be home’ or ‘I wonder when my son Tommy, Jimmy, when he’ll be home’, ‘when it will all over’.
‘It wasn’t very long before we heard church bells.
‘All the churches all the way down Lincoln high street, going all the way up to the cathedral, all you could hear was peals of bells.’
A ‘massive bonfire’ was held on Lincoln common, Mr Bradford remembers, with ‘mini street parties’ taking place the following day.
He later joined the Royal Marines in 1948 and went on to serve for 27 years.
Angharad, ten, helps decorate her Union Jack home in West London with bunting ahead of the 75th Anniversary of VE Day
Pageantmaster of VE Day 75 Bruno Peek and his dog Wilson are preparing to celebrate VE Day in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk
Wilson the dog has not escaped the VE Day decorations and stands adorned in Union Jack bunting ahead of VE Day tomorrow
Penny Meeking decorates her Portsmouth home in Union Jack bunting and flags with her children Molly, seven, and Daisy, ten, in preparation of VE Day tomorrow
With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting all planned mass public celebrations across the nation, local councils have urged residents to celebrate VE Day from the comfort of their own homes (pictured, a resident prepares to celebrate in Portsmouth)
Children and staff at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Alec Borrie, 95, from London, was in a transit camp in Chesterfield when VE Day was announced.
He was on his way back to serving in the SAS after being blown up by a mine.
‘I went out and got drunk like about a million others,’ he said.
‘We had a good evening, I got back to camp about one o’clock and got charged for being late.’
He said he had spent quite some time in the pub trying to strike up a conversation with another man until he realised he was actually looking at himself in a large mirror.
‘It sounds daft, but that was a funny thing from the night. We’d already had a few too many then,’ he joked.
Mr Borrie, who was the youngest member of the 1st SAS, serving for two years, encouraged people to remember ‘those that offered their life and those that gave their life’ this VE Day.
Asked how he would be marking the occasion, he joked: ‘I won’t be getting drunk that’s for sure.’
Second World War veterans have described their ‘great relief’ as victory arrived in Europe 75 years ago, with celebrations including people dancing in the street and climbing up lamp posts.
At 3pm that day, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced on the radio that war in Europe had come to an end, following Germany’s surrender the day before.
Dougie Shelley, 94, who joined the Royal Navy aged 17, served as a Seaman Gunner on the Arctic convoys before being posted to the Pacific and Australia.
A road of actors, musical directors and choreographers have come together to perform a socially distanced tribute to VE Day from their doorways. The 13 men and women paid tribute to the end of the Second World War with the incredible performance, which included a rendition of Dame Vera Lynns iconic Well Meet Again, outside their homes in Chester, Cheshire
A giant Union flag on the beach beneath Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, on the north east coast of England, drawn by castle maintenance manager Andrew Heeley, who took over 18,000 steps to complete his creation ahead of commemorations to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day
A plate of Union Flag cupcakes at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
VOICES OF WAR PROJECT BRINGS VE DAY 1945 INTO PEOPLE’S HOMES
First-hand accounts from an army nurse who served in Egypt, a Jamaican aircraftsman, and a Jewish man who spent six weeks in a concentration camp are being released to help mark VE Day.
They form part of the Imperial War Museum’s (IWM) Voices Of War project, which goes live on Friday.
The museum aims to mark the 75th anniversary of the momentous day by bringing voices of the past into people’s homes across the country.
Households are asked to take a moment on VE Day to play the four-minute Voices Of War piece to hear about May 8 1945 from unexpected perspectives.
It brings together first-hand accounts of VE Day from IWM’s sound archive, ranging from an army nurse who served in Egypt at the time and a Jamaican aircraftsman who emigrated to the UK aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948, to a Jewish man from Berlin who spent six weeks in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and prime minister Winston Churchill.
Diane Lees, director general of IWM, said: ‘Originally we had planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in public spaces around the UK.
‘Due to the current situation, this is no longer possible.
‘However, the need to commemorate this national anniversary and to remember the sacrifices made on our behalf by past generations is as pressing as ever.’
Ms Lees said Voices Of War would bring the stories and memories of those who lived through the conflict directly to homes across the UK.
She continued: ‘We want the public to reflect on this important historical milestone as many others did 75 years ago – in the privacy of their own kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and gardens – and be part of this important national moment with IWM and with the rest of the country.’
He was in a ship in Hong Kong when news came through of Germany’s surrender, and said it ‘couldn’t have been better’.
‘The war killed so many people it’s unbelievable. All around, the Americans, Russians, all the Allies, the same with the Germans,’ Mr Shelley, from Southend, said.
‘But you were doing a job, the same as they had to. It’s either kill or be killed.
‘When we heard about victory in Europe, everybody got together and we all had a good old drink up and jolly up, and couldn’t welcome it much better.
‘I don’t remember any of the conversations I had with people. I don’t think I was alive. I think I was half dead. We all were.’
Mr Shelley described how the order of ‘splice the mainbrace’ – for a double tot of rum – was made for the only time during his service.
He had followed his brother and uncle into Royal Navy, then spent seven months on HMS Meon in the Arctic convoys.
‘Every day I wake up I think I’m a lucky man to be here, especially when you think of the thousands who didn’t make it,’ Mr Shelley, who has been supported by SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, said.
He was finally able to go home from his ship, the Armada, when VJ Day came on August 15.
Mr Shelley worked as a driver for the Ministry of Defence and then joined the Merchant Navy, before leaving to run security at a port.
Charles Boyer, 94, witnessed the German surrender at Luneburg Heath in May 1945 and received the Legion d’honneur for his war efforts, France’s highest award.
Mr Boyer, who grew up in Spalding, Lincolnshire, lied about his age to sign up as a 16-year-old for the Royal Norfolk Regiment in 1942.
During his military service he landed at Sword beach on D-Day, saw the ‘dreadful’ Belsen concentration camp and assisted with security at the Nuremberg trials.
Recalling the moment peace was declared, he said: ‘Everybody threw their hats in the air and we had a drink.
‘Then we thought, we’re going home, we don’t know when, but it’s over, hooray.’
He received a letter from his father simply saying ‘well done, you did your bit, and let’s hope we see you soon’.
‘It was a great relief, huge sigh of relief all round, including the Germans,’ he added.
Wendy Doig and Roy Barker from St James Church in Woolton Village dress Jimmy the War Horse ahead of VE Day celebrations tomorrow, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
Pageantmaster of VE Day 75 Bruno Peek, decorates his house in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, with flags and bunting to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Children and staff at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Preparations are underway across the country for VE Day tomorrow as bunting adorns many properties across Great Britain
VERA LYNN URGES THE COUNTRY TO ‘REMEMBER THE BRAVE BOYS’ AHEAD OF VE DAY
Dame Vera Lynn has said the nation must ‘remember the brave boys and what they sacrificed for us’ ahead of the 75th anniversary of VE Day.
The Forces Sweetheart, who paid morale-boosting visits to the front line during the Second World War, said she hopes this year’s celebrations ‘remind us all that hope remains even in the most difficult times’.
In a statement, she said VE Day is ‘one of the most important days in our nation’s history’.
She added: ‘It marks the day when freedom returned across Europe, and when peace was restored after the most difficult of times.
‘As we commemorate 75 years since Victory in Europe, we must all remember the brave boys and what they sacrificed for us.
‘They left their families and homes to fight for our freedom and many lost their lives trying to protect us and our liberties.’
Now living in Maidstone, Kent, in assisted living accommodation provided by the Royal British Legion Industries charity, he urged people to remember the war generation ‘with pride’.
He added: ‘I think we did an excellent job all round and we were really grateful it came to an end, and let’s hope we will have peace again forever.’
Albert Selby, 95, from Birmingham, was just 18 when he was called up in 1942, and served with the 1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment of the Army.
He landed on the Normandy beaches at 7am on June 6 1944, and then continued to fight inland to Holland, where he was injured in a blast five months later.
Mr Selby was sent back to the UK to recover from injuries to his body, face and ear, and was discharged from service in 1945.
On VE Day, he saw jubilant celebrations and people climbing lamp posts on the streets of Balsall Heath.
‘All the training as a young man in my teens and twenties with the 1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment holds great memories for me,’ he said.
‘Every day I think about my old pals and those events on D-Day as we fought through France and beyond.’
Mr Selby, a great-grandfather of eight, has recently been provided with new windows and doors from the Royal British Legion, which he said ‘meant so much’.
Children and staff at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Pageantmaster of VE Day 75 Bruno Peek, decorates his house in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, with flags and bunting to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
Get ready to party like it’s 1945: Street festivals may be cancelled, but from victory cocktails to a great British sing-along, here’s how you can celebrate VE Day in style, 75 years on
Tomorrow, we mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. After six years of wartime restrictions, May 8, 1945, saw the nation pour onto the streets to celebrate.
By midnight an estimated 50,000 people had crowded around London’s Piccadilly Circus.
In different circumstances, some of those celebrations would have unfolded again, with the May Day Bank Holiday moved for that very reason.
But while lockdown may have put paid to the raft of planned commemorative events, the British spirit is not easily extinguished.
All over the country, towns, individual streets and all manner of organisations are planning ways in which tomorrow can be a stay-at-home celebration to remember.
Children at Breadsall Primary School in Derby during a VE Day lunch party to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe
MOMENTS NOT TO MISS
Commemorations will begin at 11am with a two-minute silence to honour the generations affected by World War II, and reflect on the devastating impact of Covid-19.
- At 11.15am, the Royal British Legion is inviting the nation to make a cup of tea and listen to its VE Day 75 Livestream, as young and old unite to chat about their shared experiences. Tune in via the Legion’s Facebook page or website (britishlegion.org.uk).
- At 2.45pm, BBC1 will broadcast Sir Winston Churchill’s famous victory speech. Then, at 2.55pm, as BBC coverage continues, the nation’s buglers, trumpeters and cornet players will perform the Last Post from their gardens.
- At 3pm it’s time to raise a glass as Dame Joan Collins, whose childhood home was destroyed in the Blitz as she slept in a Tube station, leads the Nation’s Toast from the balcony of her London apartment.
- The toast, due to be broadcast on news channels, is on behalf of the women of the nation, acknowledging the many roles they played in the war. The public are encouraged to join in with the words: ‘To those who gave so much, we thank you.’
- An evening of VE Day-themed viewing on the BBC will lead up to an address by the Queen at 9pm, the exact time her father spoke to the nation 75 years ago.
- Then Dame Vera Lynn will lead what promises to be a very loud national rendition of We’ll Meet Again. A bit like the weekly Clap for Carers, the hope is that people will sing from their doorsteps.
- The Mail has also organised a ‘Salute the Heroes’ Spitfire flypast, which will include East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital, Worthing’s Care Home for Veterans and the home of Colonel Tom Moore.
Try the swing dance! The Lindy Hop is a dance that originated in new York in the late 1920s
Celebrations in 1945 erupted into dancing in the street — and back then they really knew how to boogie. The Lindy Hop is a swing dance that originated in new York in the late 1920s and gained popularity in the Uk in the 1940s thanks to the gis stationed here.
Put on some Glenn Miller, or try the Andrews’ sisters Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. There are loads of VE Day playlists on spotify. if you want to give it a go, English Heritage is hosting a Lindy Hop dance tutorial on its Facebook page at midday before inviting everyone to Dance for VE Day at 5pm, along with a swing-time dance troupe and band.
BRING THE BUNTING
In 1945, the Government made red, white and blue bunting available with ration coupons for a month. Making paper bunting with the children is easily done.
There are lots of print-out templates online ready for you to colour in, including via BBC Local Radio, as well as VE Day posters and flags. Search for Great British Bunting on the BBC website.
For those with scrap fabric to hand, Bletchley Park has an online guide to bunting to sew, plus a no-sewing-required alternative (bletchleypark.org.uk).
HAVE A TEA PARTY
With social distancing, full-on street parties are impossible. But a 1940s-style tea party at home is easily done, and if you have a big enough front garden, or a balcony, you could hold it there so you can wave at your neighbours to keep up the community feel.
However, the Government has made clear celebrations should take place ‘in our homes and on our doorsteps, rather than in parades and street parties’, so choose your location carefully.
Why not put down a picnic blanket and serve up 1940s teatime favourites like cucumber sandwiches or celebration trifle. Remember, baking provisions such as eggs were a precious commodity during the war years, so cooks had to be creative. Wash down with ginger beer, homemade lemonade, or even a gin cocktail.
DO A SING-ALONG
Take a trip down memory lane and learn what Granny and Grandad might have hummed along to in their youth.
Music historian Tom Carradine has great online tutorials to get kids singing along (carradinescockney singalong.co.uk/ve-day) that include Run Rabbit Run and nonsense song Mairzy Doats And Dozy Doats.
It will get you in good voice for when the Royal Albert Hall streams a performance by Katherine Jenkins that includes The White Cliffs Of Dover on YouTube at 6pm.
There will also be a virtual duet of We’ll Meet Again with Dame Vera Lynn, who will then lead us all in her bestknown hit for a second time, after the Queen’s Speech at 9pm.
Time for games Monopoly had been around for ten years by the time VE Day came around. Snakes and ladders was another favourite.
Children might enjoy taking chalk out to the front path and playing hopscotch, or setting up some empty plastic bottles for a game of skittles.
You could have a competition to see who can make the best paper aeroplane, or go on to online education resource Twinkl (twinkl. co.uk) and check out its VE Day resources, which include a template for making a paper Spitfire.
FIND YOUR HISTORY
Why not spend some time finding out your family’s war story? Perhaps you have relatives who lived through the war you could ask. Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has opened its records for free until Sunday.
ROBERT HARDMAN: How the Mail’s Spitfire will dip its wings to inspirational veterans and carers alike to mark VE Day tomorrow
We will not be able to dance a conga or enjoy a street party — let alone flock to Buckingham Palace, as millions did back on May 8, 1945.
Tomorrow, 75 years on, it is going to be an unavoidably subdued anniversary of the day that the UK finally celebrated Victory in Europe.
Nonetheless, we at the Mail are doing our best to make it a VE Day to remember with our aerial tribute to many of those who helped Britain secure that precious peace.
So here is the plan of action for our ‘Salute the Heroes’ Spitfire flypast. The country may still be in lockdown but the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has granted the Mail a special one-off exemption to the official advice against all general aviation.
After all, you can hardly call a Spitfire ‘non-essential’ on VE Day. One flight, sadly, can only fly so far.
So, having asked our readers to nominate a care home and hospital for special treatment, we announced the lucky beneficiaries in Saturday’s Mail.
As a result, East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital and Worthing’s Care Home for Veterans have been chosen, along with Britain’s greatest fundraiser, 100-year-old Colonel Tom Moore.
I can only apologise to those of you who nominated so many deserving recipients, such as Flight Sergeant Graham Earle (who turns 89 this weekend) at his Swindon care home, or the residents of Bluebell House in Hessle, East Yorkshire, (currently preparing for their Spam fritters party), or all those members of the wartime generation living at Lynemore Care Home, Grantown-on-Spey.
Among the hospitals we wish we could visit are the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, Shropshire.
Given the events of recent weeks, there have been many heart-rending letters and emails about others in urgent need of cheering up.
However, now that our pilot, Matt Jones, has drawn up his flight plan, he has also worked out a way of including some other nominations along the way.
Among them will be Squadron Leader Stanley Booker MBE of Bracknell, Berkshire, a man for whom VE Day was anything but a party.
The navigator in a Halifax bomber, he was shot down over occupied France in 1944 three days before D-Day.
Two of the crew were killed but Mr Booker bailed out and was picked up by the French resistance near Dreux.
British veteran Captain Tom Moore displays the Yorkshire Regiment Medal he received
He got as far as Paris before being betrayed and handed over to the Gestapo. Five days before the liberation of Paris, he was despatched to Buchenwald concentration camp.
There, with a small group of fellow airmen, he was subjected to beatings and medical experiments by SS prison staff.
It was only the intervention of his old foe, the German Luftwaffe, which secured a transfer to a conventional PoW camp, Stalag Luft 3, in Poland.
Eventually, after a forced march to Germany, he was ‘liberated’ by the Soviets but had to remain in custody a full three weeks after VE Day before being released.
Who better, then, to receive a Spitfire visit on VE Day — not that the gallant Squadron Leader feels that he deserves it.
‘I feel humbled. What’s so special about me?’ he said last night. ‘There are so many other brave veterans who deserve to be acknowledged.’
Since our flight, kindly donated by the Boultbee Flight Academy, will be passing over Colonel Tom in Bedfordshire, it seems only right that it should also honour nearby Bletchley Park, the celebrated ‘Station X’, which did so much to win the war.
‘What better VE Day tribute to all our great codebreakers than a Spitfire?’ a spokeswoman said last night.
Another waypoint will be the Blind Veterans UK home near Brighton. Earlier this week, staff and residents were delighted to welcome a delivery of vital personal protective equipment (PPE) from the new Mail Force charity.
Now, their VE Day party will go with an extra bang. And since our Spitfire happens to be flying over East Sussex, we could hardly miss out one very important local resident — Dame Vera Lynn.
The early afternoon flight has been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority.
All our recipients are on standby and know to observe strict social distancing (as must we all).
This generation certainly will have no trouble recognising the unique roar of that RollsRoyce Merlin engine as it comes within range…
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