VE Day Celebrations

Thank you Ww2. Yes it was for us, like many many other families, a difficult time. Even my maternal uncle who was 15 at the time did the post round during the school holidays, and it was he poor boy, who delivered the telegram to my mother telling her of my father's death. The postie had to actually give it to the person concerned to make sure they received it! He years later told me that it was the worse thing that he ever had to do in his whole life as he obviously knew what it was, and it was just before Christmas!!! You do sometimes wonder how families got through it all.

Particularly the King who had to stand more but also the POWales did very well to have the stamina to do this stuff.
They have both had/ are having chemo? as I understand it , which is draining during and for some time after.
Was a great show.
I loved the contrast between the brown uniforms of the women soldiers who were marching behind the glamorous multi-coloured Scots in their different kilts / headdresses etc.
I remarked to OH that it was like ducks and drakes ( no offence excellent military ladies).

How lovely to read all these family anecdotes. Both my Mum & Dad served in the forces during WW2, they spoke about it with my children who I know are proud of their grandparents.

It's up to us to make sure our children and grandchildren don't forget and carry on our proud traditions.

I watched it, though I am uneasy about these military parades.. WW2 was a necessary evil - something had to be done about Hitler - but it was still an evil, as is all war. Thousands if not millions of ordinary innocent people died, on both sides. We should lament, not have these military commemorations which, however much they deny it, always seem to me a bit self-congratulary (is that a word?).

That said, I like seeing London looking so splendid, and I love the horses! It was nice to see the royal children, too. Prince George always looks worried, poor child, but Louis is a tonic.

I enjoyed watching it. It was a bit samey samey because we seem to have had several of these occasions of late, but no less poignant for those who lost someone in the war.

grandma70 I wasnt going to comment on this thread but you have said it for me I am very uncomfortable with this kind of thing
I understand it is jubilation for the end of a dreadful war but it feels like a ‘we won, you lost’ kind of message and I don’t like it at all so no I didn’t watch it We as a country have done some awful things through history but they are always erased
My Dad and both grandads were in WW1 and WW2 God bless them
I d rather some big peace celebration with all countries joining forces to rejoice

BlueBelle

grandma70 I wasnt going to comment on this thread but you have said it for me I am very uncomfortable with this kind of thing
I understand it is jubilation for the end of a dreadful war but it feels like a ‘we won, you lost’ kind of message and I don’t like it at all so no I didn’t watch it We as a country have done some awful things through history but they are always erased
My Dad and both grandads were in WW1 and WW2 God bless them
I d rather some big peace celebration with all countries joining forces to rejoice

Hear hear.

Grandma70s
The 101 year old lady who was interviewed said much the same thing as you.
The pomp and ceremony do seem a bit like a celebration, but they did remind us of all the forces involved and also, how many lost their lives in the evil that is war, to achieve the victory which gave us an end to the war.
I thought the most interesting bit was listening to people talk about their contribution to winning the war, even those who didn’t actually fight. A bit like reading the anecdotes on here.
(My MIL riveted Halifax Bombers).

People died,people suffered terrible injuries, women ran
homes with husbands and sons at war, I look on today as a remembrance to these .

I am sorry people feel these parades are self-congratulatory and a 'we won, you lost' celebration. They are not victory parades but a celebration of a nation's courage and fortitude, and a remembrance of the sacrifice and suffering so many endured. And an opportunity to admire the skill and precision these combatants show in their display, besides the days and months in fatigues in the dust and the dirt and the mud of armed combat. It is good to take pride in people's courage.

Anniebach

People died,people suffered terrible injuries, women ran
homes with husbands and sons at war, I look on today as a remembrance to these .

Yes, me too.

And a thank you to all of those who fought for our freedom.

I don't think we should close our eyes to the atrocities that were carried out by the Nazis (and the Japanese too) and I'm sure those who survived the concentration and POW camps would think that these celebrations are also a remembrance of the relief they felt to be liberated at the end of their ordeal.

BlueBelle

grandma70 I wasnt going to comment on this thread but you have said it for me I am very uncomfortable with this kind of thing
I understand it is jubilation for the end of a dreadful war but it feels like a ‘we won, you lost’ kind of message and I don’t like it at all so no I didn’t watch it We as a country have done some awful things through history but they are always erased
My Dad and both grandads were in WW1 and WW2 God bless them
I d rather some big peace celebration with all countries joining forces to rejoice

No-one is forcing you to watch or take part.

That is what freedom means, the freedom they fought for so that you can choose.

BlueBelle

grandma70 I wasnt going to comment on this thread but you have said it for me I am very uncomfortable with this kind of thing
I understand it is jubilation for the end of a dreadful war but it feels like a ‘we won, you lost’ kind of message and I don’t like it at all so no I didn’t watch it We as a country have done some awful things through history but they are always erased
My Dad and both grandads were in WW1 and WW2 God bless them
I d rather some big peace celebration with all countries joining forces to rejoice

Like you I have reservations about this "celebration".

We tend to forget the part played by the Russian army during the final part of WWII.

There are still wars going on all over the place so not much has been learned.

I didn't want to watch it personally. However I have been remembering my Dad who served on the Atlantic convoys both to Murmansk and Archangel. He talked about the intense cold and also the lovely welcome they had from their Russian Navy counterparts when they docked - I think some Russian vodka was involved!

Bless you Dad - a life well lived - he couldn't stand the glorification of war (or the Royal family) and his daughter feels exactly the same. Each to their own - thanks to my Dad and the selfless acts of that generation we have that freedom of choice. Remembering them all today.

I am not a great fan of hereditary privilege either Greta8

You seem to have missed the word Defence.

Calling it a glorification of war is an insult to all those who fought for your freedom.
But I suppose that is what they fought for, so that those who completely misunderstand what they did and are remembering now, can speak their mind.

Allira thanks for your post which was unnecessary as I had already said I didn’t watch

My dad fought at one point with the ghurkas who he had so much time and respect for, my West Indian father in law fought with us , one grandad was in Africa and Italy the other was 16 and riding a motorbike to the front line as a messenger boy
None are short of courage

However I personally think we should be linking with other countries on both sides for a celebration of PEACE
That would be a huge move in the right direction and that I would love to watch

Glorification is the last thing that is being portrayed here. Just gratitude for all those who gave their youth and lives, men and women, and to thank.God for their sacrifice and our freedoms courtesy of their loss...We should all be eternally grateful!

The only kind of commemoration of war that seems valid to me is the kind that commemorates both sides. Both sides suffer.

Jaberwok

Glorification is the last thing that is being portrayed here. Just gratitude for all those who gave their youth and lives, men and women, and to thank.God for their sacrifice and our freedoms courtesy of their loss...We should all be eternally grateful!

True, and I am grateful.
BlueBelle
I’d like to know more about your idea for a celebration of peace.

Nice to see Timothy Spall looking well again.

I thought the entire event was respectful.

I couldn’t see any glorification of war.

I did see our service men and women, past and present represented with respect.

They will always have my gratitude, I lost family members, my paternal grandfather never spoke of what he witnessed. My father-in-law was a desert rat who went on through Italy, his mental health was never the same.

We are still a military family, my gratitude, respect and pride continues…

Grandma70s

I watched it, though I am uneasy about these military parades.. WW2 was a necessary evil - something had to be done about Hitler - but it was still an evil, as is all war. Thousands if not millions of ordinary innocent people died, on both sides. We should lament, not have these military commemorations which, however much they deny it, always seem to me a bit self-congratulary (is that a word?).

That said, I like seeing London looking so splendid, and I love the horses! It was nice to see the royal children, too. Prince George always looks worried, poor child, but Louis is a tonic.

I haven't watched the VE Day celebrations so maybe I shouldn't comment. My thoughts in recalling what I've been told of my own parents' war years have often focused my mind as to what it would have been like to live through those times. My father spent most of that time in Libya where there was much fierce fighting and he rarely talked about his experiences other than he had an enduring hatred of sand, he was one for moving on. My mother, who commuted up to central London from Bromley to work as a GPO telephonist during the war was more effusive when I became interested as I did in her later life. She told me VE Day was one of utter jubilation, a day she would always remember, she was in central London with countless others just basking in the relief that they didn't have to come home and find they'd lost their nearest and dearest or their home was no longer standing. Both my parents were 19 when the war started, I often said to my sons, "imagine that 6 years out of the best years of your life lost to the constant terror of wondering whether you were going to survive such awful times or be gone in a nano second".

How can any such celebrations be self congratulatory in the defeating one of the worst meglomaniacs the world has ever encountered, a monstrously evil regime that murdered millions of its own citizens, who wanted world domination. Germany left Europe in ruins, it occupied umpteen countries, murdered many of their citizens, plundered their wealth, paid paltry reparations. Japan, ignored The Geneva Convention, their cruelty towards POWs was utterly barbaric. My friend who hails from Penang has often talked about her parents experiences during the war, the horrors of what the Japanese inflicted on much of the Far East never left them. That doesn't mean we have to hold the Japanese or German people responsible for those awful regimes. My mother told me she was horrified when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, she felt, as I expect many others did at the time, the ordinary Japanese person never deserved that. My German friend told me her mother, as a young teenager was one of the victims of the mass rapes carried out by the Red Army when they swept through Germany, and those women and children didn't deserve that either.

I think we, and our allies should massively be proud of our respective countries for defeating evil and those sacrifices should be imparted to younger generations. Imagine a parallel universe where either of those countries had been victorious what sort of world would that have been.

There’s always naysayers on here. This is not bout glorifying war or saying we won. It’s about appreciation for those who fought, those who lost their lives, extraordinary acts of bravery, a generation which suffered greatly. They deserve to be commemorated and don’t watch it if you don’t like it but have respect for those who do. They fought for freedom, freedom of choice so that you can criticise the event without fear as it’s classed as freedom of speech.

Sadly, with the state of this country today it is unlikely this heroism or patriotism will ever be repeated, if ever there was a need.

Allira thanks for your post which was unnecessary as I had already said I didn’t watch

I don't really think it's up to you to tell me if my post is necessary or not.
It seems as if I'm not the only one who understands what this is all about, though and are thankful.