Europe and UK to mark 80 years since VE day
Today, Europe will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, with events to take place on the continent and farther afield.
Solemn ceremonies will be held at war memorials in towns and villages across France as the country honours its dead and marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, a public holiday this year, as it is every year.
Germany will for the first time make the day a public holiday, while in the UK the anniversary will be marked with a service at Westminster Abbey in London, to begin with a national two-minute silence.
Commemoration events in the UK – which began with a military procession and Royal Air Force (RAF) flypast on Monday – will conclude with a concert at Horse Guards Parade attended by about 10,000 people. The concert will feature stars of stage and screen including John Newman and dames Joan Collins, Mary Berry and Sheila Hancock, as well as military musicians, and tell the story of victory and the legacy of the second world war in Europe.
The commemorations take place against backdrop of the Ukraine conflict, rises in defence spending and a US foreign policy shift.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for allies to unite to fight Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Europe celebrates 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war. Zelensky said in an address:
Just as it did 80 years ago, when it finally became clear to everyone: evil cannot be appeased. It must be fought. Together. Resolutely. With force. With pressure.
We will bring news of the ceremonies taking place across the UK and Europe as the day goes on.
Key events
A national two-minute silence was held at midday in the UK. King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales stood motionless around the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in solemn tribute to those who fought for freedom during the second world war.
The 78 veterans amid the congregation joined in the moment of reflection as they observed the silence.
Peers in the House of Lords bowed their heads. A number of members of the upper chamber, including the lord apeaker, are in attendance at the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey.
King Charles and the Prince of Wales have laid wreaths of seasonal flowers, which would have been in bloom in May 1945, at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
King Charles did so on behalf of the UK and the Commonwealth, and Prince William for the veterans and the wartime generation, with 99-year-old Ken Hay, who served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment, at their side.
Thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey begins after two-minute silence
The thanksgiving service, marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey, has begun after a two-minute silence was held across the UK.
King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales are in attendance, along with UK prime minister Keir Starmer.
There are 1,800 guests in attendance at today’s service, including royals, veterans, politicians, officials, guests and other public figures.
The thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey will begin with a two-minute silence at 12pm BST (11am GMT) which will also be observed across the country, to remember Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender, which took effect on 8 May 1945.
A group of young people attending the VE Day service at Westminster Abbey said they were there to challenge stereotypes about their generation, reports the PA news agency.
Georgina Heron-Edmends, 19, Henry Hughes, 21, and Sophia Kaur Badhan, 24, are from Youth Collaborators and are working on a report to influence government strategy on young people.
Kaur Badhan said:
We think it’s really important for young people to be invited to this today.
There’s been some coverage in the media suggesting we aren’t interested in VE Day or don’t know what it is – we’re here to challenge that.
We’re very interested – we think it’s really important and it’s a privilege to be here.
The UK prime minister Keir Starmer, along with other politicians, officials, veterans and guests, has arrived for the thanksgiving service marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey.
Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
‘Shrapnel from the grenades was flying over our hedge’
Aasa Sarnik, 85, from the Estonian village of Pihlaspea, was five in 1945. Soviet troops had invaded the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – in 1940, but were pushed out by the Nazis a year later. The Red Army retook the countries in 1944 and occupied them until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
“In September 1944, we had packed all our things, ready to flee to Sweden [as the Soviet army was coming]. But at the last moment, my parents decided that we would stay.
“I remember the big battles that took place here on the sea. There were German ships everywhere and the Russian aeroplanes flew over our house and started shooting at them. My father called me to come out and see how a Russian aeroplane, which had been hit by ammunition from a ship, was falling into the sea. Shrapnel from the grenades was flying over our hedge. When the next plane started its descent, we all ran into the cellar.
“While others in Europe might have been celebrating, May 1945 here was a time of fear, which I remember well. No one was cheering. We were just scared.
“Soon after their arrival, the Russian army started to control the seashore near our house – the sand on the beach was flattened every night so that they could detect any footprints. Sometimes they would even come to the houses at night to check and measure our footprints.
“All the boats were confiscated and access to the sea was barred. Even children’s rubber dinghies were forbidden.
“I remember how in 1945 German PoWs were held captive by the Red Army in our village, behind a thick barbed wire fence. My mum sewed me an apron and baked some bread. I went to bring some bread to them, even though I was quite scared, but I made it back safely.
“I’m afraid, of course, nowadays, especially because I’m constantly following these world events. The sense of foreboding similar to what we felt back then is here again.
“Of course, the big plus nowadays … is that we’re a part of Nato together with Finland and Sweden. But I tell you I simply don’t want to experience another war. One is enough, thank you very much.”
‘Cost of peace must never be forgotten’, says Benn, as Northern Ireland mark 80th anniversary of VE Day
The 80th anniversary of VE Day is also being marked with events across Northern Ireland.
Secretary of state Hilary Benn described an opportunity to remember the “huge sacrifice made by that great generation” at the end of the second world war in Europe, reports the PA news agency.
On Wednesday night, some landmark buildings in Belfast were lit up to mark VE Day, including Belfast City Hall in red, as well as parliament buildings in blue.
Later on Thursday, beacons will be lit across a number of locations including Bangor, Newtownards, Lisburn, Armagh, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Derry and Coleraine. Benn took part in a number of visits across the region.
He officially opened a special second world war exhibition at Antrim Castle Gardens, before travelling to the Ulster Aviation Society, where he met veteran Fred Jennings.
Benn also visited the NI War Memorial Museum, which focuses on Northern Ireland’s role in the second world war and the impact that the war had on its people, and attended a service of emembrance at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh.
Benn said the cost of peace must never be forgotten. He said:
VE Day 80 is our opportunity to remember and to honour the extraordinary courage of that great generation of World War Two veterans.
Today should remind us all that the cost of peace must never be forgotten.
As we hear the stories of those who served and express our profound gratitude to them, let us remember that it was their sacrifice that enabled us to live in peace and freedom.
‘I lit a candle and cried like a river’
2Lt Józef Kwiatkowski, 98, born in Łuck in Volhynia, then part of Poland, now in Ukraine, was part of the First Polish Army, 180,000 of whose members, many former underground fighters, fought alongside the Red Army and allied forces in April and May 1945 to liberate Poland from fascism.
“I remember the stench of death, the destruction, the dirt, the lice, the ulcers, the hate and the mistrust of those days. War is a terrible thing.
“On 3 March 1945, I was walking with my comrade Tadeusz ‘Tadek’ Sokół and we were tasked with fixing telephone cables. When we reached the spot where a cable had been damaged, a German soldier pounced out. Another was hiding behind a tree, but I couldn’t shoot at him because he was behind Tadek. Then, the first German more or less cut Tadek in half with the burst of fire from his rifle, whereupon I killed him, and took the other prisoner.
“For decades, I’d wanted to find Tadek’s grave, but was never able to locate it. I had never forgotten this jolly chap from Lvov [now Lviv in Ukraine], who had made us laugh with his Yiddish songs and hadn’t had the chance to live a full life like I have. I named my own son after him.
“Then, just before the pandemic, all the Polish war graves information was digitalised. My carer, Łukasz, found in eight minutes what I’d spent 80 years searching for. We went to visit his grave on the 80th anniversary in Drawsko, north-western Poland. I lit a candle and cried like a river. I wouldn’t say I quite feel closure though. I still ask myself: might I have managed to save him?
“When the war ended, I was in the town of Sandau on the River Elbe, where we met American forces and celebrated together. I remember the shock of the profound silence – no explosions, no whistling bullets, no noise, just quiet.
“The current war in Ukraine fills me with anxiety. It’s a failure of humanity that we have not managed to stop the Russian aggressor and says to me that we learned few lessons from the second world war.”
Eighty years ago today, on 8 May 1945, the second world war in Europe came to an end with the unconditional surrender of Germany’s armed forces. The number of people who remember the war – and how it finished – decreases every year, even as European security feels ever more precarious.
The Guardian has spoken to seven people, aged between 85 and 100, from Estonia, Poland, Britain, Germany and Romania, about their memories.
Here is Dorothea Barron’s story:
‘At last you could turn a light on and not have to pull the curtains’
Dorothea Barron, 100, joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) aged 18 in 1943. The retired art teacher, a great-grandmother, still teaches yoga and lives in Hertfordshire in the UK.
“I grew up in Hampton right on the Thames. And, of course, the Thames was like a beacon day and night. You can’t disguise the glint of moonlight or any light on water. So we were being bombed.
“At night, we’d all pile down into the shelter which we had helped to dig out in our garden, and then cover over with corrugated iron. The earth you had dug out you piled on top to disguise it so it didn’t glint in the moonlight.
“I joined the WRNS when I was 18. I was a visual signaller, which meant that I had to go out in all weathers to signal to ships coming into harbour. They also flew flags at the mast to say ‘we need water’ or ‘we have a casualty on board’ – things like that.
“We also took part in training the boat crews who took the troops off the big liners and transported them to the waters off Normandy for the D-day landings.
“When Germany surrendered, I was based in the Isle of Wight. There was just sheer delight. We all went completely mad. We were broadcasting over loud hailers to all the ships. We were talking to each other in morse code and semaphore.
“I was in a signal tower somewhere. Out on the streets there was cheering and singing and dancing and everything. The ships dressed in celebration. It was wonderful. It was such a relief. Relief that we’d got rid of nazism.
“I don’t think [people] can conceive at all about the relief. At last you could turn a light on and not have to pull the curtains. Yes, the freedom, the idea of freedom again.
“But there was also the remembrances, the friends who you’d lost, kids you’d grown up with who had been shot down, out of the sky or on the land.
“Nobody wins a war. Nobody. Everybody loses. And as soon as people begin to realise this, perhaps women’s common sense will prevail. The women have to pick up the pieces after a war, have to reconstruct families and homes.”
Jon Henley
Much of western Europe marks VE Day on 8 May, but the unconditional military surrender that ended the second world war in Europe was actually signed the day before, at 2.41am in the morning on the seventh, in Reims, eastern France.
As this story published this week explains, Joseph Stalin refused to acknowledge that capitulation and demanded a symbolic second surrender be signed in Berlin, where Nazi Germany’s aggression began – and which, coincidentally, was in Soviet hands.
The renowned German film director Wim Wenders, now nearly 80, has made a short film – less than five minutes long – documenting the now largely forgotten Reims surrender and reflecting on the meaning of freedom and the fragility of peace.
“From my childhood onward, I have lived 80 years in peace,” he says in the film. Now, 80 years after the end of the war, “we Europeans are realizing again that peace cannot be taken for granted. It is up to us to take the keys to freedom into our own hands”.
You can watch the film, which includes archive footage of the capitulation and scenes of Wenders walking around the small museum that now occupies the schoolrooms where Gen Dwight D Eisenhower’s supreme allied headquarters were, here:
Starmer says increase in UK defence spending echoes promises made at end of second world war
Prime minister Keir Starmer said the increase in defence spending to counter Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Europe would benefit businesses and families across the UK.
Eighty years after the end of the war against Nazi Germany, the prime minister said “the battle lines in Ukraine” were now “the frontline for western values”.
According to the PA news agency, he said his commitment to increase military spending to a 2.5% share of the economy from April 2027 would result in a “defence dividend” for companies. Starmer said the government would set out a “major overhaul of the British armed services”, with the “root and branch” strategic defence review due in the coming weeks.
On the 80th anniversary of VE Day he said the commitment echoed the promises made at the end of the second world war. It was “in investment in British pride and the British people to build a nation that once again lives up to the promises made to that generation who fought for our values, our freedom and our security”.
Speaking at the London Defence Conference, the prime minister confirmed a £563m contract for Rolls-Royce for the maintenance of Britain’s fleet of Typhoon fighter jets.
The UK has committed to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – on defence from April 2027, rising to 3% during the next parliament.
Starmer said:
This isn’t just a fight for freedom and democracy in Ukraine. No, it’s a new, more dangerous era of history, a period of global instability that fuels insecurity for working people here at home.
The British people have already paid a price for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine with rising bills and prices.
Russia already menaces our security. They’ve launched cyber-attacks on our NHS spread disinformation online, and we cannot forget, just a few years ago, a chemical weapons attack on our streets in Salisbury in broad daylight in the heart of England.
No, the battle lines in Ukraine are the frontline for western values, and the argument that defines this age is simple: national security is economic security and that’s why we’re boosting defence spending with the largest sustained increase since the cold war.
Seventy eight veterans are expected to attend the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey alongside UK prime minister Keir Starmer, who will give a bible reading.
On VE Day – 8 May 1945 – short “thanksgiving for victory” services were held every hour in the abbey from 9am to 10pm, with an estimated 25,000 people attending.
It is ‘very important’ for young to thank veterans, says Churchill’s great-great grandson
Winston Churchill’s great-great-grandson has said it is “very important” for his generation to thank second world war veterans and to “never forget” those who fought for freedom in Europe.
Alexander Churchill, 10, will take part in a thanksgiving service marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) at Westminster Abbey on Thursday. He will light a candle of peace at the service, while young members of the congregation hand out white roses to veterans.
Speaking to the PA news agency before the event, Alexander said he felt “very honoured” to have been chosen to participate in the commemoration which will be attended by King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
He added:
My great-great-grandfather’s very important to us and we’re just very proud to know that he is part of our family and also I think it’s very important for our generation, my generation, to say thank you to all the veterans and everyone who took part in the war because I think that’s very important.
I think people can learn that they should never forget all of the people who have sacrificed and helped us restore freedom to England and Europe and also I think it’s very important that they should carry on fighting for freedom.
Of his part in the service, he added:
I feel a bit nervous, but I think that’s all right.
The live televised service will begin with a national two-minute silence in honour of those who made sacrifices during the conflict, both on the front line and at home, to protect people’s freedom and shared values.
Pubs in England and Wales will be allowed to stay open until 1am to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Pubs have previously been allowed to stay open late when England played in the semi-finals and final of Euro 2024 and for Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee.
“VE Day 1945 was a day of riotous enjoyment for many in the capital,” says author Mark Ellis, who specialises in wartime Britain.
There was dancing on the streets and the pubs stayed open late. Churchill made sure to check in the morning with the Ministry of Food that beer supplies in London would not run out.