VE Day
 

Earlier today I drove past a pub which had been virtually demolished in 1944 by a crippled B17 bomber which failed to make it back into Eye airfield. And I was reminded of just how easily we forget what was done for us in WW2. Without those efforts of many years ago we could now be living in a totalitarian National Socialist (Nazi) regime or, if the Soviets had swept westwards, possibly a communist one.

So it is fitting, 70 years on, to remember what extraordinary sacrifices were made to allow us victory and the life we enjoy today. I doubt that many of those say, shopping in the high street today, realise just how close things were. Without the English Channel the Germans would have easily over-run us in 1940 because in our earlier regard as war being anathema we hadn't re-armed in time. Without the over-riding assistance of the US there is no way that we could have freed Europe on our own.

The fact that victory was finally achieved was little short of a miracle and involved huge sacrifice (rationing allowed 2 ounces of butter and 1 egg per person a week for civilians - nobody was obese!) So rejoice at what was done on our behalf and appreciate what a huge sigh of relief must have gone all round when it was finally over.

Tony (the pub was rebuilt and still has photos of the wreckage on its walls).

OK, shrug, it was a long time ago and why should we care about it now? But they had no choice and without their endurance and sacrifice we could very well be living in a very different world today. Pause and give them credit now.

Tony.

VE photos are easily among the happiest in all of photo history. The NY Post ran 50+ of them

http://nypost.com/2015/05/07/ve-day-...d-the-world/#1

Jack, Great Britain had been at war for 5 1/2 years by the time it was won. London, Coventry and many other cities had been bombed. Almost every able-bodied man in the country had been called up. Some sent to the Far East were away for the whole of the war without ever getting home. Women were used on a large scale in the Services and in the factories and the Land Army. Thousands of ack-ack guns were manned by women. Everyone was involved to a greater or lesser extent, so of course it was a massive relief when it was finally over. And, in passing, to people here who had been deprived of almost everything for all those years, the US seemed some sort of heaven.

Here in East Anglia from where the US 8th Army Air Force operated there was huge goodwill towards the bomber crews who operated from our airfields. And those crews often took crippling losses (the Schweinfurt/Regensburg raid in !943 cost the US 60 bombers and 600 aircrew in one day.There is a cemetery just outside Cambridge containing the graves of thousands of US aircrew who died in their crippled aircraft on their way back from missions over Germany, or when their aircraft crashed on trying to land).

For those involved (i.e. almost every adult person in the country) it must have been the most wonderful relief when finally victory was achieved ...

Tony.

Wow, what a huge upsurge of feeling this thread has caused. As a Brit I'm ashamed ... but don't any of you imagine for a moment that you are immortal and don't ever forget as you grow inevitably older in your turn, that people died for you.

Tony (sad for RYL)

Wow. What a reply.

We (as a street) had an afternoon tea for VE day, it's important to commemorate these things in my opinion.

My grandad was a POW under the Japanese.

He has been doing his memoirs with my mum and the stories are just horrific.

Tony, I am a proud british person and very proud of the great many people who made sacrifices to ensure the freedom of our country. I definitely believe we would be in a much different world if it wasn't for all those heros that did that.

however I am also appalled to call myself British some times looking at the sorry state of our country at the hands of many governments since the war that have screwed not only their own people but many other nations. Shame on that for not keeping Britain all that great

All I was actually asking for was a little respect and remembrance for those who gave their all - and a realisation of the utter relief that must have been felt when it was all over ...

Tony.

The Germans actually were in the boats a few times ready to cross the channel, but Hitler called it off. Instead telling the luftwaffe to attack the air bases to wipe out the planes, of course this ended up being the battle of britain, which we won.

I would like to add I am 26, I have read an awful lot about WW2 and will not forget what the men and women sacrificed so we can be free, and not living under a 'thousand year Reich' .

I liked the pics of the old veterans returning to Dunkirk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-years-on.html