VE Day 80 street party on board Royal Navy warship HMS Duncan

The News, Portsmouth

Transcript

00:00At this time HMS Duncan will be an explosion of the Union Jacket colours with bunting and food

00:04given out to the crew in order to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

00:10Dame Kelly Holmes and Ross Kemp have joined on board to speak to sailors about what VE Day means

00:15to them and to thank them for their continued service for the United Kingdom. School teachers

00:20and school children will be reading out letters today from Second World War veterans about their

00:24experience in the Great War and also what VE Day means to them. It's hoped to be an amazing

00:30celebration. Freddie Webb reporting for Portsmouth News and Shots TV. Can you give us your thoughts

00:35on it? How does it feel to be invited to this? Yeah it's absolutely brilliant to come on board

00:40HMS Duncan with the young people which is what our message is today. So obviously on May the 5th

00:48is VE Day celebrations. It's a bank holiday. We're doing Great British Food Festival which we're

00:54hoping that all the communities, school children, friends, families will come together with their

01:00love of food. Having school children on board is really important because what you want is to keep

01:05them connected with the messaging around VE Day. What it meant to have young soldiers in particular

01:11sacrifice their lives for our freedoms for today. Are you hoping that VE Day can be just

01:18that event that will bring loads of people together and do whatever like whether it's a

01:22street party or whether it's around somebody's house or anything. Do you think that'll bring

01:27groups together that wouldn't normally mix? Yeah I think it is about community spirit. It's about

01:31celebrating our freedom but also around food. We want people to have barbecues, curries, it really

01:38doesn't matter. We don't care what food and roast dinner but just do it because it matters. You know

01:45this probably will be the last ever big celebration for VE Day where we have veterans

01:52alive to this day. They're around 100 years old. We're not going to have them in 10 years time.

01:56Those veterans sacrificed their lives. They lost people while they survived. Their stories

02:02are absolutely ingrained in their minds forever and those stories will get lost if we don't keep

02:08them alive ourselves. It's been really nice. It's a real opportunity particularly to bring some

02:14school children on and some of the Royal Navy cadets to talk about World War II, to talk about

02:20VE Day and talk about what was truly a national endeavour. The numbers of veterans are sadly

02:28diminishing year by year due to age and the opportunity to talk with younger people about

02:36what we fought for in World War II, why was it important, what freedoms were fought for. I think

02:41it's a real opportunity and it's been really enjoyable. One thing you can say about today,

02:46the people I've met on board HMS Duncan, particularly the younger members of crew,

02:51are inspirational in terms of young people. I think young people often get a bit of a hard

02:59time in the press and I have to say everybody I've met from a woman to a man or a young person,

03:05they are all exceptional human beings and make you very proud to be British.

03:10And from here obviously with the Royal Navy putting a proper forefront on with this event,

03:15do you think it's great that the armed forces are able to show human signs themselves with

03:19events like this? Well I think they're always humans. I think anything that brings

03:26the public closer to our armed forces is something that should be encouraged. I think also you're

03:31very aware of being on a ship like this that a lot of the things our armed forces do on our behalf

03:36never come to the attention of the public because they're preventative. I was talking to the skipper

03:41earlier about some of the exercises this ship has been on, that actually in war zones. So you know

03:48I think often they don't get the recognition that they deserve and this is an opportunity to say

03:52thank you to them, not only the veterans but also those serving. And finally what does VE Day mean

03:56for yourself? Oh it means lots of things. I mean my family were involved in the Second World War,

04:01some of them died during the Second World War on HMS Hood, a lot of them are from Portsmouth.

04:06I've just done Who Do You Think You Are? I thought I'd be going somewhere exotic.

04:09I spent it in Portsmouth which is exotic enough for me thank you. So I had a wonderful time you

04:14know as people probably know but my great-great-grandfather ran the ship and castle,

04:20the ferry by the ferry terminal and all my family, my family from here, good and bad.

04:27That's what happens in families, you get a mixture of everything.

04:30Veterans who got through the Second World War, what does VE Day mean for yourself?

04:34What do you think about VE Day? We should be grateful about the people that have fought for

04:41us in the Second World War and that they tried to win for us and so we could live.

04:50What do you think about all the stories you've been told about

04:53some things they did in the Second World War? It's very amazing isn't it? Yeah amazed,

04:58I'm surprised that they actually survived some of them and yeah.

05:04And Cathy same question to you, what does VE Day mean for yourself?

05:08I think it means to me, I think I should be really grateful that all these people fought for me so I

05:16would have a better life in the future and that children in different generations would be free

05:27and Europe would be free.

05:30So Ali, you've invited all the pupils to this school trip aboard HMS Duncan,

05:34how do you think the kids have found it so far? They've been absolutely overwhelmed I think by

05:38what they've been seeing and the people they've been talking to and the fact they've been actually

05:42allowed to come on board which I think is amazing and just seeing everything that's going on has

05:46been really special for them. I was going to say, it's not every day they get to meet Rusken.

05:51Actually that is true but I think they're better off just talking to all the people on board,

05:57the naval people, that's been a real buzz for them. Do you think they're inspired by some of

06:01the stories they've heard from the serving people on board? Absolutely and it's just all the

06:05youngsters as well, they all look so young to me and it's just incredible, absolutely amazing but

06:11the kids are very interested in the veterans as well and the fact that they served and they

06:16made it for us to be free and to live the life that we live, yeah we're very grateful.

06:20I was going to say they all seem to be very much engaged in what VE Day means to them and

06:25the stories behind it from those who served in the Second World War. Do you think that message

06:29is getting across to them? Absolutely and we make sure it gets across, you know, we make sure the

06:33children do understand that it's so important that they remember the people that served in the war

06:39and this being such an important celebration, probably the last one that we'll have the vets

06:43at, I think that that's important for the children to understand as well how important it is that

06:47they're grateful and they do remember the people that did that for us, yeah.

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