- 14/05/2025
On the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we learn how the county reacted to peace, we'll hear from Vicky, a 92-year old woman who hid in Maidstone's air raid shelters as a child, talk to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission about their tour around the country, and see the searchlights above Medway, with Finn Macdiarmid.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Chronicles.
00:22Now normally on this show we like to take a look at history spanning millennia,
00:26all centred right here in the county. But tonight will be a little different.
00:30Just last week on the 8th of May was the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day,
00:34where Kent and the rest of the country in peace was won in this continent at the cost of those
00:40who sacrificed their lives so that we might live ours more free. I'm Finn McDermid and join me on
00:45the first special episode of Kent Chronicles Victory in Europe. Now to start the show let's
00:50see how the day of celebrations and of remembrance began. As veterans gathered at the Royal Engineers
00:55Museum in Chatham, I went down to the event to find out from those who have served their country
00:59why a day like the 8th of May mattered so much. Not just for those who fought for us in the past,
01:05but to understand our current world in a different light and make sure we don't repeat the same
01:10mistakes. Victory in Europe Day in 1945 saw parades, street parties and celebrations.
01:16But 80 years on, VE Day has become a commemoration of gratitude and sacrifice.
01:21And here at the Royal Engineers Museum, there hasn't been yet a more important anniversary,
01:26especially here in the local area.
01:28The armed forces run through the DNA of Medway's community. Medway is my home because my dad was
01:35a Royal Naval serving personnel. So it's important to so many people across our community. It's really
01:41important to take that time to reflect and remember, particularly of course, because we're in
01:45that sad situation where there are less and less veterans from the Second World War. So it's so
01:50important to share those stories and memories with future generations.
01:55After Mayor Nesterov and Brigadier Peter Gilbert opened the proceedings, the Act of Remembrance was read.
02:01They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
02:05Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
02:12At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
02:16Those who gave their lives so that we might live ours freely are going to be honoured here
02:20today at the Royal Engineers Museum on the 80th anniversary of peace, of victory in Europe Day.
02:27The flag was raised while the bugle played and a two-minute silence followed.
02:31And Peter Gilbert, Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, spoke on the millions who gave their lives
02:36to halt and defeat the German threat, and how Remembrance isn't just to honour their
02:40sacrifice, but to protect our future as well.
02:43So, you know, the mistakes that were made in the 1930s are all there in the history books
02:48for us to see, and they're there for us to learn about. People say history doesn't repeat
02:54itself exactly, but if you make the same mistakes, you end up travelling in the same direction.
03:00And I think there's a massive lesson for us today about where we stand at a crossroads
03:05just at the moment.
03:06Raymond Hadlow, a veteran who was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct, gave
03:11his view on the day.
03:13I think it's great to remember certainly all of those that have fallen. I lost some friends
03:21in the Borklands, etc. So, yes, it's a good thing to remember, but just enjoy the day as
03:32well.
03:33To end the ceremony, a peace poem was read, created by members of the public.
03:37After being apart, a restart. Mourning, the pain of coping, surviving and walking to a new
03:46day. Finally, peace, your warm embrace.
03:51Finn McDermott for CAME TV in Medway.
03:54Well, that's how celebrations started on the 8th of May, 2025. But let's take a look at how
04:00the celebrations were like on 1945. Let's take a very quick look.
04:03Life in Kent during World War II was tough. The county was closest to occupy Europe, and
04:12being so close to London, buildings and people were hit with bombs across the county. Street
04:17lamps would shatter, homes would fall, and even schoolchildren had to be trained in the
04:21case of an air raid.
04:23But the Kentish spirit, just like the rest of the country, meant people refused to give
04:28up. Whether it was gunners and searchlight teams downing German planes, firemen keeping
04:32homes from burning, medics aiding wounded soldiers, or even rescuing furniture from the devastation
04:37of the Blitz.
04:39And then, the announcement came through.
04:41And it was over.
04:42Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday the 8th of
04:52May. Today is victory in Europe day.
04:56When the rubble cleared and crowds lined the streets, the people of Kent no longer feared
05:01the skies and the seas.
05:03For all the music, excitement and fanfare that has been held across the county, there were
05:08moments of silence and quiet reflection for those who gave their lives for peace in our
05:13time.
05:13Now, as Kent looks back on 80 years of V-Day memories, one man in Dartsford's been immortalising
05:30his by putting them in a book. 90-year-old Bernard Crowhurst was just 10 when the war ended
05:35and has shared his recollection of dancing in front of a bonfire and seeing a spitfire crash
05:39land in front of his eyes during the war. Bartholomew Hall went down to find out more.
05:44Bernard, you were just five years old when World War II began. Take me through what it
05:48was like to live in the Darenth area at that time.
05:52Well, I think I and my mates around me were very lucky in so much that we lived on the edge
05:59of Darenth woods and that was our playground. And obviously I witnessed right from the beginning
06:07of the war, the Battle of Britain, with the planes, German and Spitfire's Hurricanes swirling
06:13around the skies, shooting one another down. And I did witness what I thought at the time
06:20was a Spitfire that crashed not far from where I lived into the field. I mean, obviously we
06:27was fully aware of the havoc that was going around. And Kent, as you probably know, was
06:34always known as Bomb Alley, because coming over from Germany, France and whatever, they
06:40come across Kent. And a lot of planes, German planes, they were all heading to London, but
06:47a lot of them dropped their bombs before getting to London and then turning round and going back.
06:55Talk to me about the day that World War II ended. Where were you when you found the news?
07:00So I lived with my grandmother in Anacleves Road in Dartford until the rest of my family came home
07:11from Cornwall back to Darenth. And that's where I was when the war ended. And that's where I was when we
07:19celebrated VE Day, which is highlighted in my book. I mean, we had a bonfire that, well, you just couldn't
07:31describe it. We lived on the edge of the wood. We had everything we wanted to build a wood. And I
07:37mentioned that I can't imagine anyone having a bonfire bigger than ours, because we had everything on our
07:45doorsteps, mums, dads, kids, we collected everything, bracken trees, sawed down trees, and our bonfire burnt for
07:55weeks. But there was all jolly round the bonfire, singing, dancing and doing all sorts of silly things, except one thing,
08:07which is in my book, someone, I don't know how they got it or where they got it from, had a phosphorus, I don't know if it was a bomb,
08:19grenade, but it was a Second World War phosphorus article. But they got it from wherever, and they decided to activate it
08:29round the bonfire, which was stupid, but it happened.
08:33Well, thank you very much for sharing your story with us. And there's so many things that we can look back on 80 years on.
08:39Oh, there is so many things, yeah.
08:40What would be, just to round this off, what would be the thing that you think people should be thinking about as we
08:45celebrate the sort of VE Day 80 years on?
08:47I would hope upon hope that that sort of thing never happens here. We don't want a third world war. No way do we. And, but unfortunately, for myself, you know, there's nothing I can do about it. I've got beyond that now. But no, I hope upon hope that people now and in the future never have to go through that sort of thing again.
09:15Now, two women who were schoolgirls during the first VE Day in 1945 recently visited the air raid tunnels where they hid during the German bombings in Maidstone. And I'm joined now by Vicky Milstead. Thank you so much for joining us, Vicky.
09:30Hello.
09:31Hi, how are you doing?
09:33OK.
09:34Brilliant. Now, can you tell me some of your memories of the beginning of the war? Was there a natural transition from having normal lessons in class to the occasional one in the air raid shelter? What was that like?
09:45Well, I think the biggest thing for me was that, at the time, I was living with my parents in New Eltham. And it was my father's wish that we got out of there as quickly as we could. So he bought a shop in Alcombe, which is in deepest Kent.
10:12And we just left the place in London and just went to Alcombe. And consequently, I changed from a very town city school to a very small village school, which to me was quite a shock.
10:34I see. And what was it like to revisit those shelters 80 years on?
10:39Interesting. But I don't think I had ever realised how frightening they were. To go down there now in peace and sunshine and all the rest of it, it brought back a lot of memories of darkness, cramped conditions,
11:07school. You know, if the warning went, you got up, you went out, you went down the steps, as you can see Ingrid doing now, and into this dark, dim, damp, dank area. It wasn't pleasant at all.
11:30I see. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Vicky, and thank you for sharing your experiences.
11:37Well, that's all the time we have for now. The clock has hit its halfway mark, but there's still more to discuss. Join us after this short break, where we'll speak to Megan Maltby, the Public Engagement Manager at the Commonwealth War Graves,
11:51all about how they're honouring the fallen soldiers. We'll see you just after this short break.
12:21Hi, Vicky. Thank you so much for your time.
12:27That's Finn, is it?
12:28Yeah, yeah. Sorry it was so short. I would have liked to talk to you longer.
12:31No, that's not a problem.
12:32I mean, let me see. Can we...
12:34Sorry?
12:36I was going to say, you're going to be on air again in a minute, aren't you?
12:39We are. I'm just checking if there's any way we could have you back for a couple of minutes.
12:51Oh.
12:52Yeah, okay.
12:53No, he...
12:54Tim, yeah, Tim, if you can...
12:56Do you think you can manage that?
12:59Yes.
13:02He's talking to his producer.
13:03Sorry, sorry. I was talking to one of my people in the gallery there.
13:05Yeah, if we just do...
13:07How many minutes?
13:08If we just do two minutes, Tim?
13:10Yes.
13:11Yeah.
13:12Yeah, okay, brilliant.
13:13If that's all right, Vicky, if you're all right to stay on the line for us,
13:16we'll come straight back to you, basically, if that's all right with you.
13:21Okay.
13:22Brilliant. Thank you so much.
13:24Okay.
13:25Cool.
13:26If we can adjust the mics then so we're ready for when we come back.
13:35All right.
13:37All right, thank you.
13:38All right.
13:40All right.
13:41All right.
13:42All right.
13:44Okay.
13:45All right, come on.
13:47Let's go.
13:48Okay.
13:50Okay.
13:51All right.
13:52All right, let me know if you're ready for this,
13:53and we are going to kill the dice.
13:55I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you.
13:57How?
13:59Okay.
14:00That's all right.
14:01Okay.
14:02You
14:32You
15:02Hello and welcome back to a Kent Chronicles special Victory in Europe live here on KMTV and I'm still joined by Vicky Milstead.
15:29Now, Vicky, as we were speaking towards the break there, you mentioned about what it felt like to go into those air raid shelters and the damp nature of it.
15:37Talk more on that and tell us, was there a feeling of relief then when it was finally all over?
15:44Well, yes, of course it was.
15:46And we, because my mother was a very generous lady, she worked in the Naffy at Deckling and she used to bring home a lot of the pilots who were very tired and just needed a sleep.
16:01And I admired her for that and I think there were a lot of other people in the county who did similar things to help, not just by war effort, but just by helping the troops.
16:20I remember that we had army convoys come into the village and everyone in the village was welcoming and tried to make them as comfortable as possible.
16:36I don't want you to think that it's just one or two, it was Kent as a whole, took over the welfare, if they could, for any of the troops, especially Canadians, who we followed up afterwards and wrote to their families for quite some time.
17:00So it was a sort of worldwide thing, not just a Kent thing.
17:07That's amazing. And when your last week, when it was the 80th anniversary, how did you feel seeing all the tributes and the remembrances? How did that make you feel?
17:18Well, obviously there were a lot of memories, a lot of memories.
17:22I didn't feel probably quite as elated as some people because my father, who'd been a pilot in the First World War, he was then a dentist and he volunteered and he was in the Middle East until the war in Japan finished.
17:44So I had sort of mixed feelings about it, but happy that we were all safe here, but obviously some concerns still.
17:56I see. Well, thank you again for joining us, Vicky. I really appreciate that we could come back and speak to you.
18:02Thank you very much.
18:03Thank you very much.
18:33Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Megan.
18:36So for anyone who doesn't know, could you tell us a bit about how the Commonwealth War Graves Commission actually raise awareness and remembrance for these people?
18:46So the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as an organisation looks after the graves and memorials of the 1.7 million men and women from across the Commonwealth who gave their lives during the two world wars.
18:58We do this in over 150 countries at over 23,000 locations.
19:04And part of our work for the Forevermore tour, which launched as part of VE Day 80, is to engage the public and to encourage them to share their stories with us.
19:14And talk us through this event, Forevermore. Did you mention, was that launched at VE Day or did that exist beforehand?
19:21So our Forevermore stories platform has existed for just under two years now, where we're trying to collect stories to match those 1.7 million records.
19:33Our mobile exhibition launched on the 2nd of May as part of the VE Day commemorations.
19:38And that is travelling around the country at the moment.
19:42Brilliant. And talk us through some of the locations. Where are you taking this mobile exhibition?
19:47So the mobile exhibition today, yesterday, sorry, has been down in Plymouth.
19:52It's heading to Wembley on Saturday and then it continues on a tour around the southeast.
19:58So places like Bletchley Park all across the country and before finishing up in Leeds.
20:03And what was the discussion like? How did you decide on each location? Was it based on military significance? Talk us through it.
20:10So we tried to look at locations that had links to the Second World War, where we could really mark the significance of VE Day 80, but also leading all the way to VE Day in August.
20:22As part of this, our mobile exhibition could only go to limited locations.
20:25So what we've done to supplement this is have tours run all across the country at some cemeteries that are really on the doorsteps of the general public.
20:33So whilst they may not be able to get to the mobile exhibition, they'll certainly be able to get to a tour at a location not too far away from them.
20:41And was the plan always to do, sorry, a mobile tour? Or what was the sort of idea in the beginning?
20:46So the idea in the beginning was to try something a bit new.
20:50So to create this mobile exhibition that tells the public all about who we are and what we do.
20:55The idea behind it was to really go to the people.
20:59And we, as I said, we often run tours in our cemeteries and our memorials.
21:03And the idea behind the mobile exhibition was to take this to public places and heritage venues in order to engage the public in a different way.
21:11I see. And the Foundation's Torch of Peace is travelling even further, Harrogate, Normandy, Duxford, even the Chatham Dockyard here in Kent.
21:19Can you talk to us a bit about that torch and what it symbolises?
21:23So the Torch for Peace was something that we created last year to mark the D-Day 80 commemorations.
21:29Really what this torch is for is to symbolise that handing down of the flame from the current generation to the next generation,
21:36encouraging them to take on those stories and take on that act of remembrance.
21:41To ensure that those stories aren't lost to time.
21:44Now to end the 80th anniversary VE Day celebrations, Medway was mostly dark but illuminated.
21:52And the sky was scattered with searchlights, all to commemorate the day.
21:57These searchlights would have once spotted the Luftwaffe flying overhead during the Battle of Britain.
22:03And now they're being used to highlight the sacrifice given by our soldiers.
22:07Here's more.
22:11The skies above Rochester would have once been crowded with the sounds of planes and gunfire.
22:18And now church bells, the marching of a parade and cheers fill the air instead, as Medway pays tribute 80 years on from victory in Europe.
22:27A procession made their way through Rochester's High Street, turning to salute Mayor Nessarov on their route and ending outside Rochester Cathedral for the VE Day service that saw soldiers, cadets, veterans and reserves in attendance.
22:40We're doing the main parade and laying a wreath at the cathedral.
22:47The poppy wreath that we have is by the Royal British Legion.
22:51It's a special Royal Navy one that we've put a message there.
22:56So I wrote it and basically it says thank you to those who fought and toiled for freedom.
23:04To mark today the day 80 years on all those courageous people who we owe our freedom to today.
23:16With Kent's unique position as the closest part of Britain to occupied Europe, it had to be prepared to defend the country's skies and seas around the clock, even at night.
23:26So at the end of the VE Day celebrations, six searchlights from across the Medway towns all switched on to commemorate the monumental anniversary, swivelling to meet each other's beams in the same point in the air.
23:39Well, I think we've got a long history of beacons, but actually for this year, I think something slightly different.
23:44So actually we've got this new approach and we'll be lighting up the night sky as part of that national recognition at 9.30 to say very clearly as a community here in Medway, we're proud of our armed forces here at Heritage.
23:58We're proud of the contribution that residents here made 80 years ago to win that peace.
24:03But of course we think about those who we've lost and made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our democracy and freedom.
24:09Doing that collectively in the way we will be at 9.30, something I'm incredibly proud of.
24:13The sight of searchlights piercing the clouds and scanning the skies is something you would have only seen in World War II.
24:20And now they've been brought into the modern day not to spot enemy aircraft, but instead to highlight the sacrifice of those who gave their lives during World War II and ensured that 80 years ago there was peace in Europe.
24:33Medway is only connected by land and by river, but for our soldiers on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, it was connected by the sky too.
24:41Finn McDermott for CAME TV in Medway.
24:46Now over the coverage of VE Day's 80th anniversary, we've been hearing from a range of people.
24:51Those who were children at the time, we've heard from their children as well, and from historical experts.
24:58But I thought it would be right to end the programme by reading a letter.
25:01This was written by Harold White.
25:03He was a soldier stationed in Germany during VE Day.
25:08His letter was provided to us by his daughter, who lives in Dover.
25:12Now, with the passing of these last few memorable days, which so many of us have waited for so patiently and for so long,
25:20I could not let the opportunity pass without a word or two describing how the great minute after 12 was heralded.
25:27Yes, Victory Day at last.
25:29It was a fact.
25:30We knew it was true, but it was just taken as part of another job, finished as so many had been finished before.
25:36When the news was flashed to us, I looked around at the boys near me, some a little flushed, and some with just a little more of a smile.
25:44No shouting, no going wild, no.
25:47Just the attitude of, well, that's that.
25:49What's next?
25:50We had been at it too long.
25:52The great night found me on guard.
25:54Another night nearly the same as hundreds before had been.
25:57Nearly the same, but not quite.
25:59I stood alone as a distant church bell struck 12.
26:02Then, as if by magic, what we had waited for for so long, the all clear, the ceasefire given by our searchlights,
26:09making circle after circle form one end to another as far as one could see.
26:14Then the lights finished, a sound that we had grown so used to in the days gone by,
26:19the barrage of our 25-pounders, salvo after salvo, in one last minute.
26:23Then this was over, and once again nothing was heard but the boots of the guards.
26:27I stood not alone but with our boys, my boys, who had fallen by the wayside,
26:32with the lads who had given their all for their cause of freedom.
26:36They shall not grow old, the price of victory.
26:39H.G. White, British Liberation Army.
26:42That's all we have time for.
26:43Thank you very much for watching, and we'll see you soon.
26:45Good night.
26:57Good night.
27:13Good night.
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