- 5/16/2025
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00:00Today is Victory in Europe Day.
00:09We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing.
00:16And the family came out and all waved and we waved and everybody cheered and it was
00:25a great atmosphere of celebrating.
00:29It was wonderful.
00:33We thought thank God for that because it went on such a long time.
00:39We were very happy we beat the Nazis.
00:45Was there a party on that day?
00:46Oh yes, there were many parties in all kind of places.
00:53They had this great long table and all the kids were having their ice cream and there
00:57were cakes and things we hadn't seen for the last four years.
01:01You get three or four people that lift the piano out into the street and the dancing,
01:09it was an amazing feeling of elation.
01:14Everybody was so excited, climbing up lampposts and everybody was kissing and hugging everybody.
01:22It was just fabulous.
01:25Tuesday the 8th of May 1945.
01:30The date a dark world burst into light.
01:35Nazi Germany had surrendered.
01:37After six years of suffering and hardship, the war in Europe had finally come to an end.
01:44We weren't liberators anymore, we were conquerors and that suited me fine.
01:50For many, the day was bittersweet.
01:53Hundreds of thousands of British and Commonwealth troops were in Europe and still fighting in
01:58Asia and the Pacific.
02:01We heard it but we're still in a foreign country with our previous enemies around about us.
02:11And I was woken by people firing pistols and I said, what the hell is going on?
02:16And they said the war is over.
02:19So I said, oh good, now can I get back to sleep?
02:24The BBC has been gathering first-hand accounts from our surviving veterans, most now aged
02:30more than 100 years old.
02:32They're known as the greatest generation.
02:34I left as a boy but I came back as a man.
02:39Different thoughts and different feelings.
02:41Well it feels a bit daunting in a way, because this is a new world now.
02:49These are their voices, their stories preserved for future generations, their memories of
02:55how six years of war changed their lives forever by VE Day.
03:10Two decades since the end of the First World War, Europe was threatened again by the rise
03:34of fascism.
03:39Germany's invasion of Poland meant that millions of Britons were about to be drawn into the
03:43most destructive conflict in human history.
03:48There was clearly an emergency coming up because people knew that there was a real likelihood
03:58of war.
04:00And then of course war was declared in September 1939.
04:07It may sound strange to some people, but I felt very much that we were due to fight a
04:16war and I felt very, very British and it was the right thing to do.
04:25While these hours of destiny draw out, the citizen makes his preparations.
04:29Windows are darkened to render blackouts complete.
04:32Anderson shelters are stocked so that there may be nothing to think of at the last moment.
04:36I got fed up with people talking about it going to be a war.
04:42I thought, for heaven's sake, get on with it.
04:45But of course one didn't understand what war meant.
04:52It was a Sunday, I was in church with my mother and father.
04:55I remember hearing the bishop getting up in the pulpits and saying, we're now at war with
05:00Germany.
05:01And I thought, how exciting, gosh, an adventure.
05:06They don't know what was in store for me.
05:09I was in France.
05:10My father sent me a telegram, come home at once, war is declared, or something like that.
05:17So I had no idea.
05:19I hadn't read a paper for a year, I'd just been playing around, you know.
05:23This is London.
05:25You will now hear a statement by the Prime Minister.
05:29I am speaking to you.
05:31We were walking along the seafront and one of the boys said, do you fancy a drink on
05:36the pier?
05:37Yeah, OK.
05:38And as we entered, Neville Chamberlain, who was then Prime Minister, said, we're now at
05:45war with Germany.
05:46And we sort of looked at each other, will it involve us?
05:50Of course it did.
05:52And some of them boys, I've never known what happened to them.
05:55And that consequently, this country is at war with Germany.
06:01I came off duty and Dad was sitting in the kitchen crying.
06:07Never ever saw my dad cry.
06:09I sat by him, I said, what's the matter, Dad?
06:13And he said, to think that there's another bloody war after the last one.
06:23I was 13 years of age and all the schools immediately closed down because the children
06:31were evacuated.
06:33And I remember looking out the coach that drove away out the school gates and I saw
06:38my mum crying.
06:39And I said to my sister, why is she crying?
06:43My sister knew because I thought I was going for the day.
06:47I took home a letter from school.
06:49Did the family wish us to go to Canada for evacuation?
06:56It was decided, no, we'll see it through.
07:00As a youngster, I was always very keen to get on and do something different.
07:07I was working one day in Darlington and I thought, oh, to pot with this.
07:15And I walked across the road to an RAF recruiting office.
07:21I was terrified that I might be sent down the mines.
07:24I did not want to go down the mines.
07:27And so I went up to Newcastle with a friend and went into the recruiting office.
07:35We thought, oh, well, we'll give the Germans a damn good hiding like they got last time.
07:41But it was only a matter of time before the British Army would put them in their place.
07:50All I could see was fields and trees and I said to my sister, where are all the people?
07:55Where do they all live?
07:57What are those big brown things there?
07:59Them big brown dogs?
08:00She said, they're not dogs, they're cows.
08:03That's where you get your milk from.
08:06Those who agreed to be evacuated, duly assembled to go to Canada.
08:12The ship, the City of Bonaires, was sunk 600 miles out in the Atlantic
08:18and there were no Wembley School survivors.
08:28Well, I was a gunner on the 89th Regiment.
08:32We had our guns at Sittingbourne to start off with, in a hop field.
08:37But the first week of the war, there was a Dornier flying boat coming over doing reconnaissance.
08:43I aimed at the flying boat, didn't realise the kitchen chimney was in the way.
08:49And when my shell went by, the draft actually knocked the chimney down
08:53and ruined the breakfast for everybody.
08:55And I wasn't very popular.
08:57Also, I missed the flying boat as well.
09:03The days of taking pot shots at reconnaissance aircraft were soon over.
09:08Germany was trying to break Britain from the air.
09:12When the warning went, which is,
09:15WHOO! WHOO! WHOO!
09:17Outside of our big block of flats that I lived in,
09:20they'd built a shelter for 100 people.
09:24You heard this droning noise and you looked up in the sky
09:29and you looked up in the sky and there were masses of these big bombers.
09:34And they knew exactly where they were going.
09:38The moment the siren sounded, you got the shakes, you know,
09:42you really felt that life could have ended.
09:47Even at that tender age, you felt the uncertainty of life.
09:54The raiders came in with flares and incendiaries
09:57and not all the untiring efforts of firemen and fire watchers...
10:00We stood out on the docks because we were about three miles outside of Bristol
10:06and all you could see was this enormous red glow in the sky.
10:12There was one particular building, Dutch House.
10:16It was all wood.
10:18And, of course, it went up in flames.
10:22The damage they did was incredible.
10:25And another place was hit that dealt with food, particularly sugar.
10:31And by the end of the night, the sugar was running down the gutters...
10:39..like twinkle.
10:41That bombs have been scattered over London
10:43without any distinction of military objectives.
10:45I'm a Londoner.
10:47You know, it's my town.
10:49And we saw it burning.
10:51I was in Falkirk Square one day
10:53and then the whole of the Port of London was alight.
10:56All the whisky was going up in flames.
11:00We were sent home about four o'clock every day from the office
11:03so as to make sure we got home before dark.
11:06And, of course, we didn't really care about that.
11:08We thought we'd enjoy ourselves there.
11:10On the top of our bus, we saw there was a good film on at a cinema nearby.
11:16So we thought, we'll go to that.
11:18My mum was pleading for me to go down below in the shelter.
11:22I said to her,
11:23do you think London, the side of London,
11:28that they would drop a bomb which drops on my house?
11:32Which is ridiculous, really.
11:34She just got upset about it and I just lay in bed and slept through it.
11:39Next morning, coming into work,
11:41we looked past the same thing near Baker Street, it was,
11:45and the whole cinema had completely disappeared.
11:49It was just a hole where it had been.
11:53That was a near miss.
11:56London and Bristol weren't the only targets of the German Luftwaffe.
12:00Bombing raids across the UK, from Clydebank to Belfast
12:04and Coventry to Swansea, caused tens of thousands of deaths
12:08and destroyed more than two million homes.
12:12Jacqueline died was in the Women's Royal Naval Service,
12:15the Wrens, in Plymouth.
12:18We were stuck in the rubble.
12:21My head was cut, but I don't think anything else.
12:25But we couldn't move, we were just encased.
12:31And so, we were shouting.
12:35And then we heard them pulling all the rubble, thank goodness.
12:41And then we came out and could breathe again.
12:46I see people coming out, but their arms were down like that,
12:50outside of the stretcher.
12:54So, I couldn't tell whether they were dead or alive.
12:56But their eyes were closed and their arms were like that.
12:59I never thought we weren't going to be saved.
13:02Extraordinary.
13:04That's when you're young, nothing's going to happen.
13:09You'll be all right.
13:11When this family went to their shelter, they still had a home.
13:15A few hours later, all that was left of them
13:17were their lives and what they stood up in.
13:19All else was gone.
13:22It was hell.
13:24You become selfish, because you think,
13:27well, my family's all right,
13:29because it's going to happen again tomorrow.
13:31And it happened every day.
13:38Across Europe, in Africa and the East,
13:41ordinary people fighting for Britain
13:43found themselves in extraordinary situations.
13:49John Shannon was a naval officer,
13:52helping to protect the convoys that fed Britain.
13:55But he was also chosen to carry out secret wartime missions.
14:02There's one I mustn't ever say a word about, to this day.
14:09I know what I did.
14:10That's no problem.
14:12I say, I was only an 18-year-old boy.
14:15I was scared of my mum and dad, never mind the Nazis.
14:20Our task as a reconnaissance regiment
14:23was to probe the German front for weak spots.
14:27You honestly didn't have time to think.
14:30You were thinking of dodging the 88 gun,
14:33which may be round the next corner.
14:37I started off by a chap saying,
14:40Shannon, I want a word with you.
14:42And I went over, and he was an admiral.
14:45He said, there'll never be a word of this written on paper
14:48ever.
14:50Five o'clock in the morning, and sure enough,
14:52there was the big landing ship waiting to take me.
14:55They didn't know me.
14:58And they took me and landed me on the continent.
15:01The abbey on the crest of Monte Cassino.
15:06We got stuck at a town called Cassino.
15:11And there was a monastery there.
15:15You couldn't even run five yards
15:19without your own view of somebody's gun.
15:22And so it was a very vicious part of the war.
15:27Under heavy fire all the time, under sniping, mortar fire.
15:31And we were up to our waist, at times, in water,
15:37with all our equipment above our head,
15:39all night wading through these rivers and streams.
15:44I did what I was told to do.
15:48And when I came back, I suddenly got a call to the Admiralty.
15:54There he was in a dark little office.
15:57And he sat back, and he asked me to tell him what I'd done.
16:02And he sat up.
16:04And he banged his desk, and he said,
16:07Got him!
16:08Two years' work, Shannon.
16:11Got him!
16:13I said, Can I know what I've been doing, sir?
16:18And he said, You may not.
16:20That's all. Good morning.
16:24We were attacked by night fighters.
16:27The pilot put the nose down and was screaming towards Earth.
16:33You could see the traceable, the length of the aircraft.
16:39The rear gunner was killed.
16:43When you have a shell bursting three feet away from you,
16:46about where you are now, you don't expect to live.
16:51There's an awful lot of metal flying around.
16:54That happened to me in my first battle,
16:58when I was hit in the chin by a piece of metal,
17:03which lodged itself in my jawbone.
17:06And I should have been killed then.
17:10And the pilot just said,
17:12Well, I bent down to pick up my parachute,
17:18and instead of picking it up by the handle,
17:23I picked it up by the release,
17:26and I was covered in canvas.
17:30The machine gunner opened up on me from 600 yards,
17:35and he fired 120 shots.
17:39I wasn't afraid of dying.
17:42I was just annoyed that I'd come straight from school
17:48to Bomber Command, and it was over.
17:53There were seven of us.
17:55They all said, No, if you're not going to jump,
17:59we're not going to jump.
18:03I could either get up and run back 100 yards
18:06to where I could be safe.
18:10I think he'd have probably hit me then.
18:12Or I could just lie still and pretend to be dead,
18:16which is what I did.
18:18But I had to wait.
18:21I'd say it was dark before I could move.
18:24And, of course, it's all right for the first 15 minutes or so.
18:28Then you start to itch, and you want to scratch.
18:32And then an insect bites you.
18:36The two front landing wheels, one of them had been shot off.
18:41So he said, I'm going to try and balance on one wheel
18:45and see what happens.
18:49And as soon as it got dark enough,
18:51I got up and walked back to where the paratroopers were.
18:55I made plenty of noise because I didn't want them to shoot me.
19:00I think I haven't got to save the King or something.
19:06He did land on one wheel,
19:09and we left the runway,
19:12crossed a couple of fields,
19:15and finished up in the dock pond, luckily.
19:19So we survived.
19:25From the battles in the skies over Britain in 1940
19:29to the huge invasion of France from the sea on D-Day in 1944,
19:34the Allies were changing the course of the war.
19:38I mean, I was a front-line Tommy.
19:41A tank crew had to get on
19:43because you were in a very, very confined space.
19:47You can't imagine to get five people at a Cromwell.
19:53Berlin is getting a real taste of total war.
19:56The terrific weight of the RAF assaults on the capital of Nazi land
19:59has set the Hun reeling.
20:01Berlin was about the most heavily defended city
20:05in the whole of the Third Reich.
20:07And if you were going to be shot down,
20:09it was most likely to occur there.
20:13Normandy had a terrible smell of...
20:16I'm not being dramatic now.
20:18It had a terrible smell of death about it.
20:22And I always remember
20:25this dreadful thump and hearing,
20:27bail out on the wireless set.
20:32And it's surprising how quickly you can get out of something that's on fire.
20:37I remember tearing off my headsets
20:41and throwing them on the...
20:44Oh, God.
20:46Anyway, we got away with it.
20:49If it had been four seconds earlier,
20:52three of us would have been killed.
20:54But that's the luck of the draw, isn't it?
21:00I allowed myself to be caught
21:02by a salvo of anti-aircraft shells.
21:06It caused both engines to stop.
21:09And at this point, my Canadian navigator said to me,
21:13I thought it was a rather silly question,
21:15he said, what do we do now?
21:18And I said, well, we wait, don't we?
21:21And we waited.
21:23And after what seemed like six months,
21:25I suppose it was a matter of about 30 seconds,
21:28the engines restarted
21:30and we worked our way out of Berlin.
21:35That's how you turn out to be a bit of a...
21:38not a very nice person.
21:41You get a bit ruthless when you've been in action.
21:47For a few months, you become a different person
21:51because I've had to bury two of my mates.
21:56They were shot.
21:59In the morning, we went out and we looked at the aircraft
22:03and the whole of the back of it had been shredded.
22:07My fitter came to me and said,
22:10I wonder if you would like to keep these as souvenirs?
22:13And he handed me two shell splinters along as my hand.
22:18He said, I extracted them out of the parachute
22:21that you were sitting on,
22:23which was rather a daunting thought, wasn't it?
22:28White man making war of France.
22:32Black man go and fight for them.
22:35Some come back with half a hand.
22:38Some come back with backside lean.
22:41That was the First World War.
22:44And ex-soldiers come back
22:47and they have a few rums.
22:51They sing that.
22:54Ralph Otte, born in 1924,
22:57is recalling a song from his Jamaican village childhood.
23:01When he was 19, he would head to Britain too,
23:04along with thousands of young men and women from the Caribbean,
23:08British citizens, exhorted to help with the war effort.
23:12And we had a newspaper called The Daily Gleaner.
23:16And there was an advertisement saying,
23:20Britain needs you.
23:23And we as members of the empire,
23:26being loyal members of the empire,
23:29thought it was definitely good
23:32that we were required to go and help the mother country.
23:37You want to travel abroad,
23:39you want to see all the other half live.
23:42And the opportunity came when Britain asked
23:46for West Sydney to join the Royal Air Force.
23:51Everything stopped when Churchill made a broadcast.
23:55I fixed myself to think away.
23:58I'd like to work for him.
24:00Like an ever-swelling flood,
24:02the young men of the empire rallied to the mother country
24:05to join in the war against the Nazi tyranny.
24:07And the call was answered by these loyal men
24:10from Canada, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies.
24:15In a time of desperation,
24:17when the Germans were on the doorsteps of Britain,
24:21it was essential that they look after their own country.
24:25If not probably today, I will speak in German.
24:29So you felt you wanted to play your part?
24:32Oh yes. I immediately thought,
24:35I would like to be an airman.
24:38And what I'd like to do more than anything else
24:42is to shoot the German airplanes down.
24:46And I became the 39th man to join the Royal Air Force in Jamaica.
24:51That's amazing, isn't it?
24:54Around 16,000 West Indians
24:57volunteered for service in the Second World War.
25:01Ulrich is a navigator in one of our own bomber squadrons.
25:05If I could navigate you on a magic carpet,
25:08we'd find West Indians at their stations all over the country.
25:11Still teenagers, Neil and Ralph from Jamaica
25:14and Jake from Trinidad crossed the Atlantic for England.
25:19The sun was shining and we decided to go to Scarborough.
25:23We hired a boat, a couple of bobs.
25:26I took one dive in that sea and I thought,
25:29never again in my life will I get back.
25:33I can assure you it was cold.
25:36Within a short time, you're trained how to kill.
25:41To smash his jaw with a bottle rifle,
25:45stick your foot on his neck and push up,
25:49burn it in his heart.
25:51How were you and your fellow Jamaicans,
25:54how were you treated by your commanding officers there?
26:00We were treated as members of the British Armed Forces
26:05and that was it.
26:07Us with things like colour prejudice, no way.
26:12The officers, they just won't tolerate it.
26:15It didn't happen because they didn't think that way.
26:20On the station, it was fantastic
26:24because you're more or less brothers, sort of thing.
26:28But when you go out, well, you are on your own.
26:34I did not know my background.
26:36I knew nothing about slavery.
26:38I didn't know anything about colour bar.
26:40I didn't know anything about race.
26:42I didn't have no intolerance.
26:44I didn't know there were people like that in the world
26:47and that was rather surprising.
26:50Most of the public in those days,
26:53you black stand back, sort of thing,
26:57and it wasn't pleasant at all to know you come to serve,
27:02you're doing your best for the country.
27:05The people that you're doing your best for,
27:08you're treated as an entity.
27:14Many of the volunteers didn't come back.
27:17People from the Empire and the Commonwealth died.
27:21Many of my colleagues who volunteered to be a crew
27:26died as rear gunners and as engineers during the war.
27:32Do you think that the contribution that servicemen like you
27:37from the Commonwealth countries was fully appreciated?
27:42Oh, yes.
27:44You see, one thing for sure,
27:49when you join a British service, that's what I am.
27:54I am a British serviceman,
27:57and I have all the privileges,
28:01and I have to take all the knocks.
28:06If they can see you are a person
28:12who want to better themselves,
28:15they'll do anything, give you every help,
28:18find you a place at a college and all that.
28:23Wonderful.
28:29My mother was a cleaner.
28:31She used to work for the War Office.
28:34My dad was a road sweeper,
28:36and he used to come home and tell me
28:38all about the special streets of the City of London.
28:41I'm glad he volunteered, really, because he had an Army uniform,
28:45and he was like every other man.
28:47He was no longer a road sweeper.
28:49He was very proud to be in the Army.
28:51And that today, even today, satisfies me.
28:56Kitty's father, Bill, was serving in Italy
28:59and, like Jack Hearn, fought at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
29:04So goodnight to you all at home, and God bless all.
29:09So don't worry, I am OK.
29:12Love from Dad.
29:16It was heaven to hear from my dad,
29:18and I was so proud of him,
29:20and I knew that he was a different man.
29:25Just days later, another letter arrived.
29:30I'm 13 years old now. I remember like it was yesterday.
29:34I said to my mum, it's a letter from the War Office.
29:37I think you've lost your job.
29:39She said, oh, no. Open it, open it.
29:42I remember she was making a cup of tea for us.
29:45She handed it back to me, and I said,
29:48I said, Dad's been killed, Mum, Dad's been killed.
29:52And then we had to wait one by one by my sisters
29:55as they came back from work to tell them.
29:59And I remember I was outside this block of flats,
30:02and I didn't want to stay there no more,
30:04watching my sisters crying.
30:08My life changed forever.
30:11The Germans' first successful craft was a one-man human torpedo.
30:17In the summer of 1944, they carried out successful surprise attacks.
30:24I didn't hear the explosion, because the nearness you are,
30:28you get, you're just getting a sensation.
30:33Stan Ford was a 19-year-old crewman
30:35aboard HMS Fratton off the coast of Normandy.
30:38I was on a gun platform, and this was about 05.30,
30:42six o'clock in the morning.
30:46The ship went down in four minutes,
30:48so it must have been the end of a hole that this torpedo made.
30:55I found myself in the water.
30:57I wasn't scared, I suppose.
30:59I was still alive.
31:02At that time, I had no idea what was going on.
31:07I had no real sort of knowledge of my injuries, like.
31:1331 of the crew lost out of something like 80.
31:20There was no reason why I should have survived.
31:24I was a 19-year-old A1 fit person when I joined the Navy,
31:29and I come out with leg injuries, calipers.
31:32I've been, for over 70 years, been wearing these calipers.
31:35My friends, my friends.
31:43The massed wings of the British 6th Airborne Division
31:46depict the power behind this greatest airborne operation of the war.
31:49As the war in Europe began its final weeks,
31:52the Allies needed to cross the River Rhine
31:55and defeat German forces in the west.
31:57British, American and Canadian troops
32:00joined together for Operation Varsity.
32:03Hundreds of them, and some 200 others, packed with paratroops,
32:07begin to build up in layers for the mass drop on Germany.
32:13Peter Davis was one of the glider pilots that day.
32:17We flew at just over 3,000 feet,
32:20and not until you get to the release point
32:25did you say, thank you very much for the tow,
32:28and then there's only one way, and that's down.
32:33As we approached the Rhine,
32:36we came under heavy anti-aircraft fire.
32:39We got a lot of akak and damage.
32:42I mean, we lost ten foot of port wing and all our flying controls.
32:47Suddenly, out of the back of the glider on my left
32:50appeared a tank with its shackle chains dangling in the air,
32:55and the guy is sitting on the side of it,
32:58and the tank just turned over and fell to the ground from 3,000 feet,
33:04and the glider just broke up.
33:08When we eventually hit the ground,
33:10I got thrown through the cockpit canopy.
33:14Next thing I remember is yelling through the side of this broken aircraft
33:19to one of the guys to give me my Bren gun,
33:23and then all hell broke loose.
33:28There was a lot of dying. There really was.
33:32We found some light infantry guys,
33:35and I remember their officer saying,
33:39Sergeant so-and-so, and the answer came back, Sergeant so-and-so is dead.
33:43Corporal so-and-so, Corporal so-and-so is dead.
33:46An American glider landed within 30 feet of us,
33:50and not one got out alive.
33:53I remember the Germans with their schmeissers,
33:56they just smashed the thing to pieces.
33:59It was real carnage on the ground as well as in the air.
34:02Yeah, it was not funny.
34:07At least 1,000 men who set off that morning were killed.
34:12Thousands more were injured.
34:15But Operation Varsity was a success.
34:19The Allies had won important positions east of the Rhine.
34:22Berlin would fall in weeks.
34:25We knew the war couldn't go on much longer.
34:28We were beating the Germans hands down,
34:31and they were retreating back into Germany as fast as they could go.
34:34Yeah, but they'd had it.
34:37They'd lost, really.
34:40But as British troops advanced further into Germany,
34:43they were utterly unprepared for what they would encounter.
34:47There was the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
34:52It had only been liberated a few days earlier,
34:55I think five days earlier.
34:59At least 38,000 Jewish and other prisoners died in the concentration camp
35:03from 1943 to its liberation in April 1945.
35:1014,000 more children, women and men died in the weeks that followed,
35:15from the effects of abuse, malnutrition and disease.
35:20When we got past Belsen, we were stopped.
35:24We were told to go back and drive through and out again
35:28and to see the dead and the dying
35:31and the state of the people in Belsen.
35:35As were the German civilians in that area.
35:38They were taken by coach and made to see
35:41the state of what was there.
35:45Seeing the people in their uniforms, their stripes, clothing
35:52and their physical condition.
35:56Those who could walk, they were as thin as anything.
35:58Their faces were thin. Their arms were just bone.
36:03Because that was the horror of seeing them.
36:07Today is the 24th of April, 1945.
36:11My name is Gunnar Lingworth and I live at Cheshire.
36:15We actually know now what has been going on in these camps.
36:20I know personally what I am fighting for.
36:25We were just petrified, absolutely petrified.
36:28You just couldn't believe what you were seeing.
36:32We, to be quite honest, were glad to leave the area.
36:39The sight was terrible.
36:41Hundreds of bodies in pits and lying in the open everywhere.
36:45Terrible.
36:50By the late spring of 1945, the war in Europe was in its final days.
36:56But Max Embry and Richard Aldred were still fighting
37:00across Germany.
37:03A squadron of tanks is a pretty formidable thing
37:08because you're in a group of 18 vehicles in a square mile
37:16and you put up a tremendous firepower, you know.
37:20Against fierce opposition, the British and Canadian drive goes steadily on.
37:24I was just leading the squadron up this long avenue of beautiful trees
37:31to the little village of Pimmelforten.
37:35The little chapel just ahead of us had a tower
37:38and in that tower was Hitler Youth with rifles.
37:41And they started sniping us.
37:44And that's when I lost my last man.
37:49Just occasionally you found some idiot
37:54you know, ex-SS blokes and just fought them.
37:59Brr, brr, brr, brr.
38:01You would do, you know, just machine gun them.
38:04I don't care if I was doing it, I was doing it.
38:08If I wasn't driving, I was operating this heavy machine gun.
38:13I didn't care what I shot at.
38:17It was people here. I killed people.
38:21I was furious.
38:22So I ordered the two 75mm guns to open fire
38:28on the tower of the church chapel.
38:33With that, over the air came Sugar Nan Tears 6th location.
38:37Stop firing, stop advancing, the war's over.
38:41Just like that.
38:44And we stopped advancing and we stopped firing.
38:47But I'd knocked the tower down and I'd killed 67 Hitler Youth.
38:53It's the very last minutes of the war.
38:58Well, just such a bloody relief.
39:02The whole tension had gone.
39:07You'd been used to being shelled, you'd been used to being fired on
39:12and well, it was just not nice.
39:16Maybe you wouldn't be fired on for three days.
39:20All would be quiet but you still had to be alert
39:23so you still were desperately tired.
39:26You could go to sleep standing up, I remember that.
39:30God, we were tired.
39:36Ken Hayes' war was coming to an end too.
39:39He had been captured by the Germans in France,
39:42put to work in a coal mine in Poland
39:45and then forced on one of the infamous long marches through Europe.
39:50At night we could hear gunfire, machine gun, rifle fire,
39:55a long way away but...
39:58And we started to get excited that, you know,
40:02this could be the Brits or the Americans or somebody
40:05but it was to the west so it's not Russians and it's not Jerry.
40:11Turned out to be Americans.
40:14And then four o'clock in the afternoon
40:17somebody yelled out, they're here!
40:20And there were two tanks, everybody running down.
40:24And they were throwing out Hershey bars, cigarettes,
40:28all sorts of stuff coming through.
40:30One of the Yanks threw it through the air, over the top of everybody
40:34for me to catch, for myself.
40:37When I looked at it, I thought, just my bloody luck.
40:41I'm starving and it was chewing tobacco.
40:44I've never tasted anything so foul in my life.
40:54The American troops had freed Ken and his friends
40:57from their German captors.
40:59They were taken to the safety of a US camp.
41:03We had to strip off outside and there were Jerrys with forks
41:06lifting our uniforms onto a bonfire, all being burnt.
41:10Just keep our pants on, step inside, drop your pants,
41:14step out of them and into a shower.
41:17You've no idea, don't ask me what word would describe that shower.
41:22We hadn't washed for months.
41:26And then when we'd finished, Jerry put a towel round us
41:30and it dried off.
41:32Another Jerry squirted DTT under your armpits
41:35and all sorts of oil fizzes to get rid of any bugs that there were.
41:40And then we went through to the quartermaster's doors.
41:43It's an American camp, so we dressed as Yanks.
41:48Light gabardine trousers, brown boots, socks,
41:52collar and tie, jacket, doughboy's hat.
41:56And we thought, boy, when we get back,
41:59when we get back, are we going to pull the birds?
42:02Look, look at us.
42:05We all climbed on these lowers and away we went,
42:08to a lovely big airfield.
42:11And off we took.
42:14We were going home.
42:18And at some stage, a bit of paper came down
42:22from the pilot or navigator, a French coast ahead.
42:27Another bit later, over the channel.
42:33And then the third piece of paper just said, England.
42:38And we were out.
42:47Sorry.
42:50This is how Russia battered open the door of Berlin
42:54in the last weeks of April,
42:56the city's last days as the capital of Hitler's Reich.
43:02Berlin was surrounded
43:04and Adolf Hitler took his own life on 30th April.
43:09Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery
43:11accepted the surrender of most German forces
43:14near the city of Hamburg.
43:17And on Monday, May 7th,
43:19the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower,
43:22oversaw the unconditional surrender
43:25of all German forces at his headquarters in France.
43:30The war in Europe was over.
43:34We all kept very close to the news all the time
43:38and we knew negotiations were going on.
43:44So I think we were just full of hope
43:47that that would be the outcome
43:51and probably wondering what would happen next
43:55because we hardly remembered peace, it was so long ago.
44:00This is the BBC Home Service.
44:03We're interrupting programmes to make the following announcement...
44:07The nation was soon to learn that peace in Europe had returned.
44:12Across the country, bonfires were lit...
44:17..and pubs were filled.
44:23I was a paperboy and I had 88 customers.
44:28I went to bed reasonably early that night
44:32and didn't participate
44:34because I forgot to deliver the good news the next morning.
44:38I duly did that
44:40and it was with great pleasure
44:42delivering the news through every letterbox.
44:46Tuesday, 8th May 1945.
44:50VE Day.
44:52Lovely day.
44:54Only allowed half day off.
44:57Enormous crowds saw Royal Family and Churchill at Palace.
45:06Dined pruneos with Tom.
45:10Saw floodlighting. Lovely.
45:13Well, I don't remember who Tom was
45:16but he must have had some money if we dined at pruneos.
45:20Should have hung on to Tom.
45:26Victory in Europe Day was a national holiday.
45:29Nearly six years of war across the continent
45:32in which millions of people had died
45:34and homes, families and cities had been destroyed
45:37had come to an end.
45:39Here at Westminster Abbey, Thanksgiving services were held
45:42one after the other
45:44from first thing in the morning until late evening
45:47each attended by thousands of people.
45:50Britain could rejoice.
45:53It was so marvellous
45:55after all the austere living we had
45:58and all the cutting up and making hats for the party
46:05and looking forward to the blancmange and jelly
46:10and fish paste.
46:13It was a wonderful time.
46:16Blancmange and jelly and fish paste.
46:22It was wonderful.
46:24We all thought, thank God for that.
46:26And our fire station was right on the seafront
46:30in Western Supermare
46:33and we all got very merry.
46:37My father said, it's all right having fish paste
46:41but, you know, it'd be nice to have some meat
46:44which would be a luxury in the garden.
46:48We kept chickens.
46:50I did have a favourite chicken
46:53which I told him I don't want anything to happen to it
46:59but my father killed two chickens.
47:03We had the opportunity to go up to London if we wanted to
47:07which I did and met up with my friend
47:10who was a refugee from Germany
47:13who lived with us and made her home here
47:16and we met up and joined the crowd.
47:21And I remember being hoisted up onto the top
47:26of one of those brick shelters
47:29and needing I don't know how many people in a sing-song.
47:35The O'Veara sing-song.
47:38We'll meet again.
47:42And I was very merry.
47:45So that was quite something.
47:48So my mother was in the kitchen
47:51plucking these chickens with feathers everywhere
47:55and then of course she roasted them
48:01and then cut them up and put them in sandwiches.
48:06It was a real treat.
48:08We hadn't had chicken in donkey's years, you know.
48:14Lots and lots of cheers
48:17and everybody shaking hands and putting each other on the back
48:21and saying wow, thank goodness it's over.
48:24But we didn't believe it.
48:28I was ferrying aircraft from London, Ontario
48:33back to this country.
48:35So I didn't have the opportunity of joining in
48:39with all the celebrations outside Buckingham Palace
48:43or going to the pubs or whatever.
48:47I was just living on iron rations.
48:50A bit unfortunate really but that's life.
48:54But we're still in a foreign country
48:57with our previous enemies around about us.
49:03But I think it eventually sunk in that yeah, the war is finished.
49:08I was jolly happy and pleased.
49:11I mean we all threw our hats into the air and jumped for joy
49:15but in retrospect we had a lot of remorse as well
49:21and we did think of the casualties that we'd suffered
49:26and the young men that we'd left behind and would never go home
49:30and just thinking well, why them and not me?
49:35Well it's over, it's finished.
49:39I gave the dog my cap and put my uniform in the dustbin
49:44and it was over.
49:47That was all I was concerned with.
49:50I wanted to forget it.
49:53It was, most people wanted to forget it.
49:57I didn't want to remember it.
50:00And it was a remaining day.
50:04People in the streets brought out musical instruments.
50:08Even a piano or two was carried out and the dancing took place.
50:18It was sunny and the atmosphere was marvellous.
50:23There were so many people you hardly needed to actively walk
50:28you were just pushed along with the crowd.
50:32We all went to the palace because we felt
50:36that was where we should be on a day like the victory.
50:43Many thousands of people gathered here at these gates
50:47and all along the Mall to see the King, Queen and young princesses
50:51at the Buckingham Palace balcony.
50:59And the family came out
51:04and all waved and we waved and everybody cheered.
51:10It was a great atmosphere of celebrating
51:14and there seemed to be quite a lot of troops around in London at that time
51:19because I remember at one point being in a staff car going off somewhere.
51:26Pat Outram wasn't the only young servicewoman in London making the most of the day.
51:35My parents went out on the balcony in response to the huge crowds outside.
51:40I think we went on the balcony nearly every hour, six times.
51:46My mother had put her tiara on for the occasion
51:50so we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves.
51:57Princess Elizabeth, her younger sister Margaret and a group of companions
52:01left the palace and joined the crowds.
52:07I remember we were terrified of being recognised
52:10so I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes.
52:16We cheered the King and Queen on the balcony
52:20and then walked miles through the streets.
52:25I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall.
52:30All of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.
52:37What the future Queen didn't add to her recollections was what happened here at the Ritz
52:44With her friends they danced a conga through the hotel past startled guests.
52:49Eyebrows were raised, remembered one of the young women with Elizabeth and Margaret
52:54but we paid no attention of course.
52:56Then it was off to the palace.
53:00After crossing Green Park we stood outside and shouted,
53:05We want the King!
53:07And we were successful in seeing my parents on the balcony.
53:12Having cheated slightly because we sent a message into the house
53:16to say we were waiting outside.
53:20I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.
53:29A lot of drinking and shouting and so on.
53:33To me it was a natural reaction.
53:36I mean obviously there were many people there who were suffering from
53:41loss of one of their menfolk on the continent. One accepts that.
53:49I do remember thinking you all enjoy yourselves but I'm not.
53:55I'm not happy.
53:57I remember standing in the bedroom looking out at them and my mother said,
54:02You can stand there as long as you like but you're not going out there.
54:06You've got nothing to celebrate. Your dad's not coming back.
54:09We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our tasks
54:15both at home and abroad.
54:17Where were you when the war ended and how did you hear about it?
54:22I was present with the crowd and listened to Churchill's speech.
54:30Advanced Britannia, long live the cause of freedom. God save the King.
54:36I always remember that speech because it showed the greatness of Churchill.
54:44He was telling us, yes we've beaten them but we treat them like human beings.
54:53Great man.
55:00It wasn't a long service but an eventful one and for me it was probably
55:09the most meaningful episode of my life.
55:16I'm glad I was there. At least I feel I've done something for my country
55:22and as a patriot that means a lot I suppose and that is a privilege.
55:34I think I made a contribution in some small way to make Britain safe and sound today
55:40that I still live in and enjoy.
55:45Capture the objective. Fight. Kill people. Awful isn't it?
55:53I mean I've killed my fellow man. I'm not proud of that.
55:59It's a funny feeling you know to be involved in war and knowing you're killing people
56:07and also thinking not knowing that there was a reason and a right in doing it.
56:17But since then I've realised that there wasn't a right and that there will be a right
56:26for people to fight each other.
56:30Things suffered by the Londoners and daylight bombing were such that I had no sympathy
56:37for the German civilian population.
56:44Comradeship was fantastic. Everybody was equal.
56:48Unfortunately with all due respect Britain didn't look after their troops very good
56:56not after being demobbed.
56:59When you come out of the army you feel completely lost.
57:06It was great to think that my time as a soldier was finished.
57:10Happy to be alive at the end of it all.
57:14It was seven years of my life. It was seven years I wouldn't leave
57:20because the countries you went through, people you met, you know, just amazing.
57:29We produced a really efficient army and a navy and an air force
57:35out of, well literally, trades people.
57:40We were bakers, butchers and normal working civilians.
57:50And we put our heart and soul into the fact that we were engaged in a fight
57:56and it was a fight that we had to win.
58:00Nothing can be taken for granted.
58:02There's always some lunatic around who wants power or something like that
58:08or wants a piece of territory and is prepared to stop at nothing to get it.
58:15So we have to be aware that, you know, our peace was hard fought for
58:24and should be cherished.
58:29You were involved in a war, not of your making.
58:34The reason we were there doing this was because the country was in danger.
58:41The medals I wear doesn't make me a hero, which I agree with,
58:47but it just proves that I was there and that's it in a nutshell.
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