VE Day live: ceremonies to take place across UK and Europe to mark 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe | 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.”

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:

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.

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.

Another from the Guardian archive:

St Peter Port, Guernsey

I watched the final surrender of the German garrison in the Channel Islands, and half an hour later I saw the delirious joy of the freedom that surrender brought. I saw, as I landed with the first British soldiers of the forces of freedom, scenes that were almost indescribable – the tears and cheers which 22 men of the Royal Artillery released as they came to St Peter Port to take over the garrison, which had been commanded by the German Vice-Admiral Huffmeier.

This handful of artillerymen who went to take over an island with a garrison of ten thousand Germans, oldish soldiers, went ashore in a German trawler flying the White Ensign. The police inspector and a sergeant, Guernsey men, were the unofficial reception party on the dock, and both of them were choking back the tears when, speechless, they grasped our hands.

The tiny force formed up on the docks, fixed bayonets, and marched towards the dock gates. There, behind those gates, was a seething, cheering, crying mob of men, women and children. Over them the church bells of St Peter Port were clanging tumultuously, every house had its union jack and bunting, saved through five long desperate wearing years for this moment.

The heroism of soldiers from India, Africa and the Caribbean is too often airbrushed, as is the struggle of those who resisted colonial powers, says writer and sociology professor Gary Younge, in an opinion piece for the Guardian.

You can read it here:

Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) on 8 May 1945 was the day the allies accepted Nazi Germany’s surrender in the war in Europe. The war in the East did not end until 15 August 1945, when Japan surrendered on a day celebrated as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day).

At 3pm BST Winston Churchill spoke to the nation and announced that Germany had signed an unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Forces and Soviet High Command. “Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight,” he said.

Later he made another speech, to cheering crowds, after he had made his way down Whitehall and on to the balcony of the ministry of health. Crowds had massed in Trafalgar Square and along the Mall to Buckingham Palace.

My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for a whole year.

There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to give in? Were we down-hearted?

The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and child in the country had no thought of quitting the struggle. London can take it.

So we came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. When shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?

I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we’ve done and they will say: ‘Do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straightforward and die if need be-unconquered.’

Now we have emerged from one deadly struggle – a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgment and our mercy.

But there is another foe who occupies large portions of the British empire, a foe stained with cruelty and greed – the Japanese. I rejoice we can all take a night off today and another day tomorrow.

Tomorrow our great Russian allies will also be celebrating victory and after that we must begin the task of rebuilding our hearth and homes, doing our utmost to make this country a land in which all have a chance, in which all have a duty, and we must turn ourselves to fulfil our duty to our own countrymen, and to our gallant allies of the United States who were so foully and treacherously attacked by Japan.

We will go hand and hand with them.

Even if it is a hard struggle we will not be the ones who will fail.

Meanwhile, Scottish secretary Ian Murray is set to visit Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory in Edinburgh, where he will meet 99-year-old VE Day veterans Margaret Landels and George McLeod, as well as a number of other military veterans.

The factory has been producing poppies in Scotland since 1926, and its team of ex-service men and women produce millions of poppies and tens of thousands of wreaths, remembrance symbols and long-stem poppies each year.

According to the PA news agency, Murray said ahead of the visit:

VE Day is a moment for us all to give thanks to the wartime generation. We thank all those who served at home and abroad, who gave so much to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today.

Of course, the war was not over until VJ Day, but VE Day marked a crucial turning point in the war and in our history, and it is right that we continue to mark it 80 years on.

The 80th anniversary of VE Day is also being marked in Scottish government buildings, where a two-minute silence will be observed at midday.

The Scottish government’s Victoria Quay and St Andrew’s House buildings in Edinburgh will also continue to be lit up in red as part of a campaign to light significant buildings across the UK.

Edinburgh Castle was among the buildings to be lit up in red on Tuesday in the run-up to the anniversary.

Memorial events are also to continue in Lerwick aboard vessels that arrived there from Norway on Tuesday, in commemoration of the Shetland ‘Bus’ that operated between Scotland and Norway during the war.

Scotland will pay tribute to its wartime heroes with events taking place around the country to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

A service of thanksgiving will take place at Glasgow Cathedral at 1pm, with guests including representatives from the military, veterans’ organisations, emergency services and religious groups. Members of the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA), and the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association (SSAFA) will be taking part in the service, along with their families, reports the PA news agency.

A number of elected officials will also be in attendance, including deputy first minister Kate Forbes and Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill.

Speaking before the service McNeill said:

It’s a huge privilege to attend the VE Day Commemoration in Glasgow to honour all the men and women in Scotland who served during the second world war, and also to recognise the great sacrifice of the people of Glasgow during the Clydebank blitz in March 1941.

We owe our lives to those who served, and what will be a moving ceremony in Glasgow Cathedral is a fitting reminder of that.

Lord Provost of Glasgow, Jacqueline McLaren, said:

Thursday‘s service in Glasgow Cathedral is a time for us to come together to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made, courage displayed and the resilience of those who put their lives on the line to keep us safe and help build a better world.

It’s also a day to rejoice in peace and freedom, sometimes things that we take for granted. I hope as many people as possible can come along to join us in tribute and celebration.

Rev Mark Johnstone, minister at Glasgow Cathedral, told the PA news agency:

We look forward to welcoming people from all walks of life, people of faith and none, as we reflect, give thanks and pray for a better tomorrow.

Although there are increasingly few veterans still alive, the world we live in today was shaped by the outcome of the second world war.

Taiwan marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on Thursday by making broad comparisons to threats from China, whose leader Xi Jinping was in Russia for commemorations as Moscow continues its invasion of Ukraine.

“Peace is priceless, and war has no winners. History has taught us that no matter the driving reason or ideology, military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail,” Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te told diplomats in Taipei, reports the Associated Press (AP).

“Authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy, and greater inequality,” he added. Turning more directly to China’s threats, Lai said that both Taiwan and Europe were “now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc.”

Lai said:

We are seeing our decades-old undersea cables, crucial for communications and cybersecurity, being sabotaged. We are seeing external interference in our elections, crucial for healthy democratic development, through the spread of misinformation and disinformation, sowing intentional division in society. We are seeing our fair, free and open international rules-based markets being tested by all manner of gray-zone activities, dumping, pressures and intrusions.

The AP reports that Lai’s remarks came during Taiwan’s first-ever official commemoration of VE Day and at a time when Taiwan is making a diplomatic push for closer ties with fellow democracies that nevertheless have no formal ties with the island in deference to Beijing. Former president Tsai Ing-wen is visiting Lithuania and Denmark from Friday, while foreign affairs minister Lin Chia-lung is visiting Texas.

Lai said that those who cherish peace “cannot sit idly by and allow aggression. The outbreak of the war in Europe certainly had much to do with an authoritarian regime seeking to satisfy its expansionary ambitions, but its wider spread throughout Europe had much more to do with a lack of vigilance toward acts of aggression”.

The sacrifices of second world war veterans and their generation will be commemorated during a national service of thanksgiving in London, marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

King Charles and Queen Camilla will be joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales, prime minister Keir Starmer, veterans and others at Westminster Abbey to recognise the milestone.

On 8 May 1945 the nation celebrated Victory in Europe (VE) Day with church bells ringing out across the country and people gathering to revel in the end of hostilities, with crowds famously gathering outside Buckingham Palace calling for King George VI.

After almost six years of fighting against Hitler’s Nazi regime peace was declared, with only the conflict against Japan to be concluded.

The PA news agency reports that during the service 10-year-old Alexander Churchill, the great-great-grandson of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, will light a candle of peace as young members of the congregation hand out white roses to second world war veterans.

After a national two-minute silence is observed, the king and Prince William will lay wreaths of seasonal flowers, which would have been in bloom in May 1945, at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.

King Charles will do so on behalf of the nation and the Commonwealth, and 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.

At the end of the service, the tune of We’ll Meet Again made famous by forces sweetheart the late Dame Vera Lynn will be heard.

Outside the abbey Catherine will join Camilla and other royals in laying flowers at the Innocent Victims’ Memorial in tribute to all victims of war and oppression as the proceedings draw to a close.

Four days of events commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day will culminate on Thursday evening with a concert in London’s Horse Guards Parade attended by the king and queen, with performances by The Darkness, Toploader, and classical singer Willard White.

Richard Nelsson

This piece of reporting, also from the Guardian’s archive, gives an insight into how the end of the second world war was celebrated by countries in Europe:

Nations rejoice at victory

8 May 1945

Scenes of rejoicing at the United Nations’ victory over Germany were last night reported from many countries.

Rome: bells rang
The great bells of St Peter’s and those of a hundred other Rome churches rang out in jubilation soon after the news that the European war had ended reached the city. Sirens, which had last were heard as a warning of the approach of Allied ‘planes, also sounded for ten minutes.

Berne: two alerts
In Switzerland, Allied flags were unfurled and crowds jammed the streets of Geneva to celebrate VE Day, but at Berne, where two air raids sounded yesterday, demonstrations were withheld until the official announcement is made.

Brussels: high spirits
At first people were quietly jubilant, but along the sunlit boulevards, where hundred of British and American soldiers mixed joyously with the crowd, spirits rose to a high pitch.

Sweden: King’s hope
King Gustav of Sweden expressed “warmest congratulations to Denmark and Norway now that our Nordic neighbours have one again become free and independent nations.” A second-floor restaurant in Stockholm last night hung six magnums of champagne out of the windows on ropes for passers-by to help themselves.

Dublin: “battle” of flags
About 3pm passers-by in the centre of the city were surprised to see students of Trinity College hoisting the Union Jack and the Red Flag over the main entrance to the university.

Paris bewildered
Shortly before six o’clock the newspapers began to come out announcing Donitz had capitulated. The sirens did not sound, however, and the crowd was puzzled, not knowing whether to believe the news.

The Guardian’s front page on VE Day

Richard Nelsson

Victory in Europe: proclamation to-day

8 May 1945

The war in Europe has ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender. Victory will be announced officially by the prime minister in a broadcast at three o’clock this afternoon and the King with broadcast at 9 pm.

To-day will be regarded as VE Day, and both to-day and to-morrow will be public holidays.

Explanation of the delay in making the official announcement lies in the importance attached to a simultaneous announcement in London, Washington and Moscow. The first news of the surrender came from German sources. At 2 pm yesterday the Danish radio announced that the German forces in Norway had capitulated and at 2.30 the German Foreign Minister, Count von Krosigk, announced the “unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops.”

You can see more of how the Guardian the reported wartime victory and the ending of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945 at the link below:

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.