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VE Day
Beaus Mum
Posts: 3,554
hope you all have a wonderful day and have some wonderful memories xxx
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Beaus Mum
Posts: 3,554
Posts
Hello Beaus Mum, yes it meant everything to us people who had gone through the war. We went from expecting an invasion at any time, through nearly two years of nighttime raids and most nights in the shelter, still had to be at school on time even when the bus could not get to the school because of damage. The long drawn out years of rationing, helping to grow our own food and harvest it instead of holidays lazing about, indeed when the time came we let our hair down and how.
The war was not over on May 8th it went on in the Far East until August so we still had hardship and rationing until 1952. The party went on for three days in our area then back to the grind, I will never forget the total euphoria and for our tea on VE Day mother dug out from her secret hoard Peaches and Carnation milk, a rare treat indeed.
A very unforgettable memory burnt into my brain and for all those who lived it total relief though we still had relatives fighting.
Frank.
Poignant thoughts for me today with losing Pa so recently. He was a rear gunner in Wellingtons and then Liberators, flying over Europe and North Africa. A brave man. He lost his younger brother over Germany.
Also, listening this morning to recordings of the crowds in the Mall on VE Day, remind me of Ma's reminiscences of rushing through the evening milking (she was in the Land Army) then catching a train at Luton with some friends. She was one of those at the railings outside Buckingham Palace shouting 'We Want The King!' - and she told us so many times of the thrill of that evening and of seeing the King and Queen with Princessess Elizabeth and Margaret, and then seeing them joined on the balcony by Winston Churchill. Then she had to rush to catch the last train home to make sure she'd be there to do the milking in the morning.
It's so sad that she really doesn't seem to have those memories any more, or to understand the significance of VE Day
There aren't many of them left.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My parents saved their celebrations until the following day, 9 May...I was baptized on that day! My dad had been too old to fight and our family was lucky that time around that they lost no-one...WWI was a different story. My parents-in-law were both in the Army. Father-in-law dead these 5 years and mum too far gone to recall anything but they, too, survived as did their relations. Again, though, WWI a totally different picture.
But to all those brave men and women - and the not so brave who went anyway - our thanks are due on this day and every day.
Thank you for posting Frank, been thinking of you lots today as I don't have any relatives that have such memories and always love reading yours xx
Dove you are keeping those memories alive for your mum and I know they are in her heart xx
Dove, I can imagine your Mum's excitement as she watched the Royals and Winston Churhill on the balcony, we worshiped Winston and Respected the King and Queen for staying with us. We saw it on Pathe News at the Cinema a few days later.
Thank you for your thoughts Beaus Mum, have been very busy lately getting the garden back after last years little mishap. Believe it or not I got a new kitchen, new TV and new car all within a month, my Daughters obviously shaken at what happened in August told me to lash out, enjoy your money and do Not spend it all on the garden. Watched the ceremony on TV very low key in my opinion but then the modern politico's are too busy apologising for what my generation did. We did not start it, nearly lost it, took years of danger and hardship and won through, apologise, me, not on your nelly.
Frank.
I wasn't born until 1954 so well after the war had been won but as a child apart from the obvious war films no one really mentioned the war much. My dad fought in the expeditionary forces and faced the Dunkirk evacuation later being sent to North Africa but no one ever said to him "you're a blummin hero you are"! It seems that just like WW1 no one makes much fuss about the war until 70 years after it ended and most of those who took part are gone.
True Barry, everyone was sick of the war, men and women came back took off the uniform and got on with life. If anyone mentioned the war a cry went up "swing the lamps lads" it was frowned on so people kept quiet.
I was in the army after the war ended or so we thought, coming home on leave after two years the lads I had known but not joined up were still school boys. They greeted me with " all right for you swanning about in the sunshine chasing good looking camels" stuck it for a week and went back to my unit early. Those men and women away often for five or more years must have thought returning home an alien world, it would take a lot of getting used to and many never did. The divorce rate went very high in the forties and fifties.
Frank.
I found this weekend very moving. My mum told me many stories of war time, my dad was in the London Fire Service. Just last month my husband and I were in Belgium at the Menin Gate Memorial as it was 100 years since my grandfather lost his life in WW1 on 20th April 1915 They do the last post every night no matter what the weather. I thought there would only be a few people but there were over 500, very moving, an amazing thing to witness.