Veterans recall ‘euphoric' VE Day celebrations ahead of 80th anniversary
A group of Second World War veterans have described dancing and singing in the streets during 'euphoric' Victory in Europe Day celebrations nearly 80 years ago.
The six veterans, all aged between 96 and 100, gathered for a tea party at The Ritz in central London to share their memories of the 'joyous' partying on Tuesday May 8 1945, after six years of devastating conflict.
The group, which included a codebreaker, an RAF mechanic and a D-Day infantryman, shared wartime stories in the lavish surroundings of the hotel and spoke to schoolchildren about their experiences.
The Ritz is the scene of a famous VE Day story, as Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret slipped away from Buckingham Palace and danced the conga through the hotel.
The future queen, then just 19, and her sister, 14, also joined thousands of revellers as they gathered in front of the royal residence.
The veterans' get-together came as the Royal British Legion, which organised the tea, announced its national programme of celebrations marking the historic 80th anniversary of VE Day later this year.
The charity is in touch with more than 100 surviving Second World War veterans, but the numbers reduce each year.
Joyce Wilding, 100, from Surrey, was in 'Churchill's Secret Army', the Special Operations Executive (SOE) plotting to disrupt the Nazis behind enemy lines.
She served at Thame Park in Oxfordshire, a stately home transformed into a secret training ground.
Her role as a transmitter hut attendant involved tuning powerful radios to receive messages from agents in occupied Europe.
'It was all very secret,' she said of her work.
'So often people don't really know about the war, and so many parts of it – because it was secret at the time – haven't really been discussed,' she added.
After Thame Park, she became a driver transporting forged documents and supplies for the SOE.
On VE Day, she had the day off from work and decided to head to London.
'It was joyous, we did a dance all down Piccadilly, then went to Buckingham Palace where we saw the King and Queen and Winston Churchill,' she said.
'There were people up the lampposts. I can't remember ever having to pay for anything, they gave us drinks.
'We went down to The Mall, it was absolutely jam-packed with people singing and dancing and cheering.
'It was a joyous thing. What a relief after rather a lot of gloom, years of bombing and air raids and people being killed.'
Ruth Bourne, 98, from High Barnet in north London, worked at Bletchley Park where codebreakers intercepted Nazi messages.
In 2018 she was awarded the Legion d'honneur – France's highest military honour – in recognition of her service.
On VE Day, she was also in London watching the famous scenes on the Buckingham Palace balcony with her colleagues.
'Eventually we found our way to the palace and everyone was sort of crowding around,' she said.
'I think the royal family had already been out once, the crowd was kind of abuzz, and we started shouting 'We want the King'.
'Eventually, they came out, the King, the Queen and the two princesses.
'We all went absolutely crazy, shouting and cheering.
'There wasn't an empty lamppost, the soldiers were all up the lampposts.
'It was a great, euphoric feeling.
'Eventually we found our way into the town, and people were doing the conga with complete strangers holding each other round the waist.
'There were people singing patriotic songs, wartime songs and rude songs – there's always some rude songs.
'I don't think anyone anywhere went to bed that night, it was such a party spirit, everybody just feeling happy and glad it was all over.'
When the celebrations finally came to an end, Ms Bourne was re-mustered as a writer before being demobbed in November 1946.
Doreen Mills, 96, was just 11 years old and living in White City, west London, with her five sisters and a brother when war broke out.
She faced the upheaval of evacuation while her father was away serving in the Army.
Arriving at a church hall in the Rhondda, South Wales, Ms Mills' siblings, who were only eight and four at the time, were crying.
As the elder sister, it was her job to comfort them.
Speaking about her experience, she said: 'We were in a church hall waiting to be picked out.
'My mum said, and it's always stuck in my mind, 'You mustn't leave your brother and sister, you've got to be together'.
'All the hall emptied out with people taking one and two, and no-one took three, but the vicar stood up and said 'I'll take them'.
'We had three years there, they were very nice.'
In the final years of the war, she worked in an ammunitions factory supporting the war effort.
Speaking about partying with American soldiers in central London on VE Day, she said: 'We went up to Piccadilly, we had a great night out there with the Yankees, dancing all night up there.
'We knew we had to get home because mum and dad would get mad if we were out late.
'Me and my friend went home and that was all we were talking about. We had a lovely time.
'We got home alright, we've talked about it ever since.'
The Royal British Legion is set to host an anniversary tea party and service of remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, bringing together the largest gathering of Second World War veterans on VE Day, Thursday May 8.
VE Day tea parties will also be hosted by the charity's branches and members in communities across the UK.
Mark Atkinson, director general of the Royal British Legion, said: 'This is probably one of the last opportunities we've all got as a nation to thank these men and women for their service and to pay tribute to their courage.
'It feels an incredibly poignant time 80 years on just to stop and pause and thank people.
'We're in touch with more than 100 Second World War veterans, and we'll be supporting them to get involved if they can.
'There are so few of those Second World War veterans left, hence it feels such a special time to pull them together, to hear their stories, to reunite them and to pay respect for everything they've done.'
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