Milton Keynes WW2 veteran 'scaled window' for VE Day celebration
A World War Two veteran said she scaled a window ledge in elation after learning the six-year conflict was over.Ruth June Bourne was among people going "mad cheering" in London while celebrating Victory in Europe (VE) Day in 1945.The 98-year-old, who worked for the Royal Navy in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was among 31 veterans invited back to the capital to mark the anniversary on Sunday.Recalling her celebrations 80 years ago, she said: "We waited outside the palace chanting 'we want the King'."
She added: "The royal family came out and we went mad cheering."Ms Bourne had been a Bomb machine operator and checker at Bletchley Park during the war."People were climbing lampposts," the veteran said of the London celebrations."I climbed onto a window ledge shouting 'three cheers for the British Navy'."Her return to London on Sunday, where she watched the parade, was organised by the Royal British Legion.
Also in attendance was 99-year-old Olga Hopkins, from St Albans in Hertfordshire.She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as a wireless mechanic.Remembering VE Day, Ms Hopkins said: "I was lying in bed in my Nissen Hut at midnight, listening to the American Forces Network, when a Tannoy announced 'the war is over.'"We jumped out of bed, threw on our battledress and joined a party at the sergeant's mess."
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