Giant VE Day logo displayed in Henley-on-Thames park
A giant VE Day logo has been sprayed onto a green space next to a town's river bank to tie in with upcoming celebrations.The outline of the 15m x 30m (49ft x 98ft) logo on Mill Meadows in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was created using a GPS-controlled mini robot, normally used to create markings on sports pitches. It was later filled in using environmentally-friendly paint.Victory in Europe Day, known as VE Day, on 8 May, marks the day the Allies formally accepted Germany's surrender in 1945.
Celebrations in Henley take place from 8 to 10 May and include an education day for local primary schools, a 1940s-style dance, World War Two military vehicles in the town centre and a full-sized Spitfire parked in front of the town hall. The events are supported by the Royal British Legion, with profits going to the Henley Poppy Appeal.
You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
'My family and I escaped Soviet soldiers after World War Two'
A woman whose family were captured by the Soviet Army just 24 hours after VE Day has written a book about their Smeed, 83, from Bridgwater, grew up in Silesia. It was historically part of Germany but the land was handed to the Polish after the Potsdam Conference in three, she and her mother Maria Gebauer were made to march towards Russia. Her father, a non-commissioned Luftwaffe officer, was taken to a Soviet labour camp."Few people in England know what happened in mainland Europe after the war ended: the brutality, the disease, and the starvation," she said. The family were among 12 million ethnic Germans who were forcibly evicted or fled from their homes after World War Two Potsdam Conference was a meeting between Winston Churchill, Clement Atlee, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin to decide the future of postwar the meeting, it was decided that Germany's territory was to be reduced by 25% of what it was in 1937, displacing many like Ms Smeed's family. Forced march Speaking to Radio Somerset, Ms Smeed said that on VE Day itself, "neither side knew the war was over". The next day, Russian soldiers arrived and "took whatever jewellery and luggage they fancied", before forcing her family to march, she said."The men and women were separated, and we began walking through Austria."The people in the towns and villages we came through couldn't believe what the Russians were doing after the war had ended."They were incensed, they were shouting at the Russians and throwing food to the women. "My mother and I were suddenly grabbed by a couple of Austrians and taken into the crowd. "They took us home, and many days later they helped us to get back to my grandmother in Silesia," she said. Meanwhile, her father, Alfred Gebauer, who had refused to join the Nazi Party while in the Luftwaffe, was taken to a labour camp in became very ill after six months, and when he left the labour camp he weighed just 38kg (83lbs).He was released from the camp and sent home, and the family reunited in Świebodzice, there, the family sought refuge in Braunschweig, West Germany, and opened a shoe shop using an heirloom necklace as a guarantee for the Smeed's mother had smuggled the necklace into Germany by baking it into a cake to stop it from being years after VE Day, Ms Smeed became pen friends with an English teenager, Philip Smeed, which eventually led to love and marriage, and her relocating to couple have three children, and six grandchildren, including Somerset County Cricket player Will Smeed, and German rugby player Henry Smeed. Ms Smeed said she wanted to write the book, called Silesia, A Homeland Lost – One German Family's Story of War and Survival, for her grandchildren."It was important to me that my grandchildren would know their Silesian as well as English roots, and that our family's story lives on for future generations," she said."This is also my parents' story, their love for each other and for me, and their determination to survive firstly the Nazi regime, then the war and its aftermath."Millions of Germans were forced from their homeland, with little idea of where they were going, and often in freezing temperatures taking only what they could carry."
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Limpsfield Common bunkers that sheltered a school in the Blitz
Air raid shelters used by schoolchildren during World War Two bombing raids remain an important part of an ancient common in at Limpsfield School led pupils to the nearby bunkers to keep them safe from German bombs - and to continue their are six bunkers - one per year group - located at Limpsfield Common, and one was restored to its original condition in Davey, from the National Trust, which runs the site, said it was easy to imagine that children were "probably pretty scared" when being moved to the shelter. The underground shelters can get cold, according to Mr Davey."You can imagine what this was like in the middle of winter," he said. "It was dripping because it's concrete and very uncomfortable with no heating at all."Children faced a choice of where to sit when they arrived at the refuge: near the entrance with their teacher and be labelled a teacher's pet, or at the bottom near the escape hatch and a toilet, hidden behind a that, they got on with their schoolwork. Mr Davey said the bunkers were used "fairly regularly" by the school and opened up to nearby residents outside of school hours as a "safe place to go".A direct hit from a bomb "could be really serious", he said, but otherwise pupils "had a very good chance of being protected"."It was really important that they got down here," he of the six shelters are now used as bat roosts. The children's journey between the school and the shelters involved navigating barbed wire, installed in open spaces prior to the Blitz to prevent enemy gliders and paratroopers from landing during a possible Common is also home to the remains of a Spigot Mortar anti-tank gun."At that stage there was a real fear that Britain would be invaded by the Germans," Mr Davey said.
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Remembering D-Day: Veteran, 100, offers first-hand account of D-Day
Tolley Fletcher, at the time a 19-year-old Navy gunner's mate, remembered the rough seas and the treacherous landing troops at Utah Beach had to make in 3- to 4-foot waves, each carrying about 60 pounds of gear on their backs and descending on rope ladders from larger ships onto smaller landing crafts. "I felt for those soldiers," Fletcher, now 100 years old, told USA TODAY. "In my mind, that was the worst part, other than people getting hurt." Fletcher, who joined the Navy at 17 in late December 1941, said he and his shipmates were fortunate to be mostly out of the line of fire. "There was some shelling, not really a lot, and luckily we didn't get hit. "Maybe halfway in, we started seeing lots of bodies in the water," said Fletcher, who now lives in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area. "I was asked (later) what we did about it. We didn't do anything about it - we had a job: to escort those troops to the beach." On D-Day, "that's what these guys faced," said Peter Donovan Crean Sr., vice president for education and access at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. "They knew they were in the presence of history. Soldiers, sailors, Marines - they knew what they were doing was going to go down in history, which also meant they knew the danger involved. "Guys who were 18, 19, 20 years old were faced with the possibility of their death, but they did it anyway." As we mark the 81st anniversary of D-Day, here is a look at what happened on the beaches of Normandy, the men who fought knowing they might not survive to see victory and the way it affected the Allies' fight to defeat fascism, genocide and tyranny. What happened on D-Day? In order to defeat the Nazis in Europe, the Allies knew they'd have to take France, under German occupation since 1940. Operation Overlord saw a mobilization of 2,876,000 Allied troops in Southern England, as well as hundreds of ships and airplanes, in preparation for a ground invasion, the largest the world had seen. Weighing conditions including the weather, disagreements among other military leaders and strategic uncertainty, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for the operation to begin before dawn on June 5, 1944. If things didn't go well for the Allies, Eisenhower wrote a note accepting responsibility. The following day, nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed along the 50-mile stretch of French shoreline. More than 9,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded, and 100,000 troops would continue the slow, bloody journey to Berlin, the center of German power. Why was it called D-Day? According to the U.S. Army, D-Day was "simply an alliteration, as in H-Hour." Some believe the first "D" also stands for "day," a code designation, while the French say the "D" stands for "disembarkation." The Army's website says that "the more poetic insist D-Day is short for 'day of decision.'" Asked in 1964, Eisenhower instructed his assistant Brig. Gen. Robert Schultz, to answer. Schultz wrote that "any amphibious operation has a 'departed date'; therefore the shortened term 'D-Day' is used." What happened after D-Day? D-Day was not the only decisive battle of the European theater, Crean said. "It was a crucial battle but there were more ahead," he said. "They had 700 miles of tough road ahead to get to Berlin." The Battle of the Bulge, waged over 41 days in December 1944 and January 1945, required 700,000 Allied troops. "It was a tough slog for another 11 months," Crean said. Victory in Europe - V-E Day - would come on May 8, 1945, nearly a year after D-Day. The war wouldn't end until the Japanese surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945. How many World War II veterans remain in the U.S.? There are about 66,000 surviving World War II veterans in the United States, Crean said, and while that may sound like a lot, it's a tiny fraction of the 16.4 million who served their country in the conflict. "So to be able to talk to and thank one veteran now is a gift for any of us," Crean said. The National World War II Museum's mission "is more critical than ever ... so more people will understand what they did and continue to be inspired by their sacrifices," added Crean, a retired colonel with 30 years' service in the Army. The museum has had oral historians travel the country to record more than 12,000 personal stories from World War II veterans. They've conducted extensive interviews with veterans, Holocaust survivors and homefront workers and, using artificial intelligence, created a way for visitors to have "conversations" with them and ask questions to learn about the war effort. And they offer virtual programming, teacher training and a student leadership award. Fletcher, the Navy gunner's mate, said he's uncomfortable with the idea of being considered a hero. Asked about his role in history, he said, "I really didn't think about it then, and I don't think about it now, though it's been impressed upon me quite a bit. "When I think about what I went through, and what all the Army and the other men who were mixed up in really tough situations, it makes me feel a little bit guilty."
