Latest news with #VictoryinEuropeDay.The
BBC News
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Dunchurch statue gets WW2 makeover for VE Day
A village statue that has been secretly dressed up to mark special occasions since at least the 1970s has been transformed into a World War Two soldier to mark Victory in Europe statue of Lord John Scott, in Dunchurch, Warwickshire, has been dressed with military gear including an old British tin helmet with a gun, flask, belt and rucksack.A beacon will be lit in the village on Thursday and a party will be held on Saturday in The Square with entertainment, historical displays, vintage vehicles and food Day was when the European part of World War Two ended, with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies on 8 May 1945. Amber Cummins, from Dunchurch Festival Group, said: "Dunchurch is ready for action.""No-one knows who decorates the statue but is is widely spread about Dunchurch that it is the Dunchurch elves."Whatever happens, the Lord Scott statue will be ready to do his bit."According to the Friends of Dunchurch Society, the first time the statue was dressed up, in the 1970s, it was as a soldier with a gas mask and it has since gone on to take many other characters have ranged from Homer Simpson to Pinocchio. Over the decades, Lord John has also been made up as an angel, Harry Potter, Darth Maul from Star Wars, Peppa Pig, Spiderman, Mr Blobby and the real Lord John Douglas-Montagu-Scott was a 19th Century landlord and a Scottish inherited his estate in Warwickshire and his statue was erected by his tenants "in affectionate remembrance", the local history group died in 1860 and the Grade II-listed limestone statue was unveiled in 1867. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
03-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Europe marks VE Day with Trump on its mind
"Celebration? What celebration? It feels more like a funeral" - the damning words of a former senior Nato figure to describe this week's ceremonies marking Victory in Europe top-level diplomat who spent years at the transatlantic defence alliance asked not to be named in order to speak freely, but why so nihilistic? VE Day was a joint Allied triumph over Nazi Germany; over hatred, dictatorship, the Third Reich's territorial expansionism and heinous crimes against much blood was spilled achieving that victory. Some 51 million Allied soldiers and civilians died during World War Two, united in a pursuit to rid the world of the scourge of 80 years on, we're surrounded by countless news and academic analyses breathlessly singling out Donald Trump as the modern day nail in the coffin of the strong transatlantic bonds forged back then. In Europe, the American president is viewed by many as the slayer-in-chief of decades-old common values; shared visions of security, democracy and rule of is that accurate, or too simplistic? Russia - divisions from the start To get the full picture on what happened to allied ties after WW2, we cannot omit Russia, then or 1945, about 24 million Russians and other Soviets had been slaughtered in the war with Germany. Without their sacrifice, as well as that of the other allies, the Nazis would not have been vanquished."One thing we need to recognise, though, is Russia was never a true friend of the West," says Michael Zantovsky, a former Czech Ambassador to Washington and to London."During WW2 it was an ally for existential reasons. It needed any help [against the Nazis] that it could get. And it was the same story with western powers, to be fair. They needed the help of the Soviet Union. But Russia did not plan on continuing the alliance after the war. As soon as the threat of Nazi Germany was destroyed, the Soviet Union intended to follow its own objectives."Splits appeared the moment Germany was defeated; there was even a disagreement over which day VE Day fell. Western powers witnessed the signing of Germany's military capitulation in the French cathedral city of Reims, news that broke on 8 May 1945. The USSR wanted its own, separate, signing with surrendering Germany in Soviet-occupied Berlin a day later. Russia marks VE Day on 9 May to this where you are in Europe on VE Day, the mood is varied - particularly this Europe welcomes liberty, democracy and an end to the Nazi threat. In the UK for example, multiple VE Day celebrations are planned this year, as with every people living in central and eastern Europe, such as Czechoslovakia, emerged from Nazi occupation in 1945 only to end up under Communist regimes - whether they liked it or a result, Ambassador Zantovsky describes his country's relationship to VE Day as "ambiguous"."The western part of Czechoslovakia was liberated by US troops, the rest of the country by Soviet soldiers," he tells was taken over by the Communist Party in 1948 and fully invaded by the Soviet Union two decades later. "During communist times, the West's role in WW2 was deliberately suppressed and marginalised. We were told we owed our liberty [from the Nazis] to the Soviets."Russia marks VE Day with triumphalist military parades - and President Vladimir Putin knows the deep sense of nationalist pride that Russians still feel at defeating the Nazi regime in 1945. It is no coincidence that he publicly labels Ukraine's leadership "Nazis" as a means of besmirching them in Russian eyes. For VE Day this year, President Putin called a three-day ceasefire with Ukraine – it's presumed, because he wants to concentrate, uninterrupted, on showing off Russia's military muscle in front of a crowd of foreign dignitaries, including President Xi Jinping of official reason Putin gave for the Ukraine ceasefire was "humanitarian grounds". Quite the irony, since he's the one who ordered the invasion of that sovereign invasion brought back difficult memories for Czechs of their own occupation and suppression. "That's why we feel so strongly for Ukraine," says Zantovsky."It's only a few hundred kilometres away. Our sense of security is threatened once again." The US - a marriage of convenience This is why most Europeans are so shocked at President Trump's apparent respect for, even deference towards, Putin, while simultaneously verbally threatening the territorial integrity of traditionally close allies like Canada and has viewed the US as its closest friend since WW2. Washington poured money into the war-shattered continent in the late 1940s - including West Germany, which was ever thankful to the US for bringing it back into the fold after the horrors of Nazism. The US also gave Europe post-war security guarantees; Nato was founded in this wasn't American altruism, as Trump implies. It too was a marriage of convenience, of WW2, the US worried about the spread of communism. It fretted that Europe, with its economy and infrastructure in tatters, was vulnerable both to home-grown communist parties and abroad from an expansionist Soviet Union. By swooping in to help rebuild Europe, the US was gaining a geostrategic foothold on the Soviet Union's doorstep throughout the Cold idea of a "West" - made of countries sharing security goals and values - was born. Might we now be witnessing its death, or gradual strangulation? With no common enemy anymore, the friendship is certainly fraying. In 2025, the president of the United States no longer feels threatened by Russia."Shared history served as the foundation for the (transatlantic) relationship for eight decades, but it's not enough to propel the relationship forward anymore," Washington's former Nato ambassador Julie Smith told war in Ukraine is the biggest conflict in Europe since WW2. With Russia's economy resolutely on a war footing, it has the potential to unlike the US, still feels threatened by Russia. Capitals across the continent have been left speechless and nervous by Trump appearing to blame Ukraine, not Moscow, for the televised press conference in the White House Oval Office in late February, where Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, seemingly tried to bait, berate and humiliate Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, was a turning point in European public opinion and politics.A YouGov poll in March indicated that, 80 years on from VE Day, a large majority of Western Europeans (78% in the UK, 74% in Germany, 75% in Spain) now view the White House as a big threat to peace and security in Europe's east, the Soviet Union's former sphere of influence, people fear President Trump's attitude to Ukraine will only embolden President Putin in his expansionist Russia gets US recognition for "crimes of conquest" in Ukraine, says historian and author Timothy Garton Ash, VE Day this year would be better labelled DE Day - Defeat in Europe with Trump frequently accusing Europe of free-loading, and taking advantage of the US, there's a nervousness among leaders across the continent that they could be left alone to defend themselves for the first time since WW2. Boosting defence spending is now a huge topic in European capitals. The message Berlin has taken from Trump's first 100 days in office is: "We cannot rely on the US anymore," says Peter Wittig, Germany's former ambassador to a massive turnaround for Germans, who have been reluctant to rebuild their country's military might after WW2. Instead, Germany leant particularly heavily on the US for its security. A large chunk of the estimated 100,000 US troops stationed in Europe are based in Germany. The US stores nuclear arms in the country Trump-shock among normally pro-US German politicians is so profound that it prompted a change in the country's constitution this spring. Parliamentarians voted to lift Berlin's long established debt brake - which limited government spending - in order to invest heavily and power up the country's military going von der Leyen, once German's defence minister, is now the president of the European Commission in Brussels. She is transatlantic-leaning and carefully-spoken, but even she summed up the present situation starkly: "The West as we knew it, no longer exists." 'The end of an era' - but what now? Still, the pivot away from Europe by the US cannot just be blamed on not Russia, has been viewed by the White House as strategic threat number one for some time now. In 2012, then-US President Barack Obama said he wanted to focus his foreign policy on Asia, and Trump's predecessor Joe Biden invested a lot of time trying to shore up China-wary allies in the or no Trump, concentrating foreign policy on Asia and withdrawing substantially from Europe is unlikely to change, says Ambassador Wittig - whichever political party wins the next US election - especially as there is now a growing reluctance in US public opinion to carry the burden of financing calls it "the end of an era - the end of engagement in Europe".Despite all the European hand wringing, there is a recognition among the continent's leaders that, 80 years after VE Day, it is high time they take more responsibility for paying and providing for their own defence capabilities, rather than relying on also see potential in the relationship reset. Ambassador Zantovsky calls this "an opportunity brought about by crisis, a sense of urgency regarding security that hasn't existed [in Europe] for the last 30 years".Perhaps, but during the Cold War western European societies had younger populations and far more slim-line welfare states. Spending 4% or 5% of gross domestic product on defence was say that's what would be needed again now to wean Europe off US security support, but it's unclear if present-day voters would accept the painful compromises needed - in terms of cuts in government spending on health or education for example - in return for boosting their country's defence capabilities. This is especially the case in European nations geographically further from Russia's orbit, where the sense of immediate threat feels less Garton Ash wonders if there is a transitional path from the current US-led Nato to a more European Nato, with the US still at the table but Europe taking responsibility for its own security."We need a new generation of political leaders who are up to the challenge," says political historian and biographer Sir Anthony Seldon."A need can often bring forward the right people," he added, reflecting on European and US leaders in the aftermath of WW2."Something has certainly broken. The future is uncertain. Do we have to go to war periodically to realise how terrible it is, and to force us to work together?"Eight decades on from the hell they experienced, surviving WW2 veterans would tell you they fervently hope that won't be the case.
BBC News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
VE Day: War film The Next Morning 'will bring stories to life'
A short film looking at intergenerational perspectives of World War Two is being released on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe National Theatre's film, The Next Morning, features award-winning actors Julian Glover and Sian Phillips and includes connected stories to present views of the end of World War will be screened on 8 May at the VE Day 80 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. To coincide with the short film, an interactive mobile exhibition of war stories will also tour across the UK, beginning in Coventry, the British city which suffered the most concentrated air attack during the war. The For Evermore Tour, which launches at Coventry Cathedral on 2 May, has been created by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and will bring to life histories and stories from World War CGWC has collated the war experiences of members of the public with funding from the Post Office Remembrance the evening of 2 May, a concert will be held in Coventry Cathedral to commemorate VE Day 80 in aid of the charitable arm of the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation. A CWGC spokesperson said: "Set in the stunning historic Coventry Cathedral, this promises to be a magical evening of music, commemoration, and remembrance."And added the event would, "mark the incredible legacy of liberation left by the veterans of the Second World War and remember over 600,000 men and women of the Commonwealth who lost their lives in this world-changing conflict". Claire Horton, director general at the CWGC, said: "By collating these stories in what will become the definitive resource of the stories of those who died in the world wars, we have created an enduring tribute to the men and women from across the Commonwealth who gave their lives, and we ensure that they will never be forgotten."The CWG's Torch for Peace will also be present throughout the tour, which will travel to iconic locations and landmarks across the UK, acting as a baton to pass and share stories with future generations, the CWGC said. Ms Horton said stories of people whose lives were "cut short by conflict must be told and shared". On 8 May, The Next Morning film, which has been written by James Graham, who wrote Dear England - a play about ex-England football manager Gareth Southgate, will be will feature Julian Glover, 90, who starred in the James Bond, Indiana Jones and Star Wars films, as well as Sian Phillips, 91, who won a Bafta for her role in I, Claudius, and Joseph Mydell, from the Academy Award-winning film film airs at the VE Day 80 concert, which more than 12,500 people, including war veterans, are expected to attend, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said. The Royal British Legion, the British Evacuees Association and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are among the organisations that are allocating VE Day 80 concert tickets to people across the than 2,500 young people, who include Duke of Edinburgh ambassadors and Commonwealth scholars, will also watch the show live on Horse Guards Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "Through the National Theatre, the VE Day 80 concert and our UK-wide exhibition, we will bring to life the stories of those no longer with us so that the next generation are able to honour their sacrifice and recognise the legacy of peace that they fought to secure."The concert will be broadcast live on BBC One at 20:00 BST. Additional reporting by PA Media Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
