Latest news with #WorldWarTwo.They
BBC News
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
VE Day: Wales marks 80th anniversary of end of World War Two
Street parties to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two in Europe have been taking place across Wales, with one organiser saying the events are "more important than ever". VE Day events on the Bank Holiday Monday recall the huge crowds of people who took to the streets on 8 May 1945 to sing, dance and rejoice after nearly six years of than 15,000 Welsh soldiers died during World War were remembered at a veteran's hub in Connah's Quay, Flintshire, where military hardware was on display with live music and stalls. "I think it's more important than ever, at the moment [to mark VE Day]," said hub director Naomi Horlock. "To think about modern day conflicts and why it's so important to be kind to each other."That's what this is all about. It's about having some fun and remembering." A poppy cascade made from 1,000 individual flowers knitted by the Steel Magnolias Women's Institute is also on Anthony from the group said the finished result was "absolutely fantastic". Among the VE Day parties taking place up and down the UK, the Blaenavon Workmen's Hall in Pontypool, Torfaen, is hosting a Great Victory Bake off, a Knit for Victory event and a costume are hosting events and some have waived their usual road closure fee, while pubs in Wales and England will stay open late on Thursday to allow customers to raise a glass in their local until 01:00 BST. What is planned on the Bank Holiday? 11:00-17:00 picnic in Cardiff Castle with music, walkabout entertainers, circus and puppet shows and children's crafts12:00-15:00 street party in Powys in Llanfyllin town square with 1940s fancy dress and a singalong12:00-1500 street party at Pill Millennium Community Centre in Newport10:30-16:30 Connah's Quay veterans and community hub will host music, and vintage military vehicles14:00 Amroth Parish Hall in Pembrokeshire will have wartime memorabilia What is VE Day? Victory in Europe (VE) Day on 8 May 1945 saw Britain and its Allies formally accept Nazi Germany's unconditional 15:00, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced on the radio that the war in Europe had come to an end, following Germany's surrender the day before, sparking spontaneous celebrations across the read about what's happening across the BBC to mark VE Day, click here.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Man's "lifelong obsession" to restore Jersey's German bunkers
A charity has worked to preserve Jersey's unique wartime the Germans left Jersey following their surrender in 1945, they left behind countless bunkers and other fortifications which for decades lay the 1960s and 1970s, members of the Channel Islands Occupation Society (CIOS) decided to reopen these fortifications again. Malcolm Amy, from CIOS, has worked to restore the bunkers on the headland at Corbiere and the tunnel that joins them. The CIOS said it is a "voluntary charity dedicated to protecting and preserving all aspects of the island's unique Second World War heritage." The team members spend hours cleaning, restoring and researching the bunkers. "I've been obsessed with the occupation since I was a child," Mr Amy scrubbing away the rust, mouldy concrete and other detritus that filled the rooms in the bunker, they lined them with wood panelling, repainted and filled them with the military equipment and sleeping arrangements that had been there during World War were able to be very accurate because of a chance encounter in 2006 when the former commander of the bunker Hoppe described how the bunker looked, and a little about the men who served crew room is where they slept and ate, and has been furnished with wooden wardrobes, mesh bunk beds and blankets, and mannequins representing the soldiers garrisoned in the bunker. The main bunker is linked by a tunnel to another one further up the hill. Mr Amy said after they dried the damp concrete they found scratches and pencil marks made by the engineers who oversaw the original said the reason he was driven to it was because he wanted to show people today "how the other side lived", and that the Germans were individuals and human Amy said he believed it was essential today's generation learned about what happened in the island during the occupation, from every perspective."For me, it's just to ensure that part of the island's heritage is viewed now and is passed on to future generations, which is why most of the team do it," he said. "It's important to educate people about what happened here and present it in a truthful way."
BBC News
24-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Aircraft climbing frame honours WW2 legacy in Weston Colville
A climbing frame created in the shape of a World War Two military aircraft has been installed at a village playground to honour its local wartime Lancaster Bomber play equipment was designed specially for Weston Colville in Cambridgeshire, close to a former airfield that played an important role in 1943-45 bombing new playground was designed and built with grant funding from several organisations, including more than £20,000 from central McDonald, lead cabinet member for economic development for South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC), said the project was "one of the best examples" of projects in the area, helped by the Rural England Prosperity Fund. The playground is close to RAF Wratting Common, on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk Bombers which flew out of the base engaged in bombing campaigns in Germany in the latter stages of World War also air-dropped food to people in countries that had been invaded, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, and helped repatriate prisoners of war. The idea to build the bomber-themed frame, which also features a slide, came from Bedfordshire-based company Setter Play McDonald said the climbing frame would give local children "a sense of their own history and the village's history", adding: "This kind of project helps to bring all that to life." "We wanted a big statement piece that would fit with the area," Jess Ashbridge, clerk of Weston Colville Parish Council, said. "We were thinking of a tractor or something similar because we're a very rural area, but Setter Play came back and said you need a Lancaster Bomber."We're absolutely thrilled with it because it is so unique."The playground's design also had input from a local working group, which included 18-year-old Daniel Jackson, who put together designs as part of his Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).The student, from Long Road Sixth Form College, in Cambridge, said he particularly "liked researching into different ways to make the playground inclusive".It features a "combi-swing", which allows a parent to sit next to a small child and a roundabout which is accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs. His mother, Jo Jackson, from the Weston Colville Reading Room, said the playground was "so important for our identity", because the village had lost its pub and post playground is one of two in the village and can be found on the edge of its cricket club to build it came from the National Lottery, Thalia Waste Management, Wadlow Wind Farm, the parish council, Reading Room and local largest portion, which paid for the bomber, came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), via the district council. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
