On the 80th anniversary of 1945.
Agincourt, Crecy, Waterloo, Armistice Day, Battle of Britain, Dunkirk, VE Day, VJ Day … these are all days worthy of commemoration and I for one believe they should be commemorated on the day, not for the convenience of Them above.
The issue with the argument is that people work (or at least did before Tory’s started and Labour finished the tradition off), with the indigenous population having jobs, plus man the main breadwinner, women mixing part time with child rearing … and so it goes. In wartime, women stepped up and their lives became doubly onerous.
The degree of self-sacrifice of these men and women is something which should be commemorated forever. This captures the relief of those on that day of relief, VE Day:
And here:
It would be narrowsighted to only think of Britain in this, as the Americans, Canadians, Commonwealth countries, European countries involved, plus the USSR were all involved … the Russkies commemorating theirs on May 9th Day of Victory.
Some of our reflections were posted across the way at Unherdables, not forgetting DAD:
Dearieme: I don’t remember any fuss about VE day when I was a boy. It was Armistice Day that we did fuss about.
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JH: Ditto. It was Armistice Day for us.
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Steve: I concur, there was little to no observance up until the 50th. I certainly can’t remember anything about VE Day even when I was serving. We did a D-Day parade on the 40th at the Commando Memorial, Achnacarry. I was listening to a historian on GB News and she said these commemorations (D-Day VE/VJ Day) only took off in the 1980s. This VE Day will probably be the last major one where veterans are present. Those with us today are over 96 with the eldest 104.
And over at OoL … Grandpa:
https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2025/05/my-ve-day-memories.html
I can only finish by saying that, especially in the light of the current attempt by Them above, plus other groups around the world, including those who have invaded, to kill off Allied countries’ identities, heritage and culture … over the dead and wounded bodies of those who fought and served earlier, plus ourselves in the coming events … no way will the evil, anti-western and anti-second world forces prevail.
Remember VE Day today.
It was years after I grew up that I learned that there had been an Empire Day when I was a boy. I knew nothing about it.
If I had heard of it I’d probably have laughed it off as one of those silly things London fusses about.
But Armistice Day was deadly serious: we all had kin on the War Memorial, all the local names. Brass band, Pipe Band, Wolf Cubs and Scouts, British Legion, ex-Nurses in their wartime uniforms, and so on. Moving stuff.
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JH: Yes.
On Empire we Cubs and Scouts would come to school in our uniforms. So would Boys’Brigade and St Andrew’s Ambulance Brigade. Scoll Assembly was quite a colourful affaire.
Whoops – Empire day…
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JH: I’m not admitting I was alive and sentient during the days of Empire Day. 🫢