UKC

Whether you're toasting election victory or drowning your sorrows this morning maybe we should all spare a thought, and raise a glass, to to the hardships and losses our parents and grandparents went through to enable us to hold such elections.

My dad spent it working down a coal mine but does think he may have had a beer afterwards.

In reply to Postmanpat:

My dad spent VE Day flying a Lancaster bomber to Rheims to repatriate newly released POWs and fly them back to the UK as part of Operation Exodus

In reply to Postmanpat:

mine were northerners down t'pit too

In reply to Postmanpat:

My Dad and his shipmates were summoned to stand in front of a Canadian admiral who delivered a heroic speech followed by an exultant "Now on to Tokyo!!"

Several hundred matelots, who had spent the war as North Atlantic and Arctic convoy escorts, just stared at him in total silence.

In reply to Postmanpat:

We could do without some of the hyperbole though. It might have been swing jazz and kissing in Piccadilly Circus but as several interviewees have said, for most cities it was business as usual but with an extra half pint of piss weak war beer after 6 grinding years....

I recall one gran telling me she worked double shifts at St Lukes patching blokes together, the other a normal shift in the wool mills.

My other grandad was in Italy and the other had died abruptly of Germans, at Arnhem, which was the best thing the Germans ever did as he was an alcoholic wife beater.

In reply to Nevis-the-cat:


My mum told me that where she was in Devon with a young child (me) there wasn't much appetite for wild celebration, just relief that it was over, tinged with sadness at so many friends who hadn't made it.......

And of course, apprehension because the war in the Far East appeared to be far from over.

In reply to Trangia:

Hmm, well I used to work with a bloke on Liverpool docks, and remember him fondly reminiscing 'Got me 'ole at the top of Wellington's column on VE night' he told me, and I have no reason to doubt him.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I've absolutely no doubt that many thousands celebrated, but equally many of those most affected by the losses or who had loved ones in the Far East, or on Notice to be posted out there, took are more restrained view.

In reply to Nevis-the-cat:

My mum's dad was also in Italy eighty years ago, having fought in North Africa and done two landing craft assaults (Sicily & Salerno, the latter a blood bath). He got home in October. Kesselring was a tireless foe.

I give thanks that it is not me or mine

In reply to Postmanpat:

My Dads Dad spent his war as an ambulance driver in Ilford and NE London throughout all the Blitzes, was present at Bethnal Green tube disaster. His family only found out when he became delirious when terminally ill just what he had done as he never talked about it, he only ever came home and sobbed at the kitchen table. Never had a wicker basket after the war as it reminded him of the baskets they put the unidentifiable blobs of flesh into.

In reply to Ridge:
Brilliant!

In reply to Postmanpat:
My dad was in Hamburg or that area, they were lining up to fight into Denmark.

In reply to elsewhere:

Yes I cant imagine there was much appetite for going 'on to Tokyo ' amongst anyone. At that time Patton was also all up for pushing on past Berlin and on to Moscow. Somethings just need to stop when they stop!

In reply to Postmanpat:

My mother was in the ATS on Anti-aircraft guns. She celebrated VE day in Berlin with various allied troops including Russians.

In reply to Trangia:
My dad was a rear gunner in a 61 squadron Lancaster and he spent Ve day doing the same thing.
his mate in the mid upper turret told me recently that the first soldiers they brought back were Sikhs.

In reply to Postmanpat:

My Dad was back with the parachute regiment in the UK preparing for the invasion of Japan. He'd been injured after the Rhine Crossing. He didn't have too much criticism of the decision to drop the atom bombs.