Helpline: 0300 102 1919
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Home for VE Day
Jack Lyon was shot down in a raid on Dusseldorf in June 1941 and spent almost four years as a PoW. Marched west by his German captors from Stalag Luft III as the war drew to an end, Jack finally returned home on VE Day.
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"There was an atmosphere of thanksgiving that it was all over"
While Britons flooded into the streets to celebrate the end of war in Europe, the crews of Bomber Command remained cautious. Their minds turned to their comrades on the Eastern Front for whom peace was still some way off.
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La guerre est finie – the war is over!
Ten days before VE Day was officially announced on May 8 1945, 22-year-old Eric Reedman was stationed in Brussels with 80 Wing. Eric tells us how he and his comrades heard the war was coming to an end before it was officially announced in England.
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"Everybody was happy!"
VE Day celebrations were in full swing by the time RAF veteran Frank Tolley arrived home. The former Warrant Officer was on leave in Lincoln when he heard the news.
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A conga line down the High Street heralded peace in Essex
Seventeen-year-old Iris Dabbs was sent straight to the train station when VE Day was announced on May 8, 1945. After 18 months in Dumbarton, Scotland, she and her family were excited to be able to return home.
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Derek Lovell celebrated a birthday he will never forget in the run-up to VE Day
Typhoon fighter pilot Derek Lovell received the best present of all on 5 May 1945, when Germany announced its surrender to the Allied forces on his 23rd birthday.
