VE Day Jubilation Is Proof We Will Come Out Of This

Overjoyed: Revellers in London celebrate VE Day in 1945

ON MAY 7, 1945, General Alfred Jodl, the commander of German forces in western Europe, walked into a technical college in the city of Reims which served as General Eisenhower’s HQ in France. There he signed the unconditional surrender of the German military and brought an end to the war in Europe at midnight – though the struggle against the Japanese continued.

The day after – the first Victory in Europe (VE) Day – vast crowds gathered across Britain to celebrate, after almost six years of bloodshed, destruction and trauma. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was applauded in Whitehall and people gathered in huge numbers to cheer him and the Royal Family as they waved from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

There has perhaps never been such a sense of collective joy experienced across this nation, nor such a dark cloud lifted from the world with the defeat of the Nazi ideology.

On Friday we mark the 75th anniversary of that day, but not with the celebrations which had been hoped for and planned.

The last of the veterans will sadly not have their day in the sun to be cheered by the generations they helped save.

Instead, perhaps for the first time in those 75 years since the surrender of Germany, we are again fighting a campaign against a terrible enemy that not only poses a threat to this country but the whole world.

Coronavirus does not drop bombs but is a hidden killer that has already accounted for more than 27,000 lives in Britain alone.

So it is perhaps worth using the anniversary to remember what it was that took Britain from the brink of defeat and despair to victory and relief on that bright spring day in 1945.