The 77th anniversary of V-E Day is May 8
The 77th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, the end of the Second World War in Europe, will be coming up on May 8.
After six years of war, people from the Allied countries took to the streets to celebrate.
My book, “Love in the Air: Second World War Letters” is about the more than 600 letters my parents wrote to each other while they were apart.
Here is an excerpt from the book about how the festivities were marked in Bournemouth, England, where my father, Harry Culley, his friend, Al (Smitty) Smith, and the other musicians in the RCAF Personnel Reception Centre band were stationed:
Harry and Smitty headed over to the Norfolk Hotel, across from the Bournemouth Daily Echo’s newspaper office.
“If there’s anywhere to be in Bournemouth, this is probably it,” Harry said.
British, Canadian and American service personnel and civilians crowded the ballroom, talking, drinking and smoking together in anticipation of the joyous news.
The hotel staff was hooking up loudspeakers to a radio in front.
At precisely 3 p.m. the unmistakable voice of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill boomed through the room.
“Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight. We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing...”
At that, everyone cheered.
“This is your victory. Victory in the cause of freedom. In all our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their bit. None have flinched ... God bless you all.”
Someone started singing “Land of Hope and Glory” and they all joined in, laughing and crying at the same time.
Bournemouth, Tues., May 8, 1945 V-E Day, 12 midnight
My Sweetheart Helen,
This is the day we’ve all been waiting for ... It’s pretty hard to realize now that the war is over, when you consider that three years of your life have been moulded around wartime conditions and now all that is at an end.
The news will seem pretty tame now won’t it?
One of the boys who just received a parcel invited us over to his hotel to have a feed ... Well, after finishing off 5 tins of Spam I spent most of the afternoon lying in bed while the rest of them got to work on rum and cokes. I only had one drink believe it or not. I’ve never seen Smitty get so flushed in the face as he was this afternoon; he was almost purple!
The landlady invited the ones who could walk down for tea, then I walked over to the Pavilion to see the fountain with a POW [prisoner of war] who was with us and spent a few minutes looking at the constant changing of colours and patterns.
After that we went down to the beach and sat down to get cooled off. There was a big bonfire going on the sand with hundreds of people around it singing old songs; they were using deck chairs as fire wood. There was another fire going up in the park.
It was getting late and my feet were getting awfully tired so I decided to head home, and was it dark! The only light to be seen was at the Norfolk Hotel and the people flocked around it like moths. They had floodlights on it and the violinist from the orchestra was playing on the balcony for the crowds. It sure was a feast for the eyes to see all those lights.
All my love Harry xxxxxx
“Love in the Air: Second World War Letters” is available in the Peterborough Public Library, at friesenpress.com, and on Amazon.
For more information, please visit joanneculley.com.