As the nation commemorates the 75th anniversary of VE Day our readers share their memories of that momentous day and what lost loved ones told them of the victory celebrations...

RACHAEL BLETCHLY RHIAN LUBIN

I was aged six when the war started.

On VE Day we had a big street party.

One of the neighbours, Mr Emery, brought his piano out into the street and his wife played it.

All the surrounding streets had lorries driving round with the children on the back who were all dressed up.

Each truck had a theme, ours was The Victory Queen.

Claire, being the eldest of us, was the Victory Queen... we were all dressed in red, white and blue.

The lorries were driven round the surrounding streets and through the hospital grounds.

We children were so excited and we all really enjoyed the day.

We had a small shelter in our back garden at home and some nights we used it and other nights we stayed in the pantry under the stairs.

Our ARP Warden, Mr Courtney, used to come down our entry during the air raids and shout at Mum through the pantry window: “Are you all all right, Mrs Bate?”

In my mind I can still hear the German planes flying over us – the hum, hum, hum sound that they made. You could tell they were loaded.

We used to hear the whistle bombs being dropped and us children would go out the next day to pick up the bits of shrapnel that had fallen.