Victory, what victory? The generation that’s clueless about VE Day
IT marked the end of years of blood, sweat and tears – but most young people have no idea what VE Day is.
With two days until the 70th anniversary, a survey found 54 per cent of Britons aged 18 to 25 did not know that Friday’s VE Day celebrates the end of the Second World War in Europe.
And 38 per cent could not identify Winston Churchill as the prime minister who declared victory in Europe on May 8, 1945.
Seven per cent believed it was former US president John F Kennedy, another 7 per cent said Margaret Thatcher and 4 per cent thought it was Tony Blair.
The Onepoll survey, commissioned by SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association), the Armed Forces charity, questioned 1,000 young people about VE Day and the Second World War.
Asked which country’s invasion by Germany led Britain to declare war in 1939, 55 per cent were unable to identify Poland – and 4.5 per cent said it was the invasion of Britain. David Murray, chief executive of SSAFA, said: ‘It is a real shame that so many of our young people do not have a basic level of knowledge of the Second World War.
‘Many of them probably have not-too- distant relatives who fought in what was by far the biggest world war we have seen, in terms of lives lost.’
More than a third believed the first moon landing, Britain’s entry into the European Union
‘Don’t have basic
knowledge’
and the fall of the Berlin Wall had all happened before VE Day. And nearly three-quarters drastically underestimated the death toll, unaware that 60million died.
Overall, women knew more than men on the details of the war and the poll revealed Scots to be most knowledgeable, while Londoners performed worst.
Mr Murray, who served for more than 30 years in the RAF, said: ‘The nostalgic memory of VE Day is being played out across Britain and so it should be. As a nation we have a strong tradition of celebrating our Forces and we have much to be proud of.’
Three days of commemorations will begin on Friday, when party leaders, royals, and veterans will gather for a day of remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
At 3pm – the moment in 1945 that Churchill declared an end to war in Europe – there will be a two-minute silence across the country. Schools are being encouraged to hold events and observe the silence.
On Friday evening, a chain of more than 100 beacons will be lit from Unst in the Shetlands to Lowestoft in Suffolk.
And on Saturday communities are being encouraged to hold street parties while churches are being asked to ring their bells, at 11am as they did in 1945.
A Forties- style concert that evening in Horse Guards Parade, behind Downing Street, will be shown on BBC1.
At a service in Westminster Abbey on Sunday, the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be joined by veterans and their families, members of the Armed Forces and representatives of Allied nations.
A parade will go from the abbey past the balcony of the Treasury building, where Churchill made his historic VE Day speech.