VE Day Tomorrow

chroniclard · 8 May 2020 at 17:19

Few people sat out in the neighbourhood. We're just sat in back garden avoiding people.

Minibiker · 8 May 2020 at 17:21

chroniclard said:
Few people sat out in the neighbourhood. We're just sat in back garden avoiding people.

Same, I've been putting up a new fence in the back garden and making the kids a little play area... Safe to say I need a bath

BowdonUK · 8 May 2020 at 18:19

I think in a way this pandemic as focused peoples minds more on what is important and to be thankful of what we have in life.

Thank God for VE Day, and all the veterans of Britain and our allies.

NZXT30 · 8 May 2020 at 19:29

barbelblanker said:
I am ex military, if people want to put up bunting and sing a few songs to make themselves feel better, carry on.
Not for me though, it should be a commemoration of something 75 years ago, not a celebration.

You were just a gun for hire though motivated by money. Today we're celebrating men that sacrificed themselves selflessly.

Terminal_Boy · 8 May 2020 at 19:47

Have already raised a glass to Able Seaman Albert “Bertie” Sewell, one of the sixty members of the crew of the Dido class light cruiser HMS Phoebe killed when she was torpedoed off the West Coast of Africa on 23rd October 1942.

My maternal grandfather that I never met, obviously.

adam cool dude · 8 May 2020 at 21:18

NZXT30 said:
You were just a gun for hire though motivated by money. Today we're celebrating men that sacrificed themselves selflessly.

My grandfather would say the same and he spent 25 years in the army and got an MBE out of it. He loved the army because of the career that opened up for him but it was no different than the corporate world with people trying to get a leg up the ladder as quickly as possible. He was never interested in VE day as it was something that had to be done and the memories too painful for him. In a way we look back on it too much as we are a shell of what we were. The Germans won in the end.

iamtheoneneo · 8 May 2020 at 21:43

barbelblanker said:
I am ex military, if people want to put up bunting and sing a few songs to make themselves feel better, carry on.
Not for me though, it should be a commemoration of something 75 years ago, not a celebration.

Dont you think we have enough of those? How many nameless dead are we supposed to morn before we look to the past in a way that's positive for the present and future?

Millions died in a world akin to hell and it sucks it happened, but surely we are allowed to spend one day remembering the victory over facism and all that it stood for.

And if days like this get just one person to wiki how it all happened,the advances, the final battles and the days of surrending leading up to VE day then I would say it's a day well worth having and respecting.

alchal · 8 May 2020 at 21:49

adam cool dude said:
My grandfather would say the same and he spent 25 years in the army and got an MBE out of it. He loved the army because of the career that opened up for him but it was no different than the corporate world with people trying to get a leg up the ladder as quickly as possible. He was never interested in VE day as it was something that had to be done and the memories too painful for him. In a way we look back on it too much as we are a shell of what we were. The Germans won in the end.

Funny how it worked out,they lost a war,all of their industry and we rebuilt there country for free and modernised to get one over on the Russians.

And they are now the defacto power in Europe,well economically.

Go figure.

Had one grandad fight in North Africa and taken prisoner,escaped three or four time before finally succeeding and fighting/hiding with the partisans for the rest of the war in Italy.
My nan in her 90's to this day jokes about his other wife's in Italy and we may have Italian cousins.

My nans brother was captured by the Japanese , he survived but apparently was a ghost of what he was,died in his early forties I believe as a result of all the malnutrition, didn't talk much to anyone.

RIP to all those who were lost.

Infiniteey · 8 May 2020 at 21:51

Another great speech by the Queen. Love that woman.

Yadda · 8 May 2020 at 22:10

I'll admit the Queen's address left a lump in my throat.

"Never give up, never despair."

When she said that we were a nation of people that the fallen would recognise and admire, I nearly broke. If I can be half the man that my grandfather was then I'd be very proud indeed.

wolfie138 · 9 May 2020 at 18:02

NZXT30 said:
You were just a gun for hire though motivated by money. Today we're celebrating men that sacrificed themselves selflessly.

i thought they were ordered to go.

Gerard · 9 May 2020 at 20:46

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1259193716843122689

Brain dead loyalists in some area of Belfast showing their stupidity again. :rolleyes:

stockhausen · 9 May 2020 at 22:44

alchal said:
. . . we rebuilt there country for free and modernised to get one over on the Russians . . .

Actually, I think that the Americans may have had a wee bit to do with rebuilding Germany, as part of their European Recovery Program - to get one over on the Russians

Gerard said:
Brain dead Loyalists in some area of Belfast showing their stupidity again.

Give 'em back to the Republic -you know it makes sense.

The Geezer · 9 May 2020 at 23:33

alchal said:
Funny how it worked out,they lost a war,all of their industry and we rebuilt there country for free and modernised to get one over on the Russians.

And they are now the defacto power in Europe,well economically.

Go figure.

You may want to look up ‘reparations’

Blackjack Davy · 10 May 2020 at 00:05

alchal said:
Had one grandad fight in North Africa and taken prisoner,escaped three or four time before finally succeeding and fighting/hiding with the partisans for the rest of the war in Italy.
My nan in her 90's to this day jokes about his other wife's in Italy and we may have Italian cousins.

My nans brother was captured by the Japanese , he survived but apparently was a ghost of what he was,died in his early forties I believe as a result of all the malnutrition, didn't talk much to anyone.

RIP to all those who were lost.

My great grandfather survived WWI but my maternal grandfather wasn't at the front in WWII as he was in a reserved occupation so was in the Home Guard instead, very Dad's Army. Had to go around patching up bombed buildings and make do, was speaking to my mother about it yesterday there was a house in her street that was hit by a bomb it remained a wreck for years.

My stepfather's father was in Burma got awarded the Burma Star spent years in a japanese POW camp survived it but had a hatred of them ever after I remember him he lived to a decent age at least. At his funeral a whole bunch of vets turned up and paraded through the village banners and all.

alchal · 10 May 2020 at 07:55

stockhausen said:
Actually, I think that the Americans may have had a wee bit to do with rebuilding Germany, as part of their European Recovery Program - to get one over on the Russians

Give 'em back to the Republic -you know it makes sense.

I was going to say the Americans as we were to busy paying them back.
Was an interesting documentary about why we failed so bad at manufacturing after a period Basically unions not wanting automation combined with Japan and Germany having to build their industry from the ground up.
Same for south Korea.

alchal · 10 May 2020 at 08:04

The Geezer said:
You may want to look up ‘reparations’

Germany has ever paid anywhere close to the damage it wrought around Europe and the world.
Same with Japan.

If you can give me a figure of what they actually paid? I bet we paid more back to the USA for ww2

alchal · 10 May 2020 at 08:05

Blackjack Davy said:
My great grandfather survived WWI but my maternal grandfather wasn't at the front in WWII as he was in a reserved occupation so was in the Home Guard instead, very Dad's Army. Had to go around patching up bombed buildings and make do, was speaking to my mother about it yesterday there was a house in her street that was hit by a bomb it remained a wreck for years.

My stepfather's father was in Burma got awarded the Burma Star spent years in a japanese POW camp survived it but had a hatred of them ever after I remember him he lived to a decent age at least. At his funeral a whole bunch of vets turned up and paraded through the village banners and all.

Hopefully VJ day will be commemorated just as much,very much a forgotten war here in the UK,as is Korea.

The Geezer · 10 May 2020 at 08:28

alchal said:
Germany has ever paid anywhere close to the damage it wrought around Europe and the world.
Same with Japan.

If you can give me a figure of what they actually paid? I bet we paid more back to the USA for ww2

They’ve had a good go:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_reparations

Payback is never going to be in full when you include the waste of human life for a war that could have been avoided.

stockhausen · 10 May 2020 at 08:42

alchal said:
. . .
Was an interesting documentary about why we failed so bad at manufacturing after a period Basically unions not wanting automation combined with Japan and Germany having to build their industry from the ground up.
. . .

Without question, Germany and Japan benefited from having to rebuild from the ground up, from an imposed change in their governance and from a Western desire not to repeat the financial ruin that they had inflicted on Germany after World War I.

As to the Unions "not wanting automation", I believe that this was not just the unions, I think that the owners wanted to minimise the cost of modernisation - short-termism and profiteering became very much the "British Way" after the war.

alchal said:
Germany has [n]ever paid anywhere close to the damage it wrought around Europe and the world.
. . .

I think that there was a perception that "punishing" Germany (or Japan) would only lead to future trouble as happened as a result of the World War I reparations.

Following World War II there was a short-lived enthusiasm for the idea of "United Nations" - quickly screwed up by Russia and America

VE Day Tomorrow

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