V E DAY - 8th MAY By Baz Hamblyn

Talk  |  Seated

BAZ HAMBLYN: After 25 years flying in the RAF as a navigator, Barry ran a training company for airline pilots for the next 25 years after doing a favour for a friend.
His wife had a lavender business, growing 15 varieties of lavender and producing a range of lavender products (he was the tractor driver).The shop was too large for sole use so Barry closed his training company and indulged his passion for selling antiques. He is now a trustee of our small but beautiful local museum

TALK: VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY – the day the Nazi military surrendered to the allies: the British Empire, The United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Free French Army. It happened on the 8th May 1945. We had pushed the Nazis out of North Africa and what remained of the Nazi Afrika Korps surrendered in Tunisia on 13th May 1943. The allies landed in Sicily on 10th July 1943 and slowly pushed North through Italy. The D-Day landings in Normandy started on 6th June 1944 and eleven months later the Germans surrendered. VE-Day was declared a public holiday to celebrate the end of the second world war and, oh boy, was it celebrated. Britain had been at war with the Axis powers, Germany and Italy, for almost six years but now it was over.