The grand plans for marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe have of course ended up in tatters; with the pandemic forcing nearly all the major events to be cancelled and other stuff having moved online.
It's very difficult therefore to think of VE Day without thinking about our current situation. We're in the midst of the biggest public health crisis in my lifetime at any rate. There are signs that we are at least at the end of the beginning, with some loosening up of lockdown restrictions likely from Monday, although any timeline is not firm and should be based on the science.
The "Blitz Spirit" is somewhat of a historical myth. Many people were likely terrified of the bombs, sick of the deprivation and anxious for their loved ones. We might not have got a cheery reaction to the war, but instead we got a dogged perseverance. It would have been easy for us to accept Hitler's peace offer and escape the Blitz, allowing Nazi Germany and the USSR to slug it out.
But we didn't take that poisoned chalice. People sacrificed their personal wants for the greater good and Europe as a whole is better off.
This crisis will pass; we have lived through worse and survived as a nation. There are of course questions about the response and the preparation. That will be discussed in other posts.
Today, I want to give thanks to the wartime generation.
We will remember them.
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