VE Day 75th Anniversary
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will lead a two-minute silence at 11:00 BST to honour servicemen and women during the World War Two, and the Queen will address the nation later at 21:00- the exact moment her father, King George VI, gave a radio address 75 years ago, as part of the UK’s marking the 75th anniversary of VE Day, as the country remains in lockdown due to the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, thanked the VE Day generation saying “ our gratitude will be eternal”.
Victory in Europe Day marks the day in 1945 when then-prime minister Sir Winston Churchill announced that the war in Europe had come to an end after Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered.
Seventy Five years after the end of the war, commemorating her father’s VE Day address, The Queen expresses pride in a UK the wartime generation would admire and praised Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic that has filled the empty streets with “Love”.
She said: “Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and form our doorsteps. We should and will remember them. At the start the outlook seemed bleak, the end distant, the outcome uncertain. But we kept faith that the cause was right and this belief, as my father noted in his broadcast carried us through. Never Give Up, Never Despair, that was the message of VE Dauy. They died so that we could live as free people in a world of free nations. They risked all so our families and neighbourhoods could be safe”.
The Royul Air Force dis[lay team the Red Arrows staged flypast over London,, while RAF Typhoon jets flew over Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
UK airlines say theyhave been told the government will bring in a 14-day quarantine oor anyone arriving in UK from any country apart form Republic of Ireland in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new restriction is to take effect at the end of this month. People arriving in the UK would have to self isolate at a private residence.