'One of the most memorable nights of my life'
Remembering Victory in Europe Day as its 80th anniversary approaches
It was May 8, 1945.
As word spread that Nazi Germany had surrendered, jubilant crowds blocked the streets of London, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with King George VI for their weekly lunch at Buckingham Palace. Then Churchill returned to 10 Downing Street to officially inform the world that the war in Europe had finally ended after six long years.
“WE WANT THE KING,” shouted crowds outside Buckingham Palace. At 3:11 p.m., the balcony doors opened. As the roar turned into a deafening scream, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret stepped out. The King wore his Royal Navy uniform while Princess Elizabeth was in the khaki of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, while Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were both dressed in blue.
At 5:30 p.m., Winston Churchill joined the royals on the balcony.
At 9:00 p.m., the King addressed the world from a small broadcasting studio that had been constructed on the ground floor of the palace:
Today we give thanks to Almighty God for a great deliverance. Speaking from our Empire’s oldest capital city, war-battered but never for one moment daunted or dismayed, speaking from London, I ask you to join me in that act of thanksgiving…
At this hour when the dreadful shadow of war has passed far from our hearths and homes in these islands, we may at last make one pause for thanksgiving and then turn our thoughts to the task all over the world which peace in Europe brings to it…
“We roared ourselves hoarse,” writer Noel Coward would recount. “I suppose this is the greatest day in our history.”
In total, the royals would appear on that balcony eight times, the last time illuminated by floodlights, which hadn’t been used for the first time in years. At 10:45 p.m., the two princesses joined a small group of young officers outside the palace. “My sister and I realized we couldn’t see what the crowds were enjoying … so we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves,” Princess Elizabeth recalled later. “After crossing Green Park, we stood outside and shouted, ‘We want the King,’ and were successful in seeing my parents on the balcony, having cheated slightly because we sent a message into the house to say we were waiting outside. I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
“No one seemed to have recognized the two young women as they joined the conga line into one door of the Ritz and out of the other,” wrote Mark Logue, grandson of the King’s speech therapist, who was with the royals at the palace on that important day.
“Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet,” wrote King George VI of his daughters in his diary that night.
The King’s mother, Queen Mary, celebrated at a local village club near her wartime home of Badminton House. “We sang songs with them while they drank beer and cyder, a most friendly affair,” she remembered.
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE
Sunday, May 4: The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attend official commemorations marking the liberation of Denmark.
Monday, May 5: The King and Queen, together with other royals and the prime minister, join Second World War veterans on the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace to watch a military procession process down The Mall from Whitehall.
After the parade, the royal family will appear on the palace’s balcony to watch a flypast.
Monday, May 5: The King and Queen, along with other royals and the prime minister, will join veterans and members of the Second World War generation for a tea party in the garden of Buckingham Palace.
Tuesday, May 6: The King and Queen unveil their coronation state portraits at the National Gallery on the second anniversary of the coronation. Commissioned by the King and Queen, the portraits were painted by Peter Kuhfeld and Paul S. Benney, respectively, and will join the Royal Collection. Their majesties also re-open the newly renovated Sainsbury Wing.
Tuesday, May 6: Queen Camilla views a new display of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London. Nearly 30,000 poppies from a First World War commemoration in 2014 will represent a “wound” inside the inner walls of the Tower, to reflect the long-lasting sacrifices of the war. Note: The Tower was repeatedly bombed during the war.
Thursday, May 8: Their majesties and members of the royal family attend a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey. On arrival, everyone will observe a two-minute national silence of reflection and remembrance. Upon leaving, Queen Camilla and other royals will lay flowers at the Innocent Victims’ Memorial, outside the abbey’s west door.
Thursday, May 8: The King and Queen attend a concert at Horse Guards Parade to conclude the V-E Day commemorations.
Friday, May 9 to Saturday, May 10: Princess Anne and her husband, Tim Laurence, attend commemorations in the self-governing British Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and Sark marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Bailiwick. The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi forces during the Second World War
My latest on Global TV’s The Morning Show on April 28 and May 1 (two separate pieces):
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