Scotsman.com
Europe falls silent as world observes VE Day
ANGUS HOWARTH
9 May 2005
THEY were fewer in number than in previous years but the spirit of the dwindling band of brothers was undiminished.
As the mournful sound of the Last Post drifted over Europe’s war memorials, they lowered their tear-moistened granite faces to remember those who never made it home.
Their polished medals and regimental badges gleaming proudly in the sunshine, thousands of Second World War veterans across Europe marked the 60th anniversary of VE Day yesterday.
In London, the stirring commemoration was led by the Prince of Wales, along with a host of government and military VIPs, including the new Defence Secretary, John Reid.
Dressed in formal naval uniform, Prince Charles began the wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
He was followed by Dr Reid, General Sir Michael Walker, the Chief of the Defence staff, representatives of veterans’ organisations and personnel from the emergency services.
On her first major state occasion since their marriage, the Duchess of Cornwall looked on from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Following the Last Post and Reveille, the crowds clustered at Whitehall fell silent for two minutes in tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle against Hitler.
Around 2,300 servicemen later marched to the rousing strains of military bands through Hyde Park, saluting the Prince of Wales and his wife, at the annual parade of the Combined Cavalry Old Comrades’ Association.
There were servicemen from ten regular regiments, five Yeomanry regiments, Indian Cavalry as well as representatives of 81 Commonwealth Cavalry regiments from Australia, Canada, Fiji, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.
The Prince also chatted to the young recruits - hours before his own son, Prince Harry, began officer training at the Sandhurst military academy.
The commemoration was part of a series of events yesterday from Paris to Berlin to Moscow marking Victory in Europe on 8 May, 1945 .
The United States president, George Bush, flew into the Netherlands where he paid homage to the “terrible price” paid by soldiers in the Second World War. Mr Bush laid wreaths with Queen Beatrix at the US Margraten cemetery near Maastricht, where 8,000 US servicemen are buried.
Members of the White House delegation, wearing orange raincoats, were among the 10,000 people who braved the cold to pay their respects.
Military planes streaked over the graveyard in a “missing man” formation, where one plane breaks from the group to signify a fallen comrade.
Mr Bush said: “We commemorate a great victory for liberty. And the thousands of white marble crosses and Stars of David underscore the terrible price we paid for that victory.
“Americans and Europeans are continuing to work together and are bringing freedom and hope to places where it has long been denied. In Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon and across the broader Middle East.”
The Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, paid tribute to the fallen US soldiers, saying “they gave us the most precious gift - freedom”.
First Lady Laura Bush laid flowers at the grave of a Medal of Honour recipient from the 104th Division, in which her late father served in the war.
Mr Bush later left for Moscow, where he and other heads of state will attend Russia’s victory celebrations today.
But he risked damaging relations with the Kremlin after he said the Soviet domination of eastern Europe was one of “the greatest wrongs of history”, ahead of talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
In France, President Jacques Chirac laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, watched by troops from the many nations that united to crush Hitler’s reign.
They included Britain, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and the US.
Jets flew over the tree-lined Champs Elysées in the French capital, streaking the sky with red, white and blue smoke - the colours of the French flag.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero travelled to Austria to mark the liberation of the former Mauthausen Nazi death camp, where some 100,000 inmates were killed. About 6,000 of the camp’s victims were Spaniards, enemies of the fascist Spanish leader General Francisco Franco. Mr Zapatero said: “As prime minister of the government of a democratic Spain, I want to pay homage, remember and express my admiration for all Spaniards who suffered in this concentration camp.”
In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the German president, Horst Köhler, laid wreaths at a memorial to victims of Nazism and war.
But the German capital’s VE Day commemorations were nearly overshadowed when neo-Nazis from the National Democratic Party tried to gate-crash the event.
Some 3,000 members of the far-right group, who labelled the event a “day of shame”, eventually called off a march to the Brandenburg Gate.
Away from the celebrations, Berlin’s ambassador to London criticised Britain’s “obsession with the Nazi period”.
Thomas Matussek said the two countries were “slowly drifting apart” because there was so little interaction between British and German schoolchildren.
Mr Matussek told a Sunday newspaper: “Now, I have found this great interest in and obsession with the Nazi period is still there, but there are few people who actually know Germany.”
He added: “We have to make a distinction between the clichéd stereotypes that are outright funny - like in Dad’s Army or Fawlty Towers - and something that goes a little deeper. The humour stops when I hear that German children are regularly beaten up and abused by British youngsters.”
In London last night around 15,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square for a free concert which was organised by the Royal British Legion, the BBC and the London mayor, Ken Livingstone.
A Battle of Britain Dakota DC3 based at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, flew at 1,500 feet over Big Ben, Whitehall and Trafalgar Square to begin the performance. The concert, called A Party to Remember, was headlined by Will Young and Katie Melua and featured an appearance from “forces’ sweetheart” Dame Vera Lynn.
Footage was screened of the original Trafalgar Square VE Day celebrations from 1945 during the concert, which was beamed live to giant screens in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and Hull.
In Manchester, an afternoon of 1940s games was held along with tours of city areas destroyed during the Blitz while in Liverpool, the Albert Dock was decorated in 1940s style and hundreds gathered for a Lottery-funded street party.
More than 40 million people lost their lives by the time Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had finally surrendered at the end of the war.
Around 265,000 British servicemen and women were killed, and tens of thousands of civilians died in the Blitz.
