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V E Day May 8th 1945

It was pretty obvious as the month of May dawned that the advancing
Allied troops were making great headway and it was on May 7th 1945 we
were told of the surrender. It was declared on May 8th 1945 that
Winston Churchill would address the nation at 3-o-clock It was a
marvellous speech his voice just mesmerised you when you heard those words that It was all over.

We were given the day off work to celebrate. I used mine to go to the
Westgate Picture House to see Madonna of the Seven Moons starring
Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert.

They broke into the film to relay the speech and I walked home on cloud Nine.

Bonfires were lit everywhere, people just went crazy, singing and
dancing in the streets it was a sight worth seeing ! Next came the street parties to arrange, after nearly 6 yrs of gloom and doom we could see the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Little did we know what changes were afoot?

Work was plentiful, the money was not. Clothes were drab, housing was poor, clean, but overcrowded.
The men just drifted back to resume where they had left off in1939, the lives that were lost was beyond belief.

We will be eternally grateful to those brave people who died without question so that others might go about their lives in peace.

They must never be forgotten, we owe them so much.

I was 9yrs old when war was declared and by the time it ended I was 14yrs old and working, my life was ahead of me with all its trials and tribulations. I have been very fortunate which makes me believe everything had not been in vain.

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