In 1995 the 50th anniversary of VE Day was commemorated in the UK, in the rest of Europe. I don’t remember the commemorations having the same profile as they do today, even though many more of ‘the greatest generation’ who actually fought against nazism were still with us(1). But that’s hardly surprising - the absence of any other events in these strange times when any distraction is welcome have heightened the profile of this commemoration.
It is right that VE Day is commemorated and it’s worth remembering the nature of that victory, the reality of what Britain and her allies were fighting against and what happened next.
For the second time in 25 years a leader of Germany, beyond democratic control, had plunged the continent into war through expansionist militarism. Just as had Kaiser Wilhelm in 1914, Hitler misjudged the likely response of Britain. And just as in 1914 the early period of World War II did not go well for Britain, the costs were great. Both Hitler and Kaiser Wilhelm had assumed Britain would sue for peace - but it didn’t happen. For 18 months after the retreat from Dunkirk Britain stood alone - more or less. As in 1914, Britain’s imperial territories contributed - but during the 18 months Canada, Australia, India and so on were a very long way away and had to look to threats in their own spheres. Civilian support from the United States helped keep the UK fed and supplied, but the battle was Britain’s alone.
Hitler never expected to need to invade Britain but, in truth, never really had the means. The RAF, including pilots and ground staff of many lands flying alongside young Briton’s, scored a strategic victory over the skies of South East England that proved not only that air superiority was beyond the reach of the nazis but that, given the technology of the times, it would remain so. That meant the chances of mounting an amphibious assault on Britain, given the naval superiority Britain also enjoyed, were slim indeed. Hitler got the message and Operation Sealion was cancelled (2). Nonetheless the road ahead remained long and difficult and victory a distant prospect.
The achievements and sacrifices of Britain’s people in those times are remarkable and should never be forgotten. They are part of the victory we commemorate - but it was a victory won by an alliance. The nazis doctrine of ‘lebensraum’ saw Hitler turn eastward, invading the Soviet Union and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the British dominions and imperial forces were joined, decisively, by the United States. The nazis occupied European territories with brutality and with the aid of local fascist collaborators but partisans and resistance guerillas made life as uncomfortable as they could and supplied intelligence to the allies. It in no way diminishes the achievements of Britain to say that the country could not have won the war alone - nobody knew that better than the generation who fought it and the politicians like Churchill and Attlee who led Britain and helped bring about the great alliance that saved democracy and freedom.
The commemoration of VE Day reflects these facts. World War II was won by an alliance led, in the end, by the USA which had by then become the world’s great power both economically and militarily and with colossal sacrifice by the people and armies of the Soviet Union. Today’s commemoration takes place all over the world and is followed by Europe Day (9 May), when the signing of the treaties designed to ensure the interdependence of Germany and France, which had fought repeatedly for hundreds of years, and the integration of the German speaking peoples into the structures of a wider Europe took place. We commemorate with VE Day and Europe Day a wider peace, the determination to build a better world and the continued existence of alliances of democratic states which went on to ensure the containment and defeat of communist dictatorship.
And what about the Germans? In Berlin a regional holiday today marks the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the nazi regime and 8th May marks each year the sacrifice of those who resisted the criminal regime. The great myth that is casually repeated, to prove what I know not, is that ‘Hitler was democratically elected’. I insist on debunking this because it is simply not true. Though they became the largest party in the Reichstag, the nazis never achieved an electoral victory that allowed them to form a government. Hitler was allowed into power by an inept and grossly naive collection of politicians who were soon brushed aside. Thereafter elections and referendums were rigged and not voting the right way had consequences. Even flying the national flag we see today rather than the swastika could prove fatal. It’s of course true that a great many Germans were seduced by the nazi’s and bought into their racist ideology, but many were victims too and their liberation is part of what we mark today. Britain helped create the peaceful, free Germany we love, however rarely, to beat at football - it's an achievement to be proud of. None of our continental friends were more sad to see their British ally leave the European Union than the Germans.
Finally what next in Britain is also worth remembering. As well as the determination to create a Europe of co-operation and peace,the determination in Britain to create a country which did not repeat to the failures of the post 1918 settlement or return to the privations of the 1930s created a consensus around jobs and social justice led by Clement Attlee’s 1945-51 governments and followed till its collapse in the late 70s. The interdependence of peoples, the importance of multilateral internationalism and the rebirth of a genuine social compact that recognised the contribution of the many is part of Britain’s VE Day story. It can be part of our story in the future too - if we continue to uphold and put to good use the freedom successfully defended by the greatest generation.
(1) This included my parents. Their service was in the mining industry (my father passed his Royal Navy medical but the system tracked down his occupation before he got near a ship) and conscripted munitions (my mother). For my parents this was the defining time of their lives and while of course they looked back fondly to their youth and wartime courtship they were not at all nostalgic for the war itself. I'm constantly baffled why people younger than I talk about 'the Blitz Spirit' as if they were there. Interestingly my father told me that he wanted to sign up not just to fight the nazis but because he was bored witless - far from working at full tilt, the coal industry struggled along and he often only worked 2-3 days a week (other accounts I've read since support this less rose tinted view - see James Hamilton Patterson, "What We Have Lost", Ch 6, Head Zeus 2018). He didn't tell me he served as an ARP Warden - I found his papers after he died. It explains why he never found that character in Dad's Army particularly funny.
(2) Aside from the military disadvantages, Sealion was a very odd plan that ignored several hundred years of history and UK strategy. Common sense and geography as well as history suggests that the route into England from the continent was from the low countries through the cliff-free Norfolk and Suffolk coasts which then offered the advantage of relatively flat land across which tanks can move easily - as opposed to the downlands of Sussex and Kent. For a historic perspective on this see Brendan Simms, "Britain's Europe" Penguin 2016.
