The Royal Family are scheduled to take part in engagements over the next four days, as they hope “nothing will detract or distract” from the commemorations following the Duke of Sussex’s bombshell interview with the BBC.
Charles and Queen Camilla are “looking forward” to the week of events, and it is understood that, out of respect for the surviving veterans, Buckingham Palace hopes “nothing will detract or distract from celebrating with full cheer and proud hearts that precious victory and those brave souls, on this most special and poignant of anniversaries”.
The charity will also host a VE Day tea party and service of remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on 8 May, the actual anniversary of VE Day, where they expect to see more than 40 Second World War veterans.
RAF veteran Bernard Morgan, 101, who will be at the heart of the commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (Photo: Royal British Legion/PA)
Crowds started to gather on The Mall on Monday morning, with some arriving the day before to secure a good viewing spot.
RAF veteran Alan Kennett, who will turn 101 on 29 May, will formally start the parade as he receives the Commonwealth War Graves’ Torch For Peace from air cadet warrant officer Emmy Jones.
Second World War veteran Alan Kennett (Photo: Lucy North/PA Wire)He said the cinema erupted with joy, and celebrations soon spread through the streets.
He remembers: “At night when it was dark, the sky was lit up with all different sorts of colours, tracer bullets and different things. And the noise was colossal…
Gilbert Clarke, 98, lied about his age to join the RAF in 1943 and trained in Kingston Palisades RAF camp in Jamaica, before being sent on a troop-carrying ship to Britain via the United States.
Veteran Gilbert Clarke, 98, RAF, who will be at the heart of the commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (Photo: Royal British Legion/PA Wire)His unit stayed on to build the temporary Mulberry Harbours, which facilitated the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
Arthur Oborne, aged 99, joined the army in 1942 aged 18 and later became part of the 30th Corp – also known as the “Desert Rats” – which took part in the D-Day landings and subsequent advance across France.
Bernard Morgan, a 101-year-old RAF veteran, worked as a codebreaker during the war.
Michael Burn (right), 67, from Watford, joins the crowds at The Mall outside Buckingham Palace, ahead of the military procession (Photo: Emily Smith/PA)He remembers receiving a secret telegraph message two days before VE Day which read: “German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow.”
He said: “It’s so important that we make the most of these opportunities to remember what happened, not just to celebrate the achievement, but also to ensure that such horrors never happen again.”
Royal Navy veteran Cyril Jones Alston, 98, began his service on his 18th birthday in February 1945 to serve “until the end of the period of the present emergency.”
Veteran Douglas ‘Dougie’ Hyde, Merchant Navy (Photo: Royal British Legion/PA Wire)
He was part of a secret operation to liberate Europe and spent months going back and forth to the beaches deploying munitions and amphibious vehicles.
John Mortimer, 101, was just 20 when he landed on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
“It was dangerous, there were snipers all around. It was noisy, smoky, and smelly, and I saw lots of casualties.”
Joyce Wilding, 100, who enlisted in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) aged 18 (Photo: Royal British Legion/PA Wire)
She was on a day off travelling to London with her colleagues when victory in Europe was announced.
They made their way to Buckingham Palace and witnessed the King, Queen, and Winston Churchill waving to the crowd from the balcony.
Olga Hopkins, 99, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as a wireless mechanic.
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