BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 26
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
That day, peace emerged after
nearly six years of war; and later,
Premier Churchill joined the Royal
Family (previous page), King George
VI; his Wife Queen Elizabeth and
their two daughters, HRH Princesses
Elizabeth (our present Queen) and
her younger sister Margaret, on the
main balcony of Buckingham Palace,
to wave over to the crowds (below)
who thronged the streets of London.
Even after dark, hundreds of people
continued to converge on some of London's
great monuments, which were specially floodlit
for the occasion. There were fireworks, too,
with effigies of Hitler being burned on bonfires
around the UK's Capital City.
No doubt had it been on the 11th night,
decades later, here in Belfast, police
warrants would have been issued
summoning the British Premier to appear
before the nationalistic disparity of beaks
on the judicial benches, for inciting
bonfire organisers to burn such effigies!!!
The act of surrender was signed (above
right) at Reims, France in front of Marshal
Georgi Zhukov representing the Russian
High Command; also present were Air
Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy
Supreme Commander of the Allied
Expeditionary Force, General Carl Spaatz
of the United States Air Forces and General
Jean-Marie de Lattre de Tassigny of the
French First Army.
However Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin,
refused to accept this signing of the surrender
Treaty; probably because he suspected the
motives of the Western Allies and Germany;
but insisted it be further ratified in Berlin the
following day; with him present.
So in essence, Moscow celebrated VE
Day one day later than the rest of Europe
with a victory parade then being held in
London on 10th August 1945 when once
again there were huge flag-waving,
cheering crowds thronging the streets.
Following the dropping of two USA atomic
bombs down on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
the deaths of tens of thousands of tits people,
Japan finally capitulated and surrendered a
week later on 14th August 1945.
Years of carnage and destruction had come
to an end and millions of people took to the
streets to celebrate peace, mourn their loved
ones; and to hope for a better future.
It can be easy for anniversaries to seem like
just one more commemoration in a long
incorporative list. However VE Day does
signify something rather special and whilst we
may take pride in the many other
achievements by our ancestors, the
Second World War stands out as having
left a legacy, perhaps more memorable,
than some of the other conflicts.
Whilst many wars national and
international, have all been about
either religion, territory, influence,
trade routes and power it would be
hard to think of a more human conflict
than WWII that became more about
ideals and mentalities which left a
greater legacy of influencing people.
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 24 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING