Why is VE Day Important?
This week, our school community took time to remember. We remembered the Old Brentwoods who served with courage during the Second World War, and especially the 175 who never came home – even after Victory in Europe was declared.
And, as we marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day, students were asked to consider two important questions: Why do we remember today? What are we commemorating?
Following almost six years of war, the news of the Nazi surrender broke in the UK and 8th May 1945 was declared Victory in Europe Day – VE Day. Admiral von Donitz had surrendered the Third Reich and the war in Europe was finally over. For many, it was a moment of relief, jubilation and elation. For others, the day was tempered with grief and regret.
It was a poignant moment. For the family of Vivian Rosewarne, the pilot who had defended the evacuation from Dunkirk and had penned An Airman’s Letter to his Mother, it must have been a moment of relief yet heartbreak. He would never be coming home. Likewise Hamilton King Davies, who died a midshipman on the “Mighty Hood” when she was sunk on 24 May 1941 in battle with Prince Eugen and Bismarck. Neither of these officers came home after VE Day. They were both Old Brentwoods. Two of the 175 OBs who never came home. Our own community was devastated by the Second World War.
But the people who fought in the war were inspired by something bigger. A fascist evil that needed to be resisted. As Winston Churchill claimed “this was their finest hour”. The sacrifices for democracy made by Britain and her allies in the Second World War were immense. But they gave birth to many of the features of the world we enjoy today. As the privations of war and rationing passed, the NHS was born; a country fit for heroes. Those heroes who had fought with such dignity around the world; at Dunkirk, in the Atlantic, El Alamein, Sicily, in the Pacific, Italy, D-Day and beyond.
VE Day did not see the end of the war. For those fighting in the Pacific, those taken prisoner at Singapore and other battles in Asia the war was not yet over. And their family watched the VE Day celebrations with very mixed emotions. But it gave hope. A hope that would have seemed impossible in 1940 when Dunkirk was evacuated. For a country that had suffered so much on the battlefield and at home, it was a moment to remember.
This photograph, taken in the School Chapel, shows our roll of honour for the Second World War. In 1916, when he delivered the Christmas homily, our School Chaplain claimed that those who died in the First World War “will never be forgotten, as long as their names are remembered at Brentwood School”. This VE Day, we owe those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War the same dignity.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.
