8th MAY VE Day celebrations

The 8th May. It is 65 years since victory over Europe was achieved.

Here are some pictures of that time.

Waiting for a bus in Whitehall.

Young ladies in the East End. They were tough, full of earthy humour and bomb proof.Do you get their sense of humour? The morning after the night before.

St Paul's celebrating. Putting a finger UP to the Luftwaffe.

Putting flags up in their garden to celebrate.Crowds in Piccadilly Circus. Notice the statue of Eros is boarded over to protect it from bomb blasts. Singing and dancing in the streets. Having a celebratory drink in a local pub.

Dancing near Regent Street. Churchill with the Royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

My family, 1944. My grandmother , great grandmother, Aunt Marjorie, my grandfather and my mum. My uncle Howard had been killed earlier that year in a bombing raid over Southampton. My aunt Marjorie in the backgarden. Notice the vegetables and fruit trees. One of the slogans during the war, was "DIG FOR BRITAIN." It meant dig, to grow your own food but also to dig air raid shelters to provide protection from bomb blasts. Here's my mum with the Anderson shelter in the background. It was made of corrugated iron sheets for the walls and the roof, a hole dug 4 or 5 feet into the ground and the earth piled back on top of the roof and walls. It sounds a little makeshift but it worked. Obviously an Anderson shelter wouldn't save anybody from a direct hit but they were effective as a protection from bombs landing nearby and the ensuing blast and shrapnel.