Red Arrow flypast to begin as UK celebrates 80th anniversary

The King chatted to Joy Trew, 98, sitting on his left, who enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force aged 17 in 1944 and served as a wireless operator working at RAF Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, a station taking morse code messages from stations in Germany.

Beside him was Camilla, who had the Royal British Legion veteran Jack Mortimer on her right.

Kate was sitting beside another Royal British Legion veteran, Bernard Morgan, who had earlier appeared to show her some vintage photographs. Morgan was the was the youngest RAF sergeant to land on D-Day at the age of 20.

The Queen spread what appeared to be a grey blanket over her lap as she sat watching the VE Day parade, to protect from the breezy bank holiday Monday weather. She later placed her hand on her hat in an apparent effort to keep it steady in the wind.

Prince Louis was seen tugging on his father’s uniform as he watched the VE Day military procession. He also pushed back his hair and blew at his fringe in Monday’s breezy conditions.

The King stood and saluted as the start of the procession reached the Queen Victoria Memorial.

Before the procession arrived, cadets and scouts watching on cheered and waved to the royal family from the paths nearby.

Crowds on Whitehall cheered and clapped as Ukraine’s marching detachment passed the Cenotaph. Some spectators stood on walls and street furniture to get a better view of the procession.

There was a sea of colour down Whitehall as the Band of the Irish Guards, wearing red, marched down Whitehall, closely followed by the flags of the Commonwealth nations.

The royal family are speaking intently to the veterans they are sat next to in the specially constructed platform for guests of honour, including Second World War veterans.

Sat in front of the Queen Victoria memorial, between two statues, it is decked out with bunting and flowers. Sir Keir Starmer is seated just behind the King.

Their view down The Mall will give them a prime position viewing the procession as it arrives astride the flag waving crowd.

The King has been joined by the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and other working members of the royal family for the VE Day celebrations.

There was applause from the crowds as the King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, took their seats to watch the military procession arrive at Buckingham Palace.

William shook the hand of one veteran as he passed him to take his seat, and his children followed his example with the Princess of Wales the last to greet the serviceman as she sat beside him.

Charles is wearing Naval Uniform No 1 dress, with no medals or decorations, the same uniform worn by his grandfather King George VI on the Buckingham Palace balcony on VE Day, 1945.

Similarly, the Princess Royal is wearing the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, the same uniform worn by her late mother Queen Elizabeth II on the balcony on VE Day.

Queen Camilla is wearing a sapphire blue wool crepe dress and coat, by Fiona Clare, with the 12th Royal Lancers Brooch, Her Majesty’s late father’s regiment.

The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery is leading the march. Crowds looked on as the procession approachs Buckingham Palace.

Quiet has descended over Buckingham Palace, as the gathered crowd awaits the march. William, Kate and their children have taken their seats among veterans of the conflict.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of defence staff, has been speaking about how important today’s event is to both serving and former service personnel.

“This is all about our veterans,” he said. “The service they had provided, and the debt of gratitude we must show them.”

He also said the 80th anniversary was particularly poignant because it could be the last time several veterans of the Second World War will be alive to share their experiences.

He added that the inclusion of Ukrainian soldiers parading down The Mall was especially striking, given that the country was currently making the same kind of sacrifices that Britain was asked to 80 years before.

The Princess Royal arrives at Buckingham Palace before the start of the military procession, which will include about 1,300 members of the armed forces.

Commonwealth nations, Ukraine and Nato allies are also taking part in the parade for Victory in Europe Day.

David Smith, a military royal engineer from 1960-72, travelled from Lincolnshire to honour the veterans at the parade.

“It’s about patriotism. It’s what we do,” the 79-year-old said. Smith has marched at the Cenotaph for 26 years and is watching the parade on Monday at The Mall.

His wife, Muriel, 77, said: “Where we live in Lincolnshire, the ‘bomber county’, there is always a bomber base five miles from you. There’s still air raid shelters where we live. I just love the songs, the ceremony, everything. I’ve heard some stories about Victory Day. Some naughty stories!”

Horses and gun carriages move down the Mall towards their starting point, as the procession is due to start in less than an hour.

Five years ago it was a muted affair as Covid stalked the land, but VE Day 2025 — the last major anniversary at which there will be a significant veteran presence — is set to go off with a bang.

The 80th anniversary of the Nazi surrender and the end of the Second World War in Europe will be marked with both poignancy and celebration, as solemn services and ceremonies are set to be mixed with flypasts, street parties and a concert at Horse Guards Parade.

• Read in full: When is VE Day? UK plans to celebrate with parties and concerts

One group of women gathered outside Buckingham Palace have brought along song sheets in the hope of cajoling the crowd into a group musical performance.

Mandy Ellis, 67, from the Midlands, said: “We do all the royal events. I’ve been doing this [for] 60 years now. We all get the gang together — there’s seven of us [that] come down. The oldest is my Auntie Linda, she’s 87. My daughter Cara, she’s the youngest.”

Wearing a Union flag hat, she added: “I sing in the local choir, we’ve had some song sheets over the years for different events so I just adapted them at home. We’ve got everything from Land of Hope and Glory, We’ll Meet Again, Pack Up Your Troubles, the national anthem.

“It’s the smallest thing we can do to say thank you for 80 years of peace and the sacrifice everyone made.”

The King and Queen are “looking forward” to the VE day commemorations as they prepare to join other members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

Charles and Camilla will watch the military parade and flypast before hosting a tea party for veterans later today.

• Royals want no more distractions before VE Day after Prince Harry interview

A palace aide said: “The King, Queen and other members of the royal family are much looking forward to all the week’s VE Day events, when they will unite with the rest of the nation and those across the Commonwealth and wider world in celebrating, commemorating and giving thanks to the wartime generation whose selfless devotion, duty and service should stand as an enduring example to us all — and must never be forgotten.”

Despite the wonderful weather over the weekend, the sun has not yet decided to shine on The Mall today.

But neither that, nor a flurry of tree pollen from Green Park, have put off the crowds.

Groups of Scouts have been given pride of place at Canada Gate, situated opposite the royal balcony, prime location for viewing the head of the parade.

The organisation, founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1907, promotes outdoor activities and life skills for young people. King Charles became patron of the scouts in June last year.

Dwayne Fields, Chief Scout of the UK, said he was proud that members from Scotland to the southeast could come together to mark VE Day.

Ukrainian soldiers have said it was an “honour” to be a part of today’s military procession along the Mall, which is due to start shortly after midday.

One soldier, known only as Major Paul for security reasons, told the BBC’s Today programme the anniversary “reminds us how precious peace is [and] how important it is to protect it”.

Ukrainian troops will take part in a separate formation during the procession. They will be easy to spot because they will be carrying a Ukrainian flag.

Lizzie McCrae MacIntyre, a retired Women’s Royal Air Force veteran, arrived at Admiralty Arch at 4am in preparation for the parade.

MacIntyre, who travelled from Surrey, said: “It’s so important to remember those that didn’t make it home. My dad was military, my brother was air force.”

Geoffrey York, 71, the Household Cavalry veteran, said: “We are all ex-military. We were here for the coronation, we camped out for three nights for the Queen’s funeral. It’s a big day for us to pay our respects. My dad was a prisoner of war in Tobruk, Libya. He escaped in 1944.”

The British actor Timothy Spall will open VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations today when he recites some of Sir Winston Churchill’s victory speech from 1945.

The 68-year-old, who played the war-time prime minister in The King’s Speech, will read several extracts, including when Churchill told Britons, “this is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole”.

Two women gathered outside Buckingham Palace made their own dresses for the occasion.

Grace Gothard, from Ghana, describing her Union Jack dress, said: “I made this dress personally. So anytime there’s any royal occasion I make my own dresses. It took two weeks to make. The last one was the King’s coronation and that dress is in a museum now.”

Satvinder Cubb, wearing a dress which reads Lest We Forget, said she made her VE Day attire by hand.

“I had a Union flag one before, but this year I wanted something simple to represent all the soldiers that actually fought. It took just a few hours to make because it’s actually two flags joined together. And I don’t have a sewing machine so it was all by hand,” she said.

The pair met at the Queen’s Jubilee and have attended royal events together ever since. They arrived at The Mall at 6am today.

“I know people who have actually fought in the war. I have a very close friend, he’s 94, and was 14 at the time,” Cubb said. It’s just about thanking them all. We’re here for a reason and have freedom now. It’s important for us to be a part of it.”

It’s June 7, 1944, and Hitler’s fate is sealed.

To the east, Russia’s industrial might and force of numbers are sweeping German forces back. To the west, the Allies have secured the beachheads in Normandy. They control the Channel and the skies over France, and they’re about to send men and materiel pouring into the Continent. And to the south, Italy has surrendered. Rome fell two days ago.

It’s now only a question of when Nazism will fall …

Inevitable does not mean easy, though. The last 11 months of the war will see fierce fighting as Hitler refuses to countenance surrender and throws hundreds of thousands of men into hopeless causes.

• Read in full: How the Allies won the Second World War in Europe

Crowds clutching Union Jacks are beginning to gather on The Mall to secure prime positions for the parade and flypast.

The world’s press has gathered at Canada Gate, opposite Buckingham Palace, with a prime view of the platform where the royal family will watch hundreds of soldiers march towards the royal residence before an RAF flypast later today.

Green Park has been surrounded with a ring of steel in a massive security operation, to ensure nothing can interrupt celebrations.

This was much to the consternation of one jogger, seen arguing with a security guard that they couldn’t possibly have closed off the entire park for the event.

Crowds are building along The Mall near Buckingham Palace.

Caroline Tomlinson, 59, who travelled from Doncaster to watch today’s parade, said she arrived at the Palace at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and camped overnight.

Dressed in Union flags, she said: “It was very cold but I dressed accordingly and got through it. Slept about three times in one-hour bursts. I’m absolutely hoping to catch a glimpse of the royals.”

She added: “I’ve been watching lots of footage from 1945 when everybody was gathering outside the palace, so just great to be a part of it. Here we are again 80 years later to do the very same.”

When Germany finally capitulated to the Allies, in May 1945, Winston Churchill wrote that the surrender was “the signal for the greatest outburst of joy in the history of mankind”.

The reality was a rather more mixed affair. There was boisterous jubilation of course, crowds cheering in Whitehall, flags waved in Piccadilly, and a young, uniformed Princess Elizabeth joined the parade. Bonfires were lit in towns and villages across the land. Britain had prevailed and the nation was glad.

But five and a half years of war had exacted an enormous cost and it was not a moment of unalloyed triumph. Having poured so much of its life force into the struggle, Britain was impoverished, exhausted and anxious. The future was uncertain, many families remained sundered and the war with Japan was unfinished.

• Read in full: VE Day in the words of ordinary Britons: ‘A proper anti-climax’

Sir Keir Starmer has said that “we owe a debt of gratitude to those prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country”, before VE Day celebrations later today.

In a post on X this morning, the prime minister said that the government is “giving veterans better access to housing, employment, health and welfare support”.

“As we celebrate VE Day, we honour all those who have served in our armed forces,” he added.

Many veterans taking part in VE Day commemorations have not told their stories before, said the director general of the Royal British Legion.

Mark Atkinson told BBC Breakfast: “We want to make sure that all of our veterans are at the very heart of these commemorations so we put the call out to invite people to step forward, to share their experiences, to tell their stories and to be here today at Buckingham Palace for the start of what is a week of commemorations and celebrations.

“But so many people coming forward having never really shared in any detail their experiences of the Second World War so we’re delighted to put them right at the centre of these commemorations.”

In Whitehall, where the military procession for the 80th anniversary of VE Day will pass later, the Cenotaph has been draped in a large Union flag.

It is the first time the war memorial has been decorated in such a way since it was unveiled by King George V more than a century ago, in 1920.

A hundred metres away, the base of the monument to The Women Of World War II is covered in poppy wreaths.

The Royal Air Force will today roar across the capital to celebrate 80 years since Victory in Europe. It said on X that “at 1.45pm, subject to weather, serviceability, and operational requirements, RAF aircraft will take to the skies above London and over Buckingham Palace”.

Military bands and units paraded through central London on Saturday night in a dress rehearsal for the procession later today.

Bands, soldiers and mounted units gather from about 2.30am on Sunday to trace the route they will take.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Foinette, 47, the Brigade Major of the Household Division, who is in charge of the ceremony, said he “wonders what people coming out of nightclubs must think when they fall onto a military parade”.

He said: “Once you have got over the shock of trying to climb a horse in the morning, there is something quite extraordinary about parading through London in the middle of the night.”

Alan Kennett, who will turn 101 on May 29, will formally start a military procession of 1,300 members of the armed forces marching through the streets of central London. Kennett, from Lichfield, was 18 years old when he joined the RAF in 1942.

The 100-year-old, who worked with a variety of aircraft but insisted he loved nothing more than the Spitfires, recalled in an interview with the PA news agency of having a streak of “general mischief” during his service.

He added: “My commanding officer said I had a record of four and a half years of ‘undetected crime’.”

After the D-Day landings, as Germany’s surrender approached, Kennett was in Celle, north Germany, in a cinema with other men in his unit as the “whole thing slowed down”.

The height of the action will kick off from Parliament Square in London at midday.

The actor Timothy Spall, who played Sir Winston Churchill in the film The King’s Speech, will recite extracts from the wartime prime minister’s VE Day speech on May 8.

Then a 100-year-old RAF veteran, Alan Kennett, will formally begin a procession of 1,300 members of the Armed forces through London. They will march to Whitehall, then to Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, The Mall, and finally to Buckingham Palace.

After that will be a military flypast, with the first aircraft set to reach the skies above the Palace at 1.45pm.

The King and Queen will watch the procession and flypast from the balcony, and host a tea party at the palace. Meanwhile, organisations and individuals around the country will host their own events to mark the celebration.