By Karim El-Bar,
LONDON (AA) – Queen Elizabeth II addressed the UK and Commonwealth on Friday for the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day that marks the end of World War II in Europe.
“I speak to you today at the same hour as my father did, exactly 75 years ago,” the Queen said. “Never give up, never despair – that was the message of VE Day.
“Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish,” the Queen said in her first address since she spoke to the UK on April 5 amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty; they are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other.
“And when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognize and admire,” she said.
Excluding her yearly Christmas messages, Friday’s speech is only the sixth specially televised broadcast the queen, 94, has delivered in her 65-year-reign, which is the longest of any British monarch.
The other five were the First Gulf War in 1991, the eve of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, the death of the Queen Mother in 2002 and her Diamond Jubilee – the 60th anniversary of her reign – in 2012, and during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
-VE Day
The speech was followed by a public rendition of the wartime song, We’ll Meet Again by Dame Vera Lynn on the doorstops of Britain.
Earlier, Charles, Prince of Wales, led a national two-minute period of silence at 11 a.m. local time.
The UK is still under lockdown because of the coronavirus, which forced plans celebrations for the day to be canceled.
House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle laid a wreath at Westminster on behalf of the House of Commons, with Lord West laying a wreath on behalf of the House of Lords.
The BBC broadcast the original announcement of victory with Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech announcing the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945.
Royal Navy ships around the world sounded sirens for a minute to mark Churchill’s speech.
Actress and author Joan Collins led the Nation’s Toast to Heroes of World War Two from the balcony of her London apartment.
The Red arrows, the Royal Air Force (RAF) Aerobatic Team, performed a flyover in London, and RAF jets performed similar maneuverers above Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
“Seventy-five years ago today, the people of this country celebrated victory against Hitler’s aggression,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“On the frontline, they fought with courage, ingenuity and endurance, and on the home front, women defended our cities against air raids, worked the factories, and ran the hospitals.
“This country triumphed thanks to the heroism of countless ordinary people, and because of this, hundreds of millions of people now live in peace and freedom today,” he said.
