There’s two places I would have liked to be for the recent celebrations of the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
“VE,” of course, means Victory in Europe: the beginning of the end of the Second World War. It would take three more months before victory over Japan would finally bring that long war to a conclusion.
My friends in the 4 Wing Band travelled to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta this weekend to help out with the VE 80 celebrations. It would have been a thrill to travel with them and to hear the museum’s Lancaster bomber fire up its engines.
It would also have been special to return to Westerham in England. The town has connections to Canadian military history dating back more than 250 years.
Westerham is the birthplace of General James Wolfe, who led the British to victory in the Battle of Quebec in 1759. His family home, where he was born, is commemorated as Quebec House.
Two miles south of Quebec House is Chartwell, the estate of Sir Winston Churchill. In 1941 Canadian soldiers set up a camp on the grounds to protect it and to disguise its features so it wasn’t recognizable from the air.
Four miles north is the site of RAF Biggin Hill, one of the important airfields from the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War.
In town there are maple trees planted in front of a row of shops commemorating Canadians killed in the Second World War.
VE Day is of course an important occasion in the UK and across Europe. Those who were immediately threatened by the war knew full well the importance of their victory, just as they were painfully aware of the consequences of defeat.
Sherry and I visited Westerham in 2017. We were tourists, of course, but there were a couple of special moments for us as Canadians. The driver we had hired pointed out the White Hart pub in nearby Brasted, a favourite place for Canadian RAF and RCAF personnel to gather during the war.
The next day, I asked an older woman—she might have been a teenager during the war—for some help reading the bus timetable. She was happy to help, and then asked, “You’re Canadian, aren’t you?” I said yes, and she smiled and went on her way.
A lost opportunity on my part; I should have pursued the conversation.
Cold Lake and southern England share considerable air force history, but of course the war was won by allied forces in their respective countries’ navies, armies, air forces, merchant marines, and other forces. I think of Sherry’s Dad’s service in the RCN and in the merchant navy. And with the recent celebration of the Liberation of the Netherlands, we think of liberator William McGregor of Bonnyville (now 102 years old!).
VE Day is a time to celebrate and a time to remember. It’s a time to recognize what we owe to prior generations of Canadians. We should honour not just their memory but their example: if Canada is threatened by foreign or domestic actors, will we speak up? Will we stand up?