Today, 75 years ago the country celebrated victory in Europe. However, the war with Japan was still running and would cost many additional lives for a few more months. But what a huge relief the end of war in Europe must have been. We should all remember just what sacrifices our parents and everyone else made to achieve it. Our servicemen and women were superb.
But, for those that do not know Bromley was very front line; directly between V1 and V2 launch sites on the Continent and London, thus on what was called ‘Bomb Alley’. Our whole borough was splattered by German bombs if you look at a Bomb Map of London. Just a few of those bombs destroyed St Mary’s Church, the area in front of Christchurch (Lidl Car Park now), the Station Hotel and surrounding buildings in Albemarle Road (Beckenham Green now) - St George’s was badly damaged too, as was the Crippled Billet in Southborough Road (now the Harvester Inn).
A few years ago I met an RAF pilot who was in the Crooked Billet when it was bombed. He still had the uniform cap he was wearing then and showed me it. The house opposite ours was also totally destroyed from the air. Many people were killed locally. There are over 320 civilians – children, women and men - commemorated on the Beckenham War Memorial. But many more innocents than that were killed throughout Bromley. Today we remember them all - in uniform or out of it.
God Bless everyone who gave their lives or was badly hurt in the Second World War so that we could be here today. Being locked away at home for 7 weeks is nothing compared with what our forefathers endured in the War for 5 years!
It is clear now that we are headed for the South Korean solution to taming the ravages of Coronavirus. That seems to be Government strategy. So, what is this solution?
In short it is to ensure that the so-called Reproduction rate (R) which is the number of infections generated by someone with the virus is driven down as close to zero as possible and at the same time the health authorities will track where the virus located, trace who has it and then test anyone near them. Thereafter those free of the virus can resume normal life and those either infected with it or deemed a ‘spreader’ will not.
But one thing is sure most of us will remain trapped for most of the day indoors. Some like a very good friend of mine get engrossed in books. Others do the same in gardens. Yet more sort out all the little jobs they meant to do around the house. But many, and here I am afraid I include myself, turn too easily to a large screen and watch things. Lockdown must result in a really good harvest for couch potatoes! The truth is that we also have more time.
Every day it used to take me just over an hour to commute to Westminster from Shortlands. With coming home that made 2 hours a day. Most weeks I went to Parliament four or five times. That makes a total of 8 - 10 hours travelling every working week. One heck of a lot of constituents did just the same as me. So, the effect of Coronavirus is to give a lot of people an extra time to do other than sit ignoring one another and concentrating intensely on a small hand-held device or nodding their head in time to some beat they (and often most of the carriage too) could hear being placed directly into their inner ears. However, my point is this; Coronavirus has given many of us perhaps a whole working day (8-10 hours) of free time to fill.
Personally, I spend most of my time anyway dealing with things incoming on e mails. Thank Goodness for the internet or not I say. But between incoming and outgoing e mails I sit at my desk and have begun reading books I should have looked at before and re-reading others.
On this VE Day it is entirely appropriate that I have re-read the excellent ‘My War in SOE’ by Harry Verlander. Harry (in photograph) was a one-time member of a Jedburgh team in SOE (Team Harrold) and operated first behind the lines in France and then later in Burma. Very sadly he died in 2015. For most of the latter part of his life he lived with his wife Elizabeth in Eden Park Avenue. To me he was the ultimate hero. It took cold courage to do what he did. I was honoured to be a friend of his and even more honoured to be asked by Elizabeth to deliver the obituary at his funeral service in St George’s.
The book is a cracking read and I hear Harry’s voice in every line I read. If anyone wants to learn about a very courageous man in the Second World War then Harry’s book is available on Amazon and, I’m sure, in local libraries when they re-open. Have a read of it. Harry Verlander was an amazing, unassuming, clever, decent and very gallant gentleman.
In addition to reading though I am delighted over the last few weeks to have travelled widely. I have walked through some of the great cities of the world. Whilst there I have visited some of their great art galleries and museums. Even better I have often been accompanied by an expert guide. I have also visited the Amazon, Africa, the Himalayas, Australia and dived beneath the World’s seven oceans to look at some amazing sights.
All this I have done virtually; courtesy of the internet and television. Visiting in high definition can be pretty awesome. Surely documentaries like the Blue Planet cannot get any better. I particularly enjoy when there are tail pieces which show just how some pretty brave camera teams obtained their footage. I have learnt one heck of a lot sitting relaxed at home and sometimes I reckon the experience was probably better than having to travel to see the real thing. Did I really mean that – perhaps I did? It certainly did not cost much! By such means we are so lucky to have the means to escape mentally from lockdown
So, I will end where I started? We all commemorate the end of that awful trauma, the European War, which was joyously celebrated by its survivors 75 years ago today – both here in Bromley and throughout the World. We will remember them.