Spitfire to mark VE Day with flypast over WWII heroes, wartime singer Vera Lynn and care homes

We will not be able to dance a conga or enjoy a street party — let alone flock to Buckingham Palace, as millions did back on May 8, 1945. 

Tomorrow, 75 years on, it is going to be an unavoidably subdued anniversary of the day that the UK finally celebrated Victory in Europe. 

Nonetheless, we at the Mail are doing our best to make it a VE Day to remember with our aerial tribute to many of those who helped Britain secure that precious peace. 

So here is the plan of action for our ‘Salute the Heroes’ Spitfire flypast. The country may still be in lockdown but the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has granted the Mail a special one-off exemption to the official advice against all general aviation. 

After all, you can hardly call a Spitfire ‘non-essential’ on VE Day. One flight, sadly, can only fly so far. 

So, having asked our readers to nominate a care home and hospital for special treatment, we announced the lucky beneficiaries in Saturday’s Mail. 

As a result, East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital and Worthing’s Care Home for Veterans have been chosen, along with Britain’s greatest fundraiser, 100-year-old Colonel Tom Moore. 

I can only apologise to those of you who nominated so many deserving recipients, such as Flight Sergeant Graham Earle (who turns 89 this weekend) at his Swindon care home, or the residents of Bluebell House in Hessle, East Yorkshire, (currently preparing for their Spam fritters party), or all those members of the wartime generation living at Lynemore Care Home, Grantown-on-Spey. 

Among the hospitals we wish we could visit are the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, Shropshire. 

Given the events of recent weeks, there have been many heart-rending letters and emails about others in urgent need of cheering up. 

However, now that our pilot, Matt Jones, has drawn up his flight plan, he has also worked out a way of including some other nominations along the way. 

Among them will be Squadron Leader Stanley Booker MBE of Bracknell, Berkshire, a man for whom VE Day was anything but a party. 

The navigator in a Halifax bomber, he was shot down over occupied France in 1944 three days before D-Day. 

Two of the crew were killed but Mr Booker bailed out and was picked up by the French resistance near Dreux. 

He got as far as Paris before being betrayed and handed over to the Gestapo. Five days before the liberation of Paris, he was despatched to Buchenwald concentration camp. 

There, with a small group of fellow airmen, he was subjected to beatings and medical experiments by SS prison staff. 

It was only the intervention of his old foe, the German Luftwaffe, which secured a transfer to a conventional PoW camp, Stalag Luft 3, in Poland. 

Eventually, after a forced march to Germany, he was ‘liberated’ by the Soviets but had to remain in custody a full three weeks after VE Day before being released. 

Who better, then, to receive a Spitfire visit on VE Day — not that the gallant Squadron Leader feels that he deserves it. 

‘I feel humbled. What’s so special about me?’ he said last night. ‘There are so many other brave veterans who deserve to be acknowledged.’ 

Since our flight, kindly donated by the Boultbee Flight Academy, will be passing over Colonel Tom in Bedfordshire, it seems only right that it should also honour nearby Bletchley Park, the celebrated ‘Station X’, which did so much to win the war. 

‘What better VE Day tribute to all our great codebreakers than a Spitfire?’ a spokeswoman said last night. 

Another waypoint will be the Blind Veterans UK home near Brighton. Earlier this week, staff and residents were delighted to welcome a delivery of vital personal protective equipment (PPE) from the new Mail Force charity. 

Now, their VE Day party will go with an extra bang. And since our Spitfire happens to be flying over East Sussex, we could hardly miss out one very important local resident — Dame Vera Lynn. 

The early afternoon flight has been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority. 

All our recipients are on standby and know to observe strict social distancing (as must we all). 

This generation certainly will have no trouble recognising the unique roar of that RollsRoyce Merlin engine as it comes within range…

Get Ready To Party Like It’s 1945

By Beth Hale 

Tomorrow, we mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. After six years of wartime restrictions, May 8, 1945, saw the nation pour onto the streets to celebrate. By midnight an estimated 50,000 people had crowded around London’s Piccadilly Circus. In different circumstances, some of those celebrations would have unfolded again, with the May Day Bank Holiday moved for that very reason. But while lockdown may have put paid to the raft of planned commemorative events, the British spirit is not easily extinguished. All over the country, towns, individual streets and all manner of organisations are planning ways in which tomorrow can be a stay-at-home celebration to remember. 

MOMENTS NOT TO MISS 

commemorations will begin at 11am with a two-minute silence to honour the generations affected by World War II, and reflect on the devastating impact of Covid-19. At 11.15am, the Royal British Legion is inviting the nation to make a cup of tea and listen to its VE Day 75 Livestream, as young and old unite to chat about their shared experiences. Tune in via the Legion’s Facebook page or website (britishlegion.org.uk). At 2.45pm, BBC1 will broadcast Sir Winston Churchill’s famous victory speech. Then, at 2.55pm, as BBC coverage continues, the nation’s buglers, trumpeters and cornet players will perform the Last Post from their gardens. At 3pm it’s time to raise a glass as Dame Joan Collins, whose childhood home was destroyed in the Blitz as she slept in a Tube station, leads the Nation’s Toast from the balcony of her London apartment. The toast, due to be broadcast on news channels, is on behalf of the women of the nation, acknowledging the many roles they played in the war. The public are encouraged to join in with the words: ‘To those who gave so much, we thank you.’ An evening of VE Day-themed viewing on the BBC will lead up to an address by the Queen at 9pm, the exact time her father spoke to the nation 75 years ago. Then Dame Vera Lynn will lead what promises to be a very loud national rendition of We’ll Meet Again. A bit like the weekly Clap for Carers, the hope is that people will sing from their doorsteps. The Mail has also organised a ‘Salute the Heroes’ Spitfire flypast, which will include East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital, Worthing’s Care Home for Veterans and the home of Colonel Tom Moore.  

BRING THE BUNTING 

In 1945, the Government made red, white and blue bunting available with ration coupons for a month. Making paper bunting with the children is easily done. There are lots of print-out templates online ready for you to colour in, including via BBC Local Radio, as well as VE Day posters and flags. Search for Great British Bunting on the BBC website. For those with scrap fabric to hand, Bletchley Park has an online guide to bunting to sew, plus a no-sewing-required alternative (bletchleypark.org.uk). 

HAVE A TEA PARTY 

With social distancing, full-on street parties are impossible. But a 1940s-style tea party at home is easily done, and if you have a big enough front garden, or a balcony, you could hold it there so you can wave at your neighbours to keep up the community feel. However, the Government has made clear celebrations should take place ‘in our homes and on our doorsteps, rather than in parades and street parties’, so choose your location carefully. Why not put down a picnic blanket and serve up 1940s teatime favourites like cucumber sandwiches or celebration trifle. Remember, baking provisions such as eggs were a precious commodity during the war years, so cooks had to be creative. Wash down with ginger beer, homemade lemonade, or even a gin cocktail. 

DO A SING-ALONG 

Take a trip down memory lane and learn what Granny and Grandad might have hummed along to in their youth. Music historian Tom Carradine has great online tutorials to get kids singing along (carradinescockney singalong.co.uk/ve-day) that include Run Rabbit Run and nonsense song Mairzy Doats And Dozy Doats. It will get you in good voice for when the Royal Albert Hall streams a performance by ­Katherine Jenkins that includes The White Cliffs Of Dover on YouTube at 6pm. There will also be a virtual duet of We’ll Meet Again with Dame Vera Lynn, who will then lead us all in her bestknown hit for a second time, after the Queen’s Speech at 9pm. time for games Monopoly had been around for ten years by the time VE Day came around. Snakes and ladders was another favourite. Children might enjoy taking chalk out to the front path and playing hopscotch, or setting up some empty plastic bottles for a game of skittles. You could have a competition to see who can make the best paper aeroplane, or go on to online education resource Twinkl (twinkl. co.uk) and check out its VE Day resources, which include a template for making a paper Spitfire. 

FIND YOUR HISTORY 

Why not spend some time finding out your family’s war story? Perhaps you have relatives who lived through the war you could ask. Family history website Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) has opened its records for free until Sunday.