VE Day in the news

Blog series Newsroom

Author Claire O’Halloran, Curator Newspaper Collections

We have all seen images of the joyful street parties and triumphant newspaper headlines that greeted the end of war in Europe on 8th May 1945. As the UK prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in 2025, we explore the British Library's newspaper collections to see how VE Day has been covered by the British press on its significant anniversaries across the decades.

The early anniversaries of VE Day were subdued affairs as the country grappled with the aftermath of the war, and this is reflected in the newspaper coverage. On the first anniversary in 1946, the continuing struggles of rationing and the fragile nature of newly-established peace in Europe were cited by the Dundee Evening Telegraph as reasons for a lack of celebratory atmosphere around VE Day. Food rationing only officially ended in 1954, so wartime hardships were still fresh in the minds of Britons on the tenth anniversary in 1955. The Scotsman described the 1955 anniversary as a moment of remembrance and reflection rather than of celebration.

International relations played a role in newspaper coverage of VE Day in 1975 and 1985. The 1975 anniversary occurred a few weeks before the UK's EEC membership referendum, a time of great debate in the media. VE Day and the ensuing years of peace in Europe were evoked in adverts and articles promoting a ‘Yes’ vote.

In January 1985, a reluctance to offend West Germany prompted the government to consider cancelling VE Day celebrations for that year. The Daily Express reacted furiously to this prospect, asking ‘Why should we surrender Britain’s proudest moment?’

Public outcry prompted Margaret Thatcher to change course and announce that celebrations would go ahead after all. Newspapers of this period also featured some of the wartime nostalgia that would become prevalent in 1995 and beyond.

The 50th anniversary of VE Day in 1995 was marked by street parties, parades, and 1940s nostalgia. Many newspapers featured multi-page spreads with photographs from the various parades and events that took place across the UK, such as the Skegness Standard below.

Food was a key element of newspaper coverage in the run-up to VE Day 1995. Newspapers often displayed a sentimental attitude towards the days of rationing; they offered readers simple, old-fashioned recipes to hearken back to the wartime period, as can be seen in the below article from the Burton Mail.

The Cambridge Evening News offered special VE Day coupons for a local department store in the style of a ‘Ministry of Bargains’ ration book, further demonstrating the trend towards wartime nostalgia during this time. This shift from remembrance to nostalgia may reflect the fact that by 1995, many of those celebrating had not lived through the war themselves.

Fast forward to VE Day 2020: the UK was in Covid-19 lockdown on the seventy-fifth anniversary, thereby curtailing any mass celebrations like those seen in 1995. VE Day street parties were held at a social distance and many commemorative events were held online. The Hinckley Times below shows how neighbours and communities found new ways to mark the anniversary.

The Daily Mirror provided a two-page spread with advice on how to mark the occasion at home, from dressing up in 1940s-style garb, to baking ‘Winston Churchill’s fruitcake’. Like many other newspapers, the Mirror drew parallels between wartime sacrifices and the ‘very different war’ being fought against Covid-19.

Finally, a common feature seen in newspapers throughout the decades were contributions from readers sharing their memories of VE Day 1945. In 1965, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph ran a two-page feature on readers’ memories of the day, encompassing a variety of viewpoints from across the community. In 1970, the Sunday Express awarded a reader a £100 prize for her letter in which she recalled her five-year old son asking her whether he would now be able to sleep upstairs in a bed, having slept in a shelter all his life. In 1995, the Hayes and Harlington Gazette interviewed a woman with the noteworthy name of Violet Edith Day about her memories of the 1945 occasion.

Most of the articles mentioned above are available to view online via the British Newspaper Archive, which is now free to access on your own device in British Library Reading Rooms. You can also use the British Newspaper Archive in many public libraries around the country for free. Visit LibraryOn’s website to find your nearest library with access.

Please see below some other VE Day-related blogs from the UK Web Archive:

• Digital Memory and the Militarised Past
• Marking 80 Years

and our partners at Find My Past:

• Discover VE Day
• VE Day at 80