Events mark 80th anniversary of VE Day

BRIXHAM will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with more than 40 free public events and activities.

- by STAFF REPORTER

Commemorating the historic occasion, the town will remember the members of the armed forces and Merchant Navy, especially those locally who died or returned home injured.

The efforts of the women and men who operated the factories, mines, shipyards and farms, including the Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps, the ARP wardens, police officers, doctors, nurses, fireman, local defence volunteers and others who toiled on the home front will also not go unnoticed.

The war in Europe ended on May 8,1945, with the surrender of Nazi Germany. Fighting still raged in the Far East, but the United States’ use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August quickly forced a surrender on August 15, with an official peace treaty signed on September 2. By that time the Second World War had claimed 63 million lives.