VE DAY CELEBRATIONS

Parades and parties across Britain to show our gratitude for war effort

- BY LUCY THORNTON

THE UK will party like it's 1945 when the nation salutes our veterans by marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Four days of celebrations and remembrance will begin on Bank Holiday Monday, May 5.

The events aim to reflect the spontaneous scenes of joy that erupted on May 8, 1945, to mark the end of the Second World War in Europe.

The government wants people across the UK to "show our gratitude to the men, women and children who dedicated their lives to the war effort".

VE Day 80 will start on the Monday with a military procession from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace, where the King and Queen are due to appear on the balcony with their family to watch the Red Arrows and military aircraft fly overhead.

Eighty years ago, King Charles's mother, then Princess Elizabeth, and her father, King George VI, appeared eight times on the balcony over 10 hours once with Winston Churchill - for the crowds below.

Hundreds of parties are due to be held across the country in May, with celebrations in streets, care homes, pubs, town halls and gardens.

In Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy, roads will close for street parties while in Billericay, Essex, locals will host a commemoration in their community hall, which was built in 1956 as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the conflict