CONFLICT TO PEACE

A new exhibition looks back on how Oxfordshire celebrated victory in WWII and commemorates the county's men who fought

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Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock has opened a new exhibition to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day. The exhibition will run until 18 November 2025.

From Conflict to Peace: Celebrating VE & VJ Day features accounts from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire soldiers who liberated towns, POWS and concentration camps in Europe.

Members of 249 Battery in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry participated in the Allied advance through France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and were among the first British forces to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Meanwhile, the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, played a key role in capturing the Caen Canal and Orne River bridges on D-Day. They later took part in Operation Varsity, during which half the men were killed or injured.

On the other side of the world, Oxfordshire Yeomanry members served in Singapore, with many becoming POWS when the island fell in 1942. They were forced into slave labour, notably working on the Burma-Siam Railway, until Japan's surrender in August 1945.