On 80th anniversary of VE Day, Europeans have concerns about the future

Time stood still in the UK May 8 as residents of “this scepter’d isle” paused on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day to remember the shared sacrifice of those who fought and died, those who survived wounded in mind and body and those who persevered on the home front during World War II.

Looming over the day, like the shadow of the Luftwaffe over London, was the fear that today’s Great Britian soon could face a similar struggle.

Westminster Abbey, the national church of the UK, held a Service of Thanksgiving attended by senior politicians, veterans and the royal family. As the choir sang, King Charles III laid a wreath on behalf of the nation and the Commonwealth on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, which was established after World War I to honor unidentified service members who had died overseas.

After thanking 99-year-old Ken Hay, who served in the Fourth Dorset infantry regiment, for his service in the war (he was one of 78 veterans in attendance), Prince William placed a second wreath on the grave in honor of “veterans and the Second World War generation.”

Alexander Churchill, the 10-year-old great-great-grandson of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, lit the Peace Candle and led the 1,800 attendees in a prayer “for peace in Europe and across the world; in our time and for generations to come.” An excerpt of a recording of Winston Churchill’s VE Day speech from May 8, 1945, reverberated in the Abbey followed by a Procession of Witness.

For this procession, young people from the Rickmansworth Sea Cadets, CCF London Sea Cadets, Volunteer Police Cadets, the RAFAC and Westminster Abbey Choir School carried artifacts from the war, including an RAF flying helmet and Distinguished Cross medal, an Air Raid Warden’s helmet, a volume of the Book of the Civilian War Dead and a child’s gas mask.

Broomlee Camp

Had Alexander Churchill been a child during the second World War, he might have been one of the millions of children evacuated from targeted cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh to the safety of the countryside. In 1940, a convoy of buses brought 300 children from Edinburgh to Broomlee Camp, an evacuation center in West Linton, Scotland, where I now live.

The stunned arrivals, called “wee vaccies” by the locals, carried with them child-sized gas masks like the one in the Westminster procession. They remained at Broomlee, separated from their families, for the duration of the war. After the war, children from Amsterdam who had suffered under Nazi occupation spent three months at the Broomlee Camp regaining their health.

Residents of West Linton in the Scottish Borders, like civilians throughout the UK, were encouraged to “make do and mend” during the war. They collected wastepaper to recycle into cartridge wads and metal to manufacture tanks, airplanes and guns. Men who were unable to serve overseas joined the Home Guard and prepared for a possible German invasion. A shortage of rifles early in the war meant guards were reduced to drilling with pitchforks, broom handles and antique handguns.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, our village held its own wreath-laying ceremony in front of West Linton’s War Memorial. The parish erected the sandstone cenotaph in the 1920s to honor soldiers from the village who died in the Great War. Their names are inscribed on a large bronze plate surrounded by carved laurel leaves. After the Second World War, eight additional names were added on a separate plate along with the words, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends” from John 15:13.

Our remembrance was a much simpler affair than the one in London, but no less meaningful. The weather was clear and sunny, almost unheard of in Scotland. A World War II veteran at the service told me it was very much the same that first VE Day 80 years ago.

There was a bagpiper at the ceremony, of course, and the Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale laid a wreath at the base of the memorial while McOwan looked on. Then Tony Foley, the minister at St. Andrew’s Church in West Linton, delivered a prayer thanking “the men and women who gave their future for ours” and asking that those of us gathered there may “learn from their example, may know what it is to have that courage and that fortitude in our commitment to peace.”

Fear of what’s to come

In the lead-up to this VE Day anniversary, people across Europe have been weighing heavily what may be required of them in the not-too-distant future to keep the peace. As Steven Cottrell, the archbishop of York, warned in his Service of Thanksgiving homily, the “good” that resulted from World War II is “under threat,” as evidenced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump’s fawning support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The continent breathed a collective gasp when Trump and Vice President JD Vance, parroting Kremlin talking points, berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an Oval Office press conference in February. Europeans were left unsure if the United States is still an ally or is now an adversary.

A recent YouGov poll that surveyed adults in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and America on the eve of the 80th anniversary of VE Day found almost half thought another world war is likely within the next five to 10 years. Western Europeans (between 72% and 82%) thought Russia would be the cause and 69% of Americans agreed. A majority in the YouGov poll thought the warring parties would use nuclear weapons, and between 57% and 73% of respondents believed this third world war could result in more casualties than World War II.

They also thought it was possible that “crimes like those committed by the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s and ’40s” could happen within their lifetime in their own country, another “Western European country” (between 44% to 59%) or in the U.S. (between 44% to 60%, including 52% of Americans).

In an earlier YouGov poll conducted in March after Zelenskyy’s Oval Office visit, Western Europeans (78% in the UK, 74% in Germany, 75% in Spain) saw Trump’s White House as a threat to peace and security on the continent.

As for Trump, he announced his intention to “strip any mention of Europe” from America’s VE Day festivities, which he renamed “Victory Day for World War II,” a rechristening that completely disregards the war in the Pacific, which continued until Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

Writing on social media, Trump said, “We won two world wars, but we never took credit for it — Everyone else does! All over the world, the Allies are celebrating the victory we had in World War II. The only country that doesn’t celebrate is the United States of America, and the victory was only accomplished because of us.”

Clearly for Trump all that matters is the immediacy of “winning,” not the story of shared sacrifice behind the victory.

Perhaps this announcement to rename VE Day was another attempt by Trump’s administration to denigrate Europe. Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others in the administration have made no secret of their contempt for their European allies. The name change is evidence of Trump’s desire to render NATO obsolete.

This development is alarming to both Europeans and Americans (between 52% to 66%) in the YouGov poll, who thought NATO had done the most to maintain peace after World War II. For 80 years, NATO has acted as a deterrent to the ambitions of the Soviet Union/Russia, who didn’t want to tangle with the United States, NATO’s most powerful member. The political and economic stability of NATO benefited the U.S. by making post-war Europe more resistant to the spread of communism on the continent.

Trump, however, asserted on the campaign trail last year that America would not “protect” NATO members who “didn’t pay their bills.” In fact, he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want.”

When 23 of the 32 NATO countries upped their contributions to spending 2% of GDP on defense as Trump demanded, he then more than doubled the spending target to 5%. “We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?” said the president.

The demand is disingenuous and is designed to set Europe up to fail. No member, not even the U.S., spends 5% of their GDP on defense.

The view from Europe

Member nations will meet at The Hague in June to discuss spending targets, but most European countries are considering what it might mean to face Russia without the help of the United States. It’s worth noting the far-right governments and political parties in Italy, Hungary, France and The Netherlands have been blocking the attempt to rearm Europe.

Here in the UK, Prime Minster Keir Starmer is increasing defense spending by 3% because of “tyrants” like Putin. Although if the U.S. completely withdraws from NATO, 3% will not be enough to deter Russia. Starmer plans to pay for the increase by cutting international aid which, after Trump’s decimation of USAID, will strip some of the world’s most destitute of the little help they have left.

An assertive Russia looking to expand its borders is not just a hypothetical for Europe. Already Putin has launched attacks in what is called the “grey zone,” a nebulous area between war and peace where sabotage, cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns are the weapons of choice.

Russia’s attacks against European countries increased threefold between 2023 and 2024, after quadrupling between 2022 and 2023. Many of these attacks involve Russian ships using their anchors to cut underwater communication cables and damage pipelines in the Baltic Sea, which are difficult and expensive to repair. In 2024, a Russian “research vessel” in the Irish Sea was escorted away from critical internet cables that connect Ireland with the UK.

On land, Russian operatives are sowing fear and chaos through arson and intimidation. In Lithuania, an IKEA was set on fire; in Warsaw, it was a shopping center; and, in the UK, seven were charged with setting fire to a business with ties to Ukraine. Polish authorities caught another man planning an arson attack on a paint factory as he fled to Germany.

Recruited online and paid in crypto currency, these agents are hard to track. Lured by ads on white nationalist websites looking for someone to “fight with Blacks,” some of these arsonists have no idea they’ve been hired by Russia. The Trump administration’s abandonment of efforts to aid its historic allies in monitoring Russian sabotage and election interference is making countering these attacks even more difficult.

During his VE Day speech, King Charles quoted his grandfather, King George VI: “‘We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will.’”

Preserving such a victory requires eternal vigilance. Although Europeans are shaken by Russia’s incursions and the Trump administration’s retreat, the 80th anniversary of VE Day is a reminder that Europe once possessed the diligence and resolve to thwart authoritarian ambitions. The world may soon find out if they still do.

 

Kristen Thomason is a freelance writer and journalist living outside Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. She has produced educational and promotional media for national and international religious organizations and public television. Kristen also worked with local churches in Metro D.C. and Toronto, Canada. With a master’s degree in communication and undergraduate degrees in media studies and classics, she is interested in the intersection of politics, religion, history and the arts.