VE Day 80: We Were There

As the nation marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe, the BBC has gathered first-hand accounts from the last veterans – many now over 100 years old.

Rachel Burden traces their stories through six years of conflict to the joy and celebration of VE Day in London and across the UK. She hears from former servicemen involved in the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of the concentration camp at Belsen, as well as Jamaican volunteers who crossed the Atlantic to serve with British forces.

Former child evacuees and the women who helped drive the war effort at home remember the moment Winston Churchill announced that Germany had surrendered and the royal family appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

The We Were There project by BBC News has captured the testimony of war veterans throughout the 80th anniversaries of the Second World War since 2019 to form an archive of their voices for future generations.