Commencing 80th Anniversary Celebrations of Victory in Europe Day! The UK will start four days of honoring with famous Red Arrows air display and many street parties.

Four days of commemorations to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War will begin today.  

Today, a large crowd is expected to gather in central London to witness a ceremony filled with various events, including a military parade featuring 1,300 armed forces personnel.

The Cenotaph will be adorned with Union flags, and a military procession will move from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace, followed by a flypast conducted by the Red Arrows.

This day commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, and in recognition of this milestone, pubs and bars have received approval to extend their operating hours.

Venues in England and Wales which usually close at 11pm will be able to keep serving for an extra two hours to celebrate.

Meanwhile, veterans of the Second World War, aged from 89 to 104, are set to meet the King at a Buckingham Palace tea party today, the Royal British Legion has said. 

A 98-year-old former prisoner of war, a 99-year-old who served in the Desert Rats and took part in the D-Day landings and a 100-year-old woman who worked in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), known as Churchill’s Secret Army, are among 30 veteran guests of honour, according to the Royal British Legion (RBL), who helped organise the event.

They will have prime spots to watch the military parade and RAF flypast in central London as the nation’s VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations begin.

Around the country, street parties will be held to echo the celebrations from 80 years ago.

British and Commonwealth armed forces veterans from the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force, plus Wrens, Special Operations Executives, D-Day veterans and Desert Rats are among those who are attending the tea party with Charles and other members of the royal family.

They will be joined by veterans who were still in active conflict in other parts of the world after VE Day and people who contributed to the war effort on the home front, plus their families and carers.

Evacuees are also among some of the other 20 Second World War generation guests who are set to attend.

Events will begin today with actor Timothy Spall, who will begin the commemorations with the words of Winston Churchill’s 1945 victory speech.

A new display of almost 30,000 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London is also set to form another touching tribute.

The poppies have been set to resemble a wound to reflect the long-lasting sacrifices made during the war.

The Palace of Westminster, the Shard, Lowther Castle in Penrith, Manchester Printworks, Cardiff Castle and Belfast City Hall are among hundreds of buildings which will be lit up from 9pm on Tuesday. 

A service at Westminster Abbey will begin with a national two-minute silence of reflection and remembrance on Thursday, where veterans will be part of the congregation.

Horse Guards Parade will then hold a live celebratory concert to round off the commemorations.

Military bands and units were seen practicing the parade through central London in a dress rehearsal on Friday night.

The RAF flypast will include the iconic Red Arrows and the Lancaster Bomber from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Aircraft used to support Ukraine will also be displayed as part of the commemorative ceremony.

The show will include planes involved in tensions with Russia, such as P8 Poseidons, which conduct reconnaissance missions surveying Russian vessels near UK waters, and Voyager aircraft, which fly Ukrainian recruits to the UK for training and deliver equipment to Ukrainian forces.

The planes are due to go over parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire and Oxfordshire before they pass over central London at around 1.45pm. 

Temperatures have plummeted from the unseasonable heat of last week, with highs of around 14C expected in London today.

Parts of London could see light showers until 4pm when clearer skies are expected.

Sir Keir Starmer said the stories we will hear this week from those who fought are a reminder that ‘our victory was not just for Britain’.

‘It was also a victory for good against the assembled forces of hatred, tyranny and evil.

‘VE Day is a chance to acknowledge, again, that our debt to those who achieved it can never fully be repaid,’ the Prime Minister said in an open letter to veterans.  

British and Commonwealth armed forces veterans from the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force, plus Wrens, Special Operations Executives, D-Day veterans and Desert Rats are among those who are attending the tea party with Charles and other members of the royal family

They will be joined by veterans who were still in active conflict in other parts of the world after VE Day and people who contributed to the war effort on the home front, plus their families and carers.

Evacuees are also among some of the other 20 Second World War generation guests who are set to attend.

It will be a return to Buckingham Palace for Joyce Wilding, 100, and Ruth Bourne, 98, who was a Wren at Bletchley Park where Nazi messages were intercepted. They were both in the huge crowds outside Buckingham Palace 80 years ago that celebrated VE Day in 1945.

Ms Wilding enlisted at the age of 18 in to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), worked in the SOE, transported forged documents and helped agents behind enemy lines.

Ms Wilding, who recalls VE Day as being filled with joy and celebration, said: ‘We went to Piccadilly where there was a stream of people singing and dancing. We joined a crocodile and did the Palais Glide down Piccadilly.

‘There were soldiers up lampposts, it was extraordinary. We were outside Buckingham Palace and you could hardly move there were so many people cheering and singing.’

Olga Hopkins, 99, is also among the 10 female veterans who served as codebreakers, drivers and mechanics that are looking forward to the tea party.

She remembers hearing about VE Day as she was lying in bed in a Nissen Hut and listening to the American Forces Network radio.

Ms Hopkins, who was a wireless mechanic in the WAAF, said: ‘Suddenly the programme was interrupted by a tannoy announcement saying, ‘The war is over. The war is over. It’s been signed’.

‘We all jumped out of bed and put our battledress on over our pyjamas.

‘We went to the sergeant’s mess where there was a party going on, so we joined in.

‘I remember me and some other girls singing the Cole Porter song Don’t Fence Me In, and I had a whale of a time.’

Gilbert Clarke, 98, who was in Jamaica in 1943 when he lied about his age to respond to a call to join the RAF, is also among the guests.

Within days Mr Clarke was kitted out, receiving basic training and being sent on a troop-carrying ship to Britain via the United States, the RBL said.

He eventually arrived in Britain in 1944, despite German U-boat-launched torpedo attacks which hit several ships that were travelling alongside his on the route.

D-Day veteran Bernard Morgan, 101, is also looking forward to the tea party.

He was a codebreaker during the war using equipment that was so sensitive he could not risk it being captured by the enemy.

Two days before VE Day, he received a telex to say ‘German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow’ but kept it secret.

Another veteran guest is Norman Trickett, 98, who joined the Army aged 18, was captured by Germans at the beginning of May 1945 leading an advance scouting patrol, and ended the war as a prisoner in Bremerhaven.

He was also part of the D-Day landings and served at Arnhem, helping airborne troops beat back German counter-attacks.

Alan Kennett, 100, who was in the RAF with the Mustang Squadron and was in Celle near Belsen on VE Day, said he was ‘honoured’ to be the procession torch bearer on Monday.

Mr Atkinson added: ‘To think that in 1945, after six years of devastating war, they were rejoicing that VE Day had finally come – and here they are now, 80 years later, proudly meeting our patron the King and Queen on this very special day.

‘We owe them, and the entire Second World War generation, our eternal thanks and gratitude.’

The number of military veterans who fought in the war continues to dwindle as time advances.

Another one of them, 99-year-old RAF veteran Dennis Bishop, said he will be remembering friends ‘who didn’t make it like I did’.

The former leading aircraftsman, who saw active service in France, Belgium, Germany and Africa, visited RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Wednesday as it prepares for the VE Day flypast on Monday.

Mr Bishop was presented with gifts by the crew of an Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft – one of several contemporary aircraft flying in formation with their Second World War predecessors in the flypast.

Speaking at the loading ramp of the aircraft, Mr Bishop told the PA news agency: ‘There should be VE Days for other countries, and they should all start getting together and not beating each other, but coming together.

‘For me, it’s important to remember some of the poor devils who didn’t make it like I did, because there are two or three old friends of mine that didn’t make it.’

Meanwhile, figures show that more than 50,000 children have connected with a Second World War veteran by mail ahead of VE Day.

Together Coalition, which organises the VE Mail programme, said 1,300 schools and youth organisations had requested a letter from a veteran setting out their wartime experience and what it means to them 80 years later.

Children participating in the programme have then written back to the veteran with their own reflections.

Together Coalition said on Thursday that participating veterans had started to receive ‘mail bags full of responses from schoolchildren’ via the Royal Mail who are supporting the initiative.

Bombardier Tom Jones, a 103-year-old veteran, said victory in the Second World War ‘protected democracy and our country for our whole lifetime’.

The veteran, who recently visited the James Brindley School in Manchester, added: ‘The victory meant the world to us at the time – but the values are as relevant today as they were then.

‘With fewer surviving veterans still with us, VE Mail is a major opportunity to pass the baton of memory and of meaning to the next generation.’