To wonder why the Brits are so obsessed with WW2?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

My Mum is 87. She was 12 when the war ended and went through it in London. She remembers being terrified and hungry and getting grief because her grandmother was German. Other elderly relatives don’t have lovely memories either, apart from relief when it was all over. So why do we glorify it all, at every opportunity? Why do we always look back instead of forward?

Well, Victory was achieved,, thousands of people went off to war for six years, and you never knew who was coming home. Some died in a foreign place, lots came home without limbs, and traumatised. People at home, were constantly worried and had a hard time getting food. thousands of people had their homes bombed out. and got killed in their house ruins.

And through it all, many people remained very stoical, and got on with everyday life. So if you were around in those days, you would understand all about VE day, when peace came. and it was obvious why the whole country went crazy with partying on that day., And it should always be remembered. Younger people won't be able to view all this in the same way as all the oldies who experienced those war years.

At that point (in the first war certainly and to a lesser extent the 2nd) huge amounts of people in Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc. thought of themselves as British first. They fought with British and Commonwealth forces, as the british and commonwealth, with British weapons, ranks, uniforms, traditions and the rest.

What rubbish. Some people may have, but not "huge" amounts. My grandparents were in that generation and certainly didn't consider themselves British.

Do you understand that we are celebrating the END of the war, not the war itself????

By law, Irish people were British subjects at that time, and until around 1948. As were most people who came from the Empire countries. They were fighting for the Queen as much as the British troops.

The Queen???

My dad fought in WWII and lost his mates as they died next to him. He couldn't talk about it for a long time. It's not the war we glorify. It's the end of the war.

How do we glorify it or obsess over it? We’re celebrating the end of it am for all reasons people listed above.
But again, this is a case of bashing British people for daring to have some pride and celebration in their own nation. For some reason that is frowned upon. We always remember, and we always will. My grandparents, great grandparents etc all like to see it remembered and celebrated. And we don’t usually have this much over it - it’s a 75th anniversary. As many op have send it affected the bones of Britain and we wave OUR flag as a symbol of OUR sacrifice, bravery, and triumph. It’s not saying any of our allies weren’t involved. It’s OUR symbol. I’ve never known any more vitriol against a flag and national pride.
I was very proud to be British today.

You are saying what the Cambridge students said last year. This is what I wrote to them.
To the students of Cambridge University.

My Father was probably the most intelligent man I ever met. He didn’t get the chance to go to university. At aged 16, and looking about 12, he lied about his age so he could do his bit and go and fight for his country. During his time in the Army during the war, he lost many young friends. At The Chateau de la Londe, he did what no young man should have to do; he buried his best friend Gordon “Lofty” Russell. When the war was over my dad tried to get on with his life, but he never forgot the friends he lost. Remembrance Sunday was his chance to spend some time thinking of the friends who hadn’t been as lucky as him. They hadn’t come back to their parents, or to sweethearts and wives and children. They lay buried in a country that may as well have been at the other side of the world as far as their relatives were concerned. They had no chance of visiting and placing flowers. They’d had no funerals to help them say goodbye. Often they only had a vague idea of how their boy had died. Or in the case of those still deemed “Missing, believed killed in action”, no idea at all where their boy lay.
Don’t tell me that Remembrance Day glorifies war. Remembrance day is not to remember the war. It is to remember the young men who gave their lives to fight for the freedom you enjoy now… which includes the freedom to do what they didn’t have the chance to do, and that is to go to university.
Lest we forget.

It is important that now most of the people who lived through that terrible time and suffered are gone, that we continue to remember.

I agree @MrsSchadenfreude.

This 75 year anniversary commemorates (not celebrates) the end of the war. Anybody still alive from then, would probably have been very young at the time. I suspect this will be the last big commemorative event as people from that time will have died.
However, the war is still in our collective memory, by which I mean, many of us will have had parents, aunts and uncles who will have given us their direct experiences. That includes people (men and women) still at home; experiences of rations, queuing, bomb shelters, bombing raids, etc. So people will have direct stories. I am happy for the commemorations, though did not participate myself

@milveycrohn I agree, and I didn't participate, either.

I agree. It is in my view, a misplaced sense of superiority that we are now known for. The focus on "beating the Germans" just misses the point. People celebrated an end, or beginning of an end to hardships and grief. It's been hijacked by their children to create a lovely jingoistic, fake sense of identity. Not one person has celebrated for peace. The EU was formed as a result of WWII. It was absolutely welcomed to ensure there would be no more wars in Europe. Now, apparently, we never wanted it and could have taken our paddle and drifted away quite happily. But it's simply not true.

Because it's a significant historical event, one of the biggest our country has seen in recent times, and I don't think anyone ever claimed that people enjoyed the war?

Do you understand that we are celebrating the END of the war, not the war itself

That argument doesn't work. No-one suggests we would be celebrating the end of the war if we'd been on the losing side.

I agree op. Every time we celebrate in this way, this re-emphasises an us versus them mentality. Commemoration should be a somber occasion as it is in other parts of Europe including France. The French stopped such celebrations in the 50’s opting for unity and forward thinking.

All this talk of fighting spirit in relation to coronavirus is feeding into it further. Nothing is going to change anytime soon with a prime minister, whose hero is Churchill. I had the tv on yesterday. It was filled with images and talks from ex service personnel. The other allies weren’t mentioned at all. It’s easy to understand why many Brits think we did it alone...

I agree, it is totally a “misplaced sense of superiority”. Having lived in other European countries, this attitude is horrible. We are all equal.

Map with the Participants in World War II:
• Dark Green: Allies before the attack on Pearl Harbor, including colonies and occupied countries.
• Light Green: Allied countries that entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Blue: Axis Powers and their colonies
• Grey: Neutral countries during WWII
◦ Dark green dots represent countries that initially were neutral but during the war were annexed by the USSR
◦ Light green dots represent countries that later in the war changed from the Axis to the Allies
◦ Blue dots represent countries that after being conquered by the Axis Powers, became puppets of those (Vichy France and several French colonies, Croatia)

Germany also had a bank holiday yesterday to celebrate the end of the war and freedom from Nazi rule
So you dont have to be on the 'winning' side to mark this day

I find it boring quite frankly. I have always thought of it as glorifying war also. Inadvertently promoting it. It happened years ago and although a very important marker in the history books I don't think we should be doing any more celebrations in the future. I expect we will though which is tiresome.

There have been red white and blue bunting around the street and there was music being played but I did not go out with there with a deckchair I find it too common lol. Also I noticed nobody was sitting 6 feet apart.

Yesterday we were remembering my 2 great uncles who were both in the RAF and were shot down and killed in their early 20s.
These brave men deserve to be remembered. It's hardly glorification.

That argument doesn't work. No-one suggests we would be celebrating the end of the war if we'd been on the losing side.

Germany also had a bank holiday yesterday.

Yanbu OP. We need to let it become actual history, not keep dragging it all up every year. Being half German, me and my family have been on the receiving end of a lot of abuse growing up and as adults simply because WW2 is always so fresh in peoples minds. This nasty old world clearly hasnt learnt from it, looking at the news every day, so we need to lay it to rest now.

The defeat of Fascism in Europe by the Allies is absolutely worth celebrating

The far right never goes away though. Look at Orban, and how worried the French were that the National Front might win the last election, the rise of the Lega Nord in Italy and the ghastly EDL, our own bunch of home-grown fascists. And there's a nasty undercurrent of right-wing extremism in some Scandinavian countries, too.

Well said @Mummyoflittledragon

Because we won!

When you see the graves in France it humbles and makes you stop.

We should never stop remembering for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

I don't feel like yesterday glorified anything at all .

Because it is the 75th anniversary of the end of it.