Ullswater WW2 The War is Over

Hostilities ceased in Europe in 8th May 1945 and was called VE day. Japan surrendered August 1945 and was designated VJ Day.

I was 11 years old and I remembered VE Day distinctly. The news on the radio and the newspapers was full of of it. The newsreels at the movies also, where street parties and the celebrations were shown. Later when VJ Day occurred again it was celebration time, this was the finish of the war. Governments and the press declared it was called the war to end all wars. Peace would reign we were told.

I remember VJ Day, I was on my own up Barton Fell and I was coming down to-wards the Corletts home at Sharrow Cottages and I was thinking of VE Day and its implications, my Father would be coming home, there would be no more killing and no more wars and I remember most distinctly a feeling of exhilaration coming over me, there was to be peace now and a future to look forward to. I felt on top of the world. On our trip to England in 2003 I visited Ullswater again and walked up through the Bluebell Wood ( my name) to the fell access gate and looked up to wards Hadley's cave and my eye tracked down to the track where I walked that day and I again remembered VJ Day and, although in company, I privately remembered the thoughts of that far off day.

Although I have had this memory all my life, I have never thought about it much, but as I write this, I wonder did other children have these types of thoughts? If I felt like this, shielded by our remote location, how did children who were in the danger zone feel when the hostilities ended?

I'm not sure when Dad arrived home, it was probably by the end of 1945, there would be no more tanks to build now. We did not know that within 5 years another major war would erupt, the Korean War in 1950 backed by the might of China lasting 3 years and almost 30,000 to die in battle.