yup, a momentous ocassion indeed and worthwehile remembering.

My own grandfather was in the Desert Rats (8th Army, Artillery) and having fought through North Africa was killed in Italy in 1944 when my mum was just 4.

His brother (my great-uncle) was captured at Dunkirk in 1940 and spent 5 years in Stalag Luft IV having been marched from Dunkirk to Poland and witnessed other British troops being shot because they couldnt keep up on the march.

My grandmother remarried after the war to the bloke I knew as Grandpa who was in the Para's and for some reason was in Java during the war (have never quite worked out why) although they both died about 25/30 years ago.

My grandmother's brother (another great uncle) was in the boiler room in HMS Belfast all through the war and survived although he's been dead a while now too.

All fought and/or died for a good cause.

I wouldn't feel the same nowadays as I dont trust any politicians.

Have read countless material on the subject all through my life but have just finished reading "Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War 1944-45" (whilst on holiday in Italy) by James Holland which is superb book and details amongst other things the fine role the Poles fulfilled as well as 17 other nations forces on the allied side and how betrayed the Poles felt at the way things panned out in Eastern Europe.

My grandfather served with the 8th army Royal Artillery at places like Tobruk etc.
He never spoke much about it but i do remember him telling my dad that any member of the Afrika Corps was welcome in his house, he had a lot of respect for them as soldiers.
Hated Italians mind….

I sometimes question why we bother commemorating these things, after the full horror of the holocaust was revealed vereyone said we must never let it happen again. Sadly we all sat back while it happened in the Balkans and only intervened to late imo.

My grandfather served with the 8th army Royal Artillery at places like Tobruk etc

My dad ended up there after he'd finished defending Hartlepool 😀

He then went on to Italy

My grandfather was also involved with the Italy campaign and hated the US General Mark Clark (or so i was told yrs later).

My great-uncle was in submarines, got torpedoed a few times, the subs sank but he survived the lot. Then he ended up in the Resistance in Crete for 18 months – his wife didn't know if he was alive or dead. They lived in a house opposite the Gestapo headquarters.

The missus is watching the final of 'Big Brother', where people are lauded as heroes for living in the same house for ten weeks. Says a lot about society today.

By the way, I can highly recommend Roald Dahl's book 'Going Solo', about his experiences as a Hurricane pilot in WW2. Out of the 16 people in his class, only he and one other survived. Gripping stuff.

There's a new series called 'Atlantic Convoys' on C4 Sunday 7pm which started last Sunday. As my dad served for 2 years on destroyers during this time it does give me an insight into what he went through.