PRINCE CHARMING!
George, 11, meets veterans with Kate & Wills after joining Charlotte, Louis & King for VE Day flypast
Members of the royal family were spotted enjoying the grand parade and flypast earlier today
PRINCE George has met veterans alongside Princess Kate and Prince William after joining Charlotte, Louis, and the King for a stunning VE Day flypast.
The King led commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, as huge crowds turned out to enjoy the large procession and flypast in the capital - with street parties taking place across the UK.
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Members of the Royal Family were out in full force for the celebrations, as King Charles and Prince George met veterans for a tea party inside Buckingham Palace, following the procession and flypast.
George spoke to 101-year-old Royal Engineers veteran Alfred Littlefield, who served during D-Day, alongside his dad Wills.
The Prince of Wales highlighted the importance of preserving veterans' stories as he shook hands with a number of those who fought during the war.
Read More on VE Day
On a poignant day of celebration:
- Find out the exact route the flypast took this afternoon
- The moment a cheeky Louis lent a hand to dad Wills at the ceremony
- All the timings you need to know for today's VE Day celebrations
- Lip reader reveals what Wills said to an excited Prince Louis at the ceremony
- Miserable Andrew looks glum while excluded from VE Day celebrations
- Hilarious moment Louis copies big brother George's hair flick
- How Charles and Kate showed raw emotion in balcony appearance
He added that it was "very important" for George and the "next generation" to hear stories from people who fought in World War Two, as George listened intently.
William later told veteran Douglas Hyde, who joined the merchant navy aged 18 in 1944, that his son was "very keen" to ask the former serviceman some questions.
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After their chat, Douglas' granddaughter Samantha Davidson, 58, from Denmead in Hampshire, said: "The Prince said George is very interested in finding out about the veterans.
"George even asked my grandfather how old he was during his service."
She said Douglas was delighted that the young prince had taken an interest in the past.
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Douglas added: "I'm very proud."
King Charles had waved to crowds alongside Princess Kate, Prince William, and their three children - Louis, seven, Charlotte, 10, George, 11 - at the event.
The children were seen gazing into the sky, alongside their parents, as the procession of 23 aircraft, including the Red Arrows, flew overhead.
In one playful moment, little Louis was seen playing the drums on the balcony's edge, having earlier had a cheeky dance before helping dad Wills brush his jacket clean.
It came as thousands lined up along The Mall in order to commemorate the end of the war, with many donning patriotic outfits.
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As God Save The King rang out over the crowd, loud cheers erupted, with Charlotte, Louis, and George giving the royal wave to the enormous audience.
Spectators were seen draped in Union Jacks while others wore poppy-inspired clothing as the aircraft, led by Lancaster bombers from World War Two, flew overhead.
The stunning flypast ended with the iconic Red Arrows racing across the sky, leaving behind a sentimental trail of red, white, and blue.
Thousands of spectators had flooded into The Mall to grab the best spots to watch the aircraft fly overhead.
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Prince George was also seen alongside Wills, Kate and King Charles as veterans were hosted for a tea party inside Buckingham Palace this afternoon.
The young royal spoke to veterans as their contributions were celebrated 80 years after the end of the war.
Earlier, troops paraded along Whitehall and The Mall, in front of thousands of spectators, members of the royal family, veterans, and senior officials.
In a touching moment, King Charles was seen saluting cavalry members as they rode by the stage, set out at the Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace.
The King stood tall to pay his respects to the armed forces, with whom the royal family have a deep connection and history with.
Prince William had been seen shaking the hands of one veteran as he took his seat to watch the procession.
His children followed his example, with Kate the last to greet the serviceman as she sat beside him.
He later appeared to show her some photographs and she took one to give it a closer look.
Shortly after the royals took their seats, a light drizzle prompted the King to help veteran Joy Trew by wrapping him in some blankets, as others used umbrellas.
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Charles and Camilla said previously they had been "looking forward" to this week's events.
The Cenotaph has been draped in a large Union Jack, just as it was 80 years ago when parades flooded the streets across the UK, celebrating the end of the war.
In the windy conditions today, many spectators were seen donning an extra layer, with Prince Louis even grasping a hot water bottle to stay warm.
After the parade of around 1,300 members of the armed forces, the royal family retired to Buckingham Palace, in order to watch the flypast.
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Commemorations began on Monday at midday, with members of the Firm, as well as the prime minister, observing military units in the procession along The Mall from Whitehall.
Honouring those who served during the devastating war, the King and Queen, William and Kate, Edward and Sophie, Anne and Sir Tim Laurence were all in attendance, alongside veterans from the Royal British Legion.
The Royal Family made a grand appearance on the balcony at Buckingham Palace as a flypast of 23 military aircraft, both new and old, took place at around 1.45pm.
Summary of today's procession and flypast
Celebrations kicked off exactly as Big Ben struck noon, with more than 1,000 servicemen and women parading in Parliament Square.
Actor Timothy Spall took centre stage as he read some of Winston Churchill's most famous wartime speeches.
100-year-old former RAF battlefield engineer Alan Kennett was in place of honour, carrying the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Torch for Peace flame throughout the parade.
The procession featured Major General James Bowder, head of the Household Division, leading soldiers on horseback from The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, and the Household Cavalry.
They were followed by hundreds of servicemen and women from the Army, Navy and Royal Marines.
Nine military bands from the Irish Guards, RAF and garrisons at Tidworth, Catterick and Colchester marched into Whitehall where they passed the Cenotaph, decked out in only Union Flags.
The parade also included 10 officers from the Ukrainian army.
Military nurses, cadets and civilians brought up the rear of the procession, which marched up Whitehall to The Mall.
At the Queen Victoria Monument, the procession saluted King Charles, who saluted back, as well as Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, who will be sitting with PM Keir Starmer and 50 people from the greatest generation on a specially built platform.
These men and women included Royal British Legion veterans and those who lived through the war, such as evacuees, land girls and Bevin boys who worked down the mines.
Then, at around 1.45pm, the royals appeared on the famous balcony at Buckingham Palace as they watched a flypast of 23 military aircraft, both old and new.
Led by a World War Two Lancaster bomber, the aircraft flew along The Mall and then over Buckingham Palace.
The Lancaster was followed by modern RAF planes – a Voyager transport aircraft, P8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft, Typhoons, F-35 Lightning fighter jets and the Red Arrows.
Battle of Britain Memorial Spitfires did not make an appearance in London on Monday but they did perform flypasts over Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
Brits were kitted with an extra layer after temperatures dropped overnight, following scorching temperatures last week.
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The royals' appearance today marks the first major event since Prince Harry took part in a bombshell interview with the BBC where he hit out at his dad King Charles and his family.
The Duke of Sussex had said he wanted "reconciliation" with his family, before blaming the loss of his multi-million pound security legal battle on his father.
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Sir Keir Starmer watched the flypast from the gardens of Buckingham Palace alongside the veterans and other senior guests.
The prime minister said this week's events are a reminder that victory was "not just for Britain", as personnel from the US, France and Germany will be among those joining the military procession.
In an open letter to veterans, he said: "VE Day is a chance to acknowledge, again, that our debt to those who achieved it can never fully be repaid."
Following the grand flypast, the King and Queen hosted a tea party for veterans and members of the Second World War generation at the palace, starting at around 2pm.
The 30 veterans, and 20 people who lived through the Second World War, attended the garden party alongside the prime minister, Charles and Camilla.
They also met the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence, as well as the Duke of Kent during the reception.
Those commemorated include British and Commonwealth Armed Forces veterans from the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force, were accompanied by their families and carers.
Veterans attending the tea party at Buckingham Palace
Norman Trickett, 98: Joined the Army aged 18, and ended up being taken prisoner of war.
He fought in D-Day with the infantry landing on Gold beach before fighting through Northern France, Belgium and Holland.
He served at Arnhem, helping Airborne Troops beat back German counter attacks, then fought through Germany and the Netherlands where he 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 stayed in the Army and served with the Royal Engineers in Italy, Africa and Palestine until 1948.
Arthur Oborne, 99: Served in the Desert Rats, took part in the D-Day landings and took a bullet through the lung as troops advanced across France and had to be airlifted to hospital.
In 1945 he was at his final posting, at the 44th Prisoner of War Camp at Goathurst near Bridgwater, where he was put in charge of rations and transport for the camps throughout Somerset holding Nazi prisoners.
Tom Stonehouse, 99: Fought in D-Day, remembers "losing lots of Essex Regiment friends in the Battle of Caen".
He met his brother marching in the opposite direction into Arnhem and encountered 11 German soldiers during a patrol in the Netherlands.
Soon after VE Day, Tom was told that he was being sent out to Asia to continue fighting, so celebrations for VE Day were muted.
Tom’s wife’s birthday is on VE Day so they always celebrate the birthday and their war memories together.
Joyce Wilding, 100: Enlisted in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) aged 18, and worked in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), known as Churchill’s Secret Army.
Joyce transported forged documents and helped agents behind enemy lines.
VE Day was filled with joy and celebration, she recalls: "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."
Joy Trew, 98: Served in the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and remembers being fascinated with aviation ever since seeing German aeroplanes dropping bombs over her school playground.
She joined the Women’s Junior Air Corps, and after watching her sisters choosing to work in the factories after being called up, Joy knew she didn’t want that.
She remembers teenage boys in the air corps eager to fly and join up, and thought "I can do this", and so enlisted in the WAAF aged 17, and her father wasn’t pleased so didn’t sign her papers until the night before she had to return them.
Gilbert Clarke, 98: Was in Jamaica in 1943 when news came that volunteers were wanted for the RAF, so he lied about his age and within days, he was kitted out, receiving basic training and being sent on a troop-carrying ship to Britain via the United States.
The journey to Britain was marked by torpedo attacks from German U-Boats which hit a number of ships travelling alongside Gilbert’s.
He finally arrived in Britain in March 1944.
Olga Hopkins, 99: Was a wireless mechanic in the WAAF, and vividly recalls the ecstatic moment when VE Day was called.
She recounts “lying in my bed in our Nissen Hut at around midnight, listening to the American Forces Network radio station, when 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."
Betty Hollingberry, 102: Left her bank job in 1942 to volunteer with the WRNS.
She was one of six sent to Eastcote to join HMS Pembroke V, but wasn’t told much at the time.
Their job was to operate the Bombe machines, designed to help break German Enigma codes.
Each Bombe rapidly tested possible settings of the Enigma machines, narrowing down the possibilities for codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
It was highly secret, repetitive, and mentally demanding work requiring great concentration and later, the work grew more intense as the Germans deployed new weapons like Doodlebugs and V-planes.
Frederick Pickering, 100: Joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and served on minesweepers, and was on board a ship on VE Day when the Tannoy announced there was Victory in Europe.
That day they all celebrated with two tots of rum and later went on to do a Victory March in Leghorn.
After the war, he continued his work minesweeping in the Mediterranean and wasn’t demobbed until 1947.
Bernard Morgan, 101: A Royal British Legion ambassador and D-Day veteran who still has the original telex he received to say the war had ended.
He volunteered on his 18th birthday in 1942 and served in the RAF until 1947.
Bernard was a codebreaker during the war, and the equipment he used was so sensitive that he couldn’t risk it being captured by the enemy.
He landed on Gold beach at 6.30pm on D-Day, becoming the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy.
Two days before VE Day, he received a telex to say ‘German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow”, but kept it secret.
Alan Kennett, 100: Returned to Normandy with the Royal British Legion for last year’s D-Day 80, and is ‘honoured’ to be the procession torch bearer.
Alan was in the RAF with the Mustang Squadron and after the D-Day landings, was in Celle near Belsen on VE Day.
He remembers being in the station cinema on the evening of May 4th, when the doors burst open and a soldier drove in, in a jeep.
Initially annoyed by the disruption, the cinema soon erupted with joy as Battle of Britain pilot Johnnie Johnson shouted, “the war is over”.
A big party soon followed, filled with lots of drinking and celebration.
Henry Ducker, 104: Called up to join the RAF in 1940 aged 19, he will be the oldest among the veterans the Royal British Legion is taking to Buckingham Palace for tea with the King and Queen.
He worked as a flight mechanic and vividly recalls being in a convoy of ships in the Med and coming under enemy aircraft attack.
He served in Italy – where he spent VE Day – and worked on Hurricanes which saw action in Monte Cassino.
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Following the tea party, HMS Belfast, which fired some of the opening shots in the D-Day sea battle off Normandy and is now moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge, will hold VE tea party onboard, hosted by the Imperial War Museum at around 4pm.
And the Royal Family will take part in a number of events over the next four days, leading up to the actual marker of 80 years on Thursday.
Pubs have been given permission to stay open late on May 8 in order for celebrations to last well into the night.
Professor Chris Imafidon, who has written several books on the royal family, hailed VE Day as the “most significant day in British history”.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “Coming to the Mall today is nothing compared to the sacrifice that was made by our grandparents and parents.
“So many men didn’t come home. My uncle Fred fought in WW2 and lost his life, so it is also about personal loss.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“I know it’s a bank holiday, but even if it was a working day, I would still be here.
“I’m so proud to wear this flag because it stands for unity and combination. It transcends politics.”
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