May 8th marks 75 years since the Nazi surrender and Victory In Europe was declared. The bank holiday was moved this year to the 8th of May to allow us as a nation to celebrate and say thank you to all those who served and all those who lost their lives to make that victory possible.
Sadly due to Covid19 all the previous plans of national celebration of our veterans and remembrance of those who never came home have had to be cancelled. The Government however have encouraged households across the UK to put out flags, bunting and to celebrate safely at home to mark this important day.
As City Quay has shown on the Thursday clap for Carers and NHS workers we are a community. The Board therefore feel we should answer the Governments call and once again as a community show our support, gratitude and thanks to all those who served and all those who endured. So we will be decorating parts of the site this coming week and encourage all residents to show the red white and blue on their balconies and windows.
Or if you have a different national flag please do display with pride. Of course the UK had many allies and we will be trying to recognise all those ally nations and their forces as well in our decorations. It’s an opportunity for us as a community to celebrate safely on our balconies and from our windows.
We will be looking at putting together plans for safe celebrations in the next 48 hours and will communicate them once we have finalised. It’s a great opportunity for us as a community to recognise the sacrifices of that war generation, have a good old “knees up“ together but safely in our homes.
City Quays marking the occasion is also poignant given it’s (Herculaneum Dock) historic link with the war effort. Many of you will see the casemates (big black iron doors at entrance of them) as you walk around the site. The reason these are Grade II listed is because they stored the oil and armaments sent to the UK by the USA during WWII prior to them being transported to the front lines.
In the meantime in preparation do look on-line at the governments celebration pack and pop a bit of decoration for your apartment in your basket at your next shop. https://ve-vjday75.gov.uk/get-involved/
