80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan

Lord Sandhurst Excerpts

Friday 9th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sandhurst (Con)]

My Lords, we have heard many powerful speeches today. I congratulate the right reverend Prelate on her excellent maiden speech, and I commend the Minister for his compelling opening.

I shall start with the example of my late father’s war service. It is just one example of how lucky we have been because of the courage and determination of those who served selflessly. He joined the Royal Air Force on 4 September 1939. It was his 19th birthday. What followed marked his life for ever. He never talked in detail about his experiences to us, his family, until the last few weeks of his life. He was a navigator/bomb aimer. In April 1941, he joined 149 Squadron, operating Wellingtons out of Mildenhall. One notable operation included an attack in daylight on the battleships “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau”, which were heavily defended in dry dock in Brest. He said that the noise of the guns at some 8,000 feet was deafening.

In the next eight months or so to December, my father completed the 30 operations of his first tour but, by then, his squadron had lost a total of two more crews than its nominal strength—just think of that. Having miraculously survived that tour, he was sent to train new bomb aimers. He then later resumed operational duties as a squadron bombing leader in Lancasters, but he flew much less often—only when a crew needed a spare bomb aimer.

His operational duties continued until December 1944. That year, he still had two bad experiences. Once, they returned shot up, on only two engines. Another time, the left undercarriage was shot to pieces. It collapsed on landing. His back was never the same, but he counted himself a lucky man. In all, he completed 43 operations. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

To put his experience in perspective, only a tiny percentage of those who started with him as Bomber Command air crew, signing up in 1939, survived. He told me frankly that each operation terrified him. At the end of the war, he said that he sometimes found it hard to cross a London road; he could not believe that he was still alive. He was a stalwart attender of squadron reunions and annual memorial services. He was much involved in RAF and Bomber Command Association activities. He never forgot those with whom he served; nor must we.

Looking forward, I commend the plan to make it a criminal offence to climb our war memorials. Our society must understand and value what these represent. We must not forget our past or lose our resolve. We must educate the young. Today, we are, I fear, closer to war than we have been for many years. This would bring grave loss of life and property. Look at Ukraine: imagine if nuclear weapons came into play.

We therefore need rapidly to increase the defence budget. That requires sacrifices. I remind this House that, in 1955-56, after the end of the Korean War and 10 years after the world wars, the UK still spent approximately 7% of its gross national product on defence. Deterrence is vital. In the 1930s, we failed to deter Hitler. The price of that was terrible. We have to make attack of any sort unaffordable to an aggressor. We must build up our weaponry and our forces so that they are capable of inflicting matching injury on any attacker.

We also need to build civil resilience. We must put resources into protecting vital undersea cables, our electricity, our IT and our other fundamental services. Last Monday in the Times, Oliver Letwin described our woeful unreadiness. The attacks on the Co-op, Harrods and others show how easy it is to damage vital IT.

It took nearly six years of the awful world war whose end we celebrate now to obtain peace. We must now build conscious memories in society. We must rearm properly. We must build civilian resilience. We must not fritter what we have. I commend in particular the speech of the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup. We must always remember. We must act accordingly.