80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan

Baroness Harris of Richmond Excerpts

Friday 9th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Harris of Richmond (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for his inspiring opening of this debate, which has included the excellent maiden speech by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Peterborough. There have been many remarkable speeches today. In May 1944, I was six months old. I remember absolutely nothing of that momentous day, but the aftermath of that terrible war was imprinted on my memory a few short months later when I was reintroduced to my father, who had been away on war duty from soon after I was born. I remember clearly his moustache and glasses, and I howled when this large stranger in a scratchy brown uniform picked me up.

We did not fight that dreadful war alone, and we should never forget the significant contribution of the countries of the then Empire, now the Commonwealth, that fought alongside Great Britain from September 1939, when we stood alone, well before the arrival of the USSR in mid-1941 and the USA in late 1941. While 6 million men and women served in the Armed Forces of Great Britain, another 5 million, mostly volunteers, came from Australia, which lost more than 39,000 personnel; Canada, which lost 42,000; India, which formed the largest volunteer army in the world of some 2.5 million and which lost 87,000 fighting in places such as Burma, Italy and north Africa; New Zealand, which lost more than 11,000; South Africa, which lost 11,900; and the colonies of west and east Africa, as well as Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, which lost many thousands too, as we have already heard.

These countries and others—11 million people serving under the same union flag—provided soldiers, sailors and air personnel who fought all the King’s enemies: the Germans, Italians, Japanese and the Vichy French forces. Included in that number who were helping were people from Jamaica, Malta, Cyprus, Poland, Norway and Denmark, and Gurkhas from Nepal, 132,000 of them, 2,734 of whom were awarded bravery decorations. I am delighted to say that the Gurkhas still serve the Crown in Catterick camp, near where I live, to this day. In all, some 15 million soldiers and auxiliaries served in World War II.

I also want to tell your Lordships about the RAF Regiment, of which I have the honour of being called a companion. I am indebted to its historian, Dr Nigel Warwick, for his help in providing me with the history of the corps around World War II. Our airfields were continuously under attack. In early May 1945, nine regiment task groups passed through the Army’s forward positions and moved into Schleswig-Holstein to occupy airfields up to the Danish border, 15 airfields being seized and the regiment taking the surrender of 50,000 German troops and numerous senior commanders. By VE Day, 74 RAF Regiment squadrons were in north-west Europe, deployed on airfields throughout the British-occupied zone. They were in Germany, Denmark and Norway, taking the surrender of many thousands of Luftwaffe personnel. They were also located across the globe.

In Burma, RAF Regiment squadrons had moved forward with General Slim’s victorious Fourteenth Army in the advance to Rangoon, winning its greatest battle, for the defence of Meiktila airfield, the capture of which was the masterstroke of the campaign. As a force that had risen to 85,000 airmen in 1942, it had been continually depleted by manpower demands from the Army, but the RAF Regiment had fought in all the major campaigns of the war and by 1945 had become a crucial component of the Royal Air Force, thus ensuring the regiment’s continuing existence. It protects the Royal Air Force and its aircraft and personnel to the present day—long may it continue to do so.

We salute all the veterans who came through that terrible war, all the millions of civilians who helped in fields, in factories, in whatever way they could to help the war effort. Today, we face the possibility of further war, and we must prepare for it. However, one thing is certain. It will be a very different battle from the one fought in World War II. Will we ever learn the lessons of what makes a sustainable peace?