We’ll Meet Again: Dame Vera Lynn’s words will resonate this VE Day – Andrew Vine

Not only because the sentiments of that most evocative of wartime anthems express the need in us all to be close to those we hold most dear, but because a song written 81 years ago suddenly has such resonance for today.

There should have been a parade of war veterans to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, and street parties for the children so that they could catch a flavour of what it must have felt like in 1945 when the nation celebrated the end of war in Europe.

A new, invisible foe has put paid to that, but we should still raise our voices as one to salute the wartime generation, just as on the evening before we will join together once more to applaud the men and women of the NHS.

These acts of togetherness matter all the more when separation – and often as a result, loneliness – is forced upon so many.

The generation that went through the war, either on active service or on the home front, understand that need for togetherness most profoundly of all.

Like many others, I will also draw strength from their example in our own uncertain and disturbing times.

I can’t have been alone in being deeply touched by an interview with the 103-year-old Dame Vera Lynn – whose song we shall be singing – at the weekend in which she urged anyone who knows somebody who is isolated to call them on Friday, just so they know they are in the thoughts of another person.

Her wise and compassionate words strike just a much of a chord with a country struggling against a pandemic as her songs did with a Britain fighting the forces of evil three-quarters of a century ago.

It’s about the importance of standing together, as those with memories of the war know better than any of us who have come afterwards.

I’ve lost count of how many veterans of those years – both in uniform and civilians – I’ve listened to with rapt attention as they spoke of their experiences, at anniversaries of the Battle of Britain, D Day, the Battle of Arnhem and the Blitz amongst others.

Every single one of them emphasised the importance of comradeship. For those on the front line, whether on land, at sea or in the air, the knowledge that their comrades were watching out for them was a source of courage and confidence.

It was the same at home. Friends, neighbours and workmates buoyed each other’s spirits through the hardest of times, whether they be bereavements, bombing or food shortages.

It’s no coincidence that the friendships made then were especially deep and lasted lifetimes. The bonds of trust and mutual support were unbreakable, having been forged in the most dangerous and trying of circumstances.

Maybe what we’re going through now will forge similar bonds. It seems entirely plausible to me that those working together on hospital wards will develop a depth of trust and friendship that can only be truly understood by those who are involved.

Commemorating VE Day in lockdown might even focus minds more sharply on its lessons for us than pomp and pageantry to the accompaniment of military bands ever could, because it wasn’t just about dancing in the bunting-bedecked streets.

For everyone who went to a street party, or climbed London’s monuments, there were others who wanted to reflect quietly at home on what it had taken to win in Europe and what now lay ahead in rebuilding the future. And the war was not yet over, as fighting continued in the Far East until August.

Churches were packed and had to hold additional services to accommodate the numbers who felt the need not only to give thanks but seek comfort and renewed strength.

Then, as now, there were the lost to be mourned – more than 380,000 British and Empire service personnel dead and almost 67,000 civilians.

The Queen has already lifted Britain’s spirits with her address to the nation, in which her closing words, “We will meet again”, evoked the wartime spirit and the need to remain determined and optimistic.

When she speaks to the nation again on Friday evening, at the same time as her father, George VI, did in 1945, whatever she says will surely have a special resonance for a country coping with a threat to its accustomed way of life.

VE Day, and all it stands for, is a reminder that we’ll come through it, however battered and saddened.

And so are two other looming 80th anniversaries – of the beginning of the Dunkirk evacuations later this month, and of the Battle of Britain in the summer. That’s why we should mark them all.

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