VE Day 80 - A Yorkshire Post special comment: Ukraine to Vladimir Putin is but an hors d'oeuvre at his own bloody feast that will not stop until each course he desires is devoured

For that was surely the spirit of the words of this nation’s greatest ever Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, to a jubilant, utterly war-weary nation, as Victory in Europe was declared back in 1945.

Of course, he knew there would be street parties, parades, pageants and frivolity; singing and dancing, and quite right, too. The front page of this newspaper, Tuesday, 8th May 1945 read: The European War Is Over And This is VE-Day - And a Holiday! A large photograph of Mr Churchill, smiling knowingly at the lens, adorned the front. Beneath it, it read only: The Pilot That Weathered the Storm.

Yet, that self-same pilot, more than anyone, knew that, yes, the fighting was over but something more than a war had been won; something momentous had been achieved. Something that would alter the course of history; of civilisation; of human existence. Fascism had been defeated. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi killing machine had been dismantled, paving the way for democracy to scatter for good into the annals of history the ashes of the Führer’s demonic ideology.

And, that; that is why it is even possible for the people of this ever-grateful nation to step out into our English country gardens, a mug of steaming hot Yorkshire Tea in hand, to peer over our garden fences and offer our neighbours a humble hello.

The way of life that is ours, that which on every other day it is forgivable to have taken for granted, must today occupy our thoughts, if only for that solitary moment in the sunshine, alongside little else, so that its preciousness can be appreciated. That, in and of itself we should rejoice each waking morning.

For we owe it to the 384,000 who fell in the Second World War; those who sacrificed all that they had and all that they were, so that life in this country could afford us the privilege of taking our liberties for granted. At the height of the Second World War, three million people were serving, prepared to sacrifice the same, in the face of voracious Nazism. Allow, again, if you will, a thought of thanks to them, today, for you will struggle to find yourself presented with the chance to say thank you to a veteran of the Second World War in person, now. The years that have passed have taken most; reuniting them with those alongside whom they fought intense, searing battles, yet who have not aged at all.

Imagine the conversations between them: “So? Did we win?” “We did that, lad.” “I should hope so, an’all. After all that we went through. The mud and the sludge, the blood and the stench.”

Lest we forget: remember the fallen. More importantly, remember why they fell. For Mr Churchill’s words were as prophetic as they were pragmatic. We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts that lie ahead.

And so today, as instructed by our illustrious wartime leader, you must celebrate in whatever manner is most apt for you, VE Day, giving thanks to those who made today possible, before turning to the latter part of Churchill’s prophecy - the toil and the effort that lies ahead. Of course, in the first instance, he was referring to the challenge of rebuilding a broken nation, but it is safe to assume he meant more than that. For it would be foolhardy to bat-off the invasion of Ukraine, and its ongoing struggle, as being someone else’s problem. Peace is precious; peace is fragile. The burning wreckage of Europe’s entire continent in time is but a stone’s throw away. So too, geographically speaking, is the war in Ukraine. Democracy, on our doorstep, is under siege. Rockets are raining down, bombs are being dropped from the sky, tanks are flattening towns, an aggressor is in our midst, armed-to-the-teeth and hellbent on wiping out the enemy it has chosen for now; marauding soldiers inflicting upon innocent women and children the fiendish horrors of war, too painful for words.

But it is not a dystopian fancy to surmise that the enemy Russia has chosen for now is but Vladimir Putin’s hors d’oeuvre; one consumed at his own bloody feast that will not stop until each course he desires is devoured. Remember the fallen, but do not forget the living, for we are the why. Those of us in the here and the now are why those men laid down their lives on the battlefields of Europe. We are why they were prepared to confront the fateful inevitability of mechanised slaughter. We, and the way of life we enjoy, are their why. For, as has been said in this newspaper during our week-long VE Day 80 coverage: nobody wins in war. Everyone loses something and many will lose someone. Mechanised slaughter then has become digitised destruction, now. Drones drop bombs and gadgets guide missiles. The means have modernised but the end will be the same … should we allow ourselves to forget.

And so, today, on the 80th anniversary of the day Victory in Europe was declared by the Allied nations, to the men and women who served to protect our nation then - our greatest ever generation - and to those who have served since and now, this newspaper and its readers offer you our eternal gratitude, for all that you give us.

Lest we forget.