Today marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, a moment to pause and honour the sacrifice of millions who stood against the darkest tide of fascism the world has ever known.
As the dwindling number of veterans, many now centenarians, gather at memorials across Britain, we at Labour Heartlands offer our profound gratitude. These men and women, from miners who swapped coal faces for battlefields, to factory workers who exchanged production lines for front lines, represent the finest tradition of working-class internationalism.
D-Day remains history’s largest amphibious invasion, a testament to what ordinary people can achieve when unified against tyranny. But we should remember that victory came not just from Western Allied forces but through the monumental sacrifice of the Soviet Red Army, which bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine, losing over 24 million souls in what they called the Great Patriotic War. As Ernest Hemingway rightly acknowledged: “Anyone who loves freedom owes such a debt to the Red Army that it can never be repaid.” Alongside them stood Americans and Canadians, Poles and Free French, troops from across the Commonwealth and colonies, a truly global coalition that fought for a freedom many would not themselves fully enjoy upon returning home.
They fought not just for flag and country, but for the simple, radical idea that people should live without the boot of fascism on their necks. That ordinary working people deserved dignity, security, and self-determination.
It’s worth remembering that when these veterans returned, they didn’t just seek a return to pre-war Britain. They demanded, and built, something better: a welfare state, a National Health Service, council housing, and expanded education. They understood that defeating fascism abroad meant little without securing justice at home.
As we face our own rising tides of authoritarianism and division, perhaps the greatest tribute we can pay these fading heroes is to rededicate ourselves to the society they fought to create, one where solidarity trumps division, where public good outweighs private greed, and where fascism finds no fertile ground.
Lest we forget, not just their sacrifice, but their vision.
As one veteran to another, I salute your sacrifice…
Paul Knaggs, Labour Heartlands
