The nation is bidding farewell to the men and women who fought the country’s battles during World War II, as a result of the long goodbye for Queen Elizabeth II.
The queen, who worked as a mechanic and truck driver in the last months of the war, was a link to the sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines and others who died for their country.
Even the youngest veterans of the war are approaching their 100th birthdays, and a steady stream of obituaries tells the story of a disappearing generation.
The director general of the Royal British Legion said that the sense of the passing of time is very important to him.
With the passing of the queen, the sense that time is moving relentlessly, as it does, becomes a reality.
The United Kingdom lost more than a country like the United States because of the war. Women were conscripted into war work and rationing lasted until 1954.
Each year on the anniversary of the end of World War I, Elizabeth leads a ceremony of remembrance for all the fallen service personnel.
She is the epitome of that sense of service and sacrifice. That is more important than ever.
The British government doesn’t know how many World War II veterans are left because they didn’t track military service until last year. Next month, those figures will be released.
The Royal Air Force doesn’t know of any other surviving Battle of Britain pilots. Group Captain John Hemingway turned 103 years old in July.
The number of survivors is decreasing
Henriette Hanotte was one of the people who died this year. Harry Billinge, who joined the first wave of troops to land on Gold Beach in Normandy on D-Day, and Douglas Newham, who survived 60 bombing raids as a Royal Air Force navigator, were haunted by those who didn’t return.
It was a time when people sacrificed. Princess Elizabeth had to convince her father to allow her to join the army.
King George VI decided that Elizabeth’s training as the heir to the throne was more important than the need for manpower during the war.
The princess, who began her war work at 14 with a broadcast to displaced children, got her way.
She became a military truck driver and mechanic after training in the auxiliary Territorial Service. Women were deployed to non-combat rolls such as clerks, drivers and dispatch riders in order to free up men for front line duty.
Elizabeth, the first female member of the royal family to serve in the armed forces, was promoted to an army captain after five months of training. She wasn’t assigned to active duty before the war ended.
The royal family greeted the crowds celebrating Germany’s surrender on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. She and her sister, Princess Margaret, left the palace to attend the celebrations.
She said that they cheered the king and queen on the balcony and then walked through the streets. “All of us were swept along on a tide of happiness and relief when we saw the lines of unknown people linking arms.”
The people who took part in that joy are no longer with us.
The Royal Marine who helped guide the landing craft to Sword Beach is Frank Baugh. He was campaigning for a memorial to be built to honor the more than 22,000 men and women who died in the Battle of Normandy.
The British Normandy Memorial was visited by Baugh a few months before he died.
He wants to see children come all the time. They are the people that we need to tell what happened and the ones that didn’t get back.