United Kingdom: Britons celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II
Thousands of people turned out to watch the parade which featured some 1,300 members of the military and 500 NATO military personnel.
Parade celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War II
With a military parade, which was attended by the royal family, the United Kingdom began celebrations Monday for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in a tribute to the few veteran survivors of the war.
The celebration will last four days and this year take on a greater dimension because "it will probably be the last occasion on which there are still survivors" of that era, estimated historian Robert Hazell of University College London.
Members of the Grenadier Guards during the military parade.
Prior to the parade, the celebrations began at noon with actor Timothy Spall reading excerpts from a speech made by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on Victory Day, May 8, 1945.
Likewise, thousands of people turned out to watch the parade, which started next to Parliament, to run through the streets adjoining Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, counting some 1,300 members of the British military and 500 military personnel from NATO.
King Charles III and his wife Camilla, plus the prince and princess of Wales, William and Catherine, accompanied by their three children, watched the military parade from a grandstand set up near Buckingham Palace.
Members of the public along the mall watch the aerial parade.
Similarly, a reception at Buckingham Palace on Monday will honor about 50 veterans from that generation.
This Monday, there will also be a party on the HMS Belfast, one of the few surviving British warships from World War II, docked on the banks of the Thames.
On Tuesday, Queen Camilla will go to visit at the Tower of London an installation of some 30,000 ceramic poppies, a symbol in the United Kingdom of the victims of wars.
Members of the military during a military procession.
Britons have also been invited to take part in hundreds of parties, picnics, exhibitions and commemorations across the country.
Celebrations in the U.K. will conclude Thursday with a minute of silence at noon and a service giving thanks at Westminster Abbey, in the presence of the royal family, before a concert in the grand square of Horse Guards Parade in London.
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