Though the Second World War was never fought on British land, only in the skies overhead, the country’s fabric is marked by the conflict in innumerable ways. Near my home is a stretch of woodland I often run through with the dog. In 1945, an Allied plane crashed among its trees, killing several of the men on board. To this day, local legend has it that visitors to the crash site will hear voices or coughing, or smell smoke.
But for how much longer will we remember those ghosts? This week marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day — the moment the war ended in Europe. The youngest surviving veterans are now at least 98. And of the millions of British people who served in the war, only tens of thousands remain: perhaps 0.01% of Britain’s total population.
