VE Day letters go on display in Staffordshire after BBC appeal

BBC News

03-05-2025

Letters and documents from VE Day are going on show in an exhibition set up through a partnership between the BBC and the National Memorial Arboretum.Letters from the Frontline - Words, War and Victory is open to the public at the arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, from Saturday until 16 November.An appeal by BBC Local Radio in the Midlands for letters sent from the frontlines and the home front from around the Midlands was answered by dozens of people.Twelve letters were ultimately selected and will be displayed alongside a film showing some of them being read by family members.
They include messages donated from Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Sutton Coldfield and Warwickshire.Included in the display is a copy of a telegram announcing the end of the war, sent days before the German forces surrendered.It was loaned to the exhibition by Bernard Morgan from Crewe, Cheshire, who was based in Germany in May 1945 working in an intelligence unit.
The display has gone on public show ahead of Thursday's celebrations to mark 80 years since 8 May 1945, when World War Two ended in Europe.In another letter, Sgt Tony Wade describes his unit's advance through Germany and how he saw troops surrendering in their thousands.His letter was donated by his daughter, Susannah Midwinter, who said reading the letters "makes me very emotional and it really brings the personalities completely back in focus and alive".The exhibition is being held in the drum area of the National Memorial Arboretum.
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