BRITAIN will come to a standstill today to mark Victory in Europe Day with a spectacular show of patriotism and pageantry on the cards.
The huge 2025 celebrations are planned to be some of the biggest yet, as it marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
EPAThe RAF’s Red Arrows will be taking flight over London[/caption]
GettyThe royals waved from the balcony during Trooping the Colour[/caption]
VE Day will be marked by four days of partying in 2025
Thousands will flock to central London for the VE80 parade, soaring Red Arrows flypast and heartwarming royal appearances as the nation salutes our WW2 heroes.
Street parties and tea parties will be held all over the UK, including on HMS Belfast in London as celebrations begin on Bank Holiday Monday.
Running order for Monday
Here’s everything you need to know about today’s special events.
At 11.30am all eyes will be on Parliament Square, where 1,300 troops, cadets, and horses will begin a march of honour through Whitehall, past Admiralty Arch, and down The Mall to Buckingham Palace.
RAF D-Day hero Alan Kennett, 99, will carry the symbolic Torch for Peace, leading the way for a moving civilian procession.
King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales will take their place on a grandstand outside the Queen Victoria Memorial, joined by proud veterans.
The public are welcome to follow behind and line the route to cheer them on.
The skies will roar to life at 1.45pm as 24 aircraft, including a Lancaster bomber, Dakota, and the iconic Red Arrows, fly over London in a breathtaking salute.
Military aircraft, including the Voyager transport aircraft, a P8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft, Typhoon, and F-35 fighter jets, will also be involved in the flypast, as well as historic Second World War-era aircraft.
The flypast will reach The Mall and Buckingham Palace at around 1.45pm.
All eyes on the Buckingham Palace balcony, where the royals will appear for the traditional wave to the nation.
But you do not have to be in London to catch a glimpse.
The planes are due to go over parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire and Oxfordshire.
The flypast route has been split into zones, each with a time slot when airspace is restricted.
Inside the palace, the King, Queen, William and Kate will host a heartfelt tea party for Royal British Legion veterans in the elegant Marble Corridor at 2pm.
At 4pm HMS Belfast, which fired some of the opening shots in the D-Day sea battle off Normandy, now moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge, is holding a VE tea party onboard, hosted by the Imperial War Museum.
Marking the end of the war
VE Day always falls on May 8 every year, the same date as the end of WW2 which came to a close after six years.
The war ended after Grand Admiral Donitz of the Nazi German Army surrendered to the allied forces, with Hitler having committed suicide a week earlier.
After years of battling the Nazis, the allies had turned their fortunes around with the huge allied invasion of Normandy in 1944 and the offensives led by the USSR.
Upon hearing the news that the war had ended, crowds rushed into the streets across the UK to celebrate the new peacetime.
50,000 people flooded into Piccadilly Circus, waving flags, dancing and singing songs.
Both Prime Minister Winston Churchill and King George VI paid tribute to the soldiers who had “laid down their lives” during the war, while the Royal Family made eight public appearances during the day.
The two young princesses – the future Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret – even slipped out to join the crowds themselves.
Similar parties took place across Europe, though the fighting continued in Asia until September 2, 1945, when Japan surrendered to America.
The end of the Second World War sparked huge celebrations across the UK
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