PICTURES AND VIDEO: VE Day celebrated in style

Just as the whole of England came together to mark the end to the horrors of the war on May 8, 1945, a new generation paid tribute to those who lost their lives in a series of events throughout the weekend.

One major event to mark the VE Day anniversary was at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley where soldiers and a Winston Churchill actor celebrated the 70th anniversary of victory in Europe. A street party and stirring speeches entertained a crowd of 1,500 people to mark the special occasion. Re-enactors gave the VE Day commemorations a twist as the spirit of 1945 was revived.

Youngsters enjoyed the street party, while Winston Churchill look-alike Robert Burns from Walsall told tales of what happened when the war was won and gave stirring word-for-word Churchill speeches.

A US army base was set up with weapons, ammunition crates and tents so people could see what conditions soldiers worked under.

Spam fritters were on sale in the fish and chip shop, the streets were filled with bunting and vintage cars took to the cobbled streets.

The museum's director of communications, Laura Wakelin, said: "The street party was a nice flavour of what would have happened and has been really popular. On a normal Saturday we get 1,000 people here but we've had 1,500, so it's been a big success."

Anthony Porter from Wolverhampton had a 1944 US Jeep on show. He said: "It has been lovely to be a part of. Everyone is in such good spirits - it's felt like a celebration."

Colin Stevens was one of the US soldiers marching through the museum's village, keeping people entertained from the mock base.

The 42-year-old said: "The idea is that this is educational and entertaining for the public. Marking VE Day is more relevant now than ever before."

Elsewhere in the region, military veterans proudly wearing their service medals gathered at Oldbury's war memorial.

They were joined by members of the public who sang hymns and listened to sermons during the solemn occasion on Sunday morning.

Standard bearers surrounding the memorial held flags aloft during the 45-minute ceremony.

The commemoration followed the order of service from the Thanksgiving for Victory Service at Westminster Abbey at the end of the war in 1945.

Jim Thomas was eight years old when the Second World War came to an end. He remembers his family holding street parties to celebrate the end of the conflict.

Mr Thomas, now 78, from Dudley, said: "It has revived memories for me. I remember the street parties we used to have.

"I didn't fully understand it until I realised that some people who lived in the street never came back."

Bob Clarke's father fought in the Second World War and was one of the many soldiers who was in Dunkirk as part of the D-Day landings.

The 68-year-old, from Langley, who spent 22 years with the Royal Signals Regiment, said it was important to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

He said: "It was for the modern day and so the kids can say 'what's that?'. The whole programme brought it to the modern day."

Mr Thomas, who served with the Royal Artillery 5th Field Regiment, added: "Memories have to be kept alive. Dozens of dozens of people are here and it has to be kept going.

"People have given their lives and it's important that we remember them."

Another veteran, Gerald Griffiths from Cradley Heath, said: "It reminds ourselves of what they did in the past and what they had to go through."

Meanwhile, dozens of people attended a celebratory event at Rushall Olympic Football Club on Friday hosted by Winston Churchill impersonator Mr Burns.

Two of his four brothers, Norman and Arthur Burns, served and survived the Second World War and when it was announced that Nazi Germany had formally surrendered to the Allies, his mother Martha hosted a celebratory party in the middle of Borneo Street where they lived in Walsall.

"It was a difficult time during the war with the rations," said Mr Burns, who was 11 at the time the war ended. "We were lucky because we had food.

"We backed on to a field and had pigs so we used to feed the whole street during the war."

He added: "It was a marvellous time really, when we knew the war was finished.

"We had a party in the afternoon and there was a big bonfire in the middle of the street which burnt the tarmac.

"Later on us older ones congregated in Walsall and everybody was climbing trees and lampposts and waving flags until the early hours of the morning."

At a Wolverhampton care home, staff dressed as land girls, who took on the jobs that the young soldiers were forced to leave behind to go into battle.

The staff at Highcroft Hall in Bushbury also decorated the home with bunting and hired a singer to recreate the street party feeling some of their residents still recall.

The home's activities leader Jayne Woods said: "VE Day is one of the most important days in our country's history and many of our residents have very vivid memories of the jubilant street parties that were held to celebrate the end of the war."