Great Britain has just begun its VE Day celebrations with customary panache. Even eighty years later, they deserve it. Or, more properly, the memory of their WWII forebears deserves the recognition.

It may not be popular to express in some circles, but for quite a while, Great Britain (and the Commonwealth) held on for dear life while Churchill coaxed more support from President Roosevelt.

“Average” Brits “kept calm and carried on,” even as bombs reigned down upon them during the Blitz.   Sure, “mistakes were made” in the fog of war, and Churchill could be cold and calculated if it served the grand scheme, but those years saw:

• The miracle of Dunkirk.
• Churchill’s secret Special Operations Service fomenting resistance in France and elsewhere.
• The pioneering of radar, which was especially useful in the crucial Battle of Britain, in which “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
• The victory at El Alamein, representing a major turning point in the North African campaign.
• Great Britain playing a crucial role in developing sonar technology, which was useful in the Battle of the Atlantic.
• The surmounting of Gold Beach and Sword Beach in Normandy on D-Day, despite significant challenges slowing them.
• The Dam Busters.
• Numerous missions and sabotage sorties.  And on, and on (this list is hardly exhaustive)….

There’s a lot of negativity toward what used to be known in politically incorrect times as the “motherland,” some even calling it “mediocre Britain,” for example.  Admittedly, much of it is justified. Great Britain has instigated many of its own modern problems, much of them resulting from effete lefty apologists who harbor embarrassment toward a relatively benign empire (probably an unpopular point, but when compared to others…).  An empire whose far-flung peoples are now invading the homeland and getting their own back.

But on or around VE Day (celebrated May 5 through May 8), perhaps we can be magnanimous and appreciate when Britain was great, as in a great ally. Many say that no one does pomp and circumstance like the Brits, with King Charles’s recent coronation celebrations a somewhat toned-down, but still splendidly spectacular reminder.

Accepting that they are now “mediocre” Britain, even an Anglophone may appreciate this impressive immersive video of a Red Arrow jet in a VE Day “flypast” over London — just look at what happens starting at second 33.  Their jets may not be as formidable as the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 Hornet, or the Thunderbirds’ F-16 Falcon, but those nine Red Arrow jets maintain immaculate formations as they spread their patriotic plumes into the lower reaches of the wild blue yonder.

In his eloquent VE Day speech, Sir Winston Churchill questioned, “When shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?  They didn’t fail, but some in subsequent generations are trying hard to earn an anti-English reputation, just as our lefties are anti-American.  It worked during the Luftwaffe’s blitz, but it’s no longer time to stoically “keep calm and carry on.”

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.