Mr Fremmer said: "Our history makes us what we are, and for me as a German I celebrate everything that we celebrated when we remember the milestones from the end of the war, because for me I always think that nobody really wins a war, everyone loses.

"It was like nothing I'd ever seen," 102-year-old RAF veteran Kenneth Johnson said of the VE Day celebrations in 1945. He is one of thousands across the north-east of England and Cumbria commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.

A community came together to honour the 80th anniversary of VE Day in an Oxfordshire town. Bicester marked the occasion on Thursday (May 8) by hosting an all-day event at Garth Park, organised by Bicester Town Council.