Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505080091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
``I think of so many of my friends who died. So many of them died in horrible, horrible ways,'' said Suzanne Cherise, a veteran of the French Resistance - and one face in the crowd at Britain's official celebrations in Hyde Park.
Vice President Al Gore told veterans gathered at the American Cemetery in Cambridge that the war against evil did not end on May 8, 1945.
``From their deaths, we have learned enduring lessons,'' he said. ``If we don't heed them now, the 21st century ... could bring us a greater barbarism than the world has ever known.''
London was the starting point for a border-hopping pilgrimage by leaders of the World War II combatants, going on to Paris, Berlin and Moscow.
Presidents, prime ministers, kings and other officials of 54 nations were in London for a formal dinner Saturday night, a service of reconciliation at St. Paul's Cathedral this morning and a banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Queen Mother Elizabeth, at 94 a living symbol of the British generation that stood alone against Nazi Germany in 1940-41, opened the celebration in Hyde Park.
``I do hope that all ... will remember with pride and gratitude those men and women, armed and unarmed, whose courage really helped to bring us to victory,'' she said. ``God bless them all.''
Derek Waghorn, 76, wearing a chest-full of medals on his crisp navy blazer, served with the British army from the retreat at Dunkirk in 1940 through the D-Day invasion in 1944 and to V-E Day.
``They say miracles don't happen. But it must have been a miracle for those who came through it all,'' he said with a smile.
John Linzer, 71, checked a database at the veterans' center in Hyde Park for old shipmates from HMS Nadder. ``We're survivors, not heroes,'' said Linzer, who paused as old emotions welled up. ``The heroes are still out there - some of them, like my buddies, at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.''
Charles Everard, 69, came with his grandchildren Stella, 10, and Alex, 12.
``I want them to realize that if what happened never happens again, it was worthwhile,'' said Everard, who served with the British army in Germany.
Alex Everard said he enjoyed his grandfather's war stories. ``It sounded pretty drastic. I wouldn't have wanted to go to war,'' he said.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl provoked protests in Britain with a statement remembering not only the victims of Nazi aggression and concentration camps, but also his nation's civilians and war dead.
``The German people have to learn from what happened and never forget that the Nazis were the aggressors,'' protested Mike Whine, spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
by CNB