Sunderland Echo reporter Neil Fatkin speaks to Tom Davidson, who served in the RAF during the Second World War, about his experiences.
Watch the full show on Shots!TV - www.shotstv.com, Freeview channel 262.
Watch the full show on Shots!TV - www.shotstv.com, Freeview channel 262.
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00:00I can tell you smell I'm such a happy man.
00:02Yeah, all right.
00:03No, you're good to smile.
00:06Hi, this is Neil Fatkin, a reporter with The Sun and Echo.
00:08With VE Day upon us, I've come to Holly House Care Home
00:12to meet Tom Davison, who is nearly 102 years old.
00:15He fought in the Second World War in the RAF,
00:18and I've come to find out just what it was like on VE Day
00:20and how it felt to have won the war.
00:22OK then, Tom, so obviously we've got VE Day coming up.
00:25You actually lived it, you were in the RAF at the time.
00:30So do you remember where you were and what you were doing
00:32on the time it was announced that Victory in Europe had been secured?
00:36Yes, I was Flight Sergeant Instructor at RAF Glossymouth,
00:41which was a Free French Air Force Operational Training Unit.
00:45And did it come across on the radio?
00:47Did somebody tell you what happened?
00:49I think it came across on, you know, the communications
00:52was over the air on the RAF station, which started from time to time.
00:57So I told about it then and then there was obviously a great relation on.
01:03And we went, there was about eight of us instructors,
01:11went down to the local village, Elgin.
01:14It was actually, it was a little, well, the mine sweepers used to dock there,
01:19you know, it was all the Navy lads there.
01:22And we just went down there for a couple of hours,
01:25had a little drink, came back.
01:27And then we had, there was no holiday on the day,
01:31but on the, what we call it, VE Plus One, it was a holiday.
01:36And I was off home day and I was on duty at 12 o'clock,
01:40because we're starting to fly in there.
01:42So I had the celebrations during the day,
01:45and there's been doing the soldiers' mess at night time.
01:51And I remember leaving there and going on duty at 12 o'clock.
01:56All right. So you were at the party and then went on duty, were you?
01:59Yes.
02:00There was a lot of singing, a lot of dancing.
02:02Lots of dancing, yes. Celebrating. Yeah, great.
02:06But, of course, we were stuck together, you know,
02:09with just heat of us or something.
02:12But there wasn't all that many celebrations on the day.
02:15I know your wife and family were back up in the North East.
02:18Yes.
02:19When you spoke to them, what I did then was the street parties,
02:21that sort of thing?
02:22Street parties, yes, yes.
02:24So the whole nation was celebrating, basically.
02:26Yeah, the whole nation was celebrating.
02:29I mean, obviously, you played an active role in this,
02:33flying a number of missions and what have you.
02:35So when VA Day was announced, how did you actually fail?
02:40The first great elation, knowing that I had survived,
02:44Britain was free, Europe was free.
02:49But then there was, funny, I don't know how to describe it,
02:53there's sort of...
02:54...to improve.