I’m at Westminster Abbey, where a special service is going to be held from midday to commemorate VE Day. The service is both an act of shared remembrance, and a celebration of the end of fighting in Europe. There will also be a two minutes’ silence.

The war officially concluded on August 15, 1945, after the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This date – and September 2 (when Japan formally surrendered) – is called VJ Day (Victory in Japan Day).

Cities from London to Moscow will be awash with parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day — the day Nazi Germany surrendered to