UK war tributes evoke "London spirit" after bombs

LONDON - Thousands of British war veterans gathered in central London on Sunday to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, a ceremony made all the more poignant by last week's deadly bombings in the capital.

Queen Elizabeth led the commemorations which culminated in a Lancaster Bomber aircraft dropping a million poppies over an estimated 250,000 people who crowded to the events in a show of solidarity for London.

Ageing veterans, many wearing rows of medals on immaculate uniforms and walking with sticks, compared the way people coped with last Thursday's bombs, which killed at least 49, to the way Londoners dealt with the wartime Blitz.

"The bombs cast a bit of a shadow over the event, but we've seen it all before," said Alan Bryett, 82, who was part of an escape from a German prisoner of war camp immortalised by "The Great Escape" film starring Steve McQueen.

Bryett was in London during the 1940-41 Blitz when German bombers killed tens of thousands of Britons and made many more homeless. People took refuge in air raid shelters and London's underground rail stations.

"I believe Londoners are a particular race. It is remarkable what we put up with. In spite of bombings and casualties and dead, we rise again," he told Reuters.

The Queen paid tribute to London's war generation, calling them a natural inspiration after last week's bomb attacks.

"It does not surprise me that during the present difficult days for London, people turn to the example set by that generation of resilience, humour and sustained courage often under conditions of great deprivation," she said.

Police were out in large numbers around St James' Park, where organisers said 11,000 veterans plus citizens assembled in the sunshine to the sound of wartime tunes and air raid sirens.

As children waved Britain's Union Jack flags, veterans reminisced about their war experiences and wandered around an exhibition of tanks, aircraft and decoding machines.

The programme also included parades, lunch at the queen's Buckingham Palace residence and a service at Westminster Abbey.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of 77 million Anglicans worldwide, told a veterans' service the sight of London devastated by bombs would bring back "harsh memories" for a generation of people.

But most veterans, for whom this year's celebrations may be their last, and their relatives were defiant.

"This is mostly a tribute to freedom and democracy and the events of this week make it even more fitting," Air Marshall Sir Christopher Coville told Reuters.

"The war now is different from the one we fought -- it is against terrorists, but the courage of people, the spirit, is the same," he said.

The government chose the date for the celebration because it falls halfway between the end of the wars in Europe and Japan.

- REUTERS