Europe is marking one of its most joyous days in history. V-E Day is also haunted by the specter of current-day conflict.

All my mates got killed. The battle I was in there were hundreds of casualties. Out of our platoon of 34 men there were only nine of us left. Article continues below “It was quite a traumatic thing.

E ighty years after the Allied powers accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender and ended the fighting in Europe, world ...