TODAY marks exactly 68 years since the Second World War came to an end in Europe.

It was a day that Huddersfield folk will never forgot as the national celebrations were mirrored by local joy.

This is how the Examiner reported Victory in Europe Day at the time.

“Gay scenes marked the celebration of VE-day in the Huddersfield district. The town was in festive dress, there were flags and festoons everywhere and nearly everyone wore a victory emblem of some kind.

“VE-day opened in Huddersfield in a spirit of quiet rejoicing but when evening came the people really let themselves go and colourful crowds, sang, cheered, paraded and danced.

“At noon on VE-day the bells of Huddersfield Parish Church rang out a victory peal and at 6pm the Mayor, Alderman Sidney Kaye, addressed a big crowd from the balcony of the flag-bedecked town hall balcony. A silence of half-a-minute was observed in memory of the fallen.”

The Mayor said: “Let us remember the sick and wounded prisoners of war not yet returned home and let us remember those who have made the supreme sacrifice that we might enjoy this victory.”

In fact some Huddersfield soldiers had just returned home on leave from Germany and brought with them bottles of Rippentrop champagne which had been reserved for the Nazi victory celebrations that never happened.

“The champagne was put to a much better purpose,” reported the Examiner.

A few days previously Signalman Ronald Dunford, nephew of Harold Senior, of Manor Rise, Newsome, had arrived home from a POW camp.

Ronald, who had been educated at Stile Common School, was taken prisoner at St Valery in France just before Dunkirk and had been kept in a camp near the Austrian border.

On both VE-day night and VE-plus-one there was dancing on the rubber paving outside the Ritz cinema to radio music blasted through loudspeakers. The front of the theatre was floodlit and a huge spotlight on the roof kept sweeping through the throng.

There was also dancing outside the Palace Theatre when Al Shaw and some of his band took their instruments out into the street – including a grand piano, an electric guitar and a xylophone – with up to 3,000 dancing and singing along.

Greenhead Park was another major gathering point with lights strung up.

The Examiner reported: “The people came to see the brilliant illuminations, but many stayed to make merry. They overflowed into VE-plus-one and at 3.30 in the morning between 3,000 and 4,000 young folk paraded about the park singing songs of victory.”

Bonfires were lit around the town but instead of Guy Fawkes, effigies of Hitler were thrown on them.

During the two days of celebration four babies – three girls and a boy – were born at the Princess Royal Maternity Home.

Each was given £5 by Mary Brown, widow of Percy Brown, of Talbot Avenue in Edgerton “as a token of gratitude for the successful termination of the war in Europe.”

There was a slight rider to it as the Examiner added: “To qualify for the gift the baby must survive one month.”

And at the same time Fartown won the Rugby League Cup by beating Bradford at Odsal.

The Examiner reporter wrote that about three-quarters of the way through the game Bradford “seemed leg weary and despondent and ready at any moment to sign capitulation terms with the Huddersfield pack who gave their opposition neither rest nor room and were able to finish a gruelling game looking as fresh as when they started”.