VE Day 2020 - 8th May

The 75th Anniversary of the surrender of the Germans and the ending of the Second World War – Victory in Europe or VE day - on the 8th May 1945 was celebrated extensively across the nation at the time and was due to be so again with a Bank Holiday weekend full events and parties over the weekend of the 8th-10th May.

However, due to the Covid 19 pandemic this significant celebration has been cancelled. We at LeadersMeets believe that it is important to not just remember but celebrate an exceptional generation that brought to an end the years of Nazi tyranny in which millions died.

Our mission is to host regular leadership ‘conversations that matter’ and we intend to do this on this occasion by looking at the remarkable story of a forgotten war time leader.

The leadership example of Harry 'Wings' Day

Most of us have seen and enjoyed the film ‘The Great Escape’, a film that dramatizes the escape of Prisoners of War (POWs) from a Luftwaffe Prison Camp, Stalag Luft III. However, few people possibly know the real story nor of the actual people behind it, especially that of one of the main instrumental leaders behind it. 

Stalag Luft III was a prison camp for Royal Air Force officers and as with all POW camps there was a Senior British Officer (SBO) in charge, in this instance Wing Commander Harry ‘Wings’ Day.  Day was shot down whilst on a reconnaissance mission and captured on the 13th October 1939. During the next 5 years he was to the SBO in many camps personally making 6 unsuccessful escape attempts that included ‘The Great Escape’ and another following that in leading tunnel an escape from the SS Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen.  He finally escaped from the SS in May 1945 and on this seventh occasion crossed through German lines with the help of the Italian Resistance to meet up with the advancing US forces in Italy. He returned to England on the 13th May 1945.

 As a leader Day’s story is both inspiring and motivating but more importantly a fascinating lesson in the leadership of people around a purpose and a mission in tough times of incarceration, isolation, and hostility far removed from normal life.

Some 75 years on the lessons of leadership are as pertinent to today as they were then.