VE Day: Patriotism & Communists - BRITAIN

The 75th anniversary of VE Day on May 8 offers an opportunity to reflect on the ending of the Second World War in Europe and the role of communists in fighting fascism and defending nations.

Communists across Europe played key roles in official and unofficial action to help defeat Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the second World War, and, closer to home, the treacherous British Union of Fascists.

Greater Manchester Communists are publishing a series of VE Day blogs to highlight this important and honourable communist history which illustrates the real meaning of patriotism, internationalism and loyalty to ordinary people.

This blog offers a brief introduction to some of the contributions made by communists in the UK. Other VE Day blogs will look at the work of communists in Italy, France and in eastern Europe.

These are only introductions. Plenty of detailed historical information is available from other sources including the Communist Party of Britain's national website.

British Communists in the Second World War Era

In the 1930s long before the outbreak of war, British communists had warned that fascism wherever it arose could not be accommodated and represented a fundamental threat to democracy and the interests of working people.

This was seen in British communist political action against the British Union of Fascists and against the rise of fascism in Spain, when General Franco rose against a democratically-elected republican government.

During the Spanish Civil War, communists from the UK and mainland Europe played a historic role as volunteer fighters in the International Brigades. They attempted to defend Spanish democracy from Franco's dictatorship but were ultimately defeated. Lessons of warfare and civilian terror learnt by Spanish fascist forces in Spain went on to be adapted by Franco's fascist allies Hitler and Mussolini in the Second World War. Western governments which had been reluctant to intervene in Spain subsequently paid a heavy price for failing to tackle Franco and other fascist leaders at an earlier stage.

During the Second World War itself, the contribution of British communists in defeating fascism included military, industrial, civilian and political action.

The British Communist Party, led by Harry Pollitt, from Droylsden, near Manchester, had regularly called on the UK and USA allies to launch a military campaign in western Europe. The purpose was to open a 'second front' in the west against Nazi Germany which was waging destruction in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Harry Pollitt gives a speech to workers in Whitehall, London, 1941.

Western leaders claimed they were delaying launching a second front because allied troop casualties would have been too high. However, critics believed their real reasons were political - to see communism in the Soviet Union destroyed by Nazi Germany before fully intervening.

Earlier allied promises to launch second front invasions into France in 1942 and 1943 came to nothing, critics said. It was not until the D-Day landings of 1944 that the allies launched a major military invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

The bridge of Royal Navy cruiser HMS Sheffield battling heavy seas
while escorting convoy JW 53 to Russia, February 1943.

Arctic convoy memorial near
to Lyness, Orkney Islands.

Before the second front was opened in France, shipping convoys from the UK, Iceland and North America had sailed through though Arctic Ocean to northern Russia to carry vital supplies to the Soviet Union.

Allied convoys sailed to the Russian ports of Murmansk and Archangel (Arkhangelsk) from locations including Loch Ewe, Oban and the Clyde in Scotland and from Liverpool in England. Merchant seamen and others battled with terrible weather conditions and heavy German navy and air forces to get supplies to the Soviet Union and then return. Many paid with their lives.

At home as British cities were bombed, communists' activities here included forcing the authorities to open London Underground tube stations for civilians to shelter from Nazi bombing raids.


Across the UK, communists made a huge contribution to the war effort on all fronts. It is a patriotic and internationalist history to be proud of - unlike the treacherous record of British fascists, who would have collaborated with Hitler's forces given the chance.

Left: The Arctic Emblem was specially commissioned to commemorate the service of Merchant Seamen and members of the Armed Forces in the icy waters of the Arctic Region between 3 September 1939 and 8 May 1945.

Left: A Matilda tank is being lowered by a crane onto the deck of a merchant ship. Painted by Leslie Cole, from a collection by the Imperial War Museum.

PHOTO CREDIT:
The Arctic Emblem SPVA/MoD/MOD, OGL v1.0