Peter Rhodes on edible animals, greedy hackers and why the war didn't end on VE Day
Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of VE Day, arguably the most significant date in the 20th century, when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies. But victory in Europe was not the end.
In the Far East, the agony continued as Imperial Japan prepared to fight to its last citizen. Tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth troops were killed between VE Day and VJ Day.
When peace finally came to the Far East, three months after VE Day, it was sometimes a confused affair. I recall interviewing Bill Wheale, a British soldier captured by the Japanese at Singapore in 1942. As a fit, athletic 21-year-old, he weighed 11st when he was taken. After three years of cholera, beri-beri, ulcers, beatings and hard labour, he was a pitiful 6st 12lbs.
