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Ruth Tucker is in her eighties now, living in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. She’s a widow who met her English husband during the post war days of the Berlin Airlift.

But on VE Day , Ruth was 14-years-old and on the run from Stalin’s Red Army. Her father had been killed during the Battle of Stalingrad, and shortly afterwards, she and her mother lost their home and all their possessions.

Ruth was sent away to live with an aunt in the countryside while her mother worked as a telephonist for the German army.

In the month before VE Day, Ruth’s mother came to pick her up; arriving on a large truck full of German officers who were deserting their posts before the Russian army arrived in Berlin. After a frightening journey with hardly any food, Ruth and her mother were dropped in Lubeck. The centre was deserted, as the English army were about to arrive. That’s when Ruth knew the war was over…..

Image: Ruth then, and now