VE Day: How a Leamington radio operator played an historic role in the end of the war in Europe 75 years ago

A former Leamington businessman had a vital role to play on VE Day - he was the army wireless operator who transmitted the historic surrender from the German High Command that ended the war in Europe in 1945.

Norman Cohen lived most of his life in Leamington and ran Lancaster House for Carpets in Spencer Street for years, His wife, Lola, was a teacher at Arnold Lodge School.

75 years ago today (May 8), the D-Day veteran, who is now 97 and lives in Israel, was working as an army wireless operator and was the person who took down the ‘End of the War in Europe’ message.

Speaking the Courier and Weekly News, his daughter, Gail, said: "He was going off duty when the message began to come through.

"The replacement operator was not experienced in either Morse Code or the German language, so Norman remained at his post near Lunaberg Heath, Germany and took down the message on his notepad."

Norman reflected on his years during the war with the Jerusalem Post.

Talking about the war in what the paper describes as his 'cool and nonchalant nature', he said: “I was a very good soldier. I was sitting outside the wireless truck, drinking a cup of tea.

"The German planes overhead start firing at us, but I wasn’t nervous. I looked up, and saw the British guns firing at German planes.

"They hit one, and the plane started descending.

"I glanced at my mug, and I felt something. A lump of shrapnel had landed in my mug.

"I said, ‘You spoiled me tea!’ I got myself some more and the firing stopped, and the plane had gone down.”