'NEVER DESPAIR' Queen tells Brits to ‘never give up’ as she rallies nation with stirring TV address on 75th anniversary

THE Queen told lockdown Brits to “never give up, never despair” in a stirring televised address.

Her Majesty marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day with her second TV speech in a month.

Her Majesty, 94, told lockdown Brits to 'never give up, never despair'

Then-Princess Elizabeth, left, with her mother, PM Winston Churchill, her father King George VI and sister MargaretCredit: AP:Associated Press

Speaking from Windsor Castle, the 94-year-old said war heroes would be proud of how today’s Brits had dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

Surrounded by mementoes, the Queen compared the “jubilant scenes” she enjoyed in 1945 to today’s lockdown.

but she said the streets now are “not empty”, but are instead “filled with the love and the care that we have for each other”.

She added: “Never give up, never despair — that was the message of VE Day.”

Her address was followed by a national sing-a-long to Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.

Never give up, never despair — that was the message of VE Day.The Queen

It came only a month after the Queen promised families they will see loved ones again when we defeat the virus.

The speech aired at 9pm, the same time her dad King George VI gave a victory address on May 8, 1945.

BBC One introduced the broadcast with him saying: “Let us remember the men of all the services and the women in all of the services who have laid down their lives.

“We have come to the end of our tribulation and they are not with us at the moment of our rejoicing.”

It then transferred to the Queen, currently in lockdown at Windsor.

The Queen's original wartime service headwear was on show on her desk

King George VI relaxing with his daughter Princess Elizabeth during a visit to Natal National Park in South Africa, two years after the end of WW2

The Queen reflected on her father's VE Day message in her own address which was broadcast at exactly the same moment three-quarters of a century apart

Among the items beside her was the hat she wore during her war service, plus a photograph of her father.

She said: “I speak to you today at the same hour as my father did, exactly 75 years ago. His message then was a salute to the men and women at home and abroad who had sacrificed so much in pursuit of what he rightly called a ‘great deliverance’.

“The war had been a total war; it had affected everyone, and no one was immune from its impact. Whether it be the men and women called up to serve, families separated from each other, or people asked to take up new roles and skills to support the war effort, all had a part to play.”

In an echo of today’s events, she went on: “At the start, the outlook seemed bleak, the end distant, the outcome uncertain.

“But we kept faith that the cause was right — and this belief, as my father noted in his broadcast, carried us through. Never give up, never despair — that was the message of VE Day.”

But we kept faith that the cause was right — and this belief, as my father noted in his broadcast, carried us through.

Footage showed the then-Princess Elizabeth joining her family and Winston Churchill at Buckingham Palace to celebrate victory in Europe.

With a photo of the triumphant scene behind her, the Queen went on: “I vividly remember the jubilant scenes my sister and I witnessed with our parents and Winston Churchill from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

“The sense of joy in the crowds who gathered outside and across the country was profound, though while we celebrated the victory in Europe, we knew there would be further sacrifice.

“It was not until August that fighting in the Far East ceased and the war finally ended.

“Many people laid down their lives in that terrible conflict. They fought so we could live in peace, at home and abroad. They died so we could live as free people in a world of free nations.