For those in Laundry Road, Southampton, it was a day they would never forget, a time to celebrate the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Tomorrow the Daily Echo publishes a special free 48-page commemorative supplement that recalls the events of 1945 when street parties were in full swing across the land as a bombed but unbroken country marked VE Day in May and then a few months later, in August, victory over Japan.

Packed with memories and reminiscences of the time as well as scores of photographs the supplement The Year of Victory 1945 tells the remarkable stories of that momentous year, how the south had survived, the recollections of service men and women and those who stayed behind on the Home Front.

In Laundry Road, Shirley Warren, on VE Day itself, May 8, everybody in the street came together for a party, pictured above, that not only included tea but also games and races.

One of those attending the party was Ann Howlett, seen standing at the right end of the table, who together with her two sons had lived in Laundry Road throughout the war.

"We were lucky as although we were bombed our house was not damaged and although one bomb did fall near the end of our back garden it did not go off,'' said Mrs Howlett, now aged 91 and living in Maybush. "I vividly remembered the VE Day party. All the neighbours came out of their houses and we had a wonderful time.

"It was a lovely sunny day and we borrowed the chairs and trestle tables from the local school and set them all up in the road.

"My late husband, Sid, was a chippy in the Royal Air Force stationed at Porton Down and he used to cycle home whenever he had the chance.

"As it was VE Day he was given the time off and came back home and he brought a bar of chocolate with him. It was decided that it would be first prize for the men's running race.

"Sid entered the race and came in first so he won his own chocolate.''