The wild night Britain celebrated VE Day: Late drinking, fireworks and 'sex outside Buckingham Palace' as exhausted, battered but jubilant nation toasted Hitler's downfall after six long years of war

The Second World War in Europe had come to a halt on May 7, 1945, after nearly six years of toil, sacrifice, tragedy and loss. And so that night and on the evening of May 8 - VE Day - Britons celebrated.