Veterans light flame as Netherlands marks 80th anniversary of liberation

Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof lays a wreath during a service to commemorate the war dead in Amsterdam (Peter Dejong/AP)

Second World War veterans watched military aircraft fly over a Dutch town as the Netherlands marked the 80th anniversary of its liberation by Allied troops from Nazi Germany’s occupation.

Festivities in Wageningen centred on a square outside the Hotel de Wereld, where German top brass signed papers on May 5 1945 that formally ended the brutal five-year occupation as the war drew to a close across Europe.