'One of the most memorable nights of my life': Queen Elizabeth II's secret night out on VE Day

VE Day marked the surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of World War Two in Europe. In 1985, Queen Elizabeth II told the BBC how, as a teenage princess, she slipped out of Buckingham Palace to join the joyous crowds outside.

On 8 May 1945, a carefree teenage Princess Elizabeth slipped out of Buckingham Palace incognito with her sister Margaret, and vanished into the dancing crowds who were revelling in the defeat of the Nazis. It's an episode that sounds like fiction, which could be why it has been dramatised in a film, a novel and a hit TV series. But it really happened.

We know this because in 1985, for the 40th anniversary of VE Day, Queen Elizabeth II told veteran BBC royal correspondent Godfrey Talbot all about it. She spoke about how she felt the "thrill and relief" of hearing that the war in Europe was over. After six years of sadness and horror, people were ready to celebrate.

Her father King George VI was happy to let his daughters experience the joy close up, writing in his diary that day: "Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet." Elizabeth II recalled four decades later: "It was one of the most memorable nights of my life."

It was one of only four times – as far as we know – that she walked undetected among crowds of regular people. One of those who joined the royal sisters on their VE Day expedition was their cousin Margaret Rhodes. She wrote in her autobiography: "I suppose that for the Princesses it was a unique burst of personal freedom; a Cinderella moment in reverse, in which they could pretend that they were ordinary and unknown."

Princess Elizabeth was 13 at the outbreak of World War Two in 1939. Those six years of conflict saw her mostly confined within the walls of Windsor Castle while growing into her public role as heir to the throne. In October 1940, at the height of the Blitz, she made her first radio broadcast on the BBC. While it was aimed at children sent to North America to escape the bombing of Britain's cities, it was a message with wider resonance. "We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage," she said. "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen. And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war."

The Royal Family became for many a powerful symbol of national resolve, and the decision to keep both princesses in Britain was a morale booster. Windsor Castle is about 22 miles from Buckingham Palace, so the sisters were still close enough to London to witness the city's blazing skies during the Nazi air raids. On one occasion a bomb fell near the castle as they sat in the air-raid shelter. "We all went pink when we heard it," Princess Margaret later recalled.

Elizabeth turned 18 in the year before the war ended, wearing a military uniform in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, or ATS. As Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she spent three weeks learning to become a qualified Army driver and maintenance mechanic. Her khaki-coloured uniform cap would later be put to good use again.

When Nazi Germany finally surrendered to the Allies on 7 May 1945, it marked the end of six long years of fighting in which the UK suffered about 450,000 deaths – of whom about 67,000 were civilians. The next day was designated Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day. The BBC reported that by 9:00, dense crowds had already converged on Whitehall, Westminster and Buckingham Palace, London's symbols of government and royalty. Church bells rang out and street parties were held all over Britain.

A brief period of rejoicing

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