Celebrations for the 80th anniversary of VE Day this week are a good chance to take stock of how victory and security are actually achieved. A strong Western alliance was key to our success in the Second World War and NATO emerged as the perfect coalition to maintain that post-war in the face of the Soviet Union. We also need strong economies – having outspent and out-produced Germany in making many more tanks, aircraft and ships during the conflict.

Britain stood alone at the start of the Second World War, as European allies fell to the Nazi war machine. "We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny," said Sir Winston Churchill in his VE Day speech, read this week by actor Timothy Spall. We managed to weather the initial storm, but it was only when the Americans and Russians joined us against Hitler that the tide began to turn and victory was finally within reach. The lesson is that a strong alliance must be forged to defeat tyranny, but we should not view this through rose-tinted spectacles.

The Americans struck a tough business deal with us to supply weaponry. Before they joined the war, they sent ex-US Navy destroyers in return for rent-free leases on British colonial possessions in Newfoundland and several Caribbean islands. Many of these elderly US warships were later deemed to be defective. Although the wartime Lend-Lease deal was generous to Britain, a subsequent agreement expected repayment with interest and was only paid off in 2006. A similar deal with the USSR demanded US access to industrial machinery and rare minerals and was only settled in 1972 with a payment of $722million.

Trump’s recent raw materials deal with Ukraine should perhaps be viewed in this context. Similarly, Trump’s criticism of NATO has been much derided, but NATO chief Mark Rutte had a positive meeting with the President in March, saying “we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership”.

Last week, Rutte committed NATO members to spending 3.5% of GDP, closer to Trump’s target of 5%, and cites both Germany and Britain as greatly increasing their arms expenditure. This is constructive criticism which will only make our alliance stronger. Starmer’s Labour government has also announced this week a major review of our defence capabilities ahead of greater investment in our arms industry.

The other great lesson to be taken from our VE Day celebrations is that the Allies won the Second World War against Nazi Germany because we out-produced them, making the most of our industrial might, especially in the US. Hitler might have had the most advanced tanks in the world, but the Soviet Union produced 65,000 T-34s in five years – compared to Germany’s 10,147 tanks. Similarly, the US made more aircraft than Germany, Japan and Italy combined, with some 325,000 aircraft rolling out of their factories, in addition to 86,000 tanks and 2.4 million trucks.

The Germans called it materialschlacht, the battle of materials, and America was the economic superpower that helped win the war. Without their factories, the West would have struggled, though even bomb-battered Britain produced 131,000 fighters and bombers by 1945. Economic strength is the best defence of all. It was US President Ronald Reagan splurging on defence that finally brought the Cold War to an end by bankrupting the Soviet Union.

Today Vladimir Putin knows net zero is making us weak, so a swift about-face on Western deindustrialisation is necessary to present a stronger face to Russia. It is important to remember that, although Russia has devastated parts of Ukraine, it failed to achieve the swift victory which many predicted at the beginning of the main 2022 invasion.

Its failure to conquer Ukraine shows that many are overestimating Putin’s strength and, in a stand-up fight with the more professional forces of NATO, the Russian warlord would almost certainly come off worse. But let’s not risk it. Now is the time to honour the past sacrifices of Allied soldiers by reaffirming our commitment to a stronger Western alliance and a booming Western economy. Their deaths must not be in vain as we remember the real lessons of the Second World War and the titanic struggle for our freedom.