The V sign with palm facing the signer in British English means something like 'Fuck off'. All sorts of quite likely spurious history about archers insulting the French at Agincourt is used as a kind of etymology.
With the palm facing the viewer it means peace now but it's rare to see it referred to as a V sign in the UK with this meaning.
In WW II Churchill used it to mean Victory not peace but apparently started out used the insulting version and had to have the difference explained to him. Not sure if that is true or just apocryphal.
There are many photos of Churchill performing the "incorrect" version, so there's at least a grain of truth in there.
No doubt the posh school he went to didn't have the grubby little oiks running round the playground flicking the V's everywhere. Or grubby little oiks for that matter. :)
I never even knew that it appears to be a peace sign in the US. In my (central European) country it is the victory sign for everyone I have talked to about it.
The "victory" meaning comes from WWII, not Pokemon.
The hippie counter-culture movement in the 1960s co-opted it as the "peace" sign, but nowadays I'd argue it doesn't have much of a meaning, it's just "something people do for photos" (especially in East Asia).
