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VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY ( V-E DAY)
May 8th
1945, was the date the Allies celebrated the defeat of
Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Reich,
formally recognising the end of the Second World War in
Europe.
The Allies had begun to
overrun Germany from the west during April as Russian
forces advanced from the east. On 25th April
1945, Allied and Soviet forces met at the Elbe River,
the German Army was all but destroyed.
Five days later, Hitler
killed his dog, his new wife Eva and then committed suicide
in his Berlin bunker. His successor, Admiral Karl Doenitz, sent General Alfred Jodl to General Dwight
Eisenhower's Supreme Allied Headquarters in Rheims to
seek terms for an end to the war. At 2:41 a.m. on 7th
May, General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of
German forces, which was to take effect from 8th
May at 11:01 p.m.
After six years and millions
of lives lost, the Nazi scourge was crushed and the war
in Europe was finally over.
It was on
this date that great celebrations took place across
Europe and North America: in London over a million
people celebrated the end of the European war. Crowds
massed in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham
Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth,
accompanied by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
appeared on the balcony of the Palace to cheering
crowds.
V-E Day
Celebrations on the Strand ( photograph courtesy of the
Imperial War Museum Duxford)
Amongst
those crowds Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen
Elizabeth II) and her sister, Princess Margaret blended
anonymously, apparently enjoying the celebrations for
themselves first hand.
Listen now to
Winston Churchill as he addresses the crowds
on VE Day:
In the
United States, President Harry Truman, who celebrated
his 61st birthday that same day, dedicated the victory
to his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died less
than a month earlier, on 12th April.
The Allies
had originally agreed to mark 9th May 1945 as V-E day,
but eager western journalists broke the news of
Germany's surrender prematurely, thus signalling the
earlier celebration. The Soviet’s kept to the agreed
date, and Russia still commemorates the end of the
Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic
War, as Victory Day on 9th May.
The Allied
victory over Japan was known as V-J Day, did not take
place until some months later on 15th August
1945.
Liberation Day Cavelcade,
Guernsey
©
States of
Guernsey Tourist Board
Parties have been
organised throughout Europe and North America in May
2005 to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of VE Day. Of
special significance perhaps, are those events planned
to commemorate the
liberation of the Channel Islands,
which were the only part of Britain to fall under the
domination of the Third Reich.
The story of what was it
like to be a part of Nazi Britain can be found at
www.theclearview.co.uk
USEFUL LINKS:
60th Anniversary of V-E Day: Events taking place this
year 2005
©
HUK
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