America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

2929

Address by President Truman Announcing the Surrender of Germany
May 8, 1945, 9:00 a.m. EWT

harry.s.truman.jpg

Broadcast audio (NBC):

This is a solemn but a glorious hour. I only wish that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day. Gen. Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly over all Europe.

For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the Providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity.

Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued by a supreme consciousness of the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band. Let us not forget, my fellow Americans, the sorrow and the heartache which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors-neighbors whose most priceless possession has been rendered as a sacrifice to redeem our liberty.

We can repay the debt which we owe to our God, to our dead and to our children only by work – by ceaseless devotion to the responsibilities which lie ahead of us. If I could give you a single watchword for the coming months, that word is – work, work, and more work.

We must work to finish the war. Our victory is but half-won. The West is free, but the East is still in bondage to the treacherous tyranny of the Japanese. When the last Japanese division has surrendered unconditionally, then only will our fighting job be done.

We must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world – to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law. We can build such a peace only by hard, toilsome, painstaking work – by understanding and working with our allies in peace as we have in war.

The job ahead is no less important, no less urgent, no less difficult than the task which now happily is done.

I call upon every American to stick to his post until the last battle is won. Until that day, let no man abandon his post or slacken his efforts. And now, I want to read to you my formal proclamation of this occasion:

PROCLAMATION 2651
Victory in Europe: Day of Prayer

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 8, 1945

The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, corrupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave.

Much remains to be done. The victory won in the West must now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.

For the triumph of spirit and of arms which we have won, and for its promise to peoples everywhere who join us in the love of freedom, it is fitting that we, as a nation, give thanks to Almighty God, who has strengthened us and given us the victory.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945, to be a day of prayer.

I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace.

I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this eighth day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-five and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-ninth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:
JOSEPH C. GREW
Acting Secretary of State
2930

Statement by President Truman Calling for Unconditional Surrender of Japan
May 8, 1945

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Nazi Germany has been defeated.

The Japanese people have felt the weight of our land, air and naval attacks. So long as their leaders and the armed forces continue the war the striking power and intensity of our blows will steadily increase and will bring utter destruction to Japan’s industrial war production, to its shipping, and to everything that supports its military activity.

The longer the war lasts, the greater will be the suffering and hardships which the people of Japan will undergo – all in vain. Our blows will not cease until the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender.

Just what does the unconditional surrender of the armed forces mean for the Japanese people?

It means the end of the war.

It means the termination of the influence of the military leaders who have brought Japan to the present brink of disaster.

It means provision for the return of soldiers and sailors to their families, their farms, their jobs.

It means not prolonging the present agony and suffering of the Japanese in the vain hope of victory.

Unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people.

2931

Messages from President Truman to Allied Leaders and Gen. Eisenhower on Surrender of Germany
May 8, 1945

To Prime Minister Churchill:

With the unconditional surrender of all the armies of Nazidom and the liberation of the oppressed people of Europe from the evils of barbarism, I wish to express to you, and through you to Britain’s heroic Army, Navy and Air Forces, our congratulations on their achievements. The Government of the United States is deeply appreciative of the splendid contribution of all the British Empire forces and of the British people to this magnificent victory. With warm affection, we hail our comrades-in-arms across the Atlantic.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

To Marshal Stalin:

Now that the Nazi armies of aggression have been forced by the coordinated efforts of Soviet-Anglo-American forces to an unconditional surrender, I wish to express to you and through you to your heroic Army the appreciation and congratulations of the United States Government on its splendid contribution to the cause of civilization and liberty.

You have demonstrated in all your campaigns what it is possible to accomplish when a free people under superlative leadership and with unfailing courage rise against the forces of barbarism.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

To Gen. Eisenhower:

In recognition of the unconditional and abject surrender of the Nazi barbarians, please accept the fervent congratulations and appreciation of myself and of the American people for the heroic achievements of your Allied Army, Navy and Air Forces. By their sacrifices, skill and courage they have saved and exalted the cause of freedom throughout the world. All of us owe to you and to your men of many nations a debt beyond appraisal for their high contribution to the conquest of Naziism.

I send also my personal appreciation of the superb leadership shown by you and your commanders in directing the valiant legions of our own country and of our allies to this historic victory.

Please transmit this message to the appropriate officers of your command and publish it to all allied forces in your theaters of operation.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

To Gen. de Gaulle:

The Nazi forces of barbarian aggression having now been driven into an unconditional surrender by our allied armies, this is an appropriate time to send through you America’s congratulations to the people of France on their permanent liberation from the oppression they have endured with high courage for so long.

I wish also to send to you this expression of our appreciation of the contribution made by valiant soldiers of France to our Allied victory.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

2932

Victory Order of the Day from Gen. Eisenhower and His Proclamation on Germany’s Defeat
May 8, 1945

The crusade on which we embarked in the early summer of 1944 has reached its glorious conclusion. It is my especial privilege, in the name of all nations represented in this theatre of war, to commend each of you for the valiant performance of duty.

Though these words are feeble, they come from the bottom of a heart overflowing with pride in your loyal service and admiration for you as warriors. Your accomplishments at sea, in the air, on the ground and in the field of supply have astonished the world.

Even before the final week of the conflict you had put 5,000,000 of the enemy permanently out of the war. You have taken in stride military tasks so difficult as to be classed by many doubters as impossible. You have confused, defeated and destroyed your savagely fighting foe. On the road to victory you have endured every discomfort and privation and have surmounted every obstacle that ingenuity and desperation could throw in your path. You did not pause until our front was firmly joined up with the great Red Army coming from the east and other Allied forces coming from the south.

Full victory in Europe has been attained. Working and fighting together in single and indestructible partnership you have achieved a perfection in the unification of air, ground and naval power that will stand as a model in our time.

The route you have traveled through hundreds of miles is marked by the graves of former comrades. From them have been exacted the ultimate sacrifice. The blood of many nations-American, British, Canadian, French, Polish and others-has helped to gain the victory. Each of the fallen died as a member of a team to which you belong, bound together by a common love of liberty and a refusal to submit to enslavement. No monument of stone, no memorial of whatever magnitude could so well express our respect and veneration for their sacrifice as would the perpetuation of the spirit of comradeship in which they died.

As we celebrate victory in Europe let us remind ourselves that our common problems of the immediate and distant future can be best solved in the same conceptions of cooperation and devotion to the cause of human freedom as have made this Expeditionary Force such a mighty engine of righteous destruction. Let us have no part in the profitless quarrels in which other men will inevitably engage as to what country and what service won the European war.

Every man and every woman of every nation here represented has served according to his or her ability and efforts and each has contributed to the outcome. This we shall remember and in doing so we shall be revering each honored grave and be sending comfort to the loved ones of comrades who could not live to see this day.

Commander’s Proclamation

In 1943 the late President Roosevelt and Premier Churchill met in Casablanca. There they pronounced the formula of unconditional surrender for the Axis Powers.

In Europe that formula has now been fulfilled. The Allied force which invaded Europe on June 6, 1944, has, with its great Russian Ally and the forces advancing from the south, utterly defeated the Germans on land, sea and air.

This unconditional surrender has been achieved by teamwork, teamwork not only among all the Allies participating but among all the services, land, sea and air.

To every subordinate that has been in this command of almost 5,000,000 Allies I owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. The only repayment that can be made to them is the deep appreciation and lasting gratitude of all the free citizens of all the United Nations.

2933

Announcement by British Prime Minister Churchill to Parliament
May 8, 1945

Mr. Speaker, I have just had the duty of making an official statement to the nation and the British Empire and Commonwealth, and I thought it might perhaps be convenient to the House if I repeated it.

Broadcast audio (BBC):

Yesterday morning, at 2.41, at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command and of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force, and, simultaneously, to the Soviet High Command. General Bedell Smith, who is the Chief of the Staff to the Allied Expeditionary Force – and not, as I stated in a slip just now, Chief of the Staff to the United States Army – and General François Sevez, signed the document on behalf of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and General Susloparoff signed on behalf of the Russian High Command.

Today this agreement will be ratified and confirmed at Berlin, where Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and General de Lattre de Tassigny, representing the French Republic, will sign on behalf of General Eisenhower, and General Zhukov will sign on behalf of the Soviet High Command. The German representatives will be Field Marshal Keitel, Chief of the High Command, and the Commanders-in-Chief of the German Army, Navy, and Air forces.

Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight to-night, Tuesday, 8th May, but in the interests of saving lives the “Cease Fire” began yesterday to be sounded all along the fronts, and I should not forget to mention that our dear Channel Islands, the only part of His Majesty’s Dominions that has been in the hands of the German foe, are also to be freed to-day. The Germans are still in places resisting Russian troops, but should they continue to do so after midnight, they will, of course, deprive themselves of the protection of the laws of war and will be attacked from all quarters by the Allied troops. It is not surprising that on such long fronts and in the existing disorder of the enemy that the orders of the German High Command should not in every case have been obeyed. This does not, in our opinion, constitute any reason for withholding from the nation the facts communicated to us by General Eisenhower of the unconditional surrender already signed at Rheims, nor should it prevent us from celebrating today, and tomorrow – Wednesday – as Victory-in-Europe Days, and I think that to-morrow it may be specially desirable for us to emphasise the debt we owe to our Soviet Ally, whose main celebrations will be taking place to-morrow.

The German war, Mr. Speaker, is therefore at an end. After years of intense preparation Germany hurled herself on Poland at the beginning of September, 1939, and in pursuance of our guarantee to Poland, and in common action with the French Republic, Great Britain and the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations declared war against this foul aggression. After gallant France had been struck down we from this Island and from our united Empire maintained the struggle single-handed for a whole year until we were joined by the military might of Soviet Russia and later by the overwhelming power and resources of the United States of America. Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evildoers, who are now prostrate before us. Sir, our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts. We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injuries she has inflicted upon Great Britain, the United States and other countries and her detestable cruelties call forth justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our tasks both at home and abroad. Advance Britannia! Long Live the Cause of Freedom! God Save the King!

Sir, that is the message which I have been instructed to deliver to the British Nation and Commonwealth. I have only two or three sentences to add. They will convey to the House my deep gratitude to this House of Commons which has proved itself the strongest foundation for waging war that has ever been seen in the whole of our long history. We have all of us made our mistakes, but the strength of the Parliamentary institution has been shown to enable it at the same moment to preserve all the title deeds of democracy while waging war in the most stern and protracted form. I wish to give my hearty thanks to men of all Parties, to everyone in every part of the House where they sit, for the way in which the liveliness of Parliamentary institutions has been maintained under the fire of the enemy and for the way in which we have been able to persevere – and we could have persevered much longer if the need had been – till all the objectives which we set before us of the procuring of the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy had been achieved. I recollect well at the end of the last war, more than a quarter of a century ago, that the House, when it heard the long list of the surrender terms, the armistice terms, which had been imposed upon the Germans did not feel inclined for debate or business but desired to offer thanks to Almighty God, to the Great Power which seems to shape and design the fortunes of nations and the destiny of man, and I therefore beg, Sir, with your permission to move:

“That this House do now attend at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination.”

This is the identical Motion which was moved in former times.

2934
Winston Churchill at the Ministry of Health Building (BBC):

Address by British Prime Minister Churchill to V-E Crowds in London
May 8, 1945, 3:00 p.m. BDST

My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for a whole year.

There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to give in? [The crowd shouted “No.”] Were we downhearted? [“No!”] The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and child in the country had no thought of quitting the struggle. London can take it. So we came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. When shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail? I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we’ve done and they will say “do not despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straight forward and die if need be – unconquered.” Now we have emerged from one deadly struggle – a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgment and our mercy.

But there is another foe who occupies large portions of the British Empire, a foe stained with cruelty and greed – the Japanese. I rejoice we can all take a night off today and another day tomorrow. Tomorrow our great Russian Allies will also be celebrating victory and after that we must begin the task of rebuilding our hearth and homes, doing our utmost to make this country a land in which all have a chance, in which all have a duty, and we must turn ourselves to fulfill our duty to our own countrymen, and to our gallant Allies of the United States who were so foully and treacherously attacked by Japan. We will go hand and hand with them. Even if it is a hard struggle we will not be the ones who will fail.

2935

Address by French General de Gaulle to the French People
May 8, 1945, 3:00 p.m. CET

La guerre est gagnée. Voici la victoire. C’est la victoire des Nations Unies et c’est la victoire de la France. L’ennemi allemand vient de capituler devant les armées alliées de l’Ouest et de l’Est. Le commandement français était présent et partie à l’acte de capitulation.

Dans l’état de désorganisation où se trouvent les pouvoirs publics et le commandement militaire allemand, il est possible que certains groupes ennemis veuillent, ça et là, prolonger pour leur propre compte, une résistance sans issue. Mais l’Allemagne est abattue et elle a signé son désastre.

Tandis que les rayons de la gloire vont, une fois de plus, resplendir au drapeau, la patrie porte sa pensée et son amour, d’abord, vers ceux qui sont morts pour elle, ensuite, vers ceux qui ont, pour son service, tant combattu et tant souffert. Pas un effort de ces soldats, de ces marins, de ces aviateurs, pas un acte de courage ou d’abnégation de ses fils et de ses filles, pas une souffrance de ces hommes et de ces femmes prisonniers, pas un deuil, pas un sacrifice, pas une larme n’auront donc été perdus.

Dans la joie et dans la fierté nationale, le peuple français adresse son fraternel salut à ses vaillants alliés qui, comme lui, pour la même cause que lui, ont durement, longuement prodigué leurs peines. A leurs héroïques armées et aux chefs qui les commandent, à tous ces hommes et à toutes ces femmes qui, dans le monde, ont lutté, pâti, travaillé pour que l’emportent, à la fin des fins, la justice et la liberté.

Honneur ! Honneur pour toujours à nos armées et à leurs chefs, Honneur à notre peuple que des épreuves terribles n’ont pu réduire ni fléchir, Honneur aux Nations Unies qui ont mêlé leur sang à notre sang, leurs peines à nos peines, leur espérance à notre espérance et qui, aujourd’hui, triomphent avec nous.

Ah, vive la France !

2936

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (May 8, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
081505B May

TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT

TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) AIR STAFF MAIN
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) SHAEF MAIN
(20) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(21) WOIA FOR OWI WASHINGTON FOR RELEASE TO COMBINED US AND CANADIAN PRESS AND RADIO AT 0900 HOURS GMT
(22) AFHQ ROME FOR PWB

(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Special Communiqué No. 8

UNCLASSIFIED: All German Land, Sea and Air forces in Europe were unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command, at 0141 hours Central European Time, May 7.

The surrender terms, which will become effective at 2301 Central European Time, May 8, were signed by an officer of the German High Command.

Allied Expeditionary Forces have been ordered to cease offensive operations, but will maintain their present positions until the surrender becomes effective.

COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S

THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/

Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others

ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section

NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA4655

AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
2937
CBS News report:

2938

U.S. Navy Department (May 8, 1945)

Statement to the Men of the U.S. Navy and Army by the Secretary of the Navy

For Immediate Release
May 8, 1945

You and your Allies have won a great victory. The price was high; it has been won by determination, sacrifice and blood. With this victory you have won something more: the admiration and gratitude of America and the world.

The task has now been half accomplished. Another powerful enemy remains. It will require all our resolution and fortitude to destroy him. Only by so doing can we keep faith with those who have fallen. Let us now go forward to speedy and complete victory in the Pacific.

2939

Memorandum to the Press

For Immediate Release 
May 8, 1945

The following are casualty figures for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard sustained in the Atlantic-Mediterranean theaters, including the European theater. Data for the Navy are through April 26; those for the Marine Corps are through April 10; those for the Coast Guard are through May 5. The Coast Guard keeps no breakdown by theaters for casualties other than dead. Totals include combatant as well as non-combatant casualties. Navy totals for the combined Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters include casualties which might have been sustained on the continents of Europe and Africa. The Coast Guard totals for the “Atlantic” theater cover all operations against the European enemy.

NAVY:

Atlantic Mediterranean TOTAL
Dead 6,415 1,930 8,346
Missing 594 78 672
Wounded or Injured 3,612 1,689 5,301
Prisoners of War 29 0 29
TOTAL 10,650 3,697 14,347

MARINE CORPS:

Atlantic Mediterranean Eastern Theatre of Operations TOTAL
Dead 32 2 0 34
Missing 0 0 1 1
Wounded or Injured 1 0 0 1
Prisoners of War 0 0 3 3
TOTAL 33 2 4 39

Coast Guard: 508

2940

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 356

Battleships and cruisers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet delivered heavy fire in support of the Marine III Amphibious Corps and the XXIV Army Corps in southern Okinawa on May 7 (East Longitude Date) destroying gun emplacements, some artillery and a number of mortars. During the night of May 7-8, surface craft fired several hundred rounds of illumination which effectively reduced the enemy’s attempts at infiltration into our lines. Adverse weather limited our operations on the island during May 8 and there were no substantial changes in the lines.

No enemy aircraft activity was noted in the Ryukyus during the night and day of May 7-8. As of that date, summaries of damage to the enemy show that fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing have shot down 209 Japanese aircraft since they commenced operation from captured fields on Okinawa.

Escort carrier aircraft of the U.S. Pacific Fleet continued to neutralize airfields in the Sakishima group on May 7.

Concentrations of shipping in the coastal waters around Korea were attacked on May 7 by search planes of Fleet Air Wing One and an estimated 14,000 tons of shipping were sunk and 3,500 tons damaged as follows

SUNK:

  • One small freighter transport
  • One large fleet oiler

DAMAGED:

  • One trawler set afire
  • One small freight transport set afire and listing
  • One small freighter left listing and dead in water

Planes of FlAirWing 18 in attacks on shipping south of the island of Honshu on May 8 inflicted the following damage on the enemy:

SUNK:

  • Two small cargo ships
  • One large fishing craft
  • One coastal cargo ship

DAMAGED:

  • Four small cargo ships
  • Four large fishing craft
  • One coastal cargo ship

Search planes of this wing shot down a four-engine flying boat near the Honshu coast on the same date.

Night flying Mitchells of the 4th MarAirWing damaged a small ship with rockets south of Honshu on May 7.

Thunderbolts of the 7th Army Air Force strafed and bombed gun positions and radio installations on Truk in the Carolines through intense anti-aircraft fire on May 7. On the same date, Liberators of this force bombed the runways on Marcus Island.

2941

49869390441_f93cfd6e1b_o
Times Square, New York.

2942
‘God Save the King’ (BBC):

V-E Day Address by King George VI
May 8, 1945, 9:00 p.m. BDST

Broadcast audio (BBC):

Today we give thanks to Almighty God for a great deliverance.

Speaking from our Empire’s oldest capital city, war-battered but never for one moment daunted or dismayed, speaking from London, I ask you to join with me in that act of thanksgiving.

Germany, the enemy who drove all Europe into war, has been finally overcome. In the Far East we have yet to deal with the Japanese, a determined and cruel foe. To this we shall turn with the utmost resolve and with all our resources. But at this hour when the dreadful shadow of war has passed far from our hearths and homes in these islands, we may at last make one pause for thanksgiving and then turn our thoughts to the task all over the world which peace in Europe brings with it.

Let us remember those who will not come back: their constancy and courage in battle, their sacrifice and endurance in the face of a merciless enemy; let us remember the men in all the services, the women in all the services, who have laid down their lives.

We have come to the end of our tribulation and they are not with us at the moment of our rejoicing.

And then let us salute in proud gratitude the great host of the living who have brought us to victory. I cannot praise them to the measure of each one’s service, for in a total war the efforts of all rise to the same noble height and ale are devoted to the common purpose. Armed or unarmed, men and women, you have fought, striven and endured to your utmost. No one knows that better than I do, and as your King I thank with a full heart those who bore arms so valiantly on land and sea or in the air; and all civilians who, shouldering their many burdens, have carried them unflinchingly and without complaint.

With those memories in our minds, let us think what it was that has upheld us through nearly six years of suffering and peril. With the knowledge that everything was at stake, our freedom, our independence, our very existence as a people, with the knowledge also that in defending ourselves we were defending the liberties of the whole world, that our cause was the cause not of this nation only, not of this Empire and Commonwealth only, but of every land where freedom is cherished and law and liberty go hand in hand.

In the darkest hours we knew that the enslaved and isolated peoples of Europe looked to us. Their hopes were our hopes; their confidence confirmed our faith. We knew that if we failed the last remaining barrier against a world-wide tyranny would have fallen in ruins. But we did not fail. We kept faith with ourselves and with one another. We kept faith and unity with our great Allies. That faith, that unity have carried us to victory through dangers which at times seemed overwhelming.

So let us resolve to bring to the tasks which lie ahead the same high confidence in our mission. Much hard work awaits us, both in the restoration of our own country after the ravages of war and in helping us to restore peace and sanity to a shattered world.

This comes upon us at a time when we have all given of our best. For five long years and more, heart and brain, nerve and muscle have been directed upon the overthrow of Nazi tyranny. And now we turn, fortified by success, to deal with our last remaining foe. The Queen and I know the ordeals which you have endured throughout the Commonwealth and Empire. We are proud to have shared some of these ordeals with you and we know also that together we shall all face the future with strong resolve and prove that our reserves of will power and vitality are inexhaustible.

There is great comfort in the thought that the years together, that the years of darkness and danger in which the children of our country have grown up are over, and please God, forever. We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and good-will.

To that, then, let us turn our thoughts on this day of just triumph and proud sorrow, and then take up our work again, resolved as a people to do nothing unworthy of those who died for us and to make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and for ours.

This is the task to which now honor binds us. In the hour of danger, we humbly committed our cause into the hand of God and He has been our strength and shield. Let us thank Him for His mercies and in this hour of victory commit ourselves and our new task to the guidance of that same strong hand.

2943

The Pittsburgh Press (May 8, 1945)

V-E DAY PROCLAIMED
Fighting will stop at 6 tonight

Stalin announcement of war’s end delayed – Reds continue attacks
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

PARIS, France – The bloodiest war in Europe’s history ends officially at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow (6:01 p.m. today, EWT) with the unconditional surrender of Germany scheduled to be ratified in the ruins of the Reich’s capital city of Berlin.

Guns are still blazing and men are still dying in some parts of Europe, but the ceasefire order has gone down from the High Command of the Western Allies.

The end of the war was proclaimed by President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and Gen. Charles de Gaulle of France.

Premier Stalin waited – presumably until Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov, conqueror of Berlin, sits down in the Reich capital and exacts assurance from German leaders that their troops will quit fighting the Red Army. Such fighting was still going on in Central Europe.

Stalin announced tonight in an order of the day that the Red Army has captured Olmuetz, big Czechoslovak defense base.

“Troops of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, continuing their offensive, after fierce battles today captured the town and large rail junction of Olmuetz,” Stalin’s order said.

Stalin also announced the capture of the German city of Dresden.

British warships steamed up the roadstead toward Oslo to accept the surrender of some 250,000 German troops in Norway.

Orders to navy

What is left of the German Navy received specific orders from the Allies on how to surrender.

German warships were ordered to remove the breech locks from their guns and unload torpedo tubes. The U-boats, if they were still at sea, hoist black flags and report their position in plain language to the nearest radio station.

Third Army stops

Gen. George S. Patton’s U.S. Third Army, the last American force fighting in Europe, was brought to a standstill by a ceasefire order at 8 a.m. Front reports indicated the army’s last shot was fired in the Austrian mountains southwest of Linz.

Mr. Churchill, in his proclamation from 10 Downing St., revealed that the ratification of Germany’s surrender was being made in Berlin today, with Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the German High Command, acknowledging the German defeat.

Sitting around the table with Keitel in Berlin were to be:

FOR THE WESTERN ALLIES: Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur W. Tedder, deputy supreme commander.

FOR RUSSIA: Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov, commander of the First White Russian Army.

FOR FRANCE: Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, commander of the French First Army.

Fanatical Nazis, defying the High Command’s unconditional surrender, held out in some parts of Czechoslovakia, in French Atlantic ports, the Channel Islands, and some pinpoints in the Aegean.

But Prime Minister Churchill warned in London that if the Nazis held out against the Russians after the 12:01 a.m. deadline, they would become outlaws under the rules of war, and would be attacked from all sides by the Allies.

The German “peace” government of Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, successor of Adolf Hitler, was carrying on a semblance of official functions at Flensburg on the Danish frontier.

Doenitz offered today in a Flensburg broadcast to continue the leadership of the German government during the Allied occupation of the Reich.

Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, ousted in the last days of organized resistance from the command of the German Air Force, was believed to be with the Doenitz government. So was Gestapo Chief and Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler.

Mr. Churchill said the unconditional surrender of Germany was signed at 2:41 a.m. yesterday (8:41 p.m. Sunday ET) at Reims.

Jodl salutes Eisenhower

Doenitz and Gen. Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed for Germany. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Gen. Eisenhower’s chief of staff, and Gen. Francois Sevez signed for the Western Allies, and Gen. Ivan Susloparov for Russia.

Gen. Eisenhower did not appear until after the documents – plain papers resembling ordinary legal folios – were signed. Officers said that, in accordance with precedent, negotiations of this kind were carried out on the chief of staff level.

When Gen. Eisenhower appeared, he was greeted by Jodl’s clicking of heels. He was asked sternly whether the Germans understood the terms completely. A stiff bow was his answer. Then, in English, he asked permission to speak. He uttered a plea for the Germans in his own language.

‘Victory for France’

Gen. Charles de Gaulle told the French people by radio that “the war has been won! Victory is here! The victory of the United Nations and the victory of France!”

A German High Command communiqué, presumably referring to yesterday’s events as usual, said big guns of the German garrisons in the western coastal pockets – La Rochelle, St. Nazaire, Lorient, Dunkerque – “shelled enemy batteries and troop movements.”

Evidently this was the last communiqué the High Command would issue, since it was now committed to stop fighting.

‘Heil Hitler’ dropped

The High Command announced that the greeting “Heil Hitler” would no longer be used in the German Army.

Supreme Allied Headquarters released a statement by Gen. Eisenhower after the signing of the surrender document at his headquarters.

In January 1943, the late President Roosevelt and Premier Churchill announced the formula of unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.

In Europe that formula has now been fulfilled. The Allied force which invaded Europe on June 6, 1944, has with its great Russian Allies and with the forces advancing from the south utterly defeated the Germans by land, sea and air.

Achieved by teamwork

This unconditional surrender has been achieved by teamwork – teamwork not only among all the Allies participating, but among all the services, land, sea and air.

To every subordinate that has been in this command of almost five million Allies I owe a gratitude that can never be repaid. The only repayment that can be made to them is the deep appreciation and lasting gratitude of all free citizens of all United Nations.

A Supreme Headquarters communiqué, possibly the last one of the war, said Gen Eisenhower’s forces had been ordered to cease offensive operations, but would maintain then positions until the surrender becomes effective.

Fighting in Prague

The commanders of the last major surviving German armies in the field – in Czechoslovakia and Norway – agreed to unconditional surrender. But some troops in Prague refused to obey the cease fire order.

German resistance in the Czechoslovak capital was expected to be crushed quickly, however. Liaison officers of the U.S. Third Army were already in the city. A Brussels broadcast said U.S. tanks were entering Prague.

Burn houses

The patriot radio in Prague said some German units were burning houses, murdering Czech civilians and looting in defiance of orders of their commanders. The broadcast called on patriot units to “reply to these bandits with hard blows.”

The Allies notified the German High Command that Allied plenipotentiaries would fly to Oslo in two flying boats today to accept the surrender of the German garrison of 250,000 men in Norway.

Dispatches from Copenhagen said about 50 Russian planes renewed their attacks on German shipping off Bornholm Island today.

Roenne town on the island was evacuated by the Germans after a heavy bombing yesterday, but the Nazis were said to have left a strong concentration of anti-aircraft batteries around the town.

2944

Truman: Japan next

Victory only half won, President says – work, work, work, he urges
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer

WASHINGTON – President Truman today proclaimed victory in Europe but told the nation its fighting job would be finished only “when the last Japanese division has surrendered unconditionally.”

He said, “Our victory is only half-won.” He gave this counsel for the months to come: “Work, work, work.”

He gave this advice to the Japs: Surrender.

Surrounded by his government leaders, Mr. Truman issued his proclamation of victory and his statement of the work yet to do at a historic news conference in the White House. Then he broadcast them to the nation.

Outside, while the President spoke, a chill rain fell.

“This,” the President said, “is a solemn but glorious hour.”

He voiced the thought of millions by adding: “How I wish Franklin Roosevelt had lived to see this day.”

The President reminded the nation in its flush of victory that it had not been fighting alone. He proclaimed Sunday, May 13, a day of prayer.

**I call upon all the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace.

I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory.

The President sent his congratulations and thanks to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Premier Joseph Stalin, Gen. Charles de Gaulle.

To Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he said:

All of us owe to you and to your men of many nations a debt beyond appraisal for their high contribution to the conquest of Nazism.

Mr. Truman counted the cost of victory. He did not forget “the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band.”

But he also sounded a note of triumph and hope.

He said:

United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak.

The power of our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.

And with victory, the President said, “we must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world – to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law.”

For the Japs, he said, the choice is between unconditional surrender and “utter destruction to Japan’s industrial war production, to its shipping, and to everything that supports its military activity.”

He gave Japan this promise, this invitation to survival: “Unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people.”

He spelled out patiently the choice which is Japan’s.

He said:

The longer the war lasts, the greater will be the suffering and hardships which the people of Japan will undergo – all in vain.

Our blows will not cease until the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender.

Just what does unconditional surrender of the armed forces mean for the Japanese people?

It means the end of the war.

It means the termination of the influence of the military leaders who have brought Japan to the present brink of disaster.

It means provision for the return of soldiers and sailors to their families, their farms, their jobs.

It means not prolonging the present agony and suffering of the Japanese in the vain hope of victory.

Marshall praises Yanks

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and many others added their voices to observance of V-E Day.

Gen. Marshall told the men in Europe that they had composed, with their Allies, the greatest military team in history. But he did not forget the men who have been fighting so long in the Pacific. They will be getting help soon, he said, and rest.

To veterans throughout the world, Gen. Marshall said:

Those veterans, who have been long overseas and suffered hazards and hardships of many battles should be spared further sacrifices, but others must move in an overwhelming flood to the Pacific to bring that war to the earliest possible conclusion as well as to relieve the war-weary veterans in that theater.

Warns of future

Mr. Stimson said the German leaders had been shattered but added, “They must be watched lest they again poison civilization.”

Japan, Mr. Stimson said, will get what Germany got.

He said:

We are fighting one vast war for a decent world. We shall continue that war wherever it has to be fought with all our righteous might until the last sign of power in our enemies has disappeared from sight.

Before going on the air, Mr. Truman, surrounded by the leaders of his government, told a crowded news conference that the watchword of the nation now should be “work, work and more work.”

He said:

I call upon every American to stick to his post until the last battle is won. Until that day, let no man abandon his post or slacken his efforts.

Only half-won

Declaring that he wanted it emphasized repeatedly that much work remained before final victory, he said:

Our victory is but half-won. The West is free, but the East is still in bondage to the treacherous tyranny of the Japanese. When the last Japanese division has surrendered unconditionally, then only will our fighting job be done.

He also pointed to the need for hard, toilsome painstaking work to achieve “an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law."

He gave no details of the surrender except to say in his proclamation that “the Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender.”

Family present

He said:

The victory won in the West must now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed.

His proclamation continued:

United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.

It was one of the most colorful, dramatic news conferences in the history of the White House. The President was surrounded by his family – Mrs. Truman in a dark blue suit and light blue blouse and their daughter, Mary Margaret, in a blue suit and white blouse.

Close friends and associates, the Cabinet, leaders of the armed forces and ranking members of Congress were also present.

Praises Allies

His congratulatory messages to the Allied heads of state were similar. Each message congratulated the Allied peoples and the Allied armies for their heroism and expressed appreciation of the American people and this government for their cooperation and “splendid contribution to the cause of civilization and liberty.”

Government workers and officials took V-E Day in stride. Where possible they listened to the President’s broadcast and then went back to their jobs, as he had previously asked them to do. The Capitol was virtually deserted at that early hour to the disappointment of three soldiers, bound for Germany to join occupational forces, who had hoped to see how the House and Senate reacted.

At the War and Navy Departments, it was a quiet day. The War Department had planned a little ceremony outdoors, but it was canceled. The official reason: “Rain and work.”

2945

Churchill pledges help in Pacific

Says Jap cruelties ‘call for justice’

LONDON, England (UP) – Prime Minister Churchill today proclaimed the end of the war in Europe and pledged that Britain now would concentrate all her forces against Japan.

Britain may allow herself a “brief moment of enjoyment,” he told his countrymen in a brief radio speech, but added:

Japan with all her treachery and greed remains unsubdued. Her despicable cruelties call for justice and retribution. We must now concentrate all forces for the task ahead.

Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!

King broadcasts

In a broadcast to the empire at 9 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), King George also sounded the keynote of continued war against the Japs, “a determined, cruel foe.”

Of the war just ended, he said, “In the darkest hours we knew that the enslaved and isolated peoples of Europe looked to us,” adding that “we kept faith with ourselves and with one another, we kept faith and unity with our great allies.”

Goes to Commons

Mr. Churchill broadcast from the Cabinet room at his official residence, 10 Downing St., at 3 p.m. (9 a.m. ET), then proceeded to Commons.

The House gave him an uproarious welcome. When the cheers had died down, he read to the Members the same speech he had broadcast a half-hour earlier.

He reviewed briefly the signing of the original unconditional surrender pact of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Reims yesterday and the arrangements for its ratification in Berlin today.

Some still resist

Despite the capitulation, he said, the Germans in some places were still resisting the Red Army.

He said:

Should they continue to do so after midnight, they will of course deprive themselves of the protection of the laws of war and will be attacked from all quarters by Allied troops.

It is not surprising that on such long fronts and in the existing disorder of the enemy, the commands of the German High Command should not in every case be obeyed immediately.

Nevertheless, he said, it did not seem best to withhold longer the news of Germany’s capitulation “nor should it prevent us from celebrating today and tomorrow as Victory-in-Europe Days.”

To pay tribute

He said:

Today, perhaps we shall think mostly of ourselves. Tomorrow, we shall pay particular tribute to our Russian comrades whose prowess in the field has been one of the grand contributions to general victory.

The German war, therefore, is at an end.

He recalled that Britain for a time stood alone against German military might, but was joined by power and resources of the United States of America.

“Finally, almost the whole world was combined against the evildoers who are now prostrate before us,” he said. “Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this island and throughout the British Empire.”

Delay explained

Political and diplomatic correspondents of London morning newspapers attributed the delay in the official Allied announcement of the surrender to the insistence of President Truman and Premier Stalin.

It was generally believed Marshal Stalin particularly balked at announcing victory until diehard German forces in Czechoslovakia had agreed to the capitulation.

Mr. Churchill was expected to make a long broadcast to the world on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the German invasion of the Lowlands.

The Ministry of Information said both today and tomorrow would be holidays in Britain.

2946

Marines advance on Okinawa capital

Superfortresses batter Kyushu air bases

…

2947

Disgraceful, unethical, war reporters charge –
AP’s story of surrender called ‘double cross,’ violation of oath

PARIS, France (UP) – All correspondents at Supreme Allied Headquarters, except those on the staff of the Associated Press, today signed a letter to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, accusing Edward Kennedy of the AP of violating a pledge of honor by filing an unauthorized dispatch on the German surrender at Reims.

They asked that the ban on the AP filing privileges from the European theater of operations be imposed.

The pledge of honor was accepted without dissent by 16 newspapermen, including Mr. Kennedy, who were flown from Paris to Reims to cover the surrender.

The letter called Mr. Kennedy’s action in sending out a dispatch in violation of this pledge “the most disgraceful, deliberate and unethical double-cross in the history of journalism.”

The letter was signed by some of the most distinguished correspondents assigned to the war, including men representing The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the John Knight newspapers, including The Chicago Daily News, Time and Life Magazines, representatives of radio networks, Reuters, the United Press and the International News Service.

Gen. Eisenhower rejected the correspondents’ petition on the grounds only the War Department in Washington could discipline an entire American organization. The ban against Mr. Kennedy filing remains in effect.

Mr. Kennedy admitted he had violated his pledge not to file a dispatch on the Reims surrender until authorized to do so by SHAEF. He said he had violated it because he believed Brig. Gen. Frank Allen, SHAEF press relations officer, had no right to bind correspondents to such a pledge.

Mr. Kennedy, however, made no protest against taking the pledge when Gen. Allen called the correspondents around him in the plane on the way to Reims and told them:

Gentlemen, we are going on a mission to cover the signing of the peace. This group has been chosen to represent the press of the world.

This story is off the record until the respective heads of the Allied governments announce the fact to the world. I, therefore, pledge each and every one of you on your honor not to communicate the results of this conference or the fact of its existence until it is released by SHAEF.

Fifty-three correspondents signed the letter to Gen. Eisenhower.

SHAEF appointed a committee of three officers to investigate the method Mr. Kennedy used in filing his Reims dispatch in violation of his pledge. The committee has not reported.

The AP in New York said Mr. Kennedy telephoned his dispatch from France to London where it was put on the trans-Atlantic cable to New York.

The rule of the London censorship is that dispatches of foreign origin, travelling through London, merely can be stamped “in transit” and do not need to be submitted to the London censorship.

The assumption of the rule is that such dispatches have been censored at the source of origin.

**Such an evasion was available to all the correspondents who went to Reims, except that they had given their word that they would comply with regulations which called for their copy to be submitted to the censor at Allied Headquarters in Paris.

Today’s action by the SHAEF correspondents is unparalleled. Never before have so many correspondents signed such a denunciation of a fellow reporter as the one sent to Gen. Eisenhower today.

Discussing the imposition of the ban on the AP’s filing facilities throughout the European Theater yesterday, Gen. Allen said:

The ban was imposed for the purposes of investigation and not as a punishment. Therefore, its lifting cannot be regarded as exoneration.

The text of the SHAEF correspondents’ letter to Gen. Eisenhower:

We the undersigned SHAEF accredited correspondents have learned with utter astonishment of the decision to lift the ban on Associated Press in connection with the unauthorized publication of official news of the unconditional surrender of Germany.

It is our firm conviction that this action is most outrageously unfair treatment of those news agencies and newspapers whose correspondents have respected the confidence placed in them by SHAEF; and who as a result of so doing have suffered the most disgraceful, deliberate and unethical double-cross in the history of journalism.

‘Position incomprehensible’

Any position that the Associated Press as an organization was not guilty of any infraction of SHAEF regulations is in our opinion incomprehensible. The organization in question published the story and made no effort whatever to retract it when it became evident that its publication was a flagrant violation of SHAEF security regulations imposed on all other correspondents concerned.

Furthermore, the Paris Bureau of Associated Press distributed the story to all French newspapers. This involved activities of more than one representative of that agency.

It is an accepted fact that any organization is responsible for its personnel, especially in the case of men assigned as war correspondents to theater of military operations and even more especially in the case of men selected as bureau chiefs. (Edward Kennedy, Paris Associated Press Bureau chief.)

Pledge quoted

Each accredited SHAEF correspondent who participated in the mission in question was pledged on his honor to secrecy by Brig. Gen. Frank Allen. Gen. Allen made to correspondents involved a statement to the following effect:

“This story is off the record until the respective heads of the Allied governments announce the fact to the world. I therefore pledge each and every one of you on your honor not to communicate the results of this conference or the fact of its existence until it is released by SHAEF.”

Associated Press cannot escape responsibility for the fact that a man selected as its representative at SHAEF and who was among those present when Gen. Allen imposed his secrecy pledge deliberately circumvented SHAEF censorship in order to file his story for immediate publication in complete defiance of the pledge.

Story unauthorized

Much less can Associated Press escape responsibility for continuing to publish the story when it was evident that it was unauthorized.

To permit Associated Press to carry at the time of its authorized release any official news out of ETO concerning the surrender of Germany is in our opinion most unjust. to those correspondents who have kept faith with you.

If this decision is allowed to stand it will in our opinion completely undermine any sense of responsibility on the part of correspondents to abide by or respect in the future SHAEF rules or regulations.

Evidence of incompetence

That an Associated Press correspondent was able to telephone an unauthorized story of this to London is in itself glaring evidence of incompetence on the part of that branch of Allied military which is responsible for security in Paris.

That Associated Press should be permitted to continue to benefit from its defiance of a solemn pledge of secrecy imposed on news of such importance to the world is incredible.

Although the original action against the AP suspended all its filing privileges throughout the European Theater, this order was later amended to apply only to Mr. Kennedy.

*Commenting yesterday on the suspension of all AP filing facilities in the European Theater, Paul Mickelson, general news editor of the AP in New York, said: “The suspension is like being thrown out of Wahoo, Nebraska, after the whole thing is over.”

The United Press man assigned to the Reims trip was Boyd D. Lewis, European news manager, who filed dispatch No. 1 with the SHAEF censor when he returned to SHAEF. That dispatch was released for publication at 9 a.m. ET today.

2948

Bright lights go back on tonight

Dimout revoked by War Utilities head

WASHINGTON (UP) – Bright lights can be turned on tonight throughout the nation with the blessing of the War Production Board.

Edward Falck, director of the Office of War Utilities, revoked the dimout order which had darkened shop windows, theater marquees and outdoor advertising signs in most of the nation for the last three months.

The dimout started February 1. It was ordered to save two million tons of coal annually. Mr. Falck said that it had saved 500,000 tons of coal.

WPB Chief J. A. Krug cautioned that it might be necessary to order another dimout in the fall if coal stocks have not been replenished.

Truman 61 today

WASHINGTON – This is President Truman’s 61st birthday. What a birthday! The President planned nothing elaborate. Just ending the war with Germany, a worldwide radio broadcast and a dozen or so conferences with government leaders.