King Leopold liberated by U.S. troops
Blum, Schuschnigg also rescued
…
Lewis: Nazi pleads for generosity for Germans
Appeal follows surrender signing
By Boyd D. Lewis, United Press staff writer
Here is an eyewitness account of Sunday’s surrender at Reims by one of the seven American news and radio reporters who saw it take place. This story was filed at 8 a.m. Monday (2 a.m. ET) with censorship at Supreme Allied Headquarters in Paris for transmission as soon as the official embargo was lifted.
REIMS, France (May 7, delayed) – Representatives of our Allied powers and vanquished Germany scrawled their names on a sheet of foolscap in a map-lined 30-by-30-foot room at 2:41 a.m. CET today (8:41 p.m. Sunday ET) and ended World War II in Europe.
I witnessed this historic scene.
In a ceremony exactly 20 minutes long, Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl, chief of staff of Adm. Doenitz’s government and long-time close friend of Adolf Hitler, surrendered all German armed forces on land, sea and in the ar.
Effective tonight
The surrender is effective one minute after midnight Wednesday, British Double Summer Time (6:01
p.m. ET).
A high officer said almost all firing had ceased on the remaining fronts.
The actual signing took five minutes. There are four copies of the surrender document, and in addition the naval disarmament order, which was signed by Adm. Sir Harold Burroughs, Allied naval chief.
Immediately after signing the last document with a bold “Jodl,” the Nazi arose, bowed and in a broken voice pleaded for generosity “for the German people, the German armed forces,” who he said “both have achieved and suffered more perhaps than any other people in the world.”
Eisenhower smiles
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, smiling, confident and restrained, sat with his deputy, Britain’s Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, beside him. In a three-minute statement later for newsreels, Gen. Eisenhower hailed the German surrender as the conclusion of the plan reached by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca in 1942 – unconditional surrender.
“We have defeated Germany on land, sea and in the air,” Gen. Eisenhower said. He added that the peace was fittingly signed in France, a country which suffered so much at the hands of Germany and whose liberation started on D-Day, just 11 months ago yesterday (Sunday). Gen. Eisenhower did not attend the actual signing. That was carried out by generals of America, Russia, England and France on his behalf.
After signing the last sheet, Jodl arose and Gen. Adm. Hans Georg Friedeburg and Jodl’s aide. Maj. Wilhelm Oxinius, jumped up with him.
Speaks in German
Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, who signed for Anglo-American forces as SHEAF chief of staff, asked Jodl to meet him at 10 a.m. Monday to arrange for German liaison officers to carry out the surrender and disarmament orders,
‘Suffered more’
Jodl stood with eyes half shut, leaning slightly forward, and said in English. “I want to say a few words.” Then he spoke rapidly in German in a voice which seemed on the point or cracking once or twice:
General, with this signature the German people and the German armed forces are for the better or worse delivered into the victors’ hands.
In this war which has lasted more than five years, both have achieved more and suffered more perhaps than any other people in the world.
I express hope the victor will treat them with generosity.
Ten minutes later he was presented before the supreme commander. Gen Eisenhower stood very grim at his desk in his cubbyhole office and asked if Jodl understood the terms he would carry out.
Jodl muttered “yes.”
The Germans’ heels clicked and they strode out, Jodl tripping on a camera floodlight cable.
60 see surrender
The war was ended at a black-topped table 20 by six feet, bathed in floodlights which heated the tiny “war room” almost insufferably.
Some 60 spectators, including 16 correspondents, gathered shortly before 2 a.m.
The presiding general, Smith, entered the room at 2:29.
At 2:39, the three Germans entered.
Jodl clicked his heels to Smith. There was no saluting. The three Germans sat down, facing these Allied officers:
Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick E. Morgan (deputy chief of staff), Gen. Francois Sevez (representing the French Chief of Staff, Gen. Alphonse-Pierre Juin), Adm. Sir Harold M. Burroughs (Allied naval chief), Gen. Smith (presiding), Gen. Susloparov, Gen. Carl Spaatz (commanding the U.S. Strategic Air Force), Air Marshal Sir J. M. Robb (chief of the air staff of SHAEF), Maj. Gen. H. R. Bull (assistant chief of staff, G-3, SHAEF), and Col. Zenkovitch (aide to Gen. Susloparov).
Embraces Ike
Gen. Susloparov smiled frequently during the ceremony. Afterward, in Gen. Eisenhower’s office, he and Ike laughed and embraced and congratulated one another.
Gen. Smith signed for the British and Americans, passing the surrender from the Frenchman on his right to the Russian on his left. Jodl was the last to sign.
The scene of the surrender was a classroom of Reims’ Ecole Professionelle, co-educational technical school. The Germans had used it as supreme headquarters during their occupation and Gen. Eisenhower made it his SHAEF forward post since moving from Versailles several months ago.
Started Wednesday
Negotiations began last Wednesday evening when Friedeburg, who succeeded Doenitz as commander-in-chief of the German Navy when Doenitz became Fuehrer, surrendered the northern armies, exclusive of Norway, to Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.
Friedeburg and the other German representatives were brought to Reims Saturday.
Friedeburg, who complained he had had little sleep during the past 10 days and who had slept most of the way in the plane and limousine, asked for a chance to wash up.
The Admiral hummed softly while washing up but his aide, Col. Fritz Poleck, appeared nervous.
Meet at 5:20
The first meeting took place at 5:20 o’clock Saturday.
Present, in addition to Gen. Eisenhower were Maj. K. W. D. Strong (G-2 Supreme Headquarters), Gen. Spaatz, Adm. Burroughs, Maj. Gen. H. R. Bull (assistant chief of staff), Marshal Robb, Capt. Harry C. Butcher (naval aide to Gen. Eisenhower), Col, R. G. S. Philmore (who drafted the surrender terms), and Maj. Ruth M. Briggs of the WAC (secretary chief of staff).
That meeting lasted 20 minutes – long enough to reveal that Friedeburg did not have authority to lay surrender on the line.
Gen. Smith demanded his credentials to commit Doenitz. Friedeburg was willing, but he did not have the proper credentials.
Gen. Smith therefore gave the Admiral the written terms.
Tries to compromise
Friedeburg tried to compromise; he complained many German soldiers might be killed by the Russians unless allowed to surrender directly to the Allies in the west.
Gen. Smith gave the suggestion no consideration. He declared the Allies were not prepared to discuss anything but simultaneous surrender to the Allies of the east and west.
Friedeburg asked about the German civilian population which he said might suffer hardships. Gen. Smith replied that the German people were enemies of the Allies until surrender; after that, he said, we would be guided by the dictates of humanity.
Friedeburg and an aide then took the terms to an office and mulled them over while washing down sandwiches with whisky. Washington, Moscow and London were given code dispatches by Gen. Eisenhower on the progress of the negotiations.
Guarded by MPs
Three teams of MPs guarded them. They included Frederick Stone of Pittsburgh.
Prime Minister Churchill telephoned several times for information during the evening and Gen. Smith conferred with Gen. Eisenhower.
Saturday night, Friedeburg sent a message to Doenitz via the British Second Army.
Friedeburg said he had two proposals from SHAEF, first, that he be empowered to surrender all theaters, and alternately Doenitz send his chief of staff and commander-in-chief of the army, navy and air forces with the necessary authority.
The Germans then were escorted to their billet.
The big day
Sunday morning dawned full of portent – just 11 months to the day after Normandy D-Day. Gen. Eisenhower had told the correspondents recently his original plans in England envisaged possibly reaching the German border by the end of the 12th month after D-Day.
The day passed in eager waiting for Doenitz to reply.
At precisely 5:08 p.m. Sunday, the reply arrived at Reims airport im an Allied military plane in the person of Gen. Gustav Jodl – the man with the credentials – the man with power to lay surrender on the line. He was accompanied by Maj. Oxinius.
The party of correspondents representing the news agencies and networks of the world arrived 10 minutes after Jodl. They waited in the main hall of the map-lined conference room.
Details told
Details of what had gone on were given the news representatives by two public relations department officers who had been the official reporters at the first negotiations.
“This will be your first uncensored story – when the surrender is completed censorship goes off,” Brig. Gen. Frank Allen Jr. of Cleveland, director of SHAEF press relations, said.
The correspondents enjoyed a laugh at the expense of British Col. George Warren and Lt. Col. Richard Merrick of Chicago, chief SHAEF censors who were present – without blue pencils.
G.I.’s bury their dead, leave celebrating for home front
American near Elbe killed by stray shell more than 12 hours after Nazis signed surrender
…
Sunday set aside as day of prayer
WASHINGTON (UP) – The House today adopted a resolution congratulating the armed forces on their “magnificent accomplishment” in bringing Germany to unconditional surrender. The resolution set aside Sunday as a day of prayer.
It was offered by Democratic Leader John W. McCormack (D-Massachusetts) and passed as part of a ceremony by which the House commemorated V-E Day.
Speaker Sam Rayburn left the rostrum for one of his infrequent speeches from the floor. He offered “our grateful and unstinted thanks” to the armed forces of all the Allied nations and said they had done “a great job for you and me.”
He said:
But to me this should not only be a day of celebration for this great victory, but it should also be a day of dedication… by every human… to put his hand to the plow and not look back until our other enemy has surrendered unconditionally.
And today, as I am happy, I am also sad because I cannot help but think of those thousands of our brothers who are yet to die in the far-flung Pacific battlefields… that victory may come to our armies…
Trumans move to White House
WASHINGTON (UP) – The Harry S. Trumans of Missouri moved into the White House just in time for today’s historic events.
This will be the first full day at home in the nation’s executive mansion for President Truman, his wife and 21-year-old daughter Margaret. A small birthday dinner for the President – he’s 61 today – in the late afternoon will also be a thanksgiving – and a housewarming.
The Presidential moving from Blair House across the street yesterday would have reminded you of your own short-distance moves except for two big White House limousines, small trucks scooting back and forth across Pennsylvania Avenue and several housemen in white ties.
Most of the Trumans’ personal belongings were transported piecemeal. All the night before, fans had dried and aired the newly-painted White House interior.
Men go to war even on eve of V-E Day
Tuesday, May 8, 1945
It was the eve of V-E Day.
The scene, Baltimore and Ohio Station.
The train caller’s voice started to drone out the destination of the train, leaving at 9:30.
Fifty or more youths arose.
Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and sweethearts arose simultaneously. All were fighting to keep back tears.
A tow-headed boy followed his mother and sisters toward one boy who was leaving. But the tow-headed kid couldn’t hold back. His tears came quickly, stopped just as quickly as his sailor-brother put his hands on his shoulders, whispered into his ear.
Then all the boys were filing through the gate.
It wasn’t the eve of V-E Day to them.
It wasn’t the eve of V-E Day to those who stood and watched.
These boys were just going to war.
They were going to fight the Japs.
Allies may use U-boats against Japs
WASHINGTON (UP) – German U-boats may soon be sinking Jap ships.
Germany’s surrender should make available 200 to 300 submarines which the Allies could use in the war against Japan, a reliable source said today.
Chronology of World War II – from 1939 to today
From attack on Poland, struggle has involved almost every country
Tuesday, May 8, 1945
From the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1939, the war expanded until it encompassed virtually every part of the world.
Pre-war Germany, before Austrian ‘Anschluss’ and annexation of Czechoslovakia.
After Munich accord, which gave Germany Czechoslovakia, and after seizing Austria.
As the Allies moved toward victory, events in the war several years ago faded into the distance. To present a picture of the struggle, here is a chronology of important events in World War II:
1939
September 1 – World War I starts with German invasion of Poland.
September 3 – Britain, France declare war on Germany.
September 12 – Russia invades Poland.
September 27 – Germans capture Warsaw.
September 29 – Germany and Russia divide Poland.
Poland invaded, surrenders in 26 days. Russia shares in partition of country.
October 14 – Nazi U-boat sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow.
November 30 – Russia invades Finland.
December 14 – British cruisers HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles battle German pocket battleship Graf Spee off Uruguay. Graf Spee takes refuge in Montevideo Harbor.
December 17 – Germans scuttle Graf Spee off Montevideo Harbor when time for repairs expires.
1940
February 1 – Finland asks for “honorable peace.”
February 3 – Russians drive through Mannerheim Line. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles leaves for tour of embattled Europe.
February 17 – British destroyer rescues 326 prisoners from German ship Altmark in Norwegian waters.
March 1 – Russians capture Viipuri.
March 2 – Sumner Welles talks with Hitler.
March 12 – Russia, Finland sign peace treaty.
March 20 – French Cabinet of Premier Edouard Daladier falls.
March 21 – Paul Reynaud forms new French Cabinet.
April 8 – Allies mine Norwegian territorial waters.
April 9 – Germans occupy Denmark and invade Norway.
April 13 – British battleship HMS Warspite leads armada into Narvik, sinking seven German destroyers and merchant shipping.
April 15 – British expeditionary force lands in Norway.
May 2 – Prime Minister Chamberlain announces British withdrawal from all of Norway south of Trondheim.
May 10 – Germany invades Holland, Belgium, launches offensive against France, Chamberlain resigns; Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
May 14 – Dutch armies cease resistance.
May 15 – Nazis drive great bulge into French lines.
May 16 – President Roosevelt asks Congress for more than billion dollars for defense.
May 17 – Germans enter Brussels.
May 19 – Maxime Weygand succeeds Maurice Gamelin as French commander; Germans 80 miles from Paris.
May 21 – Germans reach Channel coast at Abbeville, cutting off British and Belgian forces.
May 28 – King Leopold surrenders Belgian Army.
May 30 – British begin evacuation at Dunkerque under rain of bombs.
June 3 – Germans bomb Paris.
June 4 – Dunkerque evacuation completed; 335,000 British soldiers saved, all equipment abandoned.
June 9 – British evacuate Narvik, ending venture in Norway.
June 10 – Italy declares war on France, Britain; Germans 25 miles from Paris; French Government flees.
June 11 – Italians invade British and French Somaliland.
June 13 – Germans march into Paris.
June 15 – Nazis capture Verdun; Russians march into Lithuania.
June 16 – Marshal Henri Philippe Petain succeeds Reynaud as French Premier.
June 17 – Petain asks Germans for armistice terms; Russians enter Latvia, Estonia.
June 22 – France signs armistice with Germany.
June 24 – France signs armistice with Italy.
June 25 – France gives “cease firing” order.
June 28 – Russians occupy Bessarabia and Bucovina, ceded by Romania.
Invasion in west, with Nazi conquest of Norway, Denmark, the Lowlands and France.
July 2 – Romania accepts German “protection.”
July 3 – British sink three French battleships, disable fourth in battle at Oran, Algeria, when French refuse to surrender fleet. Other French ships interned by British.
July 10 – French Parliament votes itself out of existence.
July 12 – Petain picks Pierre Laval as vice-premier. President Roosevelt announces plan to call National Guard into federal service.
July 17 – Britain agrees to close Burma Road supply line to China for three months.
August 4 – Italians drive into British Somaliland.
August 12 – Germans open aerial blitzkrieg against England.
August 14 – British bomb Turin and Milan in Italy.
August 17 – Germany announces total blockade of Britain.
August 19 – British withdraw from British Somaliland.
August 20 – Churchill announces plan to lease bases in British territory in Western Hemisphere to United States.
August 26 – British bomb Berlin.
September 1 – Mr. Roosevelt calls 60,000 National Guardsmen into federal service.
September 3 – President announces trade of 50 overage U.S. destroyers for bases in British territory in New World.
September 6 – King Carol of Romania abdicates, son Michael becomes monarch.
September 7 – All-out bombing of London begins.
September 14 – Italians invade Egypt from west.
September 16 – President Roosevelt signs U.S. draft law.
September 22 – France gives Japs rights to move troops into Indochina.
September 23 – British, French fight naval battle off Dakar.
September 27 – Germany, Italy, Japan sign tri-power pact.
October 16 – All U.S. men between 21 and 36 register for draft.
October 28 – Italy invades Greece.
November 2 – Counterattacking Greeks drive Italians into Albania.
November 9 – Freighter City of Rayville sunk off Australia, first U.S. ship loss of war; Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dies.
November 13 – British torpedo planes attack Italian fleet at Taranto.
November 14 – Greeks launch counteroffensive against Italians. Coventry devastated by German raid.
December 9 – British launch offensive against Italians in Egypt.
December 11 – British capture Italian base at Sidi Barani, Egypt.
December 14 – Laval ousted from Vichy Government.
December 31 – Hitler, in New Year’s speech, promises victory in 1941.
1941
January 5 – British capture Bardia, Libya.
January 6 – President Roosevelt proclaims Four Freedoms necessary for peace: Freedom of expression, worship, from want and fear.
January 7 – President Roosevelt creates Office for Production Management, headed by William Knudsen and Sidney Hillman to run “arsenal of democracy.”
January 8 – Mr. Roosevelt gives Congress $10 and a half billion defense budget.
January 9 – German troops pour into Italy.
January 17 – Churchill pleads for “avalanche” of U.S. weapons.
January 22 – British capture Tobruk, Libya.
January 29 – Greek Premier Metaxas dies.
January 30 – Hitler warns all U.S. ships nearing Britain will be sunk; British capture Derna, Libya.
February 6 – British capture Benghazi, Libya.
February 9 – Churchill asks U.S.: “Give us the tools and we will do the job;” British fleet bombards Genoa; British capture El Agheila, Libya. Darlan named vice premier by Petain.
March 1 – Bulgaria joins Axis; Nazi troops enter Bulgaria.
March 8 – President Roosevelt signs Lend-Lease Bill.
March 12 – British expeditionary force reaches Greece.
March 25 – Yugoslavia joins Axis. Germany announces blockade zone extending to waters around Iceland.
March 27 – Yugoslav Army stages anti-Axis coup, places King Peter on throne.
March 30 – U.S. seizes Axis ships.
April 1 – British capture Asmara, capital of Italian Eritrea.
April 4 – British abandon Benghazi.
April 6 – Germans invade Yugoslavia, Greece.
April 10 – U.S. extends protection to Greenland.
April 13 – Russia, Japan sign neutrality pact. Axis troops occupy Bardia.
April 18 – Yugoslav Army surrenders.
April 23 – Greek government flees Athens.
April 30 – British evacuate 48,000 of 60,000 soldiers from Greece.
May 2 – British invade Iraq.
May 6 – Stalin becomes Soviet premier.
May 10 – Rudolf Hess flies to Britain.
May 18 – Italians surrender Ethiopia.
May 20 – Nazi airborne troops begin attack on Crete.
May 21 – Robin Moor, flying U.S. flag, sunk in South Atlantic.
May 24 – Nazi battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood in North Atlantic.
May 27 – British sink Bismarck; President Roosevelt proclaims existence of unlimited national emergency.
June 1 – British evacuate Crete; Iraq surrenders to British.
June 4 – Former Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany dies.
June 8 – British, Free French, invade Syria.
June 14 – U.S. freezes all assets in America of Germany, Italy.
June 15 – U.S. closes all Axis consulates.
June 22 – Germany invades Russia.
Taking the Balkans, Germany occupied Southeastern Europe by conquest or alliance.
July 3 – Nazis capture Riga.
July 7 – U.S. troops occupy Iceland.
July 12 – British win in Syria. Stalin Line pierced, Nazis say.
July 13 – Britain, Russia sign mutual aid pact.
July 17 – Germans capture Smolensk.
July 24 – Roosevelt freezes Jap assets in U.S.
August 1 – Roosevelt bans export of aviation gas and oil.
August 4 – U.S. pledges all-out aid to Russia. Japan cancels ship sailings to U.S.
August 9 – Roosevelt, Churchill meet on warship in Atlantic.
August 14 – Roosevelt-Churchill eight-point program of peace aims announced. Germans reach Black Sea.
August 25 – British and Russian troops invade Iran.
August 28 – Fighting ends in Iran.
August 30 – Nazis capture Tallinn, Estonia; Finns capture Viipuri.
September 4 – U.S. destroyer Greer attacked in Atlantic.
September 8 – Germans encircle Leningrad.
October 14 – Nazis 50 miles from Moscow.
October 15 – Russian government moves to Kuibyshev, on Volga River.
October 17 – U.S. destroyer Kearny damaged by torpedo in Atlantic.
October 25 – Nazis take Kharkov, begin drive into Crimea.
October 30 – U.S. destroyer Reuben James sunk in Atlantic.
November 5 – Saburo Kurusu named Jap “peace” envoy to U.S.
November 15 – Kurusu arrives in Washington.
November 16 – Navy seizes German ship masquerading as a U.S. vessel.
November 19 – British invade Libya.
November 22 – Nazis capture Rostov.
November 29 – Nazis evacuate Rostov.
December 6 – Roosevelt sends personal message to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
December 7 – Japs bomb Pearl Harbor and other U.S. possessions in Pacific. Tokyo announces a state of war with U.S. and Britain, Jap troops land in Malaya, Canada, Netherlands East Indies declare war on Japan.
December 8 – U.S. declares war on Japan. Nazis abandon drive on Moscow.
December 9 – Japs invade Philippines.
December 10 – Japs sink battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse off Malaya.
December 11 – U.S. declares war on Germany and Italy after Axis leaders announce hostilities, Jap battleship Haruna sunk off Philippines.
December 13 – Russia wins great victory, driving Nazis back on three fronts and retaking 400 town.
December 17 – Maj. Gen. Walter Short and Rear Adm. Husband Kimmel, commanders at Pearl Harbor, removed in shakeup of Army, Navy.
December 19 – Congress extends draft to all men from 20 to 44.
December 21 – Hitler takes over command of German Army.
December 22 – Prime Minister Churchill arrives in Washington; Japs capture Wake Island.
December 24 – Japs invade Borneo.
December 25 – Hong Kong surrenders to Japs; British capture Benghazi.
December 31 – Adm. Chester W. Nimitz takes command of Pacific Fleet.
1942
January 2 – Twenty-six anti-Axis countries sign United Nations pact. Japs capture Manila.
January 23 – Japs invade New Britain, New Guinea north of Australia.
January 24 – Pearl Harbor investigating committee blames disaster on Adm. Kimmel, Gen. Short.
January 26 – U.S. troops land in Northern Ireland.
January 29 – Nazis launch Libyan offensive, capture Benghazi.
January 31 – British abandon Malaya.
February 1 – U.S. naval task force raids Jap-held Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
February 8 – Japs invade Singapore; British halt Nazi drive in Libya 40 miles west of Tobruk.
February 15 – Singapore falls to Japs.
February 28 – Japs invade Java.
March 7 – Japs capture Rangoon, Burma.
March 10 – Southern Burma abandoned by British.
March 14 – Allies announce loss of 13 warships in Java Sea battle between Feb. 27 and March 1.
March 16 – Arrival of U.S. troops in Australia announced.
March 17 – Arrival of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia from besieged Bataan Peninsula of Philippines announced.
March 25 – American task force raid on Wake and Marcus Islands on Feb. 24 announced by Navy.
March 30 – Pacific War Council formed by Allies.
April 9 – Bataan falls to Japs.
April 15 – U.S. long-range bombers raid Philippines.
April 18 – U.S. bombers under Doolittle raid Japan; Laval forms new Vichy government.
April 25 – U.S. troops reach New Caledonia, French island east of Australia, French Gen. Henri H. Giraud escapes from Nazi prison camp.
April 30 – Japs reach southern end of Burma Road.
May 5 – British invade Madagascar, French island off East Africa.
May 6 – Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to Japs.
May 8 – Results of Battle of Coral Sea announced. U.S. fleet sinks nine Jap warships.
May 27 – Germans launch offensive in Libya.
May 31 – RAF hits Cologne in first 1,000-bomber attack.
June 3 – Japs bomb Dutch Harbor.
June 4 – Reinhard Heydrich, deputy Gestapo chief, dies eight days after wounding in Czechoslovakia.
June 6 – Midway battle ends; 27 Jap warships sunk, damaged against U.S. loss of three vessels.
June 11 – Britain, Russia sign 20-year alliance. Roosevelt, Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov agree on necessity for second front in May 29-June 4 conference.
June 12 – Japs land on Attu in Aleutians.
June 12 – American fliers raid Ploesti oil fields of Romania.
June 18 – Churchill arrives in Washington.
June 21 – Nazis capture Tobruk.
July 1 – Germans capture Sevastopol after 250-day siege in Crimea. Nazis under Marshal Erwin Rommel reach El Alamein, Egypt, 55 miles from Alexandria.
July 27 – Germans capture Rostov.
July 29 – Germans drive into Caucasus.
August 5 – Germans cross Don River in Russia.
August 7 – U.S. Marines land in Guadalcanal and other Solomons Islands.
August 9 – Three American, one Australian cruisers lost in night battle off Guadalcanal; British intern Mohandas Gandhi.
August 12 – Churchill reaches Moscow to confer with Stalin.
August 19 – Canadian, British, American Commandos and Rangers raid Dieppe area of France, withdraw after nine hours.
August 30 – Jap invaders trapped in Milne Bay area on southeastern tip of New Guinea.
September 13 – Germans reach outskirts of Stalingrad.
September 28 – Australians attack Japs only 32 miles from Port Moresby, New Guinea.
October 7 – Navy announces abandonment of two Aleutian Islands by Japs.
October 12 – Jap cruiser, four destroyers and transport sunk off Guadalcanal.
October 23 – British under Gen, Bernard L. Montgomery begin offensive at El Alamein, Egypt.
November 6 – French yield on Madagascar, sign armistice with British.
November 7 – American, British forces under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower land in French Northwest Africa.
November 8 – Vichy France breaks relations with United States.
November 11 – Germans occupy all of France, French surrender to Allies in Northwest Africa.
November 13 – Adm. Jean Francois Darlan takes over as French leader in Africa, Roosevelt signs bill to extend draft to 18-year-olds.
November 16 – Twenty-three Jap ships, including battleship, sunk in Nov. 13-15 battle near Guadalcanal, U. 8, losses total two cruisers, six destroyers.
November 18 – Allies cross Tunisian border.
November 20 – British capture Benghazi.
November 21 – Russians launch offensive at Stalingrad.
November 24 – Gona, New Guinea, captured by Allies. Russians lift three-month siege of Stalingrad.
November 27 – Germans seize French naval base of Toulon; French scuttle most of fleet.
Deep in Russia, and with the Germans entrenched in North Africa and holding all France.
December 5 – U.S. bombers raid Italy for first time, attacking Naples. Full Navy report on Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor raid shows sinking or serious crippling of 10 warships, including five battleships, and damage to three other battleships and five smaller warcraft.
December 8 – Allies pushed back near Tebourba, Tunisia.
December 12 – British Eighth Army launches new drive in Libya.
December 15 – German troops pour into Tunisia.
December 19 – British push 40 miles into Burma.
December 24 – Darlan assassinated.
December 27 – Gen. Giraud named Darlan successor.
1943
January 11 – Navy announces loss of carrier Hornet in battle in South Pacific October 26, 1942.
January 16 – RAF raids Berlin heavily.
January 23 – Eighth Army captures Tripoli.
January 26 – Communiqué announces meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill near Casablanca to plan offensives for 1943.
January 27 – U.S. Flying Fortresses, Liberators make first, attack on Germany in heavy daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven.
January 29 – Moscow announces trapping of seven German divisions west of Voronezh and capture of 100.000 prisoners since mid-January.
February 2 – Russians announce surrender of Germans at Stalingrad.
February 9 – Japs announce evacuation of forces from Guadalcanal.
February 14 – Russians recapture Rostov.
February 15 – U.S. forces suffer sharp setback in Said Sened sector of Tunisia.
February 16 – Russians recapture Kharkov.
February 21 – Germans capture Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.
February 25 – Allies recapture Kasserine Pass.
March 4 – Yank planes destroy 10 Jap warships, 12 transports in Bismarck Sea at cost of one bomber and three fighters.
March 15 – Russians abandon Kharkov.
March 29 – British Eighth Army pierces Mareth Line in Tunisia.
April 7 – Eighth Army joins forces with American troops in Southern Tunisia.
April 21 – President Roosevelt announces that Japs have executed at least some of the eight captured U.S. fliers who bombed Japan in April 1942.
April 23 – U.S. Navy discloses occupation of Funafuti, island 450 miles south of Gilberts.
April 26 – Russia suspends relations with Polish exile government.
May 7 – British and American troops capture Tunis and Bizerte, Tunisia.
May 11 – Churchill reaches Washington to confer with Roosevelt.
May 12 – Allies announce surrender of Nazis in Tunisia.
May 14 – U.S. troops land on Attu in Aleutians.
May 30 – Japs admit Jap garrison on Attu has “perished.”
June 4 – Revolting army leaders seize power in Argentina.
June 11 – Allies capture Pantelleria after 18-day bombing.
June 12 – Allied planes hammer Lampedusia into submission.
June 30 – Gen. MacArthur starts offensive against Japs; Yanks land on Rendova and New Georgia Islands in Central Solomons and at Nassau Bay in New Guinea.
July 6 – Battle of Kula Gulf ends in South Pacific; Japs lose nine warships, U.S. loses cruiser.
July 10 – British and American forces land in Sicily.
July 25 – Mussolini ousted as Italian premier; Marshal Badoglio takes over.
August 4 – Russians capture Orel and Belgorod.
August 6 – Yanks capture airfield at Munda, on New Georgia in the Solomons.
Aug. 10—Churchill arrives in Quebec, Canada, for series of conferences with Roosevelt.
Aug. 16—Yanks capture Vella Lavella Island in Solomons.
Aug. 17—Allies complete conquest of Sicily.
Aug. 21 – U.S. forces occupy Kiska in Aleutians, find Japs have evacuated.
August 23 – Red Army recaptures Kharkov.
August 28 – King Boris of Bulgaria dies.
September 3 – British land on toe of Italy.
September 6 – Italy surrenders.
September 8 – British, Americans land at Salerno, Naples, Russians recapture Stalino, free Donets Basin.
September 11 – Bulk of Italian Navy escapes to Allies.
September 30 – Naples captured by Allies.
October 13 – Italy declares war on Germany, is accepted as Allied co-belligerent.
October 18 – U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British Foreign Minister Eden reach Moscow for three-power conference.
October 29 – Yanks land on Choiseul Island, in Northern Solomons.
November 1 – United States, Britain, Russia and China agree at Moscow to fight their common enemies until unconditional surrender. Yanks land on shore of Empress Augusta Bay, on Bougainville Island in Solomons.
November 2 – Russians drive into Crimea.
November 4 – Germans flee across lower Dnieper River. Allied bombers wreck Jap fleet at Rabaul, New Britain, blasting 26 vessels, including five warships, and 108 planes.
November 6 – Red Army recaptures Kiev.
November 11 – Allied planes sink Jap cruiser, two destroyers, wreck 88 enemy planes at Rabaul.
November 15 – U.S. bombers from Italy raid Sofia.
November 20 – Americans invade Gilbert Islands.
November 22 – More than 1,000 RAF bombers blast Berlin in heaviest raid of war.
December 1 – Roosevelt-Churchill meeting with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at Cairo announced. Three leaders map plans for defeat of Japan.
December 2 – Seventeen Allied ships sunk in Nazi raid on Bari, Italy.
December 3 – Roosevelt and Churchill meet Stalin in Tehran, Iran, to map plans for defeat of Germany.
December 7 – Japs capture Changteh, city in China’s rice bowl.
December 9 – Chinese recapture Changteh.
December 17 – Americans invade New Britain, landing at Arawe in South Pacific.
December 24 – Gen. Eisenhower named chief of the Allied forces for the invasion of Western Europe.
December 26 – British sink Nazi battleship Scharnhorst off Norway.
North Africa cleared of the Axis, Italy invaded and the Russians rolling back the Nazis.
1944
January 3 – Russians reach the 1939 Polish border west of Kiev. Americans land at Saidor, Northern New Guinea.
January 5 – Russians launch new offensive on Southern Ukrainian front.
January 11 – Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law, executed as traitor to Fascism.
January 16 – Gen. Eisenhower reaches London to take over invasion command.
January 22 – Allies land at Anzio, near Rome.
January 25 – Allies reach Cassino, Italy.
January 27 – Red Army lifts siege of Leningrad after 2½ years. U.S. government announces murder of 5200 American prisoners and thousands of Philippine prisoners by Japs.
February 1 – American troops land in Marshall Islands.
February 2 – Russians cross Estonian border.
February 4 – American warships shell Paramushiru.
February 8 – Allies win the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea.
February 16 – Americans invade Green Islands in Northern Solomons, trapping Japs to the south.
February 17 – U.S. naval carrier task force attacks Truk, sinking 23 Jap ships and destroying 201 planes. Two thousand U.S. warplanes raid Germany.
February 23 – Mariana Islands raided by U.S. task force.
March 1 – Americans invade Admiralty Islands in Southwest Pacific.
March 4 – American bombers raid Berlin.
March 8 – Two thousand U.S. planes raid Berlin.
March 15 – Cassino leveled by mass Allied plane and artillery bombardment.
March 18 – Russians cross Dniester River border of Bessarabia.
March 22 – Americans land on St. Matthias Islands, 600 miles south of Truk, Jap troops invade India.
March 30 – Palau Islands, 550 miles east of the Philippines, raided by U.S. task force; 214 Jap planes, 28 ships blasted.
April 2 – Russians cross Romanian border.
April 9 – Gen. Giraud resigns, Gen. Charles de Gaulle taking full charge of French Committee of National Liberation.
April 10 – Russians capture Odessa.
April 22 – American troops land at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea.
April 28 – Navy Secretary Knox dies.
May 5 – Japs announce the death in action of Adm. Mineichi Koga, chief of the Jap fleet. Gandhi released from internment.
May 9 – Russians capture Sevastopol.
May 10 – James Forrestal named Secretary of the Navy.
May 11 – Allies launch offensive in Italy.
May 17 – Americans invade Wakde Islands off Dutch New Guinea. Soerabaja, Java, raided by Allied carrier fleet.
May 18 – Cassino captured by Allies; American-Chinese force takes Myitkyina airfield in Northern Burma.
May 23 – Allies start offensive from Anzio beachhead.
May 25 – Anzio beachhead linked with main Allied force in Italy.
May 28 – Americans invade Biak Island, off Northwestern Dutch New Guinea.
June 2 – U.S. planes launch shuttle bombing of Axis, taking off from Italy, raiding Romania and landing in Russia.
June 4 – Allies capture Rome.
June 5 – King Victor Emmanuel of Italy yields powers to son Humbert.
June 6 – Allied forces invade France, landing on Normandy Peninsula.
June 9 – Badoglio resigns as Italian premier; 71-year-old Ivanoe Bonomi named successor.
June 10 – Russians launch offensive against Finland.
June 12 – U.S. task force sinks and damages 29 Jap ships, down 141 Jap planes in Marianas.
June 14 – Americans land on Saipan Island in Marianas; Naval carrier task force hits Bonin and Volcano Islands 600 miles from Japan.
June 15 – B-29 Superfortresses, in first raid on Japan, hit Yawata, on Kyushu Island.
June 16 – Germans launch heavy robot plane raids on Britain. U.S. orders Finnish minister to leave.
June 18 – American troops drive across Cherbourg Peninsula in France, isolating big port of Cherbourg.
June 19 – Two-day action between American carrier task force and Jap fleet in Marianas Island area and east of Philippines, results in sinking of two Jap plane carriers, one by submarine, and sinking and damaging of 16 other Jap ships. Americans destroy 747 Jap planes at cost of 151 aircraft.
June 20 – Russians capture Viipuri, Finland; Japs capture Changsha, China.
June 22 – Red Army launches big summer offensive on White Russian front.
June 26 – Americans capture Cherbourg.
July 20 – Nazis announce attempt to kill Hitler. Accuse Prussian generals of bombing attempt and anti-Nazi revolt. Nazis launch widespread purge of army officers. Tokyo announces Gen. Hideki Tojo removed as Jap premier, to be replaced by Adm. Kuniaki Koiso.
July 21 – Navy announces U.S. invasion on July 20 of Guam, first U.S. island seized by Japs.
July 24 – Navy announces U.S. invasion July 23 of Tinian Island, just south of Saipan in Marianas.
July 25 – Americans launch all-out offensive against Germans in Normandy.
July 29 – Roosevelt completes three-day conference in Hawaii with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester W. Nimitz on Pacific war.
July 30 – American forces land at Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea, 600 miles from Philippines.
August 1 – U.S. troops reach Brittany Peninsula in breakout from Normandy. Russians reach Baltic, trap 200,000 Nazis in Latvia, Estonia. Risto Ryti resigns as president of Finland, to be succeeded by Marshal Mannerheim. Manuel Quezon, president of Philippines, dies at Saranac Lake, New York.
August 2 – Turkey breaks relations with Germany.
August 15 – Allied Army invades Southern France.
August 23 – Romania breaks with Germany, announces decision to join Allies. Marseille captured by Allies.
August 25 – Americans and French patriots liberate Paris.
August 31 – Russians capture Bucharest.
September 3 – British occupy Brussels.
September 4 – Finland surrenders to Russia.
September 5 – Russia declares war on Bulgaria. Bulgaria asks armistice of Russia seven hours after declaration of war.
September 8 – Bulgaria declares war on Germany.
September 11 – Americans invade Germany; U.S. troops from north and South France reach juncture; Roosevelt and Churchill begin “beat Japan” conference at Quebec.
September 15 – Americans invade Morotai Island, off Halmahera, and land in Palau Islands, east of Philippines.
September 16 – Yanks break through Siegfried Line east of Aachen.
September 17 – Allied airborne army lands behind German lines in Holland.
September 19 – Russia, Finland sign armistice.
September 27 – Allied invasion forces land in Albania and islands off Yugoslavia.
October 5 – British land in Greece.
October 6 – Russians invade Hungary.
October 9 – U.S., Britain, Russia and China announce plans for world peace organization to be called the United Nations. Churchill and Eden reach Moscow to discuss Polish dispute and other problems.
October 13 – U.S. Pacific Fleet announces series of carrier-plane attacks on Formosa, which, with Superfortress raids from China bases, culminates in destruction of hundreds of Jap planes and scores of ships at Formosa and Philippines. Jap fleet comes out but turns tail at sight of U.S. fleet. Red Army captures Riga.
October 14 – British occupy Athens.
October 16 – Hungary seeks armistice terms, but Germany takes over country.
October 20 – U.S. forces invade Philippines, Russians capture Belgrade.
October 23 – Russia announces invasion of East Prussia.
October 24 – Jap fleet emerges to challenge U.S. forces in Philippines. Naval-air battle costs Japs more than 34 warships sunk or damaged.
October 25 – Russians announce drive into Northern Norway.
November 7 – President Roosevelt reelected to fourth term.
November 12 – RAF bombers sink Nazi battleship Tirpitz in Norwegian fjord.
November 24 – Tokyo undergoes first B-29 raid.
December 15 – U.S. troops invade Mindoro Island, Philippines.
December 16 – Nazis break through on Belgium-Luxembourg front.
December 30 – Archbishop Damaskinos named regent of Greece.
1945
January 8 – Americans invade Luzon Island.
January 11 – Truce signed in Greek civil war.
January 13 – Russia launches offensive in Poland.
January 17 – Warsaw captured by Red Army.
January 20 – Russians invade German Silesia.
January 29 – First truck convoy reaches China over Ledo-Burma Road.
February 3 – Americans enter Manila.
February 7 – Conference of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin at Yalta, Crimea, agrees on final blows to crush Germany, occupation of Reich and post-war peace organization.
February 15 – Americans recapture Bataan Peninsula.
February 17 – U.S. troops land on Corregidor.
February 19 – American landing on Iwo Island announced.
March 6 – Americans capture Cologne.
March 7 – U.S. troops drive across Rhine River.
March 22 – U.S. Third Army crosses Rhine above Ludwigshafen.
March 24 – Allies launch all-out drive across Rhine north of Ruhr.
April 1 – Americans invade Okinawa Island.
April 5 – Russia scraps neutrality pact with Japan.
April 12 – President Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia; Harry S. Truman sworn in as President.
April 13 – Vienna captured by Russians.
April 21 – Russians drive into Berlin.
April 25 – United Nations conference on world security opens at San Francisco.
April 26 – American, Russian armies link up in Germany at Torgan, on Elbe River, 75 miles south of Berlin.
April 28 – Mussolini executed by Italian patriots.
May 1 – Hitler’s death announced by Nazis; Adm. Karl Doenitz takes over as Fuehrer.
May 2 – Nazi armies in Italy and Western Austria surrender; Russians capture Berlin.
May 4 – Germans surrender in Northwest Germany, Denmark, Holland.
May 5 – Four hundred thousand Germans surrender in Austria.
May 8 – Victory in Europe proclaimed.
On Victory Day, Hitler’s once-nighty empire has shrunk to nothing.
Simms: Europe faces rocky road to real peace
Seeds of future strife already sown
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
SAN FRANCISCO, California – The end of the war in Europe starts one of the most difficult epochs in world history. That is the view of most conference delegates here.
For the next five to 10 years, they point out, Europe will face conditions bordering on chaos or worse. Revolt or civil war in certain areas is probable.
Millions of uprooted peoples will be on the move. Discontent, fed by misery, hunger and hate will spread as violent emotions suddenly are released.
Revolutionary minorities will find in this post-war chaos the opportunity of a lifetime and will try to make the best of it.
Problems only postponed
Problems presented by Eastern Europe and the Balkans have not been solved by the Big Three. They only have been postponed. Meanwhile, army discipline has kept down the cauldron lid. Now the lid will have to come off. Solutions for Europe’s impounded troubles will have to be found.
Therefore, foreign ministers in San Francisco warn, that this conference is the most crucial meeting ever held. It must create a peacekeeping organization which will work.
Germany, Italy and the Axis satellites have been defeated, but what to do with either the vanquished or the victims remains to be decided. The frontiers of Germany are still undetermined. Likewise, those of Poland and even of France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and other countries.
What of Poles, Serbs and Jews?
Millions of workers, used by the Nazis as slave labor, will be released and repatriated. But many of them – such as the Poles and the Serbs – feel they have no country to return to; or are afraid to return. Then there are the millions of dispossessed Jews – all that remain of some six million who had their homes in Europe. What is to become of them?
Italy is to be turned into a democratic state by the introduction of representative government with freedom of speech, religion and the press. Today she is almost in anarchy.
Iran is to be “independent and sovereign.” Recently her government was overthrown by one of the Big Three because it wasn’t quick enough with an oil concession.
Greece was to have self-government, but the first cabinet set up there soon had to defend itself against a leftist revolution.
Yugoslavia was promised representative rule, put the regime now at Belgrade is a dictatorship imposed from without.
Seeds for future trouble
Poland was to have a new government, reorganized “on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself” But when the “democratic leaders from Poland itself” – the 16 underground officials – showed up for a conference, the Russians put them under arrest. And so on.
The seeds for much future trouble have already been sown.
The war in Europe ends today, but the peace to follow will be only a truce unless the Big Three here and at the peace table return to the principles of the Atlantic Charter.
Editorial: Make V-E stick!
We and our Allies have won victory in Europe. Our job now is to make the victory stick – which we failed to do last time. That will not be easy.
But we owe it to those who have paid with their lives, and the millions who suffered, to win the peace for which they sacrificed. We also owe it to our children who will be the next victims, if we fail now.
German militarism and Nazism have been mowed down. They still must be uprooted, and the remaining seeds destroyed as far as possible. All the Allies are agreed on that.
The first step after unconditional surrender is already planned. An Allied control commission of four generals – American, British, French and Russian – with headquarters in Berlin will rule Germany as a military government.
Its difficult problems will be multiplied by the necessary division of the conquered country into four zones of occupation. That will require much closer c-operation between Russia and the Western Allies than was achieved during the war. For any one of the four to seek selfish advantage, or otherwise fail to cooperate, would undermine enforcement and invite Nazi revival.
How long military government must continue will depend on the Germans. All the evidence to date indicates that they are unrepentant. More disturbing than reports that the Nazis are going underground, is the almost unanimous testimony of Allied intelligence officers and correspondents that rank-and-file Germans have no sense of war guilt. Even the big industrialists, who aided Hitler, hope to evade responsibility.
Apart from some church leaders, who had the courage to defy Hitler and survived, there seems to be no considerable group of Germans capable of creating or maintaining decent government now. In that, at least, the Nazis succeeded; they destroyed Germen capacity for self-government for some time to come. Maybe an entire new generation, educated for peace instead of war. must grow up before Germany can be trusted fully.
Perhaps the greatest shock to Germans will be the discovery that their standard of living cannot be restored. They must be fed, or rather allowed to feed themselves, but it will be at a very low level. They must contribute first to reconstruction of neighboring lands they destroyed. That will take several years at best. Germans’ extreme suffering during the coming period was decreed by themselves when, as recently as two months ago, they chose to continue the war rather than surrender and prevent destruction of their factories and cities.
Beyond policing and demilitarizing Germany, and prompt trial and punishment of war criminals, are the larger problems of a peace settlement. These include not only reparations and territorial questions, but the whole range of political and economic conditions which will make for order or chaos, for peace or another war. Though the big powers should have a large voice in these decisions, a peace dictated by them cannot survive.
Germany’s smaller neighbors and worst victims deserve a voice. They will be needed to make the settlement work. Therefore, the general peace conference should be called at the earliest possible moment.
Finally, to make V-E stick, there must be an international organization for security and peace, based on justice and law. The job of the San Francisco Conference is now more important than ever.
Success in that long-term job, as in military government of Germany and as in making a wise peace settlement, depends chiefly on Russia’s willingness to cooperate and keep her agreements.
Editorial: Happy birthday, Mr. Truman
And indeed it’s a happy day for all of us, who share the hope of the man in the White House that victory in Europe will be followed by peace throughout the world long before another May 8 rolls around.
Rankin plan for flat sum bonus scored
VFW wants service record considered
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Housewife-author wins Pulitzer Prize
Harvey, Mauldin’s cartoons honored
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Cromwell’s daughter sues for divorce
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Maybe Japs used movie for training
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Philippine guerrilla forces, raiding behind Jap lines east of Manila, found five reels of motion picture film which they hoped would contain valuable information on enemy training or activity.
Instead, the projector flashed on the screen five chapters of a Junior G-Man series.