‘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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
V-E Day celebration differs from Armistice Day in 1918
Impromptu rejoicing 27 years ago was greater for news meant peace
Tuesday, May 8, 1945
Today’s V-E celebration couldn’t match the Armistice jamboree of 1918. The boys and girls really went to town on that November 11.
On that morning, word that the Armistice had been signed in the forest of Compiegne was flashed from Washington shortly before 3 a.m. It said firing would stop at 5 a.m. ET, 11 a.m. French Time.
While the news had been expected since the false Armistice four days earlier the first thousands heard of the German surrender was when they started for work.
Then news meant peace
Many never reached their desks, work benches, mines or machines. They paraded through the streets, jammed into barrooms, shouted joyously, bought strangers drinks. Department stores closed. it was just as well because that throng wasn’t thinking of shopping. They really went on a binge of rejoicing.
In the afternoon, Mayor E. V. Babcock led a hastily-formed parade through the Golden Triangle. In the evening, another parade started on the North Side and snake danced into the Downtown district. In 1918, the news meant peace.
Headlines still good
Headlines in The Press of November 11, 1918, outlined stories which could be used in today’s Press – with the changing of a few names and some minor details.
For instance, a Page 1 boxed head in 1918 asked: “Kaiser’s Fate?” Today, substitute Hitler.
“Crown Prince Reported Shot” was another 1918 headline. It has been reported within the past 48 hours that the same Crown Prince. has been taken prisoner.
Parallels today
“Hohenzollern Peril Not Dead; Allies Discord Remains Danger,” was another headline. With a slight alteration it could be used on a story from the San Francisco Conference. Just substitute “Nazi” for “Hohenzollern.”
Editorially, on November 11, 1918, the Press said:
The German people, led thereto by the wicked ambition of their late distinguished emperor, now the world’s most distinguished fugitive from justice, have done other nations a great wrong.
Write in “Hitler” for “emperor” and the 1945 picture duplicates 1918.
Who said that history never repeats?
New York stages wild celebration
NEW YORK (UP) – New York City erupted today in a wild celebration of victory over Germany.
Tons of paper and ticker tape showed from windows in the city’s business districts.
Tens of thousands of persons danced through Times Square in the heart of the city.
In the city’s harbor, ships and vessels began blowing whistles in the victory sign.
Department stores were closed.
‘Frisco work being spurred by V-E Day
Conference may end within three weeks
SAN FRANCISCO, California (UP) – The end of the war in Europe spurred delegates at the United Nations Conference today to hasten the creation of a world organization strong enough to prevent another war.
The delegates wall “celebrate” the historic announcement of the end of the war with only a minute of silence. Then they will return to long hours of work designed to accomplish their task here within the next two or three weeks.
The end of the European war finds this conference in a favorable position.
Big powers in agreement
The big powers are in an amazing decree of unanimity on all fundamental issues pertaining to the new world peacekeeping organization.
It has been little short of a miracle that the unanimity has been attained. There have been side issues which, with less determination to succeed on the part of the leaders, could have bogged down the conference.
On the Polish issue especially, feeling on both sides has been bitter.
Leaders move ahead
But the leaders here succeeded in not letting it interfere with the task of building a charter for a world organization.
The atmosphere here augurs well for greater success at this conference than anticipated by even the most optimistic a month ago.
The United States, Great Britain, Russia and China are ready to turn the conference over to the little nations.
In effect, the “Little Nation” phase begins today after nearly two weeks of domination by the big ones. The others now will have a chance to be heard, but are expected generally to accept the broad outline of the plan on which the big powers agreed.
Objections met
Most of the issues raised by the little powers have been met by Big Four amendments. The major one left untouched is the voting procedure which gives the big powers a veto over virtually all decisions and actions of the Security Council.
The little nations will seek restrictions, but it is generally recognized that the formula must stand for the present. It was agreed to at Yalta and the prospects of any change in it here are nil.
Big Four unanimity on all major issues was claimed yesterday by Soviet Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov at a press conference. Some of his statements at first were interpreted as meaning that he was not supporting the revised amendment of Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-Michigan) – the so-called “treaty revision” amendment.
Clarified by Vandenberg
But Mr. Vandenberg himself clarified that quickly by announcing that he and M. Molotov were in agreement on post-war revision of treaties.
Mr. Vandenberg explained that both he and M. Molotov opposed giving the world organization itself actual authority to reviser treaties. But both, he said, felt it should have power to recommend revisions whenever it found a situation likely to impair the general welfare.
Japs prepared, Grew warns
WASHINGTON (UP) – Acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew warned in a Victory Day broadcast that Japan has prepared herself for a long time to carry on the war after Germany’s defeat.
Mr. Grew said:
Although Japan is fighting alone, she is strong, and she is still fighting with cunning and tenacity.
Let us not think that the defeat of her Nazi ally has caught her by surprise. Let us not think that she was not aware that one day she would have to bear the full brunt of our force alone.
Japan has been preparing herself for this for a long time – and most particularly since the successful Allied landings in Normandy last June showed that Germany was going to be crushed.
‘War in Europe over? So what?’
OKINAWA (UP) – “So the war in Europe is over. So what?”
This comment from a G.I., arriving from battle on the front line, sums up the feeling on this island about the end of the war in Europe.
The Japs are still fighting for this island, but there has never been any doubt that U.S. forces will take it. The Tenth Army has a powerful force ashore with plenty of supplies for the final drive to victory.
V-E Day found Okinawa swept by cold rain. It annoyed Doughfoots and Japs alike.
There is still a hard, long road ahead in the Pacific and there can be no pause for celebration.
MacArthur salutes victors in West
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today his command saluted the comrades who were victors in the West and rededicated themselves to the task of crushing the Japs in the East.
Gen. MacArthur said he rejoiced that this theater will “now be reinforced by those vast and powerful resources of the war which heretofore have been employed on the battlefields of Europe.”
Doenitz offers to remain at head of Reich
Admiral says it’s up to Allies
LONDON, England (UP) – Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, appointed by Adolf Hitler to succeed him as Fuehrer of Germany, offered today to remain at the helm of the government during Allied occupation of the Reich.
He told the German people in a broadcast over the Flensburg radio:
When Germany is occupied, control will be in the hands of the occupying powers.
It rests with them whether or not I and the Reich government appointed by me can be in office. Should I be able to be of use and assistance to my fatherland by continuing in office there, I shall remain in office.
Cites duty
Doenitz said he was willing to continue “if the will of the German people is to have a head of the state or if the occupying powers regard the continuation of the office as necessary.”
He said:
I shall not remain for an hour longer than, without regard to my own person, this can be reconciled with the dignity I owe the Reich whose supreme representative I am.
If duty demands that I should remain in Office, I will try to help you as far as lies in my power. If duty demands that I should go, this step shall also be a service to the nation and the Reich.
Recalls promise
He recalled that he had promised he would try “in the coming times of distress” to provide tolerable living conditions for German men, women and children, but added: “I don’t know whether I shall be able to help you in these hard days.”
Doenitz told the Germans they must face the fact that the foundations on which Hitler’s Third Reich were built had collapsed.
“Unity of the state and [Nazi] Party no longer exists,” he said. “The Party has left the scene of its activities.”
Explains surrender
Doenitz said he ordered the German High Command to surrender unconditionally all German fighting forces in all theaters of war in order to “save the lives of the German people.”
He said:
On May 8 at 11 p.m. [5 p.m. ET], hostilities will cease.
Soldiers of the German Armed Forces who proved their mettle in countless battles will set out on the bitter road to captivity, thus making a last sacrifice for the lives of women and children and for the future of our nation.
We bow in reverence before the thousand-fold proven gallantry and sacrifice of our dead and prisoners.
The Allies will probably treat Doenitz as a defeated commander-in-chief.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.