V-E Day (5-8-45)

50

Neues Österreich (May 9, 1945)

Churchill und Truman über die Kapitulation

London, 8. Mai – Premierminister Churchill sagte heute in einer Rede über den Rundfunk, da§ die Kapitulationsurkunde heute in ‘Berlin ratifiziert werden wird. Die Feindseligkeiten werden eine Minute nach Mitternacht eingestellt.

Churchill erklärte weiter: Gestern früh um 2,41 Uhr unterzeichnete Generaloberst Jodl als Vertreter des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht und als Vertreter des deutschen Staatschefs Großadmiral Dönitz im Hauptquartier General Eisenhowers die bedingungslose Kapitulation der deutschen Land-, See- und Luftstreitkräfte in Europa vor den Alliierten und der Sowjetarmee. General Wendell Smith, Stabschef General Eisenhowers, und Francois Savais unterzeichneten im Namen des alliierten Oberbefehlshabers, General Suslaparow für Russland. Die Kapitulation wird heute in Berlin durch Ratifizierung bestätigt werden durch den Befehlshaber der Obersten alliierten Streitkräfte und General Tassigny sowie Marschall Schukow für Russland. Die deutschen Vertreter werden sein Generalfeldmarschall Keitel sowie die Befehlshaber des deutschen Heeres, der Luftwaffe und Kriegsmarine.

Offiziell werden die Feindseligkeiten eine Minute nach Mitternacht eingestellt, aber um Menschenleben nicht unnötig zu opfern, erklang das Signal „Feuer einstellen” bereits gestern entlang der Front.

An verschiedenen Punkten leisten die Deutschen noch den russischen Streitkräften Widerstand. Sollten sie diesen Widerstand eine Minute nach Mitternacht nicht einstellen, dann stellen sie sich außerhalb des Schutzes des Kriegsrechtes und werden von alliierten Streitkräften von allen Seiten angegriffen werden. Es ist verständlich, dass an so langen Frontlinien den Befehlen des deutschen Oberkommandos nicht überall sofort Folge geleistet werden kann. Aber nach unserer Meinung stellt dies keinen Grund dar, der Nation die Tatsache noch länger vorzuenthalten: Die bedingungslose Kapitulation Deutschlands, unterschrieben in Reims.

Der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten Truman verkündete gleichzeitig mit Premierminister Churchill in einer Rundfunkansprache das Ende des Krieges in Europa. Er führte unter anderem aus:

Diese Stunde ist eine Stunde der Freude und des Ruhmes. Mein einziger Wunsch ist, dass Präsident Roosevelt dies noch hätte ernten können. In dieser Stunde des Sieges beugen wir uns vor der Vorsehung, die uns geleitet und unseren Mut hochgehalten hat. Das Gefühl unserer Freude ist gedämpft in dem Bewusstsein des furchtbaren Preises, den wir gezahlt haben, um die Welt von Hitler und seinen verbrecherischen Helfershelfern zu befreien.

51

Es gibt keine Reichsregierung mehr

London, 8. Mai – Das schwedische Außenministerium gibt bekannt, dass infolge der Kapitulation Deutschlands die diplomatischen Beziehungen zwischen Schweden und Deutschland ein Ende gefunden haben. Die deutsche Gesandtschaft, das deutsche Konsulat sowie die anderen Büros werden von Schweden übernommen. Ein Teil des Personals der deutschen Ämter wird interniert.

Die spanische Regierung hat mit Rücksicht darauf, dass keine deutsche Reichsregierung mehr besteht, die diplomatischen Beziehungen zu Deutschland abgebrochen.

Portugal hat Sonntagabend eine ähnliche Erklärung abgegeben.

52

Japan protestiert

London, 8. Mai – Der japanische Außenminister Tojo legte gestern gegen die bedingungslose Kapitulation Deutschlands Protest ein, Deutschland habe den Dreierpakt gebrochen und Japan behalte sich vor, daraus die Konsequenzen zu ziehen.

Der Oberbefehlshaber der Landstreitkräfte im pazifischen Raum, General Richardson erklärte, die Vereinigten Staaten beabsichtigen sechs Millionen ausgewählte amerikanische Truppen gegen Japan ins Feld zu stellen. Starke amerikanische Kräfte werden aus Europa abgezogen werden.

53

Auch Prag und Böhmen befreit

London, 8. Mai – Der tschechoslowakische Sender Prag gab heute früh 6 Uhr bekannt, dass die Deutschen in Prag und ganz Böhmen die bedingungslose Kapitulation angenommen haben.

Der deutsche Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber in Pilsen, General Majelski, beging gestern nach seiner Kapitulation vor General Pattons Streitkräften Selbstmord.

In Mahren kämpfen deutsche Truppen immer noch im Raum von Olmütz.

Breslau ist nun völlig von russischen Truppen besetzt. Der deutsche Befehlshaber von Breslau ergab sich gestern mit 40.000 Mann der Besatzung.

In Jugoslawien wurde Laibach von Kräften des Marschalls Tito genommen.

Zusammentreffen Montgomery-Rokosowski

London, 8. Mai – Gestern trafen General Montgomery und Marschall Rokosowski in Wismar zusammen.

54

Mussert gefangen

London, 8. Mai – Der Führer der holländischen Nationalsozialisten Mussert ist in Holland gefangengenommen worden. Über das Schicksal Leon Degrelles ist noch nichts bekannt.

55

Jubel in der ganzen Welt

London, 8. Mai – Das britische Informationsministerium veröffentlichte anlässlich der bedingungslosen Kapitulation Deutschlands ein Kommuniqué, in welchem der Dienstag, der 8., und Mittwoch, der 9. Mai zum Andenken des Sieges über Europa als Feiertage erklärt werden, Noch vor Bekanntwerden der amtlichen Erklärung spielten sich überall in England Jubelszenen ab. London und alle englischen Städte prangen in Fahnenschmuck. In den Straßen wurde gesungen und getanzt. Große Menschenmengen versammelten sich vor dem Buckingham Palast, dem Sitz der englischen Regierung und dem Außenministerium.

In Paris strömte die Bevölkerung in Massen über die Boulevards, Flugzeuge kreisten über der Stadt und warfen Leuchtraketen ab.

In Neuyork kam es zu lebhaften Freudenszenen. Die Straßen waren bedeckt mit Koriandoli und Papierschnitzeln, die von den Häusern Herabflatterten. Auch Washington bot ein ähnliches Bild.

In den Straßen von Oslo verkündeten Lautsprecher den Frieden. Aus den Gefängnissen entlassene Freiheitskampfer wurden von der jubelnden Bevölkerung auf den Schultern getragen.

In Holland lauteten Glocken im ganzen Land den Sieg ein. Die alliierten Truppen wurden mit Flieder und Tulpen überschüttet.

In Dänemark wurde den einrückenden britischen Truppen ein triumphaler Empfang bereitet.

Auch in den neutralen Ländern werden Feiern abgehalten. Der schwedische Ministerpräsident sagte in einer Ansprache: Wir können wieder frei atmen. Noch sind Leid und Sorge von Europa nicht gewichen, aber nach sechs Jahren ist die Vernichtung von Menschenleben und Kulturwerken endgültig vorüber. In Genf und anderen Schweizer Städten drangen sich die Menschen auf den Strafen und brechen in Hochrufe auf die Alliierten aus.

Dankgottesdienste in Österreich

Über Anregung der Staatsregierung hat Seine Eminenz Kardinal Fürsterzbischof Dr. Theodor Innitzer die Anordnung getroffen, dass anlässlich der Beendigung des Krieges durch die verbündeten Mächte heute Mittwoch, den 9. Mai, in allen Kirchen Dankgottesdienste abgehalten werden. Seine Eminenz selbst wird diesen Dankgottesdienst heute um 11,30 Uhr in der Peterskirche in Wien zelebrieren. As diesem Anlasse werden ebenfalls heute in der Zeit von 12 bis 12,15 Uhr sämtliche Kirchenglocken der Erzdiözese den Frieden einläuten.

56

Soviet Information Bureau (May 9, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 9 мая

Между ТУКУМСОМ и ЛИБАВОЙ Курляндская группа немецких войск в составе 16 и 18 немецких армий под командованием генерала от инфантерии Гильперта с 23 часов 8 мая сего года прекратила сопротивление и начала передавать личный состав и боевую технику войскам ЛЕНИНГРАДСКОГО фронта. Войска фронта заняли города ЛИБАВА (ЛЕПАЯ), ПАВИЛОСТА, АЙЗПУТЕ, СКРУНДА, САЛДУС, САБИЛЕ, КАНДАВА, ТУКУМС. К вечеру 9 мая войскам фронта сдалось в плен более 45.000 немецких солдат и офицеров. Приём пленных продолжается.

В районе устья реки ВИСЛЫ восточнее ДАНЦИГА и на носе ПУТЦИГЕР-НЕРУНГ северо-восточнее ГДЫНИ группы немецких войск, прижатые к побережью моря, прекратили сопротивление и с утра 9 мая начали сдачу личного состава и боевой техники войскам 3-го и 2-го БЕЛОРУССКИХ фронтов: К вечеру 9 мая войскам 3-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта сдалось в плен 11.000, а войскам 2-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта 10.000 немецких солдат и офицеров. Приём пленных продолжается.

Группа немецких войск в Чехословакии, уклоняясь от капитуляции советским войскам, поспешно отходит на запад и юго-запад.

Войска 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, в результате стремительного ночного манёвра танковых соединений и пехоты, сломили сопротивление противника и 9 мая в 4 часа утра освободили от немецких захватчиков столицу союзной нам ЧЕХОСЛОВАКИИ город ПРАГУ, а также заняли на территории ЧЕХОСЛОВАКИИ города ХОМУТОВ, КАДАНЬ, БИЛИНА, ЛОУНЫ. Юго-восточнее ДРЕЗДЕНА войска фронта, продвигаясь вперёд, заняли города ПИРНА, ЗЕБНИТЦ, НОЙГЕРСДОРФ, ЦИТТАУ, ФРИДЛАНТ, ЛАУБАН, ГРАЙФФЕНБЕРГ, ГИРШБЕРГ, ВАРМБРУНН. Одновременно юго-западнее и южнее БРЕСЛАВЛЯ войска фронта заняли города ЛАНДЕСХУТ, ГОТТЕСБЕРГ, ВАЛЬДЕНБУРГ, ШВЕЙДНИЦ, РЕЙХЕНБАХ, ЛАНГЕНБИЛАУ, ФРАНКЕНШТАЙН, ПАТШКАУ, ВАРТА, ГЛАТЦ, ЛАНДЕК.

Войска 4-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта заняли на территории Чехословакии города ШИЛПЕРК, МЮГЛИЦ, МОРАВСКА ТРЮБАУ, ЛИТОВЕЛЬ, ПРОСТЕЕВ.

Войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, стремительно продвигаясь вперёд, заняли на территории Чехословакии города ВЕЛИКИЕ МЕЖИРИЧИ, ЙИГЛАВА, БРОД, БЕНЕШОВ, ТРЖЕБИЧ.

Войска 3-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта заняли на территории Австрии города ЛООСДОРФ, ВИЗЕЛЬБУРГ, АМШТЕТТЕН, МЮРЦЦУСШЛАГ, БРУК, ГРАЦ и соединились с американскими войсками в районе АМШТЕТТЕН.

57

Address of His Holiness Pius XII
May 9, 1945, 12:00 p.m. CET

piusxii.rome

Ecco alfine terminata questa guerra che, durante quasi sei anni, ha tenuto l’Europa nella stretta delle più atroci sofferenze e delle più amare tristezze. Un grido di riconoscenza umile e ardente sgorga dal più profondo del Nostro cuore verso «il Padre delle misericordie e il Dio di ogni consolazione» (2Cor 1,3). Ma il Nostro cantico di azioni di grazia si accompagna con una preghiera supplichevole per implorare dalla onnipotenza e dalla bontà divina il termine, secondo giustizia, delle lotte sanguinose anche nell’Estremo Oriente.

Inginocchiati in spirito dinanzi alle tombe, ai burroni sconvolti e rossi di sangue, ove riposano le innumerevoli spoglie di coloro che son caduti vittime dei combattimenti o dei massacri disumani, della fame o della miseria, Noi li raccomandiamo tutti nelle Nostre preghiere e specialmente nella celebrazione del Santo Sacrificio, al misericordioso amore di Gesù Cristo, loro Salvatore e loro Giudice. E Ci sembra che essi, i caduti, ammoniscano i superstiti dell’immane flagello e dicano loro: Sorgano dalle nostre ossa e dai nostri sepolcri e dalla terra, ove siamo stati gettati come grani di frumento, i plasmatori e gli artefici di una nuova e migliore Europa, di un nuovo e migliore universo, fondato sul timore filiale di Dio, sulla fedeltà ai suoi santi comandamenti, sul rispetto della dignità umana, sul principio sacro della uguaglianza dei diritti per tutti i popoli e tutti gli Stati, grandi e piccoli, deboli e forti.

La guerra ha accumulato tutto un caos di rovine, rovine materiali e rovine morali, come mai il genere umano non ne ha conosciute nel corso di tutta la sua storia. Si tratta ora di riedificare il mondo. Come primo elemento di questa restaurazione, Noi bramiamo di vedere, dopo una così lunga attesa, il ritorno pronto e rapido, per quanto le circostanze lo permettono, dei prigionieri, degl’internati, combattenti e civili, ai loro domestici focolari, verso le loro spose, verso i loro figli, verso i loro nobili lavori di pace.

A tutti poi Noi diciamo: Non lasciate piegare la vostra energia né abbattersi il vostro coraggio; dedicatevi ardentemente all’opera di ricostruzione, sostenuti da una robusta fede nella Provvidenza divina. Mettetevi al lavoro, ognuno al suo posto, risoluto e tenace, col cuore animato da un generoso, indistruttibile amore del prossimo. È ardua, certamente, ma è pur santa la impresa che vi attende per riparare gl’immediati e disastrosi effetti della guerra: vogliamo dire il disfacimento dei pubblici ordinamenti, la miseria e la fame, il rilasciamento e l’imbarbarimento dei costumi, l’indisciplinatezza della gioventù. In tal guisa, a poco a poco, voi preparerete alle vostre città e ai vostri villaggi, alle vostre province e alle patrie vostre, una sorte più accettevole e il vigore di un sangue rinnovato.

Fugata dalla terra, dal mare, dal cielo la morte insidiatrice, assicurata ormai dall’offesa delle armi la vita degli uomini, creature di Dio, e quanto ad essi rimane dei privati e dei comuni averi, gli uomini possono ormai aprire la mente e l’animo alla edificazione della pace.

Se noi ci restringiamo a considerare l’Europa, ci troviamo già dinanzi a problemi e a difficoltà gigantesche, di cui bisogna trionfare, se si vuole spianare il cammino a una pace vera, la sola che possa essere duratura. Essa non può infatti fiorire e prosperare se non in una atmosfera di sicura giustizia e di lealtà perfetta, congiunte con reciproca fiducia, comprensione e benevolenza. La guerra ha suscitato dappertutto discordia, diffidenza ed odio. Se dunque il mondo vuol ricuperare la pace, occorre che spariscano la menzogna e il rancore e in luogo loro dominino sovrane la verità e la carità.

Innanzi tutto pertanto supplichiamo instantemente nelle nostre preghiere quotidiane il Dio d’amore di adempire la sua promessa fatta per bocca del profeta Ezechiele: «Io darò loro un cuore unanime, un nuovo spirito infonderò nel loro interno, e strapperò dalle loro viscere il cuore di sasso e vi sostituirò un cuore di carne, affinché camminino sulla via dei miei precetti e osservino i miei giudizi e li mettano in pratica, ed essi siano il mio popolo e io sia il loro Dio» (Ez 11,19-20). Che il Signore si degni di destare questo spirito nuovo, il suo spirito, nei popoli e particolarmente nel cuore di coloro, cui è affidata la cura di ristabilire la futura pace! Allora, e allora soltanto, il mondo risuscitato eviterà il ritorno del tremendo flagello e regnerà la vera, stabile e universale fratellanza e quella pace garantita da Cristo anche in terra a chi nella sua legge d’amore vorrà credere e sperare.

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The Pittsburgh Press (May 9, 1945)

parry3

I DARE SAY —
V-E Day in New York

By Florence Fisher Parry

NEW YORK (Monday) – I was writing by my window. It was about 9:40 this morning. I looked out toward Grand Central and at first, I thought it was snowing. It could have been – we’ve had every sample of weather here. Then I heard the noise… must have been going on for minutes. A shrill, far roar, unidentifiable, peculiar, but charged with a funny high excitement.

“This is it!” I cried to Mama, and we dove into our coats. We were hailing a taxi in a few minutes after.

I told the driver:

Just cruise around. Up Park to 42nd, over to Fifth, on up to one of the Fifties and then over to Broadway. Go down Broadway till you’re stopped.

In a minute we were in the midst of an ocean of people. The newspapers had not yet made the street, but ribboned streamers were floating from the windows, and any kind of scrap of paper was being thrown from the buildings.

We were stopped on our way down Broadway at about 48th Street. Times Square was already a sea of celebrators. We detoured and raced down to Macy’s. Then we began to walk up toward Times Square.

Broadway

By this time the newspapers were on the street – great full-page streamers – and nothing official. The President hadn’t made the announcement. It wasn’t official.

But now it was too late. V-E Day was here, damn it, and let him who dared deny it! That was the mood of the crowds. If THIS was a false alarm then Heaven help someone! The bars along Broadway filled to bursting.

We jammed into a restaurant and tried to eat something. Everyone was talking to everyone else. They simply IGNORED the delay of the President’s statement. The wholesale places had already declared a holiday and the workers were on the street. The other stores were still open, but the little shopkeepers stood in their doorways, uncertain what to do.

Now the people were grabbing the papers in a kind of desperation. What? No President’s statement YET? Okay, it was V-E Day ANYWAY! You can’t be fooled twice!

We got into a taxi that had a loud radio. “Cruise and turn up the radio,” we asked the driver. George Hicks was talking from inside Germany somewhere. Surrender had come there, all right.

Overhead some planes tore madly. The headlines on the papers grew blacker, bigger. The cops looked very sober and important, standing like rocks, human eddies whirling around them.

Presently, the white confetti began to thin… the crowds grew a little less boisterous. The shopkeepers who had locked their doors returned. Broadway showed a widening channel.

The painter

We came back to our hotel. I sat down here to write. A sudden white apparition filled the window, made me jump out of my skin. Just a white-overalled painter dropping down outside to paint the frame of my window, smoking nonchalantly, heedless of the noisy hum beneath him, the excited planes, the slow-drifting “snow” from other windows…

“The thing is to take it easy!” he remarks with a grin, lowering himself and swinging gently 12 stories above the street. “We’re suckers for excitement, wear ourselves out. Nobody can tell us nothin’ if we’re set to hear what we want to hear. We’re told not to throw confetti or wastepaper, and look what we done arready and the President not even told us it’s time to let out yet! Solves us right if we’re fooled again. Me, I fastens my belt and makes sure I’m all set, before I starts paintin’ the town!”

“But suppose it IS true. Won’t you celebrate?”

“Yep. In doo time. In doo time. But this is a swell afternoon for to paint, lady after all this rain we’ve been having.”

…Now he’s swung over to the other window. I feel quieter watching him. The noise below has quieted down, too. And the snow isn’t falling at all, anymore, from the high windows around Grand Central, yonder…

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59

Reds capture Prague from Nazi outlaws

All but few Germans obey surrender

LONDON, England (UP) – The Red Army, fighting on against outlawed German diehards after the official end of the European war, today captured the Czechoslovak capital of Prague in a pre-dawn attack.

The Prague radio reported that the Germans in defiance of the unconditional surrender agreement, bombed the capital and two other Czechoslovak cities.

Nazis garrisoning the Czechoslovak bastion were the only force of any consequence carrying on after the officially proclaimed cessation of hostilities at 12:01 a.m. today.

Reports from the continent said the garrisons of historic Dunkerque and the last enemy-held pockets at St. Nazaire, La Rochelle and Lorient had given up.

Stalin reveals capture

Marshal Stalin announced the capture of Prague.

Despite the end of the war 19 hours earlier, the order of the day concluded with the usual formula – “death to the German invaders.”

Telephone reports from Bornholm by way of Copenhagen said the German resistance on the Danish island off the tip of Sweden cracked during the night, and Russian warships put in after daylight.

The crumbling of the last nests of Nazi resistance followed word of the final formalizing of Germany’s surrender in Berlin.

Hold out in Latvia

German planes began bombing Prague at 12:10 p.m. (6:10 a.m. ET), the Czech broadcast said, and had also bombed Neuenburg, 25 miles east of Prague. and Melnik, 18 miles north. The broadcast urged inhabitants to take shelter.

One hundred thousand Nazi troops in Northwest Latvia announced that they would ignore Germany’s unconditional surrender.

All Germans who refused to lay down the arms after 12:01 a.m. today (6:01 p.m. Tuesday ET), the hour fixed by the German High Command for capitulation, faced possible trial as murderers, arsonists and saboteurs outside the laws of war.

A Soviet officer speaking over the patriot radio said the Red Army had entered Prague only to liberate it and had no intention of forcing any type of administration on the Czechoslovak people.

Link up below Linz

A dispatch from the U.S. Third Army front revealed that other Soviet units some 140 miles south of Prague had linked up with the U.S. 65th Infantry Division southeast of the Austrian city of Linz yesterday.

The junction split the remaining German forces in Southern Europe into two pockets – Bohemia and Southeast Austria.

Throughout Europe, hundreds of thousands of German troops were filing into Allied prison camps in compliance with their High Command’s order to lay down their arms.

All hostilities on the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea ended at 3 p.m. (9 a.m. ET) yesterday. The commander of the German garrison signed a surrender pact in the presence of a British officer.

Fighting was also believed virtually to have ceased in Yugoslavia following the capture of Zagreb, capital of Croatia, by Marshal Tito’s Partisans yesterday.

Form ‘government’

Stockholm heard Radio Libau in German-controlled Northwest Latvia announce the formation of a “National Latvian Government.”

The broadcast said the estimated 100,000 German troops in Latvia would ignore the German High Command’s unconditional surrender offer and continue to fight in the service of the new government and under the Latvian supreme command.

The new government asked the Russians to cease hostilities and appealed to the Western Allies for mediation. Latvian circles in Stockholm estimated the government would last one or two weeks, after which the Russians would liquidate the pocket.

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Riotous fete in Moscow

By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

MOSCOW, USSR (UP) – A jubilant Russia announced the signing of the final articles of Germany’s unconditional surrender and proclaimed today its own Victory Day.

The final act in Germany’s capitulation took place in the main hall of the German Military Academy of Engineering at the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Rheinsteinstrasse in ruined Berlin at 12:45 a.m. local time.

There Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, supreme commander of the German Armed Forces; Adm. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, commander of the German Navy, and Col. Gen. Hans Jurgen Stumpff, chief of the Luftwaffe, ratified the articles of surrender.

Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov signed fir Russia and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur William Tedder, deputy supreme commander, for the Western Allies.

Gen. Carl A. Spaatz, commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe and Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, commander-in-chief of the French Army, were present as witnesses.

”Victory is here!” a Moscow radio broadcast cried. “Today humanity can breathe freely again.”

Pro-Allied celebration

The announcement – the first to the Soviet people of Germany’s surrender – caused what probably was the first spontaneous public pro-Allied demonstration in Moscow since the start of the war.

Tens of thousands of night-shift workers from Moscow’s factories ceased work and poured out into the streets. They surged toward Red Square.

Crowds paused briefly before the American Embassy. They saluted the American flag, still at half-staff in mourning for President Roosevelt. Cheers rang out for “our American allies.”

‘Mob’ Allied autos

Similar demonstrations occurred outside the British and other Allied embassies.

Crowds moved Anglo-American autos and dragged out the occupants to toss them joyfully into the air.

Red flags decorated every building.

Soviet youth danced and sang in the streets. British junior naval officers and army sergeants were seized and hoisted to shoulders.

The Britons joined rings around the rosy with Russian youngsters and sang Russian songs. The youngsters in turn joined in with “Tipperary.”

In the course of 10 years’ residence in the Soviet Union, I had never witnessed such an outburst of genuine popular emotion for foreigners.

All work ceases

The government proclaimed today a public holiday and ordered that all work cease.

The newspaper Pravda almost unprecedently devoted half its front page to news of Germany’s capitulation. The signing of the preliminary pacts at Reims and statements by President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill were not mentioned.

However, the Moscow radio followed its announcement of Germany’s capitulation with the playing of “God Save the King,” “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Marseillaise” in addition to the Soviet national anthem.

61

It’s real victory, Stalin tells Reds

Sacrifice not in vain, Marshal broadcasts

LONDON, England (UP) – Marshal Stalin, in a radio speech tonight, proclaimed to the Russian people that “the great day of victory over Germany has come.”

Stalin told the Russians that the preliminary capitulation was signed at Reims May 7 – the first recorded public mention by the Russians of the capitulation preceding the formal surrender at Berlin.

He said the final capitulation was signed at Berlin, and then, apparently referring to Germany’s contempt for treaties, added, “This is no mere ship of paper, it is the real thing. Our sacrifices have not been in vain.”

Stalin concluded his brief address with the exclamations:

Comrades! The great patriotic war has ended in victory! Glory to our great people! Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battle for liberty!

Stalin ordered a salute of 30 salvos by 1,000 guns in Moscow tonight.

62

Pope prays for war’s end in Far East

Cites material, moral ruin in Europe

VATICAN CITY (UP) – Pope Pius XII expressed gratitude today for the conclusion of the war in Europe. He offered a prayer for “a just end” of the “bloody struggle” still underway in the Far East.

In a broadcast to the world, the Pontiff said the European War had left in its wake the greatest “material and moral ruin in the history of mankind.”

Quotes war dead

He said the war dead were now telling the survivors:

May a new and better Europe, a new and better world arise from our bones and our graves, and from the earth where we have been thrown as grains of wheat.

The text of the Pope’s address follows.

Here at last we behold the end of this war, which, during almost six years, has held Europe in the grip of the most atrocious suffering and most bitter sorrow.

A cry of humble and ardent gratitude arises from the very depths of our heart to “the Father of Mercies and the God of All Consolation.” [2 Corinthians 13]

Suppliant prayer

But our canticle of thanksgiving is accompanied with the suppliant prayer to implore also of divine omnipotence and goodness the termination, in accord with justice, of the sanguinary warfare in the Far East. On our knees in spirit before the tombs, before the ravines disturbed and reddened by blood, where repose the innumerable corpses of those who have fallen, victims of the fighting or of inhuman massacres, of hunger or of misery.

We recommend them all in our prayers, and especially in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, to the merciful love of Jesus Christ, their Savior and their judge. And it seems to us that they, the fallen, are giving warning to the survivors of this cruel scourge and are saying to them: Let there arise from the earth, wherein we have been placed as grains of wheat, the molders and builders of a new and better Europe, of a new and better universe, founded on the filial fear of God, on fidelity to His Holy Commandments, on respect for human dignity, on the sacred principle of equality of the rights of all peoples and all states, large and small, weak and strong.

Task to rebuild

The war has created on all sides chaotic ruin, both material and moral, such as mankind has never known in the entire course of human history. The task of this hour is to rebuild the world.

As the first element of this restoration, we long to see, after so long a period of waiting, the prompt and speedy return, insofar as circumstances permit, of the prisoners, of the interned, combatants and civilians, to their homes and to their wives, children and the noble works of peace.

To all them we say: Let not your energy flag nor your courage fail; dedicate yourselves ardently to the work of reconstruction, sustained by a strong faith in divine providence. Apply yourselves to labor, each one at his post, resolute and determined, with a heart animated by a generous, indestructible love of one’s fellow man.

Holy undertaking

It is difficult, certainly, but it is also a holy undertaking that awaits you in repairing the immediate and disastrous consequences of the war. We refer to the decay of public order, misery and hunger, the relaxing and brutalizing of customs and usages, the lack of discipline among the youth. By so doing, little by little, you will prepare for your cities and your villages, for your provinces and your fatherlands, a lot more acceptable and renewed vigor to your blood.

With the threat of death lying in wait driven from the earth, from the sea and from the sky, the lives of men, creatures of God, and that which remains to them of their private and common possession henceforth assured by the laying down of arms, men can now set free their minds and spirits to the building of the peace.

Gigantic difficulties

If we limit ourselves to consideration of Europe, we find ourselves face to face now with gigantic problems and difficulties which we must overcome if we wish to plan the way to a true peace, the only one that can be lasting.

Peace, indeed, cannot flower and prosper except in an atmosphere of secure justice and of perfect fidelity, joined with reciprocal trust, mutual understanding and benevolence.

The war has aroused everywhere discord, suspicion and hatred. If, therefore, the world wishes to regain peace, it is necessary that falsehood and rancor should vanish and in their stead that sovereign truth and charity should reign.

Should beseech God

Above all, however, in our daily prayers, we should beseech God constantly to fulfill his promise made by the mouth of the Prophet Ezekiel: “And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh: that they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments, and do them: and that they may be my people, and I may be their God.”

May the Lord God deign to create this new spirit, His spirit, in peoples, and particularly in the hearts of those to whom he has entrusted the responsibility of establishing the future peace.

Then and only then will the reborn world avoid the return of the thunderous scourge of war and there will reign a true, stable and universal brotherhood, and that peace guaranteed by Christ even on earth to those who are willing to believe and trust in His law of love.

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Mob German agency

LONDON, England (UP) – An Exchange Telegraph dispatch said today that a jubilant crowd wrecked the German travel agency in Zurich, Switzerland, last night, pitching all the furniture and picture of Adolf Hitler into the street or the Sihl River.

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U-boat to surrender

LONDON, England – The first U-boat to surrender under Germany’s capitulation agreement will put into Weymouth Harbor on the English coast late today.

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10 million Yanks to fight Japan

Shifting of forces already started

WASHINGTON (UP) – U.S. armed might, which helped doom Germany, now is turning to hurl its entire weight against the last Axis nation.

A total force of 10 million men is expected to be used in the final assault on the Jap empire.

Japan, already fighting a losing war, must now get set for blows far heavier than anything she has suffered thus far. Her military destruction, assured for some time, will now be accelerated.

Shift underway

She has the choice – stated yesterday by President Truman – of unconditional surrender or “utter destruction” of her war-making power.

The shifting of U.S. forces for the final assault upon the enemy in the Pacific is underway. It will take time and tremendous effort, this change from a two-front to one-front war. And the enemy is strong. Adm. William D. Leahy, the President’s chief of staff, has warned that Japan still has “perhaps seven million troops.”

But the process of arraying superior might against the eastern enemy has started, and its tempo will be increased until all of this country’s power is concentrated for the all-out blow.

Navy’s size cited

There are an estimated one million Army troops already in the Pacific. To them will be added most of the nation’s post-V-E Day Army, expected by the War Department to total 6,968,000 men.

Already dedicated primarily to victory in the east are the Navy’s 3,270,000 men and women, the Marine Corps’ 475,000, and the Coast Guard’s 172,000. This gigantic force will now give its undivided attention to Japan.

Thus, the nation will have a total of about 10,800,000 men and women in uniform between V-E and V-J Day. Most of them, except for European occupation forces, will be available for use in the war against Japan.

At the Navy’s disposal, exclusive of the power contributed by Japan’s other enemies, are 1,200 warships including 23 battleships, 91 aircraft carriers and swarms of cruisers, destroyers, submarines and lesser vessels.

U.S. won’t falter

The industrial production which first dismayed and then overwhelmed Nazidom will now flow in irresistible flood to the east.

If the Japs had hoped this country’s will would falter after defeat of their German partner, they must have derived nothing but despair from the statements of American leaders on V-E Day.

From the President down all responsible leaders emphasized that the war will not be over until Japan capitulates. War, Navy and production officials echoed Mr. Truman’s statement that “our victory is only half-won.” They adopted the theme of “work, work, work.”

No one knows what effect ultimately the example of Germany will have upon Japan. The assumption here, however, is that Japan’s warlords, like Nazidom’s, will fight to the last.

Japs ‘more ruthless’

Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, commander of the Army ground forces, said on the strength of long experience fighting Japs that they are “even more savage and ruthless” than the Germans.

Acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew, who for years was U.S. Ambassador in Tokyo, said Japan “is strong, and she is still fighting with cunning and tenacity.”

But even the Jap militarists, Mr. Grew said, must know “that they will be crushed.”

The War Department disclosed that the piecemeal collapse of Germany made it possible to curtail troop and supply movements to Europe well before V-E Day and start redeployment of troops.

The mass movement from Europe “is just about to get underway,” the War Department said, and all transportation facilities, ships and planes, will be utilized to the utmost to complete it.

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Allies feared Axis junction in Far East

That gave European war top priority

WASHINGTON (UP) – The reason America gave the European war top priority after Pearl Harbor was because it was imperative to prevent a German-Japanese junction in India.

Speaking in the Army’s V-E Day film, Two Down and One to Go, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall said the Axis had planned to meet in India and then destroy Britain, Russia and the United States one by one.

Any cost strategy

“Our strategy,” he said, “was to prevent at all costs the junction of Germany and Japan, and then push them back.”

It was imperative to send forces to Europe immediately because Germany had Britain and Russia “on the ropes,” he said. Had the U.S. concentrated first on Japan, he declared, Germany would have become almost impregnable.

Gen. Marshall said another reason for temporarily subordinating the Jap war was that it was a two-year job to build the shipping strength to transport troops and supplies across the Pacific.

Ended at El Alamein

The threat of a German-Japanese junction ended when the Germans were forced back from El Alamein in 1943 and the British smashed the Japs at Ceylon.

The film, shown privately to the press last night, will be distributed theaters for exhibition to the public. It was made last summer for distribution with the end of the European war.

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Be kind to Reich, Japs urge Allies

Hope expressed for Germany of future
By the United Press

Tokyo’s newspapers gave prominent display today to news of Germany’s surrender and expressed hope that Allied treatment of the fallen Nazis would be “as kind as that which Germany would have given if the Axis had been the victor.”

Most of the newspapers said the surrender had not been entirely “unanticipated” and reiterated that Japan’s determination to continue the war would be unaffected.

Press comments, reported in a Jap Domei broadcast, emphasized that Japan’s leaders should take advantage of lessons learned in Germany’s collapse to prepare Japan for “the very hard times that lie ahead.”

The newspaper Asahi was quoted as expressing hope that Germany eventually would rise to regain its position as a leader nation in Europe.

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Jap cabinet decides to keep fighting

By the United Press

Japan announced today that it will keep fighting as hard as ever in spite of Germany’s surrender.

The announcement, broadcast by Tokyo radio, was made after a special meeting of the Jap Cabinet under Premier Kantaro Suzuki.

While it expressed “deep regret” over Germany’s surrender, the official statement said the “sudden change of the war situation in Europe will not bring the slightest change in the war objective of the imperial government of Japan.”

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Editorial: Ernie Pyle and V-E Day

Ernie Pyle had some ideas about V-E Day.

His ideas, we think, are pretty much the ideas of most G.I.’s.

He wrote them long before V-E Day, which he never lived to see. He wrote them from his heart and out of the long months in which he trudged the bitter, tragic paths of war – war, which he once described as “a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit.”

As we mark the end of fighting in Europe and turn to the tedious, painful months of death and anguish still to come in the Pacific war, listen to Ernie’s words on V-E Day:

The end of the war will be a gigantic relief, but it cannot be a matter of hilarity for most of us. Somehow it would seem sacrilegious to sing and dance when the great day comes – there are so many who can never sing and dance again.

We have won this war because our men are brave, and because of many other things – because of Russia, and England, and the passage of time, and the gift of nature’s materials.

We did not win it because destiny created us greater than all other peoples. I hope that in victory we are more grateful than we are proud. I hope we can rejoice in victory – but humbly. The dead men would not want us to gloat.

And all of us together will have to learn how to reassemble our broken world into a pattern so firm and so fair that another great war cannot soon be possible.

These are the words of a gifted writer, a writer who knew not only the filth and dirt and numbing horror of war, but knew the innermost confidences and thoughts and hopes and fears and ideas of the men who fight wars, and die in them.

For the great numbers of us at home, who have been so jubilant over the news from Europe, those of us who have fought the war in petty inconveniences and shortages, in small and paltry sacrifices, these are good words for us to know.

Let’s keep them in our minds until V-J Day, and in our hearts forever.