Blogging

On This Day in History: May 8th, 1945 - V-E Day Celebrated!
Posted: 05/08/2012 10:33 by herodotusComments: 3
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark--the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered.
Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the 9th of May in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself:
"The age-long struggle of the Slav nations...has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over."

Permalink | Read herodotus's blog

User Comments on herodotus's blog

By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on 05/09/2012 00:57
SiyaenSokol
I can just imagine how wonderful the people of Europe or Russia felt when the parade began... being a German back then... not so nice, and most of the hell was just about to begin.
By hunter612 (SI Core) on 05/09/2012 06:09
hunter612
^What he said.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on 05/09/2012 07:33
herodotus
For the Soviets and the Russian people this was a different war, a personal war and so let the West have their celebrations. The Great Patriotic War was and can still be seen today by some as separate to what is popularly called WWII. Then again, how do you think the Polish Resistance felt when, on hearing the news that the victorious Russian Army was approaching their country staged a massive Uprising in Warsaw. Fully expecting that the Soviet Army would join them in throwing the German occupying forces out were massacred as the Russians were ordered to stop and wait as the Uprising was violently put down by the Germans. Only then did they move.
The war in Europe from the Eastern perspective was very, very different to how WWII is displayed in film and novel over the years as there was an agenda involved that meant little to do with "freedom". Subjugation was still very much in mind, and had been since Stalin and Hitler had agreed to invade and dismantle Poland together in 1938.
I have years and years of study on this side of the war, and it angers me still that so much is overlooked. Churchill knew what was going to happen after the war to many Eastern countries, but at Roosevelt's insistence kept quiet. Roosevelt, the great appeaser.