THE CELEBRATIONS OF MAY

by Guy Miller, Vice Chair Emeritus, Chennault Aviation and Military Museum

The human suffering and cost in lives had been unbearable. Especially among the innocents and non-combatants. But for Europe the end would only be a matter of days.

The Russians had Berlin surrounded. The Allies had stopped their advances to the west and south but this was only to save their soldiers while the Russians expended theirs. Not wanted to be captured by the Russians, Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30th and ordered his bunker staff to burn his body. Infuriated by Reichsmarschall Göring’s request to take over the leadership of the Reich and also with Reichsführer Himmler’s attempt to seize power and negotiate a favorable surrender, in a final act Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. With Hitler dead, the remaining German troops in Berlin surrendered to the Russians on May 2nd.

Dönitz knew Germany could no longer wage any kind of effective war. He feared the Russians would engage in vengeful reprisals and hoped he could make some kind of surrender deal with the Western Allies. He therefore devoted most of his brief time as Reichspräsident to trying to ensure German personnel would surrender to the British or Americans and not to the Russians. He did have some success in this latter objective.

On May 2nd the German general with command over Italy and Austria decided to unconditionally surrender his nearly 1 million troops to the British. Another German commander surrendered his 1 million men to the British in Northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. That same day all German forces in Bavaria surrendered to the Americans.

In the east the Germans and the Russians continued to fight with the Russians inexorably grinding the German units down and taking the survivors prisoner. Because of this, Dönitz ordered General Alfred Jodl, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (OKW) to offer to surrender all of the German forces to Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower refused, however, to accept anything less than a complete unconditional surrender. He made it clear that absent an unconditional surrender he would order the western lines closed to German soldiers which would force them to surrender to the Russians. When Dönitz was informed of Eisenhower’s position he knew he had no other options. Shortly after midnight on May 7th Dönitz authorized the unconditional surrender of all German forces. In his capacity as Dönitz’s official representative, Jodl signed the document of surrender not more than a couple of hours later with the agreement that “[a]ll forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945.”

Because the Russians were not included in the May 7th surrender decision, the senior generals of the German OKW had to go to Berlin on May 8th and shortly before midnight signed another document of unconditional surrender. At this signing there were representatives of all of the Allies including Marshal Georgi Zhukov of the Soviet Army.

May 8th was declared Victory in Europe (V-E) day. The war in Europe was over. But not quite.

Some German commanders refused to acknowledge the surrender and fought on. This was especially true in areas where the fighting was against the Russians but was also in isolated pockets in the west and in locations where the news had not yet gotten to the German troops. The greatest number of holdouts was in Austria which fought until May 11th. Other units included some in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and cut off pockets of troops on the Channel coast of France and on the Channel Islands. Except for a small abandoned group on an island weather station, all German units had finally surrendered by May 25th.

On the Allied home fronts it was time for celebration. Church bells rang across America. Flags and red, white and blue bunting seemed to appear on every building in America and in the United Kingdom. Confetti rained down from military planes in Canada. Joyous celebrations erupted as tens of thousands gathered in New York’s Times Square. People danced in the streets of New Orleans as if celebrating Mardi Gras. In London, crowds filled Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace. The Royal Family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared on the balcony of the palace before the cheering crowds. Churchill later addressed another crowd at Whitehall saying:

“God bless you all. This is your victory. In our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best.”

President Harry Truman dedicated the victory to President Roosevelt’s memory and said his only wish was “that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day.” Soldiers, sailors and airmen might be dancing in the streets and kissing pretty girls in London and New York but there was little celebration by the men in the front lines. Most merely read the story of victory from reports sent to the troops, said something like ‘I’m glad,’ and walked away. They were tired, still far from home and remembered their buddies who didn’t live to see the victory.

V-E day was not the end of the war. But with the end of the fighting in Europe, the Allies could transfer their sole attention to the Pacific conflict. The days left to Imperial Japan were unknown but without question were numbered.

Oh, those Germans at the island weather station? Some Norwegian fishermen took their surrender on September 4th.