Figure 1.-- Ther were big official celebrations. There were also smaller neighborhood celebrations. In communities throughout britain there were outdoors banquets called street parties. This one was at Lytham St. Annes. |
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The Wehrmacht by April 1945 was shatered and no longer able to offer effective resistance to the Allies. The Western Allies raced through Germany from the west during April 1945 as the Soviet Red Army surrounded Berlin. American and Soviet forces made the long anticipated link-up at the Elbe River on April 25. The Red
Army fought a massive engagement to take Berlin. Hitler insisted that the SS and Wehrmacht forces in the city, reinforced by the Volkstrum (Hitler Youth boys and older men) fight so that he might live a few more days. As Red Army soldiers approached his bunker, Hitler shot himself and named Admiral Karl Doenietz as the
new Führer. The last raid of the strategic bombing campaign took place on April 25 when the Skoda armament plant at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia were bombed. The American Air Corps began shifting to mercy missions. Flights were dispatched to feed civilians in northern Italy and the Netherlands who were near starvation. Priority was also given to evacuting prisonors of war (POWs). Doenitz ordered General Alfred Jodl to General Eisenhower' Headquarters--Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) detachment in Rheims to seek terms to end the fighting. Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of German forces on allfronts At 2:41 a.m. on May 7, which was to take effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. Thus NAZI Germany surrendered unconditionally, as President Roosevelt had insisted. Celebrations ensued throught Europe--except Germany. Ther were big official celebrations. There were also smaller neighborhood celebrations. In communities throughout britain there were outdoors banquets called block parties that were family celebrations (figure 1). For many of the children it mean that daddy would soon be headed home.
Terrible scences from the NAZI concentration camps becan reaching the press a few weeks before the War ended. The Western Allies in early April began over-running concentration camps in the Reich. The NAZIs had cleared most of the camps in France and the Low Countries before the Allies arrived. This was not the case with the camps in the Reich. In fact the survivors of the camps in the East and West were transported or driven in dreadful death msrchjes to camps within the Reich. These were not the Death camps, they were located in the East and the NAZIs tried to dismantal them befor the Red Army reached them. But the camps the Western Allies liberated were terrible enough. The British reached Bergen-Belsen (April 15). The situation was horrendous. Most Brits and Americans believed that The NAZIs were evil, most had no idea just how evil they were. Eisenhower brought in the press to see NAZIism in its most brital manifestation. He also ordered German civilians living near the camps be forced to witness the horror as well as GIs. He wanted to make sure that the Germans could never deny what the NAZIs had done. This has not stopped anti-Semites (mostly outsude of Germany) of doing just that.
The Wehrmacht by April 1945 was shatered and no longer able to offer effective mobile resistance to the Allies. The principal battle at the end of the war was for Berlin. There was also static resistance by diehard units, often the SS or Hitler Youth boys ordered to resist. By April the primary concern of the Whermacht was to move west so as many soldiers as possible could surrender to the Western Allies. The Western Allies raced through Germany from the west during April 1945 as the Soviet Red Army surrounded Berlin. American and Soviet forces made the long anticipated link-up at the Elbe River south of Berlin (April 25).
The Red Army fought a massive engagement to take Berlin. The Allied strategic bombing campaigned had already devestated the city. Hitler had depleted the defenses of the city by committing SS armoured divisions to defend Budapest. Two massive Soviets armies moved toward the city. Hitler was momentarily elated to learn that President Roosevelt had died, believing that he was saved. Here he harkened back to how the death of Catherine the Great had saved Frederick the Great in the Seven Years War. He soon learned that President Truman was just as committed to unconditional surrender. The Soviets launched the assault on Berlin (April 16). Hitler insisted that the SS and Wehrmacht forces in the city, reinforced by the Volkssturm (Hitler Youth boys and older men) fight so that he might live a few more days.The result was one of the most horific battles of World War II. On his birthday the Allies launch a 1,000 bomber assault on the city (April 20). After the raid Hitler emerges from his bunker to decorate Hitler Youth boys who had been fighting the Soviets. Hitler railed in his Bunker how the German people had failed a genius like him. In fact, there are few insttances in history where a people so loyally supported a national leader through such adversity. In gratitude, Hitler spent much of his last months tryomg to turn Germany in to a wasteland which could no longer sustain civilized life. Hitler's generals had been trying to convince him to leave Berlin and fight on in the Alps. Finally Hitler decided he will stay in Berlin (April 20). Hitler married Eva Braun and then dictated his last will and testanent (April 29). He urged the German people to continue the struggle against the Jews. Ar this time he learned what had happened to Mussolini. As Red Army soldiers approached his bunker, Eva Braun took cyanine and Hitler shot his bride Eva Braun and then himself (April 30). Giebells 2 days later kills his children and then he and his wife took cyanine. Red Army seized the Reich Chancelry (May 1). It was at this time they found Hitler's body, but Stalin ordered this be kept a secret. The press were brought into see the bodies of Goebels and his children.
Admiral Karl Doenietz commanded the U-Boat fleet and came very close to victory in the North Atlantic. He is widely credited with conceiving the tactics that almost defeated the Allies. Less commonly mentioned is his inflexibility. Unlike the Allies he did not adapt to Allied counter measures. The tactics Doenietz employed at the start of the War were the same he used later when the U-boats were decisively defeated (1943).
Because of the faolure of the Germab surface flee and the fact Doenietz was an ardent NAZI, Hitler appointed Doenietz as overall naval commander. Then Hitler before shooting himself, named Doenietz as the new Führer. Doenietz had no allusion about the military situation. His only task as Führer was to arange Germany's surrender. For the week that he was the second Führer of NAZI Germany, his chief concern was to get as much of the Wehrmacht as far west as possible so that they could surrender to the British and Americans raher than the Soviets. The NAZIs seemed to have leaned where the post-War occupation zone boundaries would be drawn. The Allies were unablre to try Hitler at the Nurenberg War Crime Trials, but they did try Doenietz. He was not tried for his brief stint as Führer, however, but for his war time activities. This proved complicated, however, because of the American submarine campaign in the Pacific. Additional information has surfaced about Doenietz after the Niremberg Trials. He liked to distribute the booty from the Jews murdered at the death camps to his U-boat crews.
The last raid of the strategic bombing campaign took place on April 25 when the Skoda armament plant at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia were bombed. The American Air Corps began shifting to mercy missions. Flights were dispatched to feed civilians in northern Italy and the Netherlands who were near starvation. Priority was also given to evacuting Allied prisonors of war (POWs) that had been held by the Germans.
Doenietz who was in northern Germany attenpted to surrender to ontgomery rather than the Red Army. Montgomery refused to accept his surrender, but agreed to accept the surrender at the forces facing his front line. Doenitz finally ordered General Alfred Jodl to General Eisenhower's Headquarters--Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) detachment in Rheims to seek terms to end the fighting. Jodl expected to be treated as a professional military man and to negotiate the terms of surrender. He was informed there would be no negotiation, only unconditional surrender. He returned to Doenietz who realized there was no alterative. Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of German forces on all fronts at 2:41 a.m. on May 7, which was to take effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. A second surrender ceremony was held with the Soviets. Thus NAZI Germany surrendered unconditionally, as President Roosevelt had insisted. Jodl after signing praised the suffering of the German military and people and expressed the hope that the German people would be treated with generosity. He made no reference to the NAZI treatment of the countries which they had overrun. General Eisenhower sugnaled Washington, "The missuon of this Allied command has been accomplished on May 7, 1945." With that the most terrible conflict in European history was over.
The Soviet Military Liaison at Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims was General Ivan Susloparov. He had no authority or instructions concerning the acceptance of the German surrender and had no way to immediately obtain such instructions from Moscow. He was uncertain what to do, but decided to sign the surrender document for the Soviet Union. He was afraid that if he did not sign that this would be misinterpreted as the Germans surrendering to only the Western Allies. He did stipulate that the suurender would be replaced with a new version. And this in fact was what Marshal Stalin wanted. Upon learning of the German surrender in Reims, he insisted that the Germans surrender to the designated representative of the Soviet Supreme command in Berlin. Thus the Soviets considered the Reims surrender document preliminary. Thus a ceremony was held in Berlin where Marshal Zhukov's had his headquarters.
The actual ceremony was held in a manor in the Karlshorst suburbs of Moscow. The ceremnony was held late at night on May 8. It was so late that it was May 9 Moscow time. Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as at Reims signed the surrender document for the Wehrmacht. Stalin explained, "Today, in Reims, Germans signed the preliminary act on an unconditional surrender. The main contribution, however, was done by Soviet people and not by the Allies, therefore the capitulation must be signed in front of the Supreme Command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, and not only in front of the Supreme Command of Allied Forces. Moreover, I disagree that the surrender was not signed in Berlin, which was the center of Nazi aggression. We agreed with the Allies to consider the Reims protocol as preliminary.” The Soviets celebrated VE Day a day late on May 9 with a massive parade in Moscow. The Soviet people had paid a terrible price for the victory over the NAZIs. The celebration of that victory continues to be an almost religious event in modern Russia. It is celebrated on May 9 as Victory Day or Great Patriotic War Remembrance Day.
News of the German surrender was immeiately broacast around the world. Celebrations ensued throught Europe--except of course Germany. Celebrations occurred in the major Allied countries. Massive demonstrations spontaeously appeared in London. It was the British definance of Hitler that played a major role in his defeat. More than a million people flooded the streets of London to celbrate. There was a carnival amospher to the celebration which was celebrated by Londoners of all ages. The British still had to make do with rationing which in fact would last several more years even afer the War. But this was their day. The British people and Londoner in particular had eaned this day which was long in coming. The celebration took place in the very city that had defied Hitler's Blitz. Huge crowds appeared in Trafalgur Square and throungs crowded The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Here King George VI and Queen Elizabeth joined by Prime Minister Churchill appeared on the Palace balcony to the cheers of Londoners. Churchill told the cheering crowds, "My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It's a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for a whole year. ..." Absent from the balcony were Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. They managed to convince the King to allow them to join the cheering throng where they celebrated anonymously with the people of London.
There were big celebrations in the dwn town areas. There were also smaller neighborhood celebrations. In communities throughout britain there were outdoors banquets called block parties that were family celebrations (figure 1). For many of the children it mean that daddy would soon be headed home.American reporter Edward R. Murrow broadcast from Piccadilly Circus just as he had broadcast to America during the Blitz.Joining in on the celebration were large numbers of American service personnel in London. A key part of the victory was the Anglo-American alliance--the most important militry alliance in history. Joyous celebrations occurred in Paris with a parade up the Champs-Elysées. The VE celebrations in America lacked one great figure--President Roosevelt who had played such an important role in being about the Allied victory. President Roosevelt suffered a heart attack shortly before VE Day. President Truman in a radio address to the nation dedicated the victory to the memory of the former president. More raucous celebrations occured in major American cities, especially Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and especially in New York City's Times Square.
The Soviets staged a massive victory parade in Moscow (June 24). Stalin was to lead the parade on a white horse. The horse, however, poived rather spirited and Stalin at the last minute decided not to ride it when he actually saw the horse. Thus it was Marshal Zukov wah actually rode the horse in the victory parade. Stalin was deeply resentful of this. The incident and Stalin's furthur resentment of Zukov's popularity affected the famed Marshal's career after the War.
The United States along with Britain and France oversaw an occupation with changed the nature of West German society. Most Germans readily admitted their country's responsibility for the War and ther honredous acts of the NAZI
regime. The Allies instituted a thorough going denazification process, a process which continues to this day in Germany. The Allies also attacked
the militarism of the old Prussian junker class which the united German state was built around in 1870. The Allies completely dismantled the NAZI regime
and during military occupation reconstructed an entirely new political structure. In some ways the process was simplified by the NAZIs who although
opposed to democracy had gone a great way toward the breaking down of class barriers and weakening the power of the Prussian junkers. The
Germans were not without a tradition of democracy and parlimentary politics. Given the NAZIs success in dominating the German people and the thorouness of that domination, it seems perhaps surprising how readily the Germans
adopted democracy. Perhaps the totality of the NAZI defeat and the spector of Soviet totalitarianism looming accross the border were
major factors. What ever the reasons, the German took to political democracy and free-market economics. A relationship with America was
forged in the Berlin Airlift (1948) and four decades of resistance to the Soviers and Warsaw pact. The results by all practical measures have been an
overwealming success. Germany today is one of the most prosperous and democratic societies in the world. Germany unlike Japan was also
occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet occupation policies in eastern Germany were very different than those persued in the wetern
occupation zone. Austria was separated from Germany after the War and occupied by the Soviets and Western Allies.
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