May 8 marks the 75th anniversary of V-E Day. V-E stands for Victory in Europe. It was officially proclaimed by United States President Harry S. Truman on Tuesday, May 8, 1945. It marked the surrender of the German armed forces and the end of the fighting against Germany in World War II (1939-1945).

Upon Germany’s defeat, celebrations erupted in towns and cities across the world. Crowds took to the streets to sing, dance, and rejoice. British prime minister Winston Churchill marked the occasion by declaring May 8 a public holiday. It was the end to nearly six years of conflict in Europe that had cost the lives of millions and caused huge suffering worldwide.

A cheering crowd in London, England, welcomes the end of fighting in Europe during World War II on May 8, 1945—a day remembered as Victory in Europe (V-E) Day.
Photo credit: © Popperfoto/Getty Images

Leading up to V-E Day. The Allies began their final assault on Germany in early 1945. Soviet soldiers reached the Oder River, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Berlin, in January. Allied forces in the west occupied positions along the Rhine by early March.

British and Canadian forces cleared the Germans out of the Netherlands and swept into northern Germany. American and French forces raced toward the Elbe River in central Germany. The German dictator Adolph Hitler ordered his soldiers to fight to the death. But large numbers of German soldiers surrendered each day.

As they advanced, the Allies discovered horrifying evidence of brutality by Germany’s Nazi regime. Hitler had ordered the imprisonment and murder of millions of Jews and members of other minority groups in concentration camps. The starving survivors of the death camps gave proof of the terrible suffering of those who had already died. The full nature and reality of the Nazi’s state-sponsored, systematic murder of Jews and others, known as the Holocaust, came to light in later months and years.

The Allies left the capture of Berlin to Soviet forces. By April 25, 1945, Soviet troops had surrounded the city. From a bunker (shelter) deep underground, Hitler ordered German soldiers to fight on. On April 30, however, Hitler killed himself rather than face defeat. With him died the Third Reich (Third Empire), the Nazi term for the empire in which they hoped to unite all Germanic peoples.

The fighting in Berlin claimed the lives of over 70,000 Soviet soldiers. The Germans propped up their remaining units with children and elderly reservists. Thousands of them died in that last week of fighting.

German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz briefly succeeded Hitler and arranged for Germany’s surrender. On May 7, 1945, General Alfred Jodl, chief of staff of the German armed forces, signed a statement of unconditional surrender at the headquarters of Allied leader Dwight D. Eisenhower in Reims, France. World War II had ended in Europe. The Allies declared May 8 as V-E Day.

May 7, 2015

Tomorrow, May 8, 2015, marks the 70^th anniversary of the announcement of Germany’s surrender during World War II (1939-1945). So momentous was that day in 1945 that United States President Harry Truman proclaimed May 8 as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day.

Crowds of Londoners in high spirits on V-E Day after Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech, in Whitehall. Credit: © Popperfoto/Getty Images

The German surrender ended fighting in Europe, and it actually occurred the day before, on May 7, 1945. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. Millions of people were dead worldwide. Soviet troops were in Berlin. Massive Allied armies had taken most of western Germany, and most German cities lay smoldering and in ruins. Germany had no choice but to surrender. Colonel General Alfred Jodl—the chief of staff of the German Armed Forces High Command—signed the surrender at 2:41 a.m. on May 7 in Reims, France. Expecting better treatment from the western Allies rather than the Soviet Union, Jodl surrendered to U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The German troops who surrendered to American, British, Canadian, French, or other western Allied troops did fare better than those captured by the Soviets, but it didn’t do Jodl much good. An avid Nazi and Hitler supporter, Jodl was executed for war crimes in 1946.

The end of the fight in Europe was a joyous occasion, people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and across the world took to the streets to celebrate. World War II still raged in the Pacific, however. The bloody fight for Okinawa dragged late into June 1945, and Allied warplanes continued to attack and bomb Japanese cities, culminating with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Fighting in the Pacific (and in World War II) ended on August 14, but the official Japanese surrender came on September 2—Victory over Japan Day, or V-J Day.

Some of the events in the United Kingdom commemorating tomorrow’s anniversary include a service in Whitehall at the Cenotaph in London—the Cenotaph is a monument honoring the dead of both world wars. At 3 p.m., the U.K. will observe two minutes of silence to mark the moment when British prime minister Winston Churchill broadcast his historic speech announcing the end of fighting in Europe. On Friday evening, a chain of more than 100 beacons will be lit across the U.K. In the United States, aircraft of World War II vintage will fly over the nation’s capital. Ordinarily, aircraft are not allowed to fly so closely over capital buildings, but tomorrow, 15 aircraft formations will fly over the Lincoln Memorial and the National World War II Memorial, and past the Washington Monument.

Other articles and links:

• National World War II Memorial (memorial website)

• Winston Churchill’s speech on V-E Day (The Churchill Centre)