In London, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill learned of the German surrender at 7:00 a.m. Continue reading to see how the news of victory in Europe was received in Allied nations around the world and by front-line troops in Europe and the Asia-Pacific theaters. Attention turned to finishing the war against Imperial Japan. V-E Day, therefore, marked a major milestone for the Allies but did not end the war-as Allied governments pointedly reminded their citizens. Upon entering the war in December 1941, the United States agreed on a “Europe first” strategy: concentrate on defeating Germany, Italy and their satellites rather than focusing the bulk of men and resources on the war in the Pacific. The “European War” and the war the Japanese had been fighting in Asia and the Southwest Pacific were now a global conflict-the Second World War. While still at war with Great Britain, Hitler invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941, and on December 11 of that year he declared war on the United States of America, to honor a mutual support pact he had signed with Imperial Japan. Italy, under the control of the fascist Benito Mussolini, was allied with Germany, and the two nations fought against the British (and later the Americans) in North Africa and Italy. By the summer of 1941, the military of Germany’s fascist dictator Adolf Hitler had conquered or subdued virtually all of Europe from Spain’s eastern border to the western border of the Soviet Union. Significance of V-E Dayįor just over five years and eight months a war had been raging in Europe that began with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Germany’s partner in fascism, Italy, had switched sides in 1943, though many Italians continued to fight alongside their German comrades in Italy. With their power-mad Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dead by his own hand, German military leaders signed surrender documents at several locations in Europe on May 7, capitulating to each of their victorious foes. V-E Day commemorates the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied forces in 1945, ending World War II in Europe.
V-E Day was observed on in Great Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Australia, and on May 9 in the Soviet Union and New Zealand. Today in France the day is called World War II Victory Day. Some early reports in the West also called the day V-Day, but V-E was more accurate, as the war still continued in the Pacific Theater. In the Soviet Union it was called simply Victory Day and still goes by that name in states of the former USSR. V-E Day 1945: The Celebration Heard 'round the World Closeįacts and Summary, V-E Day, also written VE Day: V-E Day stands for Victory in Europe Day.
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