Relief as peace comes to Europe

After Hitler’s suicide on 30 April, 1945, it would not be long before Germany surrendered. The man tasked with making the announcement was Grand Admiral Donitz, who had been president of the Third Reich for just a week when, in the presence of senior officers from Britain, France, Russia and the United States, he surrendered unconditionally on 7 May.

Tuesday 8 May, 1945 – VE Day – was to be the official day of celebration but the warweary British, exhausted after years of

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1945

Peace in Europe

One minute after midnight hostilities in Europe officially ended. Any Germany troops who continued to resist thereafter would, Mr Churchill intimated in his broadcast to the nation announcing the termination of the war, be treated as brigands and be hunted down by the forces of the United Nations. Germany’s defeat is total. There can be no doubt about that this time. Count von Krosigk, the German Foreign Minister, has himself referred to the “collapse of all physical and material forces.” Once more Britain has saved herself by her exertions, and Europe by her example. While giving thanks to God for a great deliverance, we should, in the words of His Majesty the King in his broadcast to his peoples last night, remember first those who will never come back, and then the living who have brought victory. To the dead we owe it to strive for the better world and lasting peace for which they died. With the living we must go forward to that restoration throughout the world of freedom and respect for law and human personality without which this tremendous struggle will have been in vain. It was, as His Majesty said, the knowledge that in defending ourselves we were defending the world’s liberties, as well as the realisation that our freedom, austerity and rationing, could not wait to start rejoicing.

The relief at hearing that the war was finally over was such that celebrations, for the most part, prevailed, but there were many who still mourned the loss of husbands, wives, sweethearts, parents, children and friends.

Up and down the country, people turned on the wireless to hear the news that the war was over. Bunting and banners were hung, shops displayed rosettes and there was dancing in the streets. independence, and national existence were at stake, that upheld us, and it is in the conviction that a stricken world looks to us to lead it back to peace and sanity that we must now shoulder other, though less heavy, burdens.

That the task before us will be easy, no one imagines. Mr Churchill yesterday declared that it would require all our strength and resources, and President Truman put the matter in a nutshell when he said that the watchword for the coming months was “work, work, work.” Both statesmen were thinking chiefly of the war against Japan, which in the hour of victory in Europe we must not forget will call for great exertions by this country, as well as by the United States, before it is brought to a successful conclusion. Japan still holds large portions of Eastern Asia, and there can be no worldwide peace and security until she, too, surrenders unconditionally and pays the just penalty for the injuries and detestable cruelties of which she is guilty. How long she will continue to resist now that, as Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek said yesterday, the whole stupendous weight of humanity is about to come down on her, remains to be seen. Her Foreign Minister’s references to the desertion of Japan by Italy and Germany betray an uneasy state of mind. Nevertheless, we must reckon on her fighting to the bitter end.

Field-marshal Smuts, speaking at San Francisco yesterday, appealed to the Allied nations assembled there not to destroy the present victory by lapsing into isolationism or selfish living. Here in Britain, rejoicing, as we do, in the liberation of the last remaining countries held captive by Nazi Germany, and not least in the deliverance of our own fair Channel Islands, we pause for relaxation after our long period of toil but to renew our strength for the immense task of restoring Europe as well as of defeating Japan. At San Francisco yesterday Mr Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, spoke of the suffering to be relieved and the devastation to be repaired in the liberated countries. With defeated Germany as well to be saved from chaos, our burden is not such as to admit of the slightest slackening. We must strive on if the return of peace to Europe is to be anything but a name.

HOW EDINBURGH SPENT VE DAY Edinburgh’s official recognition of the ending of the war in Europe took the form of a short meeting of the Town Council in the City Chambers, at which Lord Provost J.S. Falconer paid a tribute to the endurance of the British people and to the part played by Scottish men and women in the war.

The meeting was followed by a brief ceremony at the Mercat Cross, at which the Dean of the Thistle read the 76th Psalm, which formed part of a service held in the same place in 1588, as a thanksgiving for the defeat of the Armada.

Unofficially, the end of the European War was celebrated in a very different way. Wet weather had not appreciably affected the spirits of the thousands of Service men and women, factory workers, shop girls and