Make noise to celebrate 75th anniversary of VE Day
It was loud on May 8, 1945. Perhaps it was a combination of pent-up emotions, a weariness of a war that dragged on far longer than anyone imagined and sadness over what had been lost.
But church bells pealed and schoolhouse bells clanged and car horns honked as people cheered the end of the war with Nazi Germany.
Millions ventured from their homes to be with others celebrating Victory in Europe, including many who congregated on Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. That was 75 years ago. Knowing a big anniversary was coming in 2020, officials at the War Memorial Center in Milwaukee planned a bell ringing with schoolchildren and World War II veterans in attendance to commemorate V-E Day.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed those plans.
The ceremony will still feature the ringing of a bell, but it will be broadcast on Facebook Live. The War Memorial is working with churches in Milwaukee County to ring their bells and encouraging anyone who wants to participate to make noise.
It's all happening at 1 p.m. Friday. Bells are scheduled to ring in England at 7 p.m. and with the time difference, that means bells will toll locally at the same time.
“That way the world will be ringing their bells simultaneously,” said War Memorial Center President and CEO Dan Buttery.
“We're saying make a noise even if you don't have a bell. Just be loud.”
Buttery and new Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will make brief remarks shortly before 1 p.m. before the bell is rung next to a wall listing the names of almost 3,000 Milwaukee County residents who lost their lives in World War II with music by a bagpiper. The short service will end with a bugler sounding taps.
“We've been planning the 75th commemoration celebration for a while, knowing the significance of why the War Memorial is here,” said Buttery. “Now we're recognizing the new normal with COVID-19.”
A bell from the second ship to carry the USS Milwaukee name, a cruiser that was decommissioned in 1917, will be brought out of storage at the War Memorial overlooking Lake Michigan and placed on the deck of the building near the eternal flame.
The bell was presented to the Milwaukee Press Club in the 1920s. In recent years it is sounded at the War Memorial each Sept. 11 in memory of the lives lost in the 9/11 terror attacks.
Officials originally discussed asking a World War II veteran to ring the bell, but that idea was scrapped following the outbreak.
“World War II veterans, we'd rather they stay safely at home. That's why we're doing a Facebook Live virtual stream,” Buttery said.
The bell at the War Memorial will be sounded for 75 seconds.