May 8, 2007

Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7/8, 1945, the date when the Allies during World War II formally celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

At 02:41 on the morning of May 7, 1945, at the SHAEF headquarters in Rheims, France, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to the Allies. All active operations were to cease at 23:01 Central European Time on May 8, 1945. However, as the British were operating on British Double Summer Time this was 00:01 May 9th in London.

Western journalists broke the bomb news of Germany's surrender prematurely, precipitating the earlier celebration. Fighting continued on the Eastern front in May however, when the Germans surrendered specifically to the Soviets at Karlshorst. The Soviet Union kept to the agreed celebration date, and Russia and the other countries still commemorate the end of World War II, a significant part of which is known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, as Victory Day on May 9th.

By May 8, 1945 most of Germany had already been taken by Allied forces. Hence V-E Day itself was not such a drastic change for most German civilians. In the years after, V-E Day was predominantly perceived as the day of defeat. But over the decades, this perception changed, culminating in the speech by West German President Richard Von Weizsacker on the 40th anniversary of V-E Day in 1985, in which he called May 8th "the day of liberation" from Nazi government.

Let us remember the men and women of our armed forces, and the home front, who won the great World War for Freedom immediately preceding our own combat in KOREA. Recalled by the Nation, many of that great group became our leaders in Korea.

We learned from and followed good teachers—FREEDOM WAS NOT FREE!

National President, KWVA/US
Chairman of the Board