Episode 2: Victory in Europe Day
Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/ufpearth/hwts002
8 May is the anniversary of the official end of the European phase of World War II. For six years beginning on 1 September 1939 and ending on 8 May 1945, the people of Europe, and the rest of the world, were fighting in the most destructive war in human history. Nazi Germany was finally defeated by the combined efforts of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and other members of the Allied forces.
As Allied forces invaded Germany from both the east and west, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was trapped in Berlin. Soviet forces encircled the German capital on 16 April and fought a bitter street-by-street battle to capture both the city and Hitler. The military situation for the Nazis was impossible and there was no chance of German victory, but Hitler would not contemplate surrender: he expected Germany to die with him for failing to win the war.
Soviet forces pushed closer and closer to the underground bunker, situated near the German Reich Chancellery, that sheltered Hitler and members of the German High Command. Fearing capture by the Soviets, Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide on 30 April 1945. Their bodies were taken from the bunker and cremated in the Chancellery garden.
Hitler had left instructions that the command of both the German military and civilian affairs be handed over to Admiral Karl Doenitz. Doenitz at the time was the overall commander of the German Kriegsmarine, German Navy, and Hitler believed that he had never betrayed the Fuhrer throughout the war. On 1 May, Doenitz was left with the unenviable responsibility for finding a way to surrender to Allied forces and prevent the absolute destruction of Germany. His appointment to this position surprised both himself and the remaining Nazi military and political officers.
Doenitz reached out to Western Allies (Great Britain, France, and the United States) to sign a separate peace treaty between Germany and those powers. This was done in the hope that they would sign this treaty and allow German forces to shift eastward to continue fighting against the Soviet Union. Doentiz’s missive was rejected by the Western Allied military representatives: surrender of German forces would be complete and unconditional to all Allied Powers.
It took until 7 May for Doenitz to finally realize that American General Dwight Eisenhower would not negotiate with the German commander. Eisenhower informed Doenitz that if surrender were not immediate, American, and British bombers would resume their raids against Germany. In addition, Eisenhower also threatened to not allow German military members and civilians from entering areas under Western control.
Doenitz ordered Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command Operations Staff, to sign the Articles of Surrender in Reims, France at 2:41 am 7 May. The cease fire in the Articles would come into effect on 8 May. This delay would allow tens of thousands of German civilians and soldiers to flee to regions occupied by the Western Allies and not those currently under Soviet control.
The official German surrender was the first time in six years that the people of Europe, and the larger world, could genuinely celebrate the end of their long war and occupation by the Nazis. Spontaneous celebrations broke out throughout Europe and the United States when word of Germany’s surrender was announced. Even though Germany was defeated, there was still Japan, the last Axis Power, still fighting in the Pacific Theater.