May 8th Marks the 80th Anniversary of VE Day

The Parish Council has placed plaques and bunting on the Parish Gates; the War Memorial and the Rose Garden to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day

The following article is taken from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's webpage -

On 1 May 1945, it was announced that Nazi Germany’s leader and dictator Adolf Hitler was dead. He had committed suicide in his command bunker beneath the streets of Berlin in late April.

With the Führer’s death, leadership of Nazi Germany passed to other officials. By that point, it was obvious to German High Command that the war in Europe was over.

The Western Allies of the British Empire, United States and France had successfully crossed the Rhine in March and had invaded Germany from the West. The Soviet Army, advancing from the East, was already in the German capital Berlin.

On 4 May 1945, a German military delegation arrived at the headquarters of British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery at Lünberg Heath west of Hamburg. There, Montgomery formally accepted the total surrender of German forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany, and Denmark.

Three days later, on 7 May, the formal instrument of unconditional surrender was signed at Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims, France. The document, which took 20 hours to draft due to multiple changes, were signed by German General Alfred Jodl.

The Nazi German surrender formally came into effect on 8 May 1945, setting the date on which we commemorate and celebrate VE Day each year.

Interestingly, there was another German surrender shortly after 8 May.

Not to be outshone by the Western Allies, Soviet leader Josef Stalin demanded a German leader surrender to the Red Army. This took place on 9 May 1945, with Field Marshal Wilhelm Kietel surrendering to the Soviets in war-torn Berlin.

The Victory in Europe was met with a huge public outpouring of jubilation by the victorious powers.

In London, more than a million people came together to celebrate the end of six years of war. People flocked to places like Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, and Buckingham Palace to celebrate. Prime Minister Winston Churchill waved to ecstatic crowds from the Whitehall Balcony to join in the outpouring of goodwill.

Some revellers started early. On 7 May, the day before the German surrender was announced, pubs across the UK were full of excited patrons, ensured by the Ministry of Food that the country had enough beer for the huge celebrations to come. Some restaurants even put on special “Victory Menus” after years of rationing.

Similar ecstatic scenes took place in major cities around the world. Paris was illuminated, and the Champs-Élysées was flooded with people. Times Square in New York was packed with celebrators, while the fireworks over the Kremlin were “the most spectacular I have ever seen,” according to the Times’ Moscow correspondent.

It should be remembered that the war in the East did not however end until 15 August 1945, when Japan surrendered.