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STARS AND STRIPES EXTRA EDITION (May 4, 1945)

VICTORY IN EUROPE PARADE

  Finally the war in Europe came to an end with Germany's capitulation.  Called VE Day, for Victory in Europe, it brought people into the streets in the U.S. and in Europe, celebrating the end of hostilities.  For many servicemen it also meant that they could draw a breath of relief as they realized that they had survived the war in Europe.

IT'S OVER IN THE WEST
proclaims the headline in London's  Daily Mirror.
The photo is captioned "London had joy night".
Scenes like this undoubtedly could be seen throughout Europe, the UK, Australia, North America and other Allied nations

  American Troops
Stage V-E Parade

   FRANKFURT --- (AP) --- Four thousand American troops paraded today with two machine guns and a few hundred rifles in this bomb-scarred city in observance of V-E day, as shabbily-clothed German civilians watched in stony silence.
   The parade in the headquarters city of the U.S. occupation zone featured only two armored vehicles.  Both light patrol cars.  German onlookers exchanged amazed whispers.  A few doffed their hats when the American flag passed.
   White-scarved, steel helmeted volunteers of the 508th parachute infantry regiment were the only tactical unit in the procession.
   Several hundred soldiers of the headquarters detachment strode weaponless at the heels of a military police battalion and in front of a company of WACs and jeeps loaded with Red Cross girls.
   Except for scattered officers and non-coms, virtually no soldier in the parade had seen combat action against the wehrmacht.
   Two bands sporadically provided martial music, but most of the march took place in silence, broken only by the squish of rubberized army soles on cobblestones.  Even the German children were silent.
   The biggest item on the V-E day program to most American soldiers was the scheduled opening of the army baseball season at a diamond built on a converted nazi [sic] parade field here.
   After the parade had passed six American fighter planes flew over the I. G. Farben compound in formation, but there was no other aerial display.

[Pampa Daily News. Pampa, TX, Wednesday, May 8, 1946, Page 1]

Cpl Wesley Pete" Wyers
headed straight back to Nottingham to marry Eileen Adkin in March 1945.
   To the couple's left are two unidentified 508th men, Eileen's sister Kathleen and her brother John. Her father George Adkin, cousin Joan Brinfield and mother Maud E. Adkin are at the right. 

Jim Roberts, standing between two other GI's and 3 Frenchmen looking at an English newspaper. 
  
One of the GIs is reading the paper to the Frenchmen, one of whom is the Mayor of the Chartres.

 

VE Day - May 8, 1945
found H Company, Capt Louis Toth commanding, on parade in Frankfort, Germany
(Courtesy O.B. Hill collection)

 

NAZI'S QUIT
Doenitz Gives Order

Unconditional surrender of all German forces was announced yesterday by the German radio at Flensburg.
Grand Adm. Doenitz, successor to Hitler, ordered the surrender and the German High Command declared it effective, the German announcement said.
There was no immediate announcement from the capitals of the Allied powers, but Associated Press and Renter correspondents assigned to SHAEF stated unofficially that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally to the western Allies and Russia at 024! Monday (ETO time).
High German officers formally surrendered the German forces at a meeting In the big red schoolhouse which is Gen. Eisenhower's headquarters, the AP and Reuters reported.
Although there was no Allied announcement, the British Ministry of Information said that today (Tuesday) would be considered as V-E Day.
Not waiting for formal confirmation of the peace news, New York and battered London beflagged as never before, began celebrations.