![]() Spontaneous parties broke out on the streets of London and, by midnight, police estimated that there were upwards of 50,000 people celebrating in Piccadilly Circus, singing and dancing into the night.īut not everyone celebrated, notes the Imperial War Museum. Cheering crowds, many waving flags and dressed in red, white and blue, gathered outside Buckingham Palace to greet the King and Queen and their two daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, as they stepped out onto the balcony. Japan with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued,” he said.Īfter years of austerity and rationing, the people of Britain “badly needed to let their hair down”, says Sheffield. “We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. How did Britain react to VE Day?Īt 3pm on 8 May, Churchill delivered the message the nation had been waiting for: the war was over. Japan surrendered soon after, but the surrender documents were not signed until 2 September 1945, on the deck of the USS Missouri, officially marking the end of the war. In early August, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 100,000 people. However, the war continued to rage in the Far East. “With it came the end of six years of misery, suffering, courage and endurance across the world,” writes war historian Gary Sheffield for the BBC. The following day, now known as VE day, marked the official end of Hitler’s war in Europe. In the space of just one month, Vienna fell to Soviet troops who then entered Berlin Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian guerrilla fighters, which led to the surrender of German troops in Italy US forces rescued 32,000 survivors from the Dachau concentration camp and Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin.Īfter the Third Reich submitted to Western and Russian demands, Germany’s unconditional surrender was signed at 2.41pm on 7 May in Rheims. The war in Europe between the Allied and Axis powers reached its endgame in April 1945. WWII killed approximately 382,700 members of the British Armed Forces and 67,100 civilians, according to the Royal British Legion, as well as tens of millions more from other countries. The official website of the 75th anniversary of VE Day states: “Years of carnage and destruction had come to an end and millions of people took to the streets and pubs to celebrate peace, mourn their loved – ones and to hope for the future, but not forgetting those still in conflict until 15th August when it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II.” ![]() The May Day bank holiday has been moved only once before: it was changed from 1 May to 8 May in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day. This volume contains their weekly meetings and intelligence reports and covers industrial output, food rationing and the effect of aerial attacks on manufacturing.The day off was due to fall on 4 May but has been put back to the following Friday to commemorate the day when guns fell silent at the end of the Second World War. General reports on worldwide events can be found in the volume 'Ministry of Economic Warfare and economic intelligence, 1939-1945'.They can be found under 'Anglo-American joint projects, 1940-1954'. Records on the US-UK Jedburgh teams, their sabotage training and their operations in occupied territory are all in one place.The highest volumes of diplomatic materials can be found in 'British security services' activities in the USA, 1940-1945', 'Anglo-American operations in China, 1940-1946', and 'US and British operations in Europe, 1940-1945'.The collection contains Cabinet Committee reports, War Office reports and Training Handbooks and the documents are drawn from the National Archives. The collection is arranged by country, then by subject and contains documents from areas where the SOE and OSS operated such as South East Asia, South and Central America and the Middle East.They successfully shared intelligence during Operation Jedburgh however, their tumultuous relationship is evident in Algiers as despite sharing a headquarters, they refused to share information with each other. ![]() ![]() From the outbreak of war, the SOE and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) worked together to train recruits and share information.The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was established on 22nd July 1940 and received orders from Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze” through disrupting countries that were occupied by AXIS powers.
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