HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-05-07T15:38:43.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The history of VE Day street parties
items: VE Day: a people's history
items: VJ Day: turning the tide in the east
items: A brief guide to VE Day
items: Britain at War
items: "Hooray! The war is ended": 5 people's recollections of VE Day
items: "The war without an end": what happened in Europe after VE Day?
items: Countdown to VE Day: the week World War 2 ended in Europe
items: VE Day special

The history of VE Day street parties
type: item
date: 2025-05-07T07:30:38.000Z
creator: Emma Mason
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: VE Day
subject: Wartime Britain
description: Millions of people took to the streets of Britain on 8 May 1945 to celebrate VE Day – the day when the German armed forces signed an unconditional surrender, and the Second World War in Europe finally came to an end. Hanging bunting, waving flags, drinking and dancing, the streets were crammed with joyous revellers...
encoded: At 2.41am on 7 May 1945, at a schoolhouse near Reims in northern France, General Alfred Jodl, the German chief of staff, signed the unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces wherever they might be fighting. General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, rang General Sir ‘Pug’ Ismay, Churchill’s chief of staff. “The war is over,” he said. “But no official announcement could be made” said Juliet Gardiner, writing for BBC History Magazine in 2005. “Stalin insisted that victory should not be proclaimed until German troops on the eastern front had surrendered to the Soviet general Zukhov in Berlin and the long-awaited news could be proclaimed simultaneously in London, Moscow and Washington.” Yet rumours that the war had finally ended soon began to filter through to the British public. “The newspapers are full of rumours of surrender… feeling almost excited… everyone is speculating,” wrote Lyn Murphy, who worked for the director of an electrical manufacturer engaged in war production, in her diary for 7 May 1945. “They shouldn’t keep people hanging about waiting like this. The government needn’t be afraid of people going mad, everybody’s very sober about it,” complained a middle-aged man to a member of Mass-Observation, the organisation that compiled reports on British wartime attitudes and morale, which was out in force now that victory was in the air. On the afternoon of 8 May 1945, the British prime minister Winston Churchill made the radio announcement that the world had long been waiting for. He announced that hostilities with Germany would cease at one minute past midnight, and that “our dear Channel Islands”, the only part of British territory to have been occupied, “are to be freed today”. After nearly six long years, the war in Europe was finally over. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2020/05/GettyImages-3432929-4d9bca8-scaled-e1746607596456.jpg" width="619" height="413" alt="Prime Minister Win…

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VE Day: a people's history
type: item
date: 2025-05-07T06:30:19.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: VE Day
description: John Willis tells the inside story of the day that Britain toasted victory over Nazi Germany
encoded: Nazi Germany had finally been defeated. And, for 24 hours, Britons could let their hair down and celebrate. But not everyone was in the mood to party. As 2025 marks the 80th anniversary, John Willis tells the story of VE Day via the experiences of ordinary Britons who lived through it. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, he discusses what these testimonies reveal about the state of mind of a nation after six long years of war. John Willis is the author of The People’s War: Unheard Voices: Life on the Battlefront and at Home in World War II (BBC Books, 2025) Buy now on Bookshop.org Buy now on Amazon Buy now on Waterstones

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VJ Day: turning the tide in the east
type: item
date: 2021-08-13T05:03:00.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: VE Day
description: In 1942, British and Commonwealth forces in the east were divided, dispirited and defeated by the Japanese at every turn. Two years later, they were on an unstoppable surge to victory. On the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, Jonathan Fennell chronicles one of the great transformations of the Second World War
encoded: Listen to this article: On 6 August 1945, a US plane dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later, a second bomb was released over Nagasaki. With Soviet tanks rolling across the border of Japanese-controlled Manchuria (in northern China), it was clear to Japan’s emperor, Hirohito, that his country now faced the prospect of total annihilation. Japan surrendered on 15 August; the Second World War, the most destructive conflict in human history, was over. For the British and Commonwealth troops strung out across the Asian subcontinent, the sudden end of hostilities evoked a mix of complex emotions. With Burma having been reconquered in May, some were preparing for new campaigns to retake Britain’s lost colonies to the south and east. Some were involved in reconstruction and repair operations, while others awaited leave, or even repatriation. The west African troops in Allied Land Forces South East Asia (whose main subordinate formation was the famous 14th Army) greeted the news with joy. According to the quarterly morale reports compiled in theatre, they were so enthused that spirits continued to be “very high” well into September. And Indian troops, who had been at the forefront of the final great campaign in Burma against the Japanese, responded to the news “enthusiastically”. But positive sentiments about the prospects of a return to civilian life soon turned to anxiety, as soldiers reflected on the possibility of unemployment. For British soldiers, who by the fall of Rangoon (the Burmese capital) made up only 13 per cent of the 14th Army, the announcement was met “first with reserve and then with great satisfaction”. This was a more positive response than that elicited by the news of victory in Europe in May, which had been “received without enthusiasm”. But “news of strikes and shortages at home” soon began to “provoke bitter and impatient comment”. The sudden cessation of the American Lend Lease programme, the materiel lifeline that …

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A brief guide to VE Day
type: item
date: 2021-05-08T06:55:00.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: VE Day
description: On 8 May 1945, millions of people rejoiced in the news that Germany had surrendered: after nearly six years, the war in Europe was finally over. Second World War historian Keith Lowe brings you the facts about this momentous day in history…
encoded: What does VE Day stand for? VE Day – which stands for ‘Victory in Europe’ Day – is the day in 1945 when the German armed forces signed an unconditional surrender, and the Second World War in Europe finally came to an end. When is VE Day? On the afternoon of 8 May 1945, the British prime minister Winston Churchill made the radio announcement that the world had long been waiting for. “Yesterday morning,” he declared, “at 2.41 a.m., at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command, and Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe.” After nearly six years, the war in Europe was finally over. The celebrations began almost immediately. However, there was still one last technical detail to be taken care of. Since the Soviet authorities had not yet given their approval to the surrender document, a second, definitive document was signed in Berlin. The official time when this final document was signed was 23.01, Central European Time (although in reality it was not signed until almost a quarter to one the next morning). By Moscow time, however, the official time of signing was already after midnight. As a consequence, America and western Europe consider VE Day to have taken place on 8 May, while Russia and some eastern European countries celebrate it on 9 May. Countdown to VE Day: the week the Second World War ended in Europe Where did VE Day take place and how was it celebrated? Although VE Day was strictly speaking a continental European event, it was celebrated all over the world. In London, more than a million people took to the streets and huge crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace to see Churchill standing on the balcony alongside King George VI. In Paris and New York, similar crowds gathered along the Champs Elysée and in Times Square. According to Alexander Werth, the Moscow correspondent for the BBC and the …

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Britain at War
type: item
date: 2020-05-08T11:35:48.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: VE Day
description: On the 75th anniversary of VE Day we speak to Dan Todman about Britain’s role in defeating the Nazis and the challenges of the postwar years
encoded: On the 75th anniversary of VE Day we speak to historian Dan Todman, author of Britain's War: A New World, 1942–1947, about Britain’s role in defeating the Nazis and the challenges of adjusting to the postwar years.

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"Hooray! The war is ended": 5 people's recollections of VE Day
type: item
date: 2020-05-04T11:30:51.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: VE Day
description: From the homesick Jewish refugee to the over-exuberant sailor who landed himself in jail, Peter Hart compiles five people’s recollections of VE Day
encoded: Vera Schaufield One of Vera Schaufield’s most vivid memories of VE Day was of getting into trouble with her schoolteacher. Six years earlier, Vera had bid her parents goodbye and become one of the 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia evacuated to England on the Kindertransport, organised by the British humanitarian Nicholas Winton. She was now a refugee suffering from homesickness. She had more reason than most to look forward to the end of the war. “We were sitting in the classroom and the teacher was reading,” she recalled. “Someone came into the room and spoke to her and she said: ‘I have something to tell you: the war is ended!’ I said: ‘Hooray!’ She sent me out for causing a disturbance. I stood outside the classroom with all these mixed thoughts. My parents were going to be cross, because I couldn’t speak to them in Czech or German. Would I be able to take my school certificate? I just wanted to see my parents again. I just wanted to go home.” Sadly, it was not to be. Schaufield’s parents had been transported to Auschwitz and were already dead. David Elliot One of the greatest days of David Elliot’s young life was almost the last. For David, it had been a long war. Despite some pacifist inclination, he had joined up as a stretcher-bearer and served in France until he was evacuated from Dunkirk in June 1940. He then served with the South Notts Hussars in north Africa, Sicily and north-west Europe. On VE Day, they had come to a halt near the town of Coesfeld in Germany. David decided that the best way to celebrate would be to build a massive bonfire with an effigy of Hitler. “We were all mixed up, the officers and the ranks, all terrifically friendly and all very inebriated! I was very worried because it had been raining and everything was wet. It was 8 to 10-feet high and fairly large with this dummy of Hitler on the top. I’d kept a can of petrol to make sure the bonfire went well.” He then managed to put himself in great danger on that day of peace. In pict…

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"The war without an end": what happened in Europe after VE Day?
type: item
date: 2020-05-04T09:45:08.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: VE Day
subject: Wartime Britain
description: On 8 May 1945, Allied nations celebrated VE Day with elation – but, as Keith Lowe reveals, in much of Europe conflict was far from over...
encoded: In the summer of 1945, a train carrying refugees pulled out of a station in what’s now Slovakia, heading for Germany. Its passengers were German speakers being expelled from the country – in the wake of the Second World War, Czechoslovakians no longer wanted such people living in their midst. When the train passed through the town of Přerov in Moravia it was brought to a halt. The head of the local militia, a man named Karol Pazúr, forced everyone to disembark, claiming he wanted to carry out a search for former Nazis hiding among the passengers. When they stepped down from the train, Pazúr and his men lined them up and shot them all. The dead included 71 men, 120 women and 74 children. The youngest victim was just eight months old. The slaughter at Přerov was just one example of the many mass killings perpetrated all over Czechoslovakia in the wake of the war. According to Czech historians, during the summer of 1945 between 25,000 and 40,000 German speakers were killed in acts of revenge (though many German historians claim a considerably larger number). Perhaps the most notable fact about the Přerov massacre is that its protagonist was one of the very few Czechs ever to be arrested for such crimes. At his trial, Pazúr was asked how he could possibly justify the killing of the children. He is reported to have answered: “Well, what was I supposed to do with them after we’d killed their parents?” Nevertheless, after a brief spell in prison, Pazúr was pardoned. He promptly began a new career as a member of the communist secret police. Watch: Are we in denial about our role in WW2? Keith Lowe explains – in 60 seconds View oEmbed on the source website When we now look back to the end of the Second World War, we seldom give much thought to what happened next. In our collective memory, VE Day was a moment of pure celebration, when crowds across the world gathered to rejoice the end of violence. But for many in Europe, VE Day did not bring peace. For German communities all…

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Countdown to VE Day: the week World War 2 ended in Europe
type: item
date: 2020-04-29T10:00:35.000Z
creator: Gavin Mortimer
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: VE Day
subject: Wartime Britain
description: As we mark 75 years since the end of World War II, Gavin Mortimer recalls the momentous week that led to wild celebrations on Victory in Europe Day
encoded: On 8 May 1945, millions of people took to the streets rejoicing following the news that Germany had surrendered, bringing an end to World War II in Europe – but not everywhere. Find out more in our ultimate guide to VE Day, and read on below for a closer look at events leading up to this momentous milestone. 30 April “The amazing news is that Mussolini is dead,” wrote Vere Hodgson in her diary. The charity worker from war-torn London also noted that it was snowing in the capital. The Italian dictator had in fact been hanged by partisans two days earlier and, on 29 April, Italians had received more good news with the unconditional surrender of German armies in their country. His dream of a 1,000-year Reich in ruins, Adolf Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, killed themselves in the bunker under the Chancellery in Berlin as Soviet troops closed in. In his last will and testament, the Nazi leader appointed Admiral Karl Dönitz as head of state. 1 May The Allies first heard of Hitler’s death when a Hamburg radio station announced that he died “fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism”. Dönitz addressed the nation and described the Führer’s death as “heroic”. He added: “I am taking over the leadership of the German people in this grave hour of destiny. My first task is to save the German people from annihilation.” To this end, Dönitz would surrender northwest Germany to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commanding 21st Army Group, and instructed the Reichskommissars (Reich Commissioners) in Czechoslovakia, Holland, Denmark and Norway to bring hostilities to a peaceful conclusion. The realisation that the war was lost led Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, to kill himself and his six children. 2 May The British press had no inkling of Dönitz's intentions and the front-page headline of The Daily Record for 2 May suggested that the war was far from over: "Death of Hitler, Dönitz says he'll fight on". In reality, there was no fight left in the Third R…

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VE Day special
type: item
date: 2015-05-07T09:17:38.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
subject: VE Day
description: Richard Overy describes the end of the Second World War, while Steve Humphries exhorts the wartime generation
encoded: Historian Richard Overy describes the situation in Britain and Europe as the Second World War came to an end. Meanwhile, we’re joined by TV producer Steve Humphries to talk about his new series Britain’s Greatest Generation, which contains interviews with surviving veterans of the conflict. A brief guide to VE Day

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