Victory in Europe: An 80th Anniversary
by Diana Loski
American Military Cemetery, the Ardennes
(Author photo)
Eighty years ago, a significant step toward world peace was achieved. On May 7, 1945 Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, with all hostilities to cease by midnight, the beginning of May 8.
World War II had not yet ended for the Americans, as they had to still grapple with Japan in the Pacific. The victory in Europe, though, had at long last arrived.
From the day of the surprise attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor to the day of the Nazi capitulation, forty-one months of war had passed for the Americans. After Pearl Harbor, Hitler, an ally of Japan, had declared war on the United States.
Until the surrender in Europe was signed, the Wehrmacht remained hostile, trying to avoid capitulation, exploring every avenue to break free the Allied troops. General Dwight D. Eisenhower worked tirelessly in the final days to ensure that no escape for Hitler’s ilk was possible.
On May 1, 1945, Field Marshall Montgomery of Great Britain had reached the Baltic Sea in northern Germany with his English and Australian armies. They successfully cut off the German troops, including the entire German Twelfth Army in Holland, to prevent any reinforcements to the Nazi armies in Germany.1
Patton’s Third Army “barreled down the Danube”, also preventing any Nazi troops from Austria, Hungary, or Czechoslovakia from joining the Wehrmacht in Germany. In those last days of April and first days of May, numerous Nazi-occupied cities surrendered from these nations, including Vienna, Linz, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Budapest, and Prague. Some of them had capitulated upon learning of Hitler’s suicide on April 30th and upon the realization that Russian troops had entered Berlin that same day.2
“Our troops were everywhere,” General Eisenhower remembered, “swarming over western Germany and there were few remaining targets.” Ike was concerned about aerial support at this time, as any bombings might accidentally fall upon Allied troops. He was so tired of all the death at this point, he was determined to keep as many soldiers and civilians alive with the end of the war closing in as possible. He ordered all bombings to stop at that time.3
General Alfred Jodl now had control of all German armies in the field. Others claiming to be in control, such as Heinrich Himmler, attempted to reach out to either Ike or Churchill. Ike countenanced none of it.4
The Germans’ hatred of Russia surpassed their disdain for the rest of the Allies. The Russian invasion of Berlin and its subsequent fighting in that city had taken an immense toll on the lives from both sides. While Montgomery had been nonplussed as to why Ike allowed the Russians into Berlin first, it appears that this allowance had saved countless American and British lives.5
The American forces met with a contingent of Russians on the Elbe River near Torgau, a town in western Germany near Leipzig, in late April. The noose around Berlin grew tighter, and the Nazis soon realized that they were surrounded. It was only a matter of time; however, an enemy force backed into a corner is usually becomes more dangerous – as the Americans knew well from the Battle of the Bulge a few months earlier. On May 1, the Nazi high command wanted a cease-fire, without surrender. Ike refused it. He demanded “nothing less than unconditional surrender” of the Nazi troops and government. There would be no weaseling out, no mistake like the one made in World War 1.6
While Jodl was in command of the German armies, the “tattered mantle of authority had fallen to Admiral Doenitz”. Doenitz, more a politician than a field tactician, spoke with Jodl and the other field commanders. Doenitz requested a surrender for just the Western Front, and asked the Americans if they would help them annihilate the Russians in Berlin. Ike immediately saw the tactic for what it was – an attempt to divide the Allies. He refused to countenance any situation that might offend the Russians, or delay the end of the war. “I strongly urged that no proposition be accepted or entertained unless it involved a surrender of all German forces on all fronts,” Ike said.7
Finally, on May 7, the German high command realized the futility of furthering the conflict, and Field Marshal Jodl agreed to surrender all troops to General Eisenhower at Ike’s headquarters in Reims, France.8
General Eisenhower remembered that evening at his headquarters, with “a group of tired men…the moment was at hand.” For days there had been “long and tedious negotiations with German leaders who were backing and filling because of uncertainties as to who was really speaking for the deceased Hitler.”9
The surrender during World War I had been dubious at best, as the Germans had thought the Armistice was just a cease-fire, with no clear winner of the war. When that end was followed by the Treaty of Versailles, blaming the Germans for the lion's share of the destruction and insisting on staggering reparations, the German people were incensed and felt betrayed. With the rise of Hitler soon afterward, promising to make Germany a country of worth once again, his overreach (and murders of any who attempted to rein him in) led to this terrible second world war, which killed over sixty million people world-wide. General Eisenhower, who knew only too well the mistakes from World War I, decided that no such error would happen under his leadership.
Finally, on the evening of May 7, Field Marshal Jodl arrived in Reims, still “playing for time” as Admiral Doenitz had only given permission for talks. Ike explained through his subordinate, General Smith, that “unless they instantly ceased all pretense and delay, I would close the entire Allied front and would, by force, prevent any more German refugees from entering our lines. I would brook no further delay.”10
Field Marshal Jodl then entered Ike’s office and, through an interpreter, signed the surrender. Ike asked him if he understood all the provisions in the document. Jodl answered, “Ja.” Ike then said to him, “You will, officially and personally, be held responsible if the terms of this surrender are violated.” Jodl then saluted General Eisenhower, and left his headquarters.11
Ike then picked up the telephone and called Omar Bradley. “Brad, I’ve got good news,” he said. “Get the word around…make sure that all firing stops at midnight of the eighth.” Then everyone at headquarters went to bed and “slept the clock around.” Ike admitted they were all too tired to celebrate.12
Since midnight, May 8, 1945 in Europe was six hours ahead of American time, the news reached the United States on the evening of May 7. May 8, though, since it was the first full day of peace in Europe, is declared VE (Victory in Europe) Day. The United States received the news with great elation. Ike felt only relief from the tremendous burden that he had carried for four years. “Not only had Europe been liberated,” he said, “I had been liberated.”13
The duty of Supreme Allied command in Europe now involved the gargantuan task of returning over three million American soldiers. While some would be needed in the Pacific, a lottery was put in place so that the troops could look ahead to going home.
Ike addressed the American POWs and the troops. He warned them that the ships would be crowded, but if they would share their bunks – “if they could share awake and asleep times…twice the number could go home sooner.” He was met with a “roar of approval”, and the “double-loading plan” is how many GIs were able to go home as soon as possible.14
It is an interesting that Ike’s demand for unconditional surrender mirrored that of another general from another war. In 1878, Ulysses S. Grant, having finished his second term as President, went on a world tour. Germany was one of his stops, and he met with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had recently united Germany during the recent Franco-Prussian War. The two old generals commiserated on the awful effects of their wars. Bismarck remarked to Grant how terrible the American Civil War had been. “It had to be terrible,” Grant explained. “We were fighting [those] with whom we could not make peace. No treaty was possible, only destruction.”15
While neither the Union nor Confederate participants came close to the atrocities of the Nazis, wars are the result of the nadir of humanity and only chaos lies in their wakes. The destruction that remained in Europe after Hitler necessitated a long period of rebuilding. Thankfully, U.S. aid prevented more deaths from exposure and starvation, and today the European nations held in bondage eight decades ago have healed at last. There are no statues, no memorials to Hitler, or his Nazi party.
General Eisenhower hated Hitler and his followers and all the evil and human suffering they caused. His memoir of World War II is appropriately titled Crusade in Europe. He felt he was on that very task – a crusade – to right the atrocities committed for many years by one insane man and his demented followers.
Ike used all his cerebral powers and military prowess to vanquish that evil. Eighty years later we remember with gratitude the Supreme Allied Commander and all those who fought for peace.
Sources: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1948. Eisenhower, Dwight D. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. National Park Service: Eastern Acorn Press, 1967. Hawes, James. The Shortest History of Germany. New York: The Experiment LLC, 2017. Smith, Jean Edward. Eisenhower in War and Peace. New York: Random House, 2013.
End Notes:
1. Eisenhower, Crusade, p. 416.
2. Ibid., p. 417.
3. Ibid.
4. Smith, p. 430.
5. Hawes, p. 187. Eisenhower, Crusade, p. 417.
6. Eisenhower, Crusade, pp. 423-424.
7. Ibid.
8. Smith, p. 430.
9. Eisenhower, At Ease, p. 293.
10. Eisenhower, Crusade, p. 426.
11. Ibid.
12. Eisenhower, At Ease, p. 293.
13. Ibid.
14. Eisenhower, Crusade, p. 422.
15. Smith, p. 431.
Field Marshal Jodl was one of many German commanders found guilty of treason at the Nuremburg trials and was executed in 1946.
The Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg is open weekends for public visitation. Visitors up to 40 per hour are welcome from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit nps.gov/eise for information.
