In Britain the end of the Second World War in Europe was announced by the BBC in the evening of 7th May 1945. The 8th May was designated Victory in Europe – or VE – Day, and together with the following day was declared a national holiday.
IWM’s archives contain letters and diaries written by people who recorded their experiences of this time.
Denis Baron, medical student
Denis Baron, a medical student at the Middlesex Hospital, wrote a couple of days later to a friend serving in the RAF in the Far East, describing his experience of Victory in London.
“In Whitehall the floodlit Houses of Parliament looked absolutely wonderful and inspiring – there were the same quietly cheerful, tired, steadily moving, endless crowds. Back to Trafalgar Square and Nelson and Admiralty Arch were illuminated and the crowds were still there. Then the searchlights came out and formed a vibrating tracery in the sky.”
Denis concluded the letter with his thoughts on the significance of the day for himself and others:
“How has everyone taken it? Glad at the end of the bombing and the end of the killing in Europe, resolved to get on with the job in the Far East, expectant of continuing controls & rationing at home, depressed & pessimistic of a happy settlement of the European problems and permanent peace”.
Joan Barrowcliff, schoolgirl
Whilst London was in many respects the hub of the nation’s VE Day, it was also a nationwide event. Joan Barrowcliff, a schoolgirl in Birmingham, recorded it and the following days’ happenings in her diary:
“PEACE!!!!! Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced at 3 o’clock this afternoon that we were no longer at war with Germany. […] Chelston Road gave a party in the road [on 9th May], afterwards we had sports and a huge bonfire. In sports I won a photograph book and a Boys Own Annual. […] Went to school today [10th May] and saw last night’s bonfire, it was still burning. I haven’t been to bed for 3 nights running”.
On a more practical note, Joan’s mother had already received a letter from the headmistress of the school on 2nd May, in response to her enquiry about its proposed arrangements on the anticipated VE Day:
“The schools have already received instructions that if the announcement [of the end of the war in Europe] is made after the morning session has begun, meals and milk should be served and the children dismissed immediately afterwards….I am trusting to the good sense of the British Public and the greater knowledge and deeper feeling for suffering that is now prevalent to prevent the recurrence of any `scenes’ in the streets such as disgraced the first Armistice Day in 1919”.
"Bet"
In rural communities too, VE Day was a big event. In the village of Barham near Canterbury, a young woman known to us only as `Bet’ recorded the day’s events in a letter to her husband:
“We watched the `procession’ go by, some of it quite good, farm wagons etc – some of it funny! They all went into the field opposite the PO [Post Office] where there was a short service, then kid’s races – side shows etc. We went down for a very little while – but it was too hot to stay long – everyone was there of course […]. I went up into the beech trees wooding this morning – it was so cool & beautiful, the view up the valley too, & I felt how lucky I was at that moment (I was touching lots of wood!) to have such a sweet home in such lovely country – for you to have come through the war, me to be young & have a baby, it seems life is compensating me for my bad kick-off!”
Charlotte Toutain, nurse
The end of hostilities was celebrated across a Europe liberated from war and occupation. In Paris, British-French nurse Charlotte Toutain had been serving with the Free French Forces. In her diary she recorded the first spontaneous celebrations in the evening of 7th May:
“We listen to the news on the wireless, and the announcement comes through … Armistice …. We all rush off to a nearby theatre where friends […] are playing to give them the news. They announce it from the stage. We go to a café next door and buy a bottle of champagne, and celebrate in the dressing rooms with the girls”.
“As we reached the Arc de Triomphe, we watched for a few minutes the firework display, then we started down the Champs Elysees, when a jeep with American Air Force officers offered us a lift. As there was a terrible crowd in the streets we accepted the offer. […] Then we went up and down the Champs Elysees, until we were almost dizzy”.
“[8th May] Today is Victory Day!!! It seems almost impossible, but yes, at last…With Dorothy I go to the office, and we pretend to work … who wants to work today!”
Joan Rudman, nurse
Joan Rudman was a nurse working as part of the medical relief effort taking place in the recently liberated concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany, which had been secured by elements of the British 11th Armoured Division on 15th April 1945. Joan wrote to an acquaintance a month later.
“I never expected to be in such a place for V Day, not that it meant much to me, I never wanted to be in England for that & seeing the papers has made me realise I couldn’t have stood it. Only the King mentioned those who had helped to make this victory possible & yet didn’t live to see the day, people forget so easily unless they’ve lost someone themselves. I felt very sad, thought what this might have meant to me once, I’m glad it’s over of course, but didn’t feel like rejoicing. There was very little reaction here, an RA [Royal Artillery] parade & a terrific firing of guns, the usual parties with perhaps a few more drinks than usual. I just wanted to be by myself & was glad everyone else went to a party. Apart from my personal feelings, one could hardly think of peace when there’s so much human misery as there is here”.
Joan went on to describe in graphic detail the grim conditions prevailing in a camp that at the time of liberation had been desperately overcrowded with dying, starving and sick prisoners, amongst whom typhus was rampant. The bodies of thousands who had died were lying everywhere, unburied. British military and medical personnel, helped by a large number of volunteers from many different relief organisations, worked tirelessly to bring the catastrophic situation under control. Belsen quickly became a byword for some of the worst evils of the Nazi regime, a stark reminder amidst the VE Day celebrations of what the Allied victory really signified, and of the considerable challenges that lay ahead.
