Allied Nations Celebrate V-E Day
On this day · 8 May 1945
On a single spring day in 1945, jubilant crowds poured into streets worldwide as Nazi Germany's surrender ended the war in Europe.
On May 8, 1945, thousands of people flooded the streets in cities across the globe to celebrate news of Germany’s surrender and the end of the Second World War in Europe. The day became known as V-E Day — Victory in Europe Day.
The celebrations followed a pair of surrenders. German forces signed an unconditional surrender on May 7 at Reims, France, and, at the insistence of the Soviet Union, a second formal Act of Military Surrender was signed the following day in Berlin. Signed on May 8, 1945, these documents ended the war in Europe on a date still remembered and marked each year.
When victory looked likely, British authorities had quietly drawn up plans to celebrate it.
In London, crowds left the suburbs in what police described as “a general exodus” into the city centre. Yet the day was bittersweet: the fighting against Japan continued in the Pacific, and final victory would not arrive until V-J Day that August.
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