Well done! VE Day 2020

Discussion in 'Network Information, Suggestions and Feedback' started by Ron Goldstein, May 8, 2020.

  1. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I knew I could rely on you to have the right heading for VE Day 1945- 2020 !

    Best regards to your good self, your fellow moderators and the owner of this and the WW2F site.

    You have all contributed to making this the very best WW2 site online and I am proud to have been a member since 2004 (Thanks Owen !). ( Bizarre Booby Traps (Beetroot)

    Sincerely

    Ron

    VE Day 1945 2020.png
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2020
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  2. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Yes, totally agree with Ron’s comments there. It was great seeing the heading this morning when I signed in.
     
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  3. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Are we the sprocket - doing all the work and pulling everyone along?

    Or the idler?
     
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  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Longer than that Ron.
    You joined: Nov 8, 2004
     
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  5. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

  6. SteveDee

    SteveDee Well-Known Member

    VE Day 1945

    "Well that was crap!" said my dad, at the end of his first & last 'package holiday'.

    DadRomeMay1945.jpg

    Dad (left) walking the streets of Rome (May 1945).
     
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  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Cheers, Ron.
    Diane made me do it, with Owen as creative director.
    Could be more polished, but ok for a couple of hours swearing at Photoshop.
    ~A

    Might change the thread title to something more VE 75th anniversary. If that's OK?
     
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  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    If you thought that was good wait until VJ Day.

    :)
     
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  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I fear, sadly, good taste might trump my initial thought there, mate.
    Might...
     
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  10. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I just screamed at the TV during the 2 minutes silence.

    VEDay on bbc tv.jpg
     
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  11. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    It was a busy few weeks in May wrapping up the Third Reich here, there and everywhere.I remember the day well,later the banners welcoming our forces back home and the street party.....no days of plenty to be had, but a day of celebration.

    But would you believe it, we missed Ron's theatre of operations to commemorate 2 May 1945 when after the slog up Italy, the German forces in Italy came to the table and surrendered unconditionally.

    This Sunday will reflect the 80th Anniversary of 10 May 1940,the start of Blitzkrieg..... the Lightning War....6 weeks that shook the world .....should result in revisiting the subject in forum discussions

    Another date I remember well...the returning of the Dunkirk survivors....being billeted in civilian homes by order....roads being parade grounds every morning...schoolchildren asking soldiers if they could carry their rifles.
     
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  12. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    VE-DAY 75 years ago (?)

    Today the formal capitulation of Germany should have become operative after the signing of the Act of Surrender at Reims which had been signed by General Jodl on 7 May at Eisenhower's SHEAF HQ. At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies. But Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the enveloping Soviet forces. Jodl radioed Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, Hitler’s successor, with the terms. Doenitz ordered him to sign. So with Russian General Ivan Susloparov and French General Francois Sevez signing as witnesses, and General Walter Bedell Smith, Ike’s chief of staff, signing for the Allied Expeditionary Force, Germany was-at least on paper-defeated. Fighting would still go on in the East for almost another day. But the war in the West was over.

    General Susloparov did not have explicit permission from Soviet Premier Stalin to sign the surrender papers, even as a witness, he was quickly hustled back East and into the hands of the Soviet secret police. Because of Russian dissatisfaction with the Reims document and the fact that it was not signed by the highest German commander, all parties decided that a second document should be signed. Another surrender ceremony was held on the 8th of May in Berlin. It took place in the district of Berlin-Karlshorst, where the Soviet army had its headquarters after the fall of Berlin. The surrender was repeated in Berlin on the night of May 8-9. Just after midnight, in the name of the German High Command, the surrender was signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff and Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg. Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed the document in the name of the Supreme Command of the Soviet Union. British Air Force officer Arthur W. Tedder signed as a delegate to the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF).

    The Berlin Act of Surrender would become the definite document. It held an informal 12-hour grace period to enable the German Army to inform all units and Victory in Europe was to be celebrated in West and East on May 9th.

    800px-Allied_Commanders_after_Germany_Surrendered.jpg

    The Reims signing ceremony had been attended by considerable numbers of reporters, all of whom were bound by a 36-hour embargo against reporting the capitulation. As it became clear that there would need to be a definitive second signing before the Act of Surrender could become operative, Eisenhower agreed that the news blackout should remain; so that all Allied powers could celebrate Victory in Europe together on 9 May 1945. However, Edward Kennedy of the Associated Press news agency in Paris broke the embargo on 7 May, with the consequence that the German surrender was headline news in the western media on 8 May. Realising that it had become politically impossible to keep to the original timetable, it was eventually agreed that the Western Allies would celebrate Victory in Europe Day on 8 May, but that western leaders would not make their formal proclamations of Victory until that evening (when the Berlin signing ceremony should be imminent). The Soviet government made no public acknowledgement of the Reims signing, which they did not recognise; and so, maintaining the original dates, celebrated Victory Day on 9 May 1945.

    See the road to Berlin: German Instrument of Surrender - Wikipedia

    Signing of the Act of Surrender at Berlin, May 8th, 1945:


    Canada.jpg
    Whatever .... :moose:
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2020
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  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Decorated the house at bit.
     

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  14. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    I saw that too, uttered something under my breath, though it was almost to be expected.
     
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  15. JDKR

    JDKR Member

    I'll be curious (or perhaps not) to see what tag line the Beeb puts up for VJ Day.
     
  16. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Gatekeepers 186 Mushroom.jpg

    I fear I may be showing my age there...
     
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  17. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Just noticed how youngest child has decorated his window.
    Surrendering German , a couple of victorious Red Army soldiers & the RAF.
     

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  18. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Always a pleasure to be reminded, though.
    Got a book that came out alongside that somewhere. Seem to recall it was still quite funny last I saw it.
     
  19. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Dad said when he came out of his tent on VE day he saw that his captain have shaved off his beard and that was how he learned Germany had surrendered.

    He had picked up a ZB machine gun somewhere along the way, he called it a Czechoslovakian BAR, and someone picked it up and fired the whole clip in the air. The same captain made dad throw it in a swamp. :(
     
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  20. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    I'm guessing that footfall traffic through this website is very strong right now. I have had 15 new contacts through my site, all inspired by today's VE Day commemorations. Don't seem a lot, but remember I'm part of the next lot down the line (VJ Day).
     
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