Reichssender Hamburg's Flensburg radio station announced that Adolf Hitler had fallen in Berlin while "fighting for Germany". President Karl Dönitz gave a broadcast that night declaring that it was his task to save the German people "from destruction by Bolshevists."[1]
Died:Joseph Goebbels, 47, German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda (suicide); Magda Goebbels, 43, wife of Joseph Goebbels (suicide); the six Goebbels children, 4 through 12 (died by murder with cyanide)
Pierre Laval left Barcelona by air, forced back to Austria by General Charles De Gaulle who intervened with the Spanish. Laval was arrested by U.S. troops who turned him over to the Free French. He would be tried and executed in October 1945.[1]
Died:Erich Bärenfänger, 30, German Generalmajor (suicide); Georg Betz, 41, German SS officer (killed trying to cross the Weidendammer Bridge in Berlin under heavy Soviet fire); Martin Bormann, 44, German Nazi official (probable suicide); Wilhelm Burgdorf, 50, German general (suicide by gunshot); Walther Hewel, 41, German diplomat (suicide); Peter Högl, 47, German SS-Obersturmbannführer (died of head wound sustained while crossing the Weidendammer Bridge); Hans Krebs, 47, German general (suicide by gunshot); Ewald Lindloff, 36, Waffen-SS officer (killed crossing the Weidendammer Bridge); Franz Schädle, 38, German commander of Hitler's personal bodyguard (suicide by pistol); Martin Strahammer, 54, German Generalmajor (shot by American forces near Parma, Italy); Joachim von Siegroth, 48, German Generalmajor (believed killed in action)
The British and Soviet forces near Wismar on the Baltic coast, 3 May 1945
The German ocean liner Cap Arcona was sunk by British warplanes in the Bay of Lübeck with 5,000 concentration camp prisoners aboard. Over 400 SS personnel made it to lifeboats and were rescued but only 350 of the prisoners survived.[6][7]
Died:Konrad Barde, 47, German Generalmajor (suicide); Fedor von Bock, 64, German field marshal (killed by a strafing British aircraft while traveling by car)
Preparation for surrender of German forces in Norway began.[8] With only some 30,000 Allied troops on hand against 350,000 German troops, a surrender was not immediately accepted by General Montgomery, and was later accomplished through preliminary persuasion and negotiation from Sir Andrew Thorne.[13]
The Siege of Breslau ended after three months with Soviet victory.
The 16th Armored Division of George S. Patton's Third Army captured Plzeň. Much to Patton's disgust, his men were prevented from advancing any further due to the occupation agreement between the Americans and the Soviets.[15]
German submarines U-853 and U-881 were lost to enemy action in the Atlantic Ocean.
In the United States, the midnight curfew for all places of entertainment in effect since February 26 was lifted.[16]
The Battle of Kuryłówka was fought in southeastern Poland between anti-communists and Soviet NKVD units. The battle ended in a victory for the underground Polish forces.
V-E Day celebrations in Halifax, Nova Scotia, got out of control when several thousand servicemen, merchant seamen and civilians went on a rampage and looted the city. Tensions had been high in Halifax for years due to the presence of thousands of servicemen straining the city's resources to the limit.
Soviet newspaper Pravda carried the findings of a Soviet commission of enquiry into Auschwitz concentration camp (described as Oświęcim), making many details of the conditions there public for the first time but without mention that the majority of the inmates were Jewish; the report was published the following day in the English-language press.[18]
The British government in India published the report of an official commission of enquiry into the Bengal famine of 1943 stating that it could have been prevented by government action.[18]
At 3:00 p.m. (local time) Winston Churchill announced Germany's unconditional surrender in a radio broadcast from London. "Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this Island and throughout the British Empire," Churchill stated. "We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, and her detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad."[20]
At 9:00 a.m. (local time) U.S. President Harry S. Truman (on his birthday) announced the surrender in a broadcast from the Oval Office and declared May 13 to be a national day of prayer. "I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace," the proclamation read. "I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory."[21]
At 12:30 p.m. (local time) President Karl Dönitz announced the surrender to the German people in a speech broadcast from Flensburg, mentioning that the Nazi Party no longer had any role in government.[22]
Hermann Göring gave himself up to the Americans on a road near Radstadt, Austria. His Mercedes-Benz headed a column of staff cars and lorries carrying expensive luggage, and after being taken into custody he posed happily for photographers, drank champagne and chatted amiably with the American officers. When General Eisenhower learned of the friendly reception he became furious, and Göring soon found himself unceremoniously spirited away to a house in Augsburg for interrogation.[23]
German submarines were ordered to surface and report to the Allies.[24]
The Sétif and Guelma massacre began when French police fired on local demonstrators at a protest in the Algerian market town of Sétif. Riots that followed would result in a total of 103 deaths in and around the town.
Died:Ernst-Günther Baade, 47, German general (gangrene from wounds sustained in battle two weeks earlier); Paul Giesler, 49, German Nazi official (suicide); Werner von Gilsa, 56, German military officer (suicide after being captured by the Russians); Wilhelm Rediess, 44, German commander of SS troops in Norway (suicide by gunshot); Bernhard Rust, 61, German Nazi Minister of Science, Education and National Culture (suicide); Josef Terboven, 46, German Reichskommissar for Norway during the Nazi occupation (committed suicide by detonating dynamite in a bunker)
The final Wehrmachtbericht (armed forces report) was broadcast in Germany, reporting that "the German Wehrmacht succumbed with honor to enormous superiority. Loyal to his oath, the German soldier's performance in a supreme effort for his people can never be forgotten. Up to the last moment the homeland had supported him with all its strength in an effort entailing the heaviest sacrifices. The unique performance of the front and homeland will find a final appraisal in the later, just judgment of history. The enemy, too, will not deny his tribute of respect to the performance and sacrifices of German soldiers on land, at sea and in the air. Every soldier, therefore, may lay aside his weapon proud and erect and set to work in these gravest hours of our history with courage and confidence to safeguard the undying life of our people."[25] These last words formed the basis for the legend of the 'clean Wehrmacht'.
Joseph Stalin issued a V-E Order of the Day, congratulating the Red Army "upon the victorious termination of the Great Patriotic War. To mark the complete victory over Germany, today, on May 9, the Day of Victory, at 10 P.M., the capital of our Motherland-Moscow-on behalf of the Motherland, will salute the gallant troops of the Red Army and the ships and units of the Navy which have won this brilliant victory, by firing thirty artillery salvos from 1,000 guns."[26] On this day, the Army's 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague.
Died:Richard Glücks, 56, German Nazi official (suicide by cyanide capsule); Konrad Henlein, 47, Sudeten German politician and Nazi (committed suicide while in American captivity by cutting his veins with his broken glasses)
While supporting the Battle of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) was badly damaged by Japanese kamikaze attacks and suffered about 600 casualties.
Winston Churchill gave a radio address telling the British people that "there is still a lot to do" and that "above all we must labor that the world organization which the United Nations are creating at San Francisco, does not become an idle name ... We must never forget that beyond all lurks Japan, harassed and failing but still a people of a hundred millions, for whose warriors death has few terrors. I cannot tell you tonight how much time or what exertions will be required to compel them to make amends for their odious treachery and cruelty. We have received-like China so long undaunted-we have received horrible injuries from them ourselves, and we are bound by the ties of honor and fraternal loyalty to the United States to fight this great war at the other end of the world at their side without flagging or failing."[33]
Riots took place outside a Catholic church in Santiago, Chile holding a mass in memory of Benito Mussolini. Several people were injured and four arrests were made.[7]
The provisional government of Austria nullified the 1938 Anschluss, declared the country to be once more independent and abolished the Nazi Party and all Nazi-era laws.[7]
Died:Heber J. Grant, 88, American religious leader and seventh president of the LDS Church; Louis J. Hauge, Jr., 20, U.S. Marine and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor (killed in action during the Battle of Okinawa); Wolfgang Lüth, 31, German U-boat ace (accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry)
The naval engagement known as the Battle of the Malacca Strait began between five British destroyers and one Japanese heavy cruiser and one destroyer.
Japan abrogated all treaties with Germany, Italy and the other Axis countries.[34]
The comic book Marge's Little Lulu was published, marking the first appearance of Little Lulu in comic book form. The character, created by Marjorie Henderson Buell, had first appeared in a series of single-panel cartoons that ran in The Saturday Evening Post between 1935 and 1944.[35]
British submarine HMS Terrapin (P323) was depth charged and damaged in the Java Sea by Japanese warships and rendered a constructive total loss.
The Czechoslovak Extraordinary People's Court distributed over twenty thousand sentences - seven percent of them being for life or the death sentence - to "traitors, collaborators and fascist elements."
Churchill resigned as prime minister at the request of King George VI and formed a caretaker ministry that would govern until Britain could hold elections on July 5.[7]
^"Central Europe Campaign – 522nd Field Artillery Battalion". Retrieved 2015-01-12. Jewish prisoners from the outer Dachau camps were marched to Dachau, and then 70 miles south. Many of the Jewish marchers weighed less than 80 pounds. Shivering in their tattered striped uniforms, the "skeletons" marched 10 to 15 hours a day, passing more than a dozen Bavarian towns. If they stopped or fell behind, the SS guards shot them and left their corpses along the road.
