45-6-21 Post-war Berlin

45-6-21 Berlin in Ruins - 1945, 21 June > . 

45-5-8 VE Day - Victory in Europe

VE Day celebrations - IWM > .  

23-5-8 1945-5-8 Germany's THREE Surrenders - VE-Day Special > .

The Fruits Of Victory (1945) - Pathé > .
VE-Day 75th Anniversary - 8 May, 1945 > .

London celebrates the end of WW2 - VE > .
Victory In Europe (1945) > .
Defeat And Deliverance (1945) > .

Europe set to mark 75 years since defeat of Nazis > .  

Liberation of Paris - 75 years since defeat of Nazis > . 

Winston Churchill's War - BBC doc > .

1945-5-8 VE-Day ..

45-5-8 VE Day - Churchill's speech ..

45-5-8 VE Day - Victory in Europe ..

VE-Day - British Newspapers ..

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day (Great Britain) or V-E Day (North America), was celebrated on Tuesday, 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. The formal surrender of the German forces occupying the Channel Islands did not occur until the following day, 9 May 1945. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.

The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The preliminary act of military surrender was signed at 02:41 on 7 May in SHAEF HQ at Reims, and the final document was signed on 8 May in Berlin.

The former Soviet Union, Serbia, and Eastern Bloc countries have historically celebrated the end of World War II on 9 May; Israel marks VE Day on 9 May as well as a result of the large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc, although it is not a public holiday. In Ukraine since 2015, 8 May is designated as a day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, but it is not a public holiday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_World_War_II_in_Europe .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Instrument_of_Surrender .

45-5-5 Battle for Castle Itter

The Battle of Castle Itter > .

The Battle for Castle Itter was fought in the Austrian North Tyrol village of Itter on 5 May 1945, in the last days of the European Theater of World War II.

Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps led by Captain John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr., a number of Wehrmacht soldiers led by Major Josef "Sepp" Gangl, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader, and recently freed French prisoners of war defended Castle Itter against an attacking force from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division until relief from the American 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division of XXI Corps arrived.

The French prisoners included former prime ministers, generals and a tennis star. It is the only known time during the war in which Americans and Germans fought side-by-side. Popular accounts of the battle have called it the strangest battle of World War II.

45-4-26 Arrest of Pétain

The Lion of Verdun > .

45-4-26 Trial of Petain > .

On this day in 1945 Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during WWII, arrested for treason.

Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain (Maréchal Pétain) and The Old Marshal (Le Vieux Maréchal), was a French general officer who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World War I, during which he became known as The Lion of Verdun, and in World War II served as the Chief of State of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state.

With the imminent Fall of France in June 1940 in World War II, Pétain was appointed President of the Ministerial Council by President Lebrun at Bordeaux, and the Cabinet resolved to sign an armistice agreement with Germany. The entire government subsequently moved briefly to Clermont-Ferrand, then to the spa town of Vichy in central France. His government voted to transform the discredited French Third Republic into the French State, an authoritarian regime that collaborated with the Nazis and the Axis Powers.

After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted for treason. He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison and he died in 1951 [age 95].

45-4-23 Battle of Berlin

American Mission to Capture Berlin 1945 > .
Why didn't the U.S. Reach Berlin First in WW2? > .

On 23 April, Berzarin's 5th Shock Army and Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army assaulted Berlin from the south-east and, after overcoming a counter-attack by the German LVI Panzer Corps, reached the Berlin S-Bahn ring railway on the north side of the Teltow Canal by the evening of 24 April.

In the early hours of 29 April the Soviet 3rd Shock Army crossed the Moltke bridge and started to fan out into the surrounding streets and buildings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin .