How was VE Day Celebrated on the European Front?

Author Geraint Jones explains to us how troops on the front line celebrated victory in Europe

The confirmation of the end of the war in Europe was a moment of relief and jubilation in the streets of London, Paris, New York and many other Allied cities, but what did it mean for those still on the front lines of World War II?

“For many frontline soldiers it was a moment of reflection, rather than celebration” Geraint Jones, author of Voices of Victory, explains to us. “Hundreds of their friends and comrades had been killed or badly wounded since their units landed in Normandy, and some of the ‘old soldiers’ in the army had been fighting as far back as 1940, in the Battle of France, after which they had been evacuated from Dunkirk.” 

Speaking to us for All About History’s Voices of VE Day cover feature in issue 155, Jones believes the mood on the continent among troops was a more sombre one than some pictures of the day depict.

“Having stared death in the face for so long, the end of hostilities in Europe left many of the army’s seasoned soldiers with a feeling of numbness. That’s not to say that there wasn’t drinking, and a huge sense of relief, but the general consensus from frontline soldiers seemed to be that the large parties which we associate with VE Day were enjoyed more by those who had not been directly involved in the fighting.”

There was also the acknowledgement that peace in Europe did not mean that the war was over for everybody, as Winston Churchill made clear in his own VE Day address. 

“Of course, there was the knowledge that Japan had yet to be defeated, and that Victory in Europe did not guarantee survival for those who had made it through to the defeat of Nazi Germany,” concludes Jones. “That summer of 1945, the BLA (British Liberation Army), which had fought its way from the beaches of Normandy into the heartland of Germany, was rechristened by wry soldiers in the army’s ranks to reflect their likely destination, ‘Burma Looms Ahead’.”

You can read the rest of our interview with Geraint Jones on the front line experience of VE Day in All About History 155, available now.

_{^{Image Credit: Creative Commons Wiki/apt. Ken Bell. Canada. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-188671 /Capt. Ken Bell. Canada. Ministère de la défense nationale. Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-188671}}