Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505110038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gen. George S. Patton's U.S. 3rd Army stormed toward Prague and the German 7th Army, the last intact German army facing the Western allies. However, combat had already ended for most Allied troops in Germany.
British Troops entered Copenhagen, Denmark and were fired upon by German die-hards in a short skirmish before the city hall. Danish patriots set about seeking revenge on Nazis and their collaborators.
Norway's puppet ruler, Maj. Vidkun Quisling, declared that all attacks from the outside would be resisted. Quisling said the Germans had no plans for surrendering Norway, although dispatches from Sweden said a capitulation of Norway had been signed.
The Soviet newspaper Pravda said that Russian troops in Berlin would soon clear up the myth about Hitler's heroic death.
Pfc. V.B. Coleman Jr. of Covington, back home after being liberated April 2 from a German prison camp, said he was never mistreated while a prisoner but the food situation was terrible and sanitation bad.
WAR IN EUROPE OVER! declared the headline on the May 8, 1945 issue of the Roanoke Times. Nazi U-boats were ordered back to their home ports and Count Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk informed the German people that the German high command had declared the unconditional surrender of all German forces. He warned the German people that severe terms would be imposed upon them. The surrender took place in the big red Reims schoolhouse in France that was headquarters of General Eisenhower. It took place at 2:41 p.m.l on May 7 but the formal announcement was not planned until the next day.
In Czechoslovakia, however, Nazi Gen. Ferdinand Schoerner, who had been declared a war criminal, defied the surrender orders.
With the collapse of Germany, officers in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in Manila were eager for the release of tanks, planes and guns from the European Theatre for the final drive on Tokyo.
American and British political and military leaders warned Japan in their V-E Day speeches that it could expect increased attacks with Germany defeated.
A fleet of more than 400 American Superfortresses blasted industrial and military targets on the enemy home islands of Honshu and Kyushu. Meanwhile, 2,107 U.S. soldiers had been killed as the fight on Okinawa continued.
German Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, the first top Nazi to fall into American hands, surrendered to Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch's 7th Army.
Gen. Eisenhower revealed that American troops who fought in both the North African and European campaigns would face no more fighting. Meanwhile planning was under way for the mass transfer of 3 million soldiers and mountains of equipment from Europe to Manila .
by CNB