1000; Signal received “The war in EUROPE is over.
Unconditional surrender terms signed 0140 hrs this morning 7 May 1945”.
War Diary Entry, 7 May 1945, 3rd Battalion Royal Tank Regiment
The war ended in Europe on 8 May 1945. For the armoured forces of the British Liberation Army, exuberant celebrations followed. But, for many it was also a time spent remembering those lost and the hell they had just endured.
This is just a very small representation of the accounts from various units and individuals across the Royal Armoured Corps.
“21.00; The Kings Speech broadcast to the Regiment over a loud hailer. On its conclusion a large swastika flag was mounted on the summit of a bonfire standing 15 feet tall which had been prepared by voluntary German labour during the afternoon, the bonfire was lit by the firing into it of a mass of Very lights, for the next half hour the noise of the celebrations was mingled with the crackle of flames and the firing of Very lights. All colours were used and the display put Crystal Palace to shame.
21.45; When all available Very light ammunition had been used, the Regiment contented itself with a sing-song led by the Padre. Lesser festivities continued into the night.”
War Diary Entry, 8 May 1945, 1st Battalion Royal Tank Regiment.
“It was here at 20.30 hrs that the news was received that all resistance had ceased in the British zone. This news was celebrated by the immediate consumption of all available liquor and the letting off of very [sic] light pistols.”
War Diary Entry, 4 May 1945, Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
“Then it ended – and we made a huge bonfire in the middle of a field. Believe it or not, at the centre of it was a petrol tanker! It wasn’t absolutely full of petrol, but it still had some! Whatever else we could find we put on it – a huge bonfire. We had it at night with a lot of beer. We fired off all our Very pistols and whatever pyrotechnics we had. That was the end of it! I felt greatly relieved and extremely lucky!”
Sergeant Roy Vallance, 4 Troop, ‘A’ Squadron, 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry quoted in ‘Burning Steel’ by Peter Hart.
“VE DAY!! The Sqn celebrated with rum punch, listened to the King’s speech and the Colonel set fire to a vast bonfire surmounted by a Swatika [sic] flag. SQMS Barnes blew up the “Cease fire”. The Nazi emblem perished in the blaze – visible for miles around.”
War Diary Entry, 8 May 1945, ‘D’ Squadron, 11th Hussars.
“It is announced over the wireless that the Germans have SURRENDERED unconditionally to the Allies. What news!! Signs of jubilation are evident everywhere! Due to the large amounts of explosives held in the Regtl area Very lights have been banned – a rule hard to enforce.”
War Diary Entry, 7 May 1945, 3rd King’s Own Hussars.
“Although I believe many members of the regiment got together and celebrated VE night with a bonfire, showers of Very lights and singing, we in recce troop didn’t seem to react that way. We had a good meal, a few drinks and then separated into small groups of rather pensive men talking and wondering about the future. I remember sitting with two members of the troop, one White Russian and one Hungarian, both Jewish, both still very bitter and both worried as to their future.”
Bill Bellamy (8th Hussars), in ‘Troop Leader: A Tank Commander’s Story’.
“The church parade ends. War ends. We rush out into the sunshine amid the swarming, cheering crowds of Zwolle. Into a torrent of gaiety and imbecility as powerful as the rushing waters of the Rhine. But already some of us are agitated, dispirited, feverish. Gnawed at by virulent maggots of insanity. Bred by the flies of persisting fear and horror. Hatched in dank and inaccessible recesses of the mind. The festering of invisible wounds.
There will be no first-aid posts for us down the long road back to normality. No psychiatrists for our unburdening. No easy return to the confessional of priests. Only our own ghosts gone on ahead. And waiting for us.”
Ken Tout (Northamptonshire Yeomanry) in ‘By Tank: D to VE Day’.
“This was, indeed, the beginning of a new life, but overshadowed by bitterness and disappointment and the memory of those who would never return. To many, just names inscribed in stone, but to their comrades in arms their faces forever remembered and their voices still loud and clear.
They died instead of me; how lucky I was to be alive.”
Jock Watt (3rd Battalion Royal Tank Regiment) in ‘A Tankie’s Travels’.
