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Destructive War in Europe

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Destructive War in Europe 44 I MAY 10, 2020 THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA LIFEANDWELLBEING HISTORY Generaloberst Alfred Jodi (seated, second from right) signs the instruments of Karl Doenitz (centre) after the founding of the Flensburg government. unconditional surrender in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945. Marking the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE-Day) - May 8, 1945 The end of the cruellest most . ' destructive war in Europe adan1ant in not recognising Donitz or the original timetable of May 9, 1945. So it was · bells of all the churches of Malta and Gozo. CHARLES ·I Flensburg government as capable of repre­ eventually agreed that the western Allies Only a few minutes after the announce­ DEBONO senting the German state. would celebrate Victory in Europe Day ment of surrender on the afternoon of On May 4, 1945, German forces acting (VE-Day) on May 8. The Soviet govern­ Monday, May 7, victory flags were flown in Curator, National under instruction from the Donitz govern­ ment made no public acknowledgement Valletta and througout both islands. Such War Museum ment and facing the British and Canadian of the Reims signing and celebrated Vic­ was the excitement that many a Stars and 21st Army Group, signed an act of surren­ tory Day on May 9, 1945. Stripes and Union Jack often went up flage­ der at Liineburg Heath to come into effect As the news of Germany's defeat was an­ poles upside down before being subse­ on May 5. However, the first Instrument of nounced, ~elebrations erupted throughout quently rectified. The Normandy invasion by the Allies, Surrender was signed in Reims, France, at the western world, especially in Great Valletta Museum custodian Costanzo which started on June 6, 1944, led to the be­ 2.41am on May 7, 1945. It was to take effect Britain and North America. Over a million Busuttil proudly states that his air raid ginning of the end of Nazi Germany, which at 11.0tpm on May 8, the 48-hour grace pe­ people celebrated in the streets through- chart and records show that they had finally occurred on May 8, 1945, after . tiod having been backdated to the statt of been emphatically and definitely closed nearly six years of conflict in Europe. final negotiations. by Governor Lord Gort, Field Marshal During the latter stages of the Battle The unconditional surrender of the Ger­ Alexander and Admiral Cunningham on of Berlin, the Soviet forces encircled the man Armed Forces was signed.by Chief of "The big bell of St John's that Monday at 3.30pm. He donated the city and nearly completed their con­ Operations Staff Alfred Jodi. General Wal­ Co-Cathedral rang, said records to Heritage Malta in 2007 and quest of the Reich's capital. ter Bedell Smith signed on behalf of the they now form part of the National War On April 30, 1945, Nazi leader Adolf Supreme Commander of the Allied Expedi­ followed by the bells Museum's collection. Hitler, who was taking refuge in his bunker tionary Force and General Ivan Susloparov Meanwhile, Kingsway was crowded and in the Berlin Chancellery, committed sui­ on behalf of the Soviet High Command. of all the churches of in festive mood. The atmosphere, though cide with his newly-wed wife Eva Braun, French Major-General Fran~ois Sevez Malta and Gozo" mor~ subdued since Malta had been out of and their corpses were burned. In his will, signed as the official witness. the war for some time, was however not Hitler had nominated Admiral Karl A second surrender ceremony was or­ unsimilar to newsflash descriptions of DOenitz to succeed him as head of state. ganised in a manor on the outskirts of out Great Britain. In London, crowds gath­ what was happening in Piccadilly and But Berlin fell just two days later, with Berlin late on May 8, when it was already ered in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Leicester Square in London. Valletta and American and Soviet forces linking up at 12.16am of May 9 in Moscow due to the dif­ Buckingham Palace, where King George VI London, capitals of the two unbeaten is­ Torgau on the river Elbe, and the area of ference in time zones. Field-Marshal Keitel and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by lands of Europe, of the spearheads of the Germany still under German military con­ signed a final German Instrument of Sur­ prime minister Winston Churchill, ap­ invasions.of Hitler's formerly formidable trol split in two. Moreover, the Allies' rapid render, which was also signed by Marshal peared on the balcony of the palace before fortress, experienced the same emotions final advances in March 1945 had left the Georgy Zhukov, on behalf of the Supreme the cheering crowds. and reacted to the unofficial news as one. bulk of surviving German forces in isolated High Command of the Red Army, and Air Malta, together with the rest of the free In clubs and bars among Maltese groups pockets of occupied territories, mostly out­ Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder, on behalf of world, celebrated Victory in Europe Day one heard the words: "What if the Battle of side the boundaries of pre-Nazi Germany. the Allied Expeditionary Force, in the pres­ too. In Valletta, Maltese civilians, British Britain had been lost?" And among English Donitz tried to form a government at ence of General Carl Spaatz and General and servicemen from other Allied coun­ groups one heard the remark: "What if Flensburg on the Danish border, and was Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, as witnesses. tries joined hands and marched down a Malta had fallen? Would the war be over joined there on May 2, 1945, by the German The surrender was signed in the Soviet beflagged Kingsway, Valletta, with bands today?" Then came the strains of Land of High Command, under Field Marshal Wil­ Army headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. playing and church bells ringing. When Hope and Glory, and many a blitz-time helm Keitel. But although Donitz sought to When it became clear that there was Victory Day in Europe was proclaimed by song which in these quasi-normal times present his government as 'unpolitical', need for a second signing of the Act of Churchill, the Maltese burst into applause one was perhaps was shy to repeat. there was no repudiation of Nazism. Both Surrender, Eisenhower saw that it had be­ on Palace Square. Then, the big bell of St When the testing time arrived it had the Soviets and the Americans were come politically impossible to keep to the John's Co-Cathedral rang, followed by the found the garrison and people of Malta as THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA MAY 10, 2020 I 45 A soldier raising the Soviet flag above the ruins of the German Reichstag on May 2, 1945 - one of the most celebrated images of World War II. British troops and naval ratings march through Kingsway (Republic Street), Valletta. PHOTO: TIMES OF MALTA sound and durable as the rock on which and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, they had built their gun-posts and homes Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, Freema­ and into which they were to dig shelters for sons, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Soviet their womenfolk and children. prisoners-of-war were kept in especially The example of those gallant men unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million from the UK, the Commonwealth and Soviet POWs out of 5.7m died in Nazi the Empire who lived, fought and died in camps during the war. Nazi Germany had Malta, through the ebb and flow of the used about 12 million European forced war, shall never be forgotten among the labourers from German occupied coun­ people of these islands. Gratitude to­ tries as a workforce in German industry, wards them is unbounded and only agriculture and war economy. equalled by the gratitude of all in these Malta too had suffered severely during islands towards King George VI for his the Luftwaffe ferocious attacks of 1941 and gracious award of the George Cross to 1942 and the tight siege by the Axis to try Malta so as to "bear witness to the hero­ to force the island to surrender. It is calcu­ ism and devotion of its people". lated that 1,468 Maltese civilians were · After five years and eight months of killed, 3, 720 Maltese civilians were injured, fighting, the unconditional surrender of some 40,000 buildings demolished and the Germans and the announcement of VE­ around 17,000 tons of bombs were Day brought a definite end to World War II dropped on the island. April 1942 was the in Europe. It had been the most destructive worst month and about 6,727 tons were and cruellest in human history, involving dropped on Malta in a single day. Accord­ over 60 nations and some 110 million sol­ ing to Philip Vella's Malta: Blitzed but not diers, leaving approximately 60 million Beaten, this exceeded any pionthly ton­ victims, including six million Jews, victims nage of bombs dropped over the UK during of the Holocaust. the height of the Battle of Britain in the Nazi Germany was responsible for summer of 1940. The Siege Bell was inau­ killing 2.7 million ethnic Poles and four gurated in 1992 to serve as a memorial to million others who were deemed 'unwor­ the 7,000 people who paid the final sacri­ Wartime flags of the victorious Allies and Malta hanging above a cannon at the thy of life', which included the disabled fice during the Second Siege of Malta. National War Museum, Valletta. PHOTO: HERITAGE MALTA • .
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