This was written by John Hunneman, a staff writer for the North County Times, California, and published May 6, 2000, but is more pertinent today than back then. We now have fewer survivors of our past wars to remind us how grateful we should be that these brave Americans fought and died so we might be free. Please take the time to read and reflect on these brave souls.. I dedicate these threads in their name...
Remembering V-E Day
The 55th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe will pass quietly this weekend. I guess we tend to remember historical events only on the "important' numbers, like 25, 50 and 100 years.
On May 7, 1945, in Reims, France, at 2:41 a.m. local time, German Gen. Alfred Johl signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces, ending the war in Europe. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the surrender for the Allies.
The surrender was official at 11:01 p.m. on May 8. Earlier in the week, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had killed himself, the Red Army had captured Berlin, and other elements of the German Army had surrendered to Allied Forces.
The United States and Great Britain broadcast the news to their people simultaneously on May 8.
President Harry Truman asked the American people to "refrain from celebrating and dedicate themselves instead to the solemn task that lies ahead." Truman, of course, was speaking of the continuing war in the Pacific.
Americans celebrated anyway, swarming into Times Square tooting horns and tossing confetti.
The night before V-E Day, my uncle, Pfc. Ralph Campbell, a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, had escaped from a German POW Camp where he'd been held since being dropped by mistake behind enemy lines during the invasion of Normandy.
Rumors had spread through the camp that the Germans had planned to execute their prisoners as their final atrocity of the war.
Campbell collapsed after running through the woods all night and woke up with a German soldier standing over him and a rifle pointing at his head. To my uncle's surprise, the soldier muttered "Der krieg ist vorbe" (The war is over) and walked away.
Like the other lucky ones, Ralph Campbell returned to the states, raised his family and led a productive life. He and my father are among most of the 16 million men and women who served in World War II who are no longer with us.
There are no ceremonies marking the end of World War II in Europe planned at the Eisenhower Library and Museum in Abilene, Kan.
"I'm not aware of anything going on anywhere," said museum archivist David Haight on Friday.
At Riverside National Cemetery, where 118,000 veterans and their family members are interred, only the snap of the flags in a stiff breeze will mark the occasion.
Albert Woolson, the last Union soldier of the Civil War, died in 1956 at the age of 109. John Salling, the last Confederate soldier of that war, died in 1958 at the age of 112. The last soldier of the Spanish American War, Nathan E. Cook, died in 1992 at age 106.
About 3,000 World War I veterans remain.
It seems to me that as long as we have living WW II veterans, like those who helped defeat Hitler and save Europe, we should take a moment this weekend to pause, remember V-E Day, and honor those still among us.
JOHN HUNNEMAN
Staff Writer
5/6/00 North County Times
