The headlines, eight columns wide and four lines deep, extended all the way across the top of the May 8, 1945, New York Times.
"The War in Europe is Ended! Surrender is Unconditional. V-E will be Proclaimed Today."
That was 70 years ago. Victory in Europe had been achieved. Germany had fallen to the United States and her Allies, and there was hope that the end of World War II was near.
On Friday we should pause and reflect on the importance of V-E Day.
Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote that V-E Day "was the occasion for the greatest outburst of joy in human history.... The end of the war was the single best thing that could happen to every person alive in 1945."
History records the details of the event quite well.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his 1948 book, "Crusade in Europe," wrote about how a German delegation surrendered at his headquarters: "the surrender instrument was signed ... at two forty-one in the morning on May 7. All hostilities were to cease at midnight May 8."
Orders went out to Allied forces, including the American Gen. Omar Bradley, who communicated to other American generals near the front lines of battle. Americans didn't want to suffer any more casualties so commanders were ordered to stop their advance.
Gen. George S. Patton met with his staff the next morning and told them it would be their last briefing in Europe (Patton had hopes that they would be transferred to Asia, where they would help defeat Japan).
Soon there was uncontrollable pandemonium throughout France, Britain and almost all of war-torn Europe.
In America the news of Germany's defeat was met with celebrations, prayers, and tears.
Dr. Peter Marshall delivered a dedication message on V-E Day in Washington, D.C., at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
"This is a day we have long waited for," he began.
He spoke of how the people of Europe could put their lives back together after seeing such destruction. "Now the lights can go on again," he said, "and the air raid shelters can be torn down, for the sirens will not wail again in the night, and blessed sleep will once more be possible."
He told of Americans who sacrificed their lives. "They are the dead - the fallen - who paid the price," he said. "They are one, now, with their comrades of yesteryears, who did not lose their lives, but who gave them for all that America is, and for all she yet may be."
In the days that followed, there was much to reflect upon.
Patton, according to historian Carlo D'Este, wrote, "The one honor which is mine and mine alone is that of having commanded such an incomparable group of Americans, the record of whose fortitude, audacity and valor will endure as long as history lasts." Patton also wrote in his General Order for V-E Day, "In proudly contemplating our achievements let us never forget our heroic dead whose graves mark the course of our victorious advances ..."
Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Atkinson wrote in "The Guns at Last Night" of how, after V-E Day, Europeans could once again turn on the lights of their homes and their cities without fear of becoming easy targets for enemy bombs. "For the first time in nearly six years," he wrote, "the sun set on a Europe without front lines, a Europe at peace ... Night stole over the continent ... Darkness enfolded a thousand battlefields ... and the lights came on again."
Much of history chronicles how armies have marched to stop evil's devastating impact.
We can hope the history of our generation will greatly resemble the history of the accomplishments of the generation of Americans that won World War II. Of that generation, history accurately concludes that they did whatever it took to stop atrocities and restore stability in the world.
David Wilson, EdD, is the associate principal at Jefferson City High School. You may email him at [email protected].