The pen scratched across paper in a French schoolhouse, and six years of European war came to an end.

Victory in Europe: The Day the Guns Fell Silent

After six years of war, Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally

Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945, ending World War II in Europe.

At 2:41 in the morning on May 7, 1945, General Alfred Jodl signed Germany's unconditional surrender at a schoolhouse in Reims, France. The following night, to satisfy Soviet demands for a proper ceremony in conquered Berlin, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel repeated the act under Marshal Zhukov's gaze. The war that had consumed Europe was over.

When Churchill's voice crackled across the BBC at 3 p.m. on May 8, announcing that hostilities would end at midnight, Britain exhaled. Within minutes, Trafalgar Square flooded with bodies. Strangers embraced. Church bells that had stayed silent for six years rang across the land.

At Buckingham Palace, the crowd roared for the King. George VI and Queen Elizabeth appeared on the balcony eight times that day. What few knew was that two young women had slipped out a side entrance to join the throng—Princess Elizabeth, still in her ATS uniform, and her sister Margaret, anonymous for one giddy night among their own people.

Across the Atlantic, ticker tape rained over Times Square. In Paris, crowds surged down the Champs-Élysées. In Moscow, a thousand guns fired salvos into the night sky.

💡 Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret secretly left Buckingham Palace to celebrate anonymously among the crowds—an adventure Elizabeth later called 'one of the most memorable nights of my life.'