i.imh I________________

TODAY: Today is the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, Victory in Europe Day from World War II.

From the U.S.

Department of Defense: ‘On May 8, 1945 — known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day — celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe.

‘The war had been raging for almost five years when U.S. and Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. The invasion signaled the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

In less than a year, Germany would surrender and Hitler would be dead.

‘But in his speech to the nation on V-E Day, President Harry S.

Truman cautioned that Allies must ‘work to finish the war’ by defeating the Japanese in the Pacific.’

In his radio address to the nation, Truman said, ‘Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued by a supreme consciousness of the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band. Let us not forget, my fellow Americans, the sorrow and the heartache, which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors — neighbors whose most priceless possession has been rendered as a sacrifice to redeem our liberty.’

Although fighting ended in Europe, it continued in the Pacific, where U.S. and Allied forces fought the Japanese in Okinawa, the Philippines and other places. The war in the Pacific ended on Sept. 2, 1945.

The areas of Western Europe liberated by Allied forces would become thriving democracies, while those liberated in the East would be occupied for decades by Soviet forces, the Department of Defense recounted.