and Soviet Armies had failed to link up, the entire German infrastructure still functioned. There were German outposts everywhere over hundreds of miles in Germany itself and in the former German-occupied countries, which seemed to come under no one’s control save that of the local commanders. But in their urgent drive to kill the Nazi beast, they had left great swaths of territory in German hands. Over the past few weeks, the great Allied armies had swept through Hitler’s vaunted “1,000 Year-Reich,” which had lasted 12 years and five months, occupying everything from great, if shattered, cities to remote intact villages and hamlets. Were the Germans really beaten? Was there really peace in Europe? It was Tuesday May 8, 1945-Victory in Europe Day. Most of the GIs were not given, however, to philosophizing. There is VE Day without, but no peace.” Pockets of German Resistance Remained “I feel only a vague irritation,” he wrote later. I have made it!” Medal of Honor Recipient Audie Murphy, recuperating from his three wounds in Cannes, went out into the crowds celebrating the great victory. Patton, Jr.’s Third Army in Austria wrote to his wife, “The war’s over! All we can think about is, thank God, thank God … nobody is going to shoot at me any more. On that day in May, a combat engineer sergeant serving with General George S. “Then suddenly it was upon them all and the impact of the fact was a thing that failed to register–like the death of a loved one,” the historian of the U.S. They had longed for an end to the war in Europe for years.
Some could not quite believe it was all over. The guns were no longer firing the permanent barrage, their constant companion, during those last months since they had crossed the Rhine. It was said on May 8, 1945, that some of the victors wandered around in a daze.
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