Blog Post #19 · 5:50pm May 8th, 2020
All troops stand fast on present positions. The German Army has surrendered.
75 years ago today, World War II's fighting in Europe officially ended with Germany's surrender. An estimated 90 million lives were lost during the conflict that raged across the globe. Soldiers celebrated this day, but not completely. It would be another three months before the Japanese Empire would surrender on August 15th, 1945. Until then, in the back of every soldier's mind was simply, "The Invasion of Japan." A rumored attack that seemed like the next logical step in the war. The US War Department estimated one million American casualties in this assault alone. Operation Downfall would ultimately never come to fruition because of the first and only use of the atomic bomb in war.
Did anyone ask for all that? Not really. But I thought you should know.
I'm still alive. I haven't written a word since my last blog post, but I'm that'll change.
See y'all around,
- Backslasherton.
Good to know. You're story not only has a great concept, but you've managed to execute it perfectly.
In Europe, the Allies moved to the last resistances of Waffen SS units who refused to accept surrender, as well as peacekeeping efforts. The 506th PIR moved to light duties and R&R. Mostly formally accepting surrenders usually as meetings between men of equal rank, setting up checkpoints and policing duties alongside former Wehrmacht soldiers, drinking through Goebbels' stash of champagne and cognac...
Most of the men of Easy Company had completed enough jumps to return home. Some of them would have to jump again. The news of Japan's capitulation reached them literally days before Easy and the 506th would have been cycled through to jump into Tokyo.
When talking about the end of WWII and Germany's surrender I like to think of a German officer who surrendered formally to Captain Dick Winters, E Company, 506th PIR. The officer handed over his sidearm, better to a fellow soldier than a clerk. Captain Winters later discovered it had never been fired. That's how I like to think of the surrender and the transition to helping the former Axis nations rebuild. A mutual agreement between two men with no blood on it. Where the past was the past, and Never Again.