AP's Edward Kennedy Was the Man on the Scene Who Broke the Surrender Story

Same Source as the previous V-E Day entries.

Edward Kennedy, then AP's  chief of bureau in Paris, was present at the surrender and was first to report the end of the war in Europe to the United States and the world, bypassing the Allied political embargo.

The news was broadcast unofficially over German radio, but U.S. President Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had agreed to suppress the news of the capitulation for a day, in order to allow Russian dictator Josef Stalin to stage a second surrender  ceremony in Berlin.

Kennedy published the news anyway, angering U.S. authorities.  The military suspended AP's ability temporarily  to dispatch any news from the European theater, and Kennedy was called home and later fired.

AP issued a statement saying, "Kennedy did everything right," because the embargo  was for political reason, not to protect the troops.

"The world needed to know," AP's  then-president and CEO Tom Curley said.    Kennedy "stood up to the power."

--GreGen

Celebrations for V-E Day-- Part 1: Rome, Capitals and Battle Front

Continuing with the previous posts.  Excerpts from AP posts this day.

The world celebrates.

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The great bells of St. Peter's Basilica  rang out over Rome shortly after  the Associated Press report that peace had come to Europe, while several Allied capitals proclaimed V-E holidays for today, and Tokyo  announced continuation of "The Sacred War."

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Many of the world's cities went wild with the news, and even neutral capitals were bedecked and full of celebrating crowds.  Masses of people gathered in front of loudspeakers and newspaper offices, which were frantically answering inquiries and rolling out extras.

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Only in the unnatural calm of the European fronts  was the news reported  to have been taken soberly,  by soldiers who had seen fighting taper off in one sector after another for the past few weeks.

--GreGen

Germany Surrenders 75 Years Ago: End of World War II in the European Theater

From the May 6, 2020, Mesa (Az) Daily Independent  "AP was there:  Nazis surrender, ending WW II in Europe" AP.

Reims, France.

Nazi commanders signed the surrender to Allied forces in a French schoolhouse on May 7, 1945, 75 years ago.  This ended World War II and the Holocaust.

Unlike the mass celebrations 75 years ago when the news went out (it had been expected for weeks), surviving veterans and civilians back then are not celebrating this milestone (which became known as V-E Day) because of the coronavirus confinement which is of particular danger to them because of advanced age and conditions.

During the war, AP reporters and photographers put their lives on the line with five of them killed and one,  correspondent Joe Morton, who was executed by the Nazis.

On May 7, 1945, AP witnessed the Nazi surrender and was first to  announce it to the Allied public, defying  authorities who wanted to delay the momentous announcement.

However, there was still the war in the Pacific against Japan to continue.

A Great Day.  --GreGen