WAR IS OVER MEMORIES OF VE DAY . . . 60 YEARS ON

Sunday Herald, The, May 8, 2005

TODAY is the 60th anniversary of VE Day, the German surrender in the second world war. By the beginning of 1945, the last effort to defeat Germany was under way as Soviet forces attacked the eastern borders and British, US and Commonwealth forces pushed towards the Rhine. Many German cities were bombed, with Berlin the ultimate target. Despite fierce German resistance, the Russians raced towards the city, pushing back an enemy which had occupied most of Europe with brutality and unimaginable cruelty.

The Russians entered the German capital on April 21, reducing German control to an area 10 miles by three. By April 27, the desperate German soldiers were completely surrounded by Russian troops. Hitler killed himself in his bunker on April 30. German forces began surrendering in the first week of May, and on, May 7, Grand Admiral Dnitz, the designated head of the German state, met the Western allies' supreme commander, General Dwight D Eisenhower, at Rheims.

Knowing resistance was impossible, Dnitz offered an unconditional surrender.

On May 8, Winston Churchill triumphantly proclaimed from Whitehall:

"God bless you all. This is your victory!"

The crowd assembled under his balcony roared back: "No, it's yours!"

But the end of the war was for many the beginning of another period of adjustment and change. Allied forces were still fighting Japan, a war finally ended by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Despite the natural joy of vanquishing the Nazis, many struggled to start a new life in the wake of the worst atrocities the world had ever seen. Here, seven remarkable people recall their lives and thoughts from VE Day, May 8, 1945.

THE NORMANDY VETERAN

Dr Tom Renouf, holder of the Military Medal, was born in 1925 in Musselburgh and served in the 5th Battalion Black Watch of the 51st Highland Division. On VE Day he was at the Elbe river, where the German forces collapsed. When he came home he studied physics at Edinburgh University and had a long teaching career. He later became secretary of the 51st Highland Division Veterans' Association "When the surrender was announced we basically stayed put on the front line. The sergeant-major worked his way along, telling us all that the war was over. You didn't want to move - it might have meant getting hit by the last bullet, or stepping on the last mine, or getting hit by the last shell.

I was called up when I was 17. I was in the 5th Battalion Black Watch of the 51st Highland Division, by that time it was 1944, almost D-Day, and we moved down to Norfolk, then to Sussex, then to the boats.

The atmosphere in the build-up was tremendous. Americans, Canadians, Australians, all the different battalions, the Navy and the RAF, everyone worked together in the most extraordinary way. We were keyed up, anxious about what was to come, but it was incredible really. The camaraderie was very special indeed. We landed at Normandy on June 6. It was a further 11 months of fighting until VE Day.

Towards the end we crossed the Rhine against enemy fire, and the mines were a great problem. We made a final push towards the Elbe, and a month after the Rhine crossing the German forces had collapsed, and by May 8 the war was over.

VE Day was the day I realised I wasn't going to die at war. What could be a more important day than that? VE Day is one of the most important days of our lives, and the government has robbed us of a national day of remembrance for it. Celebrating the day is a treasured possession.

We are in our 80s - this year shall be the final one.

Dr Tom Renouf is organising a reunion and commemoration service in Perth on May 14.

Call 0131 665 3274 for more details

THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

Brigadier Frank Coutts CBE was born in 1918 in Glasgow. He served for 40 years, finishing as Colonel of the King's Own Scottish Borderers. He played rugby for Scotland in season 1946-47.

He has two daughters, several grandchildren, and lives in Edinburgh "VE Day! We just couldn't believe it. 'We' were 600 men of the 4th Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, lying exhausted about halfway between Bremen and Hamburg - exhausted after a gruelling 10-day battle for the port of Bremen, finishing with a front-row seat to a 1000bomber raid, followed by unopposed entry into the city to be shocked by the total devastation and human misery. By this stage of the war we took some shocking.

The reaction when the words 'Cease fire at 0800 hours tomorrow morning' came over the wireless was interesting . . . some idiots fired their rifles in the air, which is not only contrary to discipline, but not a very British way of doing things.

The officers were called in and the Padre said a short prayer of thanks. After little sleep, all euphoria had evaporated on a cold misty morning. We'd been at it for six years and the war wasn't over yet . . . soon we joined a huge convoy moving east, across the Elbe and right into east Germany to a village not far north of Berlin called Letzlingen where the girls flung themselves at the Jocks 'for fear' of meeting a Russian. We weren't at Letzlingen very long. We were well and truly in the Russian zone [of the new, carved up Germany] and were soon back in our trucks, trundling west for days over shell-pocked roads.