Patriotic War  

Look at most historic events. You will have one point of view, your own.

The winner of any battle will have a different perspective from the loser.

Only their account will be believed and recorded in the history books.

As time passes, facts not generally known at the time, may appear and influence history.

Analysing them may make us re-think.

Victory Day, 9 May, is an important Russian national holiday, celebrated with parades and ceremonies. Old soldiers wear their medals in public, and are encouraged to tell their personal stories.

Families visit graves of their relatives. Very few were not touched by those far off events. 

This was the day when German forces capitulated.  It was the end of the Russian Patriotic War.

But for the British this was not the end of their war.

We call this day of German surrender ‘VE Day’ to signify ‘Victory in Europe.’

Remember this German surrender was our second victory over Germany within 30 years.

We still had to defeat Japan.

We had been fighting the same enemy and on the same side as Russia. We wanted the same ending.

Many British lives were lost keeping up supply convoys of food and war materials to Murmansk.

We sent much-needed modern aircraft and other general supplies which we could ill afford 

Ask most British citizens what is the significance of this date 8 May. They will not know. 

To outsiders and foreigners it seems Russians are always celebrating something or other.

What and why are the differences?

For reasons explained later, even our surrender dates were not quite the same.

There are much deeper differences between Russia and Western Europe than this obvious common cause of defeating Germany.

Russia was fighting to defend itself and expel this hated enemy from its homeland, from its soil.

The entire population was involved. It was indeed a Patriotic War.

So much was achieved when the Germans surrendered.

The numbers of human beings killed in the conflict can only be imagined. 

The loss  of life was so large as to be beyond meaning.  Except to those who lost relatives, which was nearly every Russian family.

30 million soldiers and civilians killed. 11 million concentration camp deaths…...

Immense physical destruction of so many towns factories and other infrastructure.

Many Russian towns looked like lunar landscapes.

The Russian population was decimated, its soldiers exhausted.

All this was now over.

This explains why there was more to it than immense relief that Germany had surrendered.

It is many years since Britain was successfully invaded.  We forget how devastating it must have been.

Why are the surrender dates different?

The German capitulation was more gradual than you might expect.

25 April was the first time Soviet and American army units met thus cutting Germany into two. 

The Soviet 58^th Guards Division met the American 69^th Division at Torgau on the river Elbe.

27 April     Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans.

30 Apr       Hitler killed himself.

1   May      German forces in Italy surrendered.

2   May      German forces in Berlin surrendered to General Chuikov of the Soviet Army

4   May      German forces in North West Germany, Denmark and Holland  surrendered to General Montgomery of the British army  on  Luneburg Heath.

6  May      German forces holding Breslau surrendered to the Soviet Army.

Shortly after midnight 6/7 May, General Jodl surrendered at Rheims France to the Americans.

8 May       General Keitl surrendered to the Soviet Army under General Zhukov, in Karlshorst Berlin 

The news was broken publicly on 8 May and announced on Soviet Radio News.

The day was declared VE Day.  

Since Moscow is east of Germany it was now  9 May, Moscow time.

So the Russian Victory Day became 9 May. 

The story goes Nikita Khrushchev telephoned Stalin to congratulate him, but received the response ‘Why do you pester me? I am busy.’

The first formal parade was held in Moscow’s Red Square on 24 June 1945, in heavy rain. It would take much more than rain to dampen spirits on that occasion.

This day of 7 May has interesting antecedents for us.

In 1954, the French Army was defeated at Dien Bien Phu by Ho Chi Minh, bringing French colonial power to an end.

In 1915,  Germans torpedoed the unarmed British passenger liner ‘Lusitania’ causing over 1200 civilians to drown. 

In 1765,   probably our most famous Royal Navy ship,  ‘HMS Victory' was launched at Chatham, Kent.. This was the flagship of Admiral Nelson at the ultimate naval battle of Trafalgar.

In 1805, this battle off Cadiz, destroyed the French navy and with it any chance of a French Army invasion of Britain.. It established Royal Navy dominance for over a century.

1815 the land battle of Waterloo, finished Napoleon and French ambitions for dominating Europe. Do these dates mean anything to a Russian?

So to different people from different cultures these dates have different reasons to be remembered.

We know about the battles of Stalingrad, the Kursk tank battle, the Siege of Leningrad. 

These dramatic events were featured in our newsreels. Films have been based on them or events within them.

We have our Battle of Britain 1940.

In this incredible aerial battle, the equivalent in numbers of one ship’s crew inflicted so much damage on the German Air force that all German plans for invasion were delayed, never to be re-instated.

That was our reality.

We still prefer to enjoy the unrealistic image of debonair pipe-smoking young pilots having fun killing Germans.

Our D-Day invasion day was another turning point in our history books.

This immense undertaking included setting up a complete operational docks called ‘Mulberry Harbour’’ which was towed across the channel for local re-assembly and use.

Do these mean anything to a Russian soldier? 

He knows the Soviet Union lost more human beings than anyone else by fighting and overcoming  the ‘invincible German Army.’

Red Army survivors have every right to walk with pride.

DOUG R. (England)