Friday, May 08, 2009
Today is V-E Day
It was 64 years ago today that Germany formally and unconditionally surrendered, ending the war in Europe. It was a day of celebration and relief for those involved in fighting in that theater of operations, and everywhere in the Allied countries.
In May 1945, my father was in the Atlantic aboard a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort, but he and his fellow officers understood that there was a good chance that the ship would be headed over to the Pacific. Fortunately, Japan surrendered less than 4 months later, just before the ship was scheduled to transit the Panama Canal to the Pacific.
From the archives, I post a photo from my father's ship, not from V-E Day, but from Christmas 1944, less than 6 months earlier. It is a shot of the ward room aboard DE220, and my father is seated second from the right, with most of the wrapped gifts in front of him on the table.
Smiles abound on the holiday, and 10 months later my father would be on a northbound train from Miami, where the ship docked after V-J day, on his way home to Philadelphia, with enough "points" to be done with active duty. In between Christmas and the following October, there were still many miles at sea and at least one more U-boat that needed sinking (in February 1945, near Gibraltar).
0 Comments:
