The day the world was waiting for was here. Eighty years ago on Monday afternoon, May 7, 1945, the Jamestown Post-Journal “Extra” plopped onto front porches across the city, blaring the news “Germany Surrenders”.
Victory in Europe. V-E Day. May 8, 1945. Many Jamestown residents were sitting close by their radios, listening for the latest news. The late edition of the newspaper on May 7, carried the headline “V-E Day Delayed 24 Hours”, waiting for an agreement to be signed at General Eisenhower’s headquarters at Reims, France. A secondary headline was “New Yorkers Pray In Streets, Sing and Hurl Hats in Air”. The newspaper also reported that “an actual V-E Day announcement by Truman, Churchill and Stalin would be delayed until tomorrow.”
Jamestown Mayor Samuel A. Stroth had made his position clear several days earlier: “Jamestown’s bells will not ring, the whistles will not blow, nor will the sirens whine out the announcement of the surrender of Germany or the end of organized resistance in Europe.” The newspaper reported that the decision had been made after a meeting of the V-E Day Citizen’s Committee. “We still hold to our opinion that V-Day in Europe will be only D-Day in the war against Japan,” said Mayor Stroth, “and we can see no cause for hilarity when our boys are still fighting the bloodiest war in our history. Even when we receive the announcement that Germany has surrendered … we must realize that men are still dying even in Europe and that it may be weeks – even months – before all resistance in Europe is crushed. For that reason, we plan to make V-E Day in Jamestown a day of work and worship, as usual. Offices and shops will continue to work their normal schedule.”
On Tuesday, May 8, the Post-Journal headline read “V-E Arrival Finds City Calm, Solemn” and “Jubilation Gives Way to Prayer and Thanksgiving”. A “mass observance” was held at the Jamestown High School at 8:30 p.m., attended by 1,400 people. The newspaper reported that “accompanied by the ringing church bells, many persons this morning flocked to churches to offer prayers of thanksgiving and to dedicate themselves for the task which lies ahead in the Pacific war theater.”
A grim tally in Wednesday’s Post-Journal said that Jamestown had paid a high price to help win the war in Europe. The two area Jamestown draft boards reported that 254 men were killed in action, 126 of them from the City. There were 59 men reported missing in action, 67 were prisoners of war and 352 were wounded.
Wednesday’s paper also reported three V-E Day births, a son was born to John and Ruth Kosinski at WCA Hospital, and at Jamestown General Hospital, Peter and Caroline Christo of Lakewood welcomed a daughter and a son was born to Frank and Clara Auria.
Sad news was received by Mr. and Mrs. John A. Jacobson on Glenview Avenue. Their son, Staff Sgt. Harold Wiltsie Johnson, age 21, had been killed in action in Germany on April 10.
By Thursday, May 10, the wartime midnight curfew was ignored, and store windows were allowed once again to have lights in their windows, with the lifting of “brownout” restrictions. Area tavern owners remained open after midnight for the first time in months.
It would be another few months, but the long years of sacrifice were almost over. For right now, all eyes turned toward the Pacific and the Empire of Japan.
