From crowds in Trafalgar Square and Belfast, to street parties in Essex and a knees-up on Manchester cobbled streets - how the day enfolded The biggest party that Britain has ever seen came later than expected.
For days, Germany’s imminent collapse had been reported in broadcasts and newspapers, and at 2.41am on Monday 7 May, General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the instrument of unconditional surrender at General Eisenhower’s HQ at Rheims.
Fighting had stopped. The war was over. But in Britain, in the absence of an official announcement, for the moment it was business as usual – or almost as usual.