A D-Day veteran found out the Nazis had surrendered and the Second World War in Europe was going to end 48 hours before the rest of the world.
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00:00 Personal for commanders from Air Officer Commanding, all hostilities on 2nd Army Front ceases at 0800 hours tomorrow May 5th.
00:15 Work will continue as usual until orders are issued to the country.
00:22 The German war is now over. At Reims last night the instrument of surrender was signed, which in effect is a surrender of all personnel of the German forces, all equipment and shipping and all machinery in Germany.
00:47 Nothing will be destroyed anywhere. The surrender is effective sometime tomorrow.
00:56 This news will not be communicated to anyone outside the service nor to members of the press.
01:05 That was at the 7th of May, 0915.
01:10 I've got back. Is this ok? Can we use this as a quote?
01:16 I can check on the data.
01:19 You had to keep it secret didn't you?
01:22 Yes, yes, we couldn't tell anybody. We couldn't mention that until we got the final message to say the war in Germany is now over.
01:31 And when I passed the Codeness Cipher course I had to sign a secrecy document for 50 years.
01:41 And it wasn't until 1994 that I could tell anybody what I did in the war.
01:48 And when my parents passed away, they thought the war was like the First World War, ankle deep in mud.
01:55 And they never asked what I did in the Air Force. Being the only child, they were so glad to see me come home.
02:04 We were glad it was all finished and it was nice to see that no more soldiers, sailors or airwomen were giving their lives for the freedom that we enjoy today.
02:21 And also to thank the civilians who gave their lives for the same reason.
02:29 We have this message in the air from Gisados.
02:32 We're sent to you as a wreck.
02:34 They're coming to Northern Day.