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For Immediate Release
May 8, 2010
AFA Remembers V-E Day; Salutes World War II Veterans
Arlington, VA – On this day in 1945, the Allied forces formally accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, ending World War II in Europe. The Air Force Association (AFA) today salutes the dedication, courage and sacrifice of the American and Allied forces who fought for freedom and country, and the heroes who gave their lives.
The military surrender was signed by German President Karl Donitz the prior day, on May 7, in Reims, about a week after the suicide of Adolph Hitler. The corresponding victory in the Pacific would be another three months later, fully ending World War II.
European victory was achieved through the immense Operation Overlord, beginning with the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The heroic landing included 160,000 troops supported by 12,000 aircraft and 7,000 ships and vessels. Eventually 3 million troops would serve in the final clash with Nazi Germany, and the Allies would lose more than 4,100 aircraft during this phase of the war in Europe. Allied forces had also already campaigned in Italy, Africa and elsewhere, and were simultaneously at war in the Pacific.
Scholars estimate 22 million people lost their lives worldwide during World War II. Over 292,000 Americans died in all theaters of the war, part of over a million U.S. total casualties. By war’s end in 1945, the U.S. was allocating an amazing 89.5 percent of the federal budget to defense. At the beginning of the war, the U.S. had 800 airplanes, including some open cockpit monoplanes (Germany started with 4,000 planes), but the U.S. workers produced 191 airplanes per day, according to the Air Force Historian, and ended the war with the first American military jet in the skies. [“The Army Air Forces at War” by John T. Correll, September 1995, AIR FORCE Magazine].
Allied airpower’s role in Europe included nearly 2.7 million tons of bombs, more than 1.4 million bomber sorties and over 2.6 million fighter sorties. [“Airpower Was Decisive” AIR FORCE Magazine, October 2009].
U.S. and British aircraft established air superiority before and during the Normandy invasion and the subsequent campaign to Germany, receiving great credit from General Dwight Eisenhower, who advocated the creation of an independent Air Force. [“Airpower from the Ground Up” by Richard Hallion, AIR FORCE Magazine, November 2000].
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The AFA is a 501(C)(3), nonprofit organization promoting public understanding of aerospace power and the pivotal role it plays in the security of the nation. AFA has over 200 chapters nationally and internationally representing 120,000 members. Visit AFA www.AFA.org.
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