End of the Second World War

See also: Churchill caretaker ministry

Churchill waving the Victory sign to the crowd in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the
war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945. Ernest Bevin stands to his right.

In June 1944, the Allied Forces invaded Normandy and pushed the Nazi forces back into
Germany on a broad front over the coming year. After being attacked on three fronts by the
Allies, and in spite of Allied failures, such as Operation Market Garden, and German counter-
attacks, including the Battle of the Bulge, Germany was eventually defeated. On 7 May 1945 at
the SHAEF headquarters in Rheims the Allies accepted Germany's surrender. On the same day
in a BBC news flash John Snagge announced that 8 May would be Victory in Europe Day.[480] On
Victory in Europe Day, Churchill broadcast to the nation that Germany had surrendered and that
a final ceasefire on all fronts in Europe would come into effect at one minute past midnight that
night.[481][482]
Afterward, Churchill told a huge crowd in Whitehall: "This is your victory." The people shouted:
"No, it is yours", and Churchill then conducted them in the singing of "Land of Hope and Glory".
In the evening he made another broadcast to the nation asserting the defeat of Japan in the
coming months.[483] The Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945. As Europe celebrated peace
at the end of six years of war, Churchill was concerned with the possibility that the celebrations
would soon be brutally interrupted.[clarification needed][484] He concluded the UK and the US must
anticipate the Red Army ignoring previously agreed frontiers and agreements in Europe, and
prepare to "impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British
Empire."[484] According to the Operation Unthinkable plan ordered by Churchill and developed by
the British Armed Forces, the Third World War could have started on 1 July 1945 with a sudden
attack against the allied Soviet troops. The plan was rejected by the British Chiefs of Staff
Committee as militarily unfeasible.[484]