V-E DAY: AP Breaks News of German Surrender
On May 6, 1945, the AP’s Ed Kennedy was one of 17 Allied correspondents selected by SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) to witness the unconditional surrender of the German armies to the Allies at a schoolhouse in the French city of Reims. The surrender ceremony took place on Monday, May 7th at 2:41 a.m. French time (at 8:41 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, in New York).
AP war correspondent Ed Kennedy, on leave in New York, Aug. 2, 1943. (AP Photo/Robert Kradin)
Representatives of Germany and the Allied powers gathered at the Supreme H. Q. War Room in Reims, France on May 7, 1945, where German delegates surrendered unconditionally to Britain, Russia, and the United States. (AP Photo/Pool/Morse)
Kennedy (1905-1963), who joined the AP in 1932, had been reporting the war in North Africa, Italy and Paris since 1940. Members of the press pool were asked to withhold news of the surrender until SHAEF granted permission to release the story. SHAEF initially called for an embargo of several hours on the news of the surrender, then extended it to 36 hours. The plan, agreed to by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman, would suppress the news to accommodate Soviet premier Joseph Stalin’s desire to announce Russia’s victory over Germany in Berlin.
Ed Kennedy, Chief of the Associated Press staff in North Africa, is shown at the Anzio beachhead in Italy on March 1, 1944. (AP Photo/Pool)
On the afternoon of May 7th, Kennedy heard a radio broadcast from the German city of Flensburg, already in Allied hands, announcing the German surrender. Realizing that the radio broadcast had been authorized by the same censors now holding up the story of the end of the war in Europe, Kennedy made his decision. He called in the story to AP’s London bureau. At the time, Kennedy maintained that his job was to report the news and that he did not feel bound by considerations of political censorship. “The absurdity of attempting to bottle up news of such magnitude was too apparent,” he said later. “I knew from experience that one might as well as try to censor the rising sun.”
This news bulletin, filed by Paris bureau chief Ed Kennedy, was received in New York on the morning of Monday, May 7, 1945 and quickly annotated in red pencil, likely by executive editor Alan Gould: “Flash sent 9:35 AEW [9:35 a.m. Eastern War Time] based on this dispatch.” (AP Photo/Corporate Archives)
Looking north from 44th Street, New York's Times Square is packed Monday, May 7, 1945, with crowds celebrating the news of Germany's unconditional surrender and the end of the war in Europe. (AP Photo/Tom Fitzsimmons)
British civilians and Allied service men and women gather along Piccadilly, near London's Piccadilly Circus, May 7, 1945, to celebrate Germany's total surrender. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest)
Happy crowds gather around the Rond-Point on the Champs-Elysees, Paris, France, on V-E Day, May 8, 1945, to celebrate the announcement of Germany's unconditional surrender. (AP Photo/Henry L. Griffin)
British RAF servicemen and Danish Red Cross workers ride through the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark, May 8, 1945, to celebrate the city's freedom after German troops had been ordered to lay down their arms and surrender to the nearest British troops. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth)
An American soldier, right, hugs an Englishwoman as other U.S. soldiers celebrate the surrender of Germany, May 7, 1945, in London's Piccadilly Circus. (AP Photo)
Welcome handshakes greet the arrival of British airborne troops in Copenhagen, May 7, 1945.
(AP Photo)
A vast crowd assembled in front of Buckingham Palace, London, on V-E Day, May 8, 1945, cheers the Royal Family as they emerge onto the balcony minutes after the official announcement of Germany's unconditional surrender. From left are: Princess Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; King George VI; and Princess Margaret. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest)
Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill, center, joins the royal family, from left, Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, King George VI, and Princess Margaret, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, England, on V-E Day on May 8, 1945. (AP Photo)
People crowd Times Square at 42nd Street in New York City on May 8, 1945, as the V-E Day celebration continues into the night. The dimout and the brownout of the "Great White Way" have been replaced once more by the bright lights of victory. (AP Photo/Matty Zimmerman)
New Yorkers gather around a youth wearing a mask of Adolf Hitler to cheer the news of the surrender of Germany in New York's Times Square on May 7, 1945. (AP Photo/Harry Harris)
While the world celebrated the end of the war in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, revoked Kennedy’s accreditation and suspended AP service in Europe temporarily. Kennedy’s actions, widely debated in the press, brought support from many quarters as well as cries of betrayal from Kennedy’s fellow correspondents. In the midst of the controversy, Kennedy was ordered back to New York by AP General Manager Kent Cooper. Kennedy was quietly dismissed from his job with The Associated Press in September 1945.
Some of the AP Paris staff join Paris Bureau Chief Ed Kennedy, seated center left, for a farewell get-together in the early hours of May 18, 1945, just before he embarked for the United States at the request of AP General Manager Kent Cooper. (AP Photo/Pete Carroll)
In a May 2012 interview, 67 years after Kennedy’s scoop, AP CEO Tom Curley officially acknowledged AP’s error in firing Kennedy. “It was a terrible day for the AP. It was handled in the worst possible way,” he said.
"Once the war is over, you can't hold back information like that. The world needed to know”.
The torch of the Statue of Liberty once again blazes into the night as the lights are turned on once again on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, May 8, 1945, V-E Day, on which the official announcement of the unconditional surrender of Germany was proclaimed. (AP Photo/Tom Fitzsimmons)
Big Ben, the famous giant clock of London's Houses of Parliament, which was lit up recently for the first time since the outbreak of war, gets its face washed, around May 4, 1945, in preparation for the imminent V-E Day. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest)
Parisians march through the Arc de Triomphe jubilantly waving flags of the Allied nations as they celebrate the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945. (AP Photo)
Men and women dancing in the square in Enschede, Netherlands, during V-E Day celebrations in May, 1945. (AP Photo)
Pfc. Clarence K. Ayers of Evansville, Ind., reads the news of V-E Day as newly arrived German prisoners stand on a New York City pier, May 8, 1945. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
This general view of Times Square, New York, was made at 11 a.m. on May 7, 1945, and shows New Yorkers jamming the streets to cheer the news of the unconditional surrender of Germany. (AP Photo/Harry Harris)
Staff Sgt. Arthur Moore of Buffalo, N.Y., who was wounded in Belgium, stands on 42nd Street near Grand Central Station in New York Monday, May 7, 1945 as New Yorkers celebrate news of V-E Day, the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. (AP Photo)