{"id":930,"date":"2014-05-08T21:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T02:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/?p=930"},"modified":"2014-05-08T21:18:45","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T02:18:45","slug":"recollections-of-ve-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/?p=930","title":{"rendered":"Recollections of VE Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"id_536c4032d487e3906488725\" class=\"text_exposed_root text_exposed\"><span class=\"userContent\" data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\">Today is VE Day&#8230;..69 years ago the Allies declared Victory in Europe on May 8, 1945. Here is an excerpt from a letter my mother sent home after VE Day. <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"text_exposed_root text_exposed\"><span class=\"userContent\" data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\">\u201cDay after VE Day<br \/>\nDear Beck:<br \/>\n\u2026It is Loddo\u2019s and my day off \u2013 most fortunate, too, because last night we did not have bed check for the first time since we\u2019ve been overseas.<br \/>\n\u2026.The streets<span class=\"text_exposed_hide\">&#8230;<\/span><span class=\"text_exposed_show\"> were jammed. It was practically impossible for any vehicle to get through. GIs were driving trucks and jeeps with people crowded all over the vehicles, as best they could through the crowds. Every once in a while a crazy jeep driver loaded down with GIs, French gals, and WACs, too, would maneuver his jeep through a crowd and whiz around the block, he\u2019d have a siren going &amp; flags waving in the breeze. What a sight! A couple officers tried to get Loddo and me into their jeep\u2014but we didn\u2019t feel like risking our necks. Everyone was just going wild.<br \/>\nThis took place in the afternoon. In the evening Loddo and I ventured forth \u2013\u2026.<br \/>\nIt didn\u2019t make any difference where you wanted to go\u2014the crowds just swept you along with them\u2026We finally managed to get back to \u2026 the Arc de Triomphe \u2026 &amp; almost was smothered in the crowds. The Arc was flood lit &amp; the flags of the Allied nations were flying in the evening breeze\u2026<br \/>\nFrankly, I don\u2019t know what the Army will do with us, but please don\u2019t think just because VE Day has been declared \u2013 all I have to do is run out to the docks and grab a boat home. The Army doesn\u2019t operate like that!&#8230;<br \/>\nWe are watching a lot of the French people stroll by. It\u2019s all very interesting and enjoyable. I\u2019m thinking back to the first day of my service and honestly speaking\u2014I\u2019ve never regretted being in. I\u2019ve a wealth of experience in so many things that civilian life could have never given me. However, now that we can see the beginning of the end, I am not sorry that I shall have to give up this nomadic existence and return to normalcy.<br \/>\nWe are watching a group of huge planes flying low. It\u2019s so wonderful to feel that every plane flying over is friendly.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is VE Day&#8230;..69 years ago the Allies declared Victory in Europe on May 8, 1945. Here is an excerpt &hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/?p=930\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25RpX-f0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mollieswar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}