Germany's unconditional surrender came into effect on 8 May 1945, marking VE Day (Victory in Europe) and ending six years of war on the European continent. Celebrations erupted in London, Paris, New York, and cities across the Allied world. For the poets who had lived through the conflict — including Keith Douglas, Roy Fuller, and Alun Lewis — VE Day marked both relief and the weight of reckoning with what had been endured and lost.

Victory in Europe Day in 1945 brought relief but also reflection on the echoes of World War I, influencing poetry that grappled with themes of triumph and reckoning. Poets like W.H. Auden and others captured the complex emotions surrounding the end of conflict.