<P> VE - Day: News of the imminent surrender broke in the West on 8 May, and celebrations erupted throughout Europe and parts of the British Empire . In the US, Americans awoke to the news and declared 8 May V-E Day . As the Soviet Union was to the east of Germany it was 9 May Moscow Time when the German military surrender became effective, which is why Russia and many other European countries east of Germany commemorate Victory Day on 9 May . </P> <P> German units cease fire: Although the military commanders of most German forces obeyed the order to surrender issued by the (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)--the German Armed Forces High Command), not all commanders did so . The largest contingent were Army Group Centre under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner who had been promoted to Commander - in - Chief of the Army on 30 April in Hitler's last will and testament . On 8 May, Schörner deserted his command and flew to Austria; the Soviet Army sent overwhelming force against Army Group Centre in the Prague Offensive, forcing German units in Army Group Centre to capitulate by 11 May . The other forces which did not surrender on 8 May surrendered piecemeal: </P> <Ul> <Li> The Second Army, under the command of General von Saucken, on the Heiligenbeil and Danzig beachheads, on the Hel Peninsula in the Vistula delta surrendered on 9 May, as did the forces on the Greek islands; and the garrisons of the last Atlantic pockets in France, in Saint - Nazaire, La Rochelle (after the Allied siege), and Lorient . </Li> <Li> Battle of Slivice, the last battle in Czechoslovakia, on 12 May </Li> <Li> On 13 May, the Red Army halted all offensives in Europe . Isolated pockets of resistance in Czechoslovakia were mopped up by this date . People gathered in Whitehall to hear Winston Churchill's victory speech, 8 May 1945 </Li> <Li> The garrison on Alderney, one of the Channel Islands occupied by the Germans, surrendered on 16 May, one week after the garrisons on Guernsey and Jersey had surrendered on 9 May and those on Sark on 10 May . </Li> <Li> The Georgian Uprising of Texel (5 April--20 May) was Europe's last battlefield in World War II . It was fought between Georgian Nazi - collaborationist army units on Texel against the German occupiers of that Dutch island . </Li> <Li> Another military engagement took place in Yugoslavia (today's Slovenia), on 14 and 15 May, known as the Battle of Poljana . </Li> <Li> Last battle in Europe, Battle of Odžak between Yugoslav partisans and NDH forces, concludes on 25 of May . The remaining NDH soldiers escape to the forest . </Li> <Li> A small group of German soldiers deployed on Svalbard in Operation Haudegen to establish and man a weather station there lost radio contact in May 1945; they surrendered to some Norwegian seal hunters on 4 September, two days after the Surrender of Japan . </Li> </Ul> <Li> The Second Army, under the command of General von Saucken, on the Heiligenbeil and Danzig beachheads, on the Hel Peninsula in the Vistula delta surrendered on 9 May, as did the forces on the Greek islands; and the garrisons of the last Atlantic pockets in France, in Saint - Nazaire, La Rochelle (after the Allied siege), and Lorient . </Li>

Who signed the world war 2 peace treaty