'That's good enough for me. I've got a day off'

There may have been dancing in the streets of the capital at the cessation of hostilities but the mood in Derby on the eve of VE Day, 1945, was more subdued as this report from the following day's Derby Telegraph recounts

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VE-DAY DELAY LEFT CROWDS PUZZLED AND IMPATIENT

DERBY received the news of the end of the greatest war in history in a manner that was something of an anti-climax after the expectancy created by earlier reports that it was only a matter of hours before the final announcement.

At each hour, groups gathered outside radio shops in the hope of hearing the announcement of Germany's unconditional surrender. It came, but from German sources only. Hours passed and there was still nothing from our own Government.

Instead of the expected excitement, the mood changed to one of impatience over the niceties of international procedure and the demand was, in effect: “Let's have the news that it's VE-Day and be done with it.”

A Trent conductress at Derby bus station, on seeing the Telegraph headlines shouted: “That's good enough for me. I've got a day off.”

A man grumbled: “We've got it from every country in the world except our own.”

The sale of newspapers on the streets attracted some crowds but they were nothing compared with those that clamoured for copies on D-Day last year.