VICTORY! THE END OF THE WAR IN EUROPE.

VE Day, 8 May 1945 was a day to celebrate. Victory in Europe Day marked the long-awaited defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies and followed the formal acts of military surrender. In Britain, Churchill marked the occasion by declaring this day a Public Holiday. People held local street parties, danced and sang in the streets and huge crowds gathered in London around Westminster, Trafalgar Square and outside Buckingham Palace.

Newsreel, Service and amateur cameramen all captured VE Day on film. Highlights from the IWM film collection can be viewed in their showreel including vibrant colour footage taken by amateur cameramen taking part in the celebrations.

The iconic film archive of Imperial War Museums is now available to view on our new aggregated website, OneSearch. The collection covers all aspects of conflict involving Britain, its former Empire and the Commonwealth, from the First World War to the present day. With over 23,000 hours of video content, including newsreels and documentaries, we are thrilled to be teaming up with IWM to shine a spotlight on their superb collection. 

As they have an Imagen platform we were able to easily integrate their archive with our existing collections, which combined with the Reuters collections of Gaumont and British Paramount newsreels results in an incomparable selection of footage.

They have experienced curators that will be able to help you with any archive needs, just send your name, company and contact details along with the details of your project to filmcommercial@iwm.org.uk or contact +44 (0)20 7091 3171.