VE and me

About 30 years ago, I saw a framed front page from VE Day hanging on a wall. I have no memory where I saw it or which paper it was, but it must have been one of the major dailies, and I knew enough to know the significance of the date. The headline, 72 points probably, said: NAZIS QUIT WAR.

Not VICTORY! or THE WAR IS OVER. It struck me as odd. Nazis Quit War? “We’ve had enough, we’re going home. You Allied chaps can keep the ball. See you next time.”

It still strikes me as a little odd, but I’ve since seen that verb used that way occasionally, and maybe there’s a nuance from the 1940s that I don’t know since I wasn’t around then, hearing the language and reading newspapers. Or maybe it was just the only word the editor could fit in the space. Headline writing, especially before a computer spaced everything, was certainly a tricky art.