Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day or V-E Day, is a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on 8 May 1945. The United States manufactured about 300,000 aircraft, 2.4 million military vehicles, and 124,000 military ships to support the U.S. and Allied War efforts. The ramp-up in manufacturing was extraordinary. Before entering the War, for example, annual production of military aircraft was less than 6,000 aircraft in 1939, but after President Franklin D. Roosevelt called in a May 1940 speech for 50,000 aircraft to be made each year, production rose dramatically—reaching its peak in March 1944, when 9,000 planes were produced that month. Millions of American men and women worked on the home front to manufacture the aircraft, ground vehicles, and ships that significantly propelled U.S. and allied forces to victory in June of 1944.
