BY January 1942, hope flickered alive. The Soviet triumph at Stalingrad and Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein marked the turning point. Hitler’s defeat was now possible.

Resistance across occupied Europe, the unity of the Big Three, and working-class mobilisation at home proved decisive. The campaign forcing Churchill to open a second front in 1944, combined with the Soviet Army’s unstoppable advance, sealed fascism’s fate.

The Daily Worker’s Fight for Truth
By 1945, the Daily Worker — forerunner of today’s Morning Star — boldly told its 100,000 readers that victory was coming. But the workers’ paper faced its own battle.

The 1939 Paper Control Order slashed its paper allowance to 60 per cent of pre-war levels, later cut to just 25 per cent. The Worker fought back — reducing editions to a four-page broadsheet, yet every issue packed the same punch as the Allied armies closed in on Berlin.

March 1945: The Tide Turns
In March, the paper reported the Soviet advance into Silesia and Patton’s tanks smashing through the Siegfried Line. At home, the Communist Party demanded a post-war government led by Labour and progressive forces — including Communists. Labour’s conference rejected the call.

Meanwhile, the BBC banned a broadcast explaining socialism. Churchill refused to repeal the hated 1927 Trades Disputes Act, born from the crushed Miners’ Strike. A second ban followed — blocking Dr Monica Felton’s talk on “what is socialism and communism” — and the Daily Worker was barred from printing the transcript.
The class struggle was intensifying. Both sides knew the war’s end would spark a battle for Britain’s soul.

Housing, Headlines, and a Fight for Growth
As post-war housing plans were cut by government — the Worker demanded 1.25 million homes, the government offered a third as many — the paper launched a fundraiser for its own new Fleet Street HQ.
On March 24, it broke the news: Allied troops had airlifted into Arnhem, aiming to seize Remagen Bridge. Though the push failed, assaults on Frankfurt, Bonn, and Dusseldorf followed. The Rhine had fallen — and with it, Germany’s last hope.

The Worker unveiled bold plans: modern rotary presses, 24-hour reporting, and a target of 500,000 readers. But paper rationing strangled ambition, capping initial print runs.

Liberation and the Horrors Uncovered
Spring brought liberation — thousands of British POWs freed by the Soviets and returned home, Danzig stormed, Vienna under siege. The NUJ campaigned to lift the ban on Daily Worker foreign correspondents.

Nazi war criminals were arrested. In Kiev, a monument was planned for 34,000 Jews massacred in 36 hours — part of 180,000 dead at the site, including Soviet POWs and Romani people.

May 1945: The Fall of the Reich
On May 1, US troops overran Dachau. France’s Communist Party won 25 per cent in local elections. In London, Labour boycotted May Day because organiser London trades council secretary Joe Jacobs was a Communist.

Hitler was dead — suicide on April 30. Berlin fell street by street. By May 3, Italy and western Austria surrendered.

On May 4, Montgomery’s Sixth Airborne and Rokossovsky’s tank brigades drove fascists from Hamburg. The Worker warned of a Tory snap election, noting Churchill’s mysterious Commons absence.

By May 7, Prague rose in revolt. The headline roared: “It may be over in a few hours — Churchill to broadcast the Big Three news. No separate peace — surrender would come to all Allies at once.” VE Day was set for May 8.

Victory – And the Promise of Tomorrow
The Daily Worker’s May 9 leader proclaimed: “Marching Forward. TODAY, the free peoples of the world joyously celebrate their glorious victory. Democracy has defeated Fascism and mankind can again breathe the pure air of freedom. 
“The monstrous tyranny which threatened to enslave the world lies broken on the field of battle.”
Communist leader Harry Pollitt wrote: “We have won the greatest victory of all time... Let socialist propaganda echo far and wide, so that in our time also we shall realise socialism, and build the new society that so many young men have thought about as they looked death fearlessly in the face.”

A Nation Celebrates – But the Struggle Continues
As Britain rejoiced, the government warned: no milk deliveries on VE Day. The king spoke to a nation of street parties and pub singalongs. Sirens blared from factories, trains tooted their whistles, and ships sounded their horns in the docks.

In mining towns, crowds waved Allied flags. Women wore red, white, and blue. One reveller sported a Cossack hat draped with the Union Jack and Soviet flags. In Berlin, troops lit bonfires. They now wanted to come home.

Yet the fight for the future had begun. Soviet foreign minister Molotov urged post-war unity to strengthen the UN.

The Daily Worker’s victory rally drew delegations of women shop stewards from Hoover, Standard Telephones, and Coventry’s factories and confirmed plans to establish it as a co-operative.

The war was won. The battle for Britain’s soul was just shifting through the gears.