Rain damped the decorations but not the spirit of thankfulness and joy with which West Midlanders this morning greeted V-Day.
Victory V's and photographs of Mr Churchill figured prominently among the flags, streamers and bunting with which streets and shops were decorated.
And Hitler will be burned many times over according to the number of effigies prepared for bonfires tonight.
In several towns hundreds of people went to work as usual, only to find that their places of employment had closed.
Streets in many parts of Wolverhampton, particularly the working class area, vied with each other in the number of streamers and flags they could produce.
Council houses in the Walsall district made a pretty show of bunting hung from house to tree tops.
Rows of flags and streamers hung across the street from bedroom window level in Steelhouse Lane, Gordon Street, Dartmouth Street and Raby Street, almost forming canopies over the streets.
A V in red, white and blue at the side of a door in Raby Street, and a photograph of a solider, flanked by flags, in the light of a house in Steelhouse Lane, were noticeable but simple touches that an Express and Star reporter noted in a tour of the town.
A Victory V in lights decorated the entrance of the Borough Hospital in Thompson Avenue.
"Heil Hitler, Burn the Brute," read the placard on the effigy of Hitler which hung disconsolately in the rain over Sutherland Place.
The neighbours who have made it intend to burn it in the street tonight, when they will dance to the strains of an accordian.
In another street in the Heath Town area, Grove Street, which also had a fine show of decorations, children were dragging branches of trees with which to build a bonfire.
In other streets, neighbours were busy preparing sandwiches and cakes and collecting crockery ready for one of the many tea parties being given for the children in the town this afternoon.
At Wednesfield the housewives in Sundour Crescent were planning a tea for the children on the lawns of No. 2 and No. 3, and gathering potatoes to serve chips to the children at the burning of a Hitler guy which was surmounted on a bonfire they had prepared.
In Wolverhampton large photographs of the King, Churchill and Stalin, framed in white and flanked by Union Jack shields, with drapings of red, white and blue, were the theme of artistic window decorations of James Beattie Ltd.
Frocks, suits, scarves and hats in red, white and blue proclaimed the victory most attractively in other nearby shops.
Some of the largest Union Jacks were to be seen hanging from the upper windows of premises in Queen Square, opposite the statue of the Prince Consort.
One of the most striking displays was in the Dudley Street Arcade, which consisted of row upon row of Union Jacks and bunting strung across.
Huge bows of red, white and blue caught in the centre with a gilded crown adorned the windows and door of each shop and a huge Victory V flags, in the centre dome, lifted one's eyes upwards.
There were six celebrations of the Holy Communion at St Peter's Church today between 6am and 11am. A large congregation attended the last named, which was a sung Eucharist.
Tonight a cross erected on the church tower will be illuminated and there will be flood-lighting of both the church and the town hall.
At 6pm the mayor (Councillor T. W. Phillipson), members of the town council and corporation officials will attend a civic thanks giving at Darlington Street Methodist Church.
