Every day from Tuesday 28 April up to the anniversary of VE Day next Friday 8 May, the full original Mirror from the corresponding day in 1945 will be published alongside the current day’s e-edition, available on iPad and other tablets.
The Mirror published every day (except Christmas Days) throughout the Second World War and became the biggest selling daily newspaper in Britain by the late 40s. The paper cost one penny in 1945 and sold between three and four million copies a day.
The 28 April 1945 edition led on the news that American soldiers had joined up with the Red Army near Leipzig, prompting celebrations. As they continued to break German resistance in North and Central Germany, Allied troops were closing in on Hitler’s Alpine fortress. The paper also featured the iconic headline “Mussolini arrested at lunch”.
Other features included allotment advice and ‘London amusements’ (cinema) listings. An ‘advertiser’s announcement’ on the front page asks readers to remember that Cadbury’s Milk Chocolate is in limited supply and that, “children need this nourishment most”.
Peter Willis, Daily Mirror weekday editor, said: “The Mirror has been at the heart of breaking news in the UK for over a hundred years. These editions would have been pored over as readers sought to learn every detail of the Allies’ progress. It’s fascinating to see the style in which these historical moments were communicated to readers and how the paper has changed in the seventy years since.”
The 1945 editions will be available to view and read in full in the Mirror e-edition archive for a month. The Mirror’s iPad edition is free to read in full from Monday to Friday with a monthly subscription of £3.99 for the Saturday and Sunday editions.
