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"Soviet tanks have overcome the last German resistance and have entered Prague" was the news the capital's residents awoke to on the morning of May 9th 1945. The city had finally been liberated, bringing an end to over six years of occupation. For decades May 9th was celebrated as Liberation Day in this country, but after the fall of communism that date was brought forward to the 8th, the day marked by the Western Allies.

Charles Havlat is thought to be the very last American soldier killed in action in the European operations of World War II. The son of Czech immigrants, he took a bullet in the head while on patrol in southern Bohemia; shot by German soldiers who were unaware that a ceasefire had been declared and whose commander later apologised. Brian Kenety reports.

On Sunday, Czechs are marking VE Day - the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany. On this cold and windy day, thousands gathered on Prague's Letna Plain, a huge open park just to the east of the Castle, to watch a unique military parade.

Prague's Kinsky Square was for many decades called The Square of Soviet Tank Crews. It was because a huge Soviet tank, a memorial to the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, used to stand there on a 5-metre pedestal, its barrel menacingly pointing at a tram stop. Until one morning, in the spring of 1991, locals woke up and could not believe their eyes. The tank had turned pink overnight.

One of the major focal points of this year's anniversary was the return of American and Belgian veterans to Pilsen, the city they liberated in the final days of the war 60 years ago. Town officials as well as Belgian and U.S. representatives were all in attendance to honour soldiers' deeds in liberating Pilsen, while veterans like Leo Hymas, addressed the crowd.

Some of the last fighting of the war took place in Prague, long after most cities in Europe had been liberated. On May 5, 1945 Prague rose up against the collapsing Nazi regime, but some 3,000 people were killed in fierce fighting before the Russians liberated the city four days later. Czech Radio was at the centre of the Prague Uprising, and a large and dramatic reenactment of the battle for the station was held on Saturday.

The City of Pilsen, the University of West Bohemia and the US embassy hosted their annual Pilsen Talks conference on Thursday. This year's topic focused on the liberation of southwest Bohemia and the transatlantic alliance. The conference officially opened celebrations throughout Pilsen to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Exactly 60 years ago, on 5th May 1945, the Prague Uprising against the German occupiers began here in the very building that houses Radio Prague. "Calling all Czechs" went the now legendary appeal over the airwaves, as defiant radio journalists here at our headquarters in Vinohradska Street, called on the people of Prague to rise up against their occupiers. In the three days that followed over 2,000 Czechs lost their lives in intense street fighting that focused more than anywhere else on the radio building.

Some 400 Czech volunteers enlisted in the German, Soviet and Czechoslovak armies on Saturday ahead of the battle for control of the Mosnov airfield. There were no reported causalities, or even wounded, thankfully, as this was merely a re-enactment of the bloodiest battle to take place on Czech soil during World War II: the liberation of Ostrava from Nazi German control.

Over the next week Radio Prague will be marking the 60th anniversary of the end of Word War II with a number of special reports, ranging from a trip to the English village where the Czechoslovak government in exile were based to the first military parade on Prague's Letna plain since the fall of communism.