Partial surrender
As of September 1944 General Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the allied forces in Europe planned all further operations against Germany out of a school in Rheims, Rue Jolicoeur. Still, it should last a few more months and a serious crisis in the Ardennes had to be surpassed until the first formal act of truce of a German army group was sealed in Italy.
But already quite some time ago negotiations about partial capitulations had started. In February 1945 SS Obergruppenführer (General) Karl Wolff had made contact with the chief of the Middle European Head Office of the U.S. Secret Service organisation OSS (Office of Strategic Services), Allen. W. Dulles in Switzerland. These negotiations finally culminated in the surrender of Army Group C, May 2. The same day General Weidling surrendered in Berlin.
But even Heinrich Himmler himself tried to save his neck. Without Hitler's knowledge and against his orders, Himmler put out secret peace feelers to the West. He even tried to use the surviving European Jews as hostages to blackmail the Allies. New evidence shows that a cynical proposal to barter Hungarian Jews for trucks was in fact camouflage for an invitation to peace talks. The BBC in a broadcast report on April 28: Himmler has offered to surrender in the west. He feels empowered because Hitler – according to Himmler – is suffering from bleeding of the brain. The next day Hitler was made aware of Himmlers initiative and screamed: “Himmler has committed the biggest betrayal of all times. He must be shot as soon as possible”.
After Hitlers suicide in the bunker of the Stae Chancery on April 30 and the nomination of Grand Admiral Dönitz as his successor, a lively communication started with the Western Powers. Reichs President Dönitz and the OKW (Supreme Command of Armed Forces) wanted to delay he capitulation. They wanted to carry on fighting in the East to save as many soldiers and civilians as possible from the Red Army.
Von Friedeburgs mission
On May 3 Hamburg was taken and the British closed in on the headquarters of the new State government in Flensburg-Mürwick. To gain time, Dönitz sent his closest confidant and new Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg to Field Marshal Montgomery, who had put up his headquarters at the Timelo Mountain in Windisch-Evern near the city of Lüneburg. Dönitz and his cabinet still put their hopes on a disintegration of the alliance between the Westerb Powers and the UDSSR. This still seemed possible after the sudden death of Theodore Roosevelt.
At 11.30 hours of May 3 von Friedeburg, General Kinzel, Rear-Admiral Wagner and Major Freidel arrived at Montgomerys tent. He let the German delegation wait for quite some time under the waving Union Jack “to humiliate them”, as he admitted later. Initially they were not offered even a chair. Von Friedeburgs mandate to procure a postponement of time in order to continue the battle against the Russians was categorically refused by Montgomery. The German delegation returned to Flensburg for consultations. The next day the surrender protocol was signed at 18.30 hours.
With this signature von Friedeburgs mission had not come to an end yet. The next day he went to see General Dwight D. Eisenhower in his headquarters in Rheims to achieve a partial surrender with the U.S. Army. This was harshly rejected. Ike did not want to go round the agreements with the Russians and he was fully aware of the fact that a separate peace was hardly to be achieved politically. Still, the Americans sympathized with “Uncle Joe” Stalin.
On May 6 von Friedeburg made it plain to the Flensburg government that Eisenhower was only prepared to accept an unconditional surrender. Dönitz still did not want to accept defeat and sent Colonel General Jodl to Rheims.
Alfred Jodl (1890 – 1946) was a person not unknown to the Eisenhower and his staff. He was born in Würzburg, Germany.. He was educated at the Cadet School in Munich and graduated in 1910. Jodl joined the Bavarian Army as an artillery officer. During World War I he was a battery officer and served on the Western Front 1914-1916, twice being wounded. In 1917 he served briefly on the Eastern Front before returning to the west as a staff officer. After the war Jodl remained in the Reichswehr (armed forces of the Weimar Republic).
Deaying actions
He became acquainted with Adolf Hitler in 1923 but never had a relationship with the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. He was regularly promoted and by 1935 he was Chief of the National Defence Section in the OKW, the High Command of the Armed Forces). In the build-up to war he was assigned as an artillery commander of the 44. Division from October 1938 to August 1939 during the annexation of Austria to Germany. From then until the end of the war he was Chief of the Operations Staff and deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. Jodl was Hitlers closest consultant in strategic and operational issues.
When Jodl arrived in Rheims he tried to gain time and proposed that the capitulation should become due in two phases: the first where movements of the armed forces were permitted and then the second phase when no movements were allowed. But Eisenhower made clear quickly that no further delay tactics were to be tolerated and demanded an immediate signature under the surrender protocol otherwise the West Front would be closed and fire would be opened on any German soldier even if he wanted to surrender unarmed. At midnight Jodl instructed Dönitz of the situation and by 01.30 hours on May 7 he authorized Jodl with this message: “Ich bevollmächtige Generaloberst Jodl, Chef des Wehrmachtsführungsstabes im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, zum Abschluss eines Waffenstillstandsbkommens mit dem Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower. I authorize Colonel General Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff in the Supreme Command of the German Armed Force to the conclusion of an armistice settlement with the headquarters of General Eisenhower“.
The interview room of the trade school in Rheims was prepared fort he solemn moment. But suddenly order was given to remove floodlights and cameras. The 16 journalists, flown to Rheims on purpose, were advised to “keep the event off the record”. It was not intended to make Germanys surrender public and General Eisenhower remained in another room for reasons of protocol. At 02.41 hours Jodl, accompanied by von Friedeburg (navy), General Wilhelm Oxenius (air force) signed four documents and with it the unconditional surrender of Germany. On behalf of the Allies the American Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith (Eisenhower`s Chief-of-Staff, and acting for General Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Alliierten), Admiral Harold M. Burrough as deputy fort he British Navy, Major General Iwan Susloparow, acting for the Sovjet Supreme Command), Carl Spaatz as deputy of the U.S. Air Force, J.M. Robb deputy for the RAF and invited in the very last minute, Major General Francois Sevez as deputy for the French Forces.
General Jodl then rose stiffly and turned to General Eisenhower's Chief-of-Staff Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith. He said in English: "I want to say a word". Then, proceeding in German, he declared: "With this signature the German people and the German armed forces are for better or worse delivered into the victor's hands.In this war, which has lasted more than five years, they both have achieved and suffered more than perhaps any other people in the world. In this hour I can only express the hope that the victor will treat them with generosity." There was no answer, no salutes. The Germans got up and left the room.
He was then arrested and transferred to a POW camp in Flensburg and later put before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials. In the beginning his name was not listed among the main war criminals at all. However, by August 1945 his name appeared by French and Russian demand. He was accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war-crimes; and crimes against humanity. Among the charges against him was his distribution of the Commando Order. He pleaded not guilty "before God, before history and my people". Found guilty on all four charges, he was hanged although he had asked the court to be executed by firing squad. His last words were "My greetings to you, my Germany."
However in 1953 a de-nazification court found that he had been wrongfully accused as his operational activities did not transgress international law. He was therefore posthumously acquitted. His remains were cremated in the oven at Dachau concentration camp along with many other Nazi criminals, his ashes scattered in a river.
Zhukov in Karlshorst
With the signature in Rheims World War II finally ended. But Stalin was furious that the “official” end of the war was celebrated in American premises. Not only because of the immense losses of the Soviet Union he insisted on a new and final surrender ceremony, even if it was just a Mise-En-Scene. Butt his had to take place where it all started, in Berlin.
Ever since the capitulation of Weidling the pioneer school of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) in Berlin-Karlshorst used to bet he Russian headquarters. The surrender ceremony now was supposed to take place in the officers ward room of the school – planned in detail by Stalin himself. For the Western Powers US-General Carl Spaatz, the British Air Marshal William Tedder und General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny signed the documents. But they were just mere supernumeraries.
The true protagonists were General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces and Marshal of the Soviet Union, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. The German Field Marshal was eager to maintain his countenance. But the Zhukov did not tolerate that. With harsh words did he order Keitel to sign the documents. Keitel did so stiffly in the presence of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe (air force) and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (navy). Zhukov closed the ceremony with the words “the German delegation may now leave”. Keitel raised his Marshal baton and went.
At the following dinner the Germans were not present. For them Their table as laid in an adjacent building. The Signing ceremony was scheduled for May 8, 23.01 hours but when Keitel signed the papers it was already Wednesday, May 9, 00.16 hours. The clock in Moscow even indicated 02.16. For that reason the Americans celebrate V-Day, the end of the war, on May 7, the Germans on May 8 and the Russians on May 9.
In a nationwide address broadcast at 9 a.m., May 8 -- on what was then the new medium of television, as well as on radio -- Truman officially informed his fellow citizens that the war against Hitler was over. The speech garnered the largest audience in broadcast history to that date. "This is a solemn and glorious hour," Truman said. "We must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world -- to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law."
Churchill went on the air next, telling his audience, "We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing, but let us not forget for a moment the toils and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued."
Various surrender documents
Instrument of Surrenderof
All German armed forces in HOLLAND, in
northwest Germany including all islands,
and in DENMARK.
1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all armed forces in HOLLAND, in northwest GERMANY including the FRISLIAN ISLANDS and HELIGOLAND and all islands, in SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, and in DENMARK, to the C.-in-C. 21 Army Group. - This to include all naval ships in these areas - These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender unconditionally.
2. All hostilities on land, on sea, or in the air by German forces in the above areas to cease at 0800 hrs. British Double Summer Time on Saturday 5 May 1945.
3. The German command to carry out at once, and without argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued by the Allied Powers on any subject.
4. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be dealt with by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws and usages of war.
5. This insturment of surrender is independent of, without pre- judice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by or on behalf of the Allied Powers and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.
6. This instument of surrender is written in English and in German. The English version is the authentic text.
7. The decision of the Allied Powers will be final if any doubt or dispute arise as to the meaning or intrepretation of the surrender terms.
Hans-Georg von Friedeburg
Kinzel
G. Wagner
B. L. Montgomery
Field - Marshal
Poleck
Friedel
4 May 1945
1830 hrs.
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorties and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at - -2301-- hours Central European time on -- 8 May-- and to remain in the positions occupied at that time. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commander, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Soviet High Command.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
Signed at Rheims at 0241 on the 7th day of May, 1945.
France
On behalf of the German High Command.
Jodl
In the presence
On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, W. B. Smith
On behalf of the Soviet High Command, Souslaparov
F Sevez, Major General, French Army
(Witness)
1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorties and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at - -2301-- hours Central European time on -- 8 May-- and to remain in the positions occupied at that time. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commander, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Soviet High Command.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
Signed at Rheims at 0241 on the 7th day of May, 1945.
France
On behalf of the German High Command.
Jodl
In the presence
On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, W. B. Smith
On behalf of the Soviet High Command, Souslaparov
F Sevez, Major General, French Army
(Witness)