DATED 0241 7 May 1945 Rheims, France. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 23.01 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945, to remain in all positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. Consequently, the physical signing was delayed until nearly 1.00 a.m. on 9 May, Central European Time; and then back-dated to 8 May to be consistent with the Reims agreement and the public announcements of the surrender already made by Western leaders. French forces operated under SHAEF command, but General de Gaulle was demanding that General de Tassigny sign separately for the French High Command; but in that case it would be politically unacceptable for there to be no American signature on the definitive surrender document, while the Soviets would not agree to there being more than three Allied signatories in total – one of whom would have to be Zhukov. "[18] General Alfred Jodl was sent to Reims to attempt to persuade Eisenhower otherwise, but Eisenhower shortcircuited any discussion by announcing at 9.00 p.m. on the 6th that, in the absence of a complete capitulation, he would close British and American lines to surrendering German forces at midnight on 8 May and resume the bombing offensive against remaining German-held positions and towns. "[6] The Provisional Government of the French Republic, however, was not party to the Yalta agreement and refused to recognise it, which created a diplomatic problem as formal inclusion of the additional clause in the EAC text would inevitably create a French demand for equal representation in any dismemberment decisions. Ambassador William Strang, 1st Baron Strang, British representative at the EAC, claimed: It is impossible at present to foresee in what circumstances hostilities with Germany may in the end be suspended. “There’s this huge sense that not only do they want the Germans soldiers to be able to surrender to the British, but they really are quite keen to secure a safe passage for German civilians.”. Chief of the High Command; They mandated that capitulation had to be unconditional and restricted to the purely military aspects of a local surrender, that no commitments were to be given to the enemy, and that surrender was to be without prejudice to any subsequent general instrument of surrender which might replace any document of partial surrender and which would be jointly imposed on Germany by the three primary Allied Powers. "[26], Consequently, Eisenhower arranged for the commanders in chief of each of the three German armed services in person to be flown from Flensburg to Berlin early on 8 May; where they were kept waiting through the day until 10:00 p.m. when the Allied delegation arrived, at which point the amended surrender text was provided to them. Since D-Day in June 1944, Allied forces had steadily fought through northern Europe. Generaladmiral von Friedeburg committed suicide shortly afterwards, on 23 May 1945, upon the dissolution of the Flensburg Government. [17] German forces in the east were ordered instead to fight their way westwards. Dr Johnson continued by saying that, among the new German high command, a preference was expressed that they would rather surrender to British and American forces, over surrendering to the Russians who were closing in on Berlin from the East. Since Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for Western Europe technically outranked Zhukov, the act of signing on behalf of the Western Allies passed to his deputy, Air Chief Marshal Tedder. “They want to effectively surrender so they can pivot eastwards. [15] From 5 May, Army Group Centre was also engaged in the brutal suppression of the Prague uprising. In the final days of April 1945, the State Department had notified the protecting powers, and all other remaining neutral governments (such as Ireland), that following the forthcoming German surrender, the continued identity of the German state would rest solely in the four Allied Powers, who would immediately recall all German diplomatic staff, take ownership of all German state property, extinguish all protecting power functions, and require the transfer of all archives and records to one or another of the embassies of the western Allies. [10] But with the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on the Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control had been split in two. This ‘Volkssturm’ was made up of largely untrained German civilians, loyal to the party and its leader. Meanwhile, the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the Western Allies agreed in August 1944 to general guidelines for the terms of local military surrenders to be concluded with any capitulating German forces. Dr Johnston added: “Because the other thing they are very conscious of as well is, if the German soldiers and the Wehrmacht forces fighting there are forced into the Russians, they are far more likely to be treated more humanely under the rules of war as they are by the British and Americans, then perhaps they are the Russians. [24] Eisenhower immediately agreed, acknowledging that the act of surrender signed in Reims should be considered "a brief instrument of unconditional military surrender",[25] and undertook to attend with correctly accredited representatives of the German High Command for a "more formal signing" of a suitably amended text presided over by Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Berlin on 8 May. 233480. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army. WWII The German Surrender: The End Of The War In Europe Adolf Hitler's suicide in April 1945 allowed his successor an opportunity to negotiate, but the allies would only accept a total surrender. Dönitz attempted to form a government at Flensburg on the Danish border, and was joined there on 2 May 1945 by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) (English: "German High Command") under Wilhelm Keitel, which had previously relocated, first to Krampnitz near Potsdam, and then to Rheinsberg, during the Battle of Berlin. As 1945 commenced, the desperation felt by the Wehrmacht in the face of endless fighting to the East and West of Germany, reached high levels and resulted in some anguished decision making by the commanders responsible for running Germany’s war machine. On 5 May 1945, all German forces in Bavaria and Southwest Germany signed an act of surrender to the Americans at Haar, outside Munich; coming into effect on 6 May. [4], In the event of German surrender, the EAC text would be substituted by a simplified, military-only version based on the wording of the partial surrender instrument of German forces in Italy signed at the surrender of Caserta. “The following day they come back, and they do accept this unconditional surrender in their local area, which is North-West Germany, Holland, Denmark, and that’s where they are going to surrender their troops and surrender them to the British.”. The second part, articles 1–5, related to the military surrender by the German High Command of all forces on land, at sea and in the air, to the surrender of their weapons, to their evacuation from any territory outside German boundaries as they stood on 31 December 1937, and to their liability to captivity as prisoners of war. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general. On 4 May 1945, German forces acting under instruction from the Dönitz Government and facing the British and Canadian 21st Army Group, signed an act of surrender at Lüneburg Heath to come into effect on 5 May. Witness the end of World War II in Europe with Germany signing the unconditional surrender in May 1945 War in Europe ending with Germany's unconditional surrender, May 1945. An earlier version of the text had been signed in a ceremony in Reims in the early hours of 7 May 1945. At the end of April, Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the war entered its final days. This was understood by the Allies as allowing unlimited scope to impose arrangements for the restitution and reparation of damages. 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