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The War’s Over—Over Here(Continued from page 1)up to carry the Prime Minister's announcement. The streets were bedecked with flags. People shouted joyously at each other.The surrender document, according to AP, was signed for the German Government by Col. Gen. Gustav Jodi, new chief of staff. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, chief of staff to General Eisenhower, signed for the Allies.Jodi and his fellow delegate, General Admiral Han's George Freideberg, were asked, in the presence of General Eisenhower, whether they understood the surrender terms imposed and whether they would be carried out by Germany. The two German representatives answered, Yes.Jodi, after putting his signature to the full surrender, said he wanted to speak. When he was given leave to do so, he declared, With this signature, the German people and armed forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the victors* hands.The Soviet Union's representative who signed the surrender document was Maj. Gen Ivan Susloparoff, who was formerly in Rome as Russian delegate to the Advisory Board of the Allied Commission. General Francois Sevez signed for France.Yesterday's final capitulation came after three major battlefield surrenders. On May 2, the German forces in Italy and western Austria laid down their arms. On May 4, enemy forces in The Netherlands, northwest Ger many and Denmark gave up. On May 5, the German army group facing the Allied 6th Army Group in southern Germany and Austria capitulated.But these were not the first surrenders of German troops. Ever since the June 6 landing in Normandy, enemy troops had been surrendering in droves. They surrendered in enormous numbers at Stalingrad early in 1943. and even more gave up to the Allied armies in Tunisia in May, 1943.There were tension and anxious waiting during the morning and afternoon yesterday as reports and rumors kept pouring in that the V-E Day proclamation would be announced shortly.Speaking over the radio station at Flens-burg, near the Danish border. Count Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk, Foreign Minister in Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz’s government, asked the Germans to lay down their armsTHE STARS AND STRIPES (Mediterranean)Newspaper of the U. S Armed Force* published daily for troops In Italyunder the auspices of the Information and Education Section. MTOUSAPublications Officer Maj Robert Neville Executive Officer. Maj Robert J Christenson. Editor, Lt Ed Hill Fh-cal Officer Lt W F ToutOffice, 152 Via del Tritone in 11 Messaygero building. Rome Telephones: Publications Officer. 4785Executive Officer. 478110 Editorial 478295. Weekly and Sports. 4789m: Circulation. 478640 Night phone. 478295Acknowledgment is made of the editorial services supplied oy the United Nations News Service and the Army News ServiceKtHrs Stripes is printed at the plant of II Mesatuggero, 152 Viadel Ti I tone. RomeManaging Editor, Sgt Dave Golding; News Editor. Sgt. Bill McElwaln; Sports Editor Spt Bill Gilhain.Staff 8*t William Hogan. Jack FoisU*. Stanley MelUoif. Grayson B Tewksbury. Tom McRae. Herb Mltgang. Joe Bally. Bob Pleisher. Charles Sloe U m. L Ion el V a 11 Do* ■ r lin. Pr ter Furst. Ha r ry Sh trshow, John Carey. Bo b Meyer Howard Tuubman, Lyle Dowling. George McCoy Cpla David Hntrh-h 18011 Ij**r ®°b Wronker Walter Pulliam, Merrd W ^ , Milton Brawn Pvu Jerry Houghton. Tom Coll Alvm Dann, Joe Redmond: Lt. Paul Martin.Mechanical Supervisor Sgt. Irv Levinson: Foreman, 8gt Ed Scvensky.Mechanic*, Staff Bgte Fred Unwin. Edward Rosaman, Seymour Orgel, rvJU IT V* V,nrent w Pierce John Brooks Wilfred Wood. Joe Kroll l.ee GUw‘f- Jde Lucaa, Cpks. Martin Ktuncdy, Math an Schwarta, Oeorffe .Howland.everywhere. This broadcast came a little after 2 PM yesterday.Schwerin von Krosigk said:German men and women: The High Com mand of the armed forces has today at the or der of Grand Admiral Doenitz declared the unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops.As leading minister of the Reich Govern ment, which the Admiral of the Fleet has appointed for dealing with war tasks, I turn at this tragic moment of our history to the German nation. After a heroic fight of almost six years of incomparable hardness, Germany has succumbed to the overwhelming power of her enemies.To continue the war would only mean senseless bloodshed and futile disintegration. The Government, which has a feeling of a responsibility for the future of its nation, was compelled to act on the collapse of all physical and material forces and to demand of the enemy a cessation of hostilities.Earlier in the day there were reports over the Free Danish radio that, all German troops in Norway had surrendered and would probably be interned in Sweden.An AP report from SHAEF said that the end of hostilities in Europe had apparently come to an end by this morning. For the first time since June last year not a single field operation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's armies was discussed at the regular forenoon press conference at SHAEF.The entire attitude of every one at headquarters was of confidence and expectancy for the most important development of the war—complete and unconditional surrender in Europe.Communique No. 394, surely one of the last to be issued, told of the liberation of Pil-sen, Czechoslovak industrial city and home of the Skoda'munitions works, by the U. S. 3rd Army. But nobody at SHAEF seemed to care. Nothing mattered except the news of the final surrender.In Washington, London and Moscow the wires and telephones were kept hot, and Churchill presided at a full cabinet meeting.But even as the people of the United States and Britain waited for the biggest news of our generation, they were mindful that victory in Europe did not mean an end of the bloody carnage in the Pacific fighting.Early yesterday it was disclosed that Admiral Doenitz had ordered all German U-boats into port—the logical preliminary to a final surrender.Despite the official signing of the German surrender, there was still the danger that some minor mopoing up might be needed on the continent. Nazi diehards might refuse to obey Doenitz's orders. The German-controlled Czechoslovak radio broadcast a statement yesterday that the German commander in Czechoslovakia would not recognize a surrender by Doenitz.Breslau Falls To Red Army As War EndsIn what may be Marshal Stalin’s last Order of the Day in the European war, he announced last night the capture of Breslau. Germany's eighth largest city. Breslau, surrounded and bypassed weeks ago, was taken by Marshal Ivan Koniev’s forces. More than 40,000 prisoners were seized.An article in Pravda, leading Moscow newspaper, today stated that Himmler was held direetly responsible for the crimes perpetrated in the German concentration ramp of Auschwitz. More than 4,000,000 people were exterminated at Auschwitz, Pravda said. Among them were Soviet eitixens, Poles, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutch, Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs, Rumanians and Hungarians. The camp was set up direetly by the German Government and organized by Himmler, who inspected it personally and acquainted himself with the methods of mass extermination anti himself gave instructions for the bloody, barbaric business.The German ports of Emden and WiJhelmshaven and the area around them, as well as the Frisian Islands, were surrendered in a formal way last Friday night, according to a delayed Reuter’s dispatch. Geneial Erich von Straube signed the agreement for the Germans with Lt. Gen. Guy Simmonds, commander of the Canadian II Corps in charge for the Allies. Discussions went on for two hours at the little holiday resort town of Swischenuhn, eight miles from Oldenburge. The German general was described “as most cooperative.”Heinrich Himmler ordered that Dachau, most infamous of Nazi concentration camps be evacuated on April 14. He also required that every inmate be exterminated rather Ilian allow their testimony of Nazi Inhumanity to fall into Allied hands. In an official statement from the Allied 6th Army Group reported by AP, it was reported that Dachau's commandant suggested to Himmler that the camp be turned over to the Allies. Himmler forbade such action. The Allied forces arrived in time to prevent carrying out of llimmler's orders.The Nazis* V-bomb experimental station at Peenemunde near the Baltic has been seized by forces of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky’s 2nd White Russian Armies. This capture was reported yesterday in a Stalin Order of the Day that told also of the seizure of the bypassed Swinemunde naval base and the island of Rugen, which is 80 miles northwest of Stettin.As if in confrrmation of headlines in the British press that VE-Day was only a few hours distant, AP reported from London, Red Army officers were seen yesterday strolling near the Soviet Embassy with arms linked, singing lustily. This was in contrast io the dignity of the Russians’ customary demeanor in London.British Officers Received Joyfully In CopenhagenLONDON, May 7—British officers and men in Copenhagen who entered the city to arrange final details of German capitulation and the restoration of Denmark to freedom. were given a royal welcome, Reuter’s reported today.The people of Copenhagen ran into restaurants, hotels, shops and even private homes and brought, out gilded and brightly - colored chairs They sat the soldiers on them and lifted them to their shoulders Women threw flowers over the troops and hugged and cheered them.Shooting broke out when a unit of Danish, police troops arrived, from Sweden and was attacked by German auxiliary police. Several Danes were killed.
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Mediterranean Marseilles Stars and Stripes
Marseille, Provence Alpes Cote d Azur, FR
Tue, May 08, 1945
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