See how it looked in 1945

Germans Surrender

Tuesday Set as VE-Day, Great Britain Announces

By the War Editor of The Christian Science Monitor

Germany has signed a preliminary instrument of surrender to the Allies. Tomorrow will be observed as V-Day in Europe, the British Ministry of Information has announced.

Reuters carried word from London of the signing of the preliminary document – a monumental instrument of 15 pages.

Radiocast announcements are scheduled to be made tomorrow by Prime Minister Churchill at 3 p.m. and by King George at 9 p.m. The day will be observed as a public holiday in Britain.

On Sunday at 8:41 p.m. (E.W.T.), according to the Associated Press, unconditional surrender of the German High Command took place at General Eisenhower’s headquarters in a schoolhouse at Rheims.

The Associated Press – after carrying a dispatch from Paris saying that filing privileges of the Associated Press Paris Bureau had been suspended – declared that today was not VE-Day, but that “Surrender Day” was correct.

A radiocast by Edward R. Murrow from London said Prime Minister Churchill and President Truman were ready to give official announcement of the end of the war today, but that Marshal Stalin was not ready.

Delay in the final announcement also appeared due to fighting in Czechoslovakia, where General Patton had captured the great arms center of Pilsen and was pushing on to Prague.

In a brief ceremony, the greatest and most destructive war in history virtually came to an end.

According to Associated Press reports, the capitulation, which ended 5 years, 8 months, and 6 days of bloodshed and misery, was signed by four generals.

It was signed for Germany by Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl, new Chief of Staff of the German Army; for the Supreme Allied Command in the West by Lieut. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff for General Eisenhower; for Russia by Gen. Ivan Susloparoff; and for France, by Gen. François Sevez.

General Eisenhower was not at the signing, but immediately afterward General Jodl and his fellow delegate, Admiral Hans Georg Friedeburg, were received by the Supreme Commander.

They were sternly asked if they understood the surrender terms imposed upon Germany, and if they would be carried out by Germany.

They answered yes.

Heralding the news of the final capitulation over the air, the voice of German Foreign Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, said that Admiral Dönitz had ordered the unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops.

The Dönitz order cam 40 minutes after Britain’s BBC reported the complete capitulation of German forces in Norway.

German troops in Norway will march into Sweden for internment within a few hours, according to the Stockholm newspaper “Expressen.”

A few hours previously Admiral Dönitz had ordered commanders of all German U-boats to cease hostilities, since German forces in Norway, where most of Germany’s submarine bases were located, were about to surrender.

The German commander in Prague broadcast his refusal to recognize an announcement radiocast from Flensburg that Admiral Dönitz had ordered all German force fighting to surrender.

“In our area,” said the Prague radiocast, “the struggle will be continued until the Germans on the East are saved and until our way back into the homeland is secure.”

Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl, who signed the unconditional surrender for Germany, was believed to be the same as Gen. Alfred Jodl who was wounded last July 20 in the attempted assassination of Hitler.

Precisely when he became Chief of Staff was not clear. Col. Gen. Heinz Guderian had occupied that position until the closing days of the siege of Berlin.

Czechoslovakia: Patton Advances Toward Prague

Despite the announced German surrender, American and Russian armies beat through Czechoslovakia and Austria in the final mop-up of continued German resistance. Embattled patriots in Prague said United States Third Army tanks were only 15 miles from that city, largest still in German hands.

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. threw nearly 250,000 Third Army troops into the closing campaign. In advances of up to 25 miles, his infantry advanced within 50 miles southwest and 52 miles south of the Czech Capital.

Yugoslavia: Drive into Austria Reported by Tito

Troops of Marshal Josep Broz (Tito) have crossed the border into Carinthia, Austria, and are fighting for Klagenfurt, the railway center on the Trieste-Vienna line, 22 miles east of Villach, on which British Eighth Army troops were reported to be advancing yesterday, a Yugoslav communiqué quoted by Yugoslav Radio reported today.

There also is fierce fighting for Dravograd, 35 miles west of Klagenfurt, where strong German intervention from Maribor and Gustani was repulsed, the communiqué said.

Eastern Front: Russians Occupy Nazi Seaplane Base

Assault forces of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky’s Second White Russian Army captured the German island seaplane base of Rugen, 45 miles south of Sweden, yesterday, previous to the surrender. Hundreds of Germans brought out of hiding in little Baltic ports around the island today swelled the number of prisoners to nearly 7,000.

All of Germany’s Baltic shores were cleared, while Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia smashed into the outskirts of the Moravian war production center and railway junction of Olmutz (Olomouc), 128 miles from Prague on the main rail line.

Gen. Andrel I. Yeremenko’s Fourth Ukrainian Army, moving into approaches of Bohemia in the region of Hohenstadt, reached positions 115 miles east of Prague today, while silence still was maintained over the activities of the First, Second, and Third Ukrainian Armies, north, east and south of the Czech Capital.

Hurrying through the low hills of the Sudetenland, General Yeremenko’s troops after storming and capturing Sternberk (Sternberg) turned northward toward Hohenstadt, 21 miles away, situated on the highway which runs through Hohenmaugh and Kolin to Prague. There were reports of fighting on the outskirts of Hohenstadt.

Japan: Six Generals Win Promotion

Elevation of six Japanese generals and new posts for three admirals to strengthen the defense of Nippon were announced today by the Japanese Domei news agency.

Gen. Kenji Doihara, Inspector General of Military Training, was named to serve concurrently on the Supreme War Council, bringing membership on the Emperor’s advisory military council to 22.