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N0KFQ > TODAY 07.05.15 19:06l 42 Lines 1847 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 55198_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - May 7
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Sent: 150507/1333Z 55198@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1945
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at Reims
On this day in 1945, the German High Command, in the person of
General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all
German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France.
At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German
surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies.
But General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all
German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West.
If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off
the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in
order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the
enveloping Soviet forces. Jodl radioed Grand Admiral Karl Donitz,
Hitler's successor, with the terms. Donitz ordered him to sign.
So with Russian General Ivan Susloparov and French General
Francois Sevez signing as witnesses, and General Walter Bedell
Smith, Ike's chief of staff, signing for the Allied Expeditionary
Force, Germany was-at least on paper-defeated. Fighting would
still go on in the East for almost another day. But the war in
the West was over.
Since General Susloparov did not have explicit permission from
Soviet Premier Stalin to sign the surrender papers, even as a
witness, he was quickly hustled back East-into the hands of the
Soviet secret police, never to be heard from again. Alfred Jodl,
who was wounded in the assassination attempt on Hitler on July
20, 1944, would be found guilty of war crimes (which included the
shooting of hostages) at Nuremberg and hanged on October 16,
1946-then granted a pardon, posthumously, in 1953, after a German
appeals court found Jodl not guilty of breaking international
law.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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