Five Brothers and a War

German Capitulation

The capitulation of Germany is a stupefying series of events, and the dates of their surrenders (plural) ranges widely—along with the political motives and egos involved. The summary of surrenders is as follows: April 29—the capitulation of the combined German armies in southwestern Europe, including Italy, to the Allied forces led by Alexander, the British field marshal. May 3—British Field Marshal Montgomery met with German General Admiral Georg von Friedeburg and several others at his headquarters tent in Lüneberg Heath, just south of Hamburg, Germany. The Germans wanted a conditional surrender, whereby they would only surrender their armies fighting the Soviets, and then only to the Western Powers, not to the Soviets. Montgomery told them to surrender unconditionally or the Allies would unleash 10,000 aircraft to decimate Germany. The Germans were annoyed, and told him that they had no authorization to surrender unconditionally. Montgomery said that they had no choice in the matter. The Germans said they would confer with their new leader, Dönitz. May 4—The Germans returned to Montgomery with an unconditional surrender of those Germans fighting the British-Canadian 21 st Army Group in Holland and in Northwest Germany. This surrender was signed at 6:30 pm and was to become effective the following morning at 8 o’clock. This is the date the Dutch hold in remembrance of the sacrifices of their wars, called Dodenherdenking (“Remembering of the dead”.) May 5—The German surrender to Montgomery went into effect. This is the day celebrated in Holland as Bevrijdingsdag (“Liberation Day”). Separately, the Canadian Lt. General Charles Foulkes summoned German General Blaskowitz to the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen, Holland, to work out/dictate specific terms of the surrender of all German forces in Holland. There were misstatements that a typewriter could not be found and therefore they could not create the surrender document. Supposedly, they agreed to meet the following day to sign the document. This story stems from the issue a week earlier, with the negotiations in Achterveld to allow food relief to Western Holland. A typewriter could not be found, and therefore some food drops occurred prior to the formal agreement being signed. Another misstatement was that the Germans said they needed to reflect on the document for 24 hours before signing it, and then they would meet the following day to sign the document. The reality is that the document was signed in the afternoon of May 5 in the Hotel de Wereld . May 6—The parties met again, this time in a nearby university auditorium to work out additional technical and tactical details. Col. Gen. Blaskowitz signed a receipt that he received the documents provided to him.

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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