Five Brothers and a War

German Capitulation

The next day turned out to be the last day of the war in Holland, although the exact order of events is somewhat murky. General Foulkes learned that Field Marshal Montgomery had negotiated a surrender document to include Denmark, northern Germany and Holland. He immediately summoned Generals Blaskowitz and Reichert to the Hotel De Wereld in Wageningen for a meeting on May 5. The purpose was to work out the logistics of surrender, as the surrender itself had already taken place the evening before.

Over the years, there has been some controversy over the purpose of the meetings in Wageningen. There is also misinformation about when the document was actually signed, with some claiming that a typewriter could not be found, so the document was not signed until May 6. The facts are otherwise. The issue of the unavailability of a typewriter actually is in regard to the food relief meetings the prior week in Achterveld. The Dutch recognize May 5 as the day of capitulation—not only because of the meeting in Wageningen, but also because that is the effective date of the surrender document signed by Montgomery. The actual audio recording of the meeting is linked on the following button:

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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