The Fine Print
WW2 Fine Print

The Allies forgot their own surrender: why Germany gave up twice in 1945

The paper that ended the war in Europe was signed in a school in Reims at two forty-one in the morning on 7 May 1945, and it was the wrong one. The Allies had spent more than six months in London writing Germany's surrender.

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In this story

  1. 0:00The wrong paper
  2. 1:20Five paragraphs
  3. 2:14The London paper
  4. 2:58How it left the room
  5. 3:27Winant's plane
  6. 4:32Why nobody could wait
  7. 5:41The little red schoolhouse
  8. 6:13Take part
  9. 6:59The signing
  10. 8:08Sign no documents
  11. 9:03The reporter
  12. 10:50The next morning
  13. 11:16Berlin
  14. 12:06The flag
  15. 12:48Keitel
  16. 13:32Two dates
  17. 14:20What happened to them
  18. 15:29The paper comes back
  19. 16:36No government to read it

Sources

Sources

  • Forrest C. Pogue, The Supreme Command (US Army, 1954); Earl F. Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany (US Army, 1975); Foreign Relations of the United States, 1944 vol. I and 1945 vol. III; the Act of Military Surrender, Jodl's undertaking and the Berlin Act (US National Archives); the Declaration of 5 June 1945 (60 Stat. 1649); Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe; S. M. Shtemenko, The Soviet General Staff at War; Jean de Lattre de Tassigny's memoirs; V. Lota (2009) on Susloparov; Ed Kennedy, Ed Kennedy's War; Marc Lancaster, World War II on Deadline; Time magazine, 1945-46; the Associated Press's 2012 statement; Stars and Stripes, 3, 8 and 9 May 1945.

Film

  • War Department Combat Bulletin 55 and US Army Signal Corps (National Archives); United News newsreels (Office of War Information); Universal Newsreel. Truman's voice: Universal, "Germany Gives Up", 8 May 1945.

Pictures

  • US Army Signal Corps prints (National Museum of the U.S. Navy, National Archives); Library of Congress; Imperial War Museum and Ministry of Information photographs; Lucien Jonas's painting of the signing (1946). Theatre Royal, Windsor: David P Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0. WAC switchboard: PhotosNormandie, CC BY-SA 2.0. De Lattre: Willem van de Poll, Nationaal Archief, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL. Vyshinsky: G. Vail, RIA Novosti archive, CC BY-SA 3.0. The table at Karlshorst: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R83900, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE. Levitan: F. Kislov, via mos.ru, CC BY 4.0. Moscow, 9 May 1945: Moscow Main Archive, via mos.ru, CC BY 4.0. Susloparov and Antonov portraits: Russian Ministry of Defence (mil.ru), CC BY 4.0.

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