Monday, May 7, 1945. Germany unconditionally surrenders.

German General Alfred Jodl and admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed unconditional surrender documents at 2:41 a.m. at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims.  All Allied Powers are represented. Fighting was scheduled to end at 23:00 the following day.  Military operations on the Western Front came to an immediate end.

Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Leading Minister in the rump Flensburg Government, made a broadcast announcing the German surrender at 2:27 a.m.. 

The U-2336 sank two merchant ships in the Firth of Forth.

This Day in History: Last German U-boat in American waters

Riotous celebrations broke out in numerous places, including in Halifax, Nova Scotia, were they turned truly riotous.

American journalist Edward Kennedy broke an Allied embargo on news of the signing in the afternoon.

The NKVD and Polish anti Communist forces fought in the Battle of Kuryłówka with the Poles winning the battle, but fortunes would reverse the following day.

Spain severed relations with Nazi Germany. . . a bit late.

The British government in India published the report of an official commission of enquiry into the Bengal famine of 1943 finding that it could have been adverted through government action.

"These Army nurses, among the first to arrive on Okinawa, May 3, wash out of steel helmets.

They are, left to right, Lt. Margaret J. Whitton, Chicago Ill., who has seen 14 months service in Italy and Africa; Lt. Ruth Anderson, Rockford, Ill., Lt. Marjorie Dulain, Iron Mountain, Mich., and Lt. Eleanor Kennedy, Judington, Mich. 7 May, 1945.Photographer not credited.Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive."

Hard fighting continued on Okinawa.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 6, 1945. Stopping advances.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, boats and ships, Czechoslovakia, entertainment, George S. Patton, Siege of Breslau

Friday, April 27, 1945. Mussolini captured by Partisans, Second Austrian Republic comes into being.

Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisans while attempting to cross into Switzerland.

The Red Army took Potsdam, Prenzlau, Angemunde and Tempelhof airfield.

US troops liberated Kaufering concentration camp.

The Western Allies rejected Himmler's peace offer for the Germans to lay down their arms in the west and sent a reminder that the German surrender was to be unconditional.

One of the interesting things here is that its not entirely clearly that the Western Allies understood the offer the way it was made.  Theoretically, it might have been possible to accept the offer as a largescale troop surrender which, while it would have ended fighting in the west, it would not have ended the war against Germany.

The U.S. Fifth Army reached Genoa, Italy, which was mostly already liberated by Italian partisans.

SS architect Hans Schleif committed suicide at age 43.  Schleif had been involved in removing cultural material from Poland, but he oddly never really seemed to be fully on board with the worst elements of Nazism.  His death was probably needless, but he probably would have served time after the war.

Former Austrian chancellor Karl Renner set up a provisional government composed of Social Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Communists and proclaimed the reestablishment of Austria as a democratic republic.  This became the Second Austrian Republic, which remains today.

US and Philippine forces commenced the Battle of Davao.  US forces took Baguio.

U.S. troops firing a pack howitzer in the Philippines, April 27, 1945.

Thursday, April 26, 1945. Petain arrested.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Berlin, Berlin Germany, Dachau, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Operation Exodus, Philippe Pétain, Prisoners of War, Rationing, Red Army, Vichy France, War Crimes, World War Two