83Rd Infantry Division Thunderbolt. Vol 1 No 3. May 12, 1945
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WThunderbolt| NORMANDY. BRITTANY. LOIRE VALLEY. LUXEMBOURG. HURTGEN FOREST. ARDENNES. FIRST TO RHINE. ELBE BRIDGEHEAD! | V0L1, No. 3 SOMEWHERE IN GERMANY MAY 12,1945 United Nations Celebrate V-E Day As Germany Signs Unconditional Surrender Allied World Rejoices At End of Bitter Six Year Struggle; Complete Capitulation Signed Monday At General Eisenhowers Hqrs. At Rheims Victory in Europe Day was celebrated on Tuesday of this week following a joint proclamation by President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin that Germany had signed unconditional surrender terms and hostilities would officially cease at one minute after midnight Tuesday. In all Allied capitals the news was received with wild enthusiasm and crowds surged into the streets shouting and whistling in celebration of the victory. In Washington, President Truman in gium and bis family have been liberated to cease hostilities,*' he concluded. an address to the nation said that the and are in Allied hands. Despite the claim of the German radio surrender terms \ver< signed officially On Wednesday the surrender prior to the capitualion that Hitler was at 0241 hours Monday in Rheims, agreement was ratified in Berlin in the personally conducting the defense of France where General Eisenhower has presence of Marshal Zuhkov, Air Berlin, Russian correspondents have re• set up his headquarters. The president Marshal Tedder and General Spaatz for ported that no trace of the leading war further asserted that "our victory is on• the Allies and General Keitel for the criminal was found after the fall of the ly half won and not until the final Germans. Correspondents who went to city. Himmler, who conferred in Den• vestige of resistance in the Pacific is Berlin reported the city is almost mark on April 24th with the ,9»uliih overcome can there be a real completely leveled and that Nazi Red Cross, reported at =ai tone that celebration." government buildings have been Hitler had a hmmonge of the brain In London, Prime jMinister Churchill thoroughly gutted. One BBC correspon• and was not expected to hve more than in an address to the Jlouse of Commons dent reported driving for a half hour 48 hours. The German radio later an• told of the German, capitulation and through the streets of Berlin and seeing nounced that Hitler had been killed proclaimed a two-day holiday in only' a half dozen houses in which during the siege of Berlin but no evi• recognition of the clinax of a six-year people were living. dence of this was found by the Rus• struggle. The final capitulation of the German sians after the conquest of the capital. army on Monday followed close in the STALIN SALVO wake of the surrender of all enemy C0ERBELS SUICIDE Marshal Stalin announced the victory troops in Northern Italy and Western Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda in a special order of the day as 2000 Austria on May 2rd and the capitulation minister, was found dead by Red Army artillery pieces fired 30 salvos to tell the three days later of Germans in the troops during the assault on Berlin. people of Russia that the war with Netherlands, Northwestern Germany Goebbels and his entire family commit• Germany was over. The announcement and in Denmark. Included in this lat• ted suicide by taking poison when the in Moscow came early in the morning, ter group were Germans holding out on fall of the city became imminent but the streets were soon filled with the islands off the coast of Germany Reichmarshal Herman Goering, head people who hailed the long awaited vic• and Denmark. of the Luftwaffe, has been captured by tory and paid special tribute to Marshal American Seventh Army troops. He D0ENITZ SPEAKS Stalin and the Red Army. is reported to have told Allied officials Similar demonstrations were held in Grand Admiral Doenitz who took that he was forced to flee Berlin when New York, Paris, Brussels and other over the German government after the Hitler ordered his execution. He Allied cities. Countless thousands of alleged death of Hitler told his people escaped to southern Germany with the people jammed their way into Times of the unconditional surrender in a aid of an SS officer who did not carry Square. They sang and danced through special broadcsst over the German radio. out Hitler's death sentence. ankle deep layers of ticker tape and torn He said that the strength of Germany Other prominent Nazis captured by paper which had been thrown down has succumbed to the overwhelming General Patch's Seventh Army include from the buildings. might of our enemies and that the Field Marshals von Rundstedt and Kes- continuation of the war would mean selring. It was von Rundstedt who plan• CEASE FIRING only senseless bloodshed and useless ned the German winter offensive in the Although the war did not come to devestation. Ardennes last December. an official end until one minute past "The government, with a sense of He is reported to have told American midnight Tuesday, the cease fire order responsibility for the welfare of the ... ' troops that the main reason for his was given immediately after the signing German people, has to draw the con• failure to repel the invasion of Norman- of the surrender agreement in order clusion from the collapse of all physical to save as many lives as possible. and material resources to ask the enemv (Continued on Page 4) The surrender took place in a school house at Rheims, France which is Last 85rd stop on the road to Berlin before V-E Day was the badly battered serving as General Eisenhower's head• city of Zerbst, east of the Elbe. The hurgermeister wanted to surrender, but the quarters. The historical document was local SS chief failed to agree; so for 15 unforgettable days massed 85rd signed for Germany by Col Gen Gustav Victory Quotes artillery shelled the village into devastation and submission. When the white Jodl, new chief of staff of the German flags finally flew for good, 85rd troops took the town without firing a shot. Army, for the Allied Expeditionary Force (Signal Corps Photos) by Lt Gen Bedell Smith, General Ei• "Our victory is only half won. When the last Japanese Division has senhower's chief of staff, for the Soviet surrendered unconditionally then, and then only, will our job be done." Union by Major General Suslapatow and for France by General Francois Se- President Harry S. Truman vez. When the last name was affixed Point Payoff to the document, the Germans met with General Eisenhower who asked if they "After six long years the threat of German aggression to a free world fully understood the implications of the Here's point payoff ten million civilians in uniform have been unconditional surrender terms. They has been finally eliminated. My congratulations to every Allied fighting stated they did and would carry out the waiting for, as broadcast by AFN Thursday night. Under this system agreement to the fullest possible extent. man on the earning of a well deserved victory." 1,300,000 GIs, 90 percent of them combat men, will be discharged Prime Minister Winston Churchill FLEET SURRENDERS from the service as fast as possible. The British Admiralty has issued or• 1. One point for each month of service. ders for the surrender of the German "Germany will not be dismembered as a result of her capitulation but I fleet and all ships at sea must wireless 2. One point for each month overseas. their positions to the nearest Allied a m now certain that we can look forward to a long period of peace in Europe. station. All German ships in harbor The Nazi party has been crushed under the heel of this great Allied victor;. 3. Five points for each combat award, including battle stars. must remain there and all submarines Bronze and Silver Stars, Purple Hearts and other battlefield at sea must surface and fly a black flag. Marshal Joseph Stalin The German cruisers, Prinz Eugen and awards, though not combat Infantryman Badge. Nurnberd, have already surrendered to 4. Twelve points for each dependent under 18 years, up to and the British. Allied warships have "On behalf of all my peoples I ask you to tell the members of the AEF entered Oslo Fjord in Norway and Scot• including three. tish officials have arrived in that country how dee ply grateful we are to them and how unbounded is our admiration to complete negotiations for the surren• for the courage and determination which, under your leadership. hat-, Men with 85 or more points are definitely on their way out, der of German troops there. RAF Lan• though the critical point for many will be lower. May 12th is last caster landed for the first time in Ger• them to their goal of a complete and crushing victoty." many Wednesday and brought back day ior points to count in this set-up. 4500 Allied prisoners of war to Eng• King George to Gen. Eisenhower land. In Austria King Leopold of Bel• PAGE 2 83rd THUNDERBOLT MAY 12, 1945 m 83rd Thunderbolt Germans Ihink . Swimming Saboteur Official Weekly Newspaper of the 83 rd Infantry Division 329th Platoon The Thunderbolt is written by and for the men of the 85rd under the super• Full Regiment vision of Capt John C. Neff, Information-Education Officer, and Capt Thomas C. Roberts, Public Relations Officer. All material is censored by AC of S, 6-2. Member Camp Newspaper Service, 205 East 42nd St., NYC. If the Germans had known their po• STAFF: Managing Editor, Sgt AI Gladding; News Editor, Pfc John Maloney; sition, SZSgt Vernon C.