Approves prior changes –
EIFA foregoes experiments with 1945 football rules
…
City skeptical of Hitler’s death
Seeing is believing, so report is doubted
Wednesday, May 2, 1945
The report of Hitler’s death greeted Pittsburghers as they left their jobs last evening and they stampeded newsstands to buy “extras” telling of the long-awaited event.
But they took the report with a grain of salt.
“Oh, that’s his double!” said a woman as she peered at the big black headlines.
“That’s just German propaganda!” exclaimed another homeward-bound worker.
Bet he’s a suicide
“Seeing is believing – I’d have to see him dead!” said still another.
“I wonder if it’s true.” “Oh, that’s his stand-in.” “I’ll bet he committed suicide.” And so on.
Even among those who apparently believed the report, there wasn’t the elation that might have been evident at an earlier date. “That’s good,” said one “Extra” purchaser, “but it came too late.”
A soldier laughed. “Damn! I had designs on him myself.”
Good thing he did
A pretty office worker, reading the headlines, remarked: “So he died. That’s one good thing he did.”
An elderly man, glancing at a newsstand, opened his mouth in astonishment and, without a word, bought a paper.
Fervent eulogy
Some of the younger and less inhibited citizens let out whoops ay they heard the news, but their elders, by and large. just tucked their papers under their arms and went on home.
The most fervent eulogy was muttered by a husky individual who stood with his hands in his pockets, considering the event.
“The son of a bitch,” he said, and turned away.
Neues Österreich (May 3, 1945)
Der Krieg in Italien ist zu Ende
Rom, 2. Mai – Die deutsche Front in Italien ist bis auf geringen Widerstand am südlichen Ausgang des Brennerpasses zusammengebrochen.
Im Ostteil der italienischen Front haben sich die alliierten Truppen mit jugoslawischen Streitkräften bei Monfalcone vereinigt, den Isonzo überschritten und Udine befreit. Triest wurde von Truppen Marschall Titos erobert.
In Italien wurden bisher mehr als 160.000 deutsche Kriegsgefangene gemacht. Marschall Graziani unterzeichnete gestern die bedingungslose Übergabe seiner Truppen in der Provinz Ligurien und gab ihnen den Befehl, die Waffen niederzulegen.
Leitartikel: Götzendämmerung
Die rasende Verbrecherbande, an deren Spitze Hitler steht, hat weite Teile Europas in eine Wüstenei, Deutschland in einen riesigen Scherbenberg, in eine grausige Schädelstätte verwandelt. Es ist ein Zusammenbruch von beispiellosen Ausmaßen, eine Hölle, vor der das Herz erstarrt, das Wort verstummt. Aufgestiegen aus den Sümpfen, aus der Unterwelt einer brüchig gewordenen Gesellschaft, hat die „verschworene Gemeinschaft“ verlumpter Agitatoren und krimineller Abenteurer sich eine furchtbare Macht ergaunert – mit Hilfe kriegslüsterner Junker und beutegieriger Industriemagnaten, die für den schändlichsten Raubkrieg aller Zeiten ein Regime der Schande, der Lüge und des Mordes benötigten. Ein Schwindler aus Braunau, ein verkrachter Literat und ein heimtückischer Provokateur konnten nur darum eine Welt in Brand stecken, weil die industriellen und junkerlichen Machthaber Deutschlands ihnen den gesamten Machtapparat auslieferten, weil auch ein lausiger Tunichtgut, an den Schalthebel eines ungeheuren Kraftwerkes gestellt, unermesslichen Schaden anrichten kann. Die technischen und gesellschaftlichen Energien eines großen Staates des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts in den unkontrollierten Händen von ein paar apokalyptischen Spitzbuben – das hat die gigantische Katastrophe herbeigeführt.
Und diese Katastrophe, dieses von brennenden Städten durchloderte, vom Millionenschrei der Verzweiflung durchgellte, von Leichendunst durchqualmte Chaos war für die blutbesudelten Spitzbuben nur der Hintergrund für eine Dreigroschenoper mit Wagnermusik. Als schmutzige Possenreißer haben sie ihre Laufbahn begonnen, als schmutzige Possenreißer treten sie nun von der Bühne ihrer zerstörenden Tätigkeit. Es war ein Totentanz der Propaganda, der über den Trümmerhaufen Deutschland hinweglärmte. Unter dem Aufgebot aller verfügbaren Trommelwirbeln, Trauermärsche, Walkürenritt und Götterdämmerungsmotive teilte der deutsche Rundfunk mit, Adolf Hitler sei im Kampfe gefallen und Admiral Dönitz habe die Führung übernommen. Vorher hatte der Reichshenker Himmler mit einem dummen Gaunertrick vergeblich versucht, England und Amerika gegen die Sowjetunion auszuspielen und mit den Methoden eines provinziellen Rosstäuschers die verbündeten Großmächte zu trennen. Nach dem vollkommenen Misserfolg dieses albernen Manövers verschwand Hitler unbemerkt von der Bildfläche. Der Fluchtplan war längst bis ins Detail ausgearbeitet, die Flugzeuge waren startbereit, die Führer schwangen sich auf und davon. Er werde dem deutschen Volk keine Träne nachweinen, hat Hitler schon vor einem halben Jahr verkündet, das Volk hatte seine Schuldigkeit getan, es hatte sein Blut, seine Lebenskraft für eine Schimäre von „Weltherrschaft“ und Größenwahn vergeudet; für Geopferte hatte Hitler kein Interesse mehr. Der Auftakt vom 9. November 1923 wurde zur schauerlichen Erfüllung gesteigert: auch damals hatte sich Hitler, als seine Gefolgschaft an den Stufen der Feldherrnhalle sterbend zusammenbrach, schleunigst in ein Auto geschwungen, um Hals über Kopf davonzubrausen und später in einer komfortablen Festungshaft einen Sommerurlaub zu verbringen. Diesmal vollzog sich dasselbe in phantastischer Inszenierung: die Karikatur einer Wagneroper im Scheinwerferlicht des verbrennenden Deutschen Reiches, mit Trommelwirbeln von Millionen Gerippen auf der zerfetzten, blutdampfenden Erde, die einst für das deutsche Volk eine Heimat war und jetzt eine Hölle ist.
Der letzte Propagandatrick, das Märchen von Hitlers „Heldentod,“ soll dazu dienen, die letzten verendenden deutschen Divisionen noch einmal zu „bedingungslosem Einsatz“ aufzustacheln, noch einmal eine sich selbstzerfleischende Nation „zum Sterben zu berauschen“ und den Boden für eine Fortsetzung der verbrecherischen Tätigkeit auch nach der totalen Niederlage vorzubereiten, den Boden für die künftige Entfesselung eines dritten deutschen Wahnsinnskrieges. Es soll den gerissenen Propagandisten nicht gelingen, durch ihre letzte und frechste Lüge den Blick der Schlachtopfer zu vernebeln. Es soll ihnen nicht gelingen, durch eine grelle „nordische List“ der strafenden Gerechtigkeit zu entrinnen. Es soll ihnen nicht gelingen, den Fluch der Menschheit und auch den Fluch des missbrauchten, von Schlachtbank zu Schlachtbank geschleiften deutschen Volkes auszulöschen.
Unter den Leichen von Berlin hat niemand den verschollenen Hitler gefunden. Die Richter werden ihn finden – und möge er sich im letzten Winkel der Welt verstecken.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (May 3, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
031100B May
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) AIR STAFF MAIN
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) SHAEF MAIN
(20) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(21) WOIA FOR OWI WASHINGTON FOR RELEASE TO COMBINED U.S. & CANADIAN PRESS AT 0900 HOURS GMT
(22) AHFQ, ROME FOR PWB.
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 390
UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces, breaking out of their bridgehead over the Elbe River near Lauenburg, completely overcame enemy resistance and drove to the Baltic Coast and captured Wismar. Between the Elbe and Wismar, we captured and number of towns including Ludwigslust, Hagenow, Schwerin and Moellin.
Farther west we captured Luebeck.
North of Bremen we occupied Bremervoerde. East of Leer we captured Remels and Grossander.
In Holland, we eliminated the pocket near Delfzijl, on the Ems Estuary.
Enemy road movement in the triangular area of Luebeck, Wismar, and Schwerin was repeatedly attacked by fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters. More than 1,500 road vehicles were destroyed or damaged.
The communications center of Itzehoe was attacked by medium bombers.
Last night, light bombers attacked objectives at Kiel.
During the day, 32 enemy aircraft were shot down and others were destroyed or damaged on the ground. Four of our fighters are missing.
Our forces effected another juncture with the Russian forces along the Elbe River at a point five miles southeast of Wittenberge.
Farther south our cavalry patrols reached the Czechoslovakian border at several points southeast of Cham.
In Austria, our forces crossed the Inn River in the area west of Braunau.
Our units are clearing the area 12 miles east of Munich along a 20-mile front. Huge quantities of enemy materiel were taken in the Munich area. About 85 planes, including ten jet-propelled aircraft, and more than 137,000 gas and smoke shells were captured. In this area a Hungarian Infantry Division surrendered intact.
South of Munich, armored spearheads advanced rapidly to the east to reach the Inn River at two points south of Rosenheim.
In the Austrian Alps, our forces met increased resistance but advanced to a point eight miles west of Innsbruck and within 25 miles of the Italian border.
Thirty miles to the west we advanced along the Lech River to within 20 miles of Austria’s southern border.
East of the Bodensee, we pushed south from Bregenz to Dornbirn.
Field Marshals von Rundstedt, Freiherr von Weichs and von Sperrle and 18 German generals were captured.
Allied forces in the west captured 93,797 prisoners on 30 April and 1 May.
Approximately 900 heavy bombers dropped food supplies for the Dutch population in enemy-occupied Holland.
In the period 30 March to 30 April, 61,764 long tons of supplies were carried by air supply missions to our battle units. Meanwhile, 64,076 casualties and 104,739 repatriates were evacuated.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA4655
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
U.S. Navy Department (May 3, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 351
The Tenth Army resumed the attack in Southern Okinawa on May 3 (East Longitude Date), meeting artillery, mortar and small arms fire from the enemy’s fortified line. The 1st Marine Division made a limited advance in its zone of action while other sectors remained stable. The attack was supported by ships’ guns and aircraft.
In the early evening hours of May 3, four small groups of enemy aircraft attacked our shipping off the coast of Okinawa inflicting some damage on our forces and sinking two light units. Seventeen enemy aircraft were destroyed.
Planes from escort carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet continued neutralizing attacks on airfields and air installations in the Sakishima group on May 2.
As of May 2, according to the most recent reports available, 1,131 officers and men of the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been killed in action in the Okinawa operation and associated operations against Japan. A total of 2,816 were wounded and 1,604 were missing. All figures are preliminary and incomplete.
Search Privateers of Fleet Air Wing One destroyed three twin‑engine planes on the ground, damaged locomotive and set numerous fires in a low-level attack on Kanoya Airfield, Kyushu, during the early evening of May 3. Planes of the same wing probably sank a small cargo ship off the coast of Central Honshu on the same date.
Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed targets in the Palaus and strafed installations on Sonsoral Island, southwest of the Palaus on May 3. On the same date, dive bombers of this wing struck the airstrip at Yap. Neutralizing attacks were carried out on enemy bases in the Marshalls by Marine aircraft on the previous day.
A search Privateer of FlAirWing Two bombed barracks and shops on Wake Island on May 2.
CINCPOA Press Release No. 89
For Immediate Release
May 3, 1945
Among the ships of the British Pacific Fleet which engaged in operations against the islands of the Sakishima Group during the period March 26 to April 20 were the following fleet aircraft carriers:
- HMS INDOMITABLE (92)
- HMS INDEFATIGABLE (R10)
- HMS VICTORIOUS (R38)
The Pittsburgh Press (May 3, 1945)
All Nazi fronts caving in
Churchill in Reich negotiating peace, London speculates
BULLETINS
LONDON, England – A Kalundborg, Denmark, radio said today in a broadcast purported to be in the name of the German government that Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, the new Nazi Fuehrer, will not lay down arms.
A speaker identified as Albert Speer, Nazi minister of arms and munitions, made the Kalundborg broadcast. He said he was speaking in the name of the government.
LONDON, England – A BBC front reporter, broadcasting over the army radio, said today that “a general surrender of the German forces facing Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s [British Second] Army may come at any moment.”
With the end in sight, German forces crumbled on all fronts. In the north, British forces occupied Hamburg and linked up with Russian troops along the Baltic coast. In the south, there the Nazi redoubt was smashed with the surrender in Italy and Western Austria. U.S. Third Army troops were near Linz and Berchtesgaden. In Italy, Eighth Army troops occupied Trieste.
LONDON, England (UP) – The unconditional surrender of all German forces in Holland, Denmark, Norway and Czechoslovakia was reported under negotiation today and possibly in some cases already concluded.
Negotiations for the complete capitulation of Germany were believed in some quarters also to be underway.
There was widespread speculation in London that Prime Minister Winston Churchill may have gone to Germany on a mission to negotiate for the end of the war in Europe. The speculation embraced the possibility that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower might be engaged in a similar task together with British and Russian military and political leaders.
Mr. Churchill was absent from the House of Commons today. Sir John Anderson, speaking for him, told the House that should the war end on Saturday or Sunday there would be a general holiday Monday.
Mr. Churchill’s absence together with continental reports of surrender negotiations created a feeling in diplomatic and political quarters here that the hour of victory probably was near.
Mr. Churchill’s latest public appearance here was Wednesday evening. Then he announced in Commons the fall of Northern Italy. He sent word that he could not attend today’s session, a highly unusual procedure.
The last four major pockets of Nazi resistance outside the Reich were reported near collapse. Some sources believed the capitulation of some or all of them might be announced by nightfall.
Only four other tiny pockets of German troops remain inside the borders of Germany and Austria.
The house of cards that Adolf Hitler built around Germany by seizing his neighboring countries was tumbling down, Already the southern ramparts had crumbled with the surrender of Northern Italy and Western Austria.
Following hard on the Nazi announcement of Adolf Hitler’s death and the fall of Hamburg, the new Fuehrer, Adm. Karl Doenitz, apparently was wandering the northland in search of a new refuge. The Press Association said it was “fairly certain” that he was in Denmark, or perhaps had even gone on to Norway.
Reliable informants said the capitulation of German forces in Denmark was arranged tentatively some time ago. The country was cut off by the British push to the Baltic. Collapsed Nazi censorship indicated that the Danes controlled their own country again.
Reports from the United Press said the Germans isolated in Northwestern Holland were ready to give up. The Allies were already moving foodstuffs into Holland.
The Paris radio said that the foreign minister of Maj. Vidkun Quisling’s puppet government of Norway had arrived in Copenhagen to discuss the surrender of perhaps 250,000 German troops in Norway.
A broadcast by the Hamburg radio in the last hours it was controlled by the Nazis indicated that surrender arrangements for the Czechoslovak redoubt around Prague were in progress.
**A broadcast decree by Hamburg purported to declare Prague a “hospital town” – apparently an open city, not to be defended. It said negotiations for the “reorganization of political conditions in the protectorate” of Bohemia-Moravia had begun.
Only a few days ago, the German radio said the loss of Prague – and now-fallen Berlin – would mean the loss of Europe.
A German diplomat in Zurich told the Exchange Telegraph Agency that Doenitz had dismissed the entire Nazi cabinet which served Adolf Hitler and was appointing as new ministers only those men whom he believed would have the confidence of the Allies.
Only the appointment of Count Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk as foreign minister to succeed Joachim von Ribbentrop has been announced. The Exchange Telegraph dispatch said the remainder of the list would be published soon.
Another Exchange Telegraph dispatch from Zurich said Doenitz was expected soon to dissolve the Nazi Party organization and had already ordered the arrest of several hundred leaders, including party chief Martin Bormann and Dr. Robert Ley.
The same dispatch, however, said reports were also circulating that Doenitz had arrested the wife and children of Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler and threatened to execute them if he tried to contact the Allies.
Where Doenitz has set up his provisional capital was not known. He was believed to have fled Hamburg as British troops approached and the British Press Association said he may be in the German naval base town of Kiel.
Highly reliable sources in London said arrangements had been completed some time ago for the two to five German divisions in Denmark to surrender as soon as Allied troops reach the country.
Near Danish border
British Second Army troops were fast approaching the Danish border today. Supreme Allied Headquarters has prepared a military mission to fly into Denmark and establish contact with King Christian at the earliest possible moment.
The Allies conducted negotiations with Dr. Werner Best, Reich Commissioner for Denmark, through Swedish intermediaries, informants said.
The Stockholm correspondent of the London Daily Mail said Wilhelm Buhl, who will become Danish premier as soon as the German capitulation takes effect, told him by telephone from Copenhagen that Denmark already has a “de facto peace.”
Ready to take over
Buhl said:
The Gestapo is inactive. We merely are awaiting [British Marshal Sir Bernard L.] Montgomery before my new government officials, taken over the administrator. Everything is under control and we are waiting for the German capitulation to become effective.
Word of the approaching capitulation of German forces in Southwest Holland, estimated at 75,000 to 90,000 men, came from authoritative United Nations sources at the World Security Conference in San Francisco.
These sources said German resistance in Holland has ceased and that formal announcement of surrender “may be expected at any time,”
Comment refused
Supreme Allied Headquarters at Paris refused to comment on the report, but dispatches from there hinted that it may be true. It was recalled that Lt. Gen. W. Bedell Smith, chief of staff to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, conferred with Nazi occupation officials on the shipment of food into the occupied area recently.
Backs peace aim
Schwerin von Krosigk, the new German Foreign Minister, made his initial broadcast to the German people over the North German radio last night.
He endorsed the aim of the World Security Conference at San Francisco “not only to prevent future wars, but in good time to eliminate potential centers of conflagration from which cause for war might arise.”
However, he said, peace only could be brought to the world if “the Bolshevik tide does not flood Europe.”
He said:
The world at the present moment stands before one of the decisions of the greatest importance in the history of mankind. The manner in which this decision is met will result in chaos or order, in war or peace, in death or life.
He said hundreds of thousands of German civilians had been “struck down” by the fury of war, while millions of German troops had fallen on the various fronts.
Nazis surrender in terror, crying ‘here come Russians’
By Richard D. McMillan, United Press staff writer
…
Nazi victims burned alive, crematorium slave reveals
Says only about 30 of each 2,000 Jews spared by sadistic mass murderer
…
Total now 950,472 –
Italy costs U.S. 109,000 casualties
WASHINGTON (UP) – The conquest of Italy cost the United States more than 109,000 combat casualties, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson disclosed today.
Mr. Stimson said the U.S. Fifth Army had suffered 109,163 casualties from the start of the Italian campaign to April 28, when the Germans were sent into the rout which culminated in their surrender yesterday.
Of the Fifth Army’s losses, 21,577 were killed, 77,248 wounded and 10,338 missing.
Meanwhile, total U.S. combat casualties in all theaters officially reported reached 950,472.
This represented a jump of 21,099 from the total of a week ago.
The casualty table:
| Army | Navy | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 170,407 | 40,271 | 210,678 |
| Wounded | 520,208 | 47,739 | 567,947 |
| Missing | 80,364 | 10,123 | 90.487 |
| Prisoners | 77,110 | 4,250 | 81,360 |
| TOTALS | 848,089 | 102,383 | 950,472 |
Of soldiers taken prisoner, 9,974 have been exchanged or returned to U.S. military control.