Post-war prospect –
Hockey may be first sport to regain pre-war standard
…
Draft extension signed by Truman
President objects to 6-month rule
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More attention urged for returning Yanks
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Steel orders drop to new low for year
Temporary decline in output expected
…
Reciprocal trade plan endorsed
…
Großadmirals HQ (May 9, 1945)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Broadcast audio (RRG):
20 Uhr und 3 Minuten. Reichssender Flensburg und die angeschlossenen Sender. Wir bringen heute den letzten Wehrmachtsbericht dieses Krieges.
In Ostpreußen haben deutsche Divisionen noch gestern die Weichselmündung und den Westteil der Frischen Nehrung bis zuletzt tapfer verteidigt, wobei sich die 7. Infanterie-Division besonders auszeichnete. Dem Oberbefehlshaber, General der Panzertruppe von Saucken, wurden in Anerkennung der vorbildlichen Haltung seiner Soldaten die Brillanten zum Eichenlaub mit Schwertern zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes verliehen.
Als vorgeschobenes Bollwerk fesselten unsere Armeen in Kurland unter dem bewährten Oberbefehl des Generaloberst Hilpert monatelang überlegene sowjetische Schützen- und Panzerverbände und erwarben sich in sechs großen Schlachten unvergänglichen Ruhm. Sie haben jede vorzeitige Übergabe abgelehnt. In voller Ordnung wurden mit den nach Westen noch ausfliegenden Flugzeugen nur Versehrte und Väter kinderreicher Familien abtransportiert. Die Stäbe und Offiziere verblieben bei ihren Truppen. Um Mitternacht wurde von deutscher Seite, entsprechend den unterzeichneten Bedingungen, der Kampf und jede Bewegung eingestellt.
Die Verteidiger von Breslau, die über zwei Monate lang den Angriffen der Sowjets standhielten, erlagen in letzter Stunde nach heldenhaftem Kampf der feindlichen Übermacht. Auch an der Südost- und Ostfront, von Fiume über Brünn bis an die Elbe bei Dresden, haben alle höheren Kommandobehörden den Befehl zur Einstellung des Kampfes erhalten. Eine tschechische Aufstandsbewegung in fast ganz Böhmen und Mähren kann die Durchführung der Kapitulationsbedingungen und die Nachrichtenverbindungen in diesem Raum gefährden. Meldungen über die Lage bei den Heeresgruppen Löhr, Rendulic und Schörner liegen beim Oberkommando der Wehrmacht zur Stunde noch nicht vor. Fern der Heimat haben die Verteidiger der Atlantikstützpunkte, unsere Truppen in Norwegen und die Besatzungen der Ägäischen Inseln in Gehorsam und Disziplin die Waffenehre des deutschen Soldaten gewahrt.
Seit Mitternacht schweigen nun an allen Fronten die Waffen. Auf Befehl des Großadmirals hat die Wehrmacht den aussichtslos gewordenen Kampf eingestellt. Damit ist das fast sechsjährige heldenhafte Ringen zu Ende. Es hat uns große Siege, aber auch schwere Niederlagen gebracht. Die deutsche Wehrmacht ist am Ende einer gewaltigen Übermacht ehrenvoll unterlegen.
Der deutsche Soldat hat, getreu seinem Eid, im höchsten Einsatz für sein Volk für immer Unvergessliches geleistet. Die Heimat hat ihn bis zuletzt mit allen Kräften unter schwersten Opfern unterstützt. Die einmalige Leistung von Front und Heimat wird in einem späteren gerechten Urteil der Geschichte ihre endgültige Würdigung finden.
Den Leistungen und Opfern der deutschen Soldaten zu Wasser, zu Lande und in der Luft wird auch der Gegner die Achtung nicht versagen. Jeder Soldat kann deshalb die Waffen aufrecht und stolz aus der Hand legen und in den schwersten Stunden unserer Geschichte tapfer und zuversichtlich an die Arbeit gehen für das ewige Leben unseres Volkes.
Die Wehrmacht gedenkt in dieser schweren Stunde ihrer vor dem Feind gebliebenen Kameraden. Die Toten verpflichten zu bedingungsloser Treue, zu Gehorsam und Disziplin gegenüber dem aus zahllosen Wunden blutenden Vaterland.
Neues Österreich (May 10, 1945)
Der Verlauf der Konferenz
London, 9. Mai – Der Krieg in Europa endete offiziell heute eine Minute nach Mitternacht. Im verwüsteten der geschlagenen deutschen Wehrmacht die Ratifikationsurkunde der in Reims unterzeichneten Kapitulation.
Die Konferenz trat gegen Mitternacht in der Aula der Technischen Hochschule in Berlin zusammen. Zehn Minuten nach Mitternacht betraten die deutschen Bevollmächtigten, Generalfeldmarschall Keitel, Generaladmiral Friedeburg und Generaloberst Stumpf, den Saal. Sie nahmen die ihnen reservierten Sitze ein.
Marschall Schukow ergriff das Wort: Meine Herren, wir schreiten zur Unterfertigung der Vertragsurkunde der bedingungslosen Kapitulation Deutschlands. Zunächst möchte ich an die deutschen Bevollmächtigten drei Fragen richten: Sind Sie im Besitz einer Abschrift dieser Urkunde? Haben Sie sich mit dem Inhalt der Urkunde vertraut gemacht? Sind die Vertreter des deutschen Oberkommandos zur Unterschrift bereit?
Nach einer kurzen Pause erwiderte Generalfeldmarschall Keitel: „Jawohl, ich bin zur Unterschrift bereit.“
Hierauf legte er die Ermächtigungsurkunde vor, mit welcher Großadmiral Dönitz die Delegierten zur Unterzeichnung der Urkunde autorisierte. Die deutschen Bevollmächtigten traten dann einer nach dem anderen vor, um die Urkunde zu unterzeichnen. Um ¾1 Uhr war die Unterzeichnung beendet. Generalfeldmarschall Keitel wurde eine Abschrift des Dokuments in drei Sprachen überreicht.
Hierauf sagte Marschall Schukow: „Die deutsche Delegation kann sich jetzt entfernen.“
Vereinigung der Russen und Amerikaner bei Linz
London, 9. Mai – Die 3. amerikanische Armee vereinigte sich bei Linz mit der Roten Armee.
Die Rote Armee hat Hollabrunn und Stockerau erobert. Sie steht außerdem im Raum von Graz. Die britische 8. Armee setzt ihren Vormarsch in Österreich fort. Die 6. britische Panzerdivision ist in Klagenfurt eingezogen.
König Georg an sein Volk
London, 9. Mai – König Georg hielt gestern Abend zum britischen Volk eine Rede über den Rundfunk:
Deutschland, das Europa in den Krieg stürzte, ist endgültig geschlagen. müssen wir aber den Kampf gegen Japan weiterführen. Zur Durchführung dieser Aufgabe werden wir uns mit äußerster Entschlossenheit und allen unseren Machtmitteln einsetzen.
Schwere Arbeit erwartet uns, Arbeit für den Wiederaufbau unseres eigenen Landes, Arbeit bei der Wiederaufrichtung von Friede und gerechter Ordnung in einer Welt, die in ihren Grundfesten erschüttert ist. Ein tiefer Trost liegt in dem Gedanken, dass die dunklen Jahre der Gefahr, in denen unsere Kinder aufwachsen mussten, für immer vorüber sind. Dafür sei Gott unser Dank.
Wir würden unsere Aufgabe aber nicht erfüllt haben und das Blut unserer Lieben wäre vergebens geflossen, wenn der Sieg, den sie errungen haben, nicht zu einem dauernden Frieden führen würde, einem Frieden, der sich auf Gerechtigkeit gründet und auf die Mitarbeit aller.
Göring gefangengenommen
Vom Obersten Alliierten Hauptquartier wird bekanntgegeben, dass Göring und Kesselring von der 7. amerikanischen Armee gefangengenommen wurden.
U.S. Navy Department (May 10, 1945)
Communiqué No. 596
Philippine Area.
The LCS(L)-26 and the YMS-71 have been lost in the Philippine area as the result of enemy action.
The next of kin of casualties have been notified.
Press Release
For Immediate Release
May 10, 1945
Naval losses as announced in Navy Department Communiqués Nos. 1 to 596; Navy Department press releases; and at CINCPOA HQ
| Sunk | Overdue and Presumed Lost | Destroyed to Prevent Capture | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battleship | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Aircraft carrier | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Heavy cruiser | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Light cruiser | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Destroyer | 54 | 4 | 1 | 59 |
| Destroyer escort | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Submarine | 4 | 37 | 2 | 43 |
| Miscellaneous | *163 | 6 | 7 | 176 |
| TOTAL | 248 | 48 | 10 | 306 |
*Includes one light unit (unidentified) mentioned in CINCPOA Communiqué No. 340, one light unit (unidentified) mentioned in CINCPOA Communiqué No. 346, two light units (unidentified) mentioned in CINCPOA Communiqué No. 361, and five light units (unidentified) mentioned in CINCPOA Communiqué No. 352.
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 358
Enemy installations in Southern Okinawa were bombarded by ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and carrier and Marine aircraft on May 9 (East Longitude Date). Ships’ gunfire broke up a number of troop concentrations in the enemy’s rear areas and destroyed pillboxes, emplacements and a motor transport. During the evening of May 9, several groups of enemy aircraft attacked our shipping off the Okinawa coast damaging two auxiliaries and bombing Yontan Airfield without success. Early the following morning another attack was made on our ships and ground installations but we suffered no damage. Six enemy aircraft were shot down during these actions. A 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing fighter with guns inoperative destroyed a Japanese bomber by cutting off its tail assembly with his propeller in three attacks.
Elements of the 6th Marine Division bridged and crossed the estuary of the Asa River in Southern Okinawa on May 10. Construction of the bridge was delayed temporarily by the enemy’s use of two human bombs which caused some damage during the early morning hours. Limited gains were made on the remainder of the Southern front where hand to hand fighting was in progress in some sectors. The enemy on Okinawa lost 38,857 killed through May 9.
The area of Okinawa from the Central sector of the Island near the Hagushi beaches, northward to the extremity of the Island was passed to the control of the Island Commander, Maj. Gen. F. G. Wallace, USA, on May 4. About 135,000 civilians were under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Military Government on May 8.
Search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing One damaged two medium freighters and two small cargo ships south of Korea on May 9 by bombing and strafing attacks.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force bombed airfields on Truk and Marcus Islands heavily on May 10. On the same date, Mustangs of the VII Fighter Command struck at radio installations on Chichi Jima in the Bonins.
Helldiver bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th MarAirWing continued neutralizing raids on the Marshalls on May 9 and struck targets in the Palaus and on Yap on the following day.
During the week of April 29 to May 5, inclusive, 69 Japanese were killed and 57 captured on Iwo Island. Total Japanese casualties on Iwo to May 5 were 23,244 killed and 1,03,8 prisoners of war. In the Marianas during the week of April 29 through May 5, 23 of the enemy were killed and 98 were captured.
On May 6, surface forces under Commander, Marshalls-Gilberts Area, evacuated 494 Marshallese from Islands of Jaluit Atoll. Japanese garrison troops resisted the operation with light weapons on all islands. Our forces lost one killed and one wounded. The evacuated natives have been placed on Islands in the Marshalls Group under U.S. control.
The Pittsburgh Press (May 10, 1945)
BODY OF GOEBBELS FOUND
Corpse held by Reds may be Hitler’s
Fuehrer’s last stand made in raid shelter beneath Chancellery
By Joseph W. Grigg Jr., United Press staff writer
BERLIN, Germany – At least four bodies, any one of which may be that of Hitler, have been found by the Russians in Berlin. But none has been identified as being definitely that of the Nazi Fuehrer.
The bodies of Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels and his family; of Martin Bormann, successor to Rudolf Hess as Hitler’s deputy, and a number of other top Nazis have been found and identified with fair certainty.
For a week the Russians have searched through the ruins of the underground fortress where Hitler and his gang of last-ditch Nazi fanatics held out until the destruction of Berlin was complete.
Four bodies, blackened and charred, that seem to answer to Hitler’s general appearance, have been dragged out of the ruins. They have been measured and photographed for examination by experts. But the Russians are beginning to believe that no body that can be identified without any shadow of doubt as that of Adolf Hitler will ever be found now.
Underneath Chancellery
The underground fortress which Hitler made his headquarters in the final mighty battle of Berlin was the huge, supposedly bombproof air-raid shelter underneath the Chancellery.
It had been linked by deep underground passages with shelters under the nearby Wilhelmsplatz, the great Air Ministry building 500 yards away in the Leipzigerstrasse, and the Hugh Command building in the Bendlerstrasse and on the Luetzow Ufer, about a mile distant. There were other big underground shelters under the Tiergarten Park. The whole was linked by communicating passages to form a great subterranean fortress.
Flamethrowers used
It was not until the underground fortress had been burned out yard-by-yard by Soviet flamethrowers that Berlin fell.
Somewhere amid this underground labyrinth of ruins, his body charred beyond real recognition by flamethrowers, Hitler probably met his death. The Russians believe he might have been killed beforehand by the people around him. But the flames that finally swept through the subterranean passages probably destroyed forever any definite evidence of how the Nazi leader was wiped out.
ARMY POINT PLAN FOR RELEASES SET
Decorations, dependents to count most
But key men in Jap war will be kept
…
Goering unaware he faces trial
WITH 6TH ARMY GROUP (UP) – Reich Marshal Hermann Goering remained under heavy American guard today, boasting only the unhappy distinction of being No. 1 man on Adolf Hitler’s death list and the war criminal roster of the United Nations.
Goering, the highest-ranking Nazi leader to fall into Allied hands thus far, appeared completely unaware that he faces trial as one of the foremost war criminals of the dead Nazi regime.
The paunchy marshal, who surrendered to the U.S. 36th Infantry Division Tuesday after hiding in the mountains near Salzburg for 15 days, apparently hoped to win amnesty on the basis of his claim to have fallen out with Hitler in the last days of the war.
Goering told his captors he had been condemned to death by Hitler on April 24 for suggesting that he take over the Fuehrer’s job.
He spent his first night in captivity in a castle near the skiing resort of Kitzbuhel, under guard by two platoons of Texas Doughboys and a New York city lieutenant, Jerome Shapiro.
AP ‘profoundly regrets’ surrender news violation
McLean, president of press service, apologizes for Kennedy’s ‘scoop’ on peace signing
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Victory cost U.S. 150,000 killed
Casualties at 972,654 – 70,000 Yanks freed
WASHINGTON (UP) – Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said today that 70,000 to 80,000 U.S. prisoners of war have been liberated from German prison camps. Of these, 8,000 have been returned to this country, he said.
Mr. Stimson estimated that victory in Europe cost the Army around 800,000 casualties, including 150,000 killed.
He warned next of kin that it may still require several weeks to complete casualty notifications for Germany and Italy. He added that there should be only a limited number of additional casualties.
Casualties up 22,182
Total U.S. combat casualties in all theaters reached 972,634, an increase of 22,182 over a week ago. This total includes 867,709 Army and 104,945 Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard casualties.
In April, the last month of heavy fighting in Germany, the Army suffered 34,598 casualties, not counting Air Force losses. The month’s toll included 5,324 killed, 25,407 wounded and 3,867 missing.
From D-Day last June 6 through April, Mr. Stimson said, the Army in Europe, exclusive of the Air Forces, suffered 512,113 casualties. In this total were 88,225 killed, 365,320 wounded, and 58,568 missing and captured.
536,029 recovered
Of the 536,029 soldiers thus far reported wounded, Mr. Stimson said 283,472 have returned to duty.
The table of officially announced casualties:
| Army | Navy | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 175,168 | 41,458 | 216,626 |
| Wounded | 536,029 | 48,858 | 584,887 |
| Missing | 74,304 | 10,382 | 84,686 |
| Prisoners | 82,208 | 4,247 | 86,455 |
| TOTAL | 867,709 | 104,945 | 972,654 |
I DARE SAY —
Botched
By Florence Fisher Parry
NEW YORK – Maybe it was the same other places; all I know is what happened here. You may have seen the pictures, but they don’t tell the story. You’d have had to be here to see.
I tried to write, yesterday, how it was here the first delirious hours on Monday. But I got the column off before the celebration had bogged down – that came later, around three o’clock. And it wasn’t pretty to be in on. No.
To see the picture clear, you must remember that it had been raining here steadily for a solid week – and then on Monday the sun broke wide open, like the brass section of a mighty orchestra, and everybody poured out of doors!
The news came, remember, at about 9:35 in the morning? By 10 o’clock the thing had broken loose. It wasn’t pandemonium. It was different, it was deeper, it was a shining, grand thing to see! The faces of the people, the way the people crowded toward Times Square as though moved by some inner compulsion that hadn’t anything to do with celebrating – just a deep fixed habit of years…
To meet there TOGETHER, to gather in a great out-of-door mass-meeting and move and sway there in the wide oblong rendezvous… the way they’d always done here when a tremendous event struck the bell of history…
Gypped again?
Then, after a few hours, the great uneasiness began to set in… You could see it on the faces, you could hear it in the lessening noise of the crowds. Why wasn’t the word said at Washington? Why didn’t anything happen? Where was the guarantee? Were they being gypped again? Again?
A few went on drinking in a dogged, heavy way. But not many. The slow-coming flush in the faces of the throngs was not from drinking this time. It was the flush of resentment. Of being stood up again. The crowds began to disperse. The little flag-and-horn vendors stood numb and bewildered at their corners. The newshawks stacked their papers beside them and stood stonily by.
Presently the sun shrank behind a heavy gray tent-top. By dusk Broadway was a sullen soggy street with stragglers, looking a little foolish, moving sluggishly.
By the time the theaters emptied at 11, the crowds had swollen a little, moving slowly and dispiritedly along the course of what had been meant to be the greatest Mardi Gras of celebration in human history… Empty taxis picked up stragglers. Few bothered to watch the news coursing around the Times Building. For by this time, they knew it by heart.
Peace, they had been told, had come, but its corroboration was still held back; it had not been authentic; the President would not make the formal announcement until next day.
Now we know what happened. We read today the shameful news that a breach of confidence by one correspondent broke the news prematurely – and, on the word of Gen. Eisenhower, imperiled the surrender negotiations between Germans and Russians.
Pledge
Nothing is more sacred to an experienced and qualified newspaperman than respect for off-the-record information. It is given him with the understanding that he will respect it.
This man’s fellow reporters understood their responsibility and lived up to their off-the-record pledges. Even after he disregarded the rules and told the world that capitulation had occurred – as far as the Western Allies and Germany were concerned – they resisted all the terrific pressure from their own employer-newspapers for confirmation.
Taunted by the claim that this correspondent had scored the greatest “scoop” in history, they still respected the agreement.
And so one man botched the great proclamation. And, outside, it was raining on Tuesday; is still raining. The rain falls tiresomely, coldly, all day long. The streets are sodden. Broadway is dull and empty. The little flag-and-horn vendors stand drenched and forlorn, their wares unnoted.
The heart of New York spent itself too soon. The botch of V-E Day is complete and utter.