The Pittsburgh Press (May 2, 1945)
Nazis quit in Italy
Almost million troops affected by surrender – West Austria included
By Herbert G. King, United Press staff writer
ROYAL PALACE AT CASERTA, Near Naples, Italy – The German Armies of Northern Italy and Western Austria formally surrendered unconditionally to the Allies today, effective at 8 a.m. ET.
The surrender affects between 600,000 and 900,000 men commanded by Col. Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff and Gen. Karl Wolff, chief of police and security for Northern Italy and Western Austria.
Lt. Gen. W. D. Morgan of the British Army, who negotiated on behalf of Field Marshal Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander, supreme commander in the Mediterranean Theater, said the terms “in effect are complete and unconditional surrender.”
The documents were signed in the Royal Palace here on Sunday by Gen. Morgan and two German officers, one of whom represented von Vietinghoff and the other Wolff.
The surrender will permit the Allies to make an unhindered advance to within 10 miles of Adolf Hitler’s former country home at Berchtesgaden. It also uncovers the flank of Col. Gen. von Lehr, commanding enemy troops in the Trieste area.
The surrender documents were signed in the presence of a group of Allied officers which included Russians. Secret negotiations for the surrender have been going on for several days.
The terms are the immediate immobilization and disarmament of enemy ground, sea and air forces.
Near Brenner Pass
The surrender imposes upon the German commander-in-chief the obligation to carry out any further orders issued by Marshal Alexander.
Von Vietinghoff’s command includes all of Northern Italy to the Isonzo River and the Austrian provinces of Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and parts of Carinthia and Styria.
As the surrender was announced, the positions of the Allied troops in Italy were as follows:
The U.S. Fifth Army north of Lake Garda was within 35 miles of the Austrian border and 83 miles of the Brenner Pass. Farther east, the Fifth Army captured Feltre, 52 miles from the Austrian border. To the southeast, the British Eighth Army captured Udine, 38 miles west of Yugoslavia.
Near French frontier
Fifth Army units on the west were within 35 miles of the French frontier.
Yugoslav Marshal Tito, meanwhile, announced that his forces had captured the Italian port of Trieste. Tito’s forces made a juncture with British troops west of Trieste.
Two thousand troops of the Fascist Italian Ligurian Army’s Lombardy Corps surrendered in response to the capitulation order issued by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.