If you ask any student in the post-Soviet space when the surrender of Germany occurred, the answer will be obvious: May 9, 1945. But in general on this day only our people celebrate the holiday, and in the rest of the world, the end of the war is celebrated on May 8. The reason for this is a series of events that occurred during the May days in Reims, when the German Surrender Act was signed.
After Hitler voluntarily passed away on April 30, 45, power passed to General Doenitz. He, like everyone else, understood that Germany could no longer resist the onslaught of the allied forces, the end of the country was near. He also understood that German troops behaved too differently in the occupied territories. For example, in France, the Nazis cracked down on 200 thousand people. This is a huge figure, but it amounted to less than 1% of the population loss in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the leadership of the Third Reich quite logically feared retaliation from the USSR. According to Doenitz's plans, the surrender of Germany was to take place only before the Western allies, so that prisoners of war, weapons and control of the territory would go to the troops of England and the USA
Fulfilling this plan, on May 4, German troops surrendered in front of the British forces of Field Marshal Montgomery in Northwest Germany and Denmark, and on May 5 German forces surrendered at the mercy of the Americans in Bavaria and western Austria. At the same time, Doenitz negotiated with the Western Allies, inviting them to accept the surrender of the three German armies of the Eastern Front, who at that time were fighting with the Red Army.
However, the command of the allied forces refused such a proposal and notified the Soviet side of the German proposal. German General Alfred Jodl arrived May 6 at the headquarters of the Anglo-American allies to sign the Act of surrender of the entire army of the Third Reich. However, General Eisenhower in a rather rigid form refused to accept such surrender, saying that the troops should surrender where they are currently located. And if German troops from the Eastern Front decide to move to the Western, so as not to be captured by the Soviet side, the Allied army will block its sector of the front and will not allow such a movement
Jodl cabled Doenitz about the conditions put forward by the Allies. He granted the general full authority to sign a document of surrender without additional conditions. Initially, the signing of the act was planned for May 7, at half past two in the night.
The permanent representative at the headquarters of the allies from the Soviet side was General Ivan Susloparov. He attended the talks, but obviously did not expect such a rapid development of events. He did not have guidance on how to act in such a situation. Susloparov sent the document to Moscow, but did not receive a response at the appointed time. Therefore, he decided to act at his own peril and risk. Susloparov agreed to sign the Act of surrender by the Soviet command, but with one amendment: the document should include a clause on repeating the signing ceremony at the request of any of the allied countries.
The unconditional surrender of Germany took place on May 7 in the college building in Reims at night, at 2 hours 41 minutes. Now this small red building is the Museum of Surrender. The German Surrender Act was signed by General Smith on behalf of the Anglo-American allies, General Sevez on behalf of France, General Susloparov on behalf of the USSR and generals Friedeburg and Jodl on behalf of Germany.
According to the document, all German troops had to stop any military operations at 23 o'clock local time on May 8, 1945. It was at this moment that the world war officially ended.
When Susloparov informed Moscow that the unconditional surrender of Germany had taken place, he found out that earlier he had been ordered not to sign any documents.
The fact that the surrender was signed at Reims, extremely annoyed Stalin. He rightly believed that it was the Soviet people who suffered the greatest losses and at the same time played a decisive role in the victory, so he expected that the historic event of the surrender of the invaders would occur before the commanders of all the victorious countries, and not just before the command of the allies. Everyone agreed with the requirements of Stalin, and it was decided to consider the document signed in Reims preliminary. The main protocol was to be signed in Berlin at midnight on May 9th.
However, confusion has already been created. Initially, they planned to declare a great victory in the three capitals of the allied forces - Moscow, Washington and London at the same time. At the same time, on the Western Front, the Germans complied with the terms of the Act and ceased hostilities, and on the Eastern Front, battles with the Red Army continued until May 9.
German radio had already announced the end of the war on May 7, so the Allies could not pretend that nothing had happened. At six o'clock in the evening of May 7, Churchill made a radio address to his people, congratulating the British on their victory. At the same time, US citizens learned of the greatest event.
In the USSR, news of the victory was announced only after the signing of the main pact in Berlin and after the beginning of the mass surrender of German troops on the Eastern Front - May 9, 1945. This date was for the Soviet people Victory Day.