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Surrender Unconditionally

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In February, 1945, after many months of fierce fighting, and after numerous phases of the world's greatest war were behind us, the Allied Forces in Europe stood along the west bank of the Rhine. At long last we were probing for the actual heart of the enemy. In a few short weeks we were destined to pour across the Rhine, strike out across the heart of Germany, and in conjunction with Russian forces smashing westward, to crush the last resistance from Hitler's once-vaunted armies.

Our drive to the Rhine, and the dramatic crossing at Remagen in March, climaxed more than four months of heavy fighting north of the Ardennes. From October to mid-December the First Canadian, Second British and First and Ninth U.S. Armies had fought fiercely in the Westwall defenses, the Hurtgen forest and the flooded valleys of the Roer in an effort to breach the enemy lines and drive for the Rhine.

To the south, the First U.S. Army crossed the Roer and drove across the Cologne plain toward Cologne and Bonn, while the Third U.S. Army cleared the Eifel area and occupied the north bank of the Moselle.

Before launching our armies across the Rhine for the final battles of Germany, it was necessary to clear the rich German industrial triangle between the Moselle, Saar and Rhine Rivers, the Saar and the Palatinate. Its capture was entrusted to the U.S. Seventh and French First Armies, making up the 6th Army Group under my command, attacking from the south, and the U.S. Third Army, attacking from the north. By 25 March the last German forces had withdrawn east of the Rhine; the Saar and Palatinate, and many thousands of German prisoners, were in Allied hands.

The chief crossing of the Rhine was prepared by Field Marshal Montgomery, who had been given the Ninth U.S. Army to supplement the 21st Army Group forces in his area. However, before he could finish preparations for his attack, elements of the 9th Armored Division, probing to the Rhine, found the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen intact on 7 March. They crossed immediately to the east bank and set up a small bridgehead.

Such a windfall had been hoped for, but not at all expected. From the daring platoon leader to the Army commander who quickly redirected all his moving columns to the bridge, the prompt seisurs and exploitation of the crossing demonstrated American initiative and adaptability at its best. General Eisenhower was advised of this stroke of luck, and directed that all possible forces be moved across the bridge at once. By the time of the main crossing 17 days later, the First Army hold an area east of the Rhine 25 miles long and 10 miles deep, and the bridgehead became a springboard for the final offensive to come.

The Germans were now defending a line about 450 miles long, running along the Rhine from Switzerland to the North Sea. The Allied 21st Army Group faced them for about 95 miles, from Holland to Cologne; the 12th Army Group for 110 miles, from Cologne to the Neckar. The 6th Army Group front extended southward for 245 miles from the Neckar.

Meanwhile, the Third Army cleared the west bank of the Rhine from Andernach to Coblenz, and on 22 March made a surprise crossing of the river with negligible losses. The massive three-army attack in the north, preceded by a heavy air attack and the dropping of two airborne divisions, was launched successfully on 24 March.

Successful crossings were made at Xanten and Rees in the largest and most difficult amphibious operation launched by the Allies since D-Day. The Germans, diverted from the point of attack by First and Third Army crossings in the south, and hard hit from air and land, were unable to stop the crossings of British and American forces which were now prepared to sweep towards the Elbe. Seven armies almost simultaneously crossed the Rhine.

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Once the Rhine had been crossed, Allied commanders turned to the general strategic plan which had been outlined in pre-D-Day planning. From the beginning General Eisenhower believed the main thrust should be made in the north with the aim of isolating the Ruhr from the rest of Germany, with a secondary thrust from the Mainz-Karlsruhe area in the general direction of Kassel. This second move was intended to hit the industrial sector around Frankfurt and capitalize on any movement of enemy units northward to meet the northern thrust. To make certain of maximum assistance, a special mission was sent to Moscow at the, end of 1944 to get Russian assurance that an attack would be made on the eastern front to pin down German divisions while the drive was under way in the Rhineland. The Allied air forces gave their full backing by intensifying air attacks on German oil facilities and transportation.

The German situation, already difficult, speedily became disastrous. Allied forces, now across the Rhine in full force, quickly rushed to encircle the Ruhr industrial region. Armored elements of the Ninth and First U.S. Armies rushed eastward towards the Paderborn-Kassel area, and on 1 April linked up at Lippstadt to constitute "the largest double envelopment in history." One entire German army group and part of another, or more than 325,000 prisoners, had been seized in the pocket thus created. It was finally liquidated on 18 April.

Three routes of advance now lay open. We could push across the North German plain to the Baltic and Berlin, advance from Kassel towards Leipzig and Dresden, or go through Regensburg by the Danube Valley into Austria. We decided on a drive by the central route to cut Germany in half, isolate the country economically, and make impossible the establishment of a "national redoubt" in southern Germany.

The chief role was given General Bradley's Central Group of Armies with the Ninth, First, and Third U.S. Armies set to drive to the Elbe, seize bridgeheads over the river, and advance to the east if necessary. Operations in the north and south were limited in nature during this period. The British forces were striking for the Elbe, while my Sixth Army Group, was protecting the south flank of General Bradley's advance, and making preparations for a later advance into Austria.

By the end of the first week in April all our forces had been disposed to crush Germany, and were setting about this task. The Canadian Army was mopping up resistance in Holland; the Second British Army was driving on Bremen and Hamburg; Ninth U.S. Army was moving on Magdeburg, First Army on Leipzig, Third Army on Czechoslovakia and Austria, Seventh Army on Austria, and the French First Army on southern Germany. The newly activated Fifteenth U.S. Army had undertaken the government of the area already conquered.

Sweeping through the area between Kassel and Leipzig over a plateau which had no major river obstacles, the Central Group of Armies by 25 April had carried out its major mission of disorganizing and defeating the German armies in its area west of the Elbe. On 11 April the Ninth Army had reached the Elbe at Magdeburg. On the 18th Third Army reconnaissance elements had reached the Czech border, and on 25 April First Army units met advance Russian elements at Torgau east of the Elbe.

click image to enlarge The routes of Allied armies and their supporting tactical air forces into Germany.

To the south, the U.S. Seventh Army captured Mannheim 29 March, and advanced toward Heidelberg. The French First Army took Karlsruhe 4 April, Heilbronn and Kehl on 13 April. The Seventh Army seized Nurnberg, the Nazi shrine, on 21 April, and the French First Army occupied Stuttgart the following day. Crossing the Danube, French troops reached the Swiss border near Donaueschingen on 22 April, cutting off German garrisons in the Siegfried Line south of Breisach. On 30 April, the French First Army took Friedrichshafen and crossed the Austrian frontier at the eastern end of Lake Constance.

In the Germans' vaunted "national redoubt" area, Munich was taken by troops of the U.S. Seventh Army on 29-30 April, Passau was captured 2 May, and the Inn River crossed on 3 May, when combat patrols of the U.S. 103rd Infantry Division made contact with the Fifth Army advancing from Italy. Fighting ended on this front 5 May, with the surrender of German Army Group G.

The death of Hitler, the armistice in Italy, and the growing list of prisoners in Germany, indicated clearly that the Third Reich had crumbled, that the German Army was in its death throes, and that the long and bitter war had about run its course.

At that time General Eisenhower empowered commanders to accept the surrender of units directly opposing them on their fronts, but pointed out that any mass surrender would have to be made both to the Allies and to the Russians. Soon afterward, Marshal Montgomery and I accepted the surrender of German forces facing us, and German emissaries arrived at Supreme Headquarters at Reims to negotiate surrender on all fronts.

Admiral Doenitz, who by that time had become head of what was left of the German government, ultimately granted these emissaries power to surrender unconditionally. Surrounded on all fronts by chaos and overwhelming defeat, General Jodl and Admiral Friedeburg signed the Instrument of Surrender in the presence of representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia. At long last, and at great cost, one mission of the Allied world had now been successfully accomplished.

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