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The first great Germn surrender occurred in northern Italy. The Allies in a biterly fought 3-month campaign during the Spring of 1945 drove across the Po Valley. As German resistance crumbled, the Allies made spectacular advances. Columns of German soldiers were desperately trying to reach the Reich. Partisans captured and executed Mussolini as he was trying to flee with the Germans (April 28). The first surrender came in Italy without authorization. SS General Karl Wolff had been engaged in prolonged and unauthorised negotiations with the Allies. Wolff and the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army Group C/10th Army, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff on their own authority signed the terms of the surrender at Caserta (April 29). General W. D. Morgan, representing Supreme Mediterranean Commander [Harold] Alexander, signed for the Allies. The ever suspicious Stalin saw this as the beginning of a separate Allied peace with the NAZIs. Hitler as the Red Army troops neared his Berlin bunker, finally committed suiside (April 30). With Hitler's death, the way was clear for NAZI Germany to finally surrender. Hitler designated his successors. Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). Goebbels and his wife, however, committed suicide after killing their children (May 1). This left it to Dönitz to arrange the surrender of the Third Reich. The two German commanders as already planned ordered German armed forces in Italy to cease hostilities (May 1). The surrender document provided that all German forces in Italy to surrender unconditionally to the Allies (May 2). On that same day, the commander of the German Army Group G north of Italy began communicating with Major General Jacob Devers. The surrender of Army Group G was made effective beginning (May 6). Some 0.5 million German troops along with some Italian Fascists were taken into custody. Most were held through 1946, some even longer. The arrangements were negotiated by Allied commnders. The Italians now on the Allied side were given respobsibility for the logistics of taking the Germans into custody and maintaing the camps for their internment. [Niglia, p. 14.] Within a few days the arrangement was refined. The Allied Commission on Italy proposed to the Italian government in an arrangement to place captured German prisoners under their disposal to work on reconstruction projects (May 14). The prisoners would remain under the authority of the United States and the United Kingdom who would supply their shelter and provisions. Guarding the prisoners was to be the responsibility of the Italian authorities, who would supervise all work projects.
The Allies in a biterly fought 3-month campaign during the Spring of 1945 drove across the Po Valley. As German resistance crumbled, the Allies made spectacular advances.
The Itlalian Resistance movement was initially composed of disprgamizee, small independent units. They formed spontaneously formed by members of political parties outlawed by Musolini's Fascist regime. There was some organization, but no significant armed action yntil the German invasion and Allied invasions (September 1943). Switching sides provided a bried opportunity to obtain arms before the Germans interned the Italian Army. At this point the Resistance was joind by mostly former officers of the Royal Army loyal to the monarchy. Subsequently the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (Committee of National Liberation, CNL) was formed the Italian Communist Party, the Italian Socialist Party, the Partito d'Azione (a republican "liberal socialist" party), Democrazia Cristiana and other minor parties. King Victor Emmanuel III's ministers and the Allies attempted tpo control the CNL, but the Communists and some degree the Socialists had their own agenda and were subject to control by Moscow.
As the fighting moved north, The Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia (CLNAI or National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy, CLNAI) was setup by partisans behind German lines and enjoyed wide-spread support.
The Allies renewed their northern offensive and the front cracked wide open and the cities of the north began to be liberated. The Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the Polish II Corps under Allied command liberated Bologna (April 21). Parma and Reggio Emilia were liberated (April 24). It is at this point that the CNL called for a general insurrection against the retreating Germans (April 25). Turin and Milan were thus liberated (April 25).
The CNL caught over 14,000 German and Fascist troops in Genoa (April 26 and 27). General Meinhold in Genoa surrendered to the CLN.
Columns of German soldiers were desperately trying to reach the borders of the Reich. Most realized that surrender was inevitable, but reasoned that hey were better off surrendering closer to home. The Germans were defeated, but still well armed. Thus mny partisan bans did not want to take them on as they were leaving Italy. Some partisans units wiorked out adeal with the Germans. The Germans could pass unharmed, but even Italians with them would hve to be turned over.
Genoa fell to the Allies (April 27). Mussolini was forced on the run. He hope to reach neutral Switzerland by hiding in one of the retreating German columns. Partisan bans bagan setting up roadblocks rather than attacking the Germans. They stopped many of the German columns to make sure that Itlalian Fascists did not escape by getting out of Italy with the Germans. It was in one of these convoys that a partisan group found Mussolini and his mistress as well as some associaye trying to flee with the Germans (April 27). They took him from the Germans who did not resist and shot him the next day (april 28). The partisans hanged him up-side-down at a gas station together with his mistress, Clara Petacci. Their bodies displayed for the Milanese crowds to deride and curse.
Hitler in his Berlin bunker learned of this and was apauled. He resolved not to let this happen to him. Two days later with Red rmy units approacjing the Chancellery an Führer Bunker, he and Eva Braun killed themselves. Aides burned their body. Hitler as the Red Army troops neared his Berlin bunker, finally committed suiside (April 30). With Hitler's death, the way was clear for NAZI Germany to finally surrender. Hitler designated his successors. Notably Hitler did not want another Führer. He separated the two offices he had combined. He designated Admiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). Goebbels and his wife, however, committed suicide after killing their children (May 1). Admiral Karl Dönitz commanded the Kriegsmarine U-Boat fleet which came very close to victory in the North Atlantic. He is widely credited with conceiving the tactics that almost defeated the Allies. Less commonly mentioned is his inflexibility. Unlike the Allies he did not adapt to Allied counter measures. The tactics Dönietz employed at the start of the War were the same he used later when the U-boats were decisively defeated (1943). Because of the failure of the German surface fleet and the fact Dönitz was an ardent NAZI, Hitler appointed him as overall naval commander. Dönitz set up his new government at Flensburg near the Danish border.
The first great German surrender occurred in northern Italy and without authorization. SS General Karl Wolff had been engaged in prolonged and unauthorised negotiations with the Allies. Wolff and the Commander-in-Chief of the German 10th Army, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff on their own authority signed the terms of the surrender at Caserta (April 29). General W. D. Morgan, representing Supreme Mediterranean Commander [Harold] Alexander, signed for the Allies. The ever suspicious Stalin saw this as the beginning of a separate Allied peace with the NAZIs. . This left it to Dönitz to arrange the surrender of the Third Reich. The two German commanders as already planned ordered German armed forces in Italy to cease hostilities (May 1). The surrender document provided that all German forces in Italy to surrender unconditionally to the Allies (May 2). On that same day, the commander of the German Army Group G north of Italy began communicating with Major General Jacob Devers. The surrender of Army Group G was made effective beginning (May 6).
The Wehrmacht by April 1945 was shatered and no longer able to offer effective resistance to the Allies. The Western Allies raced through Germany from the west during April 1945 as the Soviet Red Army surrounded Berlin. American and Soviet forces made the long anticipated link-up at the Elbe River on April 25. The Red Army fought a massive engagement to take Berlin. Hitler insisted that the SS and Wehrmacht forces in the city, reinforced by the Volkstrum (Hitler Youth boys and older men) fight so that he might live a few more days. As Red Army soldiers approached his bunker, Hitler shot himself and named Admiral Karl Doenietz as the new Führer. The last raid of the strategic bombing campaign took place on April 25 when the Skoda armament plant at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia were bombed. The American Air Corps began shifting to mercy missions. Flights were dispatched to feed civilians in northern Italy and the Netherlands who were near starvation. Priority was also given to evacuting prisonors of war (POWs). Doenitz ordered General Alfred Jodl to General Eisenhower' Headquarters--Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) detachment in Rheims to seek terms to end the fighting. Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of German forces on allfronts At 2:41 a.m. on May 7, which was to take effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. Thus NAZI Germany surrendered unconditionally, as President Roosevelt had insisted. Celebrations ensued throught Europe--except Germany. Ther were big official celebrations. There were also smaller neighborhood celebrations. In communities throughout britain there were outdoors banquets called block parties that were family celebrations (figure 1). For many of the children it mean that daddy would soon be headed home.
Some 0.5 million German troops along with some Italian Fascists were taken into custody. Most were held through 1946, some even longer. The arrangements were negotiated by Allied commnders. The Italians now on the Allied side were given respobsibility for the logistics of taking the Germans into custody and maintaing the camps for their internment. [Niglia, p. 14.} Within a few days the arrangement was refined. The Allied Commission on Italy proposed to the Italian government in an arrangement to place captured German prisoners under their disposal to work on reconstruction projects (May 14). The prisoners would remain under the authority of the United States and the United Kingdom who would supply their shelter and provisions. Guarding the prisoners was to be the responsibility of the Italian authorities, who would supervise all work projects.
Niglia, Federico. "A neglected story German prisoners of war in Italy (1945-1947)", Journal of Military and Strategic Studies Vo. 14, issue 1 (Fall 2011), pp.1-14.
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