May 7th, 2008, 11:06 AM
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Ace
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Where Iron Crosses grow
Posts: 7,043
Salute!: 16
Saluted 15 Times in 10 Posts
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Re: Today in History
If I may...
Quote:
However, the Soviet Union's only representative in Reims was General Ivan Susloparov, the Military Liaison Mission Commander. General Susloparov's scope of authority was not entirely clear, and he had no means of immediate contact with Kremlin, but nevertheless decided to risk signing for the Soviet side. Susloparov was caught offguard; he had no instructions from Moscow. But if he did not sign, he risked a German surrender without Soviet participation. However, he noted that it could be replaced with a new version in the future. Stalin was indeed displeased by these events. He believed that the German surrender should have been accepted only by the envoy of the USSR Supreme command and signed only in Berlin and insisted the Reims protocol be considered preliminary, with the main ceremony to be held in Berlin, where Marshal Zhukov was at the time, as the latter recounts in his memoirs:[2]“[Quoting Stalin:] Today, in Reims, Germans signed the preliminary act on an unconditional surrender. The main contribution, however, was done by Soviet people and not by the Allies, therefore the capitulation must be signed in front of the Supreme Command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, and not only in front of the Supreme Command of Allied Forces. Moreover, I disagree that the surrender was not signed in Berlin, which was the center of Nazi aggression. We agreed with the Allies to consider the Reims protocol as preliminary.”
Therefore, another ceremony was organized in a surviving manor in the outskirts of Berlin late on May 8, when it was already May 9 in Moscow due to the difference in time zones. Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel submitted the capitulation of the Wehrmacht to the Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the Red Army headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. To commemorate the victory in the war, the ceremonial Moscow Victory Parade was held in the Soviet capital on June 24, 1945.
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in Victory Day (Eastern Europe) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poor Susloparov!
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Ceterum censeo, Carthago esse delendam.
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