The defeat of Nazi Germany

On this date in 1945 on the western front Donitz sends envoys to the headquarters of Field Marshal Montgomery, at Luneburge Heide, and they sign an agreement, at 18.20 for the surrender of German forces in Holland, Denmark and northern Germany.

The Germans also agree to the Allied demand that German submarines should be surrendered rather than scuttled in the German naval tradition.

The surrender becomes effective on May 5. Meanwhile, in continuing fighting to the south, Salzburg is captured by American forces. Other units push into Czechoslovakia towards Pilsen.

On the eastern front German forces conduct rearguard actions, in northern Germany, in Czechoslovakia and Austria, as the bulk of the German forces attempt to disengage and reach the Anglo-American lines.

In Berlin Marshal Zhukov is told by Stalin that the last garrisons in Berlin have fallen.

Zhukov, the hero on the Volga, has realised what he told Paulus on that great river in 1942. And what the Russians told their people on mid-summer's day in 1941 has come to pass.