MAY 1945
The end of the war, when it finally came, was sudden and although expected, almost an anti-c****x. There were reports on the wireless of an imminent German surrender on May 7th and we had already had reports that Adolf Hitler was dead; reported as committing suicide in his bunker in Berlin before the Russian troops could get to him. Close friends and officials had, apparently, obeyed orders to the last and shot him and then burned the bodies of him and his woman, Eva Braun, beyond recognition.
Left without his leader, it fell to Grand Admiral Donitz, who had been President of the Third Reich for just a week, to surrender to senior Allied Officers from Britain, America, Russia and France. He did so at General Eisenhower"s HQ in Reims, France on the 7th.
Mrs. McKenzie called in o
