Nov 12, 2009: Nazi Surrender

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ronald Playforth was Monty's clerk from D-Day on, and hiding in the bushes, took the only color photographs of the Nazi surrender. He took two pictures, unseen by the world until now, that have been in his family album ever since.

His pictures show Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg, the most senior member of the delegation, General Eberhard Kinzel, chief of staff of the north west Germany army, and Major Friedl, a 6ft 6ins Gestapo chief. They were received by Field Marshall Montgomery, with his customary black beret and army uniform, who, when the Germans tried to negotiate, reportedly gave them a ‘tongue lashing’ about the bombing of Coventry and the horrors of Belsen. The delegation reported back to their HQ and Admiral Karl Doenitz – Hitler’s successor – and were given permission to sign the surrender papers, which they did the next day, May 4. When it was all over Montgomery is said to have leaned back and said simply: ‘That concludes the surrender.’ Two of the German delegation – Kinzel and Friedeburg – committed suicide weeks later by taking cyanide while Friedl died in a car accident.

Hmmm, car accident... they got rid of Patton that way, too.

Ok, the picture is not all that clear, but it is an actual photograph, and one of the only two in color, of one of the most important happenings in modern human history.

You can see the other one here.

EDIT: I lied, he took 4 photographs, according to some sources.