FIELD MARSHAL ALFRED JODL ORDERS GERMAN MILITARY TO WITHDRAW TOWARDS BERCHTESGADEN TO AVOID RUSSIAN ...

FIELD MARSHAL ALFRED JODL ORDERS GERMAN MILITARY TO WITHDRAW TOWARDS BERCHTESGADEN TO AVOID RUSSIAN CAPTURE
Important manuscript document secretarially-signed “Jodl Colonel General” one page 8 x 10.5 inches [Reims May 6 1945] in pencil. Following negotiations with Lieut. General WALTER BEDELL SMITH and British Major Gen. KENNETH STRONG Field Marshal ALFRED JODL was able to obtain a 48-hour delay before the official cessation of hostilities. Desperately seeking to move as many men westwards and away from Russian hands as possible he immediately drafted a radiogram to be sent to Grossadmiral Karl Donitz and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in Flensburg in which he cryptically ordered forces confronting the Red Army to move west. Offered here is the original manuscript text of that radiogram as sent to Donitz at 8:41 PM on May 6 1945. In full: “OPEN RADIOGRAM DATE: 6 MAY 1945 FROM: COLONEL GENERAL JODL TO: GRAND ADMIRAL DONITZ AND GENERAL FIELD MARSHAL KEITEL. ORDERS TO THOSE CONCERNED NECESSARY TO TAKE DIRECTION “FRANKENSTRUB” AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND AMICABLY. JODL COLONEL GENERAL”. Fine condition. SOLD WITH: the original typed text of Jodl’s message very likely the copy handed to the American radio operator for transmission as well as an exact carbon copy made at the same time. Three pieces. The reference to “Frankenstrub” the OKW facility in Berchtesgaden on the Austrian border was code for the retreat the “amicably” reference is self-explanatory. Each typed document is also approx. 8 x 10.5 inches. This lot was obtained by our consignor directly from Major-General Sir Kenneth William Dobson Strong (1900-1982) a senior officer of the British Army who served as Eisenhower’s chief of intelligence at SHAEF and played a leading part in the negotiations of the unconditional surrender of Germany.