American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Provenance: Acquired by the consignor directly from Tech Sergeant Porter E. Whitney, who was supervising General Eisenhower's QED top secret red line net at the Supreme Allied Command headquarters in Versailles. Whitney was working at his terminal when he received the teletype transmission offered here from Eisenhower's SHAEF forward office at Reims, the site where the historic agreement was signed. The cable is believed to be the original due to the six spelling errors it contains, which are shown in bold in the transcription below: 

 

PARA ONE PD A REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GERMAN HIGH CAMMAND SIGNED THE 

PAREN T COMBINED CHIEFS OF STAFF AND TO BRITISH CIEFS OF STAFF FOR A 

ACTION SIGNED EISENHOWER PD THIS IS SCAF 357 PD UNPAREN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER OF ALL GERMAN LAND CMA DEA AND AIR FORCES IN EUROPE TO THE 

ALLIED EXPEDITIOARY FORCE AND SIMULTANEOUSLY TO THE SOVIET HIGH COMMAND 

AT ZERO ONE FOR ONE HOURS CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME SEVEN MAY CMA NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY FIVE PD GENERAL SUSLOPAROFF SIGNED FOR RUSSIANS PD 

PARA TWO PD SURRENDER EFFECTIVE AT TWO THREE ZERO ONE HOURS CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME EIGHT MAY

AT WHICH TIME ALL ACTIVE OPERATIONS WILL CEASE PD PARA THREE PD 

REQUEST MISSION INFORM SOVIET HIGH COMMAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE PD PARA 

FOUR PD NO REPEAT NO RELEASE IS BEING MADE OT THE PRESS BY THIS 

HEADQUARTERS PENDING AN ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE THREE GOVERNMENTS PD 

BT 070410B

 

The six typos were corrected by Tech Sergeant Whitney prior to forwarding to the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the British Chiefs of Staff, and the Military Mission in Moscow. However, this remains as likely the first cable announcing the unconditional surrender of the German military forces. 

 

Accompanied by photocopy of original mailing envelope in which the cable was sent to the consignor by Tech Sergeant Whitney, with Whitney's return address included.