This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/28/2024
A highly historically important open telegram document (two documents) from Colonel General Alfred Jodl, addressed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and General Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel. Dated May 6, 1945 [Reims]. This is Jodl’s instructions to Dönitz and Keitel the day before surrendering the German armed forces. On May 7, Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces on behalf of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). The telegram in full: “ORDERS TO THOSE CONCERNED NECESSARY TO TAKE DIRECTION "FRANKENSTRUB" AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND AMICABLY. JODL COLONEL GENERAL". Notably, the "Frankenstrub" reference was a code word for the retreat. 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, ostensibly to enable the surrender order to be communicated to outlying German military units. Desperately seeking to move as many men westwards and away from Russian hands as possible, he immediately drafted a radiogram to be sent to Grand Admiral Karl Donitz and General Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel in Flensburg, in which he cryptically ordered forces confronting the Red Army to move west.
This is the original manuscript of that radiogram as sent to Donitz at 8:41 PM on May 6, 1945. 8 x 10.5 inches, fine condition. Accompanied by the original typed text of Jodl's message, as well as an exact carbon copy made at the same time. Three pieces in total. Provenance: Former property of 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.