The Last Surrender of the Third Reich — Svalbard, September 4th, 1945.In September of 1944 a G
The Last Surrender of the Third Reich — Svalbard, September 4th, 1945.In September of 1944 a German project called Operation Haudegen established a weather base on the remote arctic Island of Svalbard. Manned by 11 soldiers, the station was created to gather weather data, which is vitally important when planning a military campaign. For months the men of Operation Haudegen staved off subzero temperatures, boredom, and fought a fierce war with the local population of polar bears while dutifully sending weather reports to Germany.When Germany collapsed in the winter and spring of 1945, so too did its communication infrastructure, with fewer and fewer messages sent to Haudegen. On May 8th 1945 the men of Haudegen received a message instructing all German forces to surrender. It was the last message they would ever receive. All the men of Haudegen had was a single rowboat which could hardly cross the North Atlantic. They were effectively trapped on the island until help could arrive. For months they continued to broadcast their weather reports, this time un-coded for all to hear. They even tried broadcasting messages on Allied distress channels, but with no luck. It seemed that the world had forgotten about Haudegen altogether. Finally on September 4th, 1945, a boat of Norwegian seal hunters intercepted an SOS broadcast from the nearby island of Svalbard. The captain of the boat docked with the station and invited the German soldiers on board for a hearty dinner, a real treat since the men of Haudegen had been surviving on canned rations for nearly a year. Finally, the German commander said “I suppose we should surrender now”, took out his pistol and placed it on the table in front of the ship’s captain. The captain stared at it unsure what to do and asked “can I keep this then?”. On September 4th, 1945 the last soldiers of the Third Reich officially surrendered to a boat of seal hunters, almost four months after World War II in Europe had ended. -- source link
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