The surrender was signed for the Germans by Colonel-General Gustav Jodl, the new German Chief of Staff, and by General Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Lieut.-General Wilbur Bedell Smith. Major General Ira Suslapatrov signed for Russia, and General Farancoos Sebez for France. General Suslapatrov is in charge of Red Army repatriation.

General Eisenhower did not attend the signing, but immediately afterwards he received General Jodl and General Admiral Hans Friedburg. General Eisenhower obtained from them a statement that they fully understood the surrender terms, and an assurance that they would be carried out. General Eisenhower preserved a stern manner throughout.

After the signing General Jodl asked and received permission to speak.

"With this signature the German people and the armed forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the victors' hands," he said. "In a war which has lasted over five years, both the German people and the armed forces have suffered more perhaps than any people in the world."

The first news of the German surrender was broadcast by the German radio station at Flensburg, near the Danish frontier, when the German Foreign Minister (Count Schwerin von Krosigk) declared: "German men and women, the High Command of the armed forces has today, at the order of Grand Admiral Doenltz, declared the unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops.

"As the leading Minister of the Reich Government, which Admiral Doenitz has appointed to deal with war tasks, I turn at this tragic moment in our history to the German nation. Germany, after an heroic fight of almost six years of incomparable darkness, has succumbed to the overwhelming power of her enemies.

"To continue the war would only mean bloodshed and futile disintegration. The Government. which has a feeling of responsibility for the future of the nation, was compelled to act on the collapse of all physical and material forces, and to demand from the enemy a cessation of hostilities.

"Our sympathy first of all goes out to our soldiers. No one must have any doubt that heavy sacrifices will be demanded from us in all spheres of life. We must take them upon us and stand loyally to our obligations.

"Let us not lose the peace," the Acting Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) said in his historic broadcast from the floor of Parliament House on Tuesday night (May 8).

"Let us all at this historic moment pause and remember those whose lives have been given, or whose bodies and minds have been broken and seared that we might live. Let us remember, too, the men and women and children whose lives and homes were plunged into the horror of war.

"Let us think of the people of bomb-battered Britain who set an example - so many years ago it seems now - for all the world to follow.

"Let us think of the agony of Stalingrad, Sebastopol, Rotterdam, Malta, of occupied France.

"Let us remember, too, the men who covered the seas so vital forces and supplies could be carried to points that were essential to carrying on of the struggle and then to offensives that have brought victory."

Mr Chifley added: "And now with brutality, physical and mental disfigurement and human degradation and enslavement no longer capable of being imposed on the peoples of Europe, let us pray that the rebuilding of lives and homes, the feeding and nursing, and, so importantly, the re-establishment of the gift of free government will be given the full strength of the United Nations, whose concert in war has won victory."

Mr Chifley said he felt a great debt of gratitude was owed to the leaders of the United Nations and to the commanders in the field.

"History's place for men such as Mr. Churchill, the late President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, General Eisenhower, Field-Marshal Alexander and Field-Marshal Montgomery, cannot adequately reflect the great devotion, ability and steadfastness which they brought to their tasks," he added.

"Above all, let us give thanks to Almighty God."

Mr Chifley said Australian men and women fighters and workers could join with just pride in the parade of victory that had now commenced.

Their place had been won with blood and sacrifice. Their name was known in the shifting sands of the Western Desert, in the mountains of Greece, in Crete, and in Syria.

In every theatre of aerial warfare their name had been made known; on every sea Australia had had its ships and men. Everywhere the enemy had been met Australians lay, whether in graves or beneath the sea.

"Australians have won their place with sacrifice, by miracles of production, by unstinted contributions in money, by an unswerving spirit of devotion to all the tasks war imposes," Mr Chifley added. "For us, thanksgiving and rejoicing are tempered by a stern reminder that the other enemy assassin that struck at Pearl Harbour and Manila and Malaya still remains."

Mr Chifley said that in countless prison camps were Australians who fought their way down Malaya to Singapore. They must and would be freed.

"The forces of Britain and the United States, and, I hope, soon those of Russia, provide the key for the unlocking of the prison camps and for the freeing of so many unhappy people," he said.

"Peace will come to the Pacific only on the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. The alternative for Japan is to be smashed into submission."

It was our task, said Mr Chifley, to maintain the great war effort which, since Japan entered the war, had won world praise for our country.

Our fighting men had added such places as the Kokoda trail, Buna. New Britain and Bougainville to their battle honours. The RAAF had sought out the enemy in countless places. The RAN had paid its price in battle.

"Let us do nothing that will prolong by a day the moment when our fighting men and those under the command of General MacArthur, Admiral Nimitz, and Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser and General Arnold can administer the final crushing blow to our enemy," he added.

Official announcement at 11 o'clock last night (May 8) of the end of the war in Europe was the signal for Newcastle to throw off its restraint.

Soldiers leaving the city by a late train broke into cheering. Royal Marines, fired by the Australian enthusiasm, joined in the hilarity. Later, cars with tins tied to rear springs, raced through the streets sounding their sirens, tram bells clanged, and whistles and sirens from ships on the harbour broke into the din. Train whistles screamed as the engines travelled, and a chorus of motor horns created noise and discord at midnight. Above the din could be heard the Cathedral bell ringing out the tidings.

Hundreds of young people were in Hunter Street at 11pm. They followed a band of men and women who were swinging alone the footpath, singing. The singers, after a quick dance along the colonnade near the post office, started an impromptu concert. They sang last war songs and songs made popular during this war. The more they sang the larger the crowd grew, until about 500 people were present.

It was an orderly crowd. The police were at hand, but did not attempt to interfere. There was a lot of good-natured banter. A truck carrying members of the Provost Corps was specially marked for greetings from the crowd. When eventually the singers moved away a crowd followed them. Some were beating tins.

Accompanying motor cars broke into the melody with discordant sirens. But it all helped to make noise. That apparently was what the young people wanted.

One couple started to dance in the street. Then a group of four set up a round dance, but it did not last long. Women in evening clothes being helped up over the tailboard of a lorry created amusement. The gathering cheered, but the truck and its load of laughing men and women drove off amid the cheering. Two young men on bicycles, with kerosene tins dragging behind attracted the crowd from the post office. Ready to follow anything, the revellers fell in behind the kerosene tins and went marching down Hunter Street.

Guitars and banjos hardly tuned in with the unmusical drag of tin cans on concrete, but that did not matter. It was happy music to the young people, as they danced and sang behind the modern Pied Pipers. The procession stopped opposite an air-raid shelter at Perkin Street. Men with the instruments climbed on to the shelter and started another concert there. Women followed them. Soon a mixed company was entertaining the crowd.

The concert was going on nicely when the police hinted to the men with the kerosene tins that they should move along. They accepted the advice. The tins started their rattle again, and the people followed. Those on the air-raid shelter scrambled to the ground and went with them. Some of the women had difficulty in climbing down, but they managed it with the aid of friendly hands. The procession moved to Wheeler Place and stopped again. Then a suburban bound tram came along. It took many away.

The crowd gradually dwindled, but a few stalwarts remained.

Throughout the night individual parties of young people wandered about the streets singing, but there was no disorder.

In this momentous week Australians will not forget their sons who are fighting to break the grip of the Japanese on Borneo. Australian soldiers, for their part, will be happy in the knowledge that once more they are in the forefront of the drive against their Pacific enemy.

Tarakan is the doorstep to Borneo, with all its natural resources. It is also an island that will serve as the final link in the chain of air bases that will stretch from Darwin to Manila. More important still, it is certain reoccupation will bring hope to the people in the great island empire that lies to the north of Australia. And beyond, the men of the ill-fated Eighth Division are waiting for liberation. In the ears of the men now fighting will ring the plea of their comrades to hurry so that they may be freed from cruel imprisonment.

Australians will be entitled to rejoice in the brief respite that will follow the end of the war in Europe. But afterwards nothing must be left undone to ensure that soldiers of whom the nation is so rightly proud will not lack all the support that the home front can give, and that the day of liberation for so many prisoners of war will be hastened.

Australian casualties in the South-west Pacific from January 1 to the end of March were 1408. In the previous six months, the casualties were 470. These figures were 4455 for the second half of 1944. The Minister for Postwar Reconstruction (Mr Dedman) gave these figures in the House of Representatives.

Kenneth Clifford Burns, Hamilton; William Thomas Hooper, East Maitland; Thomas Maxwell Johnson, Lambton; John Charles O'Brien, Mayfield East; Leslie Jack Stevenson, New Lambton; Neville Bailey Craft, Georgetown; George Vallette, Carrington; Dallas Donald George Steele, Highfields; William John Brecht, Newcastle; Maxwell George Moore, Branxton; Dorothy Mary Dossetto, Hamilton; Betty Gardiner, Mayfield; Leila Florence Graham, Wickham; May Aileen Clare Hill, Kahibah; Mary Hopes, Toronto; Norma Lott, Islington; Grace Elizabeth Smith, Merewether; Beryl Somerville, Mayfield East; Joan Marie Vero, Neath.

Private Robert Thomas Bonis, East Greta. POW; Lieutenant Jack Abbott Eley, Murrurundi; Private Trevor John Tranter, Cardiff; Private Ernest Leonard Cox, Scone. POW; Private Arthur Joseph Pratt, Waratah; Corporal George Burton, Morisset. POW; Private Cyril Fernie, Morisset; Private Leslie John Harwood Giles, Hamilton: Signalman Noel John Salmon, Newcastle; Private George Edward Thompson, Murrurundi. POW.

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