THE ORDER THAT SAVED OVER 1,500,000 MILLION GERMAN SOLDIERS

THE ORDER THAT SAVED OVER 1,500,000 MILLION GERMAN SOLDIERS
THE ORDER THAT SAVED OVER 1 500 000 MILLION GERMAN SOLDIERS
"MOVE IN DIRECTION FRANKENSTRUB" On May 6 1945 following receipt of Eisenhower’s “unconditional surrender” ultimatum by Grossadmiral Donitz at Flensburg and after deliberation with his government and military Donitz dispatched Field Marshal ALFRED JODL (1890-1946) to SHAEF Headquarters at Reims to join Kriegsmarine C-in-C Hans Georg von Friedeburg in his surrender negotiations with Lieut. General Walter Bedell Smith and British Major Gen. Kenneth Strong. Jodl was instructed to try to negotiate a separate peace with the Americans failing which he was to ask for a delay “as long as possible” between the signing of a surrender document and the fixing in place of German forces. This planned delay would allow time for the over 2 000 000 German soldiers on the Eastern Front to flee to “salvation in the west” as Donitz described it. A separate peace with the Americans was flatly rejected and at 8:00 PM Strong called SHAEF Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to relay Jodl’s request for a 48 hour interim between the signing of a surrender and the freezing in place of all German forces. Eisenhower responded: “Tell them 48 hours from now I will close my lines on the Western Front so that no more Germans can get through.” Offered here is the historic message Jodl immediately drafted which saved the lives of over 1 500 000 German soldiers desperately trying to hold the Eastern Front against the onslaught of the Red Army. Written on an 8.5 x 12 inch sheet in German for radiogram transmission to Donitz and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel it reads in full: “Orders required to all concerned to move in direction “Frankenstrub” as quickly and in as peaceful a manner as possible. Jodl Generaloberst”. Fine condition. “Frankenstrub” was the OKW facility in Berchtesgaden on the border of western Austria. Its use here was code and to be interpreted as official authorization for the forces in the east to “move westwards” in a “peaceful” manner. By 8:41 PM this message had been rather simply translated into English (see Lot 26) and transmitted by SHAEF to Donitz in Flensburg. Ultimately Eisenhower’s concession gave Jodl what he so desperately wanted: the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians. 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.