THE ORIGINAL FINAL ORDER GIVEN TO 'ARMY GROUP BLUMENTRITT'

THE ORIGINAL FINAL ORDER GIVEN TO 'ARMY GROUP BLUMENTRITT'
THE ORIGINAL FINAL ORDER GIVEN TO 'ARMY GROUP BLUMENTRITT'
GUNTHER BLUMENTRITT (1892-1967) German general, instrumental in planning the German invasion of Poland and France, participated in Operation Barbarossa, and afterward bore a large part of the responsibility for planning the defense of the Atlantic Wall and Normandy. A one-of-a-kind relic with incontestable provenance, the original final order given by Blumentritt to Armeegruppe Blumentritt at war's end, 1p. 4to., dated May 5, 1945. The printed document with text above Blumentritt's signature, reads in part: 'Soldiers of the Army Group! Armistice! Capitulation on the battlefield! I thank all members of my Army Group for the service which they have exhibited until the bitter end...especially to the units which stood up under the most difficult situations and kept up the unbroken soldier spirit until this hour...The opponent who thinks like a soldier will show you respect...You were brave but you all know that we will have to be braver in another sense. Our honor is strong even if the flags fall. This is my last greeting to you, my comrades, and my last order to the Army Group...' Blumentritt has written on the document: 'Return requested!' and 'Third enclosure'. A censor's stamp appears at center-left, and a receiving stamp at bottom is dated Feb. 5, 1947 - when Blumentritt was still a prisoner of the Allies. File holes and chips at lower left affecting only a few letters of text, tape reinforcement to verso, still quite good. After the war, Blumentritt sold or gifted his final two orders to a long-time collector and researcher, with a letter of provenance (unsigned) written in his own hand - also sold with this lot. Penned in German, the letter reads in part: 'At the end of the Second World War, I was Commander in Chief of the 'Army Blumentritt' in Northwest Germany...I surrendered on the 5th or 6th of May 1945 with my troops near Hamburg. Those were my last 2 orders to my troops, and 1 radio message from the English radio on May 6, 1945 at 18:00. These 3 originals have been copied in 1945 by the Britains and the Americans for their files...'