SITE OF GERMAN SURRENDER

Southland Times, Issue 25669, 11 May 1945, Page 6

SITE OF GERMAN SURRENDER

OLD CITY OF RHEIMS Mild curiosity about the locality of General Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters has been satisfied by the news thar he received Germany’s unconditional surrender at Rheims. Reference to the map shows that this old city, which suffered so much at German hands in the last war, but came almost unscathed through the one now ended, was a very suitable place from which to direct the final Allied assault on the Rhine. Rheims is about 80 miles west-north-west of Paris, between the Marne and the Oise, in the pleasant vineyard country of the Champagne. It is almost in the centre of the great arc formed by the Rhine in its course from the Swiss frontier at Basle to the sea, and is some 190 miles from the river at the nearest point. That region of France is covered with a network of good roads, and communications with all parts of the front would be good. General Eisenhower conducted the invasion from his original headquarters in Britain until the Germans were on the run towards their own frontier. Whether Rheims has been his only established location on the Continent is not known. The establishment of Supreme Headquarters is so huge, consisting of some thousands of people, that moving it would be a formidable task, especially in the middle of a campaign. Rheims is a city of about 100,000 people, famous for its wines, its cathedral and its association with Joan of Arc. The Germans bombarded it heavily in September 1914, causing the inhabitants to shelter in the chalk caves used as wine cellars. In 1918, after the civilian population had been removed, the enemy made unsuccessful attempts to capture it. Most of the town, ineluding many ancient buildings, was ruined by bombardment and the cathedral was much damaged. Large sums for the restoration were contributed from America, and the work occupied many years.