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The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 02.41, local time, May 7th, 1945.

- Sgt. Susan Hibbert, ATS, writing an official cable on behalf of General Eisenhower to the War Office in London.

The German surrender agreement, signed on May 7, 1945, in Reims, France, brought to an end six years of fighting in Europe which had cost the lives of an estimated 60million people.

In the early hours of the morning, members of the Nazi high command, General Jodl and Admiral von Friedeburg, were driven to a little red schoolhouse in Reims, 90 miles north of Paris, which served as the headquarters of Dwight D. Eisenhower, then the Supreme Allied Commander.

In a cramped classroom lined with maps, Nazi officials were presented with the document by the representatives of Great Britain, the United States, France and Russia, and ordered to sign.

The Germans had wrongly presumed that they would be allowed to discuss the terms of their surrender.

'They were met by Eisenhower's chief of staff who told them politely but firmly: 'There are no terms, you will surrender unconditionally – period,'

Eisenhower had earlier warned that anything short of an unconditional surrender by the Germans meant that he would close Allied lines to surrendering Nazi soldiers and resume the bombardment of German-held locations.

When the Germans realized that they had no choice, Jodl, designated representative of Karl Donitz, the admiral who had taken over as leader of Nazi Germany following Adolf Hitler's suicide, signed the papers at 2.41am.

Eisenhower had refused to meet with the Nazi officials until the surrender document was signed.

After the signing, Eisenhower did meet with them. There were no handshakes.

Eisenhower asked them bluntly: ''Do you understand the terms of this surrender?'' Once they said: ''Yes, we do,'' he turned around and left.

It had been a cruel, horrible and terrible war; and Eisenhower to his credit was not about to treat them as gentlemen.

The four originals of the surrender agreement, signed by the representatives of Nazi Germany, Great Britain, the United States and France, are stored in the respective national archives of the signatory countries.

The surrender agreement also holds the signatures of U.S. Army officer and Eisenhower's chief of staff, General Bedell Smith, and General Ivan Susloparov of the USSR. General Francois Sevez of France signed as a witness.

Despite the Germans surrendering their arms in Western Europe, fighting continued in the East as Soviet high command demanded that the official surrender agreement be signed in Berlin.

Eisenhower ordered that another document be signed by the Nazi leadership in Berlin on May 8 to appease the Soviets. The documents signed in the German capital the following day had few changes to the Reims agreement but represented to the Soviets the official surrender of the Third Reich.