Site Ed. Note: The front page and inside page report, in a firsthand story by Joseph W. Grigg, Jr., that the body of Herr Doktor Goebbels had at last been discovered by the Russians in the Reichs-Chancellery building, along with at least three other burned bodies, one of which might be that of Hitler. But no definitive identification had yet been made of the Fuehrer. The bodies of the Goebbels family were discovered. That believed to be of Martin Bormann, successor to Rudolf Hess as Hitler's deputy, had also been discovered, along with those of several other top Nazis—in need of a thorough autopsy.

Four charred bodies seeming to resemble in dimensions Hitler's general description had been found in the ruins of the Reichs-Chancellery. The Russians asserted, however, that they believed no body would be found which could be definitely identified as that of Hitler.

The Reichs-Chancellery was linked by underground tunnels to the Air Ministry building 500 yards distant and the High Command building in the Bendlerstrasse on the Leutsow Ufer, a mile away. Other underground shelters had been found beneath the Tiergarten, also linking to the other tunnel network.

The Russians had used flame-throwers to clear the last German defenders from many of these subterranean shelters and they believed that Hitler's body probably was in one of them, but burned beyond recognition, or that he might have been killed by those around him before the Russians had arrived.

Mr. Grigg reports of observing in Berlin the remains of "something of the horror of the greatest street-to-street and house-to-house battle since Stalingrad". He recalled, prior to 1941, having strolled on summer evenings through the Tiergarten, one of the most beautiful municipal parks in the world. But this day, it appeared as Belleau Wood or the Argonne or Paschendaele, smoke-blackened and scarred by anti-tank ditches, shorn of leaves and limbs.

He stated that the Fuehrerbunker beneath the Chancellery could be observed through a gaping chasm opened by an American blockbuster bomb dropped earlier in the year.

"The 'bomb-proof' shelter and the Reichschancellery above it and the whole of the heart of Berlin are irrevocably destroyed today. With them went the last of Hitler's dreams of a 'thousand years' Reich.'"

In Paris, General Maxime Weygand, last commander in chief of France's Army before the Fall in spring, 1940, having taken over just at the time of the German breakthrough, had been arrested on unspecified charges issued by the High Court of Justice in France. He had also commanded the French Army in North Africa subsequent to 1940. Jean Borotra, one-time tennis champion who had headed the Department of Sports under Vichy, was also taken into custody. Both men had recently been rescued from German prison camps in the Alps.

Marshal Stalin pronounced, before a throng of Russian celebrants in Red Square, the surrender of Germany and stated that the Soviet Union would not destroy Germany or its people. He stated that the final surrender had been made in Berlin following the "preliminary act" of surrender at Reims—the converse of the treatment of the surrender by the Western Allies, which viewed the Berlin signing as a ratification of the Reims surrender.

Ach oh.

The Russians had fought since June 22, 1941 against Germany and had moved the Germans back 1,360 miles from their high-water mark in Russia at Stalingrad two years earlier.

Stalin also announced the liberation of Prague at 4:00 a.m. the previous day, occupied since March 14, 1939, before the war had started.

The Russians were taking into custody the surrendering German forces in the Vistula Estuary near Danzig and from the Latvian Courtland Peninsula.

Dunkerque, last Nazi hold-out in France, had surrendered.

German soldiers streamed into custody from previously bypassed pockets in Germany and elsewhere.

Marshal Tito reported that some German resistance was still being encountered as his Partisan forces marched toward the Austrian border.

German troops were dispatched to the woods at Segeburg, north of Hamburg, to end continued resistance of 300 Nazi fanatics.

Between 200 and 300 operational U-boats were seized by the Allies in the three surrendered French ports at La Rochelle, St. Nazaire, and Lorient.

The last German commander on the Western Front, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, awaiting his formal surrender aboard a train in the Tyrol, told reporters, in assessing the war, that he did not understand why Germany had not attacked England following the evacuation of Dunkerque in June, 1940. He had favored the move. He described Hitler as a genius in operations and conception. "Sometimes, however, the ideas of genius are misunderstood." The Fuehrer, he said, was overtaxed with other duties of state.

Kesselring was certain that Hitler was dead, but was surprised that he had not led a final stand within the fortress at Berchtesgaden. The Field Marshal had spoken to the chief of staff of the German Sixth Army who had been in Berlin until two days prior to its falling to the Russians and was informed that Hitler was dead. He did not know how he had died.

He contended that Hitler would have welcomed a treaty of peace with the Western Allies at any time, the Nordic peoples being similar.

He contended that the Germans never intended to use gas. "We are not as bad as you believe us to be."

He gave high overall marks to the Allied leadership and added, "At least I can't say anything against the skill of General Patton."

A second inside page has a story by Hal Boyle in which he tells of the liberation of Prague and surrender of the German forces in the city. Konrad Henlein, the Gauleiter of the Sudetenland, and Karl Frank, Nazi military governor of Czechoslovakia, had been captured by the 1st Division of the Third Army the previous day, while thousands of German soldiers, including thousands of SS troops, fled westward from Prague toward American lines in the vicinity of Pilsen. German occupation personnel also fled on foot or in dilapidated cars and carts in a column of "woe and red-faced distress". They had retained their weapons until they reached American outposts five miles from Pilsen and then, under orders of the Second Division and 16th Armored Division, began throwing away their equipment and arms.

Some 5,000 people of Prague had been killed during the last ditch three-day battle with the Nazis. The Czechs accused the SS of having slaughtered thousands of boys and men during the battle. They had also reportedly used women and children as human shields for their tanks as they approached Patriot fire.

Meanwhile, victorious Russian troops, "looking like Daniel Boones on motorcycles" in their fur caps, paraded through Prague amid the welcome of the city's residents. Czech girls, whom the G.I.'s had voted the best looking in Europe, were crowding onto the Russian vehicles.

Bad sign, Joe.

Mr. Boyle had ridden with two other reporters from Pilsen to Prague, a journey taking hours through the packed roads full of the German soldiers and refugees, the soldiers still being fully armed. He saw passed-out German soldiers in meadows along the way, after an "alcoholic debauch" to celebrate the end of the Third Reich. The columns on the road, however, were as "orderly and surly as ever". Every other vehicle contained a German woman soldier or nurse or sweetheart.

A third inside page reports that Elmer Davis, head of the Office of War Information, based on a determination by the psychological warfare division of Supreme Allied Headquarters, had informed that all American newspapers and magazines, as well as foreign business enterprise, would be banned from occupied Germany during the initial period of occupation. Mr. Davis stated that the reason was that "Germany is a sick man" and thus had to be carefully regulated in terms of the fare to which the populace was exposed, not being used to a free press for twelve years and thus needing a period of gradual re-immersion into freedom and conflict to which it would be exposed in American publications. Soldiers who were in the occupation forces would be able to receive magazines and newspapers in the normal course.

Also on the page, Edward Kennedy provides a reply to Brig. General Frank Allen, Jr., the SHAEF public relations officer, saying that the effort of SHAEF on Monday to hold up the surrender story was "purely political censorship". He again stressed that he transmitted the story only after the Germans had been permitted to broadcast the news of the surrender and after he had been informed that there was no military security issue at stake. He also stated that General Allen had informed him that General Eisenhower wanted the news out as quickly as possible in order to halt the fighting and save lives, but that the decision to withhold the reporting of the story had been made at "high political levels", binding General Eisenhower.

General Allen stated that the Russians wanted the story withheld until more formal contact could be made with the German High Command in Berlin. He also asserted that these considerations "involved security and the saving of American lives", although he did not explain the statement beyond the general idea of the negotiations themselves for the surrender.

He also stated that General Eisenhower had become concerned that the release of the story by Mr. Kennedy and the Associated Press might jeopardize the meeting between the Allied High Command, the Russians, and the Germans at Berlin and thus prolong the war.

Mr. Kennedy retorted to this last statement that General Eisenhower had, hours before his release of the story, conveyed to the troops the fact that surrender would occur at 12:01 a.m., May 9. Thus, he concluded, there was no prospect that early release of the story could have interceded to break down or prevent the meeting in Berlin and the final formal surrender there—bearing in mind that formal surrender at Reims, the basis for the story, had, as he had witnessed, already taken place seven hours before the release of the story. He further stressed that he had witnessed the Russian general at Reims sign those documents, with apparent authority to act fully for the Soviet Union.

Mr. Kennedy admitted that General Allen had stated that the story could not be released until the Allied Governments announced it, but he had also stated that he believed that the announcement would be made before the pool of select reporters who had witnessed the signing could reach Paris to wire it out. Plans were then altered and General Allen, he said, made several conflicting statements as to how the news would be released. The reporter stressed further that censors at Reims had approved the release of his dispatch to London. Subsequently, however, the censors verbally rescinded the approval after it was determined that the story had to be withheld pending Allied announcement.

He then was informed when he reached Paris that the German Government had made its announcement and that the BBC had also announced the surrender. He promptly told the chief American press censor that he felt no longer bound by the pledge of secrecy and would release the report since no military security was involved and the announcement had already been made. He based the decision on the prior statement of President Roosevelt and other American officials that the only purpose of military censorship was security. He also phoned General Allen's office to inform of his intention, but was told that the general was too busy to speak with him.

In short, Mr. Kennedy got the shaft. He did the right thing and there were likely millions of fathers and mothers of the land who blessed him for it—for not having to put up with another agonizing day while the Russians mulled whether to accept the German surrender.

On the front page is printed a brief public apology by the Associated Press for the early release of the surrender story, and reaffirmation of its adherence to the principle of maintaining "all obligations voluntarily assumed".

In the Pacific, a record force of 400 B-29's conducted a raid on Japan's oil supplies for the first time, hitting storage and manufacturing facilities on Honshu, at Tokuyama and Otake on the Inland Sea, with reported excellent results. The raid carried the payload of a thousand Liberators on a 3,000-mile roundtrip. Other targets were also struck on Shikoku and Kyushu, origin of kamikaze raids against Navy ships supplying Okinawa.

On Okinawa, rain and mud beset troops of the Tenth Army and the 1st Marines as they continued the fight before Naha. Rain filled foxholes in the rugged terrain while the Japanese holed up in tunnels and caves. Japanese aerial assaults which had been relentless had now subsided because of the rain during the previous two days.

Casualties on Okinawa had reached a reported 16,425 through May 7, including 2,107 from the Army and 577 Marines killed, 10,492 from the Army and 2,600 Marines wounded, and 501 soldiers and 38 Marines missing. The number had increased by fully 2,142, of whom 347 had been killed, in just the previous four days.

Enemy killed amounted to 36,535, a 14 to 1 kill ratio, since the beginning of the campaign April 1, this date being a day short of the halfway point of the battle for the island, 330 miles south of Japan.

American forces of the 24th Infantry Division invaded on Tuesday, without opposition, Samal Island just off Davao on Mindanao. There were few Japanese believed to be present on the island. Bitter fighting continued on the mainland of Mindanao as a Japanese force had virtually isolated an American battalion. The 24th established a bridgehead across the Talomo River, west of Davao, to eliminate the Japanese battalion nearly ringing the Americans.

The 31st Division advanced seven miles eastward from Kibawe in the central part of Mindanao. Another column moved northward to engage the enemy near a southern airstrip, Maramag.

The Australian-Dutch campaign on Tarakan off Borneo neared its completion as the troops had taken almost all of Tarakan city and Api Hill, closing in on Djocata oil field, having already captured Pamoesian oil field.

Whether they might soon capture Upi Hill, a competitor to Api, was not prefigured in the story.

Secretary of War Stimson announced that there had been 34,598 Army casualties in April, including 5,324 killed, 25,497 wounded, and 3,867 missing. The Army on the Western Front since D-Day had suffered 512,113 casualties, of whom 88,225 had been killed, 365,320 wounded, and 58,568 missing and captured. The Army casualties, he further stated, for all theaters in the war against Germany would amount to about 800,000, with about 150,000 of those having been killed. About half of the wounded had been returned to duty. Some 70,000 to 80,000 of the prisoners had been released.

In all theaters, casualties of the Army reported through April 30 had reached 867,709. Navy casualties were 104,945. The total Army and Navy casualties had increased 22,182 since the previous week. The number killed in the Army had increased by 4,700, the number wounded, by 15,800, the number missing, reduced by 6,000, and the number of prisoners, reduced by 5,100. The number killed in the Navy had increased by 1,200, the number wounded, by 1,100, the number missing, by 200, and the number captured, reduced by three.

The Army announced its point system for order of discharge following V-E Day. Discharge would require accumulation of 85 points based on overseas service, combat participation, and parenthood. Men with the requisite points would begin to be moved the following week to discharge centers. It was expected that 1.3 million men would be discharged in the ensuing year.

Chief among the points was that 12 were awarded for each child under 18 up to three children. After that, the points were somewhat stingy, a point for each month overseas since September 16, 1940 and five points for each award of combat decorations. Good luck, therefore, fella, if you got in rather late and have no children. We shall see you, maybe, around 1949.

Hal Boyle was reported to have received the news of award of the Pulitzer Prize for his distinguished correspondence with utter disbelief, thinking that his colleagues were playing a prank. He had been informed of the prize upon his return from Prague when he stopped by First Division headquarters and was informed by a captain from the Bronx, "Congratulations on winning the Pulitzer Prize," to which Mr. Boyle replied, "Aw, horsefeathers," or something like that. The captain then produced a copy of Star and Stripes to prove his case. But Mr. Boyle still read it in disbelief, asserting that they must have made a mistake.

At the San Francisco Conference, the Cuban delegation proposed to enlarge the Security Council from eleven to fourteen or fifteen members to accommodate smaller nation representatives. The proposal was expected to reach a vote this date. Presently, the composition of the Security Council was slated to be the Big Four plus France and six smaller nations, the latter rotating.

The American delegation was seeking to incorporate the Pan American Union into the world organization without splitting the organization into regional blocs. The delegation was said to be split on whether the Pan American Union would co-exist separately or as part of the United Nations Organization in voting on use of force to suppress aggression in the Western Hemisphere. Latin American representatives were desirous of the ability to undertake unilateral action apart from the U.N. in such matters, to assure expedient action in emergent situations. But allowing such action would likely prompt other regional blocs to seek the same authority, of concern to the Anglo-American delegations as potentially being divisive of the U.N.

The proposal of Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan that the U.N. General Assembly have authority to probe trouble spots whenever and wherever they arose in the world was approved by the Executive Committee as an amendment to the Dumbarton Oaks proposal. Review of treaties, originally included in the amendment, was struck at the demand of the Russians, as being an invitation to post-war German propagandists.

The committee on structures of the General Assembly agreed to allow as many as five members for each country's delegation but with only one vote per country.

A committee comprised of the Big Five had reportedly reached agreement on the basic machinery for governance of enemy territories occupied pursuant to both of the world wars, that is the international trusteeships.

Discussion of the Polish issue had been suspended while Foreign Commissar Molotov returned to Moscow, following his disclosure of the arrest of 16 of the Polish mission to Moscow for alleged "diversionary activities" with respect to the Red Army.

And Pitts and Green, before White, were charged in Charlotte in Federal Court with stealing four cases of cigarettes from an interstate shipment of Palmetto.

On the editorial page, "No Respite" discusses the fact that V-E Day would not slacken the need for money for the war, that the Seventh War Loan Drive would begin Monday, with a goal of fourteen billion dollars. In all, the previous six drives had raised 109 billion. At the end of World War I, a fifth and final loan drive had been over-subscribed by 15 percent and there had been, of course, no additional war to be fought as now remained against Japan.

"Duel for Trieste" finds it a bit of tragi-comedy that the Italians were upset about the prospect of losing Trieste, previously, prior to World War I, a part of Austria. Now, the British Eighth Army was encamped there, and in Gorizia.

"The G. I. Way" presents two brief news items without comment: Governor Gregg Cherry had ordered no sale of beer or wine in North Carolina for 36 hours following the proclamation of V-E Day; on Guam, two cans of free beer were issued to each enlisted man attached to Pacific Fleet headquarters in celebration of V-E Day.

"The Fat One" advocates "death, quick and sudden" for Luftwaffe chieftain Hermann Goering, who had been captured the previous day in the area of Berchtesgaden, following his release from German captivity after he had been stripped of his title and sentenced, he said, to die by the Nazis for seeking surrender of the Reich at the last minute.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record finds Senator Robert Taft of Ohio rising to speak out against what he believed were propaganda techniques being employed by Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish in support of the ratification of the treaty to come from San Francisco, in support of the extension for three years of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements and allowing their amendment to afford the President the power unilaterally to reduce tariffs by up to 25 percent to encourage trade, and to ratify the Bretton Woods accord to establish a World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Drew Pearson discusses the behind-the-scenes account of the discussions of the American delegation, after the San Francisco Conference had reluctantly voted to admit Argentina, anent how they would deflect press criticism aimed at Secretary Stettinius.

Marquis Childs states that the Nazis' world had ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Party structure had proved weaker than anyone had suspected. The amazing part was that the Prussian military could not have effected surrender sooner, sometime not long after the invasion of Normandy, which had made Allied victory a fait accompli. Following the defeat at Stalingrad in the East in mid-1943, the German military commanders knew that the best they could achieve was a stalemate and perhaps some favorable terms by splitting the Allied camps. At that time, German General Walter von Seydlitz, a member of the Prussian aristocratic military caste, had been captured, then went on Moscow radio to urge the Germans to overthrow the Nazis and surrender. American journalists who had interviewed him in Moscow came away convinced that he had acted without coercion.

Dorothy Thompson, still in Jerusalem, again addresses the issue of whether the Soviet Union would exert imperialistic power on the Continent and whether it would seek to extend its sphere of influence beyond Eastern Europe into the Middle East.

Samuel Grafton skips writing the obituary of Germany and celebration of the Allied victory, instead opts to get down to the business of what should come next. During the last weeks of the war, the Nazis had used the infliction of as much death as possible to make the point that they were not going to release fascism, would remain steadfast against Bolshevism. They had allowed 100,000 Germans to die without practical purpose in Berlin to reinforce the point. The point was further stressed when Heinrich Himmler on April 27 had tendered unconditional surrender only to the Western Allies, deliberately omitting Russia.

If, on the other hand, Russia and the West could remain united, the German militarism was "dead as a mackerel". Otherwise, it could find its resurrection on the same premise as following World War I, that the liberals and democrats had stabbed the great bulwark against Bolshevism in the back.

So it was really the future of Germany being debated in San Francisco.

The Germans had made it so by their insistence on the point, by killing their own people and the people of the Allies "to present the issue in unforgettable form for later recall".