May 2, 1945 at La Stanga, Italy
Known to most WWII buffs and many older Italians, May 2, 1945, was Surrender Day, when German forces fighting in Italy were the first to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. One week later, on May 7, 1945, the formal act of military surrender was signed by Germany, ending the war in Europe.
The following day (May 8) became Victory in Europe Day (VE Day.)
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La Stanga, Italy, is where the surrender of the 76th German Corps to my dad’s army regiment (337th Infantry of the 85th Division) was held.
A decade ago, Steve Cole, the son of Staff Sergeant Newton F. ('N.F.') Cole Jr., Battery B of the 328th Field Artillery Battalion of the 85th Division, created the website Custermen (about Men of the 85th "Custer" Infantry Division.)
To explain the Surrender, he set up a chapter, “The War is Over,” and put the picture below.
This picture caught the eyes of Angela Findlay, living in the United Kingdom, and she joined the Facebook group “85th Infantry Division Custer.” She posted the first message on April 19, 2019, to tell members that she is the granddaughter of this German general. Surprisingly, she got 74 comments responding to her very first post.
After exchanging with the children of the 85th Division men, Findlay finished writing a book titled “In My Grandfather’s Shadow,” released on July 14, 2022.
And Findlay added the sentence to her book.
Back to the site of the Surrender:
Top-Left: L-R: Colonel Oliver W. Hughes, commanding officer of the 337th Regiment, General Karl von Graffen, German Corps GG 76th, and Lieutenant Lamm, 337th translator.
Top-Right: German General’s British-born granddaughter, Angela Findlay, stood at the same spot in 1979 (I think) surrounded by three ghosts. [Photo created for Tony Maddock.]
Bottom-Left: I also stood at the same spot in October 2019.
Bottom-right: Colonel’s granddaughter, Kitty Hughes Hall, finally posed with her husband at that spot last year.
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“Forging this connection seventy-four years on was meaningful for us all, and a group of those who were able planned to meet in La Stanga and Belluno in 2020 on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the unconditional,” wrote Angela Findlay in her 2022 book, ‘In My Grandfather’s Shadow.’ “The plans were scuppered by a new scourge: the Covid-19 Pandemic. But the hope is that one day soon, the grandchildren of that American colonel and German General will stand together in harmony on the spot where their grandfathers met as adversaries in May 1945. And so the healing continues.”
Of course, we are still planning to have the 80th Anniversary of the Surrender at the same site on May 2, 2025.
Three more men at the site:
