Signing of German surrender remembered

A solemn commemoration has been held at the place where German wartime forces signed the final document of unconditional surrender. French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Reims, in northern France.

She should have been accompanied by the country’s prime minister. But Jean-Pierre Raffarin had to pull out through illness. It was later revealed that he was in hospital for gall bladder surgery.The signing ceremony happened early in the morning of May 7 1945. The location was General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s temporary headquarters in Reims. The wooden table on which the military surrender was made has been described as “the most important table on earth.”

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