‘Closing down forever’ – final German message is released for the first time
THE LAST recorded message to be intercepted from a German military communications network at the end of the Second World War has been released to the public for the first time.
Historian Tony Comer, of GCHQ, said it demonstrated that the codebreakers of Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes, had carried on working in the dying days of the war to guard against a final stand by the Nazis.
With the Allies closing in and the German network having retreated to the town of Cuxhaven, a messenger identified as Lieutenant Kunkel sent out a statement translated as: “British troops entered Cuxhaven at 1400 on 6 May. From now on all radio traffic will cease – wishing you all the best. Lt Kunkel.” This was immediately followed by: “Closing down forever. All the best – goodbye.”
Mr Comer said: “These transcripts give us a small insight into the real people behind the machinery of war. While most of the UK was preparing to celebrate the war ending, and the last of the
German military communicators surrendered, Bletchley staff carried on working.”
The transcript is one of several never-before-seen messages released as an insight into the final hours of the German communications network, GCHQ said.
Meanwhile, Royal Navy warships around the world will mark VE Day by sounding their sirens and piercing the darkness with searchlights.
From the Caribbean to the White Cliffs of Dover, the men and women of the Naval Service will join their countrymen and women in remembering the sacrifices made between 1939 and 1945.
The Royal Navy lost more than 250 warships defeating Germany and Italy, and more than 40,000 sailors and Royal Marines were killed in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean.
Among those pausing to reflect will be Warrant Officer 2nd Class Jules Cook, Bandmaster of The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Commando Training Centre, based at Lympstone, Devon.
“My granddad Eric Cook passed away last year at the age of 99,” he said. “He served in Africa as a gunlayer in the Royal Artillery and if I could speak to him now I’d say to him, ‘I’m still really proud of you, granddad’.”
Separately, first-hand accounts from an army nurse who served in Egypt, a Jamaican aircraftsman and a Jewish man who spent six weeks in a concentration camp are being released to help mark VE Day. They form part of the Imperial War Museum’s Voices of War project, which aims to bring voices from the past into homes around the country.
Diane Lees, director general of the museum, said: “We want the public to reflect on this important historical milestone as many others did 75 years ago – in the privacy of their own kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and gardens, and be part of this important national moment.”