it was 75 years ago this month that the
Second World War came to an end in
Europe the surrender document signed by
Germany was drafted not by senior
diplomats or ministers but by an officer
in the British Army who was by training
an actor and theater manager few people
including his own daughters realized the
role that he played on VE Day as my
colleague Rita Chakrabarty explains down
meet John Council the British Army
colonel who played a pivotal role in
ending World War two an actor and
theater manager in 1940 he was called up
into the theatres of war but army life
his twin daughters told me wasn't for
him what sort of soldier was he in it I
think the word would be his battery
commander said that he was the worst
thought he'd ever come across Jenny and
Elizabeth were small children at the
time their father despite being a poor
soldier was a good writer and was
propelled into ghostwriting official
reports for the Allied commander General
Eisenhower
natsu zoom was crushed in the rubble of
German cities by the spring of 1945 with
Germany overpowered and Hitler dead the
country's surrender was inevitable the
momentous task of drafting the surrender
document fell to John Council he was
ordered to go away and write a document
in an hour and a half for the Germans to
sign top secret only he and the
sonographer as he called them the
typists should know about it so off he
went and rather stand sat down at his
desk extraordinary what a huge
responsibility
yes first he really didn't know what to
put apart from active military surrender
and then he remembered that in the
office somewhere was a known peace
document that would sort of show him a
style of how these things were done and
so he sat down and began to write we the
undersigned oh Jenny you say this
because you're better at doing this and
I am gone I remember it by heart
we the undersigned acting by authority
of the German High Command do hereby
surrender unconditionally the German
delegation headed by general yodel
Germany's chief of staff have arrived
for the fateful sediment in the general
puts his signature to the document which
acknowledges the complete defeat of the
German armed forces by those of Britain
Russia and the United States did he have
a sense of how important his role was
yes he did he knew he was making history
and it astounded him but close basically
it was an actor he said it was really
rather like a first night there was a
mixture of of terror and excitement as
he knew what he had to do and it was
terribly important
it's lovely to think you know when I see
that the footage of the crowds in
Piccadilly Circus and dancing the
streets and cheers and the famous shot
of Churchill with his Reese I'm what an
extraordinary thing for him to have done
to actually save lives with a sheet of
paper a revealing new insight there into
the events of VE Day as told by areata
Chakrabarti