Appendix C: Special Orders to the German High Command (OKH) relating to Land Forces.
Appendix D: Special Orders to the German High Command (OKM) relating to Naval Forces.
Appendix E: Special Orders to the German High Command (OKL) relating to Air Forces.
Appendix F: Measures which may be taken to enforce the terms of surrender or in the event of no surrender to compel the enemy to comply with the Laws of War.
Part I of Appendix B was quite all-inclusive and held the OKW responsible for carrying out the orders of the Allied representatives and for ensuring that the commanding officers of all units of the German armed forces and their subordinates were notified that they would be held personally responsible for carrying out orders of the supreme commander in their areas of responsibility. It also established timelines for when the Allies were to be given information regarding the locations of the German High Command and all its departments and branches, as well as the locations of all experimental or research facilities, underground installations of all kinds, and missile launching sites.
Part II of this appendix was devoted to the control, maintenance and disarmament of the armed forces and made the OKW responsible for its immediate and total disarmament. It provided initial guidance regarding the maintenance and guarding of war matériel, specifying that none was to be destroyed without prior orders from the Allied representatives, that all land minefields were to be clearly marked, and that mines and obstacles on roads, railroads, waterways, and ports were to be removed immediately. It also ordered the removal and destruction of all booby traps, demolition charges, and concealed explosives.75 The remaining parts dealt with Allied POWs and civilian internees, telecommunications, merchant shipping and ports, and so on and contained four annexes, one of which was a list of war matériel to be withdrawn from the Germans while a second contained a list of war matériel to be retained.
The first parts of appendices C through E mirrored Part I of Appendix B by requiring each individual German armed service to provide information as to their order of battle and the locations of their units, weapon systems, ships, and so on within a specific period of time. Part II followed a similar pattern, specific to each particular service. For example, the naval appendix stated that all ships and submarines at sea were to report their positions and head for the nearest German or Allied port, breech blocks were to be removed from all guns, and all torpedo tubes were to be unloaded. Aircraft were to be grounded and immobilized by methods described in the air force appendix and removed from runways, and their guns were to be unloaded and bombs removed. German field and home armies’ armaments were to be placed in dumps as directed by appropriate Allied representatives and various classes of war matériel (armored vehicles, artillery, small arms, ammunition, etc.) were to be laid out in stacks or parks within each dump. All other war matériel (in factories, dumps, depots, etc.) was to be maintained but remain where it was located. War matériel in transit, in the absence of orders to the contrary, would be allowed to proceed to its destination, where it would then be placed in dumps or depots.
Of the five appendices to this memorandum, only three were relevant to all German commanders, requiring them to immediately inventory all war matériel of any kind in any location within their area of responsibility. These lists were to be prepared in quadruplicate and completed within two months following the cessation of hostilities. Standardized forms were attached to the memorandum to be used for the inventory. Lastly, German authorities were responsible for handing over and delivering in good condition any war matériel that was requested by the Allies and would remain responsible until such matériel had been accepted by the Allied representatives.
Eclipse Memorandum No. 9, “Primary Disarmament of German Land Forces,” Eclipse Memorandum No. 10, “Primary Disarmament of German Air Forces,” and Eclipse Memorandum No. 11, “Primary Disarmament of German Naval Forces,” dealt specifically with the three individual services and were, for the most part, quite similar. Memorandum No. 9 was, however, the most comprehensive of the three. It began by defining war matériel as “materiel intended for war on land, at sea, or in the air,” which included:
a. All arms, ammunition, explosives, military equipment, stores and supplies and other implement of war of all kinds.
b. All naval vessels of all classes, surface and submarines, auxiliary naval craft, all merchant shipping whether afloat, under repair or construction, built or building.
c. All aircraft of all kinds, aviation and anti-aircraft equipment and devices.
d. All military installations and establishments including air fields, seaplane bases, ports and naval depots, storage bases, permanent and temporary land and coast fortifications, fortresses and other fortified areas, together with plans and drawings of all such fortifications, installations and establishments.76
It continued by outlining the objectives of primary disarmament, which were to prevent a continuance or renewal of hostilities, to safeguard the deployment of the Allied Expeditionary Force during Operation Eclipse, and thereafter to facilitate the establishment of law and order in the supreme commander’s AOR.
Although this memorandum addressed the primary disarmament of German land forces, it also delineated the responsibilities of the Allied ground forces in the disarmament process by defining what made up the German land forces. Thus, the Hermann Göring Parachute Panzer Corps and German Air Force field divisions, parachute formations, and other similar Luftwaffe units attached to the German Army became an Allied ground force responsibility. Similarly, the disarmament of German naval forces ashore, Luftwaffe and naval flak organizations, and the Nazi party Flieger Korps were also determined to be Allied ground force responsibilities.
Of particular interest is the guidance given that where it was not possible to provide Allied forces to guard and control dumps containing enemy war matériel, control would be maintained by German forces under the close supervision of the Allied commander in whose AOR the enemy war matériel was located. In fact, the memorandum specified that “the fullest possible use will be made of the existing German military machine, and orders will be issued through the recognized German channels of command wherever they survive the process of occupation.”77
In line with Eclipse Memorandum No. 1, the maintenance, classification, and inventory of enemy war matériel were made German responsibilities under strict Allied supervision. Lists of enemy war matériel that had to be surrendered and lists of matériel that would be retained so that German forces could carry out orders given to them, including limited numbers and types of weapons (e.g., rifles and pistols), were provided in two appendices.
Similarly, Eclipse Memorandum No. 10 set out plans and policies for the primary disarmament of the Luftwaffe. For this task, the memorandum specifically named the commanders of the Ninth Air Force (US) and the Second Tactical Air Force (UK). This memorandum also defined what formations, units, and personnel were included in the Luftwaffe and followed Memorandum No. 9 in allocating primary disarmament responsibility for some Luftwaffe units to Allied ground forces.
This memorandum further delegated the exercise of the air commanders’ responsibilities to the US Army Air Force (USAAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF) air disarmament staffs and, given that the tactical situation on the ground did not reflect the final zones of occupation, guidance was provided regarding the coordination and operational control of the national disarmament staffs while operating in another national Allied commander’s AOR (e.g., RAF units operating in Ninth Air Force areas, etc.). The memorandum also referenced Eclipse Memorandum No. 1, Administrative Memorandum No. 5, and the occupation handbook regarding the