soldier to surrender
World War II officially ended in 1945, but for many years some German and Japanese soldiers were fighting or hiding in different parts of the world. Some of them never received news of the end of the war, while others refused to believe it. Let’s find out when the last German and Japanese soldiers surrendered.
Soldier to surrender of the last German
In Europe, Germany officially surrendered on May 8, 1945, but some German units were in such remote places that they received the news much later.
Wilhelm Dege
A German weather station called “Operation Haudegen” was located on the cold and snowy islands of Svalbard. It was a small team of eleven people led by Wilhelm Dege.
These men were completely cut off from the world, even months after the end of the war. Finally, they surrendered to a Norwegian ship on September 4, 1945.
Thus, Wilhelm Dege and his comrades were the last German soldiers to surrender after World War II.
Soldier to surrender of the last Japanese
Biography
Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, but some Japanese soldiers were hiding on the islands of the Pacific. They either did not believe that the war was over or refused to surrender without an order from an officer. surrender
Hiroo Onoda
Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer who was hiding on Lobang Island in the Philippines. He agreed to surrender almost 30 years later, in March 1974, at the urging of his former commander.
Comparison
Germany: The last unit surrendered on September, 1945.
Japan: The last soldier surrendered on March, 1974.
This difference shows that some soldiers lived in uncertainty for many years after the war.
