Knee, Derek John (Oral history)

British officer served as intelligence officer with Headquarters, Second Army in North West Europe, 1944-1945; served as interpreter with Tactical Headquarters, 21st Army Group in Germany, 5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Cheltenham, GB, 1922-1941: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of training as intelligence officer in GB, 1943-1944: background to becoming intelligence officer after commissioning into Dorsetshire Regiment; method of interrogating German prisoners of war; security role reading British Army mail prior to D-Day. Recollections of period as General Staff Officer, Intelligence (A) with Headquarters, Second Army in North West Europe, 6/1944-5/1945: nature of English Channel crossing, 10/6/1944; arrival in Normandy, France; his work specialising on German order of battle at Headquarters, Second Army at Chateau de Creullet, Normandy, France; sources of information. REEL 2 Continues: role of Special Liaison Unit personnel; question of intelligence failure prior to Operation Market Garden; memories of Selwyn Lloyd and General Miles Dempsey; attitude to bombing of Caen; his one-man reconnaissance of Falaise Gap, 8/1944; liberation of Brussels, Belgium, 9/1944; French civilian hostility towards Allied forces in Caen. France; contrast in attitude between Belgian and Dutch Resistance; organisation of tactical and main headquarters; hearing news of Adolf Hitler's death, 30/4/1945; news that General Gunther Blumentritt was sending a delegation to negotiate surrender. REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of role as interpreter during German surrender negotiations at Tactical Headquarters, 21st Army Group, Lüneburg Heath, Germany, 5/1945: orders to report to General Miles Dempsey's Headquarters, Second Army, 3/5/1945; composition of German delegation; his translation of letter of introduction from Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's insistence on unconditional surrender before further discussion; Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's impressing hopelessness of German position on delegation; travelling in first British vehicle to enter Hamburg whilst escorting delegation northwards; memories of signing of German surrender, 4/5/1945; role of Franz Weidemann as interpreter; fate of Germans and others present at surrender. REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of role in taking Flensburg Government into custody at Flensburg, Germany, 23/5/1945: importance of taking government into custody; role escorting Admiral Karl Doenitz; sight of Admiral Karl Doenitz putting on layers of underwear; suicide of Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg at Plön, 23/5/1945; removal of Admiral Karl Doenitz to Luxembourg; behaviour of American officer in charge of camp at Luxembourg; impression of Albert Speer in contrast to Admiral Karl Doenitz; sight of Heinrich Himmler's body at Lüneburg.