forces simultaneously to all the Allied powers, including the Soviets. German Army Group Ostmark To avoid Soviet Union's capture, Army Group Ostmark led by general Lothar Rendulic moved to the west and signed surrender document with 71st Infantry Division (United States) led by their general Willard G.Wyman in Steyr of Upper Austria on 7 May 1945; and it took effect on 8 May 1945, at 0:01 CET. Following the surrender of Army Group Ostmark, the major remaining German forces in the field consisted of Army Group E facing Yugoslav forces in Croatia, the remains of Army Group Vistula facing Soviet forces in Mecklenburg, and Army Group Centre facing Soviet forces in eastern Bohemia and Moravia; and Army Group Centre was also engaging in the brutal suppression of the Prague uprising; other than those bottled-up on islands and fortress-ports; an occupying army of around 400,000 well-equipped German troops remained in Norway, under the command of General Franz Böhme, who was contacted by the German Minister in Sweden early on 6 May, to determine whether a further partial capitulation might be arranged for his forces with neutral Sweden acting as an intermediary, but he was unwilling to comply with anything other than a general surrender order from the German High Command i.e. OKW. After these partial surrenders (and the signing in Reims-France); Nazi Germany signed its final document to surrender to the Allied side in Germany's Berlin. Surrender ceremony Preliminary surrender document in Reims Dönitz's representative, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, informed him on 6 May that Eisenhower was now insisting on "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts." General Alfred Jodl was sent to Reims to attempt to persuade Eisenhower otherwise, but Eisenhower shortcircuited any discussion by announcing at 21:00 pm on the 6th that, in the absence of a complete capitulation, he would close British and American lines to surrendering German forces at midnight on 8 May and resume the bombing offensive against remaining German-held positions and towns. Jodl telegraphed this message to Dönitz, who responded, authorising him to sign the instrument of unconditional surrender, but subject to negotiating a 48-hour delay, ostensibly to enable the surrender order to be communicated to outlying German military units. Consequently, the first Instrument of Surrender was signed in Reims at 02:41 Central European Time (CET) on 7 May 1945. The signing took place in a red brick schoolhouse, the , that served as