Prof. Greg Jackson

He then gives the English-speaking but unwilling German general 15 minutes to prepare to leave as a prisoner, after surrendering all prison weapons as well, naturally.

Well, that does change things a bit.

Hans Jürgen rages, throwing a small tantrum as he flings his automatic Walther P38 handgun onto the table.

Francis responds by calmly demanding the Nazi's pocket knife too.

The well-dressed German goes beat rag as he throws it on the table.

And with that, the surrender moves forward.

Allied soldiers are over the moon.

We get a taste of that joy in 24-year-old enlisted American soldier Wallace Irwin Jr.

's snarky poem, Bidding the Nazis Farewell, which he writes as the surrender goes into effect the next day, May 13th, 1943.

Jürgen J. von Arnhem wore an iron-plated monocle, but he could not see behind him.

Now, wasn't that ironical?

He fought a rearguard action, and he did it very bitterly, with booby traps and teller mines and gallant sons of Italy.

Three days later, May 16th, General Hans-Jürgen von Arnhem arrives in London.

Church bells sound, welcoming the Nazi prisoner of war into the British capital.

Allied victory in North Africa is sealed.

This Axis surrender in North Africa is huge.

I really can't overstate this.

I mean, after the fall of France, Adolf Hitler had thought his supreme victory was but a matter of time.

And that wasn't an unfair take.

Meaning the world over, like Vichy French collaborators, thought the same.