"The Second World War 1939 - 1945- the Allied Campaign in North-west Europe June 1944 - May 1945" Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery signing the Instrument of Surrender of the German Armies in the North at Luneberg Heath. After Hitler's suicide, his appointed successor Admiral Karl Doenitz, attempted to secure a surrender in the west while continuing to fight the war in the east. Eisenhower refused, the surrenders of the German armies were therefore made piecemeal.