paragraph_text: In Article 231 Germany accepted responsibility for the losses and damages caused by the war ``as a consequence of the... aggression of Germany and her allies. ''The treaty required Germany to compensate the Allied powers, and it also established an Allied`` Reparation Commission'' to determine the exact amount which Germany would pay and the form that such payment would take. The commission was required to ``give to the German Government a just opportunity to be heard '', and to submit its conclusions by 1 May 1921. In the interim, the treaty required Germany to pay an equivalent of 20 billion gold marks ($5 billion) in gold, commodities, ships, securities or other forms. The money would help to pay for Allied occupation costs and buy food and raw materials for Germany.

paragraph_text: The decorations were seldom displayed, however. After the Tito–Stalin split of 1948 and his inauguration as president in 1953, Tito rarely wore his uniform except when present in a military function, and then (with rare exception) only wore his Yugoslav ribbons for obvious practical reasons. The awards were displayed in full number only at his funeral in 1980. Tito's reputation as one of the Allied leaders of World War II, along with his diplomatic position as the founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, was primarily the cause of the favorable international recognition.

paragraph_text: The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their last opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had eliminated Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro - Hungarian Empire. Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne from the place where it was signed, it came into force at 11 a.m. Paris time on 11 November 1918 (``the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month '') and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender.

paragraph_text: Hanns-Horst von Necker (28 August 1903 – 27 February 1979) was a highly decorated Generalmajor in the Luftwaffe during World War II who commanded the Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Necker was surrendered to the British forces in 1945 and was interned until 1947.

paragraph_text: Germans viewed this clause as a national humiliation, forcing Germany to accept full responsibility for causing the war. German politicians were vocal in their opposition to the article in an attempt to generate international sympathy, while German historians worked to undermine the article with the objective of subverting the entire treaty. The Allied leaders were surprised at the German reaction; they saw the article only as a necessary legal basis to extract compensation from Germany. The article, with the signatory's name changed, was also included in the treaties signed by Germany's allies who did not view the clause with the same disdain as the Germans did. American diplomat John Foster Dulles -- one of the two authors of the article -- later regretted the wording used, believing it further aggravated the German people.

paragraph_text: The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy. The eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The Blitz was only authorised when the Luftwaffe had failed to meet preconditions for a 1940 launch of Operation Sea Lion, the provisionally planned German invasion of Britain. By May 1941 the threat of an invasion of Britain had passed, and Hitler's attention had turned to Operation Barbarossa in the East. In comparison to the later Allied bombing campaign against Germany, the Blitz resulted in relatively few casualties; the British bombing of Hamburg in July 1943 inflicted some 42,000 civilian deaths, about the same as the entire Blitz.

paragraph_text: Walter Gericke (23 December 1907 – 19 October 1991), was a German paratroop officer in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II and a general in the Bundeswehr of West Germany. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

paragraph_text: The end of World War II in Asia occurred on 14 and 15 August 1945, when armed forces of the Empire of Japan surrendered to the forces of the Allies. The surrender came over three months after the surrender of the Axis forces in Europe and brought an end to World War II.

paragraph_text: The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the latter briefly aided by Thailand and to a much lesser extent by its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. The war culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and other large aerial bomb attacks by the United States Army Air Forces, accompanied by the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 8 August 1945, resulting in the Japanese announcement of intent to surrender on 15 August 1945. The formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Following its defeat, Japan's Shinto Emperor stepped down as the divine leader through the Shinto Directive, because the Allied Powers believed this was the major political cause of Japan's military aggression and deconstruction process soon took place to install a new liberal-democratic constitution to the Japanese public as the current Constitution of Japan.

paragraph_text: The Luftwaffe's poor intelligence meant that their aircraft were not always able to locate their targets, and thus attacks on factories and airfields failed to achieve the desired results. British fighter aircraft production continued at a rate surpassing Germany's by 2 to 1. The British produced 10,000 aircraft in 1940, in comparison to Germany's 8,000. The replacement of pilots and aircrew was more difficult. Both the RAF and Luftwaffe struggled to replace manpower losses, though the Germans had larger reserves of trained aircrew. The circumstances affected the Germans more than the British. Operating over home territory, British flyers could fly again if they survived being shot down. German crews, even if they survived, faced capture. Moreover, bombers had four to five crewmen on board, representing a greater loss of manpower. On 7 September, the Germans shifted away from the destruction of the RAF's supporting structures. German intelligence suggested Fighter Command was weakening, and an attack on London would force it into a final battle of annihilation while compelling the British Government to surrender.

paragraph_text: The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and along with Mussolini's Italy sought to gain control of the continent by the Second World War. Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. The countries in Southeastern Europe were dominated by the Soviet Union and became communist states. The major non-communist Southern European countries joined a US-led military alliance (NATO) and formed the European Economic Community amongst themselves. The countries in the Soviet sphere of influence joined the military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact and the economic bloc called Comecon. Yugoslavia was neutal.

paragraph_text: Werner Baumbach (27 December 1916 – 20 October 1953) was a German bomber pilot during World War II. He commanded the secret bomber wing Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200) of the Luftwaffe, the air force of Nazi Germany. Baumbach received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for the destruction of over of Allied shipping.

paragraph_text: These ships of the Allied navies of World War II were present in Tokyo Bay on Victory over Japan Day (2 September 1945) when the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on board the battleship USS Missouri (BB - 63). The only US vessel present at both the Pearl Harbor attack and Tokyo Bay surrender was the USS West Virginia.

paragraph_text: The Morgenthau Plan ( ) by the Allied occupation of Germany following World War II was a proposal to eliminate Germany's ability to wage war by eliminating its arms industry, and the removal or destruction of other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr. It was first proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. in a memorandum entitled "Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany".

paragraph_text: The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 by Walter Bedell Smith and Giuseppe Castellano, and made public on 8 September, between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies of World War II. It was signed at a conference of generals from both sides in an Allied military camp at Cassibile in Sicily, which had recently been occupied by the Allies. The armistice was approved by both King Victor Emmanuel III and Italian Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio. The armistice stipulated the surrender of Italy to the Allies.

paragraph_text: Hartmann Grasser (23 August 1914 – 2 June 1986) was a World War II Luftwaffe fighter ace. He was credited with shooting down 103 Allied aircraft. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

paragraph_text: Alwin Wolz (22 September 1897 – 15 September 1978) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 3. Flak Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Wolz was appointed combat commander of Hamburg on 15 April 1945. He surrendered the city to the British 7th Armoured Division on 3 May 1945.

paragraph_text: Generalleutnant Walter von Hippel (Luftwaffe) (27 May 1897 – 29 November 1972) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded several flak divisions. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

paragraph_text: After Germany surrendered, the Allies partitioned Berlin and Germany's remaining territory into four military occupation zones. The western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland); on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany. East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital, while West Germany chose Bonn as a provisional capital, to emphasize its stance that the two - state solution was an artificial and temporary status quo.

paragraph_text: The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. The Allied invasion of Germany started with the Western Allies crossing the Rhine River in March 1945 before fanning out and overrunning all of western Germany from the Baltic in the north to Austria in the south before the Germans surrendered on 8 May 1945. This is known as the ``Central Europe Campaign ''in United States military histories.

Question: When did the country the leader of the Luftwaffe aligned Germany with surrender to the Allies in WWII?
Answer: 3 September 1943