ARMY secretary Susan Hibbert kept one of the biggest secrets of the war... the fact it was over. In 1945, aged just 20, she was given the job of typing out the Germans' surrender terms at Allied HQ in Reims, France. It made her the first Englishwoman to know that peace had come at last. Susan, now 80, spent two days working on the document. She typed the English language papers, while other secretaries worked on the French, Russian and German versions. She said yesterday: "We reckoned we went about 60 hours without sleep - although we probably accidentally nodded off. It was wonderful but by the end of it I just wanted to get the thing over with. "It involved a lot of concentration. There wasn't much talk in the office because the job was too important." The document had to be rewritten over 50 times. Susan, who now lives in Abbotts Anne, near Andover, Hants, said: "Junior officers kept coming in with new details. A lot of the changes were minor but it meant rewriting a whole page. "The main surrender sheet wasn't a problem, it was the appendices that needed to be changed a lot. "They stated where the German boats, planes, tanks and troops should go to surrender." After the document was completed, Susan was allowed to watch the victorious Allied and defeated German generals sign it. She added: "The mood was quite sombre, people were pleased but there were no big celebrations. "I had to Telex the message back to the War Office in London that the war was over. "It was a very short message after so many years of fighting but it was an honour to send. I could just imagine the reaction it would have had at the other end." Susan later worked in Berlin with the Control Commission, helping to run Germany. It was there she met her husband Basil, an RAF fighter pilot. They married in Germany and settled in London. Susan worked in the House of Commons as a secretary to her MP father Sir Lionel Heald. Now a widow, she has been invited back to Reims for a special ceremony to mark VE Day. She will be presented with a medal by the town's mayor and attend a cocktail party with France's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Susan said: "It's a great honour but I'm very surprised by all the fuss. I think I'm lucky that I had the job to do."
It just strikes me how easy it is for us in the computer age in comparison to edit our work. I was reminded of how, 25 years ago, I would really concentrate to ensure the output of my manual typewriter was accurate and free of typos so as to ensure it would not need to be redone.
We talk flippantly sometimes relating stories so wonderful that its a story they can tell their grandchildren. This one would take a power of beating.
I don't know if I'd have been able to type at all for excitement and relief. A similar story is in 'Downfall' when Traudl Junge typed up Hitler's Last testament. Marina