However, in southeastern Germany, parts of Austria and Czechoslovakia, there were still large bodies of active German troops of Army Group Centre and the remnants of Army Group Ostmark. On 2 May 1945, general Alfred Jodl Chief-of-Staff of "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" ("German Armed Forces High Command") ordered the German forces to avoid being captured by Russia and facilitate separate negotiation with Western Allies. The German remnant forces continued to resist the USSR 4th and 1st Ukrainian Fronts while only accepting an armistice on the Western Front.