100 Days in History: The Agony of The "Third Reich"

[Martin Antonenko]

The commander of the bridge guard (photo from the winter before)...



...Major Hans Scheller (here on his last vacation on christmas 1944 with his daughter) ...



... who had failed to destroy the bridge in time was shot at Hitler's personal order!

All attempts by the Germans to destroy the bridge from the air and with rockets after it was conquered by the Americans failed as well as the use of the 42 cm mortar "Karl" subsequently failed ...:



The bridge was never hit once - however explosive devices and the explosion pressure from seam hits severely damaged the construction!

Shortly before the collapse, the bridge, which was already swaying, was closed to all US units!

The units above are sufficient to secure the bridgehead - and, in the meantime, US pioneers have built - except of the pontoon bridge at Erpel - three more pontoon bridges over the Rhine over which US supplies and reinforcements are now rolling...:






Nevertheless, the Army sends pioneers on the structure four hours before the collapse to stabilize the bridge. The next photo was taken just a few hours before the collapse, among the soldiers pictured are also those 32 who will not survive the collapse ...:



The bridge was never rebuilt - only its pillars still stand today and house a museum ...:









There, among other things, this 1000 kg unexploded bomb is shown, which was thrown onto the bridge ...:



Lieutenant Timmermann and the twelve soldiers with whom he had taken the bridge were all awarded the "Distinguished Service Cross" ...:

 

[Blind Pew]

Martin, thank you - excellent stories as always. Again, I think the mixture of the famous and the ordinary people is a winner.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Yep - history and the litttle stories behind history are a succesful mixture!

Thx!

 

[tock24]

Really exceptional series - following avidly! Thank you Martin.
Ian

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday, March 18, 1945


In the "Greater German Reich", which is no longer that big, one city after the other is lost to the inexorably advancing Allies!

In the wine-growing areas of Rheinhessen, the Germans try again to bring the US troops to a halt with tanks - they suffer heavy losses ...:






In the southwest, General Patto'sn tanks invade Bad Kreuznach ...





... and Bingen - and are now also reach the Rhine...





... which the US troops near Remagen already left behind.

Patton, as always, is in a hurry and orders to start building a pontoon bridge across the river immediately:




In the east, the city of Kolberg at the banks of the Baltic Sea, which has been trapped for a few days, is lost, the Soviet commanders, under Stalin's direct command, leave it to the fighting units of the "1st Polish Army" ...





...under General Zygmunt Berling...



... the dubious "honor" to take the almost completely destroyed city!









The reason for Stalin's "generosity": The Allies have agreed in Yalta that Kolberg - and other German areas! - after the end of the war Poland will be struck - and Stalin wants to underline this with his gesture.



(The Soviet dictator will be allowed to keep all of the former Eastern Poland, which he had incorporated after the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939!)

Nevertheless, the Polish brothers in arms of the Red Army do not miss to celebrate their return to the Baltic Sea at Kolberg with a special ceremony!





Before the city fell, the Hitler Navy had managed to evacuate nearly 75,000 German civilians from the city to the west - among them were an uncounted number of German deserters who feared Soviet captivity.

Many do not make it and are imprisoned for years...:






**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

On this day, 1,221 US bombers, protected by 700 accompanying fighters, throw 4,000 tons ob bombs on Berlin!



Although the Germans protect their capital city with masses of heavy flak ...







... and deploy fighter planes ...



... including almost all brand new "Messerschmitt 262" jet fighters available in the Reich ...







... the Americans "only" lose 25 "B-17" bombers and only five P-51 "Mustang" fighters!


Meanwhile, British "Hawker Typhoon" fighter-bombers from RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force attempt a beheading attac:



They attack the headquarters of two high commanders of the Hitler Army in the Netherlands, previously made up by Dutch resistance fighters:

But General der Infanterie Johannes Blaskowitz ...



... since March 6, 1945 Commander-in-Chief of the "Fortress Holland" and the 25th Army standing there, as well as his predecessor General der Flieger Friedrich Christansen, who was deposed by Hitler ...


... remain unharmed.

Christiansen will put by the Dutch on trial in 1948 and sentenced to twelve years in prison for war crimes:



After the attacks on the Wehrmacht on October 2, 1944, he had ordered the Dutch village of Putten...



... to be burned down...



... and all men of the village of military age to be deported to the Amersfoort camp and from there to the Neuengamme concentration camp.

As a result, 661 men from Putten were interned in the concentration camp on October 18, 1944, and many of them were transported to various satellite camps in the following weeks. Only 49 of them survived.

The Allies are planned to take his successor Blaskowitz to justice after the main war criminal trial against the top Nazis in the so-called "1st follow-up trial" against the Wehrmacht leadership in Nuremberg 1947 ...



... but Blaskowitz committed suicide in prison the night before the trial started ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Monday, March 19, 1945


The commander in chief of der German Kriegsmarine, grand admiral Karl Dönitz...



... issues a radio command, which is aimed to all German submarines still operating in the Baltic Sea: Due to the hopeless situation, all boats should clear the Ostee (German name) and sail at once to bases in Norway, which is still in German hands!

This order means the death sentence for many German civilians!

The Kriegsmarine alone has rescued since January some 2,5 Million refugees from East Prussia across the Baltic Sea by own transports or escorting other transport vessels, allegedly around 400 warships, including 40 U Boats and another 670 merchant vessel were part of the rescue fleet.



The next photo shows small boats with refugees in tow of a submarine ...:



Their criminal commander-in-chief, however, thinks the continuation of the acts of war is more important ...

19 submarine commanders ignore Dönitz' order, risk their own heads and continue rescue! These were: U 282, U 999, U 1100, U 1306, U 2503, U 2521, U 924, U 1007, U 1205, U 2518, U 2533, U 3012...


...U 3020, U 3023, U 3013!

The names of their commanders and the number of people who save them are known!

Sometimes there are only a handful of people, like the woman with her three children and the 15 "Hitlerjunge", who are taken by Oberleutenant Kiesling...



with U 1306 in Danzig and evacuated to Warnemünde, sometimes more.

Representing everyone, I call U 999 under the commandant Oberleutnant Wolfgang Heibges...



... who took 50 passengers, Hitler Youth and women and children from Danzig on board and brought them to Warnemünde.



On the same day, the Hessian city of Hanau is erased by the Royal Air Force!

No. 279 aircraft 5 bomber groups (227 "Lancaster" bombers and "Mosquito" escorts) unload 117 heavy and medium explosive devices, 225 air mines and 360,000 stick bombs (643 tons) over the urban area in the early morning...:



When the more than 110 km long bomber stream is finished with its extermination plant, more than 2,000 dead civilians remain, Hanau no longer exists as a habitable city ...







In the entire area of the city, which once had over 10,000 inhabitants, a total of seven undamaged houses are still counted...:



This makes Hanau the most destroyed city in Hesse!


At around noon on the same day, the Americans take a trip to the Saxon city of Zwickau:

177 American B-17 bombers of the so-called "Mission 896" drop 2,690 bombs over Zwickau, Planitz and some rural communities between 1:32 p.m. and 2:25 p.m. ...:




In Zwickau, a streak from the Parkstrasse via the southern city center to the inn "Zum Paradies", the northern suburb from the cemetery via Leipziger Strasse to Freiligrathstrasse, and in Zwickau-West the area around the "Lindenhof" are bombed...:





Fortunately for the residents, about 200 explosive bombs fall into the Niederplanitz fields (later Neuplanitz) and onto the Auerbach fields.

Nevertheless, 441 people and 208 people are injured in the worst air raid of the war at Zwickau.

There is practically no German resistance ...!



Despite the hail of bombs and defeats on all fronts: the death mills of the Nazi state are still working!

On the same day, an SS transport of Sinti and Roma from Hungary reached the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Celle. Among the prisoners are five-year-old Christian Franz ...



...and his mother Louise.

The Nazis will no longer be able to kill Christian Franz and his mother - the British soldiers will forestall them:

Just under a month after being admitted to Bergen-Belsen, the British army will liberate them on April 15 ...

We'll read about it here ...

 

[Nap]

Hi Martin

Absolutely amazing details , pictures and words of all lives during this time

Following with admiration for your task and knowledge

Thank you

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Thanks Nap!

I am always deeply impressed by the fact that the Germans 23 and 25 year old lieutenants had to entrust their most modern warships (Type XXI submarines).

That alone shows how desperate the situation was!

No less impressive is the fact that these young officers in particular spat on the criminal orders of their commander - and continued to save people instead of killing others ...!

Cheers

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Tuesday, March 20, 1945


The military situation of the "Third Reich" is deteriorating more and more on every front!

In the east, the Red Army conquered the city of Braunsberg (now Branjewo) in East Prussia...:




At Stettin the German troops have to vacate the remaining two bridgeheads east of the Oder due to the strong enemy pressure and have to go back to the western bank of the river...:



Until now, the bridgeheads had been defended with high losses due to a "stop order" from Hitler, since the "Führer" wanted to use them as "springboards" for counterattacks.


The communist partisans of Croatian Jozip Broz (called Tito)...



... start in Dalmatia a major offensive against the German occupiers who remained in Yugoslavia...:





In order to obtain urgently needed reserves, Hitler gritted his teeth to clear the front arch around the city of Sarajevo...:



An important personnel decision is made at the "Führer" headquarters on this day!

The previous chief of the "Heeresgruppe Weichsel", SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler ...



Himmler initially pushed himself after the command and then appeared to be completely incompetent and overwhelmed!

He had arbitrarily removed himself from his post "because of his compromised health" and went to the SS sanatorium at Hohenlychen...:



For this badly-covered desertion, everyone else would have been hanged on the next tree at Himmler's order without much trouble.
Hitler does nothing against the "faithful Heinrich" as he likes to call him ...


Himmler's successor now becomes general of the infantry Gotthard Heinrici (on the right):



For a brief moment Hitler plays with the thought that (due to the front location) now unemployed Gauleiter of Silesia, Karl Hanke ...



... who has no function in the Fuehrer's headquarters to make Heinrici's chief of staff.

But the general replies shortly to the "Führer" that he refuses to take orders from a NSdAP Gauleiter.

Instead of the tantrum that everyone is now expecting, Hitler only makes a resigned hand movement and replies dully: "Well Heinrici, then just command alone."


The same day Americans occupy the city of Kaiserlautern ...:








The weak German garrison of Koblenz, which is one of the last German units still west of the Rhine, second-rate troops and convalescents, is evacuated over the Rhine. General Patton's troops back after ...:






In the garden of the bombed-out Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Hitler awards iron crosses to 20 Hitler Youth who had previously distinguished themselves militarily on the Eastern Front ...:



Hitler's left hand trembles so much that he can't use it. He presses her tightly against the body to hide the tremor ...:



Behind Hitler stands HJ chief, "Reichsjugendführer" Arthur Axmann - obviously healthy and well fed! He lost his right hand in the First World War.

Although Axmann heats up his "pimps" en masse at the front, he does not think about sharing their danger and taking up arms himself! He prefers to seek protection in the "Führer bunker" deep under the Reich Chancellery!

These scenes are filmed for the "Wochenschau" - but do not come to the cinemas (that have already closed).

It is the last moving pictures that show the living Adolf Hitler ...


Back in his safe bunker, the "Führer" issues the notorious "Nero Decree": It is nothing more than the order to totally destroy Germany! Here the original...:



Here is the literal English translation of the command ...

"The struggle for the existence of our people also forces us to use all means within the empire that weaken our enemy's fighting power and hinder its further advancement. All possibilities to directly or indirectly inflict the most lasting damage on the enemy's clout must be exploited. It is a mistake to believe that traffic, communications, industrial and supply systems that have not been destroyed or only paralyzed for a short time can be put back into operation for the purpose of recovering lost areas. The enemy will only leave us with a scorched earth when he withdraws and drop any consideration for the population. I therefore command:

1) All military, traffic, communications, industrial and supply facilities as well as property within the Reich territory which the enemy can somehow utilize for the continuation of his fight immediately or in the foreseeable future must be destroyed.

2) Responsible for the implementation of this destruction are the military command authorities for all military objects including the traffic and communication systems, the Gauleiter and Reich Defense Commissioners for all industrial and supply systems as well as other property; the Gauleiters and Reich Defense Commissioners are to be given the necessary help in carrying out their task.

3) This command must be communicated to all troop leaders as soon as possible, contrary instructions are invalid."


The last still somewhat intact German old and inner city of a German city with more than 100,000 inhabitants sinks into the bombing of the Allies: Würzburg

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Wednesday, March 21, 1945


A comparatively "quiet" war day!


In Hungary, the Soviets throw in other fast units and increase the pressure on the Germans on the entire front ...:



















It will not be long before the red army's armored tips reach the Austrian and thus the Reich border ...:




In many places in Hungary - if by no means everywhere! - the Red Army soldiers are welcomed as liberators ...:




US troops conquer Worms - the destroyed Rhine bridge does not stop them ...:












**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

In the first city they had conquered (October 21, 1944)...









... the Americans are already begin to organize post-war conditions:


On the initiative of the Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower, the "Free German Trade Union Confederation" is founded in the building of the Chamber of Crafts...



... at American-occupied Aachen, from which the "German Trade Union Confederation" will emerge in 1949 (in Munich).

The weaver Matthias Wilms is elected as first chairman ...:



The original program of the organization, which initially had only 1,300 members, comprises twelve points. A thirteenth is added at short notice and is highly controversial. It says that former NSDAP members can also join the union, but are not allowed to perform any functions.

 

[Blind Pew]

The man was clearly insane. Hitler I mean.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Thursday, March 22, 1945

Eastern Front:


The Küstrin fortress still holds, but is bin totally surrounded since today!



The Soviet 68th Army crosses north ...



... and the 8th Guard Army south of the city the Oder ...



... and cut the city off from any land connection!




Since the Germans both the road bridge ...


... as well as the railway viaduct ...



... blew up ...



... pioneers of the Red Army build wooden bridges in a hurry ...:



To the west of the city, the Soviet armored heads unite to strike Berlin!



An already launched relief attack by the last scraped-up armored troops of the 21st German Panzer Division (9th Army under General Busse) ...





... is therefore canceled..:


The Red Army can celebrate another success on the same day!

Between Danzig (today: Gdansk) and Gotenhafen (Gdynja) the Soviets made their breakthrough to the Baltic coast ...:








**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

A look at the map shows that it will soon be the turn of the city of Stettin (today: Szechin) on the Oder ...:







This city is also declared a "fortress" by the Germans and is hastily brought into a defensive state with the little that is available ...:





In the port of Stettin lies the hulk of the only German aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin", which was never finished. A German explosive commando blasted holes in the hull, the ship is lying on the bottom ...:




South Eastern Front:

Also in Yugoslavia today is "Ultimo" for the German troops!

They have to clear their bridgehead across the Drau (Drawa) near Valpovo on the Croatian-Hungarian border, which heralds a general retreat ...:



Many German soldiers are captured by Tito's partisans - and a large part later handed over to the British ...:



But this only applies to GERMAN prisoners!

With their countrymen who fought for the Germans, the partisans have something else in mind - we will read about it here ...







Over the Reich:

The Allied air fleets no longer have German inner cities that can be destroyed! So they are once again concentrating their devastating clout against the German transport infrastructure.

As part of the "Operation Chariot", important transport hubs, railway lines and roads are targeted ...:









Western Front:


To cross the Rhine at another point, at Oppenheim near Mainz...



...the Allies use Sherman tanks, which have been converted into swimming tanks ...:





They were actually developed for landing in Normandy, but they now also serve their purpose on the Rhine ...:



When the opposite bank is secured, a pontoon bridge is built over which the troops can advance further into the heart of the Reich ...:





The Reich:


The "Higher SS and Police Leader Elbe", SS Obergruppenführer and General of the Police, Udo von Woyrsch ...



... reports to Berlin, so far as a result of the devastating air raids on Dresden in February 1945...



... 202,040 dead from the fire inferno have been registered. Worysch predicts that the number should be over 250,000.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Friday, March 23, 1945


Eastern front:


The Wehrmacht managed to bring the Red Army to the west of the Oder near Küstrin once again by summoning the last of its forces ...:










However, the Soviets are now rolling up the Baltic coast!
The city of Zoppot (today: Sopot) between Gotenhafen (Gdynia) and Danzig (Gdansk) falls ...:









The combat troops of the first row are mostly correct towards the civilian population ...







.. what can absolutely not be said of the moving units!

Here, as everywhere in the east, there are massive rapes by members of the Red Army ...



In the last three months of the war, at least two million women and girls are victims of sexual violence in Berlin and in the east!



Kurland:


In the sixth Kurland battle, the German troops cut off from the Reich prevent the Red Army from breakthrough ...:







After this setback the Soviets now change their tactic: They know from German radio messages that Hitler doesn't think of it at all evacuating the Kurland Army, which had around 500,000 men, and deploying it elsewhere.

Therefore, they now move on to the blockade, which they will maintain until the end of the war...:




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Over the Reich:


The last German hydrogenation plant near Schwarzheide (50 km north of Dresden), which still produces in parts (for the Army Group Middle), is completely destroyed by air raids by the B 24 bombers on this day!





A further production of synthetic gasoline is no longer possible, which aggravates the already desperate fuel shortage of the Germans.

Lack of gasoline is forcing the Wehrmacht to increasingly de-motorize itself! Horses and soldier's legs are now - like in Napoleon's time! - the main means of transport ...

Heavy equipment simply has to be left after it has been made unusable ...:









USA:

The seriously ill, already doomed US President Franklin Roosevelt ...



... signs on this day the "Morgenthau Plan Directive JCS 1067/6" for the post-war orientation of Germany!

Following this plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau ...



... after the war the German Reich should be developed back to a purely agricultural country without any industry (and thus incapable of any armaments production!) ...:



Shortly afterwards, the plan became known in Germany and was immediately used for propaganda purposes in order to incite the will to persevere...:




The Morgenthau plan will never become reality ...



The Reich:


Just a few days ago, Hitler approved the evaporation of aircraft production in just five types. All other ongoing buildings and developments have been shut down.

Now the "Führer" is the first to violate his own directives: Hitler orders the immediate construction of the all-weather Atlantic reconnaissance aircraft Do-335-Z in large numbers!

This aircraft is a - developed by "Dornier" - construction of two assembled "Heinkel 111" bombers with a fifth engine in the middle ...:

 

[Nap]

Hi Martin

WOW that's another set of posts with amazing pictures and details

Some graphic but all telling the story ...desparate in all area's

Thanks

Stay safe

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Saturday, March 24, 1945


Eastern Front:

And again the Red Army takes over a German city!
Today it is about Neisse (today: Nysa) in Silesia ...:



The German defenders surrender...:



Many residents flee from the Soviets - if necessary, across an open field ...:




The Red Army soldiers have a short rest before they continue. The Donkosak in the middle plays his comrades on a zither ...:





Western Front:


The Western Allies set out to form the so-called "Ruhrkessel" and to include the last still reasonably intact large unit in the West, the 8th German Army of Field Marshal Walter Model (photo: in the middle).






For this purpose, 40,000 airborne soldiers jump off north of the Lippe (and north of the Ruhr area), to close the trap...:









In the Netherlands, the Germans put almost half of the country under water by opening the dikes and siels to make it difficult for the Allies to advance!





Commander-in-chief Dwight Eisenhower orders that day not to attack the entire flooded area but to leave it alone and only isolate it from the Reich.





The Reich:



The staff in the High Command of the Wehrmacht have to take note that the German forces on the Western Front have almost completely decayed due to combat losses and voluntary captivity ...:





To somehow compensate for the losses, the Nazi authorities launched the so-called "Visigoth" and "Ostrogoth movements".

On Hitler's orders, all German men who can still hold a weapon are to be thrown on the fronts in the west and east.

This "combing" of the hinterland to find soldiers who are still capable of fighting is what the people of Germany call "Heldenklau" ("hero stealing")!

No less drastic is the expression that the veterans use for the troops that come together in this way: "Eintopf-Soldaten" ("stew soldiers"): "Old meat and young vegetables" ...:











Over the Reich:


The imperial capital Berlin is bombed again!

For the first time, however, the Allied "Flying Fortresses" do not start from their bases in southern England, but from airfields such as Amendola in Italy ...:

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday, March 25, 1945

Eastern front:
There is little combat activity in the east today:

The Red Army stands on the Oder, 130 kilometers from Berlin and just before the Austrian border, then part of the "Greater German Empire" as "Ostmark"...:



For the final attacks on Vienna and Berlin, the Soviets regroup their troops and bring strong reserves forward...







... especially heavy artillery...:







When the offensive on Berlin starts, a heavy cannon will stand along the entire length of the front every eight meters!




On this day, the German passenger ship “Ubena”...



... with over 4000 people on board...



... is the last German ship to leave the port of the city of Gdansk, which is sieged in the Red Army...:





Western Front:


The outstanding event of the day is this:

Three fanatical German youth, who belong to the underground guerrilla group "Werwolf", murder the mayor of Aachen, Franz Oppenhoff, who was appointed by the Allies three months earlier!





The killer squad had jumped behind the front with parachutes, made its way into the first occupied German city and shot Oppenhoff in his house.

The "Reichsführer SS" Heinrich Himmler founded the underground organization in late 1944: "In areas where the enemy assumes that they have already conquered (...) behind his back (...) resistance to fire must flare up and death-defying volunteers as werewolves will harm the enemy and cut his life's threads."

Only 200 volunteers had come forward and had been trained behind the front for sabotage and murder campaigns against enemy soldiers and cooperating Germans.

At the beginning of 1945, the Nazis set up their own radio station for the "Werewolves", "Radio Werwolf", which spread hateful slogans from morning to night.

The murder in Aachen remains the only major action of the self-proclaimed avenger!






There are some isolated attacks and even deaths, but most werewolves prefer to stay alive rather than die a certain death - and quickly diverge.

The biggest problem arises from the fact that both the Western Allies and the Soviets believe that there is indeed a strong and centrally directed underground movement called "Werewolf" in Germany:

In the weeks after the surrender, this will be doomed to many young men (and children!) who somehow seem suspicious and are in the wrong place at the wrong time...



... because the occupation troops shoot in doubt and then ask questions!
The sign reads: "This man shot at our soldiers"...:



In response to the murder of Aachen the commander of the British-Canadian 21st Army Group, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery...



... issues a total ban on fraternization with the German population for the troops under his command...:



From now on, soldiers may not even speak to Germans without an officer being present ...

But like so many things that "Monty" tackles, that doesn't work either!




**continued next post**