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

[Martin Antonenko]

Thursday, April 19, 1945


Eastern Front:


In the morning, Kuznetzows...



...and Bogdanows...



...troops start a new attack on the Seelow Heights. The operation is also flanked by the soldiers of the 1st Guard Panzer Army of Colonel General Mikhail Katukov ...:



This time, Zhukov's soldiers are successful because the German defense collapses in several places almost simultaneously!

Katukov's tanks hit the middle of the positions between SS Panzer Regiment 11 in the area between Reichenberg and Buckow...



... which with the Schwere SS Panzerabeilung 102 (equipped with "king tigers") is actually one of the most fighting German associations!





Bogdanows and Kusnetzows soldiers punch a hole in the lines of the remains of the German CI. Army Corps and break through too!





When Shukow's success is reported, he sends the 5th shock army of Colonel General Nikolai Bersarin (who later became the city commander of Berlin until his deadly motorcycle accident on June 16, 1945) ...



... and the 1st mechanized corps under Lieutenant General Semjon Kriwoschein ...



... with the 3rd shock army and the 12th Guard Panzer Corps behind them.

The Red Army soldiers managed to overcome the Seelower Heights with a violent blast and even took over the little town of Müncheberg...:











From Müncheberg one can drive along Reichsstraße 1 (today: Bundesstraße 1) via Rüdersdorf directly to Berlin.



Only a few days ago Hitler drove here in the opposite direction on the way to his last front visit ...

53 kilometers to the Brandenburg Gate!

Now Shukow will use his elite units to storm Berlin:

General Bogdanow's 2nd Guard Panzer Army, which already brought about a change here, and the 8th Guard Army, led by an old acquaintance, are selected:

General Vasily Tschuikow, the winner of Stalingrad!



Tschuikow was chosen primarily because he has been a specialist in street fights, which Shukow is counting on in Berlin since Stalingrad.
He once called Stalingrad "the academy of street fighting" ...

The German units, which have so far defended the Seelower Heights well and steadfastly, are flooding back in full resolution!



There is no longer a German front between the Oder and the German capital.

Hitler has still eleven days to live ...


**contunued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Western Front:


US troops occupy the city of Leipzig - here a "Sherman" tank in front of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations against Napoleon 1813...:



And an astonished GI inspects the inside ...:




The city treasurer of Leipzig, Dr. Kurt Lisso, along with his wife and daughter, commits suicide through poison ...:




The US boys are not exactly squeamish when it comes to bringing in prisoners! The reports on the liberated Buchenwald concentration camp changed the view of the GI's towards Germany and the Germans abruptly ...:





The British are also making good progress in the north and are reaching the Elbe at Dannenberg for the first time!







Although he would like to do something different, Field Marshal Montgomery follows the directives of his commander in chief Eisenhower and makes no move (yet) to cross the river ...:


Nearby, the British find in a hidden bunker several German cruise missiles of the type "V-1", which - like the Japanese "Oka" flight bombs - are equipped with cockpits for pilots for "self-sacrifice" missions ...:





France:



There is still shooting in France!

The heavy coastal batteries of the Kriegsmarine on the British channel island of Alderney, which is still occupied by German troops...







... take the tanks and fuel stores in the northwestern part of the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, which are explored by command troops in nightly companies, under fire of destruction.











The Reich:



The High Command of the Wehrmacht orders the troops defending the city of Hamburg to defend their bridgeheads south of the Elbe against the British for as long as possible.

This is intended to bind enemy troops and to relieve some of the pressure on General Wenck's German 12th Army, which is engaged in heavy defensive battles in the Tangermünde area.



Switzerland:


In Switzerland, meanwhile, one registers that high (and highest!) Nazi batches try to bring their assets, which have been stolen all over Europe, to safety.

After it became clear that 28 large boxes full of gold and money had been brought into the country, Switzerland closed its borders to the "Greater German Empire" ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Friday, April 20, 1945


The Reich:


Today is "Führer's birthday", in the past few years in the "Greater German Reich" a state holiday, with school free, flags, marches, many speeches and everything Tschingdarassabum!



Today hardly anyone takes notice of it - people have other worries and are concerned with survival insofar as they live within the German sphere of power...:



The "Greater German Empire" still extends from the North Sea to the Alps, but has shrunk to the north on a narrow strip of land between the Elbe and the Spree ...:



Hitler is now 56 years old and looks like an old man!



He is also severely Parkinson's and can no longer walk properly, but only shuffle deeply bent. His left hand trembles incessantly.

On the occasion of Hitler's birthday, the highest party and state leadership meets one last time (but they don't know that yet) in Berlin in a reasonably undamaged hall of the New Reich Chancellery ...:



Next time most of them will see each other in the war criminals' prison in Nuremberg. The rest will be dead.

Grand Admiral Dönitz is absent.


The "Führer" makes the congratulations courage, shakes hands with each of the appearances and says a few more or less friendly words.

For the "faithful Heinrich" Himmler he shows the most sympathy (picture from earlier times!) ....:



Then there is a briefing, although there is not much left to discuss. According to the statements of several meeting participants, the heavily heroin-dependent "Reichsmarschall" and Commander of the (no more existing) Luftwaffe Hermann Göring ...



... during the lecture by General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Wehrmacht Command Staff ...



...fell asleep!

Towards the end of the meeting, Hitler orders a new line of defense to be built at the height of the city of Cottbus.

In addition, Admiral Dönitz is sent a radio message to let as many Marines as possible fly into Berlin to defend the capital against the Red Army!

The crews of speed boats, minesweepers, breakwaters and sunk "big ships" in the street fight! Almost grotesque!
But they have nothing else!

The "Fiihrer" then orders to relocate the high command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) and the Wehrmacht lcommand staff from Zossen, were are now Marshal Konjews soldiers sit, to a barrack at Berchtesgaden.

OKW chief Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel ...



... because of his submissive love service towards Hitler, generally called "the Nick Donkey" or "Lakeitel" (from Lakai / servant) behind his back, the group leads.

A second commanders group (with General Jodl) flies to Flensburg to work in the naval school in Mürwick with Admiral Dönitz.

Final decision: General Gehlen's secret service "Fremde Heere Ost", which has become useless (and actually always been useless!), is dissolved.

The - ordered - general uprising of the Wehrmacht commanders is shot - without orders - by the leadership of the SS and leadership as well as employees of the "Reichssicherheitshauptamt" (RSSHA- "Reich Security Main Office") with RSSHA chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner ...



... first and flee to Flensburg-Mürwick near the Danish border, which is still safe.

After that, the "Führer" is in a hurry to descend into his bunker. General departure.

What Hitler doesn't know:

The "faithful Heinrich" Himmler has been secretly negotiating with the Western Allies - about a Swedish middleman.

The question that Himmler is most concerned with at the moment - so his aide later: Should he greet US Commander in Chief Eisenhower by handshake or militarily when he meets him?

Party leader Martin Bormann and armament minister Albert Speer are also in secret negotiations: the two men who hate each other, like the plague, make the following "offer" to the United States and the British:

The remains of the "Army Group Middle" still standing in the Czech Republic could surrender to US troops (General George Patton's tanks are close, as we saw the day before yesterday!) and together with the Americans help the population to save Czechoslovakia from the Red Army...

The latest edition of the Nazi party paper "Völkischer Beobachter" is published in Berlin today...:



The headline says: "Germany stands fast and loyal to the Führer".








Western Front:



The 7th U.S. Army under General John W. O’Daniel ...



... takes the so-called "City of the Reichs Party Congresses", Nuremberg in Frankonia (Bavaria)...:



The GI's celebrate this extensively on the huge former site that the Nazis set up there for their annual marches ...:





The plant is still standing today ...




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Western Front:


The German 11th Army under General of the Artillery Walther Lucht ...



... who has so far defended the so-called "Harz Fortress" must give up against the Americans today...:





France:



The German Atlantic base in the Gironde estuary in south-west France must also capitulate this day ...:



The large attack operation of all remaining German submarines ordered by Admiral Dönitz on Hitler's orders must at least be canceled for the German North Sea coast! There is no longer any fuel, which saves the lives of many of the crews of the mostly outdated boats.

The U boats remain in their bunkered berths, as here in Hamburg ...:





Eastern Front:



Marshal Shukowv's troops, which had only just broken through at the Seelow Heights yesterday, have now come so close to Berlin that the city center of the German capital is within easy reach of the heavy artillery.

The marshal cannot resist the temptation to have a B-4 howitzer battery opened and to send Hitler a few 20.3 caliber birthday greetings with an explosive effect!


On this grenade is written: "по Берлин" = "To Berlin" ...:



It is the first time since the Napoleonic Wars that enemy artillery shells hit Berlin.


Shukov's "1st Belarusian Front" has now broken through the outermost Berlin defense ring!

There are three such defense rings around Berlin, an outer, a middle and the inner - on the paper ..:



But almost nothing is prepared!

A few armored trenches, no obstacle for a "T 34" or "IS-2", a few blown-up bridges, some wire obstacles, mines ...




Hardly any soldiers because almost all of them were thrown on the Oder front!

However, every defense ring has its "combat commander". In Berlin itself - on the third and inner defense ring - there are even three commanders with partly overlapping, partly contradicting competencies:

There is the city commander, the commander of the Berlin garrison and finally the combat commander. Later there will be a fourth such "commander", the SS Briogadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke ...



... from the "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" who is named "Combat Commandant of the Government District" (the red triangle on the next map!) ...:



All of these commanders cheerfully command; there are also the commanders of the German troops flooding back from the Oder, who continue to insist on exercising their command, even if their soldiers are in the command of a "combat commander".

Everything gets mixed up, columns get lost, in between stray refugee refuges - in short: there is an indescribable confusion!





At some crossroads, officers with drawn service pistols and sharp shots on their own soldiers create "order"!

Anything coordinated to stop the advancing Soviets is not happening!



To make matters worse, the "2nd Belarusian Front" of Marshal Konstatin Rokossowskij (in the photo still General) is now going to the far north between Gartz and Stettin ...



... to the offensive, which will lead north past Berlin to the west!

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Saturday, April 21, 1945


Eastern Front:


Hitler's order yesterday to build a new defensive front against the Red Army at Cottbus has already been overtaken by reality today!

No one can carry it out in the chaos.

The Soviets occupy the city ...








... as well as the nearby city of Bautzen ...:






The troops of the Marshals Konjev and Shukow continue their advance on Berlin almost unhindered!



The armies of Konjev are slowly but surely pushing together the battered remains of General Busses 9th Army and the 4th Panzer Army- 80.000 men - in an extensive forest area near the city of Halbe 60 kilometers south of Berlin, which go down in history under the name "Kessel von Halbe" as one of the bloodiest kettle shafts of the entire war will be ...:










With the advance to Berlin, a real "race mentality" is spreading between the soldiers of the large Soviet associations, each part of the troop wants to be the first to arrive at the Reichstag building, which for unknown reasons is in the Red Army as a Berliner and - above all! - Nazi symbol applies even though the building has been unused since the fire on the night of February 27-28, 1933 ...:





**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Western Front:


The last German troops that still defend the "Ruhrkessel" in the Bergisches Land must now give up too!

In order to avoid a formal surrender, the commander, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model, has all soldiers enter discharge notes in their pay books!

Then Model can be driven to a forest ...



.. the so-called "Spee'schen Wald" between Wedau and Lintorf near Duisburg, and shoots a bullet through the head!

His last three remaining general staff officers, Colonel Theodor Pilling, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Michael and Major Winrich Behr, buried Model on the spot.




In Halle, the German defenders, crowded together by an overwhelming majority, have to surrender ...:





In the northwest, the Germans rear up again: There is fierce fighting again between Germans and Canadians about the town of Papenburg in the Weser-Ems region.
The city changes hands several times until the candiers can occupy the city as winners.

The following two photos show a rare coincidence:

First the gun with German Hitler Youth operators before the fight (from a private German Album)...



... and exactely the same weapon later after the fight in the hands of the victorious Canadians!





Meanwhile, the Americans get to know General Wenck's 12th Army better: The Germans fight back several attempts by the US troops at Wittenberge and Tangermünde to cross the Elbe ...:









The Reich:



On this day, SS chief Himmler secretly meets north of Berlin with a representative of the Jewish World Congress and the vice president of the Swedish Red Cross!

Both interlocutors were flown in by the SS undercover.

Himmler offers security and life for the concentration camp prisoners remaining in German hands against security and life for themselves.

On the same day, 5,000 Danish and Norwegian prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg are released to Denmark as a "gesture of goodwill".

The freed people are cared for by Swedish Red Cross members ...



... transported in a convoy of white painted buses ...:





As can be seen in the first picture, the Swedes have even taken the trouble to label the buses in German ("Schweden" instead of "Sverige") in addition to their flags as neutrality markings to prevent accidental German soldiers shoot at them ...


This day a German "Junkers 352" plane belonging to the so-called "Führer-Staffel" (Hitler's personal squadron) crashes ...





... near the village of Börnersdorf in Saxony because of technical problems. The complete crew of five persons come to death. The plane was to transport a number of Hitler's personal belongings from Berlin to his "Berghof" near Berchtsgaden in Bavaria.

This plane crash in 1983 will be the starting legend for the appearance of the alleged "Hitler Diaries", which will print the German magazine "Stern" (and also some British Newspapers) and will forever lose it's good reputation!




Of course, all of these "diaries", for which the "Stern" paid millions, prove to be fakes!

For the last time the newspaper "Der Angriff / Berliner Zeitung" is publiched in Berlin this day ...:





Moscow / Warsaw:



Stalin puts his heavy hands on Poland - to protect its freedom and integrity, the Western powers entered the war in 1939!

With the "Lublin Committee", which he was able to deal with, he concluded a 30-year "friendship and support pact".



This treaty creates the basis for the "westward shift" of Poland!

This means: Stalin can keep his land robbery from 1939 (i.e. the areas that the Red Army incorporated in the course of the Hitler-Stalin pact!) And Poland becomes (now) German (but occupied by the Red Army) territories "compensated" ...:



The Western Allies will accept it in silence ...



Washington:


The U.S. Chief of Staff, General George Marshall ...



... is reported by the secret service that it can be safely ruled out that the Nazis could use an atomic bomb with their still available uranium amount in this war.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday, April 22, 1945


Eastern Front:


The advance of the Red Army on Berlin is unstoppable! The first Cossack reconnaisance troops have reached the city border!






The battered remains of German troops flood back into the city, where they hope to find peace, supplies and supplies. Only a few fanatics think of resistance at this moment.

Also the remains of the German CI. Armeekorps, which was almost completely worn out during Operation "Bagration" in the summer of 1944. Army corps, which belongs to the now badly battered "Army Group Vistula", are pushed into the urban area of Berlin by the Red Army - like many other troops.

Hitler is reported this day that the commanding general of the corps, Helmut Weidling (on the left in the picture!) ...



... had moved his command post back on his own initiative, which runs counter to an express command by the "Führer".

In a quick trial, Hitler let's the general sentence to death by shooting for "cowardice to the enemy"!

But the message is wrong and General Weidling is a brave man!

We'll hear from him again tomorrow ...


The attack in the north by Marshal Rokossowski's troops at Stettin to flank the Berlin offensive is making good progress right from the start!






Western Front:


The 1st French Army under General de Lattre de Tassigny occupies Stuttgart - or rather, what is left of it ...:




Stuttgart 1930...:



Stuttgart 1945, same perspective...:





The US troops have now also approached Stuttgart over 50 kilometers, but are giving the French the lead.

They find this day something much more interesting!

The US troops have now also approached Stuttgart over 50 kilometers, but are giving the French the lead.

You will find something much more interesting!

A complete - and almost operationally - German nuclear reactor is found in a mine tunnel directly below Haigerloch Castle near Stuttgart ...:
















Here is a replica of the original system in today's museum in Haigerloch Tunnel...:



The Nazis had get very close to the atomic bomb - much later the Allies shouldn't have come ...


**continued next post''

 

[Martin Antonenko]

South Front:



Following Hitler's ordert, the "Army Group Southwest" under Field Marshal Albert Kesselring retreated in northernb Italy behind the River Po and into Ticino and was preparing to occupy the pre-Alpine position...:




The Germans are also evacuating the city of Banja Luka in Croatia, which is occupied by the immediately moving partisan troops of Jozip Broz (called "Tito")...:




The people of Banja Luka greet the partisan army, from now on called itself "Yugoslav People's Army", with red flags ...:





Austria:



The former Republic of Austria, which has belonged to the "Greater German Reich" as the "Ostmark" since 1938, today proclaims its detachment from the Reich and its renewed independence as a sovereign state ...:




As a result, many Austrians will describe themselves as "the first victims of Hitler" and will quickly "forget" how many "Ostmarkers" murdered at the SS, how many party members worked for the Nazi state, and how many officers held senior positions in the German Wehrmacht .

As a result, they are no longer fondly reminded of the huge jubilation on Vienna's Heldenplatz on March 13, 1938, when Hitler brought the "Ostmark home to the Reich" ...:





Yugoslavia:


The last 1,500 prisoners of the Jasenovac concentration camp....



... 95 kilometers south of Zagreb and operated by the fascist Croatian "Ustascha" regime try to free themselves after the withdrawal of the German troops (see above).

Jasenovac is the only camp of this type in which there was murder without any German intervention - and at the same time one of the largest in Europe! At least 100,000 people were murdered by Croatians there...:



On this day, the prisoners desperate attack the heavily armed "Ustasha "guards with their bare hands!

Only 80 camp inmates can flee, all others are killed.





The Reich:



SS chief Heinrich Himmler ...



... is so convinced of the effect of his secret conference with the representative of the Jewish World Congress and his "gesture of goodwill" (the release of concentration camp prisoners to Denmark yesterday) that he - again via Swedish middlemen - is now ready to meet in person Allied Commander in Chief Dwight Eisenhower.

Himmler thinks he has an unbeatable "card" in his hand:

He wants to present himself Eisenhower as the only one in Germany, who (as the lord of the SS aned commander of the German police) is able to "maintain order" in the collapsing German Reich.

However, the US general does not honor him with an answer!


The last gold reserves of the Deutsche Reichsbank in - then! - Worth US $ 150 million are brought this day from Berlin to the Walchensee in the Bavarian Alps (70 km south of Munich) and buried there.






In an few weeks the Americans will find it...:





Some more words about the Walchensee and the gold treasure:

There were 365 sacks with two gold bars each, 9 envelopes with the documents relating to the gold, 4 boxes with gold, 2 sacks with gold coins, 6 boxes with Danish coins, and 94 sacks with other foreign currencies. The foreign currency is primarily US dollars and Swiss francs.

The hiding place itself was betrayed to the Americans by German officers who were involved in the action!
After the war, the three western allies founded the "TGC", the "" Tripartite Gold Commission ". This gave two thirds of the gold found at Lake Walchensee back to the respective countries of origin until 1996. The stuff had been robbed by the Nazis all over Europe .

The last third was clearly attributable to the Germans - that "belongs" to the Bundesbank today (in other words, to us taxpayers ...!).

What electrifies the treasure hunters:

The Americans definitely recovered less gold in 1945 (or even announced that they had less recovered!) than was hidden there according to the Reichsbank lists - at least 100 gold bars and sacks with precious stones are said to be missing!



So there is a heavy search by probe-goers (and also diving in Lake Walchensee).

So far, no gold has been found, but "only" a buried depot with pre-war premium wines (some value), a few coins that the German state immediately confiscated, "sharp" bazookas and other weapons, and three wrecks in the lake that crashed Airplanes:

- a Me 109,
- a Lancaster bomber, as well
- a "Norton Commander" that crashed there in the 1970s.

Oh yes - and the wreck of a VW beetle "disposed of" in the lake ...




The most violent conspiracy theories are still flourishing today!

The most traditional: The Germans gave the Americans the hiding place found on the presentation plate, so to speak, in order to protect the rest, which has not yet been recovered!

My opinion about it:

The alleged difference between what was hidden and what was be found is explained by the fact that the Germans who were supposed to bury the treasure had first filled their own pockets extensively BEFORE they buried the gold!

I would have done that anyway ...


Dr. "Siegesmund" Goebbels sees the end coming!

He is determined to share Hitler's fate whatever it looks like. Today the Reich Propaganda Minister moves in with the wife of Magda and the six children in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery.

All children have first names beginning with "H": Hilde, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine, Hedwig and Heidrun...:



The "H" stands for "Hitler"!

Magda Goebbel's son from her first marriage is not among them!

Harald Quandt (in the photo above, in Luftwaffe uniform), who served with the Fallschirmjäger and fought at Monte Cassino, was badly wounded near Bologna in September 1944 and captured by the British.


More and more daily newspapers in the "Greater German Reich" have to stop appearing due to lack of paper, means of transport or employees. While there were 91 in 1944, only 41 sheets now appear, which have also been greatly reduced in size.

The "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (DAZ) is published in Berlin for the last time today...:



Instead of it, the "Panzerbär" ("Armoured Bear", for the bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin) will be printed from tomorrow, a four-page leaflet with propaganda "news" for the defenders of Berlin ...:

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Monday, April 23, 1645


The Reich:


General Weidling, commanding general of the CI. Army corps learns by chance that he was sentenced to death in absentia yesterday by Hitler for "cowardice to the enemy".

The general quickly sat down in a Kübelwagen and had his adjutant drive him to Berlin to the Reich Chancellery.

When asked what he wanted here, the general at the entrance to the Führer bunker said he would report to the shooting - the stunned SS men let Weidling pass. General Hans Krebs, who now serves as chief of staff of the army in the Führer bunker, and Hitler's valet Heinz Linge ensure that Weidling is admitted personally to Hitler.

The "Führer" is impressed by the general's courage!

Weidling has entered the Führer bunker as a doomed man - he is leaving him as the new "combat commander of Greater Berlin" with almost unlimited powers!

The picture shows Weidling leaving the bunker through one of the - hinged - underground entrances - but at a later time - after the capitulation ...:



The order of the "Führer" who announced Weidling's appointment will go out tomorrow.


Meanwhile, more and more Soviet geranes are hitting the center of the capital. And this time it's not a howitzer long-range fire, like on Hitler's birthday, but also lighter calibers!



Hitler suddenly realizes how close the Soviet soldiers have come to his bunker!

General Walther Wenck immediately received a radio command to completely detach his 12th Army, which was fighting the Americans in heavy defenses against the Americans, and to march on Berlin to save the capital!



To make sure that the order was followed, they had it printed quickly as a leaflet and dropped over the positions of the 12th Army ...:



In the meantime, a telegram from Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, who is sitting in the safe Berchtesgaden, arrives in the bunker:



Göring...



... sais in that telegramm that he will now take over power in the Reich for his in Berlin enclosed "Führer" if no other answer comes from Berlin in a short time.

From the surroundings of Göring, Hitler is also told that Göring is planning to meet with US Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower in Paris tomorrow to arbitrarily sign an armistice.

Hitler is furious!

Göring is immediately relieved of all office, placed under house arrest in Berchtesgaden and guarded by SS guards.

Hitler appointed General Robert Ritter von Greim as Goering's successor as Commander-in-Chief of the (virtually non-existent) Luftwaffe...:



Since Hitler absolutely wants to “rattle” the general personally (i.e. swear in on himself), Ritter von Greim receives the order to come personally to the Führer bunker, difficult, because Berlin is now almost completely enclosed by the Soviets.

So the general has his beloved, the famous aviator Hanna Reitsch, fly him to Berlin in the "Fieseler Storch" short-haul plane.

Reitsch lands on the street practically in front of the main entrance to Hitler's Reich Chancellery, which she has often done with the same plane (pre-war photo!) ...:



The Soviets fire the plane violently - they fear that Hitler will flee with it! The general is seriously injured in the leg by a Soviet flak splinter!

When they were patched up again in the hospital bunker’s hospital room, Ritter von Greim gets what Hitler’s others, who have already experienced, mockingly call “Höhensonnen-Kur” ("Sunlamp treatment"):

The "Fuhrer" tells the general something for over an hour of "mighty offensives" that he is planning and is ready for the "huge reserves". Greim is impressed!

At the end of the conversation, the "Führer" hands over a special gift to his new commander in chief of the Air Force!

For the way back, Reitsch and Ritter von Greim take a car with a local driver who knows the last open roads and paths well out of the capital.

The "Fieseler Stork" with whom they came remains behind and is completely disturbed in the final battles for the Reich Chancellery ...:



A few days later, reality will catch up with the general: the Americans capture him near Salzburg! He will identify himself to the GI’s with the words: "I am the head of the German Air Force, but I have no Air Force."

When Ritter von Greim learns that the Americans are planning to hand him over to the Soviets, he will commit suicide on May 24th! For this he uses Hitler's "farewell gift" from the Führer bunker:

A tinplate sleeve ...





... with a glass capsule of cyanide poison!




In the evening, Minister of Armaments Albert Speer stopped by in the driver's bunker and "confessed" to the dictator that he had sabotaged the "Nero order". Hitler is silent - as Speer will write in his memoirs later.

In the memoirs mentioned, Speer then writes that - before he says goodbye to Hitler for the last time - he advises him to appoint Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz dictator in the event of his death ...

After Speer has left and the Soviet artillery fire in the government district has decreased slightly for a short time, Hitler, accompanied by an SS adjutant, briefly leaves the driver's bunker to look at the destruction of his Reich Chancellery that caused US bombs and Soviet grenades.

One of the SS guards in the courtyard secretly pulls out the camera and takes the very last pictures showing the living Adolf Hitler ...







Eastern Front:



The armored tips of General Kusnetzow (Army Group Shukow)...



... and General Bogdanow (Army Group Konjew)...



... are only a few kilometers apart in thge west of the capital! Berlin will be completely enclosed by tomorrow at the latest!



Other Soviet troops clean up the hinterland and occupy the "fortress" Frankfurt (on the Oder), whose garrison has surrendered...:



The capitulation is very formal ...:





**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Western Front North:


The British today reach the Hamburg-Harburg city border south of the Elbe. According to orders of CIC General Eisenhower they stop at the Elbe Bridge ...:





Western Front South:


French units occupy the city of Mühlheim southwest of Freiburg ...:






On this day, US troops liberate the Flossenbürg concentration camp (north of Regensburg)...:

















The Lost Train:


On this day, other concentration camp prisoners are liberated near the town of Tröblitz in Brandenburg:



It is a transport of 2,400 prisoners who had been "evacuated" by the Nazis at the Bergen-Belsen camp so as not to be freed by the British there.

Because of the war and the chaos of Germany, the train "went wrong" through the German sphere of influence since April 10th - until it had to stop on April 23rd, 1945 - the coal for the locomotive was all gone!



The train that went down in history as "der verlorene Zug" ("the lost train" or "the lost transport") is eventually found by accident by a patrol of the Red Army - and the prisoners are freed.

Since people were given neither water nor food during the random walk (they drank their urine to survive!), The Soviet soldiers also found more than 200 dead on the train!

After the liberation, another 320 people died of exhaustion.

Since 2007 a memorial commemorates the "lost train" ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Tuesday, April 24, 1945


Eastern Front:



German troops of the 9th Army General Busses, which were encircled southwest of the Scharmützelsee, are now fighting their way westward with a heavy losses ...:









They will get into the eaves from the rain, namely their mass will getalso into the "Kessel of Halbe" ...



After Hitler's call for help to General Wenck's 12th Army yesterday, today he turns to the remains of the "Army Group Middle", which is fighting southwest of the capital in the Dresden area:

The army group should "clear up" the situation near Dresden as quickly as possible and then immediately start a relief attack in the direction of Berlin.

Futile hope!


The "Army Group Middle" under Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner ...



... is pushed back from Dresden to the vicinity of Prague and surrounded by three "fronts" (army groups) of the Red Army (1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian)!

There, this force will capitulate on May 9, 1945, after its commander-in-chief Schörner, with several thousand Reichsmark stolen from the staff and in civilian clothes, flew to Austria with a stolen plane and hid there in an alpine hut near Göriach until the Americans "Bloody Ferdinand "(as they call him) track down and arrest him...



The same Schörner that is so popular with Hitler because of his merciless trade against "slackers" and "deserters"!


The Americans will immediately deliver "Bloody Ferdinand", as they call him, to the Soviet Union!




In February 1952 Schörner will there sentenced to 25 years of forced labor for war crimes and held in various camps until the end of 1954.

After his return to Germany (Bavaria) he will be charged again in Munich for manslaughter against German soldiers - the next picture shows him together with his lawyer in court ..:



The "monster in uniform", as he is now called in Germany, is sentenced to four and a half years in prison and the deprivation of his pension - even his former comrades dissociate themselves from him publicly!


The next picture shows Schörner after his return to Germany in a train reading a newspaper - it's headline says: ""Soldiers' Association brands Feldmarschall Schörner"...:




After his early release from the Landsberg prison on August 4, 1960, he will settle in the Bavarian Mittenwald, where he will also die and is buried.



But back to today:

From the Führer bunker comes an new directive to all german units:
This "Führerweisung" prohibits all transfers of German troops unless they serve Berlin's relief!

Hitler obviously wants to extend his life a bit ...



Western Front:



A last tactical success of the German Wehrmacht:

The city of Lauenburg on the Elbe is retaken by the British from the surviving remains of the armored division "Clausewitz" and the 245th Infantry Division ...:

It is the last ongoing battle between tank groups of this war - nothing changes in the overall situation ...

American and French units jointly occupy the city of Ulm on this day ...:








At the same hour, US troops are also entering Dessau ...:



The world famous "Bauhaus" is badly damaged ...:





Southern Front:



An order from Hitler instructs the Army Group C units in northern Italy to cling to the Alpine fortress.

It won't happen anymore ...



The Reich:


The only German aircraft carrier, the half-finished "Graf Zeppelin", which is still in the port of Stettin (today Szczecin) ...



... is tugged to sea and blown up (and sunk) by the Germans not to fall into the hands of the Red Army ...:







In March 1947, the Soviets will lift the ship...




... and use it to carry out experiments on the most promising way to combat an aircraft carrier with aircraft bombs and explosive charges.


On June 18, 1947, the now badly battered carrier with two torpedoes will be sunk the second time about 30 nautical miles north of Władysławowo in front of the Danzig Bay...:




It is still there today ...:




SS chief Himmler intensifies his attempts to save his own skin and his power!

Through Swedish middlemen, he offers the United States and Great Britain a capitulation of all German associations in the West.

On top of that, he also offers to surrender all German troops in Norway.

If the Western Allies agree, Himmler also offers them a "Jew deal": He assures to release as many Jews as possible from German camps ...

Again, no response is appreciated.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Wednesday, April 25, 1945



Berlin:


Near the little village Ketzin on the Havel in Brandenburg ...


... the armored tops of the army groups ("fronts") of Marshal Shukow and Marshal Konjew meet:








Berlin is now completely enclosed - and a plaque commemorates at Ketzin this important event!



The German Capital is now from all sides under the heaviest artillery fire of all calibers ...:





... circling over Berlin - completely undisturbed by the German Luftwaffe! - "flying tanks", as the Soviet earth combat aircraft "Ilyushin 2 Stormowik" (= "storm gull") are called because of their heavy armor ...:



(At this aircraft, all essential parts were armored, including the cockpit. Only one place was not: the place of the second man on board who operated the defense MG! This second man was considered "unnecessary" by the plane's planners because a new one could trained quickly, in contrast to the pilot ...)


The Red Air Force squadrons fire everything that looks remotely similar to a German military position ...:



Red Army soldiers invade Berlin from all sides - the main impulses come from the west, north and southwest. The soldiers of Konjew and Shukow are in a real race, who will be the first to reach the Reichstag building in the city center.

All have in common the will to conquer the city by May 1st and to present it to Stalin, as it were - the highest holiday of the Soviet Union so far - so to speak.

This haste will unnecessarily cost many soldiers their lives!

The Red Army go ahead, taught by General Tschuikow, the defender of Stalingrad:

They stalk along the walls of the house and keep an eye on the roofs opposite, there German snipers could be lurking!







And they mainly focus on the basement: kicking in the window or door (or knocking in), hand grenade behind it, then jumping into the basement and a long round of fire from the PPSh-2, the Soviet standard submachine gun!



Wherever the Soviets find even a hint of a uniform or even a weapon, it costs all the cellar occupants life! They were killed without a long torch!

Countless German civilians, who are still in Berlin and have sought tens of thousands of shelter in the cellars, are killed!

The behavior of the Red Army men gets around quickly among the Berliners and leads to the fact that - especially women - uniformed refugee soldiers do not let themselves into the basement - before they have to put on civilian clothes and throw away their identification tags and weapons, even knives!

At this point in time, the Red Army soldiers did not yet know that they could easily identify SS members by the blood group tattooed under their armpits!

However, it is very common for civilians to appear bossy or arrogant with the words "You SS!" just be popped off!

Sometimes such a basement community is lucky, and only the soldier in the middle is led away ...:



Where the Soviets encounter organized resistance, they prefer artillery, tanks or the mighty ISU-122 or ISU-125 (with a heavier cannon!) Assault guns, which put the entire block of houses in ruins and bury all the defenders among themselves !




An irony of history is, that here in Berlin one of the last defenders of Hitler and the Nazis were Belgians - members of the SS volunteer division "Wallonia" under SS -Hauptsturmführer Henri Venet ...:






House after house, street after street, the Red Army soldiers fight their way towards the city center.

The defenders fight back desperately ...:









But it is foreseeable that the unequal fight will soon end in the German defeat!


**contunued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Eastern Front:


This day the Germans give up - contrary to Hitler's express orders! - the "fortress" Stettin, which is already behind the Soviet lines ...:






At the same time Pillau on the Baltic Sea is evacuated and the defenders take refuge on the Fresh Spit, a sand peninsula in the Baltic Sea - the Red Army is moving towards ...:




Bad Saarow is also lost on this day...



... where Hitler made a few after the last front visit of his life at the headquarters of General Busses 9th Army.



Finland:


This day the last Germans leave Finland! During their retreat, the Germans destroy what falls into their hands - and leave signs like this on which is written:

"Thank you for not having a brotherhood in arms!"



Finland had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union without first asking Hitler for permission!






Torgau (Saxony):


After General Wenck's 12th Army has been ordered to move east and has left theinr poisitions, Soviet and American soldiers meet at Torgau on the Elbe!



The first two to shake hands are First Lieutenant William Robertson from the 273rd Infantry Regiment and Soviet Lieutenant Alexander Silwaschko from the reconaissance platoon of the Soviet 175th Guard-Rifle Regiment ..:



After the official mutual greeting (the photos of which I will leave out because they are too well known and I have found better ones!), the soldiers of both countries celebrate a wild, boisterous party in the open air.

Initial reluctance soon gives way to interest ...





The US Boys meet real Cossacks for the first time in their lives ...:



Suddenly whiskey and vodka are there and the solldiers from the east and the west celebrate together an exuberant party ...:





When Stalin is reported about these events, he is not pleased and immediately sets the members of the anti-espionage department "Smersch" (an acronym of "Smert Shpionem!" = "Death to the spies!") of the NKVD in march...




Washington, Moscow, Flensburg, Berlin:



US President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and the Secretary General of the KDdSU (and since a short time now Generalissimo of the Red Army) Stalin reject the offer of surrender secretly submitted to them by SS chief Himmler yesterday as "incomplete" and insist on unconditional surrender of the German Reich to everyone Fronts!

Annoying for Himmler - he does not get this answer personally and secretly through middlemen, as he hoped, but it is broadcasted on the radio.

This is how Hitler will find out about it - Himmler's ranks have been blown! That will be Himmler's adjutant to Hitler, SS Obergruppenführer Hermann Fegelein (next to Himmler behind Hitler on the right, with a knight's cross)...



... cost his life. Himmler himself sits in the very north near Dönitz in Flensburg and is not tangible for the retaliation of the "Führer" .

We'll read about it soon...


Today Himmler has all of the Volkssturm units in the German-Danish border area disarmed by his SS troops, because it turned out that many Volkssturm members made common cause with Danish separators and aimed their weapons at German soldiers ...






Berchtesgaden (Bavaria):


At the end of the day, Hitler had to put up with a very personal setback:

He gets the message that US bombers have destroyed his beloved "Berghof" on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden ...:

 

[Nap]

Fascinating details from all war fronts Martin

Germany is in dire need of surrender and Hitler is concerned about the Berghof

Thank you

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Thursday, April 26, 1945


Berlin:


Soldiers of the 3rd Guard Tank Army under General Pawel Rybalko ...



... have taken the first part of the city of the German capital: Charlottenburg ...:






Without a stop, they continue along the Heerstraße towards the city center ...:



General Tschuikows 8th Guard Army meanwhile has taken the Berlin airport "Tempelhof" ...



... occupies the Victoria Park and opens fire at German positions at the Anhalter Bahnhof (Train station)...:





The tops of Tschuikow's troops are already at the Landwehr Canal, whose bridges the Germans blew up at the last moment ...



The survivors of the SS division "Nordland", which consists of Scandinavian volunteers and has defended Tempelhof fiercely, must withdraw via the canal ...:





By evening, the Moabit district is completely in the hands of the Red Army ...



... and heavy fights are raging around Alexanderplatz on the edge of the city center!





General Bersarin's 5th shock army is making slow progress in the Friedrichshain district. The conquest of the Silesian Railway Station (today Ostbahnhof) will later refer to Shukow as one of the "most difficult operations in the battle for Berlin".

The situation in the evening:



Meanwhile, Marshal Konjew is gathering his troops for a push towards Potsdamer Platz.

The Marshal is deeply disappointed because he received Stawka Order No. 11074 today.

If Stalin fueled the race to Berlin between rivals Shukow and Konjew yesterday, he is now ending it - and Shukow is getting the victory price!

The order stipulates that the border between the two army areas runs from Lübben via Teupitz, Mittenwalde, Mariendorf to Anhalter Bahnhof.

This forces Konjev to stop his troops exactly 100 meters in front of the Reichstag building and to let Zhukov's soldiers take the lead.

The German garrison of the enclosed Spandau can break out - and flees into the lion's throat, into the city center!







Eastern Front:



General Wenck's 12th Army cannot continue advancing towards Berlin: Marshal Konjew's strong forces block their way.





The Reich:


The General Ritter von Greim, appointed the day before yesterday by Hitler to succeed Göring as commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, is promoted to Generalfeldmarschall...:




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Bremen:


The British - above all the "Royal Scots Fusiliers" and "King's Own Scottish Borderers" - occupy today my hometown Bremen!



The city, like everyone else in Germany, is completely destroyed - the areas around the harbor are practically non-existent since the submarine yards there were constantly bombed ...:





This was Bremen before the war...:





In the working-class districts of Walle and Gröpelingen, which traditionally voted "red" (SPD and KPD) and which the Nazis had never fully controlled during their entire rule, the British are greeted with exultation!




The last shot in Bremen was fired in this bunker at the Parkallee, which still exists today, about 150 meters from where I grew up...:




When I look out of the window today, I always can see a warning reminder of the war:

In the middle of the beautiful green quarter in which my house is located (star), a huge bunker rises on an overgrown site that is too massive to blow up. Only the entrances were blown up in the 1950s...:



My cat "Vitja" loves this area as an "adventure playground" ...

The British will later hand over Bremen to the Americans because they need an efficient port. Bremen thus will become an US enclave in the British occupation zone.

To this day, the US handles its military logistics via Bremen!

Perhaps her most important (but definitely the most popular) "export article" came to Europe landfalled here on October 1, 1958 ...








... to do his military service near Frankfurt ...:




In the south, US troops and French occupy the city of Konstanz on Lake Constance...:





French units completely enclose the German remnants of troops in the Black Forest! It's only a matter of time before they have to give up...:




In Bavaria the German troops cross back the Danube - towards the pre-Alpine region.


Despite the devastating situation, the "Führer" does not want to give up. Cannon fodder is still available!

The German Commander-in-Chief South, Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff ....



... receives the strict order not to let up in the resistance and to continue fighting!


The post of German commander in chief of the replacement army, which had held SS chief Himmler since the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, is abolished this day without replacement.

There is no longer a "replacement army" - anyone who can run and fight somehow is at the front ...

Hitler has until now not heard of Himmler's betrayal and his secret negotiations with the Western Allies - but this will change ...


Reims:



The US directive JCS 1067 comes into force.

In 52 paragraphs, the directive specifies the political, economic and military background, goals and duties of the commander-in-chief of the US troops with regard to his responsibility for the administration and the military occupation and as a member of the Allied Control Council.

There are also strict regulations for economic life!

The economy is to be decentralized and controlled with the help of German authorities. An economic resurgence of Germany beyond what is absolutely necessary for the supply of the occupying troops and for the life of the population is not desirable.

The standard of living in the US zone must not exceed that of neighboring states.

American grants for health care should only be provided to the extent that hunger, disease outbreaks and civil unrest do not pose a threat to the occupying power.

The guiding principle stands above all instructions ...:


"Germany is not occupied for the purpose of it's liberation but as a defeated enemy state."

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Friday, April 27, 1945


Berlin:


General Tschuikow (Shukows Army Group) ordered the majority of his troops to have a kind of "day off" - meanwhile, pioneering equipment is being brought forward to enable them to advance through the Landwehr Canal tomorrow.

One unit of his troops - the 28th Guard Corps - still has to perform a special task! These soldiers bypass the German positions on Nollendorfplatz and Lützowplatz and advance to Budapester Straße...:




From there they open fire at the German "Flakbunker Zoo" and silence the guns stationed there!











The heavy anti-aircraft cannons on the concrete monster of caliber 8.8 and 10.5 centimeters have caused enormous problems for the Soviets!

With their advance to Budapester Straße, the guards soldiers do another task:

They slide between Marshal Konev's troops and the Reichstag building and secure Berlin's symbol for Shukov's army ...

In the west of the city, Konjew's troops are now taking Gatow airfield and are grinding parts of the 18th German Panzer Grenadier Division, which Combat Commandant Weidling used there, to "keep the way out west open" to dust!



The toughest and fiercest fights rage east of the Moabit district (which the Soviets captured yesterday) and downtown!

There the soldiers of the Red Army stand opposite the remaining units of the "ROA", the "Russkaja oswoboditel'naja armija" ("Russian Liberation Army") ...





... of the defector General Andrej Vlassow (here with SS chief Himmler) ...



There is no mercy when Soviet soldiers meet the so-called "Vlasowskij"!

General Bersarin's 5th shock army fought between the Spree and Alexanderplatz - the 9th Corps on the other side of the river invaded Kreuzberg and reached Moritzplatz.

Hitler's Chancellery is under uninterrupted heavy Soviet artillery fire!



Breslau:



In the "fortress Breslau" (today Wroclaw), which is enclosed and besieged behind the Soviet lines...





... residents and parts of the defenders tried to force an outbreak to the Army Group Middle by an uprising.

The commandant of Breslau, Major General Hans von Ahlfen ...




... lets loyal troops shoot down the uprising!





Bavaria:




Meanwhile, hardly anyone opposes the US troops in Bavaria. The GI's take Regensburg, Kempten, Ingolstadt and Straubing against almost no resistance...:







The prisoner in the Führer bunker orders the establishment of an "Alpine Reduit to accommodate the associations of Army Groups West, South, Southwest and Southeast".

The areas of Berchtesgaden, Salzburg, Villach, Spittal, Bozen and Innsbruck are to be established as strong bases.

The order remains, which - if it had been carried out - would have meant the actual establishment of an "Alpine fortress"...



Austria:



Even the now again Austrians are taking care of the damp, humming commands from Berlin!

In Vienna a provisional Austrian government under Karl Renner (in a bright coat!) Is formed from representatives of the Socialists, the People's Party and the Communists ...:



The Soviet city commander of Vienna, Lieutenant General Alexei Blagodatov, does not miss the opportunity to personally congratulate the new chancellor ...:




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Berlin - The Führer Bunker:



On the evening of this day, in his - miraculously undestroyed - apartment in Charlottenburg, the SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS, Hermann Fegelein, was arrested by a griffin squad by the SS "Führer-Begleitkommando" ...:




Fegelein is found in bed with a lover, is seriously drunk and has a lot of cash in Reichsmarks and foreign currency in a paper bag.

The SS grabs force Fegelein to dress hastily and drag him back to the driver's bunker!

A few hours earlier, Hitler had learned of the secret negotiations between SS chief Himmler and the Allies through a radio broadcast.

The "Fiihrer" is furious and demands that his SS Adjutant Fegelein should report to him immediately.

Nobody knows whether Fegelein is actually a confidante of Himmler's activities or whether Hitler just wants to see someone in SS uniform, from whom he can react to his anger!

But Fegelein does not appear!

A precise search in the driver's bunker reveals: The SS group leader has obviously left the bunker without permission.

Then Hitler sent the griffin squad, who now brings Fegelein to him.

It is undisputed that Hitler insulted Fegelein badly, assumed that he was a party to Himmler's activities, and suspected Fegelein of attempting to hand him over - Hitler - to the Red Army alive.

Afterwards Fegelein is brought before a hastily convened military court.

There are two several versions of what happened next:

According to the first version, the military court, headed by SS-Sturmbannführer Peter Högl Fegelein, sentenced to death - he was shot in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery immediately afterwards.

According to a second version, Hitler's bodyguard and personal operator, SS Oberscharführer Rochus Misch ...



... told his NKVD interrogators in Soviet captivity that Fegelein who is married with Gretl, the sister of Hitlers lover Eva Braun (best man was Hitler personally!)...


... and who is also pregnant by him, due to an intervention by Eva Braun was only merely demoted to a simple SS storm man and declared all his awards to be lost.

After Hitler left the scene and retired to his private room in the bunker, Misch told the NKVD, the SS leader Peter Högl ...



... who Fegelein envied as well as hated, arbitrarily gave the order to shoot him ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Saturday, April 28, 1945


Berlin:


Stalin is exerting tremendous pressure to his marshals Konjev and Shukow through phone calls, radio messages and messengers to take Berlin by May 1st!

Shukow will later say: "From this moment on, losses no longer mattered ..."

The next picture shows the dead after a merciless close combat between Red Army soldiers and Russian "Wlassow soldiers" in the Budapest street ...:



General Tschuikow's troops finally enter the center of Berlin today:

The 79th Corps in Moabit, followed by the 2nd Guard Panzer Army, reaches the Moltke Bridge in front of the Spreebogen and prepares for the assault on the government district...:



Only at the Landwehr Canal, which forms a natural barrier, there ist not good progress ...:



Crossing over the earth is prevented by the continued bitter German resistance and the tunnels of the Berlin subway under the canal cannot be used by the Soviets because the Germans have barricaded and also mined them...:



For this, Bersarin's 5th shock army Shukow can report two successes:

The Fischerinsel could be occupied by its 79th Corps as well as the Spittelmarkt by the 9th Corps ...:



Hitler is getting closer and closer ...

Ivan Konjew's troops are also involved again; by Stalin's May 1st order, the Marshal feels empowered to:

Its "spear seats", the 3rd Panzer Army under General Rybalko, advanced through Savignyplatz and the zoo towards the government district.

The main attack appears to have been a success, but when the targets commanded by Konjew are reached, Rybalko's soldiers are amazed to see that there are no Germans sitting there, but units of General Tschuikow's 8th Guards Army, which yesterday went between the government district and Shukow's orders had pushed his rival Konev's troops.

Shukow had not felt it necessary to inform Konjew of this.

The price for this (deliberate?) Omission is paid by hundreds of Red Army soldiers who are killed by Rybalko's preparatory artillery fire because the artillerymen believed their positions to be German ones ...:





Although the bear has not yet been shot, the far-sighted Stalin is already beginning to spread his fur:
On this day, the "exile group" of the German Communist Party flown from Moscow to Berlin lands near Berlin!

The group consists of nine communists and ten "anti-fascist" former prisoners of war and has so far lived in the notorious "Hotel Lux" in Moscow.

Stalin wants them to take later "important functions" in the part of Germany occupied by his troops ...

Their leader is Walter Ulbicht ...



... who will later become the first head of state and party in the GDR...



... and in 1961 give the order to erect the Berlin Wall...:



Their plane lands at Kalau near Meseritz - from there, a Red Army truck transports them on the uncomfortable loading area (Shukow is not enthusiastic about the Germans, even if they are "comrades"!) to the town of Bruchmühle, the seat of the political staff of Shhukow's army group ( "Front"). There they are first quartered in a confiscated house at Buchholzer Straße 8 ...:





Marshal Shhukow himself does not receive them as they expected; he has other things to do and no time for them! (And probably also no desire!)

For the time being, Chief Comrade Ulbricht is spending time making contact with two Germans living nearby, the famous Charité doctor Prof. Ferdinand Sauerbruch ...



... and the no less famous actor Heinz Rühmann ...:



Ulbricht wants both - to act as "model celebrities" in an advisory capacity to set up the new administration, i.e. should primarily insult people who are eligible for public office.

With Rühmann, the compliant follower of the Nazis, he has just picked the right one ...


**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Western Front:


General Eisenhower finally allows Marshal Montgomery to cross the Elbe. The Brit reacts promptly, crosses the river near Lauenburg (about 35 kilometers south of Hamburg) and sets up a bridgehead on the east side ...:





In northwestern Germany, however, the British are not really making any headway:

This is partly due to the staggered German defenses, partly because of the swampy ground conditions that bind tanks and other heavy war equipment to the streets and do not allow bypasses ...:



Meanwhile, the Americans are taking Augsburg (Bavaria) ...



... and liberate the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, which was built in 1934 as the first German Lager ...:





The few survivors greet the GI's with cheers ...:



Here in Dachau the Nazis killed over 40,000 people!





The Reich:



Although the Soviets are within two or three kilometers of his bunker dungeon, the "leader" is still playing "World War"!

In the absence of any other options still available, the Berlin radio tower receives an open telegram to the still German-occupied Atlantic fortresses with the order to continue the fight in any case!

Hitler also orders that the city of Munich should not be included in the "Alpine fortress" as a "fixed base" because the forces are lacking.

In addition, the "Fuehrer" entrusts Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring (sitting) with the sole supreme command over all German armed forces in the "southern region"...:






Italy (Fascist Republic of Salo):


Hitler's old pal Benito Mussolini ...



... who has "ruled" by Hitler's grace over the so-called "Republic of Salo" (or "Repubblica Sociale Italiana") in northern Italy since December 1, 1944, is attempted to flee to Switzerland at Dongo on Lake Como arrested by Italian partisans!

He had got together with a few faithful and his lover Clara Petacci ...



... hidden on trucks of the convoy of a German flak unit.

One of the partisans who searched the trucks noticed the general trousers of Mussolini, who looked out from under his Wehrmacht coat (he had disguised himself as an anti-aircraft gunner).

The partisans still shot Mussolini's faithful on the pier.

The partisans take the "Duce" and Petacci with them and report their catch to the superior group in Milan.

The Milanese immediately inform Mussolini's guards by phone that the Partisan Supreme Council (CLNAI) had already sentenced Mussolini to death on April 25.

That evening Petaccci and Mussolini are shot on the outskirts of the village of San Giulino di Mezzegra!



Their bodies, as well as the bodies of the top fascists Nicola Bombacci, Antonio Staracce and Alessandro Pavolini, who were also shot, will be hung upside down in Milan in the morning on the roof of a gas station on Piazzale Loreto and publicly displayed ...



... their bodies being defiled by spectators...: