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

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday, March 4, 1945

The Red Army reaches the Baltic Sea in Pomerania and takes Köslin (today Koszalin) ...:






Hitler approved the evacuation of non-combatants from the "fortress" Kolberg (now Kolobrzeg).




Thousands of civilians seek salvation on the ships and boats of an evacuation fleet...:






The city enclosed from the land side is a pile of rubble - here the comparison with a pre-war picture ...:






The German Army Group E clears Visegrad on the Drina (Yugoslavia)

German Me 262 jet airplanes attack a bomber group landing in England again on the night of March 5 and carry out on-board weapon attacks against "war-important targets and military installations in illuminated places", as the Wehrmacht report reports ...:




It is an obvious lie! Why should the British light up "war-important targets" at night ...?

In the Greater German Empire there is now less bread for food than in 1918 - openly granted by the authorities ...:





Translation:

"Don't bake or buy a cake! Eat black bread instead of white bread! Otherwise you will contribute to starving Germany!"

The "bread" now also contains all possible extenders, for example ground beech nuts ...

------------------------------------------------

Question to you:

I put this series together for a book that I want to write later.

It lasts 100 days and describes - in diary form and day after day - the end of the Nazi Empire - with over 600 photos that are very rare.

The focus is not on Hitler, but on the fall of Nazi rule!

The series ends on May 31, the day the Allies banned the Nazi party.

Should I continue with the series here - or are you not interested?

Cheers

 

[Old Pete]

Please continue

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Monday, March 5, 1945


The town of Graudenz (Grudziadz) in Upper Silesia, by the Nazis declared as "fortress", surrenders...:












A German counter-offensive in Hungary begins under the code name "Waldteufel" ("Forest Devil"). For this purpose, the German leadership has pulled together the very last tank reserves they still have.

The last reasonably intact large foremation of the Germans is also used: The SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" ...:





Of course, the offensive fails in the beginning in view of the real balance of power!

The "Führer", however, is extremely dissatisfied with the struggle of his Praetorians and orders that all members of the "Leibstandarte" are taken the ribbons with his name off from their uniform sleeves!




The heavy cruiser (or british named "Pocket Battleship") "Admiral Scheer" ...





...intervened in the land battles with its heavy artillery off the Pomeranian coast and shot at Soviet tank tips.

Now the ship is so badly damaged by an attack by Soviet bombers that it has to be towed to Kiel harbor. The stern is almost completely broken off by bomb hits ...:



The 1929 vintage is called up to the Wehrmacht. They are 15/16 year old boys!

There is no time for the most rudimentary military basic training, the boys have to cope with what they have learned in the "pre-military lessons" in the "Hitler Youth"!

They dress them up somehow, with something that is available (for some it's just a sackcloth armband with the words "Deutsche Wehrmacht" on it) ...



... and armed them with the so-called "Volkskarabiner", a rifle 98k made of inferior material ...



... and then send to the front ...:





Many of them are sat on bicycles with two "Panzerfaust's" attached to their handlebars and sent to the front as "tank extermination teams" ...:



Their chance of survival is close to zero.


In the Reich, the ration of food rations will be cut by 11 percent in real terms by extending the rations.

 

[Nap]

Please continue

Agree it is interesting and we will be privileged to see details that will be in the book perhaps

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Tuesday, March 6, 1945


Eastern Front:

The armored division "Silesia", which was involved in the short-term recapture of the town of Lauban (which enabled Joseph Goebbels to make a propaganda appearance there) ...




... is transferred to the Stettin (today Szeczin) area at the Baltic Sea by Hitler. There you need them more urgently!

Otherwise, the "Führer" pushes during his daily briefings - which are becoming increasingly unreal! - armies back and forth on the cards that still have divisional strength when it comes up!

When he was told this by the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Guderian ...



... about this fact, he says irritably that the "actual strengths" should be presented to him as lists in the future.
He suppresses the fact that this information can only be out of date due to the long message paths!

The tank tips of the Red Army reach the "Küstrin Fortress" on the Oder!






But the Soviets have sloppily cleared up!

They missed the fact that this time there is a real fortress in front of them, too strong to take it out of the movement.

The fight for Küstrin will last until the end of March / beginning of April ...:






In cooperation of troops 8th Guard Army under the command of General Vasily Chuikov (the defender of Stalingrad) ...



... from the south and the 5th Shock Army under Colonel General Nikolaj Bersarin (who later became the first Soviet city commander of Berlin) ...



... from the north, Küstrin can only be stormed on March 28th.




The fortress is thus available as an important stepping stone for the Soviets for the final attack on the capital of Berlin, which will begin on April 16 ...


Western Front:


In the West, too, the Wehrmacht is still resisting the Allied offensive between the Ruhr and the Rhine, which started on February 23, although the Allies make every effort to avoid useless bloodshed ...:



(The leaflet asks the Germans to surrender and says: "Resistance is suicide!"
Whoever wants to surrender should throw away his weapon, take off his helmet and belt with equipment and hoist a white flag.)

The Allies suffer losses...













...but Goebbel's propaganda quickly turns it into "over 700 enemy tanks shot down", which even hard-nosed optimists can hardly believe ...


At the Reich:

On this day, German authorities also determined that the total number of refugees wandering around the Reich region had exceeded ten million ...:

 

[Nap]

Hi Martin

Very interesting with lots of equally as good pictures

Cheers

Nap

 

[Martin64]

Just for the record: The pictures posted as "Tuesday, March 6 1945" show SS grenadiers fighting in Dec 1944 in the area of Stuhlweissenburg (Hungary) and the destroyed Cromwell tanks were photographed at Villiers Bocage (Normandy) in June 1944 and are courtesy of the Bundesarchiv.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Wednesday, March 7, 1945



The US Army crosses the Rhine!

General Cortney H. Hodges' 3rd U.S. Army troops ...



... succeeds in taking the "Ludendorff Bridge" at Remagen, which has been damaged by a German blast test but is still stable!





The four German officers responsible for the unsuccessful blasting are shot on Hitler's personal orders!

While the Americans are in a hurry get their core troops across the bridge and form a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine ...







... the structure is the target of desperate German air attacks!

The Germans use pretty much everything they have left: 360 fighter-bombers including the Me 262, "Mistel" aircraft (piggyback bombers) and the world's first jet bomber, the Arado234...:







Even members of the secret German self-sacrifice (Kamikaze) unit "Sonderkommando Elbe" under Luftwaffe colonel Hans-Joachim Herrman ...



... (actually "trained" to crash enemy bombers by ramming) are used!

All efforts do nothing!

After 10 days, on March 17th, 1945, the "Ludendorf Bridge" will fall into the Rhine due to constant overload ...



... and has not been rebuilt to date ...:



At the same time, General Hodges troops are fighting their way through the western suburbs of Cologne step by step to the city center.

During the street fights on March 7th, the only unglazed film footage showing the destruction of a German "Panther" tank in combat...:








Jumping out survivors of the tank crew are killed by MPi fire ...



A major air battle of the decimated German Luftwaffe against incoming RAF bombers takes place over the Reich at night.

What nobody knows at the time: it's the last ...

 

[MCPWilk]

One of the tragedies of the last nine months of the war was that the German forces in the west fought with such determination that more of Germany ended up in Russian hands than would otherwise have been the case.

Mike

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Unfortunately, this is not entirely correct, as we will learn later.

After the Allies had crossed the Rhine, resistance in the West collapsed fairly quickly, apart from a few fanatics.

A US general said at the time - alluding to a Goebbels quote:

"The Germans surrender with fanatical determination."


But let's discuss that when the time comes, the series has only just begun and there are 97 more parts ...
Cheers

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Thursday, March 8, 1945


The red army launched an assault after the other on the besieged fortress of Küstrin...







...because they absolutely need the Oder bridges for their upcoming Berlin offensive ...:





But Küstrin still holds - the German defenders keep desperately fighting ...:






In the port of Hamburg, the hospital ship "Robert Ley,"named after the head of the "Deutsche Arbeitsfront" ("German Labor Front", a kind of equivalent Nazi "union") and "Reichs Drunkard" burns out completely after a British air raid ...:



Since yesterday, the Americans have brought a total of 8,000 soldiers over the bridge at Remagen over the Rhine and are continuously expanding their bridgehead ...:





Gestapo, Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police) and other departments report to Berlin:

The Western Front is beginning to show massive signs of disintegration! More and more German soldiers prefer to surrender and go into captivity than to continue fighting!



Since the beginning of the landing in Normandy, 1,013,071 Wehrmacht soldiers have been captured in the West, including 151,000 in the Reich!



The flight of flags has now reached a larger extent than in 1818!



An internal US report it says - the Nazi terminology bullishly: "The Germans continue to surrender with fanatical determination."


When this is reported to Hitler, he suffers from one of his dreaded fits of rage - leaving open, however, what embittered him more: the number as such or the fact that the soldiers in Allied prison camps are now beyond his revenge.

When he regained control of himself, the "Fiihrer" orders liability for all soldiers who are captured without fighting to the last.

What he means with "to the very last" he also makes clear!

Hitler: "As long as the soldier has teeth and fingernails (i.e. can scratch and bite), he is not defenseless ..."

 

[Nap]

Hi Martin

Very interesting information and pictures ( some great references for modellers as well ) ......certainly going to be a heck of a volume when published

Thanks for taking the time

Nap

 

[Blind Pew]

Martin, I've loved reading this.

What I found particularly interesting are those points where you say "...this is the last time xxxx happened." Including that really emphases the Nazi war machine grinding to a halt. Superb mate.

 

[Blind Pew]

Oh, and did anybody else notice the Russian soldier in the first picture carrying a guitar? Maybe his playing was so bad he made the Nazis surrender!

 

[Martin Antonenko]

certainly going to be a heck of a volume when published

About 400 pages or more...

did anybody else notice the Russian soldier in the first picture carrying a guitar? Maybe his playing was so bad he made the Nazis surrender!

I think he would have captured it just before in some apartment, some basement - to exchange it for something.

The "Russian guitar" was the Balalaika - playing this was a bit different ...




Cheers

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Friday, March 9, 1945


So far, the Soviet soldiers are biting their teeth at Küstrin fortress even today!

Again, the defenders can fight back a heavy attack with tank and self-propelled gun support ...:



Parts of the old fortifications can be seen in the background of the photo.

Hitler meanwhile does not leave the question of the many German deserters in the West! As he says, he sees the picture of the collapse of the army in 1918, which also began with mass overflow.

The "clan-like" law that came into force yesterday, with which their relatives have to pay for defectors, is no longer enough for him.

So the "Führer" now orders the establishment of so-called "Flying Courts", which should act against any kind of "disintegration" behind the fighting troops. These "flying court courts" are accusers, judges and executioners in one - and only Hitler personally responsible.

The time of the soldiers hanged at lampposts begins ...:





(On the signs, which the murderers hang around the dead men's necks, you can read: "I made a deal with the Bolsheviks!")

In addition, Hitler has decided to once again act against "weak" commanders!

The "Commander in Chief West", Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt ...



... who dared to propose that Hitler end the hopeless struggles in the West several times is fired!

He is to be replaced by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, who is still commanding in Italy ...:



As Kesselring's successor in Italy the "Führer" determines Colonel General Baron Heinrich Gottfried Otto Richard von Viettinghoff-Scheel ...:



While the German dictator decides personal details (there is not much more left!) and lets his bloody fantasies against "cowards" and "deserters" run free,
the Americans occupy the western part of the city of Bonn ...:





In the afternoon the hour is coming for Dr. "Siegesmund"("Victory Mouth") Goebbels, as the most Germans secretly call the Minister of Propaganda, who always preaches about the German "final victory"!

Goebels had been talking to his "Fiihrer" for days and had tried to persuade him to visit the front as a propaganda.

Now Hitler finally agrees!

Before that, his personal physician Dr. Theodor Morell ...



...must Hitler inject certain sedatives and stimulants to transform the dictator, who looks like an old man in his mid-50s, into a presentable state!
The Dictator then drives in am imposed car (he does not want to see the destruction and wants not to be recognized by the population!) via Reichsstrasse 1 to Bad Saarow, the headquarters of General Theodor Busses 9th Army.

There he presents himself briefly (his left hand clenched into a fist to hide the constant tremor!) some of hurriedly tumbled Landsers (the visit was kept secret until the last second!) - behind him General Busse is walking...:



Most of the soldiers seen in the photo will not see the end of the war in two months!

They face the bloody battle with the Red Army about the Oder crossings, after which a smaller part of the survivors will be "pushed" into Berlin and die in the senseless final battles for the capital, which ultimately only serve to save Hitler's life by a few Days to extend.

The greater part of them will face the gruesome bloodbath in the so-called "Halbe Kessel" ...

Hitler then held "situation briefing" for the cameras in General Busses headquarters, after he awarded the General with the Knights Cross.

Since the "Führer", who is suffering from Parkinson's, can no longer stand for a long time, a chair is placed for him.

The "briefing" is a farce!

Hitler monologues of "counterattacks" and "tremendous forceps", Busse (on the right front with glasses and his brandnew Knights Cross) and his staff stand alienated and beset beside him...:



After the photos requested by Goebbels are in the box, the Diktator is in a hurry to get back to his bunker in Berlin.

That was it, Hitler's last front visit ...

In the evening the "Führer" orders the construction of a new heavily bunkered headquarters for himself in an old mine tunnel near the Thuringian town of Ohrdruf.

The new bunker should be able to withstand a new bomb with tremendous destructive power, which is being worked on at high pressure in the United States, as Hitler has heard rumored ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Foto

Saturday, March 10, 1945


Eastern Front:


While the German crew still resisted the Küstrin gesture, the last available heavy units of the German navy entered the Gdansk Bay and opened fire against land targets to protect the embarkation of the refugees from the approaching Soviet troops and to stop the Russians bring!

The heavy cruisers "Prinz Eugen" ...





...and "Lützow"...



... as well as the old battleship "Silesia", which dates from before the First World War and is actually only used as a training ship ...





... and the light cruiser "Leipzig" are involved ...:






The campaign is not particularly successful - the Red Army is advancing kilometer by kilometer ...:





Western Front:

In the west, the British cross the Rhine at Wesel in the North of Germany...:





German troops are evacuating the city or get captured:





When they retired from Cologne, the daily boadcastet Wehrmacht report had literally reported: "The pile of rubble in Cologne was left to the enemy."



The report on Wesel could have been the same, because the city was even more destroyed by Allied air raids and the previous fighting - there was literally no stone left on the other ...:





The British move up and occupy the ruined field that had once been Wesel ...:





When the situation there is considered safe, a prominent war tourist arrives at Wesel!

At the invitation of Fieldmarshall Bernhard Law Montgomery, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill crosses the Rhine with a ferry cream ...



... and makes himself comfortable for a short time on a suburban balcony in Wesel to study the situation. Next to him, the commander-in-chief of all Allied troops in Europe, US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, behind him Montgomery, who for once managed to hide their deep-seated mutual dislike ...:






The Reich / Diplomacy:

On the same day, Switzerland ceased transit traffic to the Greater German Empire at the insistence of the Anglo-Americans.
This means that another possible escape route for Nazi greats is blocked now - they now only have Franco's fascist Spain and the Vatican...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday, March 11, 1945


Soviet troops cut the land connection between Gotenhafen (Gdynia) and the Hela peninsula (near Danzig) and reach the Baltic Sea...:






While the Red Army soldiers exuberantly express their joy...


.
.. all Germans, whether civilian or soldier east of it, are now trapped in a sack!

The enclosed town of Kolberg still defends itself! On this day, several massive Red Army assaults are bloodily rejected...:



The fanatical German child soldiers also do their part ...:



Between the Drau and Lake Balaton in Hungary, Waffen SS units (including parts of the "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler") managed, with considerable losses, to stabilize an endangered front section on both sides of the "Scharnitz Canal" for the moment and to throw back the Soviet troops.





The US bridgehead at Remagen is now 15 km wide and 6 km deep. And it is continuously reinforced over the still standing bridge...:







Field Marshal Albert Kesselring first flew from Italy to Berlin and was personally "snatched up" by Hitler.

Now he takes over command of the Western Front ...:



The Royal Air Force welcomes the new "OB West" in her own way and drops during one of her rare daily attacks a total of 4731 t bombs from 1079 aircraft on the city of Essen...:



Only three "Lancaster" bombers are lost, since the German defense is hardly existent due to lack of fuel and materials!

The amount of bombs dropped on the Essen civilian population that day is the third largest in the war! Essen no longer exists as a habitable commune ...!




The Polish general Władysław Anders, who has been in exile in London to date, becomes on this day commander-in-chief of all Polish armed forces in the West ...:



In the middle of the agony of the "Third Reich", the Nazi rulers hold on to popular rituals. "Heroes' Day" must be, and it is today!

All the years before, the "Führer" had laid a wreath at the "Helden-Ehrenmal" in Berlin-Mitte...:





But the memorial is now heavily damaged by bombs and Hitler is not presentable due to the efforts of his "front visit" in Bad Saarow!

So Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, formally still designated successor of Hitler, takes over his part - to his right we can see the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who does not yet know that he will be appointed Hitler's successor shortly before Ultimo ...:



Believe it or not:

Of the whole Nazi leadership gang, the jovial Goering, who is the only one who still dares to go public, is still the most popular ...

 

[DEL]

This is a great project and concept Martin. Very readable and engaging even for those with limited knowledge or interest in the period.
Style works really well and each fact gives the reader a clear starting point to pursue greater detail.
Cheers
Derek

 

[Nap]

This is a great project and concept Martin. Very readable and engaging even for those with limited knowledge or intrest in the period.
Style works really well and each fact gives the reader a clear starting point to pursue greater detail.
Cheers
Derek

Can't agree more Del ...it's great to see the archive pictures , I am certainly enjoying this

Happy writing

Nap