Battle of Berlin (1945)

On Hitler’s birthday eve –
Allies seeking ‘death blow’ to Reich, Goebbels wails

Fuehrer will go forward to the very end, propagandist says in lauding leader

LONDON, England (UP) – Nazi Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels said today that the Allies have launched what may be their final offensive of the war in an attempt to deal a “death blow” to Germany.

His speech, filled with foreboding, was scheduled for delivery to the German people tonight on the eve of Adolf Hitler’s 56th birthday. The text was broadcast in advance by the official Nazi DNB Agency.

It was not known whether Hitler would also speak on what well may be his last birthday.

Goebbels said:

The last decisive round of the war approaches its end. Events never before have been balanced on the razor’s edge as now…

It seems once again all the powers of hate and destruction gather, perhaps for the last time, to surge against our fronts from the west, east, southeast and south in order to pierce them and deal a death blow to the Reich.

Goebbels said the “head of the enemy conspiracy” – presumably the late President Roosevelt – had been “crushed by fate, the very fate that on July 20, 1944, preserved our Fuehrer so he could complete his mission.”

He extolled what he called the virtues of Hitler and asked:

What could enemy statesmen oppose to these qualities of our Fuehrer?

Nothing but numerical superiority, nothing but them foolish destructive madness, thew diabolical rage of annihilation, behind which looms chaos and the final disintegration of civilized humanity.

Despite the odds against her, Germany will win the war, he said. Hitler will find the way out, he promised.

He said:

Our Fuehrer will go forward until the very end. We vow we will never let him down… Is it conceivable that a nation like ours, in the giddiness of one frantic moment, would be ready to sell its birthright for a dish of lentils?

He said the present stage of the war was the “last act of the immense and tragic drama which began August 1, 1914.”

“What we thought we could evade in November 1918, we now have made up for thrice over,” he said.

Goebbels told the Germans that it was “virile and German” to hoist the swastika where the Allies expect the white flag.

He said:

Let us show the enemy that he can hurt us, but not kill us; that he can draw blood from us, but cannot beat us to our knees; can torment us, but not humiliate us.

He asserted that the German Army had brought to Europe “prosperity, calm, order, well-consolidated conditions, work in abundance for everybody and life worth living.

The Allies, he said, left in their wake “poverty, grief, chaos, desolation, destruction, unemployment, hunger and death en masse.”

Führer HQ (April 20, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Zwischen den Sudeten und dem Oderbruch tobt die Schlacht gegen den bolschewistischen Massenansturm mit äußerster Erbitterung. Westlich, der Lausitzer Neiße griff der Feind mit zahlreichen Schützendivisionen und acht Panzerkorps an. Im Einbruchsraum Görlitz-Bautzen-Weißwasser warfen unsere Verbände nach Westen vorgedrungene Kräfte der Bolschewisten zurück. Während heftige Angriffe beiderseits Sprembergs unter holten Verlusten für den Gegner abgewehrt wurden, konnten die Sowjets durch eine Frontlüde südlich Cottbus weiter nach Nordwesten vorstoßen und in Tarlau eindringen.

In der Schlacht vor Berlin errangen unsere tapferen Divisionen beiderseits Frankfurts einen vollen Abwehrerfolg und stellten im Gegenangriff die alte Hauptkampflinie wieder her. Bei Müncheberg und Wriezen hat sich die Lage verschärft. Trotz zäher Gegenwehr gelang es starken feindlichen Panzerkräften, aus dem Raum von Müncheberg weiter nach Südwesten und Süden bis in den Raum von Tempelburg und Buchholz vorzustoßen. Gegenangriffe sind angesetzt. Bei Wriezen war en die Sowjets neu herangeführte Verbände in den Kampf. Im Raum von Sternchen und Rötzel wird erbittert gekämpft. Nach unvollständigen Meldungen wurden in der Schlacht vor Berlin gestern erneut 226 Panzer vernichtet.

Im Süden der Ostfront gewannen Gegenangriffe südlich des Semmering gegen zähen Widerstand weiteres Gelände zurück. Bolschewistische Angriffe südöstlich St. Pölzten brachten dem Gegner nur geringen Geländegewinn.

Südlich Brünn brachen schwächere Angriffe des Feindes zusammen. Der verstärkte Druck gegen das Industriegebiet von Mährisch Ostrau blieb dank der tapferen Haltung unserer Divisionen ohne nennenswerten Bodengewinn für den Gegner.

Infolge seiner hohen Verluste griff der Feind gegen die Südwestfront von Breslau, gestern nur mit schwächeren Kräften an.

Bei Bissau hielten unsere Truppen auch gestern den Angriffen der Bolschewisten stand, nahmen eine Höhe wieder und brachten Gefangene und Beute ein.

Jagd- und Schlachtflieger vernichteten an der Ostfront weiters 83 Panzer 20 Saldengeschütze und zahlreiche Fahrzeuge. In Luftkämpfen wurden 51 Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Nach bisher noch unvollständigen Meldungen verloren die Sowjets in der Zeit vom 1. bis 19. April 2.807 Panzer.

Am Atlantik trat der Feind nach mehrstündigem Trommelfeuer und rollenden Schlachtfliegerangriffen erneut gegen die Festung Gironde-Süd au. Die erbitterten Abwehrkämpfe dauern an. Die tapfere Besatzung von Gironde-Nord wurde nach mehrtägigem heldenhaftem Kampf von starken Kräften überwältigt.

In den schweren Kämpfen im Ijssel-Bogen wurden nach jetzt vorliegenden Meldungen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 18. April 134 Panzer und gepanzerte Fahrzeuge vernichtet.

Zwischen Ems und unterer Weser nahm der Gegner seine Angriffe wieder auf. In schweren, den ganzen Tag andauernden Kämpfen erzielte er einige Einbrüche und drückte unsere Truppen in den Raum südlich Delmenhorst zurück.

Auch in der Lüneburger Heide setzten die Briten ihre Angriffe auf breiter Front fort und stießen mit Panzerrudeln bis in die Elbe-Niederung nördlich Lüneburgs vor.

An der Elbe eroberten unsere Grenadiere einige Ortschaften östlich Barby zurück und warfen südlich davon eine über den Fluss gesetzte Kampfgruppe auf das Westufer zurück.

Im Harz leisten unsere Truppen überlegenen feindlichen Kräften verbissenen Widerstand.

Während due aus engstem Raum zusammengedrängte Besatzung von Halle der Übermacht erlegen ist, hielten die in einzelne Kampfgruppen aufgespaltenen Verteidiger von Leipzig weiterhin starken Angriffen stand. Nordöstlich dauern wurden an einzelnen Stellen auf das Ostufer der Mulde vorgedrungene feindliche Kräfte über dem Fluss zurückgeworfen.

Aus dem Raum zwischen Zwickau stießen gepanzerte Kampfgruppen der Amerikaner gegen das Erzgebirge nach Süden vor. Sie wurden, wie die aus dem Raum von Hof nach Osten, Westen und Süden vorgedrungenen Kräfte, von Jagdkommandos und Eingreifreserven aufgefangen.

Unsere Angriffe in die Flau en der von Hersbruck bis Neumarkt in der Ober Pfalz durchgebrochenen Amerikaner sind in guten Fortschritten: auch zwischen Nürnberg und Ansbach sind Gegenangriffe gegen den nach Süden verbringenden Feind im Gange.

Weit vorgetriebene Panzerspitzen wurden unter Abschuss vor 17 Kampfwagen zurückgeschlagen. Die Besatzung von Nürnberg steht im Städtern in schwerem Abwehrkampf.

Zwischen Crailsheim und dem Neckar südlich Heilbronn angreifende Infanterie- und Panzerverbände blieben kurz nach Verlassen ihrer Ausgangsstellungen liegen. Lediglich westlich Schwäbisch-Hall erzwang der Gegner einen tieferen Einbruch in den Mainhardter Wald.

Nach erbitterten Kämpfen, in deinen eine größere Anzahl Panzer abgeschlossen wurde, brach eine starke feindliche Kampfgruppe in den Raum südöstlich Nagold ein und drang bis an den Neckar bei Tübingen und Rottenburg vor. Übersetzversuche über den Fluss bei Horb scheiterten. Weiter westlich drängt der Gegner auf den Gebirgsstraßen des Schwarzwaldes, im Kinzigtal in der Rheinebene südwestlich Lahr nach Süden.

An der Westfront wurden nach unvollständigen Meldungen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 18. April 1.079 feindliche ganzer abgeschossen.

An der mittelitalienischen Front lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe gestern an unterem Frontbogen südlich Bolognas, beiderseits der Via Emilia und nordwestlich Argenta. Den mit starken Kräften angreifenden Amerikanern blieben trotz stärkster Artillerie- und Fliegerunterstützung wesentliche Erfolge versagt. Örtliche Einbrüche wurden in schneidigen Gegenstößen unter Abschuss zahlreicher Panzer abgeriegelt, eine nordwestlich Medicina durchgebrochene Kampfgruppe auf ihre Ausgangsstellung zurückgeworfen.

Die Insel Helgoland wurde gestern erneut von britischen Bombenflugzeugen angegriffen. Amerikanische Kampfverbände warfen Bomben auf süddeutsches Gebiet. In der Nacht waren Orte in Schleswig und die Reichshauptstadt das Angriffsziel britischer Terrorbomber.

Soviet Information Bureau (April 20, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 20 апреля

Центральная группа наших войск вела наступательные бои западнее реки ОДЕР и реки НЕЙСЕ. В результате этих боёв наши войска заняли города БАД-ФРАЙЕНВАЛЬДЕ, ВРИЦЕН, ЗЕЕЛОВ, ЛЕБУС, КЛИТТЕН, НИСКИ, ШПРЕМБЕРГ, ГОЙЕРСВЕРДА и подошли к городам НАМЕНЦ и БАУЦЕН (на ДРЕЗДЕНСКОМ направлении).

Юго-западнее и южнее РАТИБОРА войска 4-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, преодолевая сопротивление противника, заняли населённые пункты КОМАРОВ, МОКРЕ ЛАЗЦЕ, ХАБИЧОВ, ПИШТ, КРЕЙЦЕНОРТ, НОЙДЗРФЕЛЬ, ОЛЬЗА.

На территории Австрии, севернее ВЕНЫ, войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, с боями заняли населённые пункты АЛЬТ ХЕФЛАЙН, ГИНЦЕРСДОРФ, ЭРДБЕРГ, ВЕТЦЕЛЬСДОРФ, АМЕИС, ШТААТЦ, ВУЛЬТЕНДОРФ, ФРАТТИНГСДОРФ, ПООСДОРФ, НИДЕР-ЛЯЙС, ШТЕЙНБАХ и железнодорожные станции ШЛЕТЦ, НИДЕР-ЛЯЙС.

На остальных участках фронта – бои местного значения и поиски разведчиков,

За 19 апреля на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено. 129 немецких танков. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 140 самолётов противника.

The Pittsburgh Press (April 20, 1945)

Reds 7 miles from Berlin

Soviet tanks smash into defenses before burning Nazi capital

BULLETIN

LONDON, England – A special message broadcast by Supreme Allied Headquarters tonight to Russian and Polish nationals in the corridor between the Russians and Anglo-American armies told them to stay where they were, because the gap would be closed “in a few days more.”

LONDON, England (UP) – Russian assault forces smashed into Berlin’s “defense zone proper” within seven miles of the city today.

Moscow said U.S. and Russian patrols probably had made a juncture in the Dresden area.

A Nazi military spokesman said massed Soviet tanks and troops had penetrated into Hangelsberg, seven miles east of Berlin on the trunk highway to Frankfurt, and had reached the defenses of the burning capital.

The German High Command, acknowledging widespread reverses in the fortifications in front of Berlin, said frankly that “the situation has deteriorated.”

Other Nazi broadcasts reported Soviet tanks and infantry were moving directly against Berlin between Muencheberg and Wriezen, 16 miles east and 23 miles northeast of the capital. Their center had reached Strausberg, nine miles from the capital, and the lower wing was at Hangelsberg.

Moscow dispatches, following up the first Soviet High Command confirmation of the showdown offensive on a broad Berlin front, reported that the Russians had broken across the Spree River and were closing against Dresden.

It was in that region that, according to a Moscow dispatch, outriders of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s U.S. Third Army and Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Army, probably have met.

Today’s Nazi communiqué said that another breach had been torn in the southeastern wing of Berlin’s outer defenses. It said the Russians crashed through south of Cottbus, 53 miles from Berlin, and broke into Calau, 48 miles south of the capital. Vetschau, five miles northeast of Calau, was also reached.

The Nazi command claimed that in the Goerlitz-Bautzen-Weisswasser penetration south of Cottbus the Russians were checked. but acknowledged heavy Russian attacks on either side of Spremberg, 14 miles southeast of Cottbus.

The German High Command’s account of the battle before Berlin was heavy with gloom. On either side of Frankfurt, it said, the “gallantly fighting German divisions scored full defensive successes.”

But on the vital Muencheberg-Wriezen sector where the frontal assault against Berlin was being pushed, the Germans admitted the Russians had advanced. The high command said the Red Army reached the area of Templeberg, four miles south of Muencheberg, and Bucholz, three miles farther southwest. Other reports of advances to Hangelsberg and Strausberg superseded the communiqué.

The Wriezen wing of Berlin’s defenses had also fallen back. The Nazi command said Soviet reserves and tanks pushed to Sternbeck, seven miles southwest of Wriezen, and Proetzel, 2½ miles southwest of Sternbeck.

The first Moscow reports after the Soviet High Command’s confirmation of the great offensive said Berlin was being invested from three directions and that Russian guns were hammering the city’s inner defenses.

The first report of a possible junction of the American and Russian forces came from Moscow. United Press writer Henry Shapiro reported from the Soviet capital that Russian forces, after breaking through the Spree River defense line, were thrusting on toward a junction with the U.S. Third Army forces advancing on Dresden.

“In the Dresden sector, motorized Soviet patrols probably already have contacted the scouts of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton,” Mr. Shapiro reported.

In any event, the Moscow dispatch said, giant Stalin and Sherman tanks surging westward from the crumbled Spree line can easily exchange radio greetings with the Americans.

Soviet field reports referred to Marshal Konev’s First Ukrainian Army units “closing in on Dresden.” But by Nazi account the closest approach to the Saxony capital was at Bautzen, 25 miles northeast.

U.S. Third Army forces were 30-odd miles from Dresden at last report, and it was evident that any such patrol junction as Moscow suggested would be important mainly for its symbolism of an east-west meeting and the collapse of the German defenses In the Dresden region.

Mr. Shapiro reported that after the Red Army’s modest announcement of the expansion of bridgeheads across the Oder before Berlin and beyond the Neisse to the southeast, masses of army groups were swarming over both rivers for “a great enveloping operation circumscribing the arc of the capital.”

Russian field dispatches said Berlin had been burning ceaselessly for the last few days, the towering columns of smoke and leaping sheets of flame in plain sight of the Russian siege forces chopping through its maze of defenses.

More details near

“More details of the three army groups smashing westward between Stettin and Dresden are expected to be announced at any time,” Mr. Shapiro reported.

Ernest Hammer, Nazi military commentator, said the battle before Berlin had reached a peak of fury, with guns blazing incessantly and bombers lashing the German positions.

“In the course of extremely fierce fighting, the Germans intercepted a massive assault of Soviet tanks which was heading directly for Berlin along the Muencheberg-Bukow-Wriezen front,” Hammer said.

Frankfurt menaced

He reported “fanatic resistance” on both sides of Frankfurt, indicating that the Oder River bastion 33 miles east of Berlin had been isolated by the Soviet push westward.

Hammer said a Russian tank column broke through north of Goerlitz, on the Neisse 106 miles southeast of Berlin, and thrust toward Bautzen. A Nazi military spokesman said yesterday the line ran through Bautzen on the Spree.

The Nazis said the Russians had pushed at least eight miles beyond the Spree to the edge of Hoyerswerda, 70 miles below Berlin.

Gain on 100-mile front

The Soviet High Command last night belatedly confirmed that the Russian “central army groups” had attacked across both the Oder and Neisse Rivers on a 100-mile front four days ago, but claimed for the moment only that they were expanding bridgeheads across both streams.

Two Polish armies under Gen. Michal Rola-Zymierski were participating in the offensive, the Russians said, one on the Berlin front and the other across the Neisse.

The Soviet communiqué announced that the Russians had crossed the Neisse River, a tributary of the Oder, on a 32-mile front and captured Forst, 60 miles southeast of Berlin; Muskau, 15 miles farther south. and Weisswasser, another three miles to the south.

Polish Second Army troops on the southern flank captured Rothenberg, 32 miles south of Forst, the Russians announced. A Warsaw communiqué said the Poles had invaded Germany from the “new Polish state frontier” – indicating that Poland intended to claim the Neisse as her post-war frontier with the Reich.

Gain in Czechoslovakia

German broadcasts, going far beyond the Soviet announcement, said the Red Army had driven 32 miles beyond the Neisse River to reach Hoyerswerda on the west bank of the Spree.

Farther south, the Nazis said, Russian forces reached Bautzen, 27 miles west of Rothenberg.

Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky’s Second Ukrainian Army straightened its lines along a 23-mile front in Czechoslovakia with the capture of Nasedlovice, 10 miles southeast of Austerlitz and 30 miles southeast of Brno.

The Second Army also captured the eastern and western approaches to a five-mile-long railway causeway across the Morava River valley some 15 miles east of Nasedlovice.

In Austria, the Second Army captured Bernhardsthal, one mile south of the Czechoslovak border, and Asparn, 24 miles north of Vienna.

‘Salutes’ from Allied guns mark Hitler’s 56th birthday

German radio broadcasts news of defeats instead of usual speech by Fuehrer

LONDON, England (UP) – Adolf Hitler, the defeated dictator, observed his 56th, and probably last, birthday today.

There were no celebrations in his dying empire for the most hunted man in history. The only victory salutes came from the guns of Allied armies closing in on him from east and west.

Berlin, where in Hitler’s heyday the red flags with the black swastikas flew and his storm troops paraded, echoed with the artillery of the oncoming Red Army, reported only 10 miles away.

The German radio, which once boomed Hitler’s birthday speeches from Berlin, had only news of fresh defeats to offer. The re was no indication the Fuehrer would make a birthday broadcast, although a Swiss report said 21 gauleiters had asked Goebbels last week to persuade Hitler to speak for the sake of morale.

The same dispatch, quoting a Munich source, said Goebbels and Himmler had refused to act on the matter.

The Fuehrer was believed to be in his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, planning a “twilight of the gods” finale to his career of conquest. Some recent reports have suggested Hitler still was in Berlin, but few believed he would remain that close to the Red Army if he could help it.

A Zurich dispatch, quoting a German diplomat who supposedly left Berlin last week, said the Reich capital had been stripped for its capture. According to the report, all Nazi organizations and government offices had been evacuated to the Bavarian redoubt, where Hitler plans his last stand.

Martin Bormann, Nazi Party leader for Southern Germany including the Bavarian Alps and Berchtesgaden, warned potential deserters of sinking Germany, “whoever breaks his oath is a scoundrel. We will observe with watchful eyes.”

Expels Nazi official

Hitler himself expelled from the party a deputy gauleiter named Tesche, from the Gau area including captured Halle and Merseburg, according to a DNB report. Hitler ordered, “I degrade you and expel you from the party for the cowardly attitude expressed in your phone call. You can regain honor only by trying yourself to the utmost in immediate front service.”

In a different tone, Hitler thanked the gauleiter of Franken Province, where a few thousand Nazis made a desperate last-ditch stand in the capital of Nuremberg.

Hitler said in his message:

We are now starting a fight as fanatical as that we had in our ascent to power years ago. However great the enemy’s superiority may appear at the present moment, we will yet break it as we did in the days of old.

Split indicated

Similarly, Goebbels in his weekly article in the magazine Das Reich said, “the hour of last triumph awaits us,” but he at least tempered it by adding, “it may sound fantastic today but it is nonetheless true.”

But there were signs of a split in the propaganda line as Hitler’s henchmen made their last, desperate attempts to keep the Germans fighting. Goebbels in his article called for a “people’s war,” saying that “m the fight against the terrible aims of the enemy all means are justified and permitted.”

The German radio, on the other hand, issued what it called “important instructions” to German civilians to comply strictly with the rules of international warfare, which limit fighting only to soldiers uniformed or otherwise clearly identified.

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (April 21, 1945)

Unsere Gegenstöße an allen Fronten

Die Feinde erleiden schwere Menschen- und Materialverluste in Ost und West

Berlin, 20. April – Die Kämpfe an den Schwerpunkten der Ostfront gehen mit verbissener Heftigkeit weiter. Die Sowjets entwickeln dabei einen ungeheuren, von Material unterstützten Massenallsturm ihrer Verbände. Immer neue Kräfte werden von gegnerischer Seite in den Kampf geworfen, so auch an den Flügeln, wo unsere Truppen das Übergreifen des Ringens aus benachbarten Abschnitten verhinderten. Der Feind griff mit zahlreichen Schützendivisionen und acht Panzerkorps allein westlich der Lausitzer Neiße an.

Führer HQ (April 21, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

In der großen Schlacht zwischen dem Stettiner Haff und den Sudeten wehrten sich unsere Truppen mit verbissener Entschlossenheit gegen den Ansturm der Bolschewisten. Ans engem Raum zusammengefasste Panzerarmeen des Feindes haben die Front an mehreren Stellen aufgerissen. An stehengebliebenen Frontteilen und in der Tiefe des Schlachtfeldes leisten eigene Kampftruppen hartnäckig Widerstand und fesseln starke Kräfte der Sowjets. Nordwestlich Görlitz stehen unsere Panzer in der Abwehr heftiger Angriffe. Gegenangriffe gewannen an einzelnen Stellen Boden. Aus der Einbruchslücke südlich Sprembergs trieb der Feind seine Panzerspitzen bis in den Raum von Kamenz vor. Die tapferen Besatzungen von Bautzen und Spremberg zerschlugen alle Angriffe. Zwischen Spremberg und Cottbus führten die Bolschewisten starke Panzerkräfte nach. Vorgeworfene Teile drangen bis in die Räume Jüterbog und Wilnsdorf vor, wo Kämpfe im Gange sind. Im Abschnitt Görlitz-Cottbus wurden in den Leiden letzten Tagen 211 Panzer vernichtet. Bei Frankfurt schlugen unsere Verbände alle Angriffe zurück. Im Raum östlich Berlin wird in der Linie Fürstenwalde-Straußberg-Bernau erbittert gekämpft. Angriffe gegen diese Orte brachen verlustreich für den Feind zusammen. Die Bolschewisten dehnten ihre Angriffe auch ans die nördliche Oderfront aus, wo zwischen Schwedt und Stettin zahlreiche Übersetzversuche vereitelt wurden. Zwei örtliche Brückenköpfe sind abgeriegelt. Fliegende Verbände und im Erdkampf eingesetzte Flak der Luftwaffe griffen wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und vernichteten 75 Panzerkampfwagen und mehrere hundert Kraftfahrzeuge. 200 Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen. Im Süden der Ostfront scheiterten erneute Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets südlich St. Pölten, nördlich Mistelbach und nordöstlich Mährisch-Ostrau. Zahlreiche Panzer wurden vernichtet. Segen die Westfront der Festung Breslau geführte Angriffe in Divisionsstärke blieben bis auf einen geringen Einbruch erfolglos. Gegen die Festung Pillau nahm der Feind seine Angriffe mit starkem Materialeinsatz wieder aus, der erstrebte Durchbruch blieb ihm aber versagt.

Die Seefestung Gironde-Süd wurde gestern nach Verschluss der letzten Munition und nachhaltiger Zerstörung der Hafenanlagen vom Gegner überwältigt. An der unteren Ems drängte der Gegner unsere Truppen nach heftigem Kampf bei Aschendorf in den Raum beiderseits Papenburgs zurück. Nördlich Friesoythe sind heftige Kämpfe um einen feindlichen Brückenkops am Küstenkanal im Gange. Beiderseits Delmenhorsts, in dessen Südteil der Gegner eindrang, und südlich Bremen hat sich die Lage bei wechselvollen Kämpfen nicht verändert. Die aus der Lüneburger Heide nach Norden angreifenden britischen Divisionen erreichten auf breiter Front die Elbe, wurden jedoch an unseren Brückenköpfen bei Ardenburg verlustreich abgeschlagen. Im Harz dauern die schweren Abwehrkämpfe um den Brocken im Abschnitt Eligenrode und mit den von Osten gegen den unteren Harz angreifenden feindlichen Kräften an. Am Brückenkopf von Dessau brachen stärkere Angriffe amerikanischer Infanterie- und Panzerverbände unter hohen Verlusten zusammen. Weiter südlich toben erbitterte Kämpft mit dem in Bitterfeld und Delitzsch eingedrungenen Feind. Während sich der Gegner im Großraum Chemnitz—Planen auf örtliche Ausklärungsvorstöße beschränkte, erzwang er an der Elster und im Fichtelgebirge trotz zäher Gegenwehr unserer Truppen tiefere Einbrüche. Südöstlich und südlich von Nürnberg, dessen tapfere Besatzung, aus engen Raum zusammengedrängt, dem Feinde weiter zähen Widerstand leistet, verhinderten unsere Verbände größeren Bodengewinn der mit starken Kräften nach Süden angreifenden Amerikaner. Die in den Meinhartwald vorgestoßenen feindlichen Kräfte konnten ihren Einbruch nach Süden erweitern und erreichten mit vorgeworfenen Ausklärungsverbänden den Raum von Göttingen. Gleichzeitig verstärkte sich der Druck ans der Linie Heilbronn-Pforzheim. Aus einem Einbruchsraum bei Tübingen gewann der Gegner in schweren Wald- und Ortskämpften nach Nordosten Raum.

Die schwere Abwehrschlacht an der italienischen Südfront nahm in den bisherigen Schwerpunkträumen mit gleichbleibender Heftigkeit ihren Fortgang. In schweren, äußerst harten Kämpfen, die vom Feinte weiterhin mit Hohem Materialeinsatz gefühlt wurden, verhinderten unsere tapferen Divisionen alle Durchbruchsversuche des Gegners.

Der Großraum Berlin war gestern das Angriffsziel amerikanischer Bomberverbände. Außerdem wurden zahlreiche süddeutsche Orte durch schwächere Verbände mit Bomben belegt. In der Nacht wurden wiederum Wohnviertel der Reichshauptstadt von Terrorfliegern bombardiert.

Soviet Information Bureau (April 21, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 21 апреля

В течение 21 апреля Центральная группа наших войск продолжала вести наступательные бои западнее реки ОДЕР и пеки НЕЙСЕ.

В результате этих боёв наши войска на ДРЕЗДЕНСКОМ направлении заняли города КАЛАУ, ЛЮНКАУ, НОЙ-ВЕЛЬЦОВ, ЗЕНФТЕНБЕРГ, ЛАУТАВЕРН, КАМЕНЦ, БАУЦЕН и вели бой за КЕНИГСБРЮК.

Западнее ОДЕРА наши войска заняли города БЕРНАУ, ВЕРНОЙХЕН, ШТРАУСБЕРГ, АЛЬТ-ЛАНДСБЕРГ, БУКОВ, МЮНХЕБЕРГ, ХЕРЦФЕЛЬДЕ, ЭРКНЕР и завязали бой в пригородах БЕРЛИНА.

На территории АВСТРИИ, севернее ВЕНЫ, войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, с боями заняли населённые пункты РАЙНТАЛЬ, НАТЦЕЛЬСДОРФ, ШРАТТЕНБЕРГ, ХЕРРНБАУМГАРТЗН, ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМСДОРФ, ФАЛЬБАХ, МИХЛЬШТЕТТЕН, КЛЕМЕНТ, ЭРНСТБРУНН, ОБЕР ГЕНЗЕРНДОРФ и железнодорожные станции ГРОФСКРУТ, ВЕЛЬТЕРСКИРХЕН, НАГЛЕРН. Одновременно на территории ЧЕХОСЛОВАКИИ, юго-западнее ГОДОНИНА, войска фронта заняли город ВАЛТИЦЕ.

На других участках фронта – бои местного значения и поиски разведчиков.

За 20 апреля на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено 120 немецких танков и самоходных орудий. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 103 самолёта противника.

The Pittsburgh Press (April 21, 1945)

Reds storm Berlin

Nazi capital flanked from south – shells fall into heart of city

The race to Berlin

The nearest distances to Berlin from advanced Allied lines today:

  • EASTERN FRONT: Seven miles (from eastern approaches to capital)
  • WESTERN FRONT: 43 miles (from south of Tangermuende)
  • ITALIAN FRONT: 516 miles (from near Comacchio)

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At the edge of Berlin, Russian troops were shelling the German capital. The Red Army reached Zossen, south of the city, and was at the outskirts of Bautzen on the road to Dresden. On the Western Front, the British Second Army enveloped Bremen and was within sight of Hamburg. The U.S. First Army was at Colditz, west of Dresden, while U.S. Third Army troops captured Asch and crossed the Czechoslovakian border at a second place. To the southwest, the U.S. Seventh Army drove toward Regensburg and Munich, joined with the French First Army in the envelopment of Stuttgart.

LONDON, England (UP) – The German High Command acknowledged today that Russian siege armies were storming Berlin and that a Red army lightning thrust of more than 50 miles had outflanked the doomed capital on the south.

Gloomy Nazi broadcasts said converging Soviet armies had clamped a blazing siege arc against the eastern, southeastern and northeastern suburbs of Berlin, and that Red Army artillery had begun pumping shells into the heart of the city.

A German communiqué reported that a Soviet column had raced up the Spree Valley, bypassed Berlin on the south, and reached the area of Jueterbog, 26 miles southwest of the city and 40 miles from the U.S. Ninth Army’s bridgehead across the Elbe.

Supplementary broadcasts reported Russian forces ranging the region southwest of Berlin m the areas of Treuenbrietzen, 23 miles from the capital, and south of Beelitz, 13 miles southwest of Berlin.

The speed with which the Red Army mobile units raced beyond Berlin indicated that the Nazis had mustered every last ounce of their strength for the defense of the capital itself and on the Elbe line to the west, leaving the city’s backdoor unbolted.

Berlin’s southern defenses smashed

A Moscow dispatch said the final break-through on the Berlin front was expected this weekend.

Nazi broadcasts said Red Army assault forces had reached the suburbs of Berlin, the built-up fringe of the metropolitan area, violent fighting raged at Koenigswusterhausen, three miles from the southeastern edge of the city, at Bernau, four miles from the northeastern edge, and a number of other points at Berlin’s gates.

One Russian army, by Nazi account, broke through Berlin’s southeastern defenses in the Cottbus area and wheeled northwest against the capital. It plunged a spearhead into Zossen, 11 miles due south of the city.

London newspapers quoted a Nazi broadcast as saying the Russians had battered within two miles of Berlin at the ring motor road around the city.

The German High Command gloomily conceded that “in the great battle between Stettin Lagoon and the Sudeten Mountains” the Russians had “torn open the front line at several points” and “in the depth of the battlefield” the Germans were struggling to stem powerful Soviet onslaughts.

Russians drive close to Dresden

“In the area east of Berlin, bitter fighting rages along the Bernau-Fuerstenwalde line,” the German command reported. This constituted an official acknowledgement of the Soviet progress to the gates of the city and the closing of a half-moon assault arc on the entire eastern side of the city.

Fuerstenwalde lies 14 miles east-southeast of the city, on the Frankfurt highway east of Hangelsberg, where the Russians were seven miles or less away from Berlin.

The Nazi communiqué said the Germans were locked in fierce defensive fighting northwest of Goerlitz, where the Russians had smashed to within 20 miles of Dresden, toward which the American Third Army was driving.

The communiqué acknowledged that the Russians drove tank spearheads to the area of Kamenz, 19 miles northeast of Dresden, as reported by the Soviet High Command in an earlier announcement.

The attack extended to the lower Oder, where the Germans said the Russians were trying to break across the river between Stettin and Schwedt.

Thousands of Soviet guns and planes were pouring steel and explosives into the devastated city in a steady rain. RAF Mosquitoes joined in the bombardment with six separate blockbuster raids during the night.

The muffled thunder of the bombardment was audible to U.S. Ninth Army troops along the Elbe River, 45 miles west of Berlin, a front dispatch from that area said.

A BBC broadcast said that U.S. and Russian patrols were only 25 miles apart in an unidentified sector of Germany. The report was attributed to “messages reaching Moscow.” A United Press dispatch from Moscow yesterday said patrols already may have met.

The Nazi Transocean Agency said Paul Joseph Goebbels as defense commissioner had ordered Berliners unable to reach their normal places of work through “lack of transport” to report immediately for war work.

The Germans freely admitted the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Both their primary and second defense lines east of the capital were shattered. They said the Russians were vastly superior in men and material.”

From Moscow, United Press writer M. S. Handler said great aerial battles were swirling over the eastern approached to Berlin as the Germans hurled their last hoarded aircraft into a vain attempt to halt the onrushing Red Army.

Johannes Steel, an American radio commentator broadcasting from Paris, said an agreement had been reached that the Red Army would be the first to enter Berlin. He predicted the Russians would bypass the city and enter it from the north.

Rush reserves into battle

A German DNB dispatch said Soviet tank formations wheeling more than 35 miles to the northwest after crossing the Spree River below Cottbus, had reached the Dahme area, 36 miles almost due south of Berlin.

German reserves were rushed into battle, the dispatch said, and “threw back” the Russians. At Dahme, the Russians probably were less than 50 miles from a juncture with U.S. First Army beyond Leipzig.

The Soviet High Command’s communiqués still trailed far behind German front dispatches. Last midnight’s bulletin confirmed the capture – first reported two days ago by the Germans of four key towns in Berlin’s outer defense system.

Fires sweep city

They were Bad Freienwalde, 23 miles northeast of Berlin; Wriezen, also 23 miles northeast of Berlin; Seelow, key to a series of strategic heights 26 miles east o1 Berlin, and Lebus, on the Oder River 34 miles east of Berlin and five miles north of Frankfurt.

Stormovik dive-bombers which struck at the heart of Berlin yesterday shot down 90 German planes. Another 34 were downed by Soviet anti-aircraft batteries.

Fortresses blast Munich railyards

RAF pounds Berlin six times in night

LONDON, England (UP) – Over 300 Flying Fortresses smashed rail and airfield targets in the Munich area today following a night-long RAF assault on besieged Berlin.

A U.S. communiqué said the heavy bombers were escorted by about 400 P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thunderbolts in attacks on railyard facilities at Munich and Ingolstadt and the airfield at Landsberg 30 miles west of Munich.

British Mosquitoes raided Berlin six times during the night, dropping block-busters and other bombs into the fires raging through the Nazi capital.

German airfields also were attacked by British planes during the night. All planes returned safely.

An American announcement revealed that U.S. bombers had dropped 25,693 tons of explosives on Berlin since the opening of the daylight air offensive against the capital March 4, 1944.

A secret source with access to details of damage to aircraft industry plants in Berlin reported to the Allies that by April 25, 1944, alone, the Eighth Air Force and RAF had reduced overall production by at least 40 percent.

Führer HQ (April 22, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Im Süden der Ostfront sind unsere Gegenangriffe südlich des Semmering in gutem Fortschreiten. Die Bolschewisten versuchten südöstlich St. Pölten vergeblich nach Süden Boden zu gewinnen. Nordwestlich Mährisch-Ostrau vereitelten unsere Verbände in harten Kämpfen wiederholte Durchbruchsversuche des Gegners. Einige Einbrüche wurden abgeriegelt.

In der Doppelschlacht zwischen den Sudeten und dem Stettiner Haff stehen unsere Truppen weiter in schwerem Kampf. Nordwestlich Görlitz wurde die Frontlücke durch erfolgreiche Gegenangriffe geschlossen. Die Besatzung von Bautzen verteidigte sich hartnäckig gegen den mit starken Kräften angreifenden Feind. Nach Westen vorstoßend drangen die Sowjets in Bischofswerda und Königsbrück ein.

Südlich Cottbus ziehen die Bolschewisten weitere Kräfte zur Nahrung ihrer Angriffe gegen den Raum südlich Berlin nach und erreichten mit ihren- Angriffsspitzen die Linie Treuenbrietzen-Zossen südlich Königswusterhausen. In Cottbus und Fürstenwalde sind Straßenkämpfe im Gange.

Östlich und nördlich Berlin schob sich der Feind in schweren Kämpfen bis an die äußere Verteidigungslinie der Reichshauptstadt heran. In der Linie Lichtenberg-Niederschönhausen-Frohnau wird erbittert gekämpft.

An der Oderfront konnte der Gegner seine Brückenköpfe zwischen Greifenhagen und Stettin zunächst ausweiten, wurde aber durch unsere Gegenangriffe wieder zurückgeworfen.

Auf der Landzunge nordwestlich Pillau hielten unsere Truppen die Sperrlinie gegen erneute feindliche Angriffe. 21 Panzer wurden vernichtet.

Zwischen Ems und unterer Elbe setzte der Feind seine Angriffe mit starken Kräften fort. Nach mehrmaligem Besitzwechsel fiel Papenburg in die Hand des Gegners. Versuche der Kanadier, ihren Brückenkopf nördlich Friesoythe auszuweiten, brachen unter hohen Verlusten für den Feind zusammen. Auch südwestlich Delmenhorst blieben wiederholte Angriffe der Briten erfolglos. Gegenangriffe unserer Panzergrenadiere fassten die bis Harburg vorgestoßenen feindlichen Kräfte in der Flanke und fügten Ihnen hohe Verluste zu. Übersetzversuche über die Elbe bei Wittenberge und Tangermünde wurden zerschlagen.

Im Abschnitt Dessau-Bitterfeld hielten die wechselvollen Kämpfe an. Die mit mehreren Divisionen angreifenden Amerikaner konnten nur schrittweise Boden gewinnen. In Dessau und weiter südlich war das erbitterte Ringen um die Mulde-Übergänge in den Abendstunden noch im Gange. Bitterfeld ging nach hartem Kampf verloren.

Im Kampfraum nördlich Chemnitz führten wiederholte Angriffe und Aufklärungsvorstöße der Amerikaner zu örtlichen Einbrüchen. Die in das Elster- und Fichtelgebirge eingedrungenen feindlichen Kräfte wurden von unseren Sperrgruppen in der Linie Asch-Marktredwitz aufgefangen.

Zwischen Neumarkt in dem fränkischen Alb und dem Raum von Crailsheim scheiterten erneute Durchbruchsversuche der Amerikaner nach einigen Kilometern Bodengewinn am tapferen Widerstand unserer Truppen. Der Zusammenhang der Front blieb gewahrt.

Im Großraum Stuttgart nahmen die heftigen Kämpfe mit den zur Umfassung der Stadt angesetzten feindlichen Divisionen ihren Fortgang. Die von Göppingen und aus dem Raum nördlich Tübingen angreifenden amerikanischen Stoßgruppen konnten weiter Boden gewinnen. Auch im Schwarzwald und in der Rheinebene südwestlich Lahr dauern schwere Kämpfe mit den auf Rottweil und gegen den Kaiserstuhl vordringenden gaullistischen Verbänden an.

In Italien tobt die Materialschlacht weiter mit großer Heftigkeit. Auch gestern blieben den mit massierten Kräften anrennenden Angloamerikanern wesentliche Erfolge versagt.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände führten bei Tage einen Terrorangriff auf München. Außerdem wurden zahlreiche Orte im süddeutschen Raum mit Bomben belegt. In der Nacht griffen britische Kampfflugzeuge Orte in Norddeutschland an.

Soviet Information Bureau (April 22, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 22 апреля

В течение 22 апреля Центральная группа наших войск продолжала вести наступательные бои на ДРЕЗДЕНСКОМ и БЕРЛИНСКОМ направлениях.

На ДРЕЗДЕНСКОМ направлении наши войска заняли города ЛЮБЕНАУ, ДАМЕ, ШЛИБЕН, ЗОННЕВАЛЬДЕ, ФИНСТЕРВАЛЬДЕ, РУЛАНД, ЕЛЬСТЕРВЕРДА, ШВЕПНИТЦ, БУРКАУ, БИШОФСВЕРДА. По предварительным данным, с 17 по 21 апреля на этом направлении наши войска взяли в плен более 10.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 96 самолётов и свыше 150 танков и самоходных орудий противника.

На БЕРЛИНСКОМ направлении наши войска заняли города БИЗЕНТАЛЬ, КАЛЬБЕРГЕ, КЛЕЙНШЕНЕВЕН, ФРИДРИХСХАГЕН, ФЮРСТЕНВАЛЬДЕ и пригороды БЕРЛИНА – ГЛИНИНКЕ, ЛЮБАРС, БЛАНКЕНФЕЛЬДЕ, РОЗЕНТАЛЬ, БУХХОЛЬЦ, КАРОВ, БЛАНКЕНБУРГ, МАЛЬХОВ, ВЕЙСЕНЗЕЕ, ХОЗНШОНХАУЕЗЕН, МАРЦАН, БИСДОРФ, МАЛЬСДОРФ, ШЕНЭЙХЕ, ФИХТЕНАУ, ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМСХАГЕН. По предварительным данным, с 17 по 21 апреля на этом направлении наши войска взяли в плен более 13.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили следующие трофеи: самолётов – 60, танков и самоходных орудий – свыше 100, полевых орудий – более 500.

Севернее ВЕНЫ войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, с боями заняли на территории Австрии более 30 населённых пунктов и среди них ДРАСЕНХОФЕН, ОТТЕНТАЛЬ, ВИЛЬДЕНДЮРБАХ, НОЙДОРФ, АЛЬТЕНМАРКТ, АЙХЕНБРУНН, МЕРКЕРСДОРФ, СИМОНОФЕЛЬД.

На других участках фронта – бои местного значения и поиски разведчиков.

За 21 апреля на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено 156 немецких танков и самоходных орудий. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 56 самолётов противника.

Pretty prescient. What does MI6 know that we don’t?

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The Pittsburgh Press (April 22, 1945)

REDS BREAK INTO BERLIN
16 armies storm burning city

Soviet forces reported 4½ miles inside capital by German broadcast
Saturday, April 21, 1945

Another goal reached

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Russian troops smashed into Berlin after driving to the city from the Oder River to the east and swinging up to outflank the Nazi capital from the south.

LONDON, England – Red Army troops are four and one-half miles inside Berlin, the German radio said tonight.

Earlier the Soviet High Command triumphantly announced the arrival of Russian troops at the rim of the city, climaxing a 990-mile advance in three years from the gates of Moscow.

Russian shells were whining and crashing into Unter den Linden, the enemy’s fading radio reported, and 16 Russian armies were surging around the city in a mighty assault.

Berlin was starving, burning and dying in the convulsions of one of the fiercest battles of all time.

Three tank spearheads were fighting toward the German capital’s Circular Boulevard as whole sections of the city flamed under intensive aerial bombardment and shelling.

Nazis now pinned inside city

The columns drove into Berlin’s city limits from Bernau, Wriezen and Kuestrin.

The immediate objective of the Soviets appeared to be to get onto the three main avenues terminating at the Circular Boulevard – the Greifswalder Strasse, Landsberger Avenue and the Frankfurter Strasse. Those three great streets converge at the Alexanderplatz.

Great fires raged as Russian artillery crushed fortifications with massed fire and lobbed shells into the center of the city.

German forces are now pinned inside Berlin with their westward and southward retreat lines virtually severed.

Unless the Germans surrender, what remains of Berlin will suffer the same fate as Budapest which was devastated, block by block, in savage street fighting.

An equally decisive battle was approaching a conclusion further south.

Soviet artillery was within shelling distance of Dresden in a semi-circular arc, stretching from the northeast to the east.

The advance of Soviet forces toward Dresden’s outskirts again reduced the width of the German escape corridor to Czechoslovakia and brought advanced Russian elements close to American forces west of the Elbe in the Chemnitz sector.

The Moscow communiqué reported bitter street fighting in the outer suburbs and there was nothing to indicate that the Russians would not have to fight every inch of the way into the heart of the bomb-shattered city.

Berlin Defense Chief Paul Joseph Goebbels ordered the able-bodied among the three million people remaining in the city to man the barricades and trenches and fight to death.

First shelling in 100 years

The unfit among the population went underground to escape the first shelling of Berlin in 100 years. The people were existing on communal feeding. There was no semblance of order left.

Last-minute refugees reaching Sweden said the German SS garrison was fleeing Berlin by a narrowing escape corridor to the southwest, leaving its defense to ill-trained peoples’ militiamen who were being slaughtered in the Russian avalanche.

Fighting into Berlin from the northeast, Russian forces drove into the Weissensee and Pankow districts of the greater city, the Germans said. Weissensee is three and three-fourths miles inside the city line and Pankow is four and one-third miles inside. Due north of Pankow, the city boundary extends eight miles.

The Soviet communiqué announced the capture of the suburb of Erkner, which is astride the municipal boundary and 15 miles from the exact center of Berlin.

The Russians had carried out a vast encircling movement covering 60 miles to virtually isolate Berlin from the south and reach within 11 miles of Potsdam, seat of the old imperial government southwest of the capital.

The Russian breakthrough south of the capital put the Red Army spearheads within 40 miles of the U.S. Ninth Army forces smashing east of the Elbe.

This mighty Russian thrust overran the historic German Army parade ground at Wuensdorf, 15 miles south of Berlin, and swept to Zossen, once the headquarters of the German High Command.

Escape line believed under fire

The two Allied fronts now interlocked with artillery fire of the two armies probably converging across the one circuitous railroad still open from Berlin to the German mountain redoubt in the south.

The Russian communique announced the capture of Bernau, three and one-half miles northeast of Berlin, and of Werneuchen, Strausberg, Altlandsberg, Buckow, Muencheberg and Herzfelde on the city’s immediate approaches.

South and southeast of Berlin, in the Dresden area, the Russians captured Calau, Luckau, Veuwelzow, Senftenberg, Vautewerk, Kamenz and Bautzen, all strongpoints of the German defense, the communiqué said.

Detailed accounts of the cataclysmic struggle, the greatest siege battle ever fought and one that could decide the war, came mostly from German news agencies which filed a running account of the fighting over the few short-range transmitters still functioning in the city.

The DNB commentator, Ernst Hammer, said 16 Soviet armies, including four tank armies, were now lunging against Berlin from the northeast, north and southeast and from the gaping breakthrough area on the south.

“Perhaps no battle on the Eastern Front has ever quite reached the pitch of ferocity with which the battle for Berlin is now raging,” Hammer said.

The outflanking break-through described as the “most critical” development of the battle started in the area of the fortress city of Cottbus 50 miles southeast of the Berlin city limits. From that point Soviet tank legions crashed northwestward 60 miles, overrunning one German barrier after another, the enemy reports said until they reached the Treuenbrietzen area. Here they were within 31 miles of U.S. forces in Dessau on the Elbe.

Fanning out against disorganized German resistance, the Russians widened the breach to nearly 40 miles and on their eastern flank reached Koenigswusterhausen, site of the big Deutschlandsender radio transmitter two miles south of the city limits, the Germans said.

A German broadcast said municipal transport had broken down in the city and that the population, unable to get to their regular jobs, had been ordered to the barricades and trenches. Barbed-wire was being strung across the bridges over the Landwehr Canal, which traverses the city.

The German radio reported that an enemy air fleet was over Berlin again tonight following heavy mass attacks by both Russian and RAF planes Friday night.

While Berlin rocked and tottered under Soviet war might, Soviet forces in Northern Austria drove north to the Moravian border and joined forces with a Soviet column which previously had penetrated Czechoslovak soil to the Brno area, the Soviet communiqué said. The junction was effected on a nine-mile front extending from the Dyje River to Schrattenberg, 35 miles northeast of Vienna. Valtice, 31 miles south-southeast of Brno, was captured by the Soviet column on the east.

Capture of Berlin won’t end war

2 or 3 more months of fighting predicted
By Boyd Lewis, United Press staff writer
Saturday, April 21, 1945

PARIS, France – The fall of Berlin and a junction between the eastern and western Allies will not mean the end of the European war.

V-E Day – which may not come until autumn – will be reached only after many more men have been killed or wounded in crushing the last German resistance on the continent.

The speed with which Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s armies reached their present positions seems to have caused some misunderstanding. It is unfair to troops in the field to expect that the war is nearly over and that only a few weeks of minor operations still remain ahead.

Without denying Gen. Eisenhower’s statement that the German Army has been whipped, responsible quarters pointed out today that there are still major operations ahead.

Before all resistance is ended, the Allies must smash the tough northern and southern redoubt areas; Denmark and Norway must be liberated; substantial German forces in Italy must be crushed; Berlin must be hammered down and the last fanatic within it killed or captured; the biggest and toughest German army still in existence – that opposing the Russians – must be cut to pieces and prevented from getting into any redoubt; and finally the grand assault on the southern or Alpine main redoubt must be pushed to a conclusion.

In my opinion, all that will not be a matter of weeks. I believe it will take at the very least two to three months, and some fighting may well stretch into the late summer or autumn.

The job will be done, but lots of men are going to be killed or wounded doing it.


Berlin capture by Reds called Big Three plan

Americans scheduled to smash redoubt
Saturday, April 21, 1945

WASHINGTON (UP) – The final military plan agreed upon by the Big Three to knock out Germany calls for the Russians to capture Berlin while the Americans take on the tough job of reducing Hitler’s Bavarian redoubt, authoritative military observers believed tonight.

The British forces, in turn, are scheduled to continue north through Hamburg, and probably on to the Luebeck area on the Baltic to cut off Denmark.

This plan would give each county the assignment of cleaning the last fanatical Nazi resistance out of the area of Germany they reportedly will control after the war – Russia, the eastern part of the Reich; United States the south, and Great Britain the industrial northwest.

Americans hold back

It hourly appears more probable the observers said, that the Americans intend to hold back their full strength along the Elbe River line to permit the Reds to capture Berlin.

Such a decision would be based on good tactical principles. If both sides attacked simultaneously under separate leadership, the result might well be tremendous military waste, the observers said.

The function of the U.S. Ninth Army forces along the Elbe, it was believed, will be to prevent Gertman forces there from being turned to the defense of Berlin. But observers here were not looking for any large U.S. gains in this sector in the near future unless German resistance collapses more swiftly than is expected.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops to the south will be regrouped to carry through the Third Army’s thrust toward the Bavarian Alps.

Which task hardest?

Observers were in disagreement as to which would be the more difficult operation – taking Berlin or digging a strong force of, say, 25 divisions out of the Alps.

Berlin, they believe, will prove to be “hundreds of square miles of booby traps.” Even the fact that Berlin has been bombed to a rubble aids the defenders because smashed buildings make good defense positions.

The Bavarian redoubt is in the most rugged section of the Bavarian Alps, extending 200 miles from Lake Constance to Salzburg. The area is nearly 100 miles wide. Its unsurpassed natural defense positions may make it necessary to take the whole area a yard at a time.

NARRATOR: It was, infact, a matter of weeks.

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German Naval Intelligence Service (April 23, 1945)

Autgen., den 23.4.1945
um 0056 Uhr
durch Schl.

GEHEIM!

Uhrzeitgruppen
1811/11 frr
2352/14 frr
Funkspruch von Obersalzberg

Mein Führer:
General Koller hat mir heute auf Grund von Mitteilungen, die ihm Generaloberst Jodl und General Christian gemacht hatten, eine Darstellung gegeben, wonach Sie in gewissen Entscheidungen auf mich verwiesen hätten und dabei betonten, dass ich, falls Verhandlungen notwendig würden, dazu leichter in der Lage wäre als sie in Berlin. Die Äußerungen waren für mich derart überraschend und ernst, dass ich mich verpflichtet fühlte, falls bis 2200 Uhr keine Antwort erfolgt, nehme ich an, dass Sie Ihrer Handlungsfreiheit beraubt sind. Ich werde dann die Voraussetzungen Ihres Erlasses als gegeben ansehen und zum Wohle von Volk und Vaterland handeln. Was ich in diesen schwersten Stunden meines Lebens für Sie empfinde, das wissen Sie und kann ich durch Worte nicht ausdrücken. Gott schütze Sie und lasse Sie trotz alledem baldmöglichst hierherkommen.

Ihr getreuer Hermann Göring

My Führer:
General Koller gave me an account today on the basis of communications which Colonel-General Jodl and General Christian had made to him, according to which you had referred to me in certain decisions, emphasizing that, if negotiations became necessary, I would be in a position to do so more easily than you in Berlin. The statements were so surprising and serious for me that I felt obliged, if there is no reply by 2200 hours, to assume that you are deprived of your freedom of action. I will then regard the conditions of your decree as given and act for the good of the people and the fatherland. You know how I feel about you in these most difficult hours of my life, and I cannot express it in words. God bless you and may you come here as soon as possible despite everything.

Your faithful Hermann Göring

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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Lol… isn’t this technically taking over the fuhrer’s position from Hitler? What’s next? Himmler and Speer jumping ship?

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