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World War II (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter timschochet
- Start date
Ozymandias
Footballguy
BATTLE FOR OKINAWA--V
However, word began to filter back that events were not going smoothly in the south. The Army had mired down. The Army first ran into stiff opposition north of Naha at a hill known as Kakazu. One of the Army units, the 27th, already had a reputation for having preformed poorly in previous island fighting. Now the Marines felt they were being ordered to bail them out. The Marine divisions headed out and the First eventually broke through at Kakazu.
In April General Alexander Vandergrift, Marine Corps Commandant, visited the island and discussed an amphibious assault on the southern end of the island rather than Buckner's plan of continued frontal assault. This has become a major point of debate in the battle's history. The debate revolves around the contention that a southern assault would have been less costly. Buckner prevailed and at the end of April, the Marines began replacing the Army on the front lines. They were about to run head on into the Shuri-Yonaburu Line.
The Japanese military had been unsure of where the Allies might land next and had removed troops from Okinawa to Formosa. This condemned the Thirty-Second Army to fight a defensive battle. Rather than meeting the Tenth Army at the beachhead, as in previous encounters, they would move to the Shuri-Yonburu line, a high ridge that essentially cut the island in two, just north of Naha on the eastern side of the island and its center the pride of the Okinawans, Shuri Castle. The Thirty-second Army's goal was to inflict as much damage from that spot as possible. From the walls of Shuri Castle, the Thirty-Second Army's headquarters, Ushijima and his staff watched the Americans land. They positioned their many guns, the Japanese soldiers dug interconnecting tunnels, and they waited.
A problem for the Tenth Army would be the rain, which by May 9 had begun in earnest. Everything became muddy. Moving supplies and equipment proved almost impossible and often had to be accomplished hand-over-hand. Asa Kawa River seemed to be the biggest obstacle between the Sixth Marine Division and Naha, the capital of Okinawa. The river would be breeched by the 22nd regiment a yard at a time. Then all that stood between the division and Naha were three 'insignificant' hills, Half Moon, Horseshoe and Sugar Loaf.
May 12 through May 18 would be filled with some of the most savage fighting in Marine Corps lore. The Shuri-line cut the island in half east to west. It consisted of mutually supported defensive positions, which consisted of mortar, artillery, machine guns, and interconnected tunnel complexes. These tunnels, an estimated sixty miles of interconnected passages, made movement and flanking maneuvers easy for the Japanese. In addition, the Marines ran into what they referred to as 'spider holes.' Flush with the ground and covered with brush or dirt, these hideaways kept the men constantly vigilant about what might be behind them.
The Marines had found the flank of Ushijima's Shuri-line of defense and the Japanese were unwilling to give it up without a tremendous payment. Finally, under the cover of darkness, during a rainstorm, the remnants of the Thirty-Second Army would head further south. They would prepare for a final stand on the southern tip of Okinawa. They left Sugar Loaf and the Marines of the Sixth to recover their dead and wounded. The Sixth suffered over 2,000 casualties. Sugar Loaf would be assaulted eleven times; some companies would be literally wiped out twice.
Once again, the Marine command staff would attempt to convince Buckner to make an amphibious landing. Finally Buckner concurred. The Marines would have their amphibious assault on the Oroku Peninsula. They had less than thirty-six hours to plan the landing. The Japanese naval forces had made the Oroku Peninsula their base of operation. They were ordered south along with the Army. The naval contingent, under Admiral Ota, chose to stay in their elaborate cave system on the Oroku and fight to the last man. After two days, the Naha airfield fell into American hands and Sixth secured the peninsula within ten more days. Very few Japanese prisoners were taken.
However, word began to filter back that events were not going smoothly in the south. The Army had mired down. The Army first ran into stiff opposition north of Naha at a hill known as Kakazu. One of the Army units, the 27th, already had a reputation for having preformed poorly in previous island fighting. Now the Marines felt they were being ordered to bail them out. The Marine divisions headed out and the First eventually broke through at Kakazu.
In April General Alexander Vandergrift, Marine Corps Commandant, visited the island and discussed an amphibious assault on the southern end of the island rather than Buckner's plan of continued frontal assault. This has become a major point of debate in the battle's history. The debate revolves around the contention that a southern assault would have been less costly. Buckner prevailed and at the end of April, the Marines began replacing the Army on the front lines. They were about to run head on into the Shuri-Yonaburu Line.
The Japanese military had been unsure of where the Allies might land next and had removed troops from Okinawa to Formosa. This condemned the Thirty-Second Army to fight a defensive battle. Rather than meeting the Tenth Army at the beachhead, as in previous encounters, they would move to the Shuri-Yonburu line, a high ridge that essentially cut the island in two, just north of Naha on the eastern side of the island and its center the pride of the Okinawans, Shuri Castle. The Thirty-second Army's goal was to inflict as much damage from that spot as possible. From the walls of Shuri Castle, the Thirty-Second Army's headquarters, Ushijima and his staff watched the Americans land. They positioned their many guns, the Japanese soldiers dug interconnecting tunnels, and they waited.
A problem for the Tenth Army would be the rain, which by May 9 had begun in earnest. Everything became muddy. Moving supplies and equipment proved almost impossible and often had to be accomplished hand-over-hand. Asa Kawa River seemed to be the biggest obstacle between the Sixth Marine Division and Naha, the capital of Okinawa. The river would be breeched by the 22nd regiment a yard at a time. Then all that stood between the division and Naha were three 'insignificant' hills, Half Moon, Horseshoe and Sugar Loaf.
May 12 through May 18 would be filled with some of the most savage fighting in Marine Corps lore. The Shuri-line cut the island in half east to west. It consisted of mutually supported defensive positions, which consisted of mortar, artillery, machine guns, and interconnected tunnel complexes. These tunnels, an estimated sixty miles of interconnected passages, made movement and flanking maneuvers easy for the Japanese. In addition, the Marines ran into what they referred to as 'spider holes.' Flush with the ground and covered with brush or dirt, these hideaways kept the men constantly vigilant about what might be behind them.
The Marines had found the flank of Ushijima's Shuri-line of defense and the Japanese were unwilling to give it up without a tremendous payment. Finally, under the cover of darkness, during a rainstorm, the remnants of the Thirty-Second Army would head further south. They would prepare for a final stand on the southern tip of Okinawa. They left Sugar Loaf and the Marines of the Sixth to recover their dead and wounded. The Sixth suffered over 2,000 casualties. Sugar Loaf would be assaulted eleven times; some companies would be literally wiped out twice.
Once again, the Marine command staff would attempt to convince Buckner to make an amphibious landing. Finally Buckner concurred. The Marines would have their amphibious assault on the Oroku Peninsula. They had less than thirty-six hours to plan the landing. The Japanese naval forces had made the Oroku Peninsula their base of operation. They were ordered south along with the Army. The naval contingent, under Admiral Ota, chose to stay in their elaborate cave system on the Oroku and fight to the last man. After two days, the Naha airfield fell into American hands and Sixth secured the peninsula within ten more days. Very few Japanese prisoners were taken.
timschochet
Footballguy
The narrative that I'm using doesn't discuss this. I did narrate Operation Market-Garden a little earlier, but I did not cover this situation, nor am I aware of it.By all means, please explain more, TIA.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
You have a short term memory problem, Tim.
I sent you this link a few weeks ago:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/opinion/...2F5grBHANoBX45Q
By the way, Eisenhower doesn't discuss this in Crusade in Europe. Personally, I think the article may be overstating the case. But war is filled with shoulda, couldas.
Last edited by a moderator:
http://www.efour4ever.com/44thdivision/bridgehead.htmIke screwed up big-time and it probably cost a lot of American lives. There's an entire book written on it.
Decision at Strasbourg: Ike's Strategic Mistake to Halt the Sixth Army Group at the Rhine in 1944
http://blog.usni.org/2009/11/24/decision-a...david-p-colley/
Ozymandias
Footballguy
BATTLE FOR OKINAWA--VI
While the land battle was going on, the Japanese tried to bring their Navy into it.
Operation Ten-Go (Ten-gō sakusen) was the attempted attack by a strike force of Japanese surface vessels led by the battleship Yamato, commanded by Admiral Seiichi Itō. This small task force had been ordered to fight through enemy naval forces, then beach themselves and fight from shore using their guns as artillery and crewmen as naval infantry. The Yamato and other vessels in Operation Ten-Go were spotted by submarines shortly after leaving Japanese home waters, and were attacked by U.S. carrier aircraft.
Under attack from more than 300 aircraft over a two-hour span, the world's largest battleship sank on April 7, 1945, long before she could reach Okinawa. U.S. torpedo bombers were instructed to only aim for one side to prevent effective counter flooding by the battleship's crew, and hitting preferably the bow or stern, where armor was believed to be the thinnest. Of the Yamato's screening force, the light cruiser Yahagi, and four out of the eight destroyers were also sunk. In all, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost some 3,700 sailors, including Itō, at the cost of only ten U.S. aircraft and 12 airmen.
Back on land:
Another aspect of the Okinawa campaign that must be addressed is the plight of the civilian population. The Okinawans were a docile people of small-stature who were faced with an unenviable situation. Whether considered, 'like Go pieces, in a game of Go,' as often referred to by former Okinawan Governor, Masahide Ota, or as caught between the hammer and the anvil, their situation during the war was miserable.
At battle's end, one-third of the native population had perished. The Japanese military had told the Okinawan civilians to go south. They were thrown out of their hiding places as the Japanese retreated and took those caves for themselves. Very little consideration was offered these noncombatants by their Japanese overlords. A lone exception to the normal disregard that the Japanese reserved for the Okinawans was exhibited by Rear Admiral Minoru Ota, on June 6, 1945, shortly before Japanese naval headquarters on the Oroku Peninsula was overrun and Ota and his staff committed 'seppuku.' No other description better reveals the Okinawan's plight:
“Since the enemy attack began, our Army and Navy has been fighting defensive battles and have not been able to tend to the people of the Prefecture. Consequently, due to our negligence, these innocent people have lost their homes and property to enemy assault. Every man has been conscripted to partake in the defense, while women, children and elders are forced into hiding in the small underground shelters which are not tactically important or are exposed to shelling, air raids or the harsh elements of nature. Moreover, girls have devoted themselves to running and cooking for the soldiers and have gone as far as to volunteer in carrying ammunition, or joining in attacking the enemy."
The fact that a Japanese officer would admit negligence makes this passage especially important. Also significant is his comment that the men had been conscripted. This is not to say, as Ota points out, that Okinawans were unwilling participants. Like all civilians who had been fed wartime propaganda, the Okinawans had unwarranted fears that accounted for their initial resistance and the large number of suicides. Many Okinawans made it clear that they felt they were fighting for their lives against the barbarous Americans, who would rape the women and eat the children.
Once the civilians discovered the Allied troops did not intend to harm them, they surrendered and again became extremely docile. The Naval military detachment established to support the local population commented on their passivity, attributing it to 'great shock and fright,' but added that from that point on they were cooperative. Rear Admiral Ota also described the particularly horrific move south for the Okinawans: This leaves the village people vulnerable to enemy attacks where they will surely be killed in desperation. Some parents have asked the military to protect their daughters against rape by the enemy, prepared that they may never see them again. Nurses, with wounded soldiers, wander the battlefield aimlessly because the medical team had moved and left them behind. The military has changed its operation, ordering people to move to far residential areas, however, those without means of transportation trudge along on foot in the dark and rain, all the while looking for food to stay alive.
Other accounts regarding civilians support Ota's claims. The naval personnel responsible for their relocation during the battle explained that the Okinawans had been living in caves and were terrified to come out. Even at the battle's beginning, 'seventy-five percent of their homes were found destroyed, two-thirds having been burned. They were covered in lice and unclean, starved and injured from bombing, shelling and bullets.' One of the most riveting stories regarding the civilians of Okinawa is the story of the Himeyuri Student Corps, composed of schoolgirls.
Schools in Japan, including Okinawa, had been militarized early in the forties. Conscription, activation and intensive nurses training began late in 1944 in all female schools. The First Okinawan Prefectural Girls School and the Women's Division of the national Okinawa Normal School made up the Himeyuri Students Corps. These were the most well thought of girls on Okinawa. When the battle began, the Himeyuri girls, numbering roughly 225 and ranging in age from fifteen to nineteen, were used as nurses aides in the Japanese military hospital. These privileged young ladies usually did the most menial and often the most dangerous work. Thoroughly indoctrinated, most would have had it no other way.
By May 30, 1945, the Japanese had already lost seventy percent of the forces stationed on Okinawa. At this point, they abandoned the Shuri/Yonabaru line and headed south. The military also abandoned these young women. Medical units were deactivated and the girls were left to their own devices. Pushed out of the caves, they moved south, unprepared and unprotected, which exacerbated their losses as they tried to find family and safety. By the end of June, just twenty-one remained alive.
They have become a symbol on Okinawa of what the Okinawan's endured. Explained Setsuko Ishikiwa, 'My classmates died one after another.' Admiral Ota's conclusion to his telegram to Tokyo exhibits unique understanding of what the Okinawans had endured. He expressed his concern for a people that the Japanese had done little to protect: “Ever since our Army and Navy occupied Okinawa, the inhabitants of the prefecture have been forced into military service and hard labor while sacrificing everything they own as well as the lives of their loved ones. They have served with loyalty. Now we are nearing the end of the battle, but they will go unrecognized, unrewarded. Seeing this I feel deeply depressed and lament a loss of words for them. Every tree, every plant is gone. Even the weeds are burnt. By the end of June, there will be no more food. This is how the Okinawan people have fought the war. And for this reason I ask you to give the Okinawan people special consideration this day forward.”
The Americans who landed on Okinawa had been briefed regarding the Okinawans, but they quickly surmised for themselves the pitiful situation that they were in. U.S. troops tried to look out for them as best they could. In The Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle wrote that the Okinawans were 'obviously scared to death, shocked by the bombardment, and that after a few days when they realized that they would not be hurt, they came out in droves to give themselves up.' He concluded that the real befuddlement occurred when they realized not only that the propaganda concerning the horrors of the Americans was incorrect but also that part of the intricate invasion plan included enough supplies to feed them. This is not to suggest that all encounters with the Okinawans were benign. Many would be caught in the crossfire of war and, as in any war, some men were not always compassionate to others when assessing their own chances of survival.
The battle ranged on often with the Okinawan civilians caught in the middle. As the men pressed on to the south the land flattened. Cane fields, terrified civilians desperate Japanese, as well as small hills, almost always fortified, made the fighting treacherous and chaotic. The last battle for the Sixth on Okinawa, Mezado Ridge, occurred on June 17. On June 21, 1945, George company, 22nd regiment, Sixth Marine Division, the same outfit that raised the flag on the northern end, did the honors on the southern end.
The Battle for Okinawa was over.
While the land battle was going on, the Japanese tried to bring their Navy into it.
Operation Ten-Go (Ten-gō sakusen) was the attempted attack by a strike force of Japanese surface vessels led by the battleship Yamato, commanded by Admiral Seiichi Itō. This small task force had been ordered to fight through enemy naval forces, then beach themselves and fight from shore using their guns as artillery and crewmen as naval infantry. The Yamato and other vessels in Operation Ten-Go were spotted by submarines shortly after leaving Japanese home waters, and were attacked by U.S. carrier aircraft.
Under attack from more than 300 aircraft over a two-hour span, the world's largest battleship sank on April 7, 1945, long before she could reach Okinawa. U.S. torpedo bombers were instructed to only aim for one side to prevent effective counter flooding by the battleship's crew, and hitting preferably the bow or stern, where armor was believed to be the thinnest. Of the Yamato's screening force, the light cruiser Yahagi, and four out of the eight destroyers were also sunk. In all, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost some 3,700 sailors, including Itō, at the cost of only ten U.S. aircraft and 12 airmen.
Back on land:
Another aspect of the Okinawa campaign that must be addressed is the plight of the civilian population. The Okinawans were a docile people of small-stature who were faced with an unenviable situation. Whether considered, 'like Go pieces, in a game of Go,' as often referred to by former Okinawan Governor, Masahide Ota, or as caught between the hammer and the anvil, their situation during the war was miserable.
At battle's end, one-third of the native population had perished. The Japanese military had told the Okinawan civilians to go south. They were thrown out of their hiding places as the Japanese retreated and took those caves for themselves. Very little consideration was offered these noncombatants by their Japanese overlords. A lone exception to the normal disregard that the Japanese reserved for the Okinawans was exhibited by Rear Admiral Minoru Ota, on June 6, 1945, shortly before Japanese naval headquarters on the Oroku Peninsula was overrun and Ota and his staff committed 'seppuku.' No other description better reveals the Okinawan's plight:
“Since the enemy attack began, our Army and Navy has been fighting defensive battles and have not been able to tend to the people of the Prefecture. Consequently, due to our negligence, these innocent people have lost their homes and property to enemy assault. Every man has been conscripted to partake in the defense, while women, children and elders are forced into hiding in the small underground shelters which are not tactically important or are exposed to shelling, air raids or the harsh elements of nature. Moreover, girls have devoted themselves to running and cooking for the soldiers and have gone as far as to volunteer in carrying ammunition, or joining in attacking the enemy."
The fact that a Japanese officer would admit negligence makes this passage especially important. Also significant is his comment that the men had been conscripted. This is not to say, as Ota points out, that Okinawans were unwilling participants. Like all civilians who had been fed wartime propaganda, the Okinawans had unwarranted fears that accounted for their initial resistance and the large number of suicides. Many Okinawans made it clear that they felt they were fighting for their lives against the barbarous Americans, who would rape the women and eat the children.
Once the civilians discovered the Allied troops did not intend to harm them, they surrendered and again became extremely docile. The Naval military detachment established to support the local population commented on their passivity, attributing it to 'great shock and fright,' but added that from that point on they were cooperative. Rear Admiral Ota also described the particularly horrific move south for the Okinawans: This leaves the village people vulnerable to enemy attacks where they will surely be killed in desperation. Some parents have asked the military to protect their daughters against rape by the enemy, prepared that they may never see them again. Nurses, with wounded soldiers, wander the battlefield aimlessly because the medical team had moved and left them behind. The military has changed its operation, ordering people to move to far residential areas, however, those without means of transportation trudge along on foot in the dark and rain, all the while looking for food to stay alive.
Other accounts regarding civilians support Ota's claims. The naval personnel responsible for their relocation during the battle explained that the Okinawans had been living in caves and were terrified to come out. Even at the battle's beginning, 'seventy-five percent of their homes were found destroyed, two-thirds having been burned. They were covered in lice and unclean, starved and injured from bombing, shelling and bullets.' One of the most riveting stories regarding the civilians of Okinawa is the story of the Himeyuri Student Corps, composed of schoolgirls.
Schools in Japan, including Okinawa, had been militarized early in the forties. Conscription, activation and intensive nurses training began late in 1944 in all female schools. The First Okinawan Prefectural Girls School and the Women's Division of the national Okinawa Normal School made up the Himeyuri Students Corps. These were the most well thought of girls on Okinawa. When the battle began, the Himeyuri girls, numbering roughly 225 and ranging in age from fifteen to nineteen, were used as nurses aides in the Japanese military hospital. These privileged young ladies usually did the most menial and often the most dangerous work. Thoroughly indoctrinated, most would have had it no other way.
By May 30, 1945, the Japanese had already lost seventy percent of the forces stationed on Okinawa. At this point, they abandoned the Shuri/Yonabaru line and headed south. The military also abandoned these young women. Medical units were deactivated and the girls were left to their own devices. Pushed out of the caves, they moved south, unprepared and unprotected, which exacerbated their losses as they tried to find family and safety. By the end of June, just twenty-one remained alive.
They have become a symbol on Okinawa of what the Okinawan's endured. Explained Setsuko Ishikiwa, 'My classmates died one after another.' Admiral Ota's conclusion to his telegram to Tokyo exhibits unique understanding of what the Okinawans had endured. He expressed his concern for a people that the Japanese had done little to protect: “Ever since our Army and Navy occupied Okinawa, the inhabitants of the prefecture have been forced into military service and hard labor while sacrificing everything they own as well as the lives of their loved ones. They have served with loyalty. Now we are nearing the end of the battle, but they will go unrecognized, unrewarded. Seeing this I feel deeply depressed and lament a loss of words for them. Every tree, every plant is gone. Even the weeds are burnt. By the end of June, there will be no more food. This is how the Okinawan people have fought the war. And for this reason I ask you to give the Okinawan people special consideration this day forward.”
The Americans who landed on Okinawa had been briefed regarding the Okinawans, but they quickly surmised for themselves the pitiful situation that they were in. U.S. troops tried to look out for them as best they could. In The Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle wrote that the Okinawans were 'obviously scared to death, shocked by the bombardment, and that after a few days when they realized that they would not be hurt, they came out in droves to give themselves up.' He concluded that the real befuddlement occurred when they realized not only that the propaganda concerning the horrors of the Americans was incorrect but also that part of the intricate invasion plan included enough supplies to feed them. This is not to suggest that all encounters with the Okinawans were benign. Many would be caught in the crossfire of war and, as in any war, some men were not always compassionate to others when assessing their own chances of survival.
The battle ranged on often with the Okinawan civilians caught in the middle. As the men pressed on to the south the land flattened. Cane fields, terrified civilians desperate Japanese, as well as small hills, almost always fortified, made the fighting treacherous and chaotic. The last battle for the Sixth on Okinawa, Mezado Ridge, occurred on June 17. On June 21, 1945, George company, 22nd regiment, Sixth Marine Division, the same outfit that raised the flag on the northern end, did the honors on the southern end.
The Battle for Okinawa was over.
timschochet
Footballguy
You did sent that to me. I didn't make the connection. Sorry. It is interesting stuff.You have a short term memory problem, Tim.I sent you this link a few weeks ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/opinion/...2F5grBHANoBX45Q
By the way, Eisenhower doesn't discuss this in Crusade in Europe. Personally, I think the article may be overstating the case. But war is filled with shoulda, couldas.
timschochet
Footballguy
Battle of the Bulge, Continued
On New Year's Day, 1945, 8 German divisions struck southward from the Saar. This time the Americans were ready for them. The main German drive west of the Vosges Mountains toward the Saverne Gap was stopped cold before it had gone 10 miles, thus preventing any attempt at exploitation by armor. East of the Vosges- at Eisenhower's express orders- Gen. Alexander Patch skillfully withdrew his 7th Army from its penetration into the Siegfried Line in the face of the advancing Germans. A jubilant Hitler took this for retreat- as Eisenhower intended- and ordered in his reserves. They blundered into a re-formed American front at the Maginot Line and were repulsed. An attack from the Colmar Pocket also failed, even though Heinrich Himmler, still thirsting for military glory, waved his baton over it. The grim gray lttle executioner found how difficult it could be to execute people who also carried weapons.
In the Ardennes, meanwhile, Patton was driving deeper and deeper into the German left flank, so much so that Hitler was forced once again to dip into his dwindling reserves. 3 infantry divisions were rushed west from Germany while 4 armored divisions were transferred from Dietrich to Manteuffel, who was ordered (once again) to capture Bastogne and thus harden the southern flank.
Perhaps remembering the Japanese success at Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning, Hitler decided to risk what remained of the Luftwaffe in an early New Year's Day raid on Allied airfields. This would prevent enemy fighter-bombers from interfering in Manteuffel's attack on Bastogne. The Germans destroyed 156 planes, but lost more than 300 with their irreplaceable pilots and crewmen. Most Allied losses were on the ground, with no loss of personnel. And there were so many more Allied aircraft just now arriving! Worse for Hitler, the attack was completely unnecessary: when Manteuffel began his attack January 3, bad weather grounded all aircraft. The Luftwaffe's remaining strength had been squandered for no reason.
Manteuffel's heaviest and best-coordinated attacks were on January 3-4. They triggered the fiercest fighting of the entire Ardennes campaign. Denied air support, Patton's Americans fought with exceptional bravery and skill, and even the untried divisions he had to commit west of the town surprised him by their tenacity. Artillery was used so effectively against the Germans that many attacks were broken up before they could get started. On the 5th, German momentum weakened, and two days later it stopped altogether when Montgomery launched his counteroffensive from the North.
On New Year's Day, 1945, 8 German divisions struck southward from the Saar. This time the Americans were ready for them. The main German drive west of the Vosges Mountains toward the Saverne Gap was stopped cold before it had gone 10 miles, thus preventing any attempt at exploitation by armor. East of the Vosges- at Eisenhower's express orders- Gen. Alexander Patch skillfully withdrew his 7th Army from its penetration into the Siegfried Line in the face of the advancing Germans. A jubilant Hitler took this for retreat- as Eisenhower intended- and ordered in his reserves. They blundered into a re-formed American front at the Maginot Line and were repulsed. An attack from the Colmar Pocket also failed, even though Heinrich Himmler, still thirsting for military glory, waved his baton over it. The grim gray lttle executioner found how difficult it could be to execute people who also carried weapons.
In the Ardennes, meanwhile, Patton was driving deeper and deeper into the German left flank, so much so that Hitler was forced once again to dip into his dwindling reserves. 3 infantry divisions were rushed west from Germany while 4 armored divisions were transferred from Dietrich to Manteuffel, who was ordered (once again) to capture Bastogne and thus harden the southern flank.
Perhaps remembering the Japanese success at Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning, Hitler decided to risk what remained of the Luftwaffe in an early New Year's Day raid on Allied airfields. This would prevent enemy fighter-bombers from interfering in Manteuffel's attack on Bastogne. The Germans destroyed 156 planes, but lost more than 300 with their irreplaceable pilots and crewmen. Most Allied losses were on the ground, with no loss of personnel. And there were so many more Allied aircraft just now arriving! Worse for Hitler, the attack was completely unnecessary: when Manteuffel began his attack January 3, bad weather grounded all aircraft. The Luftwaffe's remaining strength had been squandered for no reason.
Manteuffel's heaviest and best-coordinated attacks were on January 3-4. They triggered the fiercest fighting of the entire Ardennes campaign. Denied air support, Patton's Americans fought with exceptional bravery and skill, and even the untried divisions he had to commit west of the town surprised him by their tenacity. Artillery was used so effectively against the Germans that many attacks were broken up before they could get started. On the 5th, German momentum weakened, and two days later it stopped altogether when Montgomery launched his counteroffensive from the North.
There's an excellent personal account of this in the Panzer Commander book I previously mentioned. At two of the towns where the US dug in, von Luck said there was hand-to-hand fighting from house to house that was as vicious as anything he experienced in the war.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
BATTLE OF OKINAWA—AFTERMATH
The military value of Okinawa exceeded all hope. It was sufficiently large to mount great numbers of troops; it provided numerous airfield sites close to the enemy's homeland; and it furnished fleet anchorage helping the Navy to keep in action at Japan's doors. As soon as the fighting ended, American forces on Okinawa set themselves to preparing for the battles on the main islands of Japan, their thoughts sober as they remembered the bitter bloodshed behind and also envisioned an even more desperate struggle to come.
However, the horrendous losses in the battle of Okinawa gave pause to the American leadership as they considered the invasion of the Japanese home islands. The Japanese willingness to die, the mindset which promoted and encouraged the civilian population to commit suicide, made the Allies fear a bloodbath on both sides.
The price paid for Okinawa was dear. The final toll of American casualties was the highest experienced in any campaign against the Japanese. Total American battle casualties were 49,151, of which 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631 wounded. Army losses were 4,582 killed, 93 missing, and 18,099 wounded; Marine losses, including those of the Tactical Air Force, were 2,938 killed and missing and 13,708 wounded; Navy casualties totaled 4,907 killed and missing and 4,824 wounded. Nonbattle casualties during the campaign amounted to 15,613 for the Army and 10,598 for the Marines. The losses in ships were 36 sunk and 368 damaged, most of them as a result of air action. Losses in the air were 763 planes from 1 April to 1 July.
The high cost of the victory was due to the fact that the battle had been fought against a capably led Japanese army of greater strength than anticipated, over difficult terrain heavily and expertly fortified, and thousands of miles from home. The campaign had lasted considerably longer than was expected. But Americans had demonstrated again on Okinawa that they could, ultimately, wrest from the Japanese whatever ground they wanted.
U.S. losses were greater than the losses in the battles of Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal combined. This made the battle the bloodiest that U.S. forces experienced in the Pacific war, and the second bloodiest of American forces in World War II, only exceeded by the Battle of the Bulge.
The Japanese had over 100,000 troops killed. Additionally, as was mentioned previously, there were approximately 100,000 Okinawans killed or who committed suicide under orders from the Japanese military. Of course,as was mentioned above, the Okinawans had, as had the Japanese on the Home Islands , been fed a diet of steady propaganda which said that the Americans would kill the men, rape the women and eat the children.
And this had occurred where the Japanese had only about 100,000 soldiers. Estimates of Allied casualties for the invasion of the home islands, where the Japanese could be expected to put millions into the field, ranged from 750,000 up to 1.5 million. If you take one million casualties as the average forecast, that meant about 250,000 American deaths. When you realize that up to that point, after almost 4 years of war on two fronts and three continents, American military deaths were around 400,000, the cost of the invasion of Japan would have been incredibly high.
But perhaps there was another way to bring Japan to surrender.
The military value of Okinawa exceeded all hope. It was sufficiently large to mount great numbers of troops; it provided numerous airfield sites close to the enemy's homeland; and it furnished fleet anchorage helping the Navy to keep in action at Japan's doors. As soon as the fighting ended, American forces on Okinawa set themselves to preparing for the battles on the main islands of Japan, their thoughts sober as they remembered the bitter bloodshed behind and also envisioned an even more desperate struggle to come.
However, the horrendous losses in the battle of Okinawa gave pause to the American leadership as they considered the invasion of the Japanese home islands. The Japanese willingness to die, the mindset which promoted and encouraged the civilian population to commit suicide, made the Allies fear a bloodbath on both sides.
The price paid for Okinawa was dear. The final toll of American casualties was the highest experienced in any campaign against the Japanese. Total American battle casualties were 49,151, of which 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631 wounded. Army losses were 4,582 killed, 93 missing, and 18,099 wounded; Marine losses, including those of the Tactical Air Force, were 2,938 killed and missing and 13,708 wounded; Navy casualties totaled 4,907 killed and missing and 4,824 wounded. Nonbattle casualties during the campaign amounted to 15,613 for the Army and 10,598 for the Marines. The losses in ships were 36 sunk and 368 damaged, most of them as a result of air action. Losses in the air were 763 planes from 1 April to 1 July.
The high cost of the victory was due to the fact that the battle had been fought against a capably led Japanese army of greater strength than anticipated, over difficult terrain heavily and expertly fortified, and thousands of miles from home. The campaign had lasted considerably longer than was expected. But Americans had demonstrated again on Okinawa that they could, ultimately, wrest from the Japanese whatever ground they wanted.
U.S. losses were greater than the losses in the battles of Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal combined. This made the battle the bloodiest that U.S. forces experienced in the Pacific war, and the second bloodiest of American forces in World War II, only exceeded by the Battle of the Bulge.
The Japanese had over 100,000 troops killed. Additionally, as was mentioned previously, there were approximately 100,000 Okinawans killed or who committed suicide under orders from the Japanese military. Of course,as was mentioned above, the Okinawans had, as had the Japanese on the Home Islands , been fed a diet of steady propaganda which said that the Americans would kill the men, rape the women and eat the children.
And this had occurred where the Japanese had only about 100,000 soldiers. Estimates of Allied casualties for the invasion of the home islands, where the Japanese could be expected to put millions into the field, ranged from 750,000 up to 1.5 million. If you take one million casualties as the average forecast, that meant about 250,000 American deaths. When you realize that up to that point, after almost 4 years of war on two fronts and three continents, American military deaths were around 400,000, the cost of the invasion of Japan would have been incredibly high.
But perhaps there was another way to bring Japan to surrender.
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beer 30
Footballguy
My uncle who was a Seabee in the Pacific had a half brother that was wounded in the battle of Okinawa while serving with the 7th Marines.
PFC Alexander Yakalvic
Throughout the period 10 April to 20 June 1945, PFC Yakalvic, while serving as an ambulance driver attached to this regimen. performed in an outstanding manner all duties assigned to him and frequently volunteered to go deep into forward areas exposed to enemy small arms, mortar and artillery fire in order to more speedily evacuate the wounded. In spite of enemy fire he never hesitated in his work of evacuating wounded to rear areas, often going out at night over unfamiliar terrain into territory which was infested with enemy snipers, in order to evacuate seriously wounded marines. His extraordinary devotion to duty was responsible for the safe and expeditious evacuation of a large number of wounded and his untiring efforts were ever an inspiration to the men working near him.
He was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts as well as the Purple Heart, losing an eye in the battle. After his discharge he was involved in a motorcycle accident and killed. I got interested in WWII and began talking to my Uncle about it. He was more than happy to discuss it with me and mentioned his half brother one time to me. I got his name, sent away to NARA for his records and about 6 months later got his discharge papers, commendations, etc. About a year after that I get a package from the Department of the Navy containing replica's of all the medals he was awarded. I had completely forgotten about it. I put them into a nice shadow box and presented them to my Uncle.
PFC Alexander Yakalvic
Throughout the period 10 April to 20 June 1945, PFC Yakalvic, while serving as an ambulance driver attached to this regimen. performed in an outstanding manner all duties assigned to him and frequently volunteered to go deep into forward areas exposed to enemy small arms, mortar and artillery fire in order to more speedily evacuate the wounded. In spite of enemy fire he never hesitated in his work of evacuating wounded to rear areas, often going out at night over unfamiliar terrain into territory which was infested with enemy snipers, in order to evacuate seriously wounded marines. His extraordinary devotion to duty was responsible for the safe and expeditious evacuation of a large number of wounded and his untiring efforts were ever an inspiration to the men working near him.
He was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts as well as the Purple Heart, losing an eye in the battle. After his discharge he was involved in a motorcycle accident and killed. I got interested in WWII and began talking to my Uncle about it. He was more than happy to discuss it with me and mentioned his half brother one time to me. I got his name, sent away to NARA for his records and about 6 months later got his discharge papers, commendations, etc. About a year after that I get a package from the Department of the Navy containing replica's of all the medals he was awarded. I had completely forgotten about it. I put them into a nice shadow box and presented them to my Uncle.
timschochet
Footballguy
I have been tied up this weekend and somewhat derelict in this thread. I will try to finish up the Battle of the Bulge tonight and then move on to the last months in the European war. Question: do you guys want a general summary of events in 1945, or a fully detailed look at life inside the Hitler bunker? I can do either.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
Let's get this war over by the end of the year.
beer 30
Footballguy
I'm good with just the general overview and I'd recommend that if someone was really interested int he last few weeks in the bunker to rent Der Untergang. I'm not sure it all played out that way but I can't imagine they were that far off in their portrayal of the events.Edit to add - you'll also get to see the Hitler rant that has become so popular these days in it's true context.
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freakinback
Footballguy
I'd kind of be interested in the detailed look at the bunker, but if that's not the concensus I'll be happy with whatever I get...I'm enjoying this thread immensely.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Battle of The Bulge, Concluded
How to conduct the counteroffensive in the Ardennes provoked yet another Anglo-American dispute. Patton wanted to trap all the German forces by a quick drive to Bitburg, cutting Model off. Montgomery, ever conservative, disagreed. He argued that such an offensive would be impossible to supply. To this, General Collins replied, "Maybe the British can't, but we can." But Eisenhower sided with Monty, and Model was allowed to withdraw. With that the Battle of the Bulge was won. It was succeeded by what became known as "The Battle of the Bilge". Charges and countercharges were exchanged between Bradley and Montgomery, although it must be observed that Bradley conducted himself with more dignity. Ike said nothing, though the British press, siding with Monty, castigated him violently.
The debate is too long to get into here and it continued long after the war. Basically, Montgomery attempted to take full credit for the victory at the Ardennes, and pass on any blame to the Americans. In order to do this, he related a series of myths about the battle that most historians have determined were not true (there are a few exceptions to this, all British. In the past several posts, I have related the battle as it is commonly described. Monty's version, in which he and the British heroically rescued panicking American soldiers, only to be stopped at every turn by reckless American generals, was pushed by him and his fans for decades.)
In my mind, there are two real heroes of the Battle of the Bulge. The first is Eisenhower. It was Ike's perceptions and decisions that won this battle, and there was no other time when he rose to such greatness and showed so clearly the qualities of a true supreme commander. But the real hero of the Bulge was the American soldier, the G.I. Whenever in the Ardennes the American soldier met the German on anything like equal terms, he overcame him. The Americans fought when fragmented and leaderless, often on their own with no promise of help- high soldierly virtues- and in bitter cold and darkness while looking at death and defeat. Truly one of our finest hours.
How to conduct the counteroffensive in the Ardennes provoked yet another Anglo-American dispute. Patton wanted to trap all the German forces by a quick drive to Bitburg, cutting Model off. Montgomery, ever conservative, disagreed. He argued that such an offensive would be impossible to supply. To this, General Collins replied, "Maybe the British can't, but we can." But Eisenhower sided with Monty, and Model was allowed to withdraw. With that the Battle of the Bulge was won. It was succeeded by what became known as "The Battle of the Bilge". Charges and countercharges were exchanged between Bradley and Montgomery, although it must be observed that Bradley conducted himself with more dignity. Ike said nothing, though the British press, siding with Monty, castigated him violently.
The debate is too long to get into here and it continued long after the war. Basically, Montgomery attempted to take full credit for the victory at the Ardennes, and pass on any blame to the Americans. In order to do this, he related a series of myths about the battle that most historians have determined were not true (there are a few exceptions to this, all British. In the past several posts, I have related the battle as it is commonly described. Monty's version, in which he and the British heroically rescued panicking American soldiers, only to be stopped at every turn by reckless American generals, was pushed by him and his fans for decades.)
In my mind, there are two real heroes of the Battle of the Bulge. The first is Eisenhower. It was Ike's perceptions and decisions that won this battle, and there was no other time when he rose to such greatness and showed so clearly the qualities of a true supreme commander. But the real hero of the Bulge was the American soldier, the G.I. Whenever in the Ardennes the American soldier met the German on anything like equal terms, he overcame him. The Americans fought when fragmented and leaderless, often on their own with no promise of help- high soldierly virtues- and in bitter cold and darkness while looking at death and defeat. Truly one of our finest hours.
timschochet
Footballguy
We have now reached 1945. I will conclude the ETO part of World War II with the following subjects.
The surrender of Italy.
The death of Mussolini.
The Soviet 1945 offensive.
Yalta.
The Allied Drive Into Germany.
The Bunker.
The Holocaust.
The German Surrender.
Aftermath in Europe.
I have decided to spend some time on the bunker, but not a TON of time. We'll get the essentials. As for the Holocaust, some of which has already been related, I'm just going to give some bare essentials, along with the Allied reaction both during and after the war- but even this will take several posts. No way I'm done with this all by the end of the year. We might as well get it right.
The surrender of Italy.
The death of Mussolini.
The Soviet 1945 offensive.
Yalta.
The Allied Drive Into Germany.
The Bunker.
The Holocaust.
The German Surrender.
Aftermath in Europe.
I have decided to spend some time on the bunker, but not a TON of time. We'll get the essentials. As for the Holocaust, some of which has already been related, I'm just going to give some bare essentials, along with the Allied reaction both during and after the war- but even this will take several posts. No way I'm done with this all by the end of the year. We might as well get it right.
I wish I could remember where I read or saw it because the quote was great. A German officer was talking about American battlefield strategy. He said the Germans determined it was a waste of time to study American doctrine because the Americans never followed it. They always had a plan going into a battle but so quickly adapted to changing circumstances if the Germans reacted to what American doctrine required the Germans were invariably wrong.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Surrender of Italy
In March of 1945, Field Marshall Kesselring was recalled to the Western Front, replacing Rundstedt. His place in Italy was taken by General S. von Vietinghoff. Vietinghoff had some 491,000 Germans and 108,000 Italians, while Mark Clark's 15th Army Group had 516,000 soldiers, mostly American, along with the British and their Commonwealth troops, Poles and French, and 70,000 Italians. Although troop strength appeared about even, the Allies were 2 to 1 in artillery and over 3 to 1 in armored vehicles. Clark was also assisted by the presence of some 60,000 partisans, and possessed overwhelming aerial superiority. Allied strategic bombing had a paralyzing effect on German troop movement. Even if Hitler had ordered it, they could not possibly have been moved out of Italy to other theatres. Nor could these half-starved troops move quickly to close gaps, as they had under Kesselring. Hitler, by then half demented in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellory, refused to understand this, and sent Vietinghoff many ridiculous orders that could not possibly be carried out.
With Vietinghoff's front collapsing due to effective Allied air strikes and effective American armored movements, the time to talk surrender had come. Gen Kurt Wolff, SS Chief in Italy, and Allen Dulles of the U.S. O.S.S. conducted negotiations, which were complicated by Soviet insistence that they be involved. When Hitler learned of these talks, he went beserk and ordered Wolff anf Vietinghoff to stop them, but these orders were ignored. On April 23, 1945, the German soldiers in Italy surrendered.
In March of 1945, Field Marshall Kesselring was recalled to the Western Front, replacing Rundstedt. His place in Italy was taken by General S. von Vietinghoff. Vietinghoff had some 491,000 Germans and 108,000 Italians, while Mark Clark's 15th Army Group had 516,000 soldiers, mostly American, along with the British and their Commonwealth troops, Poles and French, and 70,000 Italians. Although troop strength appeared about even, the Allies were 2 to 1 in artillery and over 3 to 1 in armored vehicles. Clark was also assisted by the presence of some 60,000 partisans, and possessed overwhelming aerial superiority. Allied strategic bombing had a paralyzing effect on German troop movement. Even if Hitler had ordered it, they could not possibly have been moved out of Italy to other theatres. Nor could these half-starved troops move quickly to close gaps, as they had under Kesselring. Hitler, by then half demented in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellory, refused to understand this, and sent Vietinghoff many ridiculous orders that could not possibly be carried out.
With Vietinghoff's front collapsing due to effective Allied air strikes and effective American armored movements, the time to talk surrender had come. Gen Kurt Wolff, SS Chief in Italy, and Allen Dulles of the U.S. O.S.S. conducted negotiations, which were complicated by Soviet insistence that they be involved. When Hitler learned of these talks, he went beserk and ordered Wolff anf Vietinghoff to stop them, but these orders were ignored. On April 23, 1945, the German soldiers in Italy surrendered.
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Ozymandias
Footballguy
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT I
(We have previously mentioned Einstein's famous letter to Roosevelt, and the attempts of the Germans and even the Japanese to work toward a nuclear explosive. However, those never came close to producing a weapon. What did produce a weapon was the Manhattan Project, which was a vast organization of men, material, and investment, but which was so secret that Truman, when he became president, did not know about it).
Even though the roots of atomic theory go all the way back to the Greeks, it was only after Einstein's famous equation E=MC2, that physicists began to suspect that enormous amounts of energy could be released by splitting the atom.
In the first part of the twentieth century, changes in the understanding of the physics of the atom occurred which resulted both in the recognition of nuclear fission as a potential energy source and the belief by a few that it might be used as a weapon. Chief among these developments were the discovery of a nuclear model of the atom, which by 1932 was thought to consist of a small, dense nucleus containing most of the mass of the atom in the form of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a shell of electrons.
In 1919 Ernest Rutherford of Cambridge University had achieved the first artificial nuclear disintegration by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles emitted from a radioactive source, thus becoming the first person in history to "split the atom" intentionally. In 1933, Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd had proposed that if any neutron-driven process released more neutrons than those required to start it, an expanding nuclear chain reaction might result.
That such mechanisms might have implications for civilian power or military weapons was perceived by a number of scientists in many countries, around the same time. While these developments in science were occurring, many political changes were happening in Europe. Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in January 1933. His anti-Semitic ideology caused all Jewish civil servants, including many physicists at universities, to be fired from their posts. Consequently many European physicists who would later make key discoveries went into exile in the United Kingdom and the United States. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, World War II began, and many scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom became anxious about what Germany might do with nuclear technology.
Politically marginalized, however, they sought the assistance of Albert Einstein, easily the world's most famous physicist at the time and a Jewish refugee himself, in drafting a letter which they would attempt to have delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Einstein-Szilárd letter was written on August 2, 1939, mostly by Szilárd, warning that "extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed" by means of nuclear fission, and urging the President to establish funds for further research in the U.S. to determine its feasibility.
The letter eventually made it to Roosevelt over a month later, who authorized the creation of an ad-hoc Uranium Committee under the chairmanship of National Bureau of Standards chief Lyman Briggs. It began small research programs in 1939 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. At Columbia University, Enrico Fermi, who had emigrated because his wife was Jewish, built prototype nuclear reactors using various configurations of natural uranium metal and highly purified graphite (which Szilárd had realized could be used to slow and prepare neutrons from the uranium to split more uranium). Work, however, proceeded at a relatively slow and uncoordinated pace, in part because the U.S. was not yet involved officially in World War II, and because Briggs was somewhat uncomfortable in pursuing the research.
While the U.S. research was pursued at a leisurely pace, work in the United Kingdom was occurring as well. In March 1940, at the University of Birmingham UK, Austrian Otto Frisch and German Rudolf Peierls calculated that an atomic weapon only needed 2.2 pounds of uranium-235, a far smaller amount than most scientists had originally expected, which made it seem highly possible that a weapon could be produced in a short amount of time.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Uranium Committee had not made comparable progress. The first MAUD Report was sent from Britain to the USA in March 1941 but no comment was received from the U.S. A member of the MAUD Committee and Frisch's and Peierl's professor, Mark Oliphant, flew to the U.S. in August 1941 in a bomber to find out what was being done with the MAUD reports, and was horrified to discover that Lyman Briggs had simply locked them in his safe. He had told nobody, not even the other members of the Uranium Committee, which had since become part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the summer of 1941, because the U.S. was "not at war."
Little else happened until Oliphant visited Ernest Lawrence, James Conant, chairman of the NDRC, and Enrico Fermi and told them of the MAUD Report. Lawrence also contacted Conant and Arthur Compton, a physicist and Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, convincing them that they should take Frisch's and Peierl's work very seriously, and collectively, along with Vannevar Bush, an aggressive campaign was made to wrest the weapons research out of the hands of Briggs and to encourage an all-out program.
(Although at first the Americans were skeptical about the British and Canadians being involved in the project, this changed after the Quebec Agreement of August 1943, when a large team of British and Canadian scientists joined the Manhattan Project.)
The National Academy of Sciences then proposed an all-out effort to build nuclear weapons. On October 9, 1941, Bush impressed upon Roosevelt at a meeting the need for an accelerated program, and by November Roosevelt had authorized an "all-out" effort. A new policy committee, the Top Policy Group, was created to inform Roosevelt of bomb development, and allow Bush and his colleagues to guide the project. The first meeting of the group, which discussed the reorganization of the S-1 committee research, took place on December 6, 1941—the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II.
Having begun to wrest control of the uranium research from the National Bureau of Standards, the project heads began to accelerate the bomb project. Arthur Compton organized the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory in early 1942 to study plutonium and fission piles (primitive nuclear reactors), and asked theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California, Berkeley to take over research on fast neutron calculations, key to calculations about critical mass and weapon detonation.
The conferences in the summer of 1942 provided the detailed theoretical basis for the design of the atomic bomb, and convinced Oppenheimer of the benefits of having a single centralized laboratory to manage the research for the bomb project, rather than having specialists spread out at different sites across the United States.
The project originally was headquartered in an office at the federal building at 90 Church Street in Manhattan. That is how it became known as the Manhattan Project, even though the project was based only briefly on Manhattan island. Though it involved over thirty different research and production sites, the Manhattan Project was largely carried out in three secret scientific cities and one public site that were established by power of eminent domain: Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Hanford, Washington. All of the sites were suitably far from coastlines and possible enemy attack from Germany or Japan.
The main “think tank”, Los Alamos was also responsible for final assembly of the bombs, mainly from materials and components produced by other sites. Manufacturing at Los Alamos included casings, explosive lenses, and fabrication of fissile materials into bomb cores. Oak Ridge facilities covered more than 60,000 acres of several former farm communities in the Tennessee Valley area. So secret was the site during WW2 that the state governor was unaware that Oak Ridge (what was to become the fifth largest city in the state) was being built. At one point Oak Ridge plants were consuming 1/6th of the electrical power produced in the U.S., more than New York City. Oak Ridge mainly produced uranium-235. Hanford Site, which grew to almost 1000 square miles, took over irrigated farm land, fruit orchards, a railroad, and two farming communities, Hanford and White Bluffs, in a sparsely populated area adjacent to the Columbia River. Hanford hosted nuclear reactors cooled by the river, and was the plutonium production center.
(There is an interesting sidelight to the Oak Ridge site, and its voracious demand for electrical power. Copper was in extremely short supply because of the war effort, and they needed hundreds of miles of copper wire to carry the electricity they would need. But there is one metal that is an even better electrical conductor than copper—silver. So they borrowed a huge amount of silver from the US Treasury stockpiles for their cables—being careful to return it at the war's end).
The existence of these sites and the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford were not made public until the announcement of the Hiroshima explosion, and remained secret until the end of WWII.
(We have previously mentioned Einstein's famous letter to Roosevelt, and the attempts of the Germans and even the Japanese to work toward a nuclear explosive. However, those never came close to producing a weapon. What did produce a weapon was the Manhattan Project, which was a vast organization of men, material, and investment, but which was so secret that Truman, when he became president, did not know about it).
Even though the roots of atomic theory go all the way back to the Greeks, it was only after Einstein's famous equation E=MC2, that physicists began to suspect that enormous amounts of energy could be released by splitting the atom.
In the first part of the twentieth century, changes in the understanding of the physics of the atom occurred which resulted both in the recognition of nuclear fission as a potential energy source and the belief by a few that it might be used as a weapon. Chief among these developments were the discovery of a nuclear model of the atom, which by 1932 was thought to consist of a small, dense nucleus containing most of the mass of the atom in the form of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a shell of electrons.
In 1919 Ernest Rutherford of Cambridge University had achieved the first artificial nuclear disintegration by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles emitted from a radioactive source, thus becoming the first person in history to "split the atom" intentionally. In 1933, Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd had proposed that if any neutron-driven process released more neutrons than those required to start it, an expanding nuclear chain reaction might result.
That such mechanisms might have implications for civilian power or military weapons was perceived by a number of scientists in many countries, around the same time. While these developments in science were occurring, many political changes were happening in Europe. Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in January 1933. His anti-Semitic ideology caused all Jewish civil servants, including many physicists at universities, to be fired from their posts. Consequently many European physicists who would later make key discoveries went into exile in the United Kingdom and the United States. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, World War II began, and many scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom became anxious about what Germany might do with nuclear technology.
Politically marginalized, however, they sought the assistance of Albert Einstein, easily the world's most famous physicist at the time and a Jewish refugee himself, in drafting a letter which they would attempt to have delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Einstein-Szilárd letter was written on August 2, 1939, mostly by Szilárd, warning that "extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed" by means of nuclear fission, and urging the President to establish funds for further research in the U.S. to determine its feasibility.
The letter eventually made it to Roosevelt over a month later, who authorized the creation of an ad-hoc Uranium Committee under the chairmanship of National Bureau of Standards chief Lyman Briggs. It began small research programs in 1939 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. At Columbia University, Enrico Fermi, who had emigrated because his wife was Jewish, built prototype nuclear reactors using various configurations of natural uranium metal and highly purified graphite (which Szilárd had realized could be used to slow and prepare neutrons from the uranium to split more uranium). Work, however, proceeded at a relatively slow and uncoordinated pace, in part because the U.S. was not yet involved officially in World War II, and because Briggs was somewhat uncomfortable in pursuing the research.
While the U.S. research was pursued at a leisurely pace, work in the United Kingdom was occurring as well. In March 1940, at the University of Birmingham UK, Austrian Otto Frisch and German Rudolf Peierls calculated that an atomic weapon only needed 2.2 pounds of uranium-235, a far smaller amount than most scientists had originally expected, which made it seem highly possible that a weapon could be produced in a short amount of time.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Uranium Committee had not made comparable progress. The first MAUD Report was sent from Britain to the USA in March 1941 but no comment was received from the U.S. A member of the MAUD Committee and Frisch's and Peierl's professor, Mark Oliphant, flew to the U.S. in August 1941 in a bomber to find out what was being done with the MAUD reports, and was horrified to discover that Lyman Briggs had simply locked them in his safe. He had told nobody, not even the other members of the Uranium Committee, which had since become part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the summer of 1941, because the U.S. was "not at war."
Little else happened until Oliphant visited Ernest Lawrence, James Conant, chairman of the NDRC, and Enrico Fermi and told them of the MAUD Report. Lawrence also contacted Conant and Arthur Compton, a physicist and Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, convincing them that they should take Frisch's and Peierl's work very seriously, and collectively, along with Vannevar Bush, an aggressive campaign was made to wrest the weapons research out of the hands of Briggs and to encourage an all-out program.
(Although at first the Americans were skeptical about the British and Canadians being involved in the project, this changed after the Quebec Agreement of August 1943, when a large team of British and Canadian scientists joined the Manhattan Project.)
The National Academy of Sciences then proposed an all-out effort to build nuclear weapons. On October 9, 1941, Bush impressed upon Roosevelt at a meeting the need for an accelerated program, and by November Roosevelt had authorized an "all-out" effort. A new policy committee, the Top Policy Group, was created to inform Roosevelt of bomb development, and allow Bush and his colleagues to guide the project. The first meeting of the group, which discussed the reorganization of the S-1 committee research, took place on December 6, 1941—the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II.
Having begun to wrest control of the uranium research from the National Bureau of Standards, the project heads began to accelerate the bomb project. Arthur Compton organized the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory in early 1942 to study plutonium and fission piles (primitive nuclear reactors), and asked theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California, Berkeley to take over research on fast neutron calculations, key to calculations about critical mass and weapon detonation.
The conferences in the summer of 1942 provided the detailed theoretical basis for the design of the atomic bomb, and convinced Oppenheimer of the benefits of having a single centralized laboratory to manage the research for the bomb project, rather than having specialists spread out at different sites across the United States.
The project originally was headquartered in an office at the federal building at 90 Church Street in Manhattan. That is how it became known as the Manhattan Project, even though the project was based only briefly on Manhattan island. Though it involved over thirty different research and production sites, the Manhattan Project was largely carried out in three secret scientific cities and one public site that were established by power of eminent domain: Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Hanford, Washington. All of the sites were suitably far from coastlines and possible enemy attack from Germany or Japan.
The main “think tank”, Los Alamos was also responsible for final assembly of the bombs, mainly from materials and components produced by other sites. Manufacturing at Los Alamos included casings, explosive lenses, and fabrication of fissile materials into bomb cores. Oak Ridge facilities covered more than 60,000 acres of several former farm communities in the Tennessee Valley area. So secret was the site during WW2 that the state governor was unaware that Oak Ridge (what was to become the fifth largest city in the state) was being built. At one point Oak Ridge plants were consuming 1/6th of the electrical power produced in the U.S., more than New York City. Oak Ridge mainly produced uranium-235. Hanford Site, which grew to almost 1000 square miles, took over irrigated farm land, fruit orchards, a railroad, and two farming communities, Hanford and White Bluffs, in a sparsely populated area adjacent to the Columbia River. Hanford hosted nuclear reactors cooled by the river, and was the plutonium production center.
(There is an interesting sidelight to the Oak Ridge site, and its voracious demand for electrical power. Copper was in extremely short supply because of the war effort, and they needed hundreds of miles of copper wire to carry the electricity they would need. But there is one metal that is an even better electrical conductor than copper—silver. So they borrowed a huge amount of silver from the US Treasury stockpiles for their cables—being careful to return it at the war's end).
The existence of these sites and the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford were not made public until the announcement of the Hiroshima explosion, and remained secret until the end of WWII.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
Sir Basil Liddell Hart, who comes close to being the official British historian for WW2, says:"He (Monty) aroused much wider resentment when at a press conference later he conveyed the impression that his personal "handling" of the battle, had saved American forces from collapse. He also spoke of having "employed the whole available power of the British Group of Armies, having put it into the battle "with a bang". That statement caused the more irritation because on the southern flank Patton had been counterattacking since December 22nd, and relieved Bastogne on the 26th; whereas Montgomery had insisted that he needed to "tidy up" the position first, and did not begin the counterthrust from the north until January 3, while keeping his British reserves out of the battle until then".timschochet said:
Ozymandias
Footballguy
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT--II
As the Manhattan project progressed, Fermi and his crew worked on what was to be the first nuclear chain reaction. The reactor was called CP-1 or Chicago Pile—1. The world's first atomic reactor was 26 ft. in diameter and 20' in height. It was constructed—under the stands of a tennis stadium—of 385 tons of graphite with 46 tons of uranium in 4.4lb blocks distributed in a lattice throughout.
On Wednesday, 2 December 1942, at 3:25 p.m., the experiment was run successfully, they were able to control the fission of uranium. The power generated by this very first nuclear reactor was just 40 watts—equivalent to a dim light bulb or a burning match—and after just 28 minutes of operation the reaction was stopped by inserting cadmium strips to mop up all the neutrons and quench the chain reaction.
The measurements of the interactions of fast neutrons with the materials in a bomb were essential because the number of neutrons produced in the fission of uranium and plutonium must be known, and because the substance surrounding the nuclear material must have the ability to reflect, or scatter, neutrons back into the chain reaction before it is blown apart in order to increase the energy produced. Therefore, the neutron scattering properties of materials had to be measured to find the best reflectors.
Estimating the explosive power required knowledge of many other nuclear properties, including the cross section (a measure of the probability of an encounter between particles that result in a specified effect) for nuclear processes of neutrons in uranium and other elements. Fast neutrons could only be produced in particle accelerators, which were still relatively uncommon instruments in 1942.
The need for better coordination was clear. By September 1942, the difficulties in conducting studies on nuclear weapons at universities scattered throughout the country indicated the need for a laboratory dedicated solely to that purpose. A greater need was the construction of industrial plants to produce uranium-235 and plutonium—the fissionable materials to be used in the weapons.
Dissatisfied with the pace of development, Vannevar Bush had Colonel Leslie Groves appointed to head the project. Colonel Groves was deputy to the chief of construction for the Army Corps of Engineers and had overseen the very rapid construction of the Pentagon, the world's largest office building. He was widely respected as an intelligent, hard driving, though brusque officer who got things done in a hurry.
Hoping for an overseas command, Groves vigorously objected when appointed to the weapons project. His objections were overruled and Groves resigned himself to leading a project he thought had little chance of success. Groves appointed Oppenheimer as the project's scientific director, to the surprise of many. (Oppenheimer's radical political views were thought to pose security problems.) However, Groves was convinced Oppenheimer was a genius who could talk about and understand nearly anything, and he was convinced such a man was needed for a project such as the one being proposed. At that time, Groves was promoted to brigadier general, giving him the rank necessary to deal with senior scientists in the project.
Within a week of his appointment, Groves had solved the Manhattan Project's most urgent organizational problems. His forceful and effective manner was soon to become all too familiar to the atomic scientists. The first major scientific hurdle of the project (referred to above) was solved on December 2, 1942, beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, where a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor named Chicago Pile-1. A coded phone call from Compton saying, "The Italian navigator [referring to Fermi] has landed in the new world, the natives are friendly" brought news of the experiment's success.
There were still many unknown factors in the development of a nuclear bomb, however, even though it was considered to be theoretically possible. The properties of pure uranium-235 were still relatively unknown, as were the properties of plutonium, a new element which had only been discovered in February 1941 by Glenn Seaborg and his team. Plutonium was the product of uranium-238 absorbing a neutron which had been emitted from a fissioning uranium-235 atom, and was thus able to be created in a nuclear reactor. But at this point no reactor had yet been built, so while plutonium was being pursued as an additional fissile substance, it was not yet to be relied upon. Only microgram quantities of plutonium existed at the time (produced from neutrons derived from reaction started in a cyclotron).
These were the two avenues to obtain the material for an atomic fission weapon; U-235 and plutonium. The uranium bomb was a gun-type fission weapon. One mass of U-235, the "bullet," is fired down a more or less conventional gun barrel into another mass of U-235, rapidly creating the critical mass of U-235, resulting in an explosion. The method was so certain to work that no test was carried out before the Bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. Also, the bomb dropped used all the existing extremely highly purified U-235 (and even most of the highly purifed material) so there was no U-235 available for such a test anyway.
Because of problems inherent in plutonium, it was decided that the gun-type would not work. Ideas of using alternative detonation schemes had existed for some time at Los Alamos. One of the more innovative had been the idea of "implosion"—a sub-critical sphere of fissile material could, using chemical explosives, be forced to collapse in on itself, creating a very dense critical mass, which because of the very short distances the metal need to travel to make it, would come into existence for a far shorter time than it would take to assemble a mass from a bullet.
Initially, implosion had been entertained as a possible, though unlikely method. However, after it was discovered that it was the only possible solution for using reactor-bred plutonium, and that uranium-235 production could not be substantially increased, the implosion project received the highest priority, as the only solution to scaling up fissionable material production to the level needed for multiple bombs. By the end of July, 1944, the entire project had been reorganized around solving the implosion problem. It eventually involved using shaped charges with many explosive lenses to produce the perfectly spherical explosive wave needed to properly compress the plutonium sphere.
As the Manhattan project progressed, Fermi and his crew worked on what was to be the first nuclear chain reaction. The reactor was called CP-1 or Chicago Pile—1. The world's first atomic reactor was 26 ft. in diameter and 20' in height. It was constructed—under the stands of a tennis stadium—of 385 tons of graphite with 46 tons of uranium in 4.4lb blocks distributed in a lattice throughout.
On Wednesday, 2 December 1942, at 3:25 p.m., the experiment was run successfully, they were able to control the fission of uranium. The power generated by this very first nuclear reactor was just 40 watts—equivalent to a dim light bulb or a burning match—and after just 28 minutes of operation the reaction was stopped by inserting cadmium strips to mop up all the neutrons and quench the chain reaction.
The measurements of the interactions of fast neutrons with the materials in a bomb were essential because the number of neutrons produced in the fission of uranium and plutonium must be known, and because the substance surrounding the nuclear material must have the ability to reflect, or scatter, neutrons back into the chain reaction before it is blown apart in order to increase the energy produced. Therefore, the neutron scattering properties of materials had to be measured to find the best reflectors.
Estimating the explosive power required knowledge of many other nuclear properties, including the cross section (a measure of the probability of an encounter between particles that result in a specified effect) for nuclear processes of neutrons in uranium and other elements. Fast neutrons could only be produced in particle accelerators, which were still relatively uncommon instruments in 1942.
The need for better coordination was clear. By September 1942, the difficulties in conducting studies on nuclear weapons at universities scattered throughout the country indicated the need for a laboratory dedicated solely to that purpose. A greater need was the construction of industrial plants to produce uranium-235 and plutonium—the fissionable materials to be used in the weapons.
Dissatisfied with the pace of development, Vannevar Bush had Colonel Leslie Groves appointed to head the project. Colonel Groves was deputy to the chief of construction for the Army Corps of Engineers and had overseen the very rapid construction of the Pentagon, the world's largest office building. He was widely respected as an intelligent, hard driving, though brusque officer who got things done in a hurry.
Hoping for an overseas command, Groves vigorously objected when appointed to the weapons project. His objections were overruled and Groves resigned himself to leading a project he thought had little chance of success. Groves appointed Oppenheimer as the project's scientific director, to the surprise of many. (Oppenheimer's radical political views were thought to pose security problems.) However, Groves was convinced Oppenheimer was a genius who could talk about and understand nearly anything, and he was convinced such a man was needed for a project such as the one being proposed. At that time, Groves was promoted to brigadier general, giving him the rank necessary to deal with senior scientists in the project.
Within a week of his appointment, Groves had solved the Manhattan Project's most urgent organizational problems. His forceful and effective manner was soon to become all too familiar to the atomic scientists. The first major scientific hurdle of the project (referred to above) was solved on December 2, 1942, beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, where a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor named Chicago Pile-1. A coded phone call from Compton saying, "The Italian navigator [referring to Fermi] has landed in the new world, the natives are friendly" brought news of the experiment's success.
There were still many unknown factors in the development of a nuclear bomb, however, even though it was considered to be theoretically possible. The properties of pure uranium-235 were still relatively unknown, as were the properties of plutonium, a new element which had only been discovered in February 1941 by Glenn Seaborg and his team. Plutonium was the product of uranium-238 absorbing a neutron which had been emitted from a fissioning uranium-235 atom, and was thus able to be created in a nuclear reactor. But at this point no reactor had yet been built, so while plutonium was being pursued as an additional fissile substance, it was not yet to be relied upon. Only microgram quantities of plutonium existed at the time (produced from neutrons derived from reaction started in a cyclotron).
These were the two avenues to obtain the material for an atomic fission weapon; U-235 and plutonium. The uranium bomb was a gun-type fission weapon. One mass of U-235, the "bullet," is fired down a more or less conventional gun barrel into another mass of U-235, rapidly creating the critical mass of U-235, resulting in an explosion. The method was so certain to work that no test was carried out before the Bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. Also, the bomb dropped used all the existing extremely highly purified U-235 (and even most of the highly purifed material) so there was no U-235 available for such a test anyway.
Because of problems inherent in plutonium, it was decided that the gun-type would not work. Ideas of using alternative detonation schemes had existed for some time at Los Alamos. One of the more innovative had been the idea of "implosion"—a sub-critical sphere of fissile material could, using chemical explosives, be forced to collapse in on itself, creating a very dense critical mass, which because of the very short distances the metal need to travel to make it, would come into existence for a far shorter time than it would take to assemble a mass from a bullet.
Initially, implosion had been entertained as a possible, though unlikely method. However, after it was discovered that it was the only possible solution for using reactor-bred plutonium, and that uranium-235 production could not be substantially increased, the implosion project received the highest priority, as the only solution to scaling up fissionable material production to the level needed for multiple bombs. By the end of July, 1944, the entire project had been reorganized around solving the implosion problem. It eventually involved using shaped charges with many explosive lenses to produce the perfectly spherical explosive wave needed to properly compress the plutonium sphere.
Last edited by a moderator:
Ozymandias
Footballguy
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT--III
(I thought we might take a step backward here; because even though this is probably known to everyone reading this thread, it occurred to me that one of you might have had the hots for some girl in physics class so that you were paying no attention to the teacher.)
Nuclear fission can occur naturally, particularly in uranium and plutonium, which is when radioactive decay frees a neutron which then strikes another atom causing it to split into parts. In most cases however, that is where it ends. However, if you get the U-235 isotope of uranium or plutonium, then a lot more of this is happening. Some of these neutrons will impact fuel nuclei and induce further fissions, releasing yet more neutrons. If enough nuclear fuel is assembled into one place, or if the escaping neutrons are sufficiently contained, then these freshly generated neutrons outnumber the neutrons that escape from the assembly, and a sustained nuclear chain reaction will take place.
An assembly that supports a sustained nuclear chain reaction is called a critical assembly or, if the assembly is almost entirely made of a nuclear fuel, a critical mass. The word "critical" refers to a cusp in the behavior of the differential equation that governs the number of free neutrons present in the fuel: if less than a critical mass is present, then the amount of neutrons is determined by radioactive decay, but if a critical mass or more is present, then the amount of neutrons is controlled instead by the physics of the chain reaction. The actual mass of a critical mass of nuclear fuel depends strongly on the geometry and surrounding materials. Neutrons from an atom which has been split are traveling at a speed about 8 times the speed of sound. Enough surrounding nuclear material must be there to ensure that free neutrons are hitting other atoms, splitting them and causing them to emit free neutrons. Since each time an atom is split, energy is released, and the speed of the reaction is almost instantaneous, then there is a huge release of kinetic energy (heat).
As you can well imagine, the problems in devising the nuclear weapon involved theoretical physics, mathematics, production of fissile material, engineering, form of detonation, etc. In a sense, U-235 was simpler, but the amount of fuel was limited. Plutonium was more plentiful because it could be produced from U-238, the most common isotope of uranium.
The plutonium sphere would need to be compressed on all sides exactly equally—any error would result in a "fizzle" which would simply eject the valuable plutonium and not result in a large explosion. Because of the difficulties in creating the explosive lenses for perfect compression, Manhattan Project military leader Major General Leslie Groves and scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer decided that a test of the concept would have to be undertaken before a weapon could be confidently used in war.
Planning for the test was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a professor of physics at Harvard University, working under explosives expert George Kistiakowsky. A site had to be located that would guarantee secrecy of the project's goals even as a nuclear weapon of unknown strength was detonated. Proper scientific equipment had to be assembled for retrieving data from the test itself, and safety guidelines had to be developed to protect personnel from the unknown results of a highly dangerous experiment.
The site chosen was in a remote part of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, now the White Sands Missile Range. The test site was at the northern end of the range, between the towns of Carrizozo and Socorro, New Mexico, in the Jornada del Muerto in the southwestern United States. (Fascinating...Jornada del Muerto means Day of the Dead).
Two bunkers were set up to observe the test. Oppenheimer and Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell watched from a bunker ten miles from the detonation, while Gen. Leslie Groves watched at a bunker seventeen miles away.
(They were plowing new ground, but this is interesting): The observers set up betting pools on the results of the test. Predictions ranged from zero (a complete dud) to 18,000 tons of TNT (predicted by physicist I. I. Rabi, who won the bet, to destruction of the state of New Mexico, to ignition of the atmosphere and incineration of the entire planet. This last result had been discarded as theoretically impossible, although for a while it caused some of the scientists some anxiety.
There was a pretest explosion of 108 tons of TNT on May 7 to calibrate the instruments. (Nuclear detonation yields have always been measured by the equivalent in tons of TNT.) For the actual test, the plutonium-core nuclear device, nicknamed the gadget, was hoisted to the top of a 30-meter tall steel tower for detonation — the height would give a better indication of how the weapon would behave when dropped from an airplane, as detonation in the air would maximize the amount of energy applied directly to the target (as it expanded in a spherical shape), and would generate less nuclear fallout.
At 4:45 a.m. a crucial weather report came in favorably, and at 5:10 a.m. the twenty-minute countdown began. Most top-level scientists and military officers were observing from a base camp ten miles southwest of the test tower. Many other observers were around 17 to 20 miles away, and some others were scattered at different distances, some in more informal situations (physicist Richard Feynman claimed to be the only person to see the explosion without the dark glasses provided, relying on a truck windshield to screen out harmful ultraviolet wavelengths). The final countdown was read by physicist Samuel K. Allison.
At 05:29:45 Mountain War Time, the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20,000 tons of TNT. It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 10 feet deep and 1,100 ft wide. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated "brighter than daytime" for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as "being as hot as an oven" at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination ranged from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles in height. After the initial euphoria of witnessing the explosion passed, test director Kenneth Bainbridge commented to Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of #####es." Oppenheimer later stated that while watching the test he was reminded of a line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita:
Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
The Nuclear Age had dawned.
Maybe they were all SOB's, but better us than the Nazis or the Japanese.
(I thought we might take a step backward here; because even though this is probably known to everyone reading this thread, it occurred to me that one of you might have had the hots for some girl in physics class so that you were paying no attention to the teacher.)
Nuclear fission can occur naturally, particularly in uranium and plutonium, which is when radioactive decay frees a neutron which then strikes another atom causing it to split into parts. In most cases however, that is where it ends. However, if you get the U-235 isotope of uranium or plutonium, then a lot more of this is happening. Some of these neutrons will impact fuel nuclei and induce further fissions, releasing yet more neutrons. If enough nuclear fuel is assembled into one place, or if the escaping neutrons are sufficiently contained, then these freshly generated neutrons outnumber the neutrons that escape from the assembly, and a sustained nuclear chain reaction will take place.
An assembly that supports a sustained nuclear chain reaction is called a critical assembly or, if the assembly is almost entirely made of a nuclear fuel, a critical mass. The word "critical" refers to a cusp in the behavior of the differential equation that governs the number of free neutrons present in the fuel: if less than a critical mass is present, then the amount of neutrons is determined by radioactive decay, but if a critical mass or more is present, then the amount of neutrons is controlled instead by the physics of the chain reaction. The actual mass of a critical mass of nuclear fuel depends strongly on the geometry and surrounding materials. Neutrons from an atom which has been split are traveling at a speed about 8 times the speed of sound. Enough surrounding nuclear material must be there to ensure that free neutrons are hitting other atoms, splitting them and causing them to emit free neutrons. Since each time an atom is split, energy is released, and the speed of the reaction is almost instantaneous, then there is a huge release of kinetic energy (heat).
As you can well imagine, the problems in devising the nuclear weapon involved theoretical physics, mathematics, production of fissile material, engineering, form of detonation, etc. In a sense, U-235 was simpler, but the amount of fuel was limited. Plutonium was more plentiful because it could be produced from U-238, the most common isotope of uranium.
The plutonium sphere would need to be compressed on all sides exactly equally—any error would result in a "fizzle" which would simply eject the valuable plutonium and not result in a large explosion. Because of the difficulties in creating the explosive lenses for perfect compression, Manhattan Project military leader Major General Leslie Groves and scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer decided that a test of the concept would have to be undertaken before a weapon could be confidently used in war.
Planning for the test was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a professor of physics at Harvard University, working under explosives expert George Kistiakowsky. A site had to be located that would guarantee secrecy of the project's goals even as a nuclear weapon of unknown strength was detonated. Proper scientific equipment had to be assembled for retrieving data from the test itself, and safety guidelines had to be developed to protect personnel from the unknown results of a highly dangerous experiment.
The site chosen was in a remote part of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, now the White Sands Missile Range. The test site was at the northern end of the range, between the towns of Carrizozo and Socorro, New Mexico, in the Jornada del Muerto in the southwestern United States. (Fascinating...Jornada del Muerto means Day of the Dead).
Two bunkers were set up to observe the test. Oppenheimer and Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell watched from a bunker ten miles from the detonation, while Gen. Leslie Groves watched at a bunker seventeen miles away.
(They were plowing new ground, but this is interesting): The observers set up betting pools on the results of the test. Predictions ranged from zero (a complete dud) to 18,000 tons of TNT (predicted by physicist I. I. Rabi, who won the bet, to destruction of the state of New Mexico, to ignition of the atmosphere and incineration of the entire planet. This last result had been discarded as theoretically impossible, although for a while it caused some of the scientists some anxiety.
There was a pretest explosion of 108 tons of TNT on May 7 to calibrate the instruments. (Nuclear detonation yields have always been measured by the equivalent in tons of TNT.) For the actual test, the plutonium-core nuclear device, nicknamed the gadget, was hoisted to the top of a 30-meter tall steel tower for detonation — the height would give a better indication of how the weapon would behave when dropped from an airplane, as detonation in the air would maximize the amount of energy applied directly to the target (as it expanded in a spherical shape), and would generate less nuclear fallout.
At 4:45 a.m. a crucial weather report came in favorably, and at 5:10 a.m. the twenty-minute countdown began. Most top-level scientists and military officers were observing from a base camp ten miles southwest of the test tower. Many other observers were around 17 to 20 miles away, and some others were scattered at different distances, some in more informal situations (physicist Richard Feynman claimed to be the only person to see the explosion without the dark glasses provided, relying on a truck windshield to screen out harmful ultraviolet wavelengths). The final countdown was read by physicist Samuel K. Allison.
At 05:29:45 Mountain War Time, the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20,000 tons of TNT. It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 10 feet deep and 1,100 ft wide. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated "brighter than daytime" for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as "being as hot as an oven" at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination ranged from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers. The shock wave was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles in height. After the initial euphoria of witnessing the explosion passed, test director Kenneth Bainbridge commented to Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of #####es." Oppenheimer later stated that while watching the test he was reminded of a line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita:
Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
The Nuclear Age had dawned.
Maybe they were all SOB's, but better us than the Nazis or the Japanese.
timschochet
Footballguy
Great work, Ozy.
Very shortly I'm going to be discussing the Yalta conference, which was extremely consequential (and controversial) in terms of post World War II history. Yalta ties into The Manhattan Project for two reasons:
1. At the time of Yalta, FDR was unsure whether or not nuclear weapons could ever be developed, or at least in time for the current struggle. This is absolutely key in understanding FDR's seemingly odd behavior at Yalta: he believed that in order to invade Japan, which was going to cost at least 500,000 casualties, he was going to need Russian help. Therefore, his aim at Yalta was to get Russia to declare war on Japan. In order to acheive this, Roosevelt was willing to pay nearly any price, including the surrender of Eastern Europe to the Russians. Had the Manhattan Project been completed by January, 1945, and had it's potential for destruction been truly understood by the American military (this is also important) there is every reason to believe that FDR might have taken a much harder line with Stalin. But it was not to be.
2. Despite this, FDR and Churchill arrived at Yalta believing they had a technological coup on the Russians. Their knowledge of the Manhattan Project allowed them, especially FDR, to believe that whatever concessions were made to Stalin in order to secure victory now, the Russians could be dealt with later on. What FDR was unaware of was that Stalin already knew all about Los Alamos, thanks to the Fuchs-Rosenberg-Gold espionage, and was even then preparing to develop his own nuclear weapons. (In addition to this spy ring, there was also a British spy ring consisting of Kim Philby in MI-5, and Guy Burgess and Donald McClean, both with important posts in the Foreign Office. These men, all of whom eventually defected to the U.S.S.R., gave Stalin everything the British knew about nuclear weapons.)
In the late 1940s and early 50s, during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthy era, Republican candidates for office used Roosevelt's actions at Yalta as a means to attack Democrats as weak on security issues. This represented a significant chance in American politics which has lasted to this day: prior to this period, Democrats were generally considered internationalist, while Republicans were mostly isolationist. Ever since Yalta, conservatives have hinted or outright suggested that liberals were sympathetic with this nation's enemies. This is why I think Yalta needs to be understood with the perspective I have described here.
Very shortly I'm going to be discussing the Yalta conference, which was extremely consequential (and controversial) in terms of post World War II history. Yalta ties into The Manhattan Project for two reasons:
1. At the time of Yalta, FDR was unsure whether or not nuclear weapons could ever be developed, or at least in time for the current struggle. This is absolutely key in understanding FDR's seemingly odd behavior at Yalta: he believed that in order to invade Japan, which was going to cost at least 500,000 casualties, he was going to need Russian help. Therefore, his aim at Yalta was to get Russia to declare war on Japan. In order to acheive this, Roosevelt was willing to pay nearly any price, including the surrender of Eastern Europe to the Russians. Had the Manhattan Project been completed by January, 1945, and had it's potential for destruction been truly understood by the American military (this is also important) there is every reason to believe that FDR might have taken a much harder line with Stalin. But it was not to be.
2. Despite this, FDR and Churchill arrived at Yalta believing they had a technological coup on the Russians. Their knowledge of the Manhattan Project allowed them, especially FDR, to believe that whatever concessions were made to Stalin in order to secure victory now, the Russians could be dealt with later on. What FDR was unaware of was that Stalin already knew all about Los Alamos, thanks to the Fuchs-Rosenberg-Gold espionage, and was even then preparing to develop his own nuclear weapons. (In addition to this spy ring, there was also a British spy ring consisting of Kim Philby in MI-5, and Guy Burgess and Donald McClean, both with important posts in the Foreign Office. These men, all of whom eventually defected to the U.S.S.R., gave Stalin everything the British knew about nuclear weapons.)
In the late 1940s and early 50s, during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthy era, Republican candidates for office used Roosevelt's actions at Yalta as a means to attack Democrats as weak on security issues. This represented a significant chance in American politics which has lasted to this day: prior to this period, Democrats were generally considered internationalist, while Republicans were mostly isolationist. Ever since Yalta, conservatives have hinted or outright suggested that liberals were sympathetic with this nation's enemies. This is why I think Yalta needs to be understood with the perspective I have described here.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Murder of Mussolini
When last seen in this narrative, Benito Mussolini had been rescued by the Nazis and set up as a puppet dictator in Milan with his mistress, Clara Petacci. (Clara had been urged to flee for Portugal or Spain. "Never!" she replied fiercely. "I loved Benito when times were good. I shall love him even more now when times are bad." This pathetic woman, who Mussolini treated even worse than Hitler treated Eva Braun, would, like Eva, share her man's fate.) With word of the Germans negotiating to surrender, and Clark's armies on the march toward Milan, Il Duce dreamed that he would rally 300,000 loyal Fascists and occupy the castled city of Val Tellina, making a gallant last stand.
His SS "protectors" had other plans. Believing that Mussolini was the ticket to saving their own lives, they whisked him and Clara, both in the garb of German soldiers, toward the German borders. However they were stopped by a group of Italian Communists, one of whom recognized Mussolini. They allowed the SS soldiers to flee, if they would give up their couple. Now Mussolini and Clara were disguised again, this time as bandaged soldiers; the Communists did not want to lose their prize. They were delivered to a larger group of Communists, whose leaders, Walter Audisio, a swaggering 36 year old colonel of Communist partisans, and Aldo Lampredi, a bespectacled, middle-aged carpenter, decided the time had come for the dictator to pay for his crimes. Audisio said later that he sought to allay Il Duce's suspicions by saying, "I have come to liberate you," and that Mussolini replied, "I will give you an empire."
Mussolini and Clara were put into a Fiat. Clara held her personal belongings in a scarf. Her other hand was in Mussolini's. The care moved slowly with Lampredi walking in front of it and Audisio standing on the running board holding his machine pistol. Outside the high iron gates of the Villa Belmonte, Audisio ordered the driver to stop. He told Il Duce and Clara to get out of the car. Audisio pronounced the death sentence: "By order of the high command of the Volunteer Freedom Corps, I have been charged to render justice to the Italian people." Clara screamed. "You can't kill us like that! You can't do that!"
"Move aside, or we'll kill you first!" Audisio snarled.
Sweat was pouring down Audisio's face when he pulled the trigger. But the gun wouldn't fire. He tore his revolver from his holster. But this too misfired. Audisio took a machine pistol from one of his men and lifted it. Mussolini calmly unbuttoned his jacket. "Shoot me in the chest," he said. Audisio fired, just as Clara seized the gun barrel. The first shot entered her heart. Then the Communist executioner triggered a burst of 9 bullets into Benito Mussolini and killed him.
The corpses were taken back to Milan- the city in which Mussolini had originally become famous and from where he had launched the March on Rome in 1921- and thrown onto the pavement of the Piazzale Loreto. Il Duce lay with his head on Clara's white blouse. A huge throng gathered around them. Soon the crowd became a howling, hissing, jeering, spitting, kicking mob. They began to dance and caper around the bodies. A woman rushed up with a pistol, firing it into Mussolini's carcass. "Five shots!" she screamed. "Five shots for my five murdered sons!" Other bereaved mothers rushed at the body of the man who had once made women hysterical when he bathed in public. Lifting their skirts they squatted over him to urinate on his face. At last only the intervention of Cardinal Schuster prevented the maniacal mob from tearing the bodies to pieces.
After being shot, kicked, and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of a gas station. The bodies were then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse.
After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in Musocco, the municipal cemetery to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and two other neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you are with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses."
On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally 'recaptured' in August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two Fransciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that it had been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.
When last seen in this narrative, Benito Mussolini had been rescued by the Nazis and set up as a puppet dictator in Milan with his mistress, Clara Petacci. (Clara had been urged to flee for Portugal or Spain. "Never!" she replied fiercely. "I loved Benito when times were good. I shall love him even more now when times are bad." This pathetic woman, who Mussolini treated even worse than Hitler treated Eva Braun, would, like Eva, share her man's fate.) With word of the Germans negotiating to surrender, and Clark's armies on the march toward Milan, Il Duce dreamed that he would rally 300,000 loyal Fascists and occupy the castled city of Val Tellina, making a gallant last stand.
His SS "protectors" had other plans. Believing that Mussolini was the ticket to saving their own lives, they whisked him and Clara, both in the garb of German soldiers, toward the German borders. However they were stopped by a group of Italian Communists, one of whom recognized Mussolini. They allowed the SS soldiers to flee, if they would give up their couple. Now Mussolini and Clara were disguised again, this time as bandaged soldiers; the Communists did not want to lose their prize. They were delivered to a larger group of Communists, whose leaders, Walter Audisio, a swaggering 36 year old colonel of Communist partisans, and Aldo Lampredi, a bespectacled, middle-aged carpenter, decided the time had come for the dictator to pay for his crimes. Audisio said later that he sought to allay Il Duce's suspicions by saying, "I have come to liberate you," and that Mussolini replied, "I will give you an empire."
Mussolini and Clara were put into a Fiat. Clara held her personal belongings in a scarf. Her other hand was in Mussolini's. The care moved slowly with Lampredi walking in front of it and Audisio standing on the running board holding his machine pistol. Outside the high iron gates of the Villa Belmonte, Audisio ordered the driver to stop. He told Il Duce and Clara to get out of the car. Audisio pronounced the death sentence: "By order of the high command of the Volunteer Freedom Corps, I have been charged to render justice to the Italian people." Clara screamed. "You can't kill us like that! You can't do that!"
"Move aside, or we'll kill you first!" Audisio snarled.
Sweat was pouring down Audisio's face when he pulled the trigger. But the gun wouldn't fire. He tore his revolver from his holster. But this too misfired. Audisio took a machine pistol from one of his men and lifted it. Mussolini calmly unbuttoned his jacket. "Shoot me in the chest," he said. Audisio fired, just as Clara seized the gun barrel. The first shot entered her heart. Then the Communist executioner triggered a burst of 9 bullets into Benito Mussolini and killed him.
The corpses were taken back to Milan- the city in which Mussolini had originally become famous and from where he had launched the March on Rome in 1921- and thrown onto the pavement of the Piazzale Loreto. Il Duce lay with his head on Clara's white blouse. A huge throng gathered around them. Soon the crowd became a howling, hissing, jeering, spitting, kicking mob. They began to dance and caper around the bodies. A woman rushed up with a pistol, firing it into Mussolini's carcass. "Five shots!" she screamed. "Five shots for my five murdered sons!" Other bereaved mothers rushed at the body of the man who had once made women hysterical when he bathed in public. Lifting their skirts they squatted over him to urinate on his face. At last only the intervention of Cardinal Schuster prevented the maniacal mob from tearing the bodies to pieces.
After being shot, kicked, and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of a gas station. The bodies were then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse.
After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in Musocco, the municipal cemetery to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and two other neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you are with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses."
On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally 'recaptured' in August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two Fransciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that it had been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Soviet Offensive Part One
The consequences of Adolf Hitler's costly gamble in the Ardennes were more immediately apparent in the East than in the West, for it was the Soviets who were first to benefit from the reckless expenditure of German mobile reserves. During the last few months of 1944, the Red Army had remained quiet, Zhukov could not continue his advance through Poland until he had repaired and widened the wrecked railroads. But also Stalin, realizing that Germany was defeated, was more interested in consolidating his hold on eastern Europe. This meant quietly killing anyone who might be opposed to Communist rule, and installing pro-Soviet governments in a whole host of Eastern European countries. Hungary was the first to succumb, followed quickly by Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. With the defection of Romania, Hitler's last oil supply was now threatened.
Guderian, now army chief of staff, pleaded again and again with Hitler to call off the Ardennes offensive and send the panzer divisios engaged there to the East. He argued that they had done as much good as they could in the West. Hitler refused. Even now, he did not believe the war was lost, or even that he was losing. It was true that his empire had shrunk dramatically, but he still held an area larger than Germany had ever done before, even at the height of World War I. The Germans still had 260 divisions in the field, twice as many as they had in 1940. Hitler figured he could weary the Allies on either side. He was excited by the jet aircraft under production, and also by the new U-Boats. Doenitz insisted that protect these U-Boats the troops needed to stay in the west; Hitler agreed with him and disagreed with Guderian. This was fatuous reasoning. Although the armies in the West could impact American advancement at the Siegfried Line, they could not prevent Allied Air from completely destroying the U-Boat bases. Only the Luftwaffe could do that, and by 1945 the Luftwaffe was kaput.
To this day Russian historians, even the ones post- Soviet, insist that what the Soviets called "The Great Patriotic War" was won largely by themselves, that the Western Front was but a sideshow in comparison to the great holocaust in the East. From the standpoint of numbers alone, this might be true. Such a simplistic view, however, ignores many facts: the Soviet absence from the Pacific War; the enormous amounts of supplies shipped to the U.S.S.R., ; the Allied campaigns against the Nazis in North Africa, Greece, Sicily, and Italy, but most of all the massive Western front which drew Werhmacht forces from the East and, thanks to the Ardennes offensive, eliminated Hitler's mobile reserve. So far, Der Fuhrer had not once weakened the West to strengthen the East. All of the transferrals of forces were in the other direction. In the air alone the disproportion was staggering. Some 900,000 German soldiers were deployed in antiaircraft units, as a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to defend against strategic bombing.
The result of this was inevitable: against Russia, where Hitler once had 157 divisions, he now had 133, heavily dispersed and without reserves. Hitler thought this would be sufficient. As Guderian wrote after the war:
He had a special picture of the world, and every fact had to fit into that fanciful picture. As he believed, so the reality must be; but in fact it was a picture of another world. After I gave him my dismaying report, he told me, "The Eastern Front has never before possessed such a strong reserve as now. That is your doing. I thank you for it." I was astounded. I replied, "Mein Fuhrer, the Eastern Front is like a house of cards! If the front is broken through at one point all the rest will collapse!" Hitler clapped me on the back and said, "Don't be such a pessimist."
The consequences of Adolf Hitler's costly gamble in the Ardennes were more immediately apparent in the East than in the West, for it was the Soviets who were first to benefit from the reckless expenditure of German mobile reserves. During the last few months of 1944, the Red Army had remained quiet, Zhukov could not continue his advance through Poland until he had repaired and widened the wrecked railroads. But also Stalin, realizing that Germany was defeated, was more interested in consolidating his hold on eastern Europe. This meant quietly killing anyone who might be opposed to Communist rule, and installing pro-Soviet governments in a whole host of Eastern European countries. Hungary was the first to succumb, followed quickly by Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. With the defection of Romania, Hitler's last oil supply was now threatened.
Guderian, now army chief of staff, pleaded again and again with Hitler to call off the Ardennes offensive and send the panzer divisios engaged there to the East. He argued that they had done as much good as they could in the West. Hitler refused. Even now, he did not believe the war was lost, or even that he was losing. It was true that his empire had shrunk dramatically, but he still held an area larger than Germany had ever done before, even at the height of World War I. The Germans still had 260 divisions in the field, twice as many as they had in 1940. Hitler figured he could weary the Allies on either side. He was excited by the jet aircraft under production, and also by the new U-Boats. Doenitz insisted that protect these U-Boats the troops needed to stay in the west; Hitler agreed with him and disagreed with Guderian. This was fatuous reasoning. Although the armies in the West could impact American advancement at the Siegfried Line, they could not prevent Allied Air from completely destroying the U-Boat bases. Only the Luftwaffe could do that, and by 1945 the Luftwaffe was kaput.
To this day Russian historians, even the ones post- Soviet, insist that what the Soviets called "The Great Patriotic War" was won largely by themselves, that the Western Front was but a sideshow in comparison to the great holocaust in the East. From the standpoint of numbers alone, this might be true. Such a simplistic view, however, ignores many facts: the Soviet absence from the Pacific War; the enormous amounts of supplies shipped to the U.S.S.R., ; the Allied campaigns against the Nazis in North Africa, Greece, Sicily, and Italy, but most of all the massive Western front which drew Werhmacht forces from the East and, thanks to the Ardennes offensive, eliminated Hitler's mobile reserve. So far, Der Fuhrer had not once weakened the West to strengthen the East. All of the transferrals of forces were in the other direction. In the air alone the disproportion was staggering. Some 900,000 German soldiers were deployed in antiaircraft units, as a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to defend against strategic bombing.
The result of this was inevitable: against Russia, where Hitler once had 157 divisions, he now had 133, heavily dispersed and without reserves. Hitler thought this would be sufficient. As Guderian wrote after the war:
He had a special picture of the world, and every fact had to fit into that fanciful picture. As he believed, so the reality must be; but in fact it was a picture of another world. After I gave him my dismaying report, he told me, "The Eastern Front has never before possessed such a strong reserve as now. That is your doing. I thank you for it." I was astounded. I replied, "Mein Fuhrer, the Eastern Front is like a house of cards! If the front is broken through at one point all the rest will collapse!" Hitler clapped me on the back and said, "Don't be such a pessimist."
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timschochet
Footballguy
The Soviet Offensive, Part Two
On the morning of January 12, 1945, the Red Army offensive was launched on the frozen plains of southern Poland. Konev's army group burst out of its bridgehead on the Upper Vistula between Cracow and Sandomir and almost immediately broke through the thin defenses and weak reserves there. This was the first blow in the greatest offensive of the war. Stalin assembled at the points which he wished to strike a superiority in men and armor between 3 to 1 and 6 to 1. Reports reaching Hitler were so distressing that he returned to Berlin to set up his command post in the massive bunker deep beneath the Reich Chancellory. There he would stay most of the time until the very end.
Zhukov had gone over to the attack. He crossed the Vistula on both sides of Warsaw, isolating it, and on January 17 stormed it from the rear. In the north Rokossovsky broke the line of the Narew and struck northwest to the Bay of Danzig. Next he drove deep into the defenses of East Prussia while Marshal Ivan Cherniakovsky's army group shattered them in direct assault. Within a a week the entire Eastern front was collapsing westward and the Soviet armor plunged 100 miles closer to Berlin.
The front had been breached in so many cases that there was simply no chance of restoring it. Still commanded by Hitler to yield no ground, the German units were destroyed where they stood or so fragmented that they had to seek shelter in fortress towns bypassed by the Red Army. Guderian's reserves were too weak to check an offensive on so vast a scale. Most of his mobile reserves were engaged in Hungary in a futile attempt to relieve Budapest. His 12 panzer divisions in Poland and East Prussia were too short on fuel to make those agressive, local counterattacks in which the Wehrmacht usually excelled. Fuel shortages also prevented effective delaying actions.
At last on January 22 Hitler sought to strengthen his reserves by evacuating all his forces in Memel. But he still refused to abandon Courtland because Doenitz still insisted that the U-Boat training areas in the Gulf of Danzig must be maintained.
On the morning of January 12, 1945, the Red Army offensive was launched on the frozen plains of southern Poland. Konev's army group burst out of its bridgehead on the Upper Vistula between Cracow and Sandomir and almost immediately broke through the thin defenses and weak reserves there. This was the first blow in the greatest offensive of the war. Stalin assembled at the points which he wished to strike a superiority in men and armor between 3 to 1 and 6 to 1. Reports reaching Hitler were so distressing that he returned to Berlin to set up his command post in the massive bunker deep beneath the Reich Chancellory. There he would stay most of the time until the very end.
Zhukov had gone over to the attack. He crossed the Vistula on both sides of Warsaw, isolating it, and on January 17 stormed it from the rear. In the north Rokossovsky broke the line of the Narew and struck northwest to the Bay of Danzig. Next he drove deep into the defenses of East Prussia while Marshal Ivan Cherniakovsky's army group shattered them in direct assault. Within a a week the entire Eastern front was collapsing westward and the Soviet armor plunged 100 miles closer to Berlin.
The front had been breached in so many cases that there was simply no chance of restoring it. Still commanded by Hitler to yield no ground, the German units were destroyed where they stood or so fragmented that they had to seek shelter in fortress towns bypassed by the Red Army. Guderian's reserves were too weak to check an offensive on so vast a scale. Most of his mobile reserves were engaged in Hungary in a futile attempt to relieve Budapest. His 12 panzer divisions in Poland and East Prussia were too short on fuel to make those agressive, local counterattacks in which the Wehrmacht usually excelled. Fuel shortages also prevented effective delaying actions.
At last on January 22 Hitler sought to strengthen his reserves by evacuating all his forces in Memel. But he still refused to abandon Courtland because Doenitz still insisted that the U-Boat training areas in the Gulf of Danzig must be maintained.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Soviet Offensive concluded
Hitler could no longer take advantage of his central position, giving him interior lines between East and West, because Allied air power had destroyed his mobility. German railroads were moving only a third of the traffic they had been handling 6 months earlier. The autobahn was all but worthless. Hitler had boasted how this highway network, which had been designed and built under his direct supervision, would allow him to easily shift forces from one front to the other, but without fuel and under constant Allied surveillance, it was of no help. Moreover, all of the concrete, steel, and labor expended in building these roads might have been better put to use building a Siegfried Line in the east, which might have hampered the Russian onslaught. But it was not to be.
During the second half of January Rokkossovsky in the north reached the Bay of Danzig and cut off 25 divisions trapped in East Prussia. In the south, Konev broke into Upper Silesia from Cracow and menaced Breslau. The Soviets were now in the only corner of Hitler's empire that had not felt the wrath of Allied air. Because of the decline of coal production in the Ruhr, the Silesian mines had become Germany's chief source of supply, providing a full 60% of production in December of 1944. Now they were lost at a time when Germany's railroads, power plants and factories had stocks for only 2 weeks more. This, Speer reported to Hitler, had created "an unbearable situation." Because of this loss Speer said that he could provide only a quarter of the coal and a 6th of the steel produced a year ago. Capture of Silesia had also given the Soviets possession of those factories which Hitler had moved east to escape destruction from Allied air. They even seized 3 synthetic fuel plants just starting production. And in the Soviet center, Zhukov was driving toward Berlin. He advanced 220 miles and by January 27 he had crashed through the German frontier and was only 100 miles from the Nazi capital. The Germans could slow his movement through a concentration of forces, but to what end?
Any sane leader would have realized the war was lost long since, and that the only result of continued fighting would be the utter destruction of what was left of Germany, along with a complete starvation of her populace. Certainly this is what the leaders of Germany in November of 1918 had realized in much the same situation (though not nearly as bad.) But Hitler had always scorned those leaders. And of course, he was not sane. What shocked Speer when he reported to Hitler at this time was how men like Goering, Jodl, Himmler, and Borrmann kept reassurring Der Fuhrer that it would all turn around in his favor. "Surely," Goering argued, "the British can't be happy with the thought of Russians in Germany. Very soon they will make peace with us and become our allies against the Soviets." Hitler brightened at this talk, and believed it. The worst of all, wrote Speer later, was Goebbels, who continued to agree with everything Hitler said, no matter how foolish.
Hitler could no longer take advantage of his central position, giving him interior lines between East and West, because Allied air power had destroyed his mobility. German railroads were moving only a third of the traffic they had been handling 6 months earlier. The autobahn was all but worthless. Hitler had boasted how this highway network, which had been designed and built under his direct supervision, would allow him to easily shift forces from one front to the other, but without fuel and under constant Allied surveillance, it was of no help. Moreover, all of the concrete, steel, and labor expended in building these roads might have been better put to use building a Siegfried Line in the east, which might have hampered the Russian onslaught. But it was not to be.
During the second half of January Rokkossovsky in the north reached the Bay of Danzig and cut off 25 divisions trapped in East Prussia. In the south, Konev broke into Upper Silesia from Cracow and menaced Breslau. The Soviets were now in the only corner of Hitler's empire that had not felt the wrath of Allied air. Because of the decline of coal production in the Ruhr, the Silesian mines had become Germany's chief source of supply, providing a full 60% of production in December of 1944. Now they were lost at a time when Germany's railroads, power plants and factories had stocks for only 2 weeks more. This, Speer reported to Hitler, had created "an unbearable situation." Because of this loss Speer said that he could provide only a quarter of the coal and a 6th of the steel produced a year ago. Capture of Silesia had also given the Soviets possession of those factories which Hitler had moved east to escape destruction from Allied air. They even seized 3 synthetic fuel plants just starting production. And in the Soviet center, Zhukov was driving toward Berlin. He advanced 220 miles and by January 27 he had crashed through the German frontier and was only 100 miles from the Nazi capital. The Germans could slow his movement through a concentration of forces, but to what end?
Any sane leader would have realized the war was lost long since, and that the only result of continued fighting would be the utter destruction of what was left of Germany, along with a complete starvation of her populace. Certainly this is what the leaders of Germany in November of 1918 had realized in much the same situation (though not nearly as bad.) But Hitler had always scorned those leaders. And of course, he was not sane. What shocked Speer when he reported to Hitler at this time was how men like Goering, Jodl, Himmler, and Borrmann kept reassurring Der Fuhrer that it would all turn around in his favor. "Surely," Goering argued, "the British can't be happy with the thought of Russians in Germany. Very soon they will make peace with us and become our allies against the Soviets." Hitler brightened at this talk, and believed it. The worst of all, wrote Speer later, was Goebbels, who continued to agree with everything Hitler said, no matter how foolish.
timschochet
Footballguy
Yalta, Part One
In the summer of 1944, Franklin Roosevelt's doctors advised him not to run again for President. They told him he was physically and mentally exhausted, and might not survive another year of stress. FDR never seriously considered this. The war had yet to be won. Important decisions had to be made that he would not leave to others. He wanted the United Nations and his vision of the postwar world enacted, and he had in mind a world in which the United States and the Soviet Union would be allies, acting as world policemen. Though this viewpoint was extremely naive given the nature of Joseph Stalin, Roosevelt stuck with it despite increasing reservations stated by Churchill.
So FDR campaigned in 1944 as he had done so many times before, exhausting his frail body even more. But there would be one change: he was not satisfied with his vice president, Henry Wallace. Wallace was far too progressive, especially with regard to African Americans, and although Eleanor sympathized, FDR was concerned about grumblings from his Democratic allies down south. Wallace had to go. To replace him, FDR selected a little known senator from Missouri, Truman, who had made a name for himself during hearings on Army excess spending. Not much thought was put into this selection. Truman, from a southern machine state run by a man known as Boss Pendergrast, would assure more southern votes. He was safe. Roosevelt knew nothing about him. The two men met on a couple of occassions, and nothing serious was discussed.
Truman knew very little about the war strategy. Even after the election (the outcome of which was never seriously in question) Truman was not invited to attend war conferences. He was not a party to what happened at Yalta. And of vital importance to this narrative later on, Truman knew absolutely nothing about the Manhattan Project or about nuclear weapons. This level of ignorance would continue until the day after Roosevelt died a few months later.
A conference of the Big Three was first proposed by FDR in November 1944 after his reelection victory, but it was not convened until February 1945, and then only according to a timetable carefully contrived by Stalin. Ambassador Andrei Gromyko told FDR that Stalin was much too busy directing the war personally- that is, nailing down the military conquest of Europe- to leave the Soviet Union. This it was not against a backdrop of the successful Anglo-American drive to the German border or the great victory at Leyte Gulf that the Big Three conferred, but rather in the wake of the Red Army's dazzling winter offensive and what appeared to be an American defeat at the Battle of the Bulge.
The need for such a conference was obvious. Germany was collapsing, and there were no agreements about what to do with her after her defeat. As previously stated, Roosevelt was also determined to obtain from Stalin a commitment to declare war on Japan. There were problems of the United Nations to sort out, the most important being the Soviet insistence that the Big Three should have veto powers in the Security Council. Finally, there was the question of Poland, the country where the war had started in the first place.
In the summer of 1944, Franklin Roosevelt's doctors advised him not to run again for President. They told him he was physically and mentally exhausted, and might not survive another year of stress. FDR never seriously considered this. The war had yet to be won. Important decisions had to be made that he would not leave to others. He wanted the United Nations and his vision of the postwar world enacted, and he had in mind a world in which the United States and the Soviet Union would be allies, acting as world policemen. Though this viewpoint was extremely naive given the nature of Joseph Stalin, Roosevelt stuck with it despite increasing reservations stated by Churchill.
So FDR campaigned in 1944 as he had done so many times before, exhausting his frail body even more. But there would be one change: he was not satisfied with his vice president, Henry Wallace. Wallace was far too progressive, especially with regard to African Americans, and although Eleanor sympathized, FDR was concerned about grumblings from his Democratic allies down south. Wallace had to go. To replace him, FDR selected a little known senator from Missouri, Truman, who had made a name for himself during hearings on Army excess spending. Not much thought was put into this selection. Truman, from a southern machine state run by a man known as Boss Pendergrast, would assure more southern votes. He was safe. Roosevelt knew nothing about him. The two men met on a couple of occassions, and nothing serious was discussed.
Truman knew very little about the war strategy. Even after the election (the outcome of which was never seriously in question) Truman was not invited to attend war conferences. He was not a party to what happened at Yalta. And of vital importance to this narrative later on, Truman knew absolutely nothing about the Manhattan Project or about nuclear weapons. This level of ignorance would continue until the day after Roosevelt died a few months later.
A conference of the Big Three was first proposed by FDR in November 1944 after his reelection victory, but it was not convened until February 1945, and then only according to a timetable carefully contrived by Stalin. Ambassador Andrei Gromyko told FDR that Stalin was much too busy directing the war personally- that is, nailing down the military conquest of Europe- to leave the Soviet Union. This it was not against a backdrop of the successful Anglo-American drive to the German border or the great victory at Leyte Gulf that the Big Three conferred, but rather in the wake of the Red Army's dazzling winter offensive and what appeared to be an American defeat at the Battle of the Bulge.
The need for such a conference was obvious. Germany was collapsing, and there were no agreements about what to do with her after her defeat. As previously stated, Roosevelt was also determined to obtain from Stalin a commitment to declare war on Japan. There were problems of the United Nations to sort out, the most important being the Soviet insistence that the Big Three should have veto powers in the Security Council. Finally, there was the question of Poland, the country where the war had started in the first place.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
There is no doubt that Wallace's views on race were extremely enlightened for his time, and he was absolutely correct on that account. On the other hand, his sympathy for the Soviet Union, his acquiescence in the view that the prisoners in the Gulag were "volunteers", and his refusal to disassociate himself from the Communist Party, made him a liability.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
I must mention here a soldier on Okinawa who had a personal epiphany when visiting the battlefield 35 years later. His account taught me a lot about war, brotherhood and the human experience.
William Manchester was an award winning author who wrote American Caesar, a biography of General MacArthur, The Death of a President at the request of the Kennedy family, and The Last Lion, a biography of Winston Churchill. He served in Okinawa, was wounded, and sent to the hospital. While there, he heard his unit was under attack, and in violation of his orders, he escaped from the hospital and returned to the front lines.
As he stood on the piece of ground where his unit had fought, and where the survival was generally measured in hours, he wrote: "And then, in one of those great thundering jolts in which a man's real motives are revealed to him in an electrifying vision, I understood at last, why I had jumped hospital 35 years ago and, in violation of orders, returned to the front line and almost certain death.
It was an act of love. Those men on the line were my family, my home. They were closer to me than I can say, closer than any friends had been or ever would be. They had never let me down, and I couldn’t do it to them. I had to be with them, rather than let them die and me live with the knowledge that I might have saved them. Men, I now knew, do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another." (Goodbye Darkness)
Well, I think he overstates it a little, but there is no doubt that they fight for one another.
William Manchester was an award winning author who wrote American Caesar, a biography of General MacArthur, The Death of a President at the request of the Kennedy family, and The Last Lion, a biography of Winston Churchill. He served in Okinawa, was wounded, and sent to the hospital. While there, he heard his unit was under attack, and in violation of his orders, he escaped from the hospital and returned to the front lines.
As he stood on the piece of ground where his unit had fought, and where the survival was generally measured in hours, he wrote: "And then, in one of those great thundering jolts in which a man's real motives are revealed to him in an electrifying vision, I understood at last, why I had jumped hospital 35 years ago and, in violation of orders, returned to the front line and almost certain death.
It was an act of love. Those men on the line were my family, my home. They were closer to me than I can say, closer than any friends had been or ever would be. They had never let me down, and I couldn’t do it to them. I had to be with them, rather than let them die and me live with the knowledge that I might have saved them. Men, I now knew, do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another." (Goodbye Darkness)
Well, I think he overstates it a little, but there is no doubt that they fight for one another.
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timschochet
Footballguy
I think Manchester is one of the greatest writers I have ever read. Politically, he was a centrist, defending both right and left when it made sense to him to do so. Although the books on MacArthur and Churchill were simply magnificent, his most amazing work IMO is The Glory And The Dream, which I have used quite liberally as a source for this thread.
timschochet
Footballguy
Yalta, continued
Poland was a particularly disturbing problem for the Britain because it was for Poland, after all, that she had gone to war. British honor was obliged to guarantee the restoration of a free, independent and sovereign Polish nation. But for a year Churchill had struggled unsuccessfully to reconcile Stalin with the London-based Polish government-in-exile. Stalin insisted that the Soviet-Polish border should be the Curzon Line of 1919, which would allow the Soviets to keep most of the territories they seized in September of 1939. Stalin promised that in return Poland would receive all of East Prussia up to the Neisse River. The London Poles, however, demurred, and this gave Stalin the excuse for setting up in Lublin his own National Committee of Liberation composed of Polish Communists loyal to Stalin. Churchill now feared that if the Red Army occupied Poland, the bargaining power of the London Poles would be fatally weakened. In point of fact it was already non-existant. But Churchill had an even greater problem: he no longer had any trust in the judgment of Franklin Roosevelt.
In FDR's vision of a postwar world of international peace and self-determination for all peoples there simply was no room for colonialism. He regarded colonialism as the root of all international evil. "The colonial system means war," he told his son Elliot. In contrast to this idealistic, if not simplistic, concept of the nature of nations was Churchill's realistic albeit self-interested understanding that nations are less likely to commit aggressive actions leading to war if they are restrained by a balance of power preserved by alliances. He said, "It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism were to overly the culture and independence of the ancient states of Europe." He had become sensitive to the Soviet Union's enormous military power and believed it could only be counterbalanced by a strong British Empire, a firm Anglo-American alliance and a United States of Europe. To Roosevelt this was all abhorrent. Worse, his naive faith in the Soviets was shared by every top-level member of the New Deal as well as its war chiefs. 6 months after Yalta, Harry Hopkins wrote, "The Russians want to be our friends...they are trustworthy." Dwight Eisenhower agreed.
These decisions would doom the Eastern Europeans to 40 years of slavery. Perhaps worse for America in the long run, the antipathy to colonialism has contributed a great deal to the modern problems America faces, especially in the Middle East. Yet it's hard to see how FDR, even had he been much more realistic, could have changed things. By allowing the Russians to have their way in Eastern Europe he was merely accepting a fait accompli. The Red Army was there already. Short of war, it's hard to see what we could have done to stop them from doing what they wanted. And while FDR's views certainly hurt the British Empire, it would die in India and elsewhere anyhow because they could not afford the cost to maintain them any longer. But the Americans misleading themselves about Russia certainly did not do us any good.
Poland was a particularly disturbing problem for the Britain because it was for Poland, after all, that she had gone to war. British honor was obliged to guarantee the restoration of a free, independent and sovereign Polish nation. But for a year Churchill had struggled unsuccessfully to reconcile Stalin with the London-based Polish government-in-exile. Stalin insisted that the Soviet-Polish border should be the Curzon Line of 1919, which would allow the Soviets to keep most of the territories they seized in September of 1939. Stalin promised that in return Poland would receive all of East Prussia up to the Neisse River. The London Poles, however, demurred, and this gave Stalin the excuse for setting up in Lublin his own National Committee of Liberation composed of Polish Communists loyal to Stalin. Churchill now feared that if the Red Army occupied Poland, the bargaining power of the London Poles would be fatally weakened. In point of fact it was already non-existant. But Churchill had an even greater problem: he no longer had any trust in the judgment of Franklin Roosevelt.
In FDR's vision of a postwar world of international peace and self-determination for all peoples there simply was no room for colonialism. He regarded colonialism as the root of all international evil. "The colonial system means war," he told his son Elliot. In contrast to this idealistic, if not simplistic, concept of the nature of nations was Churchill's realistic albeit self-interested understanding that nations are less likely to commit aggressive actions leading to war if they are restrained by a balance of power preserved by alliances. He said, "It would be a measureless disaster if Russian barbarism were to overly the culture and independence of the ancient states of Europe." He had become sensitive to the Soviet Union's enormous military power and believed it could only be counterbalanced by a strong British Empire, a firm Anglo-American alliance and a United States of Europe. To Roosevelt this was all abhorrent. Worse, his naive faith in the Soviets was shared by every top-level member of the New Deal as well as its war chiefs. 6 months after Yalta, Harry Hopkins wrote, "The Russians want to be our friends...they are trustworthy." Dwight Eisenhower agreed.
These decisions would doom the Eastern Europeans to 40 years of slavery. Perhaps worse for America in the long run, the antipathy to colonialism has contributed a great deal to the modern problems America faces, especially in the Middle East. Yet it's hard to see how FDR, even had he been much more realistic, could have changed things. By allowing the Russians to have their way in Eastern Europe he was merely accepting a fait accompli. The Red Army was there already. Short of war, it's hard to see what we could have done to stop them from doing what they wanted. And while FDR's views certainly hurt the British Empire, it would die in India and elsewhere anyhow because they could not afford the cost to maintain them any longer. But the Americans misleading themselves about Russia certainly did not do us any good.
timschochet
Footballguy
Yalta, Concluded
Yalta was Joseph Stalin's finest hour, and throughout the conference he got everything he wanted. First, the question of Poland's frontiers was settled exactly as the Russians had proposed. Next, he rejected FDR's suggestion that a new Polish government be formed from the London Poles. Stalin openly stated that they were "imperialists" who could not be trusted, and that the Lublin Poles (Communists) must be the new government. Churchill angrily replied that the British could never accept this, and for the moment the issue was dropped. A few days later, Stalin offered a compromise: a coalition of the two groups into one government. FDR eagerly pushed Churchill for acceptance, which the British never actually gave. The issue was finally pushed aside. The few London Poles who actually returned to Poland to take part in this sham were either converted to Communism, executed, or imprisoned. In the end the British did nothing: what could they do?
Stalin next agreed to declare war on Japan 2-3 months after the inevitable German surrender, but in exchange he demanded influence over Outer Mongolia and possession of the Kurile Islands, which he claimed were taken from Russia in the 1904 war. FDR agreed; he said, "This seems like a very reasonable suggestion...they only want to get back what was taken from them." In point of fact, the Kuriles had never belonged to Russia. Why no British or American diplomats bothered to point this out remains incomprehensible. Stalin made no specific commitment of how Japan would be attacked. Then, having been given what he wanted by the western Allies and perceiving their weakness, he decided to increase his demands. Now he also demanded that Manchurian railways would be operated by a "joint Soviet-Chinese company which was to protect the interests of the Soviet Union". This was equal to handing Manchuria to Russia, which she never would have dreamed attempting to seize by force. It was a betrayal of Chiang Kai Shek, and it would eventually contribute to his fall to the Chinese Communists. Yet again FDR agreed.
And even this was not enough to satisfy the Russian dictator. Now he brazenly demanded 20 billion in reparations from Germany, most of which would go to Russia "as the one party truly deserving." At first FDR appeared to finally have had enough. He recognized, as did Churchill and Anthony Eden, that to do this would ruin Germany and force the Americans and British to feed her people. (A destitute Germany also increased the chances of Communism taking hold there, which was exactly what Stalin intended.) FDR was about to refuse, when Harry Hopkins wrote him a note, which contained the astonishing sentence:
Mr. President, the Russians have given in so much at this Conference that I do not think we should let them down.
When it came to appeasement, even Neville Chamberlain had nothing on Harry Hopkins! In attempting to defend Yalta, Robert Leckie writes in Delivered From Evil:
In defense of Roosevelt of Churchill, it must be stated that they could not have forseen that Stalin would distort and misinterpret the Yalta Protocol as he saw fit, and would promptly and consistently violate those principles of the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations to which at Yalta he had given solemn reaffirmations. Even Churchill was elated by what appeared to be the great diplomatic victory of the Western Allies. Both he and Roosevelt were pragmatists who made the mistake of taking Stalin at face value. They could never imagine the extent of his perfidy.
I have relied on Leckie plenty in this thread and I admire him as a writer. But I have to take issue with this paragraph, and ask, why could they not have forseen that Stalin would do as he did? Why could they never imagine the extent of his perfidy? Stalin's entire career had been one of lies, mass murder, and paranoia. If there is a single instance of him behaving in an honorable manner, I have no idea what it is. He was the greatest monster in history (or second greatest, if you consider Hitler #1) and none of this was unknown to Churchill or FDR. I can understand making agreements with him in terms of our own immediate interest, but to trust him to keep those agreements if it does not suit him was a terrible mistake, and in my opinion cannot be defended. Yalta, like Munich, must in the end be seen as an unfortunate surrender to evil.
Yalta was Joseph Stalin's finest hour, and throughout the conference he got everything he wanted. First, the question of Poland's frontiers was settled exactly as the Russians had proposed. Next, he rejected FDR's suggestion that a new Polish government be formed from the London Poles. Stalin openly stated that they were "imperialists" who could not be trusted, and that the Lublin Poles (Communists) must be the new government. Churchill angrily replied that the British could never accept this, and for the moment the issue was dropped. A few days later, Stalin offered a compromise: a coalition of the two groups into one government. FDR eagerly pushed Churchill for acceptance, which the British never actually gave. The issue was finally pushed aside. The few London Poles who actually returned to Poland to take part in this sham were either converted to Communism, executed, or imprisoned. In the end the British did nothing: what could they do?
Stalin next agreed to declare war on Japan 2-3 months after the inevitable German surrender, but in exchange he demanded influence over Outer Mongolia and possession of the Kurile Islands, which he claimed were taken from Russia in the 1904 war. FDR agreed; he said, "This seems like a very reasonable suggestion...they only want to get back what was taken from them." In point of fact, the Kuriles had never belonged to Russia. Why no British or American diplomats bothered to point this out remains incomprehensible. Stalin made no specific commitment of how Japan would be attacked. Then, having been given what he wanted by the western Allies and perceiving their weakness, he decided to increase his demands. Now he also demanded that Manchurian railways would be operated by a "joint Soviet-Chinese company which was to protect the interests of the Soviet Union". This was equal to handing Manchuria to Russia, which she never would have dreamed attempting to seize by force. It was a betrayal of Chiang Kai Shek, and it would eventually contribute to his fall to the Chinese Communists. Yet again FDR agreed.
And even this was not enough to satisfy the Russian dictator. Now he brazenly demanded 20 billion in reparations from Germany, most of which would go to Russia "as the one party truly deserving." At first FDR appeared to finally have had enough. He recognized, as did Churchill and Anthony Eden, that to do this would ruin Germany and force the Americans and British to feed her people. (A destitute Germany also increased the chances of Communism taking hold there, which was exactly what Stalin intended.) FDR was about to refuse, when Harry Hopkins wrote him a note, which contained the astonishing sentence:
Mr. President, the Russians have given in so much at this Conference that I do not think we should let them down.
When it came to appeasement, even Neville Chamberlain had nothing on Harry Hopkins! In attempting to defend Yalta, Robert Leckie writes in Delivered From Evil:
In defense of Roosevelt of Churchill, it must be stated that they could not have forseen that Stalin would distort and misinterpret the Yalta Protocol as he saw fit, and would promptly and consistently violate those principles of the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations to which at Yalta he had given solemn reaffirmations. Even Churchill was elated by what appeared to be the great diplomatic victory of the Western Allies. Both he and Roosevelt were pragmatists who made the mistake of taking Stalin at face value. They could never imagine the extent of his perfidy.
I have relied on Leckie plenty in this thread and I admire him as a writer. But I have to take issue with this paragraph, and ask, why could they not have forseen that Stalin would do as he did? Why could they never imagine the extent of his perfidy? Stalin's entire career had been one of lies, mass murder, and paranoia. If there is a single instance of him behaving in an honorable manner, I have no idea what it is. He was the greatest monster in history (or second greatest, if you consider Hitler #1) and none of this was unknown to Churchill or FDR. I can understand making agreements with him in terms of our own immediate interest, but to trust him to keep those agreements if it does not suit him was a terrible mistake, and in my opinion cannot be defended. Yalta, like Munich, must in the end be seen as an unfortunate surrender to evil.
timschochet
Footballguy
White Christmas
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the best selling single of all time.
Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"
The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941 and the recording is not believed to have survived. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942, and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm songs from the film Holiday Inn. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song. He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving."
The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by the film's first hit song: "Be Careful, It's my Heart". By the end of October 1942, however, "White Christmas" topped the "Your Hit Parade" chart. It remained in that position until well into the new year] (It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy — "just like the ones I used to know" — with comforting images of home — "where the treetops glisten" — resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II. The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song.)
In 1942 alone, Crosby's recording spent eleven weeks on top of the Billboard charts. The original version also hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for three weeks, Crosby's first-ever appearance on the black-oriented chart. Re-released by Decca, the single returned to the #1 spot during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946 (on the chart dated January 4, 1947), thus becoming the only single with three separate runs at the top of the U.S. charts. The recording became a chart perennial, reappearing annually on the pop chart twenty separate times before Billboard Magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases.
Following its prominence in in the musical Holiday Inn, the composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In the film, Bing Crosby sings "White Christmas" as a duet with actress Marjorie Reynolds, though her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears. This now-familiar scene was not the moviemakers' initial plan; in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.
The familiar version of "White Christmas" most often heard today is not the one Crosby recorded in 1942. He was called to Decca studios on March 18, 1947, to re-record the track; the 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use. Efforts were made to exactly reproduce the original recording session, and Crosby was again backed by the Trotter Orchestra and the Darby Singers Even so, there are subtle differences in the orchestration, most notably the addition of a celesta and flutes to brighten up the introduction.
Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully." But Crosby was associated with it for the rest of his career. Another Crosby vehicle — the 1954 musical White Christmas — was the highest-grossing film of 1954.
Crosby's "White Christmas" single has been credited with selling 50 million copies, the most by any release. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the song as a 100-million seller, encompassing all versions of the song, including albums. Crosby's holiday collection Merry Christmas was first released as an LP in 1949, and has never been out-of-print since. However, due to incomplete record keeping before 1958, "White Christmas" is officially listed as the second best-selling single worldwide.
"ItsRanked" ranked Crosby's "White Christmas" as the number one Christmas song on its Top 40 Christmas Songs of all time. In 1999, National Public Radio included it in the "NPR 100", which sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. In 2002, the original 1942 version was one of 50 historically significant recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
The recording was broadcast on the radio on April 30, 1975, as a secret, pre-arranged signal precipitating the U.S. evacuation of Saigon.
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the best selling single of all time.
Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"
The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941 and the recording is not believed to have survived. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942, and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm songs from the film Holiday Inn. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song. He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving."
The song initially performed poorly and was overshadowed by the film's first hit song: "Be Careful, It's my Heart". By the end of October 1942, however, "White Christmas" topped the "Your Hit Parade" chart. It remained in that position until well into the new year] (It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy — "just like the ones I used to know" — with comforting images of home — "where the treetops glisten" — resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II. The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song.)
In 1942 alone, Crosby's recording spent eleven weeks on top of the Billboard charts. The original version also hit number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for three weeks, Crosby's first-ever appearance on the black-oriented chart. Re-released by Decca, the single returned to the #1 spot during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946 (on the chart dated January 4, 1947), thus becoming the only single with three separate runs at the top of the U.S. charts. The recording became a chart perennial, reappearing annually on the pop chart twenty separate times before Billboard Magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases.
Following its prominence in in the musical Holiday Inn, the composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In the film, Bing Crosby sings "White Christmas" as a duet with actress Marjorie Reynolds, though her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears. This now-familiar scene was not the moviemakers' initial plan; in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.
The familiar version of "White Christmas" most often heard today is not the one Crosby recorded in 1942. He was called to Decca studios on March 18, 1947, to re-record the track; the 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use. Efforts were made to exactly reproduce the original recording session, and Crosby was again backed by the Trotter Orchestra and the Darby Singers Even so, there are subtle differences in the orchestration, most notably the addition of a celesta and flutes to brighten up the introduction.
Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully." But Crosby was associated with it for the rest of his career. Another Crosby vehicle — the 1954 musical White Christmas — was the highest-grossing film of 1954.
Crosby's "White Christmas" single has been credited with selling 50 million copies, the most by any release. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the song as a 100-million seller, encompassing all versions of the song, including albums. Crosby's holiday collection Merry Christmas was first released as an LP in 1949, and has never been out-of-print since. However, due to incomplete record keeping before 1958, "White Christmas" is officially listed as the second best-selling single worldwide.
"ItsRanked" ranked Crosby's "White Christmas" as the number one Christmas song on its Top 40 Christmas Songs of all time. In 1999, National Public Radio included it in the "NPR 100", which sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. In 2002, the original 1942 version was one of 50 historically significant recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
The recording was broadcast on the radio on April 30, 1975, as a secret, pre-arranged signal precipitating the U.S. evacuation of Saigon.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Death of Roosevelt
Ozymandias has described the fearsome battle of Okinawa. In the middle of that battle, as the 6th Marines were driving Udo's survivors to the crest of Mount Yaetake, they suddenly heard a bullhorn blaring at sea:
Attention! Attention all hands! President Roosevelt is dead! Repeat, our supreme commander, President Roosevelt, is dead!
The president died at 3:35 pm, April 12, 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia. He was 63; the cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage probably resulting from arteriosclerosis. But historians commonly attribute it to exhaustion. No POTUS had ever served 13 years in office. No POTUS, with the exception of Lincoln, had to deal with a constant crisis throughout his presidency with the survival of the nation at stake. Kept secret from the public was the fact that he died with his longtime girlfriend, Lucy Rutherford, at his side: it was a time when the private affairs of celebrities were considered off-limits.
Marines and soldiers, airmen and sailors fighting on above and around Okinawa were stunned by the news of the death of Roosevelt. Many of them wept, most of them prayed. So many of these youths had known no president other than FDR. Having voted for him overwhelmingly in the last election, they had shown how much they truly loved him, had depended on him- how much they did not realize until that he was dead. But the war continued.
In the bunker below the Reich Chancellory there was a celebration. "Mein Fuhrer," rejoiced Goebbels, "The madman has croaked!" Hitler predicted this would be the sign of a great and miraculous turnaround. He ordered his armies in the west to take advantage of the confusion this must surely be causing among the Allies and attack. But there were no organized armies in the west any longer. The poor, starved pockets of resistance that remained were fleeing for their lives from Patton's onslaught (I will get to this shortly) and ignored their leader's impossible demands.
No President since Lincoln was mourned as deeply as FDR. As his funeral train moved out of Warm Springs bound for Washington late in the morning of April 13, the train moving slowly at 35 miles an hour passed through the small towns of the Carolinas and Virginia. The stations were thronged with mourners, who had stood for hours waiting for it. Eleanor, who had flown to Warm Springs from Washington, was aboard her husband's favorite car, the Ferdinand Magellan. She wrote of its progress:
I lay in my berth all night with the window-shade up, looking out at the countryside he had loved and watching the faces o the people at the stations, and even at the crossroads...The only recollection I clearly have is thinking about "The Lonesome Train", the musical poem about Lincoln's death. I had always liked it so well- and now this was so much like it. I was truly surprised by the people along the way...I didn't realize the full scope of the devotion to him until after he died.
Ozymandias has described the fearsome battle of Okinawa. In the middle of that battle, as the 6th Marines were driving Udo's survivors to the crest of Mount Yaetake, they suddenly heard a bullhorn blaring at sea:
Attention! Attention all hands! President Roosevelt is dead! Repeat, our supreme commander, President Roosevelt, is dead!
The president died at 3:35 pm, April 12, 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia. He was 63; the cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage probably resulting from arteriosclerosis. But historians commonly attribute it to exhaustion. No POTUS had ever served 13 years in office. No POTUS, with the exception of Lincoln, had to deal with a constant crisis throughout his presidency with the survival of the nation at stake. Kept secret from the public was the fact that he died with his longtime girlfriend, Lucy Rutherford, at his side: it was a time when the private affairs of celebrities were considered off-limits.
Marines and soldiers, airmen and sailors fighting on above and around Okinawa were stunned by the news of the death of Roosevelt. Many of them wept, most of them prayed. So many of these youths had known no president other than FDR. Having voted for him overwhelmingly in the last election, they had shown how much they truly loved him, had depended on him- how much they did not realize until that he was dead. But the war continued.
In the bunker below the Reich Chancellory there was a celebration. "Mein Fuhrer," rejoiced Goebbels, "The madman has croaked!" Hitler predicted this would be the sign of a great and miraculous turnaround. He ordered his armies in the west to take advantage of the confusion this must surely be causing among the Allies and attack. But there were no organized armies in the west any longer. The poor, starved pockets of resistance that remained were fleeing for their lives from Patton's onslaught (I will get to this shortly) and ignored their leader's impossible demands.
No President since Lincoln was mourned as deeply as FDR. As his funeral train moved out of Warm Springs bound for Washington late in the morning of April 13, the train moving slowly at 35 miles an hour passed through the small towns of the Carolinas and Virginia. The stations were thronged with mourners, who had stood for hours waiting for it. Eleanor, who had flown to Warm Springs from Washington, was aboard her husband's favorite car, the Ferdinand Magellan. She wrote of its progress:
I lay in my berth all night with the window-shade up, looking out at the countryside he had loved and watching the faces o the people at the stations, and even at the crossroads...The only recollection I clearly have is thinking about "The Lonesome Train", the musical poem about Lincoln's death. I had always liked it so well- and now this was so much like it. I was truly surprised by the people along the way...I didn't realize the full scope of the devotion to him until after he died.
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timschochet
Footballguy
Truman
No one was more shocked by FDR's death than Vice President Harry S. Truman. When he met with reporters and was asked how he felt, he countered: "Did you ever have a cow fall on you?" But he quickly recovered, sent for the Cabinet and prepared to take the oath as the 33rd president of the United States. Many Amercians when they heard of FDR's death had paused, and then cried, "Oh, my God, Truman!"
It seemed like a terrible prospect. This neat little man in the bow tie and rimless glasses seemed to be the essence of mediocrity, chosen by Roosevelt as his running mate because of his ability to get along with Congress. FDR had treated him almost like a fifth wheel, confiding in him little. On such things as the atomic bomb or the agreements at Yalta, Truman was completely in the dark. He always said the first months of his presidency was "on-the-job training."
But he learned quickly. Perhaps because of his very simplicity, his direct mind uncomplicated by subtlety or nuance or guile, he was among all high-ranking Americans the quickest to recognize what sort of man Josef Stalin actually was. History would show that it was chiefly due to Truman's simple courage and decisiveness that the Red flag did not fly over Western Europe and Japan.
No one was more shocked by FDR's death than Vice President Harry S. Truman. When he met with reporters and was asked how he felt, he countered: "Did you ever have a cow fall on you?" But he quickly recovered, sent for the Cabinet and prepared to take the oath as the 33rd president of the United States. Many Amercians when they heard of FDR's death had paused, and then cried, "Oh, my God, Truman!"
It seemed like a terrible prospect. This neat little man in the bow tie and rimless glasses seemed to be the essence of mediocrity, chosen by Roosevelt as his running mate because of his ability to get along with Congress. FDR had treated him almost like a fifth wheel, confiding in him little. On such things as the atomic bomb or the agreements at Yalta, Truman was completely in the dark. He always said the first months of his presidency was "on-the-job training."
But he learned quickly. Perhaps because of his very simplicity, his direct mind uncomplicated by subtlety or nuance or guile, he was among all high-ranking Americans the quickest to recognize what sort of man Josef Stalin actually was. History would show that it was chiefly due to Truman's simple courage and decisiveness that the Red flag did not fly over Western Europe and Japan.
Ozymandias
Footballguy
Truman brings to mind Shakespeare's quote: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." In a sense, Truman had greatness thrust upon him, because he came to power at a unique moment in the world's history. But it was his character qualities which helped him achieve greatness.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Drive Into Germany
The decision of the Big Three at Yalta to persist in the policy of Unconditional Surrender guaranteed that Germany would not be defeated until the armies of the Anglo-Americans in the West and the Soviets in the East met in the heart of Europe. By February of 1945 it was clear that this moment was now imminent.
The Wehrmacht could no longer be fed and fueled by German industry. Soviet forces had captured the new industries of Upper Silesia, and the Ruhr lay in ruins. The "new weapons" upon which Hitler relied so heavily were simply not forthcoming in sufficient numbers to make a difference. February production of jet aircraft was only 283, and few of these were able to zoom aloft becuase their special airfields with unusually long runways were easily identified and bombed into futility. The flow of V2 bombs could not be maintained, and Doenitz's promise of recovery at sea was also a delusion.
Meanwhile Eisenhower had new divisions arriving at a rate of 1 per week.
Hitler's refusal to yield had brought him to the verge of renouncing the Geneva Convention so that he might slaughter captured Allied prisoners. He was dissuaded by Doenitz and Speer, who insisted it would make things even worse. Nevertheless, his unbending stand was approved by the vast inarticulate mass of the German people. They not only feared the anarchy that would erupt upon any internal collapse, they dreaded the prospect of having the Fatherland overrun by Soviet soldiers whom they considered barbarians. (As we shall see, Stalin intended to prove them right about this.) There was an unstated but prevalent desire among most Germans: surrender to the Americans, and keep the Russians out.
Although Hitler still thought of holding firm on both fronts, the reality of the threat to Berlin compelled him to give priority to the East. Confident that the Anglo-Americans could not recover from the Ardennes campaign in time for a winter offensive, he stripped the West of more than half its panzer divisions and in February sent 1,675 tanks and assault guns to the East. In this Hitler again underestimated the resiliance of the Americans. Eisenhower had no intention of waiting until spring. He wanted to cross the Rhine NOW. Again he was met with resistance from the ever cautious Montgomery. Ike planned a double thrust with crossings at the upper and lower Rhine aimed at encircling the enemy. This plan was patterned after Hannibal's double envelopment of the Romals at Cannae. Hannibal had been Ike's boyhood hero. After more stormy debates with the British in which they only agreed to the plan after Marshall threatened to resign, the attack was set for February 8, 1945.
At first the weather favored the Germans. Following a heavy bombardment, one of the bloodiest battles of the war ensued as the British 2nd and Canadian 1st Armies attacked in the north. The Germans were pushed back steadily. By February 21 the Anglo-Canadians had reached the Rhine, and the Germans retreated east of the river and blew the bridges. At this point the Anglo-American air forces combined for the fiercest aerial attack of the war. On two days (Feb. 22-23) more than 16,000 sorties were flown and 20,000 tons of bombs dropped.
The US 9th Army under Simpson was poised on the Roer River on Monty's southern flank. The Americans planned to cross in floating assault bridges. But the desperate Germans destroyed the penstocks to produce a calculated flpw to swell the river 4 feet above its normal level and flood large areas. Simpson's soldiers had to wait 2 weeks for the waters to subside before passing. By March 13 all the northern half of the west bank of the Rhine was in Allied hands.
In the center Bradley's 1st Army under Hodges and the 3rd Army led by Patton also closed on the Rhine. Hodges took Cologne on March 7 an the Germans retreated across the river, again blowing bridges. Patton reached the Rhine near Coblenz while below him Devers and his American and French forces linked up with his southern flank.
Eisenhower's double thrusting broad advance had been a brilliant success. The enemy had lost 250,000 men taken prisoner, in addition to untold scores of thousands killed and hundreds of thousands wounded. The Rhineland lay at the feet of the Allies. Tanks rolled through the streets in town after town to find the windows of all of the houses shuttered with white sheets of surrender hanging from them. But even as the Anglo-Americans closed on the historic broad Rhine, they heard and saw scores of bridges rise into the air and fall into the river in pieces. On the orders of Hitler, any commander who allowed a bridge in his sector to be captured intact would be shot. Not since Napoleon in 1805 had an enemy crossed the Rhine in war. In the center between Cologne in the north and Bonn in the south the river was an especially formidable barrier. Peaks rising from the east side gave the Germans the opportunity to deliver a murderous, plunging fire on anyone attempting to cross below. Great as Ike's campaign had been, it appeared that, in an opposed Rhine crossing, he faced extremely costly, perhaps even prohibitive losses. But then in the gray, drizzly daylight of March 7, the 9th Armored Division, spearheading the advance of Hodge's 1st Army against the Bonn-Cologne center, split into 2 columns, one under Brig. Gen. William H. Hoge made for the Ahr River in hopes of capturing a bridge there, the other drove toward the Rhine intent on capturing the town of Remagen on the west bank.
The decision of the Big Three at Yalta to persist in the policy of Unconditional Surrender guaranteed that Germany would not be defeated until the armies of the Anglo-Americans in the West and the Soviets in the East met in the heart of Europe. By February of 1945 it was clear that this moment was now imminent.
The Wehrmacht could no longer be fed and fueled by German industry. Soviet forces had captured the new industries of Upper Silesia, and the Ruhr lay in ruins. The "new weapons" upon which Hitler relied so heavily were simply not forthcoming in sufficient numbers to make a difference. February production of jet aircraft was only 283, and few of these were able to zoom aloft becuase their special airfields with unusually long runways were easily identified and bombed into futility. The flow of V2 bombs could not be maintained, and Doenitz's promise of recovery at sea was also a delusion.
Meanwhile Eisenhower had new divisions arriving at a rate of 1 per week.
Hitler's refusal to yield had brought him to the verge of renouncing the Geneva Convention so that he might slaughter captured Allied prisoners. He was dissuaded by Doenitz and Speer, who insisted it would make things even worse. Nevertheless, his unbending stand was approved by the vast inarticulate mass of the German people. They not only feared the anarchy that would erupt upon any internal collapse, they dreaded the prospect of having the Fatherland overrun by Soviet soldiers whom they considered barbarians. (As we shall see, Stalin intended to prove them right about this.) There was an unstated but prevalent desire among most Germans: surrender to the Americans, and keep the Russians out.
Although Hitler still thought of holding firm on both fronts, the reality of the threat to Berlin compelled him to give priority to the East. Confident that the Anglo-Americans could not recover from the Ardennes campaign in time for a winter offensive, he stripped the West of more than half its panzer divisions and in February sent 1,675 tanks and assault guns to the East. In this Hitler again underestimated the resiliance of the Americans. Eisenhower had no intention of waiting until spring. He wanted to cross the Rhine NOW. Again he was met with resistance from the ever cautious Montgomery. Ike planned a double thrust with crossings at the upper and lower Rhine aimed at encircling the enemy. This plan was patterned after Hannibal's double envelopment of the Romals at Cannae. Hannibal had been Ike's boyhood hero. After more stormy debates with the British in which they only agreed to the plan after Marshall threatened to resign, the attack was set for February 8, 1945.
At first the weather favored the Germans. Following a heavy bombardment, one of the bloodiest battles of the war ensued as the British 2nd and Canadian 1st Armies attacked in the north. The Germans were pushed back steadily. By February 21 the Anglo-Canadians had reached the Rhine, and the Germans retreated east of the river and blew the bridges. At this point the Anglo-American air forces combined for the fiercest aerial attack of the war. On two days (Feb. 22-23) more than 16,000 sorties were flown and 20,000 tons of bombs dropped.
The US 9th Army under Simpson was poised on the Roer River on Monty's southern flank. The Americans planned to cross in floating assault bridges. But the desperate Germans destroyed the penstocks to produce a calculated flpw to swell the river 4 feet above its normal level and flood large areas. Simpson's soldiers had to wait 2 weeks for the waters to subside before passing. By March 13 all the northern half of the west bank of the Rhine was in Allied hands.
In the center Bradley's 1st Army under Hodges and the 3rd Army led by Patton also closed on the Rhine. Hodges took Cologne on March 7 an the Germans retreated across the river, again blowing bridges. Patton reached the Rhine near Coblenz while below him Devers and his American and French forces linked up with his southern flank.
Eisenhower's double thrusting broad advance had been a brilliant success. The enemy had lost 250,000 men taken prisoner, in addition to untold scores of thousands killed and hundreds of thousands wounded. The Rhineland lay at the feet of the Allies. Tanks rolled through the streets in town after town to find the windows of all of the houses shuttered with white sheets of surrender hanging from them. But even as the Anglo-Americans closed on the historic broad Rhine, they heard and saw scores of bridges rise into the air and fall into the river in pieces. On the orders of Hitler, any commander who allowed a bridge in his sector to be captured intact would be shot. Not since Napoleon in 1805 had an enemy crossed the Rhine in war. In the center between Cologne in the north and Bonn in the south the river was an especially formidable barrier. Peaks rising from the east side gave the Germans the opportunity to deliver a murderous, plunging fire on anyone attempting to cross below. Great as Ike's campaign had been, it appeared that, in an opposed Rhine crossing, he faced extremely costly, perhaps even prohibitive losses. But then in the gray, drizzly daylight of March 7, the 9th Armored Division, spearheading the advance of Hodge's 1st Army against the Bonn-Cologne center, split into 2 columns, one under Brig. Gen. William H. Hoge made for the Ahr River in hopes of capturing a bridge there, the other drove toward the Rhine intent on capturing the town of Remagen on the west bank.
Last edited by a moderator:
timschochet
Footballguy
The Holocaust
On April 15, 1945, the British 11th Armoured Division overran what they believed to be a POW stalag (camp) near Celle, (in northwest Germany) known to the locals as "Bergen-Belsen". Even before they entered, they knew it was no ordinary camp, from the way the locals spoke of it. Actually, they rarely spoke of it, only in hushed whispers. They said it was run by the SS and that it was a camp for Jews and Poles. Everyone living in the area claimed to be ignorant of what was going on there, but there were two problems with this: first, slave labor was marched out of the camp every day to work in the local factories, and the German townspeople would have to be completely blind not to notice this. Second, there was an overpowering, sickening smell which spread for miles around the camp. When confronted with these facts later, local Germans admitted that they were aware of these things, but that they had been trained "not to see, not to hear." It was safer that way. Perhaps this is true.
Inside the camp, which was deserted by the SS guards who had been there, the British discovered 60,000 prisoners on the brink of starvation, suffering from typhus and related diseases. 13,000 corpses lying on the ground were also discovered. Medics were rushed in, but 30,000 more prisoners died within the next few days. As Richard Dimbleby, a journalist for the BBC who accompanied the troops, reported:
...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life. I could not believe the horror of these camps . We found piles of bodies in train cars that had been dead for days.
The British army was shocked. The American army, which was shortly to discover similar camps all around Germany (Eisenhower and Patton personally toured Buchenwald) were also shocked. Newspapers suddenly reported that as bad as this was, what the Russians were discovering in Poland was even worse. Soon the world press was innudated with names that would forever be synonymous with horror: Dachau! Ravensbruk! Mauthausen! Theriesenstadt, the "paradise ghetto"!. And in Poland, the 6 camps specifically designated as death camps: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidenek, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chelmno. The world was stunned. Millions of innocent people had been killed. What had the Germans done?
There is a problem with all of this. Not with my narrative: the world reaction was exactly as I have stated, and most people did indeed express their horror and shock. The problem is that it was such a stunning discovery to the Allies. Did they really not know what was going on? Why did the public not know about this before? How secret was the Holocaust, exactly?
There are four key questions that must be asked in any discussion of this issue:
1. How much did the Allies, especially America and England, know about the Holocaust?
2. What could the Allies have done differently, if anything, to either reduce the effects of the Holocaust or prevent it?
3. What did the German people, outside of Hitler and the SS, know about the Holocaust and what is their level of responsibilty for the Holocaust?
4. Most problematic of all, why did the Holocaust happen and what lessons can be learned to prevent genocide in the future?
Obviously, these are all VERY complicated questions, the subject of hundreds of books and countless discussions. In this thread I can only touch the briefest surface of these questions. But I do plan on giving at least my opinion on them, one by one. My opinion is very subjective. I am a Jew whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors. I have read much on this issue (that probably showed itself in my narrative of the Warsaw Ghetto) and I admit to being quite prejudiced in my viewpoints. What I will be offering in the next several posts is more commentary than narrative. If you either agree or disagree with what I write or have questions about it, I invite you to comment. When I am done with this, I will return to the narrative and conclude it with the bunker scenes and surrender of Germany. (Ozymandias will finish up Japan.)
On April 15, 1945, the British 11th Armoured Division overran what they believed to be a POW stalag (camp) near Celle, (in northwest Germany) known to the locals as "Bergen-Belsen". Even before they entered, they knew it was no ordinary camp, from the way the locals spoke of it. Actually, they rarely spoke of it, only in hushed whispers. They said it was run by the SS and that it was a camp for Jews and Poles. Everyone living in the area claimed to be ignorant of what was going on there, but there were two problems with this: first, slave labor was marched out of the camp every day to work in the local factories, and the German townspeople would have to be completely blind not to notice this. Second, there was an overpowering, sickening smell which spread for miles around the camp. When confronted with these facts later, local Germans admitted that they were aware of these things, but that they had been trained "not to see, not to hear." It was safer that way. Perhaps this is true.
Inside the camp, which was deserted by the SS guards who had been there, the British discovered 60,000 prisoners on the brink of starvation, suffering from typhus and related diseases. 13,000 corpses lying on the ground were also discovered. Medics were rushed in, but 30,000 more prisoners died within the next few days. As Richard Dimbleby, a journalist for the BBC who accompanied the troops, reported:
...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life. I could not believe the horror of these camps . We found piles of bodies in train cars that had been dead for days.
The British army was shocked. The American army, which was shortly to discover similar camps all around Germany (Eisenhower and Patton personally toured Buchenwald) were also shocked. Newspapers suddenly reported that as bad as this was, what the Russians were discovering in Poland was even worse. Soon the world press was innudated with names that would forever be synonymous with horror: Dachau! Ravensbruk! Mauthausen! Theriesenstadt, the "paradise ghetto"!. And in Poland, the 6 camps specifically designated as death camps: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Maidenek, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chelmno. The world was stunned. Millions of innocent people had been killed. What had the Germans done?
There is a problem with all of this. Not with my narrative: the world reaction was exactly as I have stated, and most people did indeed express their horror and shock. The problem is that it was such a stunning discovery to the Allies. Did they really not know what was going on? Why did the public not know about this before? How secret was the Holocaust, exactly?
There are four key questions that must be asked in any discussion of this issue:
1. How much did the Allies, especially America and England, know about the Holocaust?
2. What could the Allies have done differently, if anything, to either reduce the effects of the Holocaust or prevent it?
3. What did the German people, outside of Hitler and the SS, know about the Holocaust and what is their level of responsibilty for the Holocaust?
4. Most problematic of all, why did the Holocaust happen and what lessons can be learned to prevent genocide in the future?
Obviously, these are all VERY complicated questions, the subject of hundreds of books and countless discussions. In this thread I can only touch the briefest surface of these questions. But I do plan on giving at least my opinion on them, one by one. My opinion is very subjective. I am a Jew whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors. I have read much on this issue (that probably showed itself in my narrative of the Warsaw Ghetto) and I admit to being quite prejudiced in my viewpoints. What I will be offering in the next several posts is more commentary than narrative. If you either agree or disagree with what I write or have questions about it, I invite you to comment. When I am done with this, I will return to the narrative and conclude it with the bunker scenes and surrender of Germany. (Ozymandias will finish up Japan.)
timschochet
Footballguy
How much did the Allies know?
The short answer is they knew plenty, but either didn't believe it, or didn't want to believe it.
The Polish Army Captain Witold Pilecki was the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. He spent a total of 945 days at Auschwitz before his escape. From October 1940, he sent numerous reports about camp and genocide to Polish resistance headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network he organized in Auschwitz, and beginning with March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London. These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade troops into the camp, or the Armia Krajowa (AK) would organize an assault on it from outside. By 1943, however, Pilecki realized that no such plans existed. He escaped on the night of April 26–April 27, 1943. Pilecki's detailed report was sent to London, but the British authorities refused air support for an operation to help the inmates escape, as an air raid was considered too risky, and the AK reports on atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations. The Polish resistance in turn decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.
In 1942 Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, as well as members of political parties such as the PPS, SN, SP, SL, Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was a major factor in informing the West.
In July 1943, Karski again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, and Stephen Wise. Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile.
On April 7, 1944, two young Jewish inmates, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, had escaped from the camp with detailed information about the camp's geography, the gas chambers, and the numbers being killed. The information, later called the Vrba-Wetzler report, is believed to have reached the Jewish community in Budapest by April 27. Roswell McClelland, the U.S. War Refugee Board representative in Switzerland, is known to have received a copy by mid-June, and sent it to the board's executive director on June 16, according to Raul Hilberg. Information based on the report was broadcast on June 15 by the BBC and on June 20 by The New York Times. The full report was first published on November 25, 1944, by the U.S. War Refugee Board, the same day that the last 13 prisoners, all women, were killed in Auschwitz (the women were "unmittelbar getötet," leaving open whether they were gassed or otherwise disposed of).
The above is only a small part of hundreds of reports of the Holocaust to reach the west. Of course, reports of Nazi mistreatment of Jews had been reported ever since 1933, and by the time the executions in western Russia began in the summer of 1941, these were considered "old hat" by journalists. Everyone could believe the Nazis were treating the Jews badly, but organized killings? Surely an exaggeration.
Yet by 1944 the amount of information was so widespread that it was overwhelming, and leaders such as Anthony Eden, if they ignored such evidence, must have had ulterior motives to do so. Eden has been thought to be anti-Semitic. But this is more complicated: he was commited to a British presence in Palestine after the war, and this involved limiting Jewish immigration to that land. As for America, even long before the war it rejected allowing Jewish refugees to immigrate here en masse, which in many cases sealed their fate.
The short answer is they knew plenty, but either didn't believe it, or didn't want to believe it.
The Polish Army Captain Witold Pilecki was the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. He spent a total of 945 days at Auschwitz before his escape. From October 1940, he sent numerous reports about camp and genocide to Polish resistance headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network he organized in Auschwitz, and beginning with March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London. These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade troops into the camp, or the Armia Krajowa (AK) would organize an assault on it from outside. By 1943, however, Pilecki realized that no such plans existed. He escaped on the night of April 26–April 27, 1943. Pilecki's detailed report was sent to London, but the British authorities refused air support for an operation to help the inmates escape, as an air raid was considered too risky, and the AK reports on atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations. The Polish resistance in turn decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.
In 1942 Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, as well as members of political parties such as the PPS, SN, SP, SL, Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was a major factor in informing the West.
In July 1943, Karski again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, and Stephen Wise. Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile.
On April 7, 1944, two young Jewish inmates, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, had escaped from the camp with detailed information about the camp's geography, the gas chambers, and the numbers being killed. The information, later called the Vrba-Wetzler report, is believed to have reached the Jewish community in Budapest by April 27. Roswell McClelland, the U.S. War Refugee Board representative in Switzerland, is known to have received a copy by mid-June, and sent it to the board's executive director on June 16, according to Raul Hilberg. Information based on the report was broadcast on June 15 by the BBC and on June 20 by The New York Times. The full report was first published on November 25, 1944, by the U.S. War Refugee Board, the same day that the last 13 prisoners, all women, were killed in Auschwitz (the women were "unmittelbar getötet," leaving open whether they were gassed or otherwise disposed of).
The above is only a small part of hundreds of reports of the Holocaust to reach the west. Of course, reports of Nazi mistreatment of Jews had been reported ever since 1933, and by the time the executions in western Russia began in the summer of 1941, these were considered "old hat" by journalists. Everyone could believe the Nazis were treating the Jews badly, but organized killings? Surely an exaggeration.
Yet by 1944 the amount of information was so widespread that it was overwhelming, and leaders such as Anthony Eden, if they ignored such evidence, must have had ulterior motives to do so. Eden has been thought to be anti-Semitic. But this is more complicated: he was commited to a British presence in Palestine after the war, and this involved limiting Jewish immigration to that land. As for America, even long before the war it rejected allowing Jewish refugees to immigrate here en masse, which in many cases sealed their fate.
timschochet
Footballguy
What could the Allies have done?
There are two basic things the Allies could have done in order to hinder the Holocaust: accept more refugees, and bomb the death camps.
Refugees
Jews escaping from Nazi controlled Europe usually tried to get to two places: Palestine, where the local Zionist Jews were practically the only people on Earth who wanted them, and the United States. In March of 1939, concerned about possible Arab alliances with Hitler, the British shut off all Jewish emigration to Palestine. Though Churchill, then out of office, spoke out publicly against the action, the fact is he did not change it upon becoming Prime Minister. He was convinced by Whitehall that the Arabs of Palestine might erupt if Jewish immigration started up again. (In point of fact, even after the war was over and the massive deaths had been discovered, the British prevented Jews from coming to Palestine, until they were finally pressured by the United Nations to give up the mandate in 1948.)
The story of American resistance to accepting Jewish refugees is too long to tell here. It is a shameful record, and FDR as President can be held responsible. It was FDR who appointed his New Deal buddy Breckinridge Long to turn away all calls for accepting more immigrants. The conferences at Evian and Bermuda were shams set up by Long to hide the fact that the USA did nothing to accept more refugees. Jewish American leaders were helpless and watched in horror as their efforts to change administration policies did nothing to help.
Had the United States been willing to take in even 100,000 refugees, the rest of the American continent would have followed suit. This willingness would have shocked the Nazis and quite possibly have had an effect in slowing down or stopping the exterminations, which were in a large part based on the supposition that nobody wanted these people. Unfortunately we shall never know.
Bombing the Death Camps
In the second half of 1944, Jewish leaders in America and Britian called for a bombing of the death camps, especially Auschwitz. This was a cold blooded idea meant to stop the exterminations. Yes, prisoners would be killed along with SS, but if the gas chambers could be permanently disabled, it would be worth it. The proposal was personally killed by Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy. McCloy, a prominent New Dealer and best friend of FDR, is the same man who pushed hardest for the internment of the Japanese Americans. He is the same man who after the war made a personal effort to free Germans convicted of war crimes (particularly the industrialist Alfried Krupp.) He stated publicly that he did not believe the Holocaust was happening and after the war continued to express skepticism.
Historian David Wyman has written,"How could it be that the governments of the two great Western democracies knew that a place existed where 2,000 helpless human beings could be killed every 30 minutes, knew that such killings actually did occur over and over again, and yet did not feel driven to search for some way to wipe such a scourge from the earth?"
During his second visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in 2008, the U.S. President George W. Bush said, referring to Auschwitz, "We should have bombed it."
There are two basic things the Allies could have done in order to hinder the Holocaust: accept more refugees, and bomb the death camps.
Refugees
Jews escaping from Nazi controlled Europe usually tried to get to two places: Palestine, where the local Zionist Jews were practically the only people on Earth who wanted them, and the United States. In March of 1939, concerned about possible Arab alliances with Hitler, the British shut off all Jewish emigration to Palestine. Though Churchill, then out of office, spoke out publicly against the action, the fact is he did not change it upon becoming Prime Minister. He was convinced by Whitehall that the Arabs of Palestine might erupt if Jewish immigration started up again. (In point of fact, even after the war was over and the massive deaths had been discovered, the British prevented Jews from coming to Palestine, until they were finally pressured by the United Nations to give up the mandate in 1948.)
The story of American resistance to accepting Jewish refugees is too long to tell here. It is a shameful record, and FDR as President can be held responsible. It was FDR who appointed his New Deal buddy Breckinridge Long to turn away all calls for accepting more immigrants. The conferences at Evian and Bermuda were shams set up by Long to hide the fact that the USA did nothing to accept more refugees. Jewish American leaders were helpless and watched in horror as their efforts to change administration policies did nothing to help.
Had the United States been willing to take in even 100,000 refugees, the rest of the American continent would have followed suit. This willingness would have shocked the Nazis and quite possibly have had an effect in slowing down or stopping the exterminations, which were in a large part based on the supposition that nobody wanted these people. Unfortunately we shall never know.
Bombing the Death Camps
In the second half of 1944, Jewish leaders in America and Britian called for a bombing of the death camps, especially Auschwitz. This was a cold blooded idea meant to stop the exterminations. Yes, prisoners would be killed along with SS, but if the gas chambers could be permanently disabled, it would be worth it. The proposal was personally killed by Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy. McCloy, a prominent New Dealer and best friend of FDR, is the same man who pushed hardest for the internment of the Japanese Americans. He is the same man who after the war made a personal effort to free Germans convicted of war crimes (particularly the industrialist Alfried Krupp.) He stated publicly that he did not believe the Holocaust was happening and after the war continued to express skepticism.
Historian David Wyman has written,"How could it be that the governments of the two great Western democracies knew that a place existed where 2,000 helpless human beings could be killed every 30 minutes, knew that such killings actually did occur over and over again, and yet did not feel driven to search for some way to wipe such a scourge from the earth?"
During his second visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in 2008, the U.S. President George W. Bush said, referring to Auschwitz, "We should have bombed it."
timschochet
Footballguy
What did the German people know?
Extremely problematic. I will try to provide some basic answers below:
Certain initial aspects of Nazi persecution of Jews and other opponents were common knowledge in Germany. Thus, for example, everyone knew about the Boycott of April 1, 1933, the Laws of April, and the Nuremberg Laws, because they were fully publicized. Moreover, offenders were often publicly punished and shamed. The same holds true for subsequent anti-Jewish measures. Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass) was a public pogrom, carried out in full view of the entire population. While information on the concentration camps was not publicized, a great deal of information was available to the German public, and the treatment of the inmates was generally known, although exact details were not easily obtained.
As for the implementation of the "Final Solution" and the murder of other undesirable elements, the situation was different. The Nazis attempted to keep the murders a secret and, therefore, took precautionary measures to ensure that they would not be publicized. Their efforts, however, were only partially successful. Thus, for example, public protests by various clergymen led to the halt of their euthanasia program in August of 1941. These protests were obviously the result of the fact that many persons were aware that the Nazis were killing the mentally ill in special institutions.
As far as the Jews were concerned, it was common knowledge in Germany that they had disappeared after having been sent to the East. It was not exactly clear to large segments of the German population what had happened to them. On the other hand, there were thousands upon thousands of Germans who participated in and/or witnessed the implementation of the "Final Solution" either as members of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, death camp or concentration camp guards, police in occupied Europe, or with the Wehrmacht.
Although the entire German population was not in agreement with Hitler's persecution of the Jews, there is no evidence of any large scale protest regarding their treatment. There were Germans who defied the April 1, 1933 boycott and purposely bought in Jewish stores, and there were those who aided Jews to escape and to hide, but their number was very small. Even some of those who opposed Hitler were in agreement with his anti-Jewish policies. Among the clergy, Dompropst Bernhard Lichtenberg of Berlin publicly prayed for the Jews daily and was, therefore, sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. Other priests were deported for their failure to cooperate with Nazi antisemitic policies, but the majority of the clergy complied with the directives against German Jewry and did not openly protest.
Response of the Churches
The head of the Catholic Church at the time of the Nazi rise to power was Pope Pius XI. Although he stated that the myths of "race" and "blood" were contrary to Christian teaching (in a papal encyclical, March 1937), he neither mentioned nor criticized antisemitism. His successor, Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) was a Germanophile who maintained his neutrality throughout the course of World War II. Although as early as 1942 the Vatican received detailed information on the murder of Jews in concentration camps, the Pope confined his public statements to expressions of sympathy for the victims of injustice and to calls for a more humane conduct of the war.
Despite the lack of response by Pope Pius XII, several papal nuncios played an important role in rescue efforts, particularly the nuncios in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey. It is not clear to what, if any, extent they operated upon instructions from the Vatican. In Germany, the Catholic Church did not oppose the Nazis' antisemitic campaign. Church records were supplied to state authorities which assisted in the detection of people of Jewish origin, and efforts to aid the persecuted were confined to Catholic non-Aryans. While Catholic clergymen protested the Nazi euthanasia program, few, with the exception of Bernhard Lichtenberg, spoke out against the murder of the Jews.
In Western Europe, Catholic clergy spoke out publicly against the persecution of the Jews and actively helped in the rescue of Jews. In Eastern Europe, however, the Catholic clergy was generally more reluctant to help. Dr. Jozef Tiso, the head of state of Slovakia and a Catholic priest, actively cooperated with the Germans as did many other Catholic priests.
The response of Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches varied. In Germany, for example, Nazi supporters within Protestant churches complied with the anti-Jewish legislation and even excluded Christians of Jewish origin from membership. Pastor Martin Niemoeller's Confessing Church defended the rights of Christians of Jewish origin within the church, but did not publicly protest their persecution, nor did it condemn the measures taken against the Jews, with the exception of a memorandum sent to Hitler in May 1936.
In occupied Europe, the position of the Protestant churches varied. In several countries (Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway) local churches and/or leading clergymen issued public protests when the Nazis began deporting Jews. In other countries (Bulgaria, Greece, and Yugoslavia), some Orthodox church leaders intervened on behalf of the Jews and took steps which, in certain cases, led to the rescue of many Jews.
Extremely problematic. I will try to provide some basic answers below:
Certain initial aspects of Nazi persecution of Jews and other opponents were common knowledge in Germany. Thus, for example, everyone knew about the Boycott of April 1, 1933, the Laws of April, and the Nuremberg Laws, because they were fully publicized. Moreover, offenders were often publicly punished and shamed. The same holds true for subsequent anti-Jewish measures. Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass) was a public pogrom, carried out in full view of the entire population. While information on the concentration camps was not publicized, a great deal of information was available to the German public, and the treatment of the inmates was generally known, although exact details were not easily obtained.
As for the implementation of the "Final Solution" and the murder of other undesirable elements, the situation was different. The Nazis attempted to keep the murders a secret and, therefore, took precautionary measures to ensure that they would not be publicized. Their efforts, however, were only partially successful. Thus, for example, public protests by various clergymen led to the halt of their euthanasia program in August of 1941. These protests were obviously the result of the fact that many persons were aware that the Nazis were killing the mentally ill in special institutions.
As far as the Jews were concerned, it was common knowledge in Germany that they had disappeared after having been sent to the East. It was not exactly clear to large segments of the German population what had happened to them. On the other hand, there were thousands upon thousands of Germans who participated in and/or witnessed the implementation of the "Final Solution" either as members of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, death camp or concentration camp guards, police in occupied Europe, or with the Wehrmacht.
Although the entire German population was not in agreement with Hitler's persecution of the Jews, there is no evidence of any large scale protest regarding their treatment. There were Germans who defied the April 1, 1933 boycott and purposely bought in Jewish stores, and there were those who aided Jews to escape and to hide, but their number was very small. Even some of those who opposed Hitler were in agreement with his anti-Jewish policies. Among the clergy, Dompropst Bernhard Lichtenberg of Berlin publicly prayed for the Jews daily and was, therefore, sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. Other priests were deported for their failure to cooperate with Nazi antisemitic policies, but the majority of the clergy complied with the directives against German Jewry and did not openly protest.
Response of the Churches
The head of the Catholic Church at the time of the Nazi rise to power was Pope Pius XI. Although he stated that the myths of "race" and "blood" were contrary to Christian teaching (in a papal encyclical, March 1937), he neither mentioned nor criticized antisemitism. His successor, Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) was a Germanophile who maintained his neutrality throughout the course of World War II. Although as early as 1942 the Vatican received detailed information on the murder of Jews in concentration camps, the Pope confined his public statements to expressions of sympathy for the victims of injustice and to calls for a more humane conduct of the war.
Despite the lack of response by Pope Pius XII, several papal nuncios played an important role in rescue efforts, particularly the nuncios in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey. It is not clear to what, if any, extent they operated upon instructions from the Vatican. In Germany, the Catholic Church did not oppose the Nazis' antisemitic campaign. Church records were supplied to state authorities which assisted in the detection of people of Jewish origin, and efforts to aid the persecuted were confined to Catholic non-Aryans. While Catholic clergymen protested the Nazi euthanasia program, few, with the exception of Bernhard Lichtenberg, spoke out against the murder of the Jews.
In Western Europe, Catholic clergy spoke out publicly against the persecution of the Jews and actively helped in the rescue of Jews. In Eastern Europe, however, the Catholic clergy was generally more reluctant to help. Dr. Jozef Tiso, the head of state of Slovakia and a Catholic priest, actively cooperated with the Germans as did many other Catholic priests.
The response of Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches varied. In Germany, for example, Nazi supporters within Protestant churches complied with the anti-Jewish legislation and even excluded Christians of Jewish origin from membership. Pastor Martin Niemoeller's Confessing Church defended the rights of Christians of Jewish origin within the church, but did not publicly protest their persecution, nor did it condemn the measures taken against the Jews, with the exception of a memorandum sent to Hitler in May 1936.
In occupied Europe, the position of the Protestant churches varied. In several countries (Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway) local churches and/or leading clergymen issued public protests when the Nazis began deporting Jews. In other countries (Bulgaria, Greece, and Yugoslavia), some Orthodox church leaders intervened on behalf of the Jews and took steps which, in certain cases, led to the rescue of many Jews.
timschochet
Footballguy
My last question, what caused the Holocaust, is the most problematic of all, but I have decided not to attempt to answer it here. I don't believe there is one good answer, and it's beyond my capacity to attempt it. I was very offended by Ben Stein's attempt to blame it on Darwinism in his film about Intelligent Design. I am also angered by the National Rifle Association claiming it happened because the Jews didn't have guns. I detest Leftists who try to blame it on conservatism, and conservatives who try to blame it on socialism. I don't like animal rights fanatics who try to tell us that chickens live in the new Auschwitz.
I guess I just don't like simplistic answers.
I guess I just don't like simplistic answers.
timschochet
Footballguy
My narrative in this thread will be concluded tommorow with a description of Hitler in the bunker and the surrender of Germany.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Bunker Part One
Führerbunker is a common name for a complex of subterranean rooms in Berlin, Germany where Adolf Hitler committed suicide during World War II. The bunker was the 13th and last of Hitler's Führerhauptquartiere (another was the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in East Prussia).
There were actually two bunkers which were connected - the older Vorbunker and the newer Führerbunker. The Führerbunker was located about 17 meters beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstrasse 77, about 120 meters north of the new Chancellery building, which had the address Vossstrasse 6. The Vorbunker was located beneath the large hall behind the old Chancellery, which was connected to the new Chancellery. The Führerbunker was located somewhat lower than the Vorbunker and west (or rather west/south-west) of it. The two bunkers were connected via sets of stairs set at right angles (not spiral as some believe).
The complex was protected by approximately three meters of concrete, and about 30 small rooms were distributed over two levels with exits into the main buildings and an emergency exit into the gardens. The complex was built in two distinct phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943. The 1943 development was built by the Hochtief company as part of an extensive program of subterranean construction in Berlin begun in 1940. The accommodations for Hitler were in the newer, lower section and by February 1945 had been appointed with high quality furniture taken (or salvaged) from the chancellory building along with several framed oil paintings.
Events in 1945
Hitler moved into the Führerbunker on January 16, 1945. He was joined by his senior staff, Martin Bormann, Eva Braun and Josef Göbbels with Magda and their six children who took residence in the upper Vorbunker. Two or three dozen support, medical and administrative staff were also sheltered there.
The bunker was supplied with large quantities of food and other necessities and by all accounts successfully protected its occupants from the relentless and lethal shelling that went on overhead in the closing days of April 1945. Many witnesses later spoke of the constant droning sound of the underground complex's ventilation system.
Many of the bunker staff left between April 22-23, before Berlin was wholly encircled by Soviet forces. Hitler chose to stay until the end and committed suicide in the bunker by gunshot and cyanide on April 30. Josef and Magda Göbbels poisoned all of their children and committed suicide the next day. Most of the bunker's remaining occupants left within hours thereafter, trying with varying success to break through the lines of the encircling Red Army, which by this time was only a block or two away in any direction. Few people remained in the bunker, and they were subsequently captured by Soviet troops on May 2. Soviet intelligence operatives investigating the complex found more than a dozen bodies of suicides along with the cinders of many burned papers and documents.
Timeline, which corresponds with most other accounts of the Bunker
1945-01-16.
Hitler returns to Berlin and enters the bunker.
March 19.
Speer visits Hitler in an attempt to stop his "scorched earth" policy. He fails, but later goes on to sabotage the entire program.
April 12.
American and British troops stop marching towards Berlin, allowing the Russians free reign, much to the horror of the bunker inhabitants. Also, Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, creating a short-lived euphoria among top Nazis.
April 15.
Eva Braun has arrived in Berlin from Berchtesgaden to join Hitler in his bunker to share the last days of the Third Reich with him. When the Führer told her that she should have stayed in Bavaria, she said that she had desire to live in a Germany without him. "It would not be fit for a true German," she says. Eva, the secret mistress of the Nazi leader for more than 12 years, has spent the war in Hitler's mountain retreat, swimming and skiing, reading cheap love stories and watching romantic movies.
April 16.
The final great offensive of the Red Army against Germany, the Berlin operation begins with Gen. G.K. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front attacking west of the Oder near Küstrin, and Gen. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front attacking south across the Neisse to envelop Busse's 9th Army and drive on to the southern flanks of the doomed German capital. The Russians meet initial stiff resistance at the Seelow Heights, a fortified defensive position which dominates the flood-plain of the Oder(Oderbruch), and controls access to the main land route to Berlin.
At 4am today, Marshal G. K. Zhukov looked towards Berlin from his bunker in the Kustrin bridgehead over the Oder and ordered: "Now, comrades! Now!" Three red flares floated above the lines and, instantly, the German positions were lit up with the blinding light of 143 searchlights and thousands of tank and lorry headlights. Three green flares soared into the sky. This was the signal for thousands of big guns, wheel to wheel, to open the heaviest barrage of the whole of the war in the east. Villages were blown away. Forests burst into flames, burning fiercely out of control.
The Russians have assembled 2,500,000 men, 6,250 tanks, 41,600 guns and mortars, 3,255 rocket launchers and 7,500 aircraft in three front under Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky, for this final assault. It seemed this morning that nothing could stand against this awesome power. Much of that ground was empty, however, for General Heinrici, commanding Army Group Vistula with orders to save Berlin, had withdrawn his men to a second line of defence.
They are fighting now from well-entrenched positions on the Seelow Heights where Flak guns, moved from defending Berlin against Allied bombers have taken a terrible toll of Zhukov's tanks. He is held up, but Konev's First Ukrainian Front to the south has made rapid progress after crossing the Neisse. And Rokossovsky to the north has yet to join the battle.
Albert Speer, Hitler's armaments minister, has been horrified by the directive from the Führer that all military, transport and industrial installations must be destroyed in order to deny them to the enemy. He has protested vigorously, but Hitler remains adamant. If the war is lost, he told Speer, there will be no point in attempting to save the German people. Speer, however, is co-operating with army officers to frustrate the Führer's directive.
Hitler sees betrayal everywhere. Today he sacked the Reich public health commissioner, Karl Brandt, after learning that Brandt had sent his wife and child to Thuringia so that they could surrender to the Americans. And as the Red Army opens its final assault on Berlin, Hitler, in his bunker beneath the ruins of his Chancellery, issued an order of the day to his broken army: "He who gives the order to retreat is to be shot on the spot." He was encouraged by reports of disorganisation in the Russian army. However, he ordered the defences around the Reich Chancellery and other government buildings to be increased. From the Oder, the Red Army approaches to Berlin.
April 17.
To the south of Berlin the Army Group Centre, commanded by General Ferdinand Schörner, were losing ground to the Soviet army, led by General Konev, and had to fall back a considerable distance.
At the River Oder the Eastern Front under General Heinrici was still holding out against the Soviet onslaught, but was weakening.
April 18.
Göbbels burns his office files.
The citizens of Berlin, like their Führer, are taking refuge from impending disaster underground. As the Allied armies close in on their city they leave their cellars and dugouts only to fetch vital supplies of food and water. But the basic essentials are running short in Berlin and people often queue for hours - in the dead of night before the Russian bombardment begins at 5am - just in the hope of a loaf of bread. They are also taking refuge from their own people - from the SS which is reportedly shooting people on the spot on the accusation that they are "defeatists", or rounding them up to join the Volkssturm in the last desperate defence of the Reich. Many are now waiting only to surrender.
The Soviet army penetrated General Heinrici’s defence to the east and by nightfall had reached the third, inner line of German defence. Heavy Soviet losses were sustained, but progress towards the centre of Berlin was steady.
April 19.
Konev’s army to the south had broken General Schörner’s defence and made fast progress towards the centre of Berlin, meeting relatively little resistance. Zhukov’s army also broke through the last defences at the Seelow Heights and were making their way towards Berlin, swarming to within 20 miles (32 km) of Berlin's eastern suburbs. .
By this time approx 70,000 Soviet troops and 12,000 German troops had been killed. From the beginning of April 1 until this day, the Soviet Army had lost around 2,800 tanks. In a military conference, Hitler brought up the possibility of leaving Berlin and retreating to command forces from the south. Göbbels urged him to stay in the capital, as a fitting end to his glorious career. Others urged him to leave. Hitler then declared his intention to stay, saying “How can I motivate the troops to wage a decisive battle for Berlin if I escape to a safe place?”
April 20.
Hitler's 56th birthday. For a last time, all leaders of the Regime meet in the New Reich Chancellery. In a short, one-hour ceremony, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, gather to celebrate, then leave immediately afterwards, never to see Hitler again. After the end of the official event and in absence of Hitler, Eva Braun continues frolic celebrating together with the bunker personnel. In the afternoon Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Jugend with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians. The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly 'Wochenschau', and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson's disease. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Jugend boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defense of the city where most will perish.
The Second Byelorussian Front under Marshal Rokossovsky has now reinforced the offensives launched by Zhukov and Konev four days ago. Today Rokossovsky battled over marshy ground to cross the western branch of the Oder towards Neubrandenburg, Stralsund and Rostock, effectively preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from reinforcing the defence of Berlin. Konev crosses the River Spree, and takes Calau on the approach to Berlin from the south. Although the direct eastern attack by Marshal Zhukov's First Byelorussian Front has encountered strong resistance near Seelow, Germany's Ninth Army is being squeezed between the advancing armies of Zhukov and Konev. However Hitler has resisted pleas that it should be allowed to withdraw. Some government departments are being moved to southern Germany and Schleswig-Holstein, but Hitler rejected suggestions that he should also leave.
Führerbunker is a common name for a complex of subterranean rooms in Berlin, Germany where Adolf Hitler committed suicide during World War II. The bunker was the 13th and last of Hitler's Führerhauptquartiere (another was the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in East Prussia).
There were actually two bunkers which were connected - the older Vorbunker and the newer Führerbunker. The Führerbunker was located about 17 meters beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstrasse 77, about 120 meters north of the new Chancellery building, which had the address Vossstrasse 6. The Vorbunker was located beneath the large hall behind the old Chancellery, which was connected to the new Chancellery. The Führerbunker was located somewhat lower than the Vorbunker and west (or rather west/south-west) of it. The two bunkers were connected via sets of stairs set at right angles (not spiral as some believe).
The complex was protected by approximately three meters of concrete, and about 30 small rooms were distributed over two levels with exits into the main buildings and an emergency exit into the gardens. The complex was built in two distinct phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943. The 1943 development was built by the Hochtief company as part of an extensive program of subterranean construction in Berlin begun in 1940. The accommodations for Hitler were in the newer, lower section and by February 1945 had been appointed with high quality furniture taken (or salvaged) from the chancellory building along with several framed oil paintings.
Events in 1945
Hitler moved into the Führerbunker on January 16, 1945. He was joined by his senior staff, Martin Bormann, Eva Braun and Josef Göbbels with Magda and their six children who took residence in the upper Vorbunker. Two or three dozen support, medical and administrative staff were also sheltered there.
The bunker was supplied with large quantities of food and other necessities and by all accounts successfully protected its occupants from the relentless and lethal shelling that went on overhead in the closing days of April 1945. Many witnesses later spoke of the constant droning sound of the underground complex's ventilation system.
Many of the bunker staff left between April 22-23, before Berlin was wholly encircled by Soviet forces. Hitler chose to stay until the end and committed suicide in the bunker by gunshot and cyanide on April 30. Josef and Magda Göbbels poisoned all of their children and committed suicide the next day. Most of the bunker's remaining occupants left within hours thereafter, trying with varying success to break through the lines of the encircling Red Army, which by this time was only a block or two away in any direction. Few people remained in the bunker, and they were subsequently captured by Soviet troops on May 2. Soviet intelligence operatives investigating the complex found more than a dozen bodies of suicides along with the cinders of many burned papers and documents.
Timeline, which corresponds with most other accounts of the Bunker
1945-01-16.
Hitler returns to Berlin and enters the bunker.
March 19.
Speer visits Hitler in an attempt to stop his "scorched earth" policy. He fails, but later goes on to sabotage the entire program.
April 12.
American and British troops stop marching towards Berlin, allowing the Russians free reign, much to the horror of the bunker inhabitants. Also, Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, creating a short-lived euphoria among top Nazis.
April 15.
Eva Braun has arrived in Berlin from Berchtesgaden to join Hitler in his bunker to share the last days of the Third Reich with him. When the Führer told her that she should have stayed in Bavaria, she said that she had desire to live in a Germany without him. "It would not be fit for a true German," she says. Eva, the secret mistress of the Nazi leader for more than 12 years, has spent the war in Hitler's mountain retreat, swimming and skiing, reading cheap love stories and watching romantic movies.
April 16.
The final great offensive of the Red Army against Germany, the Berlin operation begins with Gen. G.K. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front attacking west of the Oder near Küstrin, and Gen. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front attacking south across the Neisse to envelop Busse's 9th Army and drive on to the southern flanks of the doomed German capital. The Russians meet initial stiff resistance at the Seelow Heights, a fortified defensive position which dominates the flood-plain of the Oder(Oderbruch), and controls access to the main land route to Berlin.
At 4am today, Marshal G. K. Zhukov looked towards Berlin from his bunker in the Kustrin bridgehead over the Oder and ordered: "Now, comrades! Now!" Three red flares floated above the lines and, instantly, the German positions were lit up with the blinding light of 143 searchlights and thousands of tank and lorry headlights. Three green flares soared into the sky. This was the signal for thousands of big guns, wheel to wheel, to open the heaviest barrage of the whole of the war in the east. Villages were blown away. Forests burst into flames, burning fiercely out of control.
The Russians have assembled 2,500,000 men, 6,250 tanks, 41,600 guns and mortars, 3,255 rocket launchers and 7,500 aircraft in three front under Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky, for this final assault. It seemed this morning that nothing could stand against this awesome power. Much of that ground was empty, however, for General Heinrici, commanding Army Group Vistula with orders to save Berlin, had withdrawn his men to a second line of defence.
They are fighting now from well-entrenched positions on the Seelow Heights where Flak guns, moved from defending Berlin against Allied bombers have taken a terrible toll of Zhukov's tanks. He is held up, but Konev's First Ukrainian Front to the south has made rapid progress after crossing the Neisse. And Rokossovsky to the north has yet to join the battle.
Albert Speer, Hitler's armaments minister, has been horrified by the directive from the Führer that all military, transport and industrial installations must be destroyed in order to deny them to the enemy. He has protested vigorously, but Hitler remains adamant. If the war is lost, he told Speer, there will be no point in attempting to save the German people. Speer, however, is co-operating with army officers to frustrate the Führer's directive.
Hitler sees betrayal everywhere. Today he sacked the Reich public health commissioner, Karl Brandt, after learning that Brandt had sent his wife and child to Thuringia so that they could surrender to the Americans. And as the Red Army opens its final assault on Berlin, Hitler, in his bunker beneath the ruins of his Chancellery, issued an order of the day to his broken army: "He who gives the order to retreat is to be shot on the spot." He was encouraged by reports of disorganisation in the Russian army. However, he ordered the defences around the Reich Chancellery and other government buildings to be increased. From the Oder, the Red Army approaches to Berlin.
April 17.
To the south of Berlin the Army Group Centre, commanded by General Ferdinand Schörner, were losing ground to the Soviet army, led by General Konev, and had to fall back a considerable distance.
At the River Oder the Eastern Front under General Heinrici was still holding out against the Soviet onslaught, but was weakening.
April 18.
Göbbels burns his office files.
The citizens of Berlin, like their Führer, are taking refuge from impending disaster underground. As the Allied armies close in on their city they leave their cellars and dugouts only to fetch vital supplies of food and water. But the basic essentials are running short in Berlin and people often queue for hours - in the dead of night before the Russian bombardment begins at 5am - just in the hope of a loaf of bread. They are also taking refuge from their own people - from the SS which is reportedly shooting people on the spot on the accusation that they are "defeatists", or rounding them up to join the Volkssturm in the last desperate defence of the Reich. Many are now waiting only to surrender.
The Soviet army penetrated General Heinrici’s defence to the east and by nightfall had reached the third, inner line of German defence. Heavy Soviet losses were sustained, but progress towards the centre of Berlin was steady.
April 19.
Konev’s army to the south had broken General Schörner’s defence and made fast progress towards the centre of Berlin, meeting relatively little resistance. Zhukov’s army also broke through the last defences at the Seelow Heights and were making their way towards Berlin, swarming to within 20 miles (32 km) of Berlin's eastern suburbs. .
By this time approx 70,000 Soviet troops and 12,000 German troops had been killed. From the beginning of April 1 until this day, the Soviet Army had lost around 2,800 tanks. In a military conference, Hitler brought up the possibility of leaving Berlin and retreating to command forces from the south. Göbbels urged him to stay in the capital, as a fitting end to his glorious career. Others urged him to leave. Hitler then declared his intention to stay, saying “How can I motivate the troops to wage a decisive battle for Berlin if I escape to a safe place?”
April 20.
Hitler's 56th birthday. For a last time, all leaders of the Regime meet in the New Reich Chancellery. In a short, one-hour ceremony, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, gather to celebrate, then leave immediately afterwards, never to see Hitler again. After the end of the official event and in absence of Hitler, Eva Braun continues frolic celebrating together with the bunker personnel. In the afternoon Hitler, accompanied by one-armed Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann, decorates a group of Hitler-Jugend with the Iron Cross for bravery against the Russians. The occasion is filmed by the propaganda cameras for the weekly 'Wochenschau', and will be the last photographic sequence taken of Hitler, his hands shaking and palsied by Parkinson's disease. After the ceremony, the Hitler-Jugend boys aged 10-16, are sent back into defense of the city where most will perish.
The Second Byelorussian Front under Marshal Rokossovsky has now reinforced the offensives launched by Zhukov and Konev four days ago. Today Rokossovsky battled over marshy ground to cross the western branch of the Oder towards Neubrandenburg, Stralsund and Rostock, effectively preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from reinforcing the defence of Berlin. Konev crosses the River Spree, and takes Calau on the approach to Berlin from the south. Although the direct eastern attack by Marshal Zhukov's First Byelorussian Front has encountered strong resistance near Seelow, Germany's Ninth Army is being squeezed between the advancing armies of Zhukov and Konev. However Hitler has resisted pleas that it should be allowed to withdraw. Some government departments are being moved to southern Germany and Schleswig-Holstein, but Hitler rejected suggestions that he should also leave.
timschochet
Footballguy
The Bunker Part 2
April 21.
Hitler was informed that Soviet troops were close enough to use artillery to fire into the centre of the city. The Reichstag (Parliament building) and the iconic Brandenburg Gate had been hit. Assuming that the artillery was long-range, Hitler ordered that the artillery battery be found and destroyed by the Luftwaffe. In fact the artillery was simply much closer than Hitler thought. He greeted the news with disbelief.
Hitler started to pin all his hopes of success on creating what he called the ‘Steiner Combat Group’, uniting a group under the command of General Felix Steiner with General Busse’s Ninth Army, in order to attack the Soviet forces from the north. In response to Hitler’s command to come to the aid of Berlin, General Felix Steiner declared to Heinrici that he simply did not have sufficient men to make the attack on the northern Soviet forces that Hitler expected, and could not therefore save the IX Army which had been isolated at the Seelow Heights. Heinrici explained to Hitler’s staff that the IX Army were in danger of being lost unless they retreated immediately.
Zhukov's leading units reach the Berlin suburbs.
In the East: the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Bautzen and Cottbus 70 miles (113 km) southeast of Berlin while Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin, at Zossen, assault the headquarters of the German High Command.
The only remaining opposing "force" to the Russian invasion of Berlin are the "battle groups" of Hitler Youth, teenagers with anti-tank guns, strategically placed in parks and suburban streets. In a battle at Eggersdorf, 70 of these Hitler teens strove to fight off a Russian assault with a mere three anti-tank guns. They were bulldozed by Russian tanks and infantry. .
Hitler announces he will remain in Berlin.
April 22.
Zhukov and Konev, having overcome the fanatical resistance of the defence zone before Berlin, are moving rapidly to put a ring of tanks round the capital. Zhukov's 47th Army and Konev's Fourth Guards Tank Army, are both west of the city, and only 25 miles separate them. Rokossovsky, after being held up crossing the Oder marshes, is preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from coming to Berlin's aid from the north.
Units of the Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front have penetrated into the northern and eastern suburbs of Berlin.
A Soviet mechanized corps reaches Treuenbrietzen, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Berlin, liberates a PoW camp and releases among others, Norwegian Commander in Chief Otto Ruge.
Loud shelling and artillery bombardment was heard continuously from the bunker. Inhabitants of the bunker were unsure whether the guns they heard were Soviet or German. Hitler ordered a final and decisive attack against the Soviet army, using all available planes, troops, tanks and guns.
Hitler dismissed the commander of forces in Berlin, Lieutenant General Hellmuth Reymann, and unexpectedly replaced him with Colonel Ernst Käther, a Nazi party official previously responsible for the ideological education of the troops.
Later that evening, unimpressed with Käther’s first day in the job, Hitler relieved him of his new position and demoted him to the rank of Colonel.
Hitler heard reports that General Weidling, one of Hitler’s main military commanders in Berlin, had transferred his position from the south-east to the west. He ordered that Weidling should be shot. Weidling came to the Führer Bunker to explain himself; he described the closeness of the Soviet troops. Hitler issued many orders, including predicting the ‘destruction’ of the Soviet troops in the city. The next day, Hitler made Weidling the overall commander of forces in Berlin.
During a three hour military conference in the bunker where his generals inform him that no German defence was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, Hitler let loose a hysterical, shrieking denunciation of the Army and the 'universal treason, corruption, lies and failures' of all those who had deserted him. The end had come, Hitler exclaimed, his Reich was a failure and now there was nothing left for him to do but stay in Berlin and fight to the very end. He ordered relocation of most of the military staff to Göring on the Obersalzberg. and allows the German High Military Command (under Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl) to leave as well. General Hans Krebs becomes representative of the supreme commander of the armed forces (Wehrmacht) in the 'Führerbunker'.
Evenings: Hitler appoints SS-General Wilhelm Möhnke as commander of the fights in the government area (defense zone: fortress = “Zitadelle“).
Evenings: Hitler resolves to commit suicide, although a visit from Göbbels apparently causes him to hold off on this for a few days.
His staff attempts without success to convince him to escape to the mountains around Berchtesgaden and direct remaining troops and thus prolong the Reich. But Hitler told them his decision was final. He even insisted a public announcement be made.
Göbbels announces that he would stay in Berlin together with Hitler. Shortly after that, Magda Göbbels moves into the bunker, together with her six children. Hitler begins sorting through his own papers and selected documents to be burned.
Personnel in the bunker are given permission by Hitler to leave. Most did leave and head south for the area around Berchtesgaden via a convoy of trucks and planes. Only a handful of Hitler's personal staff remain, including his top aide Martin Bormann, the Göbbels family, SS and military aides, two of Hitler's secretaries, and longtime mistress and companion Eva Braun.
April 23, 1945
Soviet troops continued to reinforce their partial encirclement of Berlin, effectively cutting off the IX Army from Berlin completely. Parts of Konev’s 1st Ukranian Front continued to move west and began to engage Wenck’s XII Army which were moving towards Berlin.
Noontime: Hitler announces General Helmuth Weidling supreme commander of the armed forces in Berlin.
German Radio broadcast Hitler’s decision to stay in Berlin at 12:40 P.M., April 23, 1945 (BBC Monitoring Report). Among the papers of Ribbentrop’s Nuremberg defense counsel, David Irving found an eleven-page account by the foreign minister of the last days of Hitler (Rep. 502 AXA 132). He describes arriving at Hitler’s shelter after the regular war conference on April 23 :
"While I was there I learned that it was by no means certain whether the Führer would be leaving for southern Germany, even temporarily. I thereupon spoke to Fräulein Eva Braun and asked her to influence the Führer to go to southern Germany, because if he was cut off in Berlin he could no longer lead and then the front lines might easily just cave in. Fräulein Braun told me she couldn’t understand either—the previous day the Führer had been talking of probably flying down south ; apparently somebody had talked him around to the opposite view."
In the afternoons: Göring telegraphically asks whether - with the relocation of the military staff to the Obersalzberg - he - according the follow-up regulation of 1941 - also obtains the command over the troops if Hitler is unable to continue while the siege continues. He asks for reply by 22:00. Hitler understands this as an ultimatum and orders the arrest of Göring. On April 25 Göring was arrested by SS-troops on the Obersalzberg.
Albert Speer bids Hitler farewell, confessing that he sabotaged the "scorched-earth" directive, and has preserved German factories and industry for the post-war period. Hitler did not seem surprised or angry, but appeared resigned.
The Red Army has broken into Berlin from the north, east and south. Massed Russian artillery is shelling the central and western areas of the city. Buildings are collapsing piece by piece. Sturmovik aircraft dive over the rubble to silence German strongpoints. Latest reports say that Russian assault troops are smashing their way through the inner ring of SS resistance near the Stettiner railway station, one mile from the Unter den Linden.
Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann gives a personal order that battalions of Hitler Youth be raised to defend the Pichelsdorf bridges across the River Havel in Berlin to keep the way open for Wenck's phantom army.
April 24.
Konev's troops penetrate Berlin from the South.
Hitler received the news that the two Soviet armies led by Zhukov and Konev had met up, closing the ring of troops around the city. The troops were also attacking Berlin’s two airports. Hitler ordered a large road in Berlin to be turned into an improvised landing strip.
The RAF joined in the final battle of Berlin today with fighter-bombers of Bomber Command pouncing on General Wenck's Twelfth Army as it moves east after being switched from the western front to Berlin. The pilots report that the entire eastern half of the city is on fire. On the ground Konev's men are crossing the heavily-defended Tetlow canal on bridges built by assault sappers under fire.
Noontime: Hitler gives instruction to build up an auxiliary airport on the East-West-Axis (today the avenues: Unter den Linden / Pariser Platz / Strasse des 17. Juni). In fact several airfreighter and courier-aeroplanes land and take off there during the next days.
Speer returns to say good-bye to Hitler, Braun, and the Göbbels.
April 25.
The Soviets complete the encirclement of Berlin. Zhukov's tanks, sweeping across the northern suburbs, have cut all the roads leading to the west and yesterday linked up with Konev's drive from the south at Ketzin. Inside the city, government buildings in the Wilhelmstraße are under point-blank fire from field guns.
Hitler received reports that British and American ground troops had met up and had shaken hands, dashing his hopes (and expectations) that the two countries’ alliance would break down.
In the bunker, the two secretaries, Eva Braun and Hitler discussed the best way to commit suicide. Hitler advised shooting but Eva Braun declared she would take poison. The two secretaries asked for vials of cyanide for themselves, which Hitler gave them, saying “I’m sorry I can’t give you a better farewell present.”
April 26.
Russian tanks have crossed the Spree and reached the Jannowitz Bridge station within a few hundred yards of the Imperial Castle at the start of the Unter den Linden. There is, however, a surge of optimism in Hitler's bunker as General Wenck has launched his relief attack from the west and has made good progress towards the capital. On the Russian side, there is dismay at Konev's HQ because Stalin has divided Berlin between his armies and drawn the boundary so that Konev's rival, Zhukov gets the plum prize, the Reichstag.
Soviet artillery fire made the first direct hits on the Chancellery buildings and grounds directly above the Führerbunker. That evening, a small plane containing female test pilot Hanna Reitsch and Luftwaffe General Ritter von Greim landed in the street near the bunker following a daring flight in which Greim had been wounded in the foot by Soviet ground fire.
Once inside the Führerbunker the wounded Greim was informed by Hitler he was to be Göring's successor, promoted to Field-Marshal in command of the Luftwaffe.
Although a telegram could have accomplished this, Hitler had insisted Greim appear in person to receive his commission. But now, due to his wounded foot, Greim would be bedridden for three days in the bunker.
Eva Braun wrote farewell letters in her private rooms.
Hermann Fegelein left the bunker for his Berlin home. Drunk, he telephoned Eva Braun (his sister-in-law), begging her to leave the bunker and save her life. She refused.
.
April 27.
During the night, Hitler heard Soviet artillery score several direct hits on the Reich Chancellery.
At a conference, Hitler spoke excitedly of a force, led by General Wenck, breaking through Allied lines and liberating the city. Later that evening he discussed which medal Wenck should receive for “rescuing' the Führer. Hitler was also planning far into the future, and declaring the need for the re-establishment of oil supplies in order to mount a large military operation.
Generals in the bunker began to be concerned about Wenck, who was not responding to communications.
Hitler's optimism evaporated; Wenck has been stopped 15 miles short of Berlin and a breakout attempt by General Busse's trapped Ninth Army has been foiled while the Russians inexorably occupy Berlin, house by house, street by street, looting and raping as they go. Six Soviet tanks penetrated defences to a square just metres away from the Reich Chancellery but were driven away by German troops.The Soviets occupy Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin.
Tonight the garrison is penned into a corridor three miles wide and ten miles long running east/west across the city. The SS rules there by way of instant execution.
Hitler announces, "On the occasion of my death Ferdinand Schörner will take command of the German Army."
April 28.
The Russians within a mile of Hitler's Bunker in the east and south.
In the morning General Keitel went to see General Heinrici, Commander of the Army Group Vistula, who was not responding to the urgent calls for Heinrici’s unit not to retreat but to hold back the Soviet troops. Heinrici explained that he could no longer hold the defensive line and would not allow his men to die pointlessly. Keitel shouted that soldiers who did not hold their positions should be shot and told him .that he was no longer Commander of the Army Group Vistula.
House-to-house fighting continued, with very few small pockets of continuing German resistance. A report was broadcast from a Munich radio station that Hitler had been killed in action, which was immediately denied.
Soviet troops were around 170 – 250 feet away from the bunker, held the area around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (Parliament Building) and were closing in on the bunker. By this time most German troops were effectively ignoring orders coming from the bunker and were directing their own resistance efforts.Throughout the city, many Soviet soldiers looted all possible sources of alcohol and gang-raped civilian women. It is thought that perhaps 100,000 German women in Berlin were raped by Soviet soldiers.
The German garrison is running out of ammunition and food. General Weidling, the capital's commandant, estimates that the bullets will run out in another two days. The defence may not last that long as the Russians drive ever closer to the Reichstag. They are infiltrating through the subways and sewers, often storming the defences from below. Now not much more than the area round the Tiergarten remains in German hands.
16:00: Hitler dictates his political and private testament to his secretary Traudl Junge.Three copies of the marriage certificate and the Will were sent out, to Dönitz, Field Marshal Schörner and the Party Headquarters in Munich. Göbbels stopped one of the messengers and added his own testament to the Führer’s explaining his decision to remain in Berlin and to set an example by his loyalty to Hitler, describing his: “irrevocable resolve not to leave the capital of the Reich, even if the city were to fall, but rather to end a life that no longer has any value for me personally if I cannot risk it in service to the Führer and at his side'.
Evening: Hitler learns via Göbbels' Propaganda Ministry that the BBC was reporting that Himmler has started negotiations with the Allied Forces regarding a capitulation . Livid, he expels him from the Nazi Party and orders the execution - according to martial law - of Himmler’s personal representative in the Reich Chancellery, SS-General Hermann Fegelein. Fegelein was found so drunk that the execution could take place in the morning of April 29 only. In the summer of 1944 Fegelein had married the sister of Eva Braun: Margarete, so that he was the husband of Hitler’s sister-in-law at the time of his execution.
Late evening: General Armin Ritter von Greim - announced as new Commander of the Airforce by Hitler, after the degradation of Göring - leaves the bunker, together with the air woman Hanna Reitsch. Provided with commands of Dönitz and several farewell letters of the bunker occupants they succeed in leaving Berlin with a small plane, starting near the Brandenburger Tor - that was the last flight from the East-West-Axis.
At a meeting at 10pm, General Weidling reported that the Soviet troops were making impressive advances and the defenders of the city had no reinforcements left. He said: “Speaking as a soldier, I think the time has come to risk breaking out of surrounded Berlin”. Göbbels ridiculed Weidling’s report. Hitler refused to allow an attempt at break out.
April 29.
Noontime: Hitler arranged for testing out of cyanide pills (that were distributed in the bunker) on his Alsatian dog Blondi.
In the last hours before his suicide, Hitler proclaimed his faith that the Nazi creed will arise again from the ashes of Germany's defeat. "I die with a happy heart," he says in his last testament, in the certainty that through the sacrifices of his soldiers and himself there "will spring up ... the seed of a radiant rebirth of the National Socialist movement and thus of a truly united nation."
The Führer dictated his message to posterity during the night, soon after his wedding to Eva Braun. In it he says that "international Jewry" must bear "sole responsibility" for the war. Neither he nor "anybody else in Germany" wanted war, but "I left no one in doubt that this time notonly would millions ... meet their death ... but this time the real culprits would have to pay for their guilt even though by more humane means than war."
He sees betrayal on all sides: in the army, the air force, even in the SS. And now Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, two men who had been at his side since the early days of the party, had betrayed him be seeking to end the war.
He concludes by asking that his personal possessions be passed to his sister, Paula, "for maintaining a petty bourgeois standard of living."
There is little left now for the defenders of Berlin to die for. They are being split up into small groups which fall back to fight from the Flak towers and large air-raid shelters. Guns are set up in railway yards, squares and parks to hold off the advancing tanks. It appears that a last stand will be made in the Tiergarten, but more and more men, realizing that defeat is inevitable, are risking the SS execution squads and surrendering.
Hitler summoned General Möhnke to give him a report on the situation outside. Möhnke stated that he could not hold out for more than 20 - 24 hours.
The 'Vorbunker' was set up as a temporary hospital for more than 300 people wounded in the fighting, most of them seriously. Doctors performed surgery in the crowded rooms. Party officials also took refuge there, mostly getting drunk and discussing how they should commit suicide.
Hitler sent a final message to Jodl asking desperately about the whereabouts of his troops and the possibility of reinforcements. Having received no reply for over an hour, at around 11pm, Hitler lined up all the most important officials in the bunker, including Bormann, Göbbels, Krebs and Möhnke, his secretaries and his cook. He said farewell personally to each and then announced to the group his intention to commit suicide. All there were released from their oath to stay with him.
00:00: Marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun. A city councillor called Wagner was tracked down fighting with the Volkssturm and brought to the bunker to marry the Führer and Eva, who both swore that they were "of complete Aryan descent". In the space on the marriage form for the name of his father (Schicklgruber) Hitler left a blank. The bride began to write "Eva Braun", stopped, struck out the "B" and wrote "Eva Hitler". Göbbels and Bormann are witnesses to the marriage. During that night further marriages between members of the bunker personnel took place.
April 30.
At around 3am the reply from Jodl came, giving news of no progress and a hopeless situation.
At around 6am Hitler summoned Möhnke to his private rooms and asked how long the German resistance could hold out. Möhnke replied that they could not hold out for more than a few hours and that the Soviet troops were around 100 meters away from the bunker on all sides.
The Reichstag building is now under Russian control. The Russians turned their guns on the building at 0500 and pounded it until early this afternoon, when Zhukov's men poured through shell holes in the walls and fought their way, hand to hand, through the shattered corridors and rooms. The honour of raising the Red Flag over the building fell late tonight to two sergeants, M. A. Yegorov and M. V. Kontary. The final battle of Berlin is over.
Around 7am Eva Braun ventured out into the garden outside the bunker, because she wanted to ‘see the sun once more’. Hitler was also going to go out, but turned back from the entrance of the bunker as the bombardment became heavier.
Eva Braun gave Traudl Junge her silver fox fur coat.
Around midday, a final military conference was held. Hitler was told that Soviet troops were very near the Reich Chancellery and Weidling stated that the city could no longer be defended. He advised Hitler to attempt to break through the encirclement. Hitler stated that such a move would be pointless, but that he would never surrender, ordering all his generals not to surrender either. Finally he consented to the troops attempting to break out of the circle.
At the end of the conference, Hitler told Otto Günsche that he would commit suicide and asked him to make sure that his and Eva Braun’s bodies not fall into enemy hands but instead be burned. Günsche asked Hitler’s chauffeur to get as much gasoline as he could.
Around 2pm, Hitler ate lunch with his secretaries and his cook. At the end of the meal he stated “The time has come. It’s all over”. After lunch, Göbbels suddenly urged Hitler to leave Berlin. He refused but invited Göbbels to leave with his wife and children. Göbbels also refused.
3:00: Radiogram reaches the bunker, informing that definitely none of the larger units near Berlin could get through to the governance quarter.
Hitler and Eva Braun then said goodbye to his officials, including Göbbels and his wife, Bormann and his secretaries and his pilot, Hans Baur, who he also urged to make sure that their bodies were cremated. Magda Göbbels finally broke down in tears and begged Hitler to leave Berlin. He bluntly refused. He and Eva Braun entered their private quarters.
In the rest of the bunker, there was a sense of relief and finality, and loud music was played through the speakers. An orderly came and told the bunker inhabitants to be more quiet, as the Führer was about to die. Most of the drunken officers ignored the order.
Some time later, around 3pm, a shot was heard. The couple were found a few minutes later, sitting on the sofa. Hitler had committed suicide by simultaneously biting on a cyanide capsule and pulling the trigger of a gun pointed at his head. Eva had also taken a cyanide capsule, but not used the gun. Günsche reported his death to the waiting Göbbels, Krebs and Burgdorf.
Hitler's valet, SS Major Heinz Linge, and a servant carried Hitler's body, wrapped in an army blanket, up to the garden of the Chancellery. Martin Bormann brought Eva Braun's, then handed it to the Führer's chauffeur Erich Kempka. With Russian shells exploding all around, Linge and Kempka slid the bodies into a shell hole. The bodies were doused with petrol and set alight with a burning rag. Göbbels stood to attention and raised his right hand in the Nazi salute. The propaganda wizard had risen to the heights with Hitler; now he was preparing to follow him in death.
The details, also the exact time of the double suicide, cannot exactly be reconstructed today. The reports of the witnesses, who stayed near Hitler’s private rooms in the bunker at that time, are not identical in many single aspects and also have changed during the years. But serious doubts with regard to Hitler's suicide are - against some lurid reporting afterwards - beyond question.
Evenings: Göbbels - Reich Chancellor according to Hitler’s last will now - takes over leadership in the bunker.
May 1, 1945
02:00: General Krebs leaves the bunker for peace negotiations for the German Reich with the USSR via a Soviet General. In Moscow Stalin is informed about it and rejects that absurd offer. He asks Krebs for immediate and unconditional surrender. Krebs rejects and returns to the bunker at about 14:00.
On the morning of 1 May, Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz (officially Hitler’s successor as Reich President) announced Hitler’s death on German radio fighting 'at the head of his troops'. Many believed the statement, and the next day The Times printed an obituary of Hitler. However, rumours continued that Hitler was still alive.
Late evening: In the bunker Magda Göbbels poisons her six children.
At about 22:00, eventually earlier, she leaves the bunker together with her husband who shoots her down firstly - and then himself, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. Their bodies are, like that of the Hitler's, inexpertly burned.
Shortly before 23:00: Under the command of General Möhnke the bunker inhabitants leave - in several troops - the New Reichskanzlei through cellar windows. Through subway funnels they escape from the governance quarter. Most of them get imprisoned by the Soviets, some of them take their lives, others die during the last fights.
May 2, 1945
Soviet forces complete the capture of Berlin, when Soviet units in the north and south of Berlin link up on the Charlottenburg Chaussee. German forces surrender to Marshal Zhukov, who immediately dispatches troops to search for the bodies of Hitler and Göbbels.
The German surrender is made by General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, CO of LVI Panzer Korps, and last "Kampf Kommandant" of Berlin. he unconditionally surrenders all German forces in the 'Reichshauptstadt' of Germany to the forces of the Soviet Red Army.
Early morning: The Generals Krebs and Burgdorf who still stayed in the bunker shoot themselves in the conference room.
In the morning: Soviet troops occupy the New Reichskanzlei. They obviously have no knowledge of the existence, at least of the exact position, of the Führerbunker.
09:00: As first troop of the Red Army, about ten aid women enter the bunker. In search for goods, they presumably had lost their way in spacious channels under the Reichskanzlei. In the bunker they meet the machinist Johannes Hentschel, who stayed there as one of the last. They ask for the private rooms of Eva Braun, depredate her garderobe and leave while swaying underwear and bras.
15:00: The Red Army seizes the bunker.
With over 130,000 men surrendering in Berlin, later that day General Weidling was taken, together with Möhnke, Günsche, and other survivors from the Bunker, to the airfield at Strausberg (where Zhukov had his field HQ), about 35 km east of the city, where the Russians had established a special holding camp for VIP prisoners. Through O'Donnell's account, Möhnke has told us that the next day (May 4) Weidling and his staff had to leave the camp in the morning, returning that night. Weidling told him later that he had been taken to the Reichskanzlei where he was filmed coming out of one of the exits to the Voss Strasse from the cellars beneath the ruins of the Reichs Chancellery. Later, the Russians were to use this piece of film as propaganda, saying that it had been taken at Weidling's headquarters (he had actually directed the battle from Army Headquarters in the Bendlerblock) after he had signed the surrender document.
May 4, 1945
Because of the persistent rumors that Hitler is still alive, the Red Army spreads photos of a body - that had been arranged to look similar to Hitler.
German troops in Berlin try to reach the US and British lines, rather than be taken by the Russians.
April 21.
Hitler was informed that Soviet troops were close enough to use artillery to fire into the centre of the city. The Reichstag (Parliament building) and the iconic Brandenburg Gate had been hit. Assuming that the artillery was long-range, Hitler ordered that the artillery battery be found and destroyed by the Luftwaffe. In fact the artillery was simply much closer than Hitler thought. He greeted the news with disbelief.
Hitler started to pin all his hopes of success on creating what he called the ‘Steiner Combat Group’, uniting a group under the command of General Felix Steiner with General Busse’s Ninth Army, in order to attack the Soviet forces from the north. In response to Hitler’s command to come to the aid of Berlin, General Felix Steiner declared to Heinrici that he simply did not have sufficient men to make the attack on the northern Soviet forces that Hitler expected, and could not therefore save the IX Army which had been isolated at the Seelow Heights. Heinrici explained to Hitler’s staff that the IX Army were in danger of being lost unless they retreated immediately.
Zhukov's leading units reach the Berlin suburbs.
In the East: the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Bautzen and Cottbus 70 miles (113 km) southeast of Berlin while Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin, at Zossen, assault the headquarters of the German High Command.
The only remaining opposing "force" to the Russian invasion of Berlin are the "battle groups" of Hitler Youth, teenagers with anti-tank guns, strategically placed in parks and suburban streets. In a battle at Eggersdorf, 70 of these Hitler teens strove to fight off a Russian assault with a mere three anti-tank guns. They were bulldozed by Russian tanks and infantry. .
Hitler announces he will remain in Berlin.
April 22.
Zhukov and Konev, having overcome the fanatical resistance of the defence zone before Berlin, are moving rapidly to put a ring of tanks round the capital. Zhukov's 47th Army and Konev's Fourth Guards Tank Army, are both west of the city, and only 25 miles separate them. Rokossovsky, after being held up crossing the Oder marshes, is preventing the 3rd Panzer Army from coming to Berlin's aid from the north.
Units of the Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front have penetrated into the northern and eastern suburbs of Berlin.
A Soviet mechanized corps reaches Treuenbrietzen, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Berlin, liberates a PoW camp and releases among others, Norwegian Commander in Chief Otto Ruge.
Loud shelling and artillery bombardment was heard continuously from the bunker. Inhabitants of the bunker were unsure whether the guns they heard were Soviet or German. Hitler ordered a final and decisive attack against the Soviet army, using all available planes, troops, tanks and guns.
Hitler dismissed the commander of forces in Berlin, Lieutenant General Hellmuth Reymann, and unexpectedly replaced him with Colonel Ernst Käther, a Nazi party official previously responsible for the ideological education of the troops.
Later that evening, unimpressed with Käther’s first day in the job, Hitler relieved him of his new position and demoted him to the rank of Colonel.
Hitler heard reports that General Weidling, one of Hitler’s main military commanders in Berlin, had transferred his position from the south-east to the west. He ordered that Weidling should be shot. Weidling came to the Führer Bunker to explain himself; he described the closeness of the Soviet troops. Hitler issued many orders, including predicting the ‘destruction’ of the Soviet troops in the city. The next day, Hitler made Weidling the overall commander of forces in Berlin.
During a three hour military conference in the bunker where his generals inform him that no German defence was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, Hitler let loose a hysterical, shrieking denunciation of the Army and the 'universal treason, corruption, lies and failures' of all those who had deserted him. The end had come, Hitler exclaimed, his Reich was a failure and now there was nothing left for him to do but stay in Berlin and fight to the very end. He ordered relocation of most of the military staff to Göring on the Obersalzberg. and allows the German High Military Command (under Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl) to leave as well. General Hans Krebs becomes representative of the supreme commander of the armed forces (Wehrmacht) in the 'Führerbunker'.
Evenings: Hitler appoints SS-General Wilhelm Möhnke as commander of the fights in the government area (defense zone: fortress = “Zitadelle“).
Evenings: Hitler resolves to commit suicide, although a visit from Göbbels apparently causes him to hold off on this for a few days.
His staff attempts without success to convince him to escape to the mountains around Berchtesgaden and direct remaining troops and thus prolong the Reich. But Hitler told them his decision was final. He even insisted a public announcement be made.
Göbbels announces that he would stay in Berlin together with Hitler. Shortly after that, Magda Göbbels moves into the bunker, together with her six children. Hitler begins sorting through his own papers and selected documents to be burned.
Personnel in the bunker are given permission by Hitler to leave. Most did leave and head south for the area around Berchtesgaden via a convoy of trucks and planes. Only a handful of Hitler's personal staff remain, including his top aide Martin Bormann, the Göbbels family, SS and military aides, two of Hitler's secretaries, and longtime mistress and companion Eva Braun.
April 23, 1945
Soviet troops continued to reinforce their partial encirclement of Berlin, effectively cutting off the IX Army from Berlin completely. Parts of Konev’s 1st Ukranian Front continued to move west and began to engage Wenck’s XII Army which were moving towards Berlin.
Noontime: Hitler announces General Helmuth Weidling supreme commander of the armed forces in Berlin.
German Radio broadcast Hitler’s decision to stay in Berlin at 12:40 P.M., April 23, 1945 (BBC Monitoring Report). Among the papers of Ribbentrop’s Nuremberg defense counsel, David Irving found an eleven-page account by the foreign minister of the last days of Hitler (Rep. 502 AXA 132). He describes arriving at Hitler’s shelter after the regular war conference on April 23 :
"While I was there I learned that it was by no means certain whether the Führer would be leaving for southern Germany, even temporarily. I thereupon spoke to Fräulein Eva Braun and asked her to influence the Führer to go to southern Germany, because if he was cut off in Berlin he could no longer lead and then the front lines might easily just cave in. Fräulein Braun told me she couldn’t understand either—the previous day the Führer had been talking of probably flying down south ; apparently somebody had talked him around to the opposite view."
In the afternoons: Göring telegraphically asks whether - with the relocation of the military staff to the Obersalzberg - he - according the follow-up regulation of 1941 - also obtains the command over the troops if Hitler is unable to continue while the siege continues. He asks for reply by 22:00. Hitler understands this as an ultimatum and orders the arrest of Göring. On April 25 Göring was arrested by SS-troops on the Obersalzberg.
Albert Speer bids Hitler farewell, confessing that he sabotaged the "scorched-earth" directive, and has preserved German factories and industry for the post-war period. Hitler did not seem surprised or angry, but appeared resigned.
The Red Army has broken into Berlin from the north, east and south. Massed Russian artillery is shelling the central and western areas of the city. Buildings are collapsing piece by piece. Sturmovik aircraft dive over the rubble to silence German strongpoints. Latest reports say that Russian assault troops are smashing their way through the inner ring of SS resistance near the Stettiner railway station, one mile from the Unter den Linden.
Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann gives a personal order that battalions of Hitler Youth be raised to defend the Pichelsdorf bridges across the River Havel in Berlin to keep the way open for Wenck's phantom army.
April 24.
Konev's troops penetrate Berlin from the South.
Hitler received the news that the two Soviet armies led by Zhukov and Konev had met up, closing the ring of troops around the city. The troops were also attacking Berlin’s two airports. Hitler ordered a large road in Berlin to be turned into an improvised landing strip.
The RAF joined in the final battle of Berlin today with fighter-bombers of Bomber Command pouncing on General Wenck's Twelfth Army as it moves east after being switched from the western front to Berlin. The pilots report that the entire eastern half of the city is on fire. On the ground Konev's men are crossing the heavily-defended Tetlow canal on bridges built by assault sappers under fire.
Noontime: Hitler gives instruction to build up an auxiliary airport on the East-West-Axis (today the avenues: Unter den Linden / Pariser Platz / Strasse des 17. Juni). In fact several airfreighter and courier-aeroplanes land and take off there during the next days.
Speer returns to say good-bye to Hitler, Braun, and the Göbbels.
April 25.
The Soviets complete the encirclement of Berlin. Zhukov's tanks, sweeping across the northern suburbs, have cut all the roads leading to the west and yesterday linked up with Konev's drive from the south at Ketzin. Inside the city, government buildings in the Wilhelmstraße are under point-blank fire from field guns.
Hitler received reports that British and American ground troops had met up and had shaken hands, dashing his hopes (and expectations) that the two countries’ alliance would break down.
In the bunker, the two secretaries, Eva Braun and Hitler discussed the best way to commit suicide. Hitler advised shooting but Eva Braun declared she would take poison. The two secretaries asked for vials of cyanide for themselves, which Hitler gave them, saying “I’m sorry I can’t give you a better farewell present.”
April 26.
Russian tanks have crossed the Spree and reached the Jannowitz Bridge station within a few hundred yards of the Imperial Castle at the start of the Unter den Linden. There is, however, a surge of optimism in Hitler's bunker as General Wenck has launched his relief attack from the west and has made good progress towards the capital. On the Russian side, there is dismay at Konev's HQ because Stalin has divided Berlin between his armies and drawn the boundary so that Konev's rival, Zhukov gets the plum prize, the Reichstag.
Soviet artillery fire made the first direct hits on the Chancellery buildings and grounds directly above the Führerbunker. That evening, a small plane containing female test pilot Hanna Reitsch and Luftwaffe General Ritter von Greim landed in the street near the bunker following a daring flight in which Greim had been wounded in the foot by Soviet ground fire.
Once inside the Führerbunker the wounded Greim was informed by Hitler he was to be Göring's successor, promoted to Field-Marshal in command of the Luftwaffe.
Although a telegram could have accomplished this, Hitler had insisted Greim appear in person to receive his commission. But now, due to his wounded foot, Greim would be bedridden for three days in the bunker.
Eva Braun wrote farewell letters in her private rooms.
Hermann Fegelein left the bunker for his Berlin home. Drunk, he telephoned Eva Braun (his sister-in-law), begging her to leave the bunker and save her life. She refused.
.
April 27.
During the night, Hitler heard Soviet artillery score several direct hits on the Reich Chancellery.
At a conference, Hitler spoke excitedly of a force, led by General Wenck, breaking through Allied lines and liberating the city. Later that evening he discussed which medal Wenck should receive for “rescuing' the Führer. Hitler was also planning far into the future, and declaring the need for the re-establishment of oil supplies in order to mount a large military operation.
Generals in the bunker began to be concerned about Wenck, who was not responding to communications.
Hitler's optimism evaporated; Wenck has been stopped 15 miles short of Berlin and a breakout attempt by General Busse's trapped Ninth Army has been foiled while the Russians inexorably occupy Berlin, house by house, street by street, looting and raping as they go. Six Soviet tanks penetrated defences to a square just metres away from the Reich Chancellery but were driven away by German troops.The Soviets occupy Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin.
Tonight the garrison is penned into a corridor three miles wide and ten miles long running east/west across the city. The SS rules there by way of instant execution.
Hitler announces, "On the occasion of my death Ferdinand Schörner will take command of the German Army."
April 28.
The Russians within a mile of Hitler's Bunker in the east and south.
In the morning General Keitel went to see General Heinrici, Commander of the Army Group Vistula, who was not responding to the urgent calls for Heinrici’s unit not to retreat but to hold back the Soviet troops. Heinrici explained that he could no longer hold the defensive line and would not allow his men to die pointlessly. Keitel shouted that soldiers who did not hold their positions should be shot and told him .that he was no longer Commander of the Army Group Vistula.
House-to-house fighting continued, with very few small pockets of continuing German resistance. A report was broadcast from a Munich radio station that Hitler had been killed in action, which was immediately denied.
Soviet troops were around 170 – 250 feet away from the bunker, held the area around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (Parliament Building) and were closing in on the bunker. By this time most German troops were effectively ignoring orders coming from the bunker and were directing their own resistance efforts.Throughout the city, many Soviet soldiers looted all possible sources of alcohol and gang-raped civilian women. It is thought that perhaps 100,000 German women in Berlin were raped by Soviet soldiers.
The German garrison is running out of ammunition and food. General Weidling, the capital's commandant, estimates that the bullets will run out in another two days. The defence may not last that long as the Russians drive ever closer to the Reichstag. They are infiltrating through the subways and sewers, often storming the defences from below. Now not much more than the area round the Tiergarten remains in German hands.
16:00: Hitler dictates his political and private testament to his secretary Traudl Junge.Three copies of the marriage certificate and the Will were sent out, to Dönitz, Field Marshal Schörner and the Party Headquarters in Munich. Göbbels stopped one of the messengers and added his own testament to the Führer’s explaining his decision to remain in Berlin and to set an example by his loyalty to Hitler, describing his: “irrevocable resolve not to leave the capital of the Reich, even if the city were to fall, but rather to end a life that no longer has any value for me personally if I cannot risk it in service to the Führer and at his side'.
Evening: Hitler learns via Göbbels' Propaganda Ministry that the BBC was reporting that Himmler has started negotiations with the Allied Forces regarding a capitulation . Livid, he expels him from the Nazi Party and orders the execution - according to martial law - of Himmler’s personal representative in the Reich Chancellery, SS-General Hermann Fegelein. Fegelein was found so drunk that the execution could take place in the morning of April 29 only. In the summer of 1944 Fegelein had married the sister of Eva Braun: Margarete, so that he was the husband of Hitler’s sister-in-law at the time of his execution.
Late evening: General Armin Ritter von Greim - announced as new Commander of the Airforce by Hitler, after the degradation of Göring - leaves the bunker, together with the air woman Hanna Reitsch. Provided with commands of Dönitz and several farewell letters of the bunker occupants they succeed in leaving Berlin with a small plane, starting near the Brandenburger Tor - that was the last flight from the East-West-Axis.
At a meeting at 10pm, General Weidling reported that the Soviet troops were making impressive advances and the defenders of the city had no reinforcements left. He said: “Speaking as a soldier, I think the time has come to risk breaking out of surrounded Berlin”. Göbbels ridiculed Weidling’s report. Hitler refused to allow an attempt at break out.
April 29.
Noontime: Hitler arranged for testing out of cyanide pills (that were distributed in the bunker) on his Alsatian dog Blondi.
In the last hours before his suicide, Hitler proclaimed his faith that the Nazi creed will arise again from the ashes of Germany's defeat. "I die with a happy heart," he says in his last testament, in the certainty that through the sacrifices of his soldiers and himself there "will spring up ... the seed of a radiant rebirth of the National Socialist movement and thus of a truly united nation."
The Führer dictated his message to posterity during the night, soon after his wedding to Eva Braun. In it he says that "international Jewry" must bear "sole responsibility" for the war. Neither he nor "anybody else in Germany" wanted war, but "I left no one in doubt that this time notonly would millions ... meet their death ... but this time the real culprits would have to pay for their guilt even though by more humane means than war."
He sees betrayal on all sides: in the army, the air force, even in the SS. And now Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, two men who had been at his side since the early days of the party, had betrayed him be seeking to end the war.
He concludes by asking that his personal possessions be passed to his sister, Paula, "for maintaining a petty bourgeois standard of living."
There is little left now for the defenders of Berlin to die for. They are being split up into small groups which fall back to fight from the Flak towers and large air-raid shelters. Guns are set up in railway yards, squares and parks to hold off the advancing tanks. It appears that a last stand will be made in the Tiergarten, but more and more men, realizing that defeat is inevitable, are risking the SS execution squads and surrendering.
Hitler summoned General Möhnke to give him a report on the situation outside. Möhnke stated that he could not hold out for more than 20 - 24 hours.
The 'Vorbunker' was set up as a temporary hospital for more than 300 people wounded in the fighting, most of them seriously. Doctors performed surgery in the crowded rooms. Party officials also took refuge there, mostly getting drunk and discussing how they should commit suicide.
Hitler sent a final message to Jodl asking desperately about the whereabouts of his troops and the possibility of reinforcements. Having received no reply for over an hour, at around 11pm, Hitler lined up all the most important officials in the bunker, including Bormann, Göbbels, Krebs and Möhnke, his secretaries and his cook. He said farewell personally to each and then announced to the group his intention to commit suicide. All there were released from their oath to stay with him.
00:00: Marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun. A city councillor called Wagner was tracked down fighting with the Volkssturm and brought to the bunker to marry the Führer and Eva, who both swore that they were "of complete Aryan descent". In the space on the marriage form for the name of his father (Schicklgruber) Hitler left a blank. The bride began to write "Eva Braun", stopped, struck out the "B" and wrote "Eva Hitler". Göbbels and Bormann are witnesses to the marriage. During that night further marriages between members of the bunker personnel took place.
April 30.
At around 3am the reply from Jodl came, giving news of no progress and a hopeless situation.
At around 6am Hitler summoned Möhnke to his private rooms and asked how long the German resistance could hold out. Möhnke replied that they could not hold out for more than a few hours and that the Soviet troops were around 100 meters away from the bunker on all sides.
The Reichstag building is now under Russian control. The Russians turned their guns on the building at 0500 and pounded it until early this afternoon, when Zhukov's men poured through shell holes in the walls and fought their way, hand to hand, through the shattered corridors and rooms. The honour of raising the Red Flag over the building fell late tonight to two sergeants, M. A. Yegorov and M. V. Kontary. The final battle of Berlin is over.
Around 7am Eva Braun ventured out into the garden outside the bunker, because she wanted to ‘see the sun once more’. Hitler was also going to go out, but turned back from the entrance of the bunker as the bombardment became heavier.
Eva Braun gave Traudl Junge her silver fox fur coat.
Around midday, a final military conference was held. Hitler was told that Soviet troops were very near the Reich Chancellery and Weidling stated that the city could no longer be defended. He advised Hitler to attempt to break through the encirclement. Hitler stated that such a move would be pointless, but that he would never surrender, ordering all his generals not to surrender either. Finally he consented to the troops attempting to break out of the circle.
At the end of the conference, Hitler told Otto Günsche that he would commit suicide and asked him to make sure that his and Eva Braun’s bodies not fall into enemy hands but instead be burned. Günsche asked Hitler’s chauffeur to get as much gasoline as he could.
Around 2pm, Hitler ate lunch with his secretaries and his cook. At the end of the meal he stated “The time has come. It’s all over”. After lunch, Göbbels suddenly urged Hitler to leave Berlin. He refused but invited Göbbels to leave with his wife and children. Göbbels also refused.
3:00: Radiogram reaches the bunker, informing that definitely none of the larger units near Berlin could get through to the governance quarter.
Hitler and Eva Braun then said goodbye to his officials, including Göbbels and his wife, Bormann and his secretaries and his pilot, Hans Baur, who he also urged to make sure that their bodies were cremated. Magda Göbbels finally broke down in tears and begged Hitler to leave Berlin. He bluntly refused. He and Eva Braun entered their private quarters.
In the rest of the bunker, there was a sense of relief and finality, and loud music was played through the speakers. An orderly came and told the bunker inhabitants to be more quiet, as the Führer was about to die. Most of the drunken officers ignored the order.
Some time later, around 3pm, a shot was heard. The couple were found a few minutes later, sitting on the sofa. Hitler had committed suicide by simultaneously biting on a cyanide capsule and pulling the trigger of a gun pointed at his head. Eva had also taken a cyanide capsule, but not used the gun. Günsche reported his death to the waiting Göbbels, Krebs and Burgdorf.
Hitler's valet, SS Major Heinz Linge, and a servant carried Hitler's body, wrapped in an army blanket, up to the garden of the Chancellery. Martin Bormann brought Eva Braun's, then handed it to the Führer's chauffeur Erich Kempka. With Russian shells exploding all around, Linge and Kempka slid the bodies into a shell hole. The bodies were doused with petrol and set alight with a burning rag. Göbbels stood to attention and raised his right hand in the Nazi salute. The propaganda wizard had risen to the heights with Hitler; now he was preparing to follow him in death.
The details, also the exact time of the double suicide, cannot exactly be reconstructed today. The reports of the witnesses, who stayed near Hitler’s private rooms in the bunker at that time, are not identical in many single aspects and also have changed during the years. But serious doubts with regard to Hitler's suicide are - against some lurid reporting afterwards - beyond question.
Evenings: Göbbels - Reich Chancellor according to Hitler’s last will now - takes over leadership in the bunker.
May 1, 1945
02:00: General Krebs leaves the bunker for peace negotiations for the German Reich with the USSR via a Soviet General. In Moscow Stalin is informed about it and rejects that absurd offer. He asks Krebs for immediate and unconditional surrender. Krebs rejects and returns to the bunker at about 14:00.
On the morning of 1 May, Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz (officially Hitler’s successor as Reich President) announced Hitler’s death on German radio fighting 'at the head of his troops'. Many believed the statement, and the next day The Times printed an obituary of Hitler. However, rumours continued that Hitler was still alive.
Late evening: In the bunker Magda Göbbels poisons her six children.
At about 22:00, eventually earlier, she leaves the bunker together with her husband who shoots her down firstly - and then himself, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. Their bodies are, like that of the Hitler's, inexpertly burned.
Shortly before 23:00: Under the command of General Möhnke the bunker inhabitants leave - in several troops - the New Reichskanzlei through cellar windows. Through subway funnels they escape from the governance quarter. Most of them get imprisoned by the Soviets, some of them take their lives, others die during the last fights.
May 2, 1945
Soviet forces complete the capture of Berlin, when Soviet units in the north and south of Berlin link up on the Charlottenburg Chaussee. German forces surrender to Marshal Zhukov, who immediately dispatches troops to search for the bodies of Hitler and Göbbels.
The German surrender is made by General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, CO of LVI Panzer Korps, and last "Kampf Kommandant" of Berlin. he unconditionally surrenders all German forces in the 'Reichshauptstadt' of Germany to the forces of the Soviet Red Army.
Early morning: The Generals Krebs and Burgdorf who still stayed in the bunker shoot themselves in the conference room.
In the morning: Soviet troops occupy the New Reichskanzlei. They obviously have no knowledge of the existence, at least of the exact position, of the Führerbunker.
09:00: As first troop of the Red Army, about ten aid women enter the bunker. In search for goods, they presumably had lost their way in spacious channels under the Reichskanzlei. In the bunker they meet the machinist Johannes Hentschel, who stayed there as one of the last. They ask for the private rooms of Eva Braun, depredate her garderobe and leave while swaying underwear and bras.
15:00: The Red Army seizes the bunker.
With over 130,000 men surrendering in Berlin, later that day General Weidling was taken, together with Möhnke, Günsche, and other survivors from the Bunker, to the airfield at Strausberg (where Zhukov had his field HQ), about 35 km east of the city, where the Russians had established a special holding camp for VIP prisoners. Through O'Donnell's account, Möhnke has told us that the next day (May 4) Weidling and his staff had to leave the camp in the morning, returning that night. Weidling told him later that he had been taken to the Reichskanzlei where he was filmed coming out of one of the exits to the Voss Strasse from the cellars beneath the ruins of the Reichs Chancellery. Later, the Russians were to use this piece of film as propaganda, saying that it had been taken at Weidling's headquarters (he had actually directed the battle from Army Headquarters in the Bendlerblock) after he had signed the surrender document.
May 4, 1945
Because of the persistent rumors that Hitler is still alive, the Red Army spreads photos of a body - that had been arranged to look similar to Hitler.
German troops in Berlin try to reach the US and British lines, rather than be taken by the Russians.
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