Martin, I too am loving this. I really like the style of it.

Monday, March 12, 1945


The Nazis should have to celebrate an anniversary today:

The German invasion of Austria began seven years ago, on March 12, 1938 - and Germany became the "Großdeutsches Reich" ("Greater German Empire")!











(Whenever I look at these pictures I must remember that the Austrians described themselves as "the first victims of Hitler" after the war ... M. R.)

But the times for Hitler and his cronies are not after partying ...


In the still fiercely contested Küstrin, the German defenders can no longer claim suburbs and inner city against the Red Army and retreat to the old fortifications...:







The resistance continues.

The Soviets seamlessly shoot together the brick and earthworks from the 19th entury with everything inside...:



This is what the fortress will look like a few days later after being captured by the Red Army ...:




After days of fighting, German units managed to temporarily recapture the Upper Silesian city of Striegau (Strzegom) and completely wipe out a detachment of the Red Army ...:






What is left of the German "Heeresgruppe Nord" (Army Group North), which besieged the city of Leningrad for 900 days (1.2 million dead!), is given a new commander: Colonel General Walter Weiß ...:



First of all, the new commander suggests Hitler to evacuate cut-off German troops of about 500,000 men of all branches of the armed forces under the command of Colonel-General Lothar Rendulic...



...which is meanwhile been renamed "Army Group Kurland" and used to defend the Reich territory , the "Führer" again categorically rejects!

"The Kurland army stays where it is," he explains. "I need Kurland as a stepping stone to stab the Russian armies in the back."

In fact, the "Kurland Army" manages - militarily completely senseless! - to claim until the end of the war in Courland ...:








**contunued next post**

On this day the young Dutchwoman Anne Frank dies at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp ...



... by malnutrition and general exhaustion.



Her saved diary, published by her father after the war, will make her world famous posthumously...:



The RAF Bomber Command drops 4898 tons of bombs on Dortmund with 1,107 aircraft!



The squadron loses only two of the aircraft by German Flak (anti aircraft guns). The Luftwaffe is not able to fly because there is no fuel!

The German 88 mm cannons, feared by the pilots, are now mainly operated by so-called "Luftwaffe helpers" - these are 15 year old children!





The amount of bombs dropped is the second largest ever dropped in a single attack on a German city - even Dortmund exists no more...:



Even the SS has now been noticed that the "Third Reich" project is heading for a crashing bankruptcy. High ranked SS leaders begin to reach out their hands to the neutral and think of their wn skin!

The head of the German Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office) und der Gestapo (Secret state police), Ernst Kaltenbrunner ...



... gives to the President of the "International Committee of the Red Cross", the Swiss Carl Burckhardt ...



... in secret the promise that ICRC delegates will be granted access to the concentration camps, provided that these delegates remain in the camps until the end of the war.


The most amazing thing is: there are actually ten delegates who accept this proposal!

Thx mate! I think it is this mixture of "important" and "unimportant" that makes the attraction ...

The research took more than nine months.


Cheers

Tuesday, March 13, 1945


The pressure from east and west on the remains of the German Reich is growing stronger and stronger! With a car one can now drive from the western to the eastern front in a few hours ... ...!




The Red Army starts the battle of the encircled area of Heiligenbeil in the Samland in the east ...:








Around 80,000 German soldiers die or are seriously wounded, 50,000 are taken into Soviet captivity ...:




The capital of East Prussia, Königsberg, is cut off from every land and sea connection...:



Before the war, Königsberg was a beautiful city - all Prussian kings were crowned there ...:



Bis zu den Kämpfen, die nun beginnen, wies die Kapitale zwar Schäden auf, war aber als Stadt noch zu erkennen...:



(On the banner is written: "The sun doesn't set for us".)
Das wird sich nun andern...:



The 3rd US Army meanwhile manages to cross the Moselle in the west near Trier ...:

Trier is occupied without much resistance - in the background the "Porta Nigra" (Black Gate) is to be seen, which was hardly damaged during the fighting ...:


In the shadow of the world famous architectural monument from the Roman period many German soldiers give up without a fight ...:




**continued next post**

Around this time, an idea beginn to rise in the head of the "Father of the People", as the Soviet dictator Jossif Stalin likes to be called:

Stalin, who does not even trust himself, as he once said, is deeply suspicious of the Western Allies - especially British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, one of his old adversaries from the days of the Russian Revolution ...:




Stalin is well informed about the large number of Germans who surrender without a fight in the West, and compares this to the stubborn resistance of the Wehrmacht and SS against his own troops on the Eastern Front.

The obvious idea that the soldiers in the east are so desperate to resist the captivity (and revenge!) Of the Red Army is far too simple!

No, Stalin suspects secret agreements between the Germans and the Western Allies to open up the front and thus the way to Berlin!

This dictator's conspiracy theory is fueled by proposals from the highest German generals (most recently the OB West von Rundstedt, who was therefore deposed by Hitler) to end the struggle in the West and only to continue fighting in the East.

Stalin, however, sees Berlin as his legitimate spoils of war, which he does not want to take away at any price!

This idea of ​​the Soviet leader will have a significant impact on future warfare!



The Germans, however, have completely different concerns!

In desperation that they have not yet been able to destroy the Rhine bridge at Remagen by bombing, the German leaders decide to use the new missile "A4" - also called "Vergeltungswaffe 2" (= Retaliation weapon No. 2) - for the first and only tactical purpose of the war!



Eleven "V2" missiles are at the bridge that day ..:




Everyone misses their target...!

Wednesday, March 14, 1945


The Western Allies launch a major attack on the Moselle, Saar, Lower Alsace and the Northwest of Germany...:















The only thing left for their German opponents: give up or die!






On this day the Royal Air Force 617th Squadron under Squadron Leader CC ("Jock") Calder ...



... throws for the first time the heaviest aerial bomb ever used in a war, a "Grand Slam" weighing over 10 tonnes and measuring 7.80 m long and 1.20 m wide, on the Schilde railway viaduct near Bielefeld ...:








**continued next post**

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



... gives to all units under his command this genertal order:

"All ships and boats in service must be destroyed if there is a threat of enemy access."

On this day, the US publicly reports its blood tariff for the first time:

The total number of US losses in Europe and the Pacific is 859,587, of which 767,680 belong to Army and USAAF and 91,907 to the Navy...:



While German soldiers and civilians die on the fronts and in the hail of bombs by the tens of thousands...



... their "Führer" worries about three deaths:

The coffins of Emperor Wilhelm I.



... Prussian King Frederick the Great...





... and Fieldmarshal Paul von Hindenburg...



... were brought on the orders of Hitler from Potsdam to Bernterode in Thuringia (20 km from Nordhausen) and bricked up there in a 563 meter deep shaft of a disused potash mine.

A "return" to Potsdam, will only be possible in 1991 after the end of the GDR ...






Even the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop ...



... degraded to an extras role since the beginning of the war, begins to worry about your own skin ...:

Through Swedish channels he tries to connect discreetly with the western allies without the knowledge of his "Führer" ...

I always think that's one of the things that separate good historical stuff from the boring. It does have a value to mention Army Group this or Army Group that. But the inclusion of mundane everyday stuff and things about individual people really bring it to life. This makes it feel relevant. Nice one Martin.

Thursday, March 15, 1945


After only small local successes, the Germans - including SS core troops - have to abandon their offensive in Hungary towards the Danube that started only two days ago!




The opponent is too strong, his resistance is increasingly solidifying - and on the German side, catastrophic shortages in supply are having an effect!

After the loss of the Romanian oil fields from Ploesti there is simply no more fuel to the fighting force and without fuel there are no tanks, half-track vehicles or trucks ...






On the same day the Soviet counter-offensive of the "1st Ukrainian Front" under Marshal Ivan Konev...



...begins with overwhelming superiority!..:



Now the Soviets are driving with Romanian oil ...!




In the West - at the same time and co-ordinated with the Soviets - two offensives of the US Army start!

After crossing the Moselle three days ago, the Americans attack on the Meuse ...:








**continued next post**

At the same time, the 7th U.S. Army under General Alexander M. Patch ...



... frontally attacks the German "Westwall"...:



This barrier previously hailed by the Germans as "insurmountable" has played a far greater role in propaganda than mow in reality! It is barely occupied by soldiers and is also unable to stop the US attack materially...:








On this day, the US Air Force flies a massive, "beheading" air raid on the well camouflaged underground headquarters of the Army High Command and the Wehrmacht headquarters in Zossen (near Berlin) ...:













Things go wrong - the bombs do only little damage - the "OKW" (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) does not even have to interrupt his activity for a brief moment...

After the war, the Soviets will continue in using the Buildings as headquarters of their "western group", which is based in the GDR and left Germany in 1994...








In Norway, underground resistance groups perpetrated several dozen successful attacks on Wehrmacht facilities and transport routes on the same day to increase the logistical difficulties of the Germans ...:



Meanwhile, on behalf of the German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, his legation councilor Fritz Hesse ...


... probes at the Swedish capital Stockholm because of a separate peace with the British ...

And so the sorry saga continues. Interesting reminder into how air raids sometimes did no good whatsoever. As well Martin, I like the inclusion of describing how lack of something as mundane as oil completely renders a whole army useless.
Reminds me of the old poem, "For Want of a Nail."

You are absolutely right!

But it took some time to realize this.

When the Western Allies planned their strategy for the bombing war against Germany in 1942, they were looking for the ONE part, the lack of which could paralyze the entire German war machine if it were missing.

They found - ball bearings!

So they destroyed the German ball bearing factories in the Schweinfurt area, which didn't help.

The Germans immediately decentralized the production of ball bearings - making them unassailable!

The oil thing was successful!

The Soviets conquered the oil fields - and the Western Allies simultaneously destroyed the factories in which the Germans made synthetic gasoline from coal for vehicles and airplanes.

There were only five of them - in Leuna, Böhlen, Zeitz, Lützkendorf and Brüx, and they were so large that they couldn't be decentralized!







Without planes as well as wheeled and tracked vehicles, you cannot transport anything, cannot draw a cannon, cannot start an offensive, or win an air battle.

The German army was almost technically back to Napoleon's "Grande Armée"!

It's little known - but in World War II the German army was forced to use almost twice the number of horses than in the first one ...


Cheers

Great thread!

Friday, March 16, 1945


After yesterday the "1st Ukrainian Front" under Marshal Ivan Konev started the Hungarian offensive of the Red Army against the Germans, now the "2nd Ukrainian Front" under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky ...



... as well as the "3rd Ukrainian Front" under Marshal Fyodor Tolbuchin ...



...start their offensives...:




With tremendous superiority, the Soviets drive the exhausted Germans ahead of them!





Who doesn't flee fast enough ...



... or surrenders ...



...dies!



Since the Germans have to leave many vehicles behind due to the chronic lack of fuel, the Soviets capture masses of heavy equipment ...:



Interesting in the next photo are the tanks with which the Red Army soldiers are advancing in part: These are "Sherman" tanks from US military aid ...:




The "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler...



... issued a call to the German population on this day not to house refugees from the flag. Death will stand on it in future - for all members of the family who has taken up a refugee!


The air defense program of the German Reich (if you can still speak of one) is reduced to only five types with immediate effect:
Fighter aircraft, fighter-bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, attack aircraft and transport aircraft.

All other developments are stopped on Hitler's orders!

In the middle of the collapse, SS-Hauptsturmführer and rocket engineer Wernher von Braun and his people are still working on new types of weapons.

The engine of a new rocket, type "A9" / "A10" is successfully tested 20 kilometers southwest of Erfurt!

It is the so-called "America Missile", a two-stage projectile that is intercontinental capable and can reach the USA ...:



The "A-9" is designed so that it can be used alone as a medium-range missile, or as an upper stage of the "America Missile" "A-10"!

The size comparison shows on the far right the "America Missile" and - as the fourth from the left, the "V2" ...:



**continued next post**

The Nazis' missile weapons are assembled by prisoners in a huge underground underground factory under a mountain near the city of Nordhausen in Thüringen.






The camouflage name of this concentration camp: "Mittelbau Dora"!



Two of the weapons are already being used by the Germans - with moderate success - the cruise missile "V1" ("Retribution weapon 1" / "Retribution weapon 1")...



...and the first medium-range missile in the history of war, the "A4" or "Retribution weapon 2" (V2)...:



Thousands of prisoners die from inhumane working conditions!





The next photo shows prisoners liberated from US troops in early May 1945 in front of part of the weapon they wre forced to build ...:








The "V2" rocket is the only weapon in the history of war, the production of which killed more people (at least 20,000) than its use (8,000)!

The man who was behind all of them, SS Hauptsturmführer Wernher von Braun...





... did not end at the gallows where he belonged after the war, but was allowed to develop missiles for the USA.

He built the "Saturn 5", the "moon rocket", became a US citizen and died on June 16, 1977 in Alexandria, Virginia, highly honored.



He may be the only man in history who was praised and honored by both Hitler and President Kennedy!



"Mittelbau Dora" is today a deeply impressive museum ...:

Saturday, March 17, 1945


The heavily damaged "Ludendorff Bridge" over the Rhine at Remagen...



...collapses today due to the constant overload and into the river!




The Americans no longer need it - they have long since built a makeshift ponton bridge near Erpel a little further down the river ...:












Since the collapse of the bridge, which killed 32 American pioneers, is the most important event of the war today, we remain for a while at the "Ludendorff Bridge" ...

It was named after the German General Erich Ludendorff...



... who, together with Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, formed during World War I the so-called "Oberste Heeresleitung" (OHL) ("Supreme Army Command") between 1916 and 1918...



...which established a de facto dictatorship over Germany, in which the parliament and the emperor no longer played an essential role!


After the war Ludendorff was one of the leaders of ultra-nationalist anti-republic circles and worked closely with a still largely unknown failed postcard painter named Adolf Hitler...:





Hitler vowed Ludendorff "loyal following".

When Hitler tried in vain in 1923 to overthrow the republic through a coup in Munich, Ludendorff was there too!



It was only through this attempted coup that Hitler became known and his inexorable rise began.

The reactionary general died in Munich in 1937...:



The Nazis then named the bridge at Remagen after him.



But back to the bridge:

It was ten days before it's collapse by a surprising handshake by a small vanguard of the 9th US Armored Division led by the 22-year-old Second Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann ...



... been taken ...:



The Allied Commander in Chief General Dwight Eisenhower immediately recognized the value of the bridge and exclaimed: "It is worth its weight in gold!"

The 12th U.S. Army under General Omar Bradley (on the left)...



...immediately received orders to quickly bring everything that was possible on the bridge over the Rhine and to form a bridgehead on the other bank.

The picture shows Eisenhower with General George Patton at the bridge to get an idea of himself ...:



In the ten days until the collapse, the US Army was able to bring 17th fully moraded regiments with tanks and artillery over the bridge ...:


**continued next post**