On January 3, the Soviets took the town of Olevsk, only 15km from the Polish-Soviet border in 1939, and only 150km from the frontier of Greater Germany. Newspapers not only in the Soviet Union, but also in Britain and the United States, published the success of the Red Army. Increasingly, the German troops were dodging the ever-increasing blows of the Soviets.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, the Japanese were gradually advancing in the islands of New Guinea and the New Britain. Morale in both countries was only maintained by feeding the population large amounts of propaganda.
Also, the threat of an Allied invasion had come. Both the back door (France) and the front door (Poland) were open. The outlook was certainly gloomy for Hitler.
On the 5 th of February, the Soviets were within 80km of Brest-Litovsk, the border city with Poland.
On March 20, the Red Army took Vinnitsa, the headquarters of Hitler in 1942. Of German conquests in Russia, only the Baltic States and Odessa remained. Soon the Russians would be talking about their Balkan and Polish conquests.
By the end of March, the Soviets had marched into the frontiers of the prewar Poland. To Stalin, it seemed that the fall of Berlin was ‘only a matter of time'. The first such city to be liberated was Kolomyja. Warsaw, however, was still quite far away.
Allied D-Day landings
FinlandOn June 9 the Russians massed their forces around Finland. After a few days of fighting, the Finns agreed to an armistice, yielding some more territory to the USSR. The Finns, yielding territory in 1940 and 1944, were the greatest losers of WWII. |
On June 6, 1944, the Western Allies (Britain, Canada, and the USA) landed in Normandy, northern France. Establishing a beachhead and managing to defend it, the Allied forces finally established the promised ‘Second Front'. Stalin, upon hearing of the establishment of the Second Front, was more than delighted and promised to start his own summer offensive shortly—the battered and weary Germans did not even launch a summer offensive that year.
Bagration—the Soviet sledgehammer
On June 22, 1944, the Soviets launched Bagration, a sweep to liberate Byelorussia and the rest of the Baltic States. Exactly three years to the day when Hitler launched his attack (June 22, 1941), it diverted the attention of the Germans just when they were absorbed in Normandy. The objective would be to capture Vitebsk, Minsk, and ultimately Warsaw. A southern offensive would force Romania to join the Soviets or at the least, capitulate. The Germans would be deprived of their only source of natural oil (the Ploesti oil fields in Romania)
At 0500 hours on that fateful day, the Germans in the Baltic were pounded by a massive artillery bombardment. Two hours later, the Soviets opened fire in Byelorussia. With 1.2 million Russian troops against 500 000 German, the Russians were sure to make Army Groups North and Centre suffer crippling losses, and at the worst, face total destruction. As soon as June 23, the pincer movements around Vitebsk forced its commander to seek permission from Hitler to withdraw. The Fuhrer refused. However, after seeing the map, Hitler allowed a withdrawal—but by then the pincers had closed. The city fell on June 27. The next day, the Berezina River was crossed by the Soviets.
Minsk falls.
On July 4, Minsk was liberated—after 1091 days (almost three years) of German rule. 35 000 Germans surrendered in the pocket. Very few buildings were left after the extremely fierce fighting.
On July 13, Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, fell. It was a great success for the Russians.
Southern Offensive
The Germans also were pushed back in the south. On July 13, the Soviets opened their offensive in the south two weeks after the one in the north. Marshal Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Front attacked Lvov. Though the attack was initially unsuccessful, the Germans evacuated the city on July 24.
Meanwhile, the Russians had reached Brest-Litovsk on the River Bug (July 18) —the border city between pre-war Germany and the Soviet Union. This meant that the Germans were at their starting point.
On July 25, the Soviets rushed through the River Vistula and were only 185 km from the German-held Polish capital of Warsaw. The citizens of Warsaw waited for the arrival of the Soviet forces.
On July 29, the Soviets broadcast from Moscow, urging the Warsaw Poles to rise up against the Germans. The bloodiest uprising in history, worse than any of the Israeli—Palestinian conflicts, had begun.
The Warsaw Uprising.
‘People of Warsaw, to arms!' was the voice broadcasting in Polish from Moscow.
By the first week (August 7), the Polish Home Army (AK) had taken many of the suburbs, controlling the telephone and postal centre. However, they had failed to capture any of the landing strips. With the Red Army only 13 km away [and incidentally 515 km away from Berlin], the Warsaw seemed ripe for the picking from the Germans. Most unfortunately, the Soviets were pushed back 100 km away by a ferocious counterattack, also forcing the Soviets to regroup and resupply themselves.
The liquidation of the AK? One school of thought promulgated by staunch anti-communists, is that the Soviets waited outside Warsaw because they wanted the Germans to do the 'dirty work'--the liquidation of the non-communist and pro-London AK--for them. However, that is controversial at best. The summer offensive (Bagration) was now coming to an end, and the Red Army's supply lines were now stretched to the limit. Moreover, a counteroffensive by the Germans had pushed back the Red Army, forcing them to regroup too. The Russian generals also deny convincingly, admitting freely that Stalin had made a mistake, that nothing like that had happened. |
On September 10, the Red Army now advanced towards Warsaw. However, it was too late to save the beleaguered Poles. On October 2, the last of the Poles surrendered. It was a heroic uprising. Hitler had ordered Warsaw to be razed to the ground after the uprising had been quashed, but in reality there was nothing left to be burnt—after the German bombing in 1939, Soviet bombing raids, the uprising itself, no stone was literally left on top of another.
Warsaw's pre-war population of 1,250,000 had been reduced drastically. The Germans systematically deported the remaining population. By November, only 12000 were still in the city. The Germans began the dynamiting and looting of the now empty buildings. [19]
Miraculously for the Germans, rain on the Eastern Front halted the advance of the Red Army, and it would be on January 12, 1945, that the Russians came crashing through.
Also, unfortunately for the Germans, the Russians now were entering the Balkans.
As the Polish front broke into an uneasy silence, the Red Army entered the Balkans forcefully. On August 23, King Michael, the nominal ruler of Romania, ordered the arrest of Antonescu, the 'real' ruler. The situation in that unhappy country was getting desperate--light resistance was breaking down and the fall of Bucharest was a matter of weeks. As power tethered between Antonescu and Michael, Romania was split between pro-Axis and pro-Soviet camp. In this confusion, Hitler blundered--he ordered the arrest of King Michael and the immediate bombing of Bucharest by the Luftwaffe . Not only did the Romanians put up an unusually tough resistance (aided by the Soviets); the bombing raids only gave King Michael a very good excuse to declare war on Germany on August 16.
Ten days after the Romanians changed sides, the Bulgarian council declared that it would withdraw from the war with immediate effect. Stalin, being greedy, refused to accept it. On September 5, the Bulgarians changed sides. The Germans no longer had a grip on the Black Sea.
Hungary.
On October 5, the Russians crossed the Romanian border with Hungary, meeting light resistance from the defending Hungarians but stiff resistance from the Germans. Hitler ordered the majestic city of Budapest to be held at any price, even transferring divisions from East Prussia to the city. The Germans launched a series of local counterattacks, which were successful, until the Red Army threw their sheer weight in numbers on the Germans. On October 29, the Russian 46 th Army swept towards Budapest, encircling it. Determined German resistance ensured that the city only fell in February 13 the following year.
Greece.
The Germans occupiers in Greece suddenly found themselves in danger of being cut off. Hitler ordered Gen. Lohr, its commander, to start pulling out into Yugoslavia, now being threatened by the Red Army.
Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia, unlike the rest of the Balkan countries, literally liberated itself. Partisans, led by Marshal Tito, an expert at partisan warfare, liberated most of southern Yugoslavia. They and the Russians met at Belgrade in October 20. However, they did not stop there, sweeping into most of northern Yugoslavia, where bitter resistance in what is now Slovenia did not stop until the German surrender in May 1945.
The Red Army had achieved a string of no less than five continuous victories in the Balkans. With the Balkans cleared, the Soviets could finally concentrate on the German Reich itself.
On January 12, the Soviets opened a drive into the whole of eastern Germany (now Poland). Taking the Germans by complete surprise, and massively outnumbering them by seven to one, the Germans holding the front almost collapsed. With the Soviets advancing at a blitzkrieg pace, the Germans retreated nearly 200 km in a week in the south. Near Warsaw, the Germans were luckier, and they managed to cling on to Warsaw for five days. Some Germans were encircled in Poznan. Both Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) and Danzig (now Gdansk) were declared fortresses. Many ethnic Germans fled before the advancing Red Army, some by foot, some by overcrowded ships.
In mid January, Hitler ordered Gen. Guderian to plan for an offensive in Hungary. However, he protested, urging Hitler to concentrate on the now collapsing Polish front. However, the planned offensive went ahead with limited success, but as a whole it was a disaster. With both the Hungarian and Polish fronts collapsing, Hitler ordered the Austrian capital of Vienna to be defended. This was an impossible task--the divisions allocated were mostly under strength--the 6 th Panzer Army had only 6 tanks left. The Western Allies were also advancing into Germany.
January 27: The camp inmates of Auschwitz rejoice as they see their Soviet liberators. [20]
On April 12, U.S. President Roosevelt died of a stroke. Upon hearing this, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, telephoned Hitler. 'Today is Friday, April 13! It is the turning point of the war…' After all, America's new President, Harry Truman, feared Communism more than Nazism. There were high hopes that he would join Germany against the Soviets. Hitler proclaimed to his nation that 'with the death of the greatest war criminal of all time, German soldiers should expect a turning point in the war.' To their surprise, the fighting continued. They were deluded, living in a world of their own. It was only a matter of time when the Red Flag would be raised over Berlin…
"For the last time, the deadly Jewish-Bolshevik enemy has started a mass attack. He is trying to reduce Germany to rubble and to exterminate our people. Soldiers of the East! You are fully aware now of the fate that threatens German women and children. Whilst men, children, and old people will be murdered, women and girls will be reduced to the role of barrack-room whores. The rest will be marched off to Siberia. If every man does his duties on the days to come on the Eastern Front, then Asia's last attack will be broken, and in spite of the Western enemy's invasion, everything will fail. Berlin will remain German. Vienna will become German again and Europe will never be Russian!"--Hitler, April 15, 1945
The situation in Hitler's Germany had become increasingly desperate. The Allies had crossed the Rhine, and the River Oder, the last defensive barrier to Berlin, had been bridged in several places. Most threatening was the bridgehead at Seelow, only 57km from Berlin. The capital had been declared a Fortress City. All towns along the Oder had been converted to forts too.
To meet an imminent Soviet thrust to Berlin, Hitler had several armies under his disposal. It is interesting to note that, out of the five army groups (or fronts, as they are known in Russian) only Army Group Centre was not a misnomer, as the line was far away from the Vistula, let alone the Ukraine or Byelorussia.
Name |
Commander |
Army Group Vistula |
Heinrici |
Army Group Centre |
Schorner |
1 st Byelorussian front |
Zhukov |
2 nd Byelorussian front |
Rokossovsky |
1 st Ukrainian front |
Koniev |
On April 16, a massive Soviet artillery barrage signalled the start of the final push towards Berlin. The Russians outnumbered the Germans in men 5:1, guns 15:1, tanks 5:1 and planes 3:1.
German resistance was strong opposite Seelow and it took 2 days to clear the hills. Severe casualties were suffered as a result of the fortress towns and villages. On April 17 the Soviets broke through the German lines and were in Berlin's outskirts two days after.
April 20 marked Hitler's 56 th birthday. It was also the last great gathering of the Nazis in Hitler's bunker (FÜhrerbunker). Meanwhile, the last Anglo-American bombing raid on Berlin took off. The city's infrastructure had broken down. Electricity, gas and proper sanitation were no longer available. So was water.
Meanwhile, the Soviets were closing in from the east and west. As the Soviet ring tightened around Berlin, Hitler chose to stay in the capital--like Stalin in December 1941. Would a miracle happen? Hitler hoped so.
Betrayal.
On April 23, Berlin was fully encircled as Hitler assumed personal command of the city's defence. That fateful day, Goering sent to Hitler by telegram a crude request: to assume full control of the Reich now that Hitler was encircled. 'If no reply is received by ten o'clock tonight, I shall take it that you have lost your freedom of action.'
Hitler was enraged. "An ultimatum! A crass ultimatum! Now nothing remains. Nothing is spared to me. No allegiances are kept, no honour lived up to, no disappointments that I have not had, no betrayals that I have not experienced--and now this above all else. Nothing remains. Every wrong has already been done to me."
Hitler ordered Goering to be stripped of all his offices together with his immediate arrest.
On April 28, Hitler sacked Henrich Himmler for trying to negotiate a peace with the Allies through neutral Sweden [or more specifically, the Swedish Count Bernadotte]. Failing to get him arrested, Hitler ordered his adjutant, who was also in the bunker, shot. That night, he married his long time mistress, Eva Braun.
On the morning of April 30, they captured the Gestapo (secret police) HQ right in the heart of the city, only 450m away from the Reichstag (legislative assembly).
The Russians were fighting for every room in the Gestapo. Heavy smoke delayed the capture of the building.
At noon, the Russians made good progress towards the Reichstag, starting a 1 1/2-hour artillery bombardment.
On 3:30pm, Hitler committed suicide. It is still unknown exactly how Hitler died--whether he shot himself or took cyanide. For his mistress Eva, it was clear that she had taken cyanide only.
Meanwhile, back at the Reichstag, the Russians entered the Reichstag at 1:30pm but were repulsed by the fanatical defence. As Reader's Digest excellent (The Art of War) puts it, the Reichstag was symbol of the last-ditch resistance of the last days of the Nazi regime.
Just after 6pm, the Soviets made another lunge towards the Reichstag. Getting inside, the Russians found themselves fighting for every corridor, every staircase, and of course, every room.
Irony? In 1933, just after Hitler had become Chancellor--the Reichstag was set ablaze mysteriously. Finding in the burning building a young Dutch Communist, the Nazis declared a state of emergency. (It is still unclear if it was sabotage or the Nazis were taking advantage of the situation) Now, twelve years, at the end of Hitler's reign--the Reichstag was set alight again--this time by Communists. Hitler's self-fulfilling prophecy had come true. |
The next day, German radio announced to the world that Hitler was dead. Admiral Donitz, however, wanted to continue the struggle to save the German Reich from the advancing Bolshevik enemy. He offered the Western Allies a cease-fire but wanted to fight on in the East.
This was rejected, and the Western Allies told Donitz that 'all forces fighting the Russians must surrender to the Russians'. As he spoke, however, the Germans were already surrendering on the Italian front, in Berlin, Weidling, the commander of the city, was also prepared to surrender. Dönitz now negotiated for time for ethnic Germans and troops to move to Allied occupation zone as he, as well as the rest of the German nation, knew that Soviet rule was less desirable than British, American, or even French rule.
On May 7, 1945, Jodl, the German representative to the Allies, signed the surrender document at 2:41 in the morning. It gave time for the Germans, including the Baltic part of their Navy, to flee westwards to the Western Allied occupation zone. (In northern Yugoslavia, fighting continued until May 15. That is why the Yugoslavs celebrate Victory Day later than the rest of Europe.)
The Red Flag is finally lifted over the German Reichstag, although resistance in some rooms is still continuing. Marshal Zhukov and Koniev are savoring the thought that the Moscow-Berlin Express ride is finally over. (Isn't my long journey from 1941 to 1945 over too? Well, not quite…)
Chapter Twenty Three—Aftermath--'Unfinished business'
After Victory Day, what? This was the question that the Allies had to face. After all, a long gruelling war with Japan was still ahead.
Europe was now in a mess. Every major city occupied by the Nazis had been bombed out. Stalin decided that the USSR should not be invaded. Therefore, he built an 'iron curtain' consisting of satellite states Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and most of the Balkans.
With Germany split into four parts (and a special occupation zone in Berlin), the question of what to do with the nation hung in the air. Should the German nation or the Nazis be punished? Stalin wanted to turn Germany into a potato field. She must be stripped of all her industry. Therefore, Stalin moved the Russo-Polish border westward. To compensate for this, Poland also gained East German industry. The Allies disagreed, saying that deporting German youth abroad as slave labour, one of Stalin's proposals, was too cruel.
The Western Allies and the Soviets opened a war crimes trial. Because Berlin had no building big and undamaged enough to serve as a courthouse, the victors decided to hold it at Nuremberg, which incidentally happened to be a cradle of Nazism.
The trials have been said to be unfair as the Allies imposed 'victors justice'. Although a very common charge was for waging aggressive war, nothing was mentioned about the Soviet invasion of Poland or Finland.
Even though many reparations have been paid out, the greatest 'unfinished business' of Operation Barbarossa, and particularly the war, as Richard Overy's Why the Allies Won puts its wonderfully, is all the suffering and pain all the veterans of the war felt.