Game of surrender

Erich Honecker wears rubble

The way they were walking was a small bit from another world. On the occasion of the arrival of the delegation, she was cleared of the rubble, and she, on lanterns and balconies of burnt-out houses, floated flags. The festive atmosphere besides prevailed in the barracks themselves, and above all the officer's casino, where the celebration was to be held. To give the hall a appropriate pollot, the Soviets drove around the territory and requisitioned furniture, carpets, pawns, and even flowers. Germany was besides active in the preparations. Some, as noted by German historian Volker Ullrich, have devoted themselves to this task very willingly. This group included Erich Honecker, the later leader of the GDR.

The 3rd Reich delegation was accommodated in a tiny villa other the barracks. During this time Allied officials began grinding the final records of the surrender act. The work went on. Finally, just before midnight, the Germans were invited to the casino, where they were already waiting for Marshal Gierogiy Żukov, commander of the 1st Belarusian Front, British Air Marshal Arthur Tedder, as well as Generals Carl Andrew Spaatz of the US Army and Jean de Latttre de Tassigny – French to play the function of witness to the ceremony. They were accompanied by a crowd of journalists.

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was the first to enter the hall. He was wearing a gala uniform, and there was a monocle in his eye. On the sight of the collected body, he lifted the marshal's bush in his hand. any of the military took this motion as an expression of pride and arrogance. However, Zukov noted in his memoirs: “It was no longer the arrogant Keitel who accepted the surrender of the defeated France. Now he looked humiliated, although he tried to keep any kind of pose.” The accompanying Gen. Hans-Jürgen Stumpf and Adm. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg made a akin impression. The first, as noted by Zukov, had an expression of powerless anger in his eyes, the second looked like an early age.

The Germans took the designated seats. A minute later, Zhukov addressed them in Russian: “Are you in possession of an act of unconditional surrender, have you read the content and have you the authority to sign it?” After him, the same formula, only in English, began to repeat Tedder. Keitel, however, interrupted his impatient hand and said, “Yes, we have read the content and are ready to sign.” At the same time, according to witnesses, he was to make a motion suggesting that he was waiting for the documents. However, Zhukov instructed the Germans to approach the presidential table. Keitel faded and then red. He grabbed the bun and a wobbly step went through the hall, throwing around hateful glances. A monocle fell out of his eye socket. Finally, thefeldmarshal sat down behind the table, signed his papers, and how inefficient he returned to his place. After him, the another members of the delegation, who were then asked to leave the room, did the same. “Suddenly the tension fades. It's like everyone got air in their lungs, and then they let them out. A widespread sigh of relief, relaxing exhalation," reported russian war correspondent Konstantin Simonow.

Allied commanders started congratulating each other. An occasional organization shortly began. “The vodka and champagne poured in streams, and Zukov, infected with general joy, danced on the dance level with Russian folk dance,” Ullrich wrote.

This was the end of a hecatomb in Europe that the planet had never experienced before.

Stalin's Berlin lie

The 3rd Reich was to last a 1000 years, but it scattered completely in 1945. “We lost the war,” Albert Speer, German Minister of Arms and War Production, wrote on 30 January. In the memorandum submitted to Hitler, he noted that coal mining and industrial production were dropping dramatically and fuel resources were melting in the eyes. Moreover, this trend cannot be reversed, due to the fact that industrial districts or, like Silesia, fell into the hands of the opponent, or like the Ruhr Basin, were mostly destroyed by raids.

At that time, a powerful Red Army offensive supported by 1 and 2 Army of the Polish Army. In the west, the German controversy in the Ardens has just broken down, and the Allies have begun to march towards the heart of the Reich. Hitler, however, refused to accept that it was over. He continued to swarm about the strength of the German army and miraculous weapons that would aid reverse the destiny of the war. “I anticipate all German to do his work without rest, that he will bear all sacrifice which he will be asked to do, and which he must demand. I anticipate from the people of the city they'll be forging weapons! Who can fight – fights!” – thundered in the radio speech... On 30 January, on the occasion of the next anniversary of Nazi power.

Sign the surrender act. Photo: Public domain

Hitler’s closest surroundings mostly did not share his insane optimism. any of them believed, however, that a separatist peace could be established with the British and the Americans, who most likely fear Stalin's increasing power. any tried to step on paths leading straight to the Allied office of the commanders. In February Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer SS and Minister of the Interior of the ReichHe met with number Folk Bernadette. Swedish diplomat and vice president of the Red Cross there wanted to negociate the release of Scandinavian citizens from concentration camps. Himmler agreed to it. By the way, he mentioned that Hitler would shortly die, and he himself would gladly meet with General Dwight Eisenhower, the commander-in-chief of the allied troops. However, the Allies refused to hear about the arrangement behind Stalin's back. So for the Germans the situation became more and more miserable.

In February, the first American troops entered Rhineland. To the east were 5 million soldiers from the USA, large Britain, but besides Canada and Poland. Among them were 11,000 tanks and 12,000 aircraft. The Germans could argue them twice as tiny and much little armed. They could if they wanted to. Many, however, have left the spirit of battle. They preferred to surrender alternatively than die for a lost cause, or worse – to fall into the hands of the Soviets, whose Nazi propaganda – partially incorrect – presented as barbarians sowing death and fire. So the Allies were moving forward at a amazingly fast pace, and there was expanding chaos in the German ranks. The historian Karl Bahm cites a remarkable example. 1 March day, the US Army reconnaissance battalion set up a halt along the railway line. Suddenly, just outside the barrels of his tanks, a train filled with... Germans. "German and American soldiers watched each another silently and stunned not a single shot. The Germans did not really know that the Americans had forced Ren," Bahm writes, quoting the battalion commander's account.

The road to Berlin seemed open. but the Western Allies didn't want to rush besides far to annoy Stalin. I mean, it's not like it's always happened before. They drew postwar influence zones together.w. On March 31, Eisenhower sent a letter to the Soviets, in which he reported that his troops would shortly take control of the Ruhr Basin, and then they would head southeast toward Leipzig and Dresden, where they should meet the Red Army. Stalin answered almost immediately: “Berlin has lost strategical importance to us. So it will not be in the direction of the main impact of our troops."

But Generalissimus lied. Preparations for the seizure of the German capital were already ongoing.

Offensive in the Light

Stalin wanted Berlin for respective reasons. First, the acquisition of the city had tremendous propaganda potential. It would present the ZSRS as the main win of this war. In specified a context, for russian command, it was insignificant that the storming of a fewer million-dollar metropolis had to consume tens of thousands of casualties – besides within the Red Army. But that is not the end. Stalin powerfully hoped that erstwhile he entered Berlin, he could take over German secrets – specified as those concerning the construction of the atomic bomb.

The preparations for the storm have set off. In front of the German capital The Soviets have gathered 2.5 million soldiers. Zukov recalled: “Many roads, and besides immense columns of tanks, artillery, cars with ammunition, propelling materials, and food were dragged at night... If you had set up 1 after another trains with loads intended for this operation, they would have reached the lines over 1,200 kilometres long.” Against this power, Germany was able to exhibit only 700,000 soldiers and poorly trained Volkssturm members.

The offensive launched on April 16 close Seelow. At precisely 3:30 in the morning, the night darkness was lit by powerful headlamps, while the hail of artillery missiles fell on German fortifications. Historian Antony Beevor, recalls the evidence of a colonel of the russian bomb squad, who thus remembered this moment: “It became as bright as day on the full horizon. On the German side, everything was covered with smoke. The earth’s fountains were rising in the sky. The herds plucked abruptly from the sleep of the birds circled like fools. There was a constant swinging of the cannon and the explosion. We had to close our ears so our eardrums wouldn’t break.” After this canonade, russian infantry was launched, supported by tanks. Only on the first day, the Soviets fired nearly 1.2 million missiles weighing nearly a 100 1000 tons. The German defence line did not break, but her hours seemed numbered. On April 20, the missiles began to fall straight on Berlin. "It was Hitler's fifty-sixth birthday," notes Ian Kershaw, a biography of the 3rd Reich leader. The next day the ringing of laps around the city was closed.

A fewer days later, the fighting took place in the city center. The Red Army occupied the street. Robbery and rape were accompanied. On the another hand, members of the SS and Hitlerjugend shot anyone who tried to surrender. On April 30, the Soviets launched an attack on Reichstag. On the same day, in a bunker just a fewer 100 metres away, Hitler committed suicide. In his will, he appointed as president of the Reich, Admiral Karl Dönitz, and appointed Joseph Goebbels as Chancellor. However, he shortly took his own life. Members of the German command have thought only about how to lay down their weapons in the most advantageous way for themselves. On 2 May, a recently appointed commander of the Berlin garrison, General Helmuth Weidling, appeared in the office of the russian Gen. Vasily Senkov. He declared Hitler dead. "I believe that each subsequent death will be a crime... madness," he admitted. He shortly issued a call to his soldiers who stopped resisting. But the game isn't over yet.

In early May, Germany took another effort at partial surrender before the Western Allies. General Hans-Georg von Friedeburg arrived at Eisenhower's main quarters in Reims, followed by General Alfred Jodl. The Americans, however, one more time rejected the offer. "Eisenhower sent a telegram to russian leadership as shortly as possible, communicating the arrival of russian parliamentarians in it and promising that he would join only full surrender, partial surrender in the West, but it was completely out of the question. At the same time, he asked to send a Red Army officer to his office to represent the russian side during the surrender negotiations," writes historian Volker Ullrich. He threatened that Allied soldiers would not be taken prisoner even by single soldiers. The Germans had no choice. On May 7, their representatives signed an act of unconditional surrender in the presence of representatives of the United States, large Britain and the USSR. A fewer hours later, however, the Soviets protested the paper signed in Reims. At the same time, they referred to formal issues – the surrender file submitted to them was somewhat different from the 1 they had previously agreed on. In fact, Stalin wanted Germany to lay down their weapons with a bigger pump and on his terms. That's what happened the next day in Karlshorst barracks.

Europe's nightmare was over, although in fact planet War II was to last for respective months. It yet ended on September 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan.

While writing, I used: Antony Beevor, Berlin. Fall 1945, Warsaw 2002; Ian Kershaw, Führer. Fight to last drop of blood, Kraków 2012; Karl Bahm, Berlin 1945, Warsaw 2015;