Figure 1.--During the Winter of 1944-45 Berlin began to brace for the final battle of the War. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of World War II and Joseph Stalin could fail to doubt that Stalin was intent on seizing Berlin as the primary military objective for the Red Army. It was the focus for most Allied military commanders, except for Eisenhower who was duistracted by reports of a NAZI Alpine Redoubt and the already determined pot-War occupation zones. German commanders had no doubt about Stalin's goal. Hitler convinced himnself, however, that Berlin was not the Red Army objective. He thus ordered the Wehrmacht's last armored reserve south in a vain, Quiotic effort to save Budapest. He screamed at his generals including Guderian that who ever was feeding them intelligence reports about Berlin being the target should be shot. As a result, when the massive Red Army under Zukov arrived at the Order River approaching Berlin, it was defended by a small number of poorly armed regular army troops, SS die hards, and the old men and children of the Volkstrum. Here a German policeman (notice the cap badge) is showing children how to fire the venerable Czech ZB Vz. 30 (probably about January-February 1945). Hitler expected the citizes of the city like the boys here to beat off the Red Army. There were, however, no stores of weapons amd munitions with which to arm them.

There were substantial German forces that because of Hitler's refusal to withdraw were not available to fight the final battle--the defense of Berlin. Large numbers of German soldiers were left in Norway and unable to play a role in the defense of the Reich. He also refused to evacuiate the Courland Pocket in Latvia. The men trapped in Courland or isolated in Norway could have put up a stout defense of Berlin. His final act which ensured that strong formations would not be available to defend Berlin was ordering two SS Panzer divisions to Hungary in a futile effort to defend Budapest from the advancing Red Army. Thus Hitler not only failed to husband available resorces, but he actually stripped Berlin of its strongest defending units. And no effort was made to stockpile weapons and ordinnce or food in Berlin to sustain a major battle. Such actions in the past had affected the Wehrmacht soldiers and the German people. This time Hitler himself wold bear the consequences of his mismanagement of the War. This mean that the defense of Berlin was left in large measure to the Volkssturm--a force of Hitler Youth boys and old men. One such boy, Armin Lehmann describes his experiences. The Volksstrum set about preparing to meet the Soviets. They built set up barricades and dug trenches to trap tanks. General Reymann had no illusions about the preparations. He is reported to have said, "I only hope that some miracle happens to change our fortunes, or that the War ends before Berlin comes under siege. Otherwise, God help the Berliners!" The Wehrmacht units that Hitler ordered to relieve Berlin either never existed or were not about to march to their death. The defenders had few tanks and little heavy artillery. The Volksstrum did have small arms and Panzer-Shrecks and Panzer-Fausts. Army Group Vistula was formed to defend Berlin. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler was put in charge and prived so incompetent that even Hitler and to turn back to a Whermacht commander, chosing Col. Gen. Gotthard Heinrici. He met with Hitler in the bunker and was asonished at his physicaland mental state. Refusing to acknowledge the military sitution, Hitler told Heinrici that the Soviets were making a feint toward Berlin and were actually planning to assault Prague. Other top NAZIs were there including Göring, Himmler, and Dönitz each still curring Hitler's favor rather than seriously addressing the crisis. [Ryan, p. 270-72.]

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Created: 3:41 AM 4/29/2018
Last updated: 3:41 AM 4/29/2018