The agony of the Third Reich
The international political situation by April 1945 showed that the war with Germany was nearing its end. The armed forces of the Third Reich, retreating on the Eastern Front under powerful blows and cramped by Allied forces on the Western Front, were on the verge of a catastrophe. Germany lost all allies. Some former allies of Berlin declared war on Germany.
The Soviet Union was at the peak of fame and military and political power. The successes of the Soviet Army in the European theater of military operations and the skillful actions of the Kremlin in the international arena raised the authority of the USSR in the world even higher. If by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the USSR had diplomatic ties with the 25 states, then by the beginning of the Berlin operation it was already with the 41 state. The Soviet Union created the foundation for the formation of an alternative model of the world order, breaking the monopoly of the Western project. The Crimean Conference was a victory for Stalin and the USSR personally. Soviet civilization was able to secure a western strategic direction for decades to come, to form an allied detachment in Eastern and Southeastern Europe that created the security line in Europe. The decisions of the Crimea Conference provided for the complete denazification, demilitarization and democratization of Germany, the hotbed of war in the center of Europe was being destroyed.
The war, although it did great harm to the Soviet Union, destroying its western, southwestern regions, part of the center of the country, but proved the advantages of the socialist system and the planned beginning. Socialism allowed the USSR-Russia not only to resist, but also to continue growth, proving the advantage and effectiveness of the Soviet model over the Western, capitalist. During the war years, the national economy grew at a considerable pace, and the military-industrial complex strengthened. There was an increase in the production of the most important types of products and the extraction of strategic raw materials, which allowed the military-industrial complex to produce weapons, equipment and ammunition for the USSR Armed Forces in the dimensions that were needed. The Soviet military-industrial complex won a landslide victory over the German military industry. “Magnitogorsk defeated the Ruhr,” as the famous German general Guderian admitted. The technical equipment of the Soviet Army was constantly increasing. Compared with the beginning of 1944, it increased in 1945 by tanks Self-propelled guns by 41,1%, by combat aircraft - by 209%, by vehicles - by 72%, by anti-aircraft guns - by 54%, by automatic weapons - by 23,6%.
Thus, the national economy created all the necessary funds to deliver the final blow to the Reich.
Agony Reich
By April 1945, it was obvious that in terms of military-strategic and economic factors, Germany had lost the war. The Third Reich was agonizing. After the loss of most of Europe, the economic situation in Germany deteriorated sharply. Germany did not have large domestic resources and could not lead a war of attrition, losing on all counts the Soviet Union and the Anglo-American Union. In March, the 1945 of the year steel production amounted to only 15% of the monthly average of 1944 of the year. Coal mining fell to 16%, and coke production to 38%. The general economic decline has led to the fact that in March 1945, military output as compared to July 1944 decreased by 65%.
In the first quarter of 1945, the production of the main types weapons and ammunition fell so much that the German command was no longer able to fully and promptly supply the troops with everything necessary. Aircraft production satisfied about 50% of needs, tank production dropped more than twice (1944 tanks were produced monthly in 705, 1945 machines in 333), artillery and small arms production was at 50% of the average monthly output in 1944 g .
The country's human resources have been exhausted. The loss of Hungary, Slovakia and Austria, East Prussia and Eastern Pomerania further weakened the resource base of the Third Reich. The loss of personnel, which the German army suffered during the winter battles of January-February 1945, was compensated only by 45-50%. This was achieved by recruiting men of the 1928-1929 birth to the army. that is, the young men have been called 16-17 for years. The quality of personnel has significantly decreased.
Moreover, despite the growth of internal contradictions within the German leadership, caused by the desire to save their own skin, the Third Reich retained control of the population. Anglo-American carpet bombing aviation, which wiped out entire cities from the face of the earth, massively destroying the civilian population, and destroying the historical and cultural centers of Germany, did not lead to the desired effect. Air terror could not break the morale of the Germans. The preservation of the monolithic character of the German people led by the Fuhrer (German anti-fascists and communists did not have mass influence) was due to two factors: 1) this is a skillful propaganda, which year after year (using certain psychotechnologies) laid the idea of superiority of the “chosen people” to the masses, “Infallibility of the leader”, “invincibility of the Wehrmacht”, etc .; 2) repression and terror. All the "dissenting" were in concentration camps. There was no “fifth column” in Germany. There was only disagreement within the Reich leadership itself. German soldiers disciplinedly continued resistance until surrender. Workers stood at machine tools in underground factories. The whole Reich fought and worked, not thinking about the uprising.
I must say that this example convincingly shows that all hopes for the "correct maidan" in Ukraine-Little Russia are in vain. Neither war, nor impoverishment, nor the sale of the remnants of the country's wealth, including land, nor the prospect of famine in the former USSR breadbasket, will lead to a revolution that will stabilize relations between Russia and Ukraine, at least at the time of the reign of Yanukovich or Yushchenko. The modern level of the media, especially television and the Internet, allows programming a large part of the population. Especially after the departure of generations of educated and educated in the USSR. Control over the media, the system of education and upbringing, culture allows you to form whole "ethnic chimeras", like "Ukrainian people" (zamorochennyh Russian). With such a system, all the blame for the problems rests on the "external enemy", in this case the "Muscovites". There is no hope of inner cleansing. "Cancer" can be cured only by external surgery. Following the example of Germany, it is obvious that Ukraine-Little Russia can be saved only by the military defeat of the oligarchic, pro-Western regime, its physical liquidation (military tribunal in Donetsk or Kiev), complete de-Ukrainianization and Russification of Little Russia. After that, the reunification of the two parts of a single Russian civilization, Russia.
The Third Reich lost all his allies. The economic and military situation of the country was critical. However, the leadership of the Reich was still hoping for a "miracle." Hitler and his associates made desperate efforts to delay the end, to prolong the war. At the expense of the Western Front continued to strengthen the defense on the Eastern Front. By April, 1945, Germany still had a powerful armed forces: only ground forces consisted of 325 divisions. This allowed Berlin and at the final stage of the war to put up strong resistance, hoping to prolong the war and wait for a split in the ranks of the anti-Hitler coalition.
General situation at the European theater of military operations
As a result of the successful offensive actions of the Soviet Army in the east and the American-Anglo-French troops (with the participation of other Allied contingents) in the west, the armed struggle was transferred to the territory of Germany itself. The Third Reich was trapped in the grip of two strategic fronts. In January - early April 1945, the Red Army defeated large Wehrmacht groups in Poland, Silesia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, East Prussia and East Pomerania. Soviet troops on a broad front moved to the central regions of Germany.
The troops of 1 of the Byelorussian and 1 of the Ukrainian fronts defeated Army Group A and advanced deep into Germany. The troops of 1 of the Byelorussian Front reached the river Oder (Odra) in the area from the Baltic to the mouth of the river Neisse (Nisa), capturing a number of bridgeheads on the west bank of the Oder. The Soviet armies in the central direction were 60 kilometers from Berlin. The troops of the 1 of the Ukrainian Front reached the Neisse River in the area from Rattsdorf to Pentsich, the left wing of the front was fighting in Czechoslovakia. On the left wing of the strategic Soviet-German front, troops of the 4, 2 and 3 of the Ukrainian fronts defeated Army Group South, completely liberated Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, captured the Austrian capital Vienna and the capital of Slovakia Bratislava, liberated Brno , fought for the liberation of the Czech Republic. The Yugoslav army, with the support of the USSR, successfully completed the liberation of Yugoslavia.
It is also worth remembering that the Red Army was supported by the allied forces. 1 of the Polish Army, 1 of the Ukrainian Front - 1 of the Polish Army, 2 of the Ukrainian Front of 2 and 4 of the Romanian Army, and 1 of the 3 of the Ukrainian Front in the 1 of the Ukrainian Front The Ukrainian front is the 4-I Bulgarian Army, in the XNUMX-m Ukrainian Front is the Czechoslovak Army Corps.
The troops of the Leningrad and 2 Baltic Fronts continued the blockade of the Kurland Army Group in the western part of Latvia. The troops of the 2 and 3 of the Belarusian fronts surrounded and defeated the main forces of the Army Group North in East Prussia. In April, the 1945 of the army of the 3 of the Byelorussian Front completed the destruction of the East Prussian group in the area of Königsberg and Zemlandsky Peninsula. The fall of Konigsberg was a heavy blow for the Third Reich. The 2-Belorussian Front, with the support of the 1 of the Belorussian Front, defeated the East-Pomeranian enemy grouping. The 2 Belorussian Front finished off the remnants of the Vistula Army Group in the area of Danzig and Gdynia.
On the Western Front, the situation was also in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition. On the Italian front, the troops of the 1 of the French army occupied the front on the French-Italian border in the area of Nice, while the troops of the 5 of the US Army and the 8 of the British Army were operating north of Florence. Using the success of the Red Army during the winter offensive and the transfer of selective SS 6 tank army and a number of other formations from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, the Allies resumed the offensive in the second half of March and forced the Rhine into the Bonn and Manheim sector. By April 1, the Allies reached the front of Breda, Bonn, Cassel Mannheim and Mulus, completing the encirclement of the Ruhr group (Army Group "B") of the Wehrmacht. On April 17, the commander of Army Group B, Field Marshal Walter Model, gave the order to stop the resistance and he himself soon shot himself. Allies captured more than 300 thousand people.
Thus, the Third Reich lost the last major group on the Western Front. Germany lost the Ruhr - the most important military-industrial region of the country. The defeat of the German Army Group "B" in the Ruhr actually led to the collapse of the entire Western Front. Now the allies were moving east without much resistance from the Wehrmacht. The Germans fought off only in individual strongholds. Allied forces attacked the Hamburg, Leipzig and Prague axes.
The initial slowness of the Western armies gave way to extreme haste. The military-political leadership of England and the United States urged the military command to develop an attack on Berlin in order to occupy the German capital before the Russians. The headquarters of the High Command in Europe, after the defeat of the Ruhr grouping, envisaged concentrating the main efforts on the central front for the development of an offensive in the Dresden sector, in order to divide the German troops into two parts and join the Red Army. Under favorable conditions, they planned to develop an offensive in the southern sector of the front from the region north of Strasbourg to Regensburg and Linz, in order to also unite with the Russians. However, this plan met with Churchill's objections, who believed that the main attack should be applied to the northern sector of the front. He believed that the Allied forces should move as far as possible to the east and, if possible, take Berlin. As a result, adopted the American plan. At the same time, the American military leadership also believed that, under favorable conditions, Berlin must be taken. Only the exit of the Soviet troops directly to Berlin forced the Allies to abandon this plan. In addition, Churchill believed that the entry of American troops into Prague would play a great political importance.
The distance between the Soviet and Anglo-American troops was reduced to 150-200 km. The closest to Berlin - less than 100 km - the front line of the Allies was near Magdeburg, where the forward allied units went. However, the Allies have no time left to prepare for a breakthrough to Berlin from this line. The Soviet Army has already completed preparations and launched an offensive. In these conditions, the Supreme Commander of the Allied armies, Dwight Eisenhower, found it impossible to attack Berlin. “It is true that we captured a small bridgehead beyond the Elbe,” he noted, “but it should be remembered that only our advanced units entered this river; our main forces are far behind. ”
It is worth remembering that the Eastern Front and in the 1945 year, as in previous years, was the decisive front of the Second World War. Most of the German troops fought against the Red Army. The total number of armed forces of Germany to 1 April 1945 reached 263 divisions, 14 brigades, 82 combat divisions, remnant divisions, remnants of brigades, combat groups, which generally corresponded to 325 divisions. On the Soviet-German front, Germany had 167 divisions (including 32 tank and 13 motorized), and more 60 combat groups, remnant divisions, remnants of brigades, combat groups, that is, translated into divisions, this corresponded to 195 divisions.
On the Western Front, 57 of German divisions (including 4 tank and 3 motorized), 18 combat division groups, remnants of divisions and combat groups fought. Translated into divisions this was 70 divisions. In combat, qualitatively, these were weaker divisions than on the Eastern Front. Previously, a significant part of the divisions that were defeated on the Soviet-German front were transferred to France for restoration. These compounds were equipped with only 50-60% due to the arrival of the latest total mobilization, when the elderly took 50-60 years and 16-17 youths to the army. These units were worse trained, armed, their fighting strength was less than that of the divisions that fought on the Eastern Front. In the reserve of the Supreme Command of the German armed forces remained around 11 divisions.
Strategic plans of the German leadership
Despite the obvious loss in the war, the German leadership, and above all Hitler, who fanatically believed in the “miracle”, did not want to admit defeat and was looking for a way to drag out the war. The main hopes were pinned on the fact that insurmountable contradictions would arise in the camp of the opponents, and the anti-Hitler coalition would fall apart, then it would be possible to reach an agreement with the Western powers. Moreover, these contradictions, in the opinion of the German leadership, should have escalated as the end of the war approached. The German leadership hoped that it would be possible to save the Nazi cadres that Britain and the United States would need for the new stage of the war with Russia-USSR. A renewed, more “democratic” Third Reich could be the cutting edge of the struggle against the Soviet Union.
Prerequisites for such a vision of the situation were, since the leadership of Germany, even before the start of World War II, had tacit agreements with England that the British would not stop the Germans from crushing the Soviet Union. Such negotiations between Berlin and London were led by Rudolf Hess. It was not for nothing that after the end of the war he was kept in custody until a very old age, and then the 93-year-old man was eliminated so that he would not blurt out too much.
In March, 1945 arrived in Bern, Switzerland, and General Wolf arrived with a group of officers to establish contacts and separate negotiations with the Anglo-American command in order to surrender Germany to the Allies. On the part of the allies, the negotiations were conducted by the chief resident of the Office of Strategic Services (the future of the CIA) of the USA for Europe, Allen Dulles. Negotiations lasted about two weeks. And only thanks to the measures taken by Moscow, having publicized the negotiations, the plan of the German leadership was thwarted. The Soviet government appealed to US President Roosevelt with a special message, demanding an end to unilateral negotiations. Roosevelt stopped them.
Another idea of the Nazi leadership was the slogan "it is better to surrender Berlin to the allies than to put Russians into it." However, the rapid advance of the Red Army frustrated these plans. Anglo-American troops simply did not have time to reach Berlin before the Soviet troops.
In February-March 1945, the German High Command, seeking, by all means, to delay the war and suspend the offensive of the Red Army organized the latest counter-attacks in Hungary and Eastern Pomerania, using the latest powerful mobile units and reserves. However, despite the power of strikes and the desperate tenacity of the German troops, including selected SS formations, the offensive of the Soviet troops could not be stopped. The German counterattack ended with the failure and complete exhaustion of the armored fist of the Third Reich, which was necessary for the defense in the Berlin direction.
Anticipating the main attack of the Red Army in the Berlin sector, the German high command concentrated a large number of forces and means necessary for the defense of the Berlin metropolitan area. Special attention was paid to the creation of a powerful defense on the west bank of the r. Oder. This line should have been defended by the main forces of the 9 Army. Formed reserves were concentrated north of Berlin. The essence of Hitler’s strategic plan was simple: to keep the Russian offensive in the east at any cost and at that time reach an agreement with Britain and the United States, avoiding the complete elimination of the Nazi regime.
To be continued ...
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