DOWNFALL 1945 The Fall of Hitler’s Third Reich 00 AEAAAlrpppbmpppe2rrro–ooo5rMxxxekiiidummmm ltdaaahetttueee sf rffftorrrsooon,2 nnntd5,ttta,,, A mtAAApepppr iliirrrneliii llld2s 194i4c3 a ted XasX2 1oXf1 X22XX0 X2A1Xp1rX2X XIIIXXX Wittenbe1r2g AprMeyerXXOBX XNXXXoXXXrd1XXXw2XXICestlXaXuXsewitzXX STEVEN J. ZALOGA ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE NOON 22/01/2016 11:46 Author Illustrator Discover more at www.ospreypublishing.com Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College Steve Noon was born in Kent, UK, and attended art college in and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an Cornwall. He’s had a life-long passion for illustration, and since analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, 1985 has worked as a professional artist. He has provided covering missile systems and the international arms trade, award-winning illustrations for the publishers Dorling and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Kindersley, where his interest in historical illustration began. federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on Steve has illustrated over 30 books for Osprey. military technology and military history, with an accent on the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former Soviet Union. CBT No: 1 • ISBN: 978 1 78096 924 4 CBT No: 15 • ISBN: 978 1 4728 0137 1 ELI No: 198 • ISBN: 978 1 78096 915 2 Other titles in the series ELI No: 209 • ISBN: 978 1 4728 0947 6 WAR No: 110 • ISBN: 978 1 84603 013 0 WAR No: 174 • ISBN: 978 1 4728 0512 6 Sign up for the Osprey newsletter CAM No: 210 • ISBN: 978 1 84603 367 4 CAM No: 223 • ISBN: 978 1 84603 683 5 CAM No: 236 • ISBN: 978 1 84908 385 0 And WIN! 5 Osprey books Sign up to the Osprey e-newsletter to get all the latest news, great special offers, information about new releases and get an exclusive look inside life at Osprey. You will then be in with a chance to win some great prizes in our monthly prize draw. Every month we will be selecting one newsletter recipient who will receive any 5 Osprey books of their choice. A range of other prizes, from exclusive artwork prints to free ebooks, will also be given away throughout the year to newsletter recipients. 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All enquiries 1385 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA should be addressed to: E-mail: [email protected] www.steve-noon.co.uk © 2016 Osprey Publishing Ltd OSPREY PUBLISHING IS PART OF BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, THE WOODLAND TRUST Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by Osprey Publishing supports the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, woodland conservation charity. Between 2014 and 2018 our donations will photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written be spent on their Centenary Woods project in the UK. permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. AUTHOR’S NOTES A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. For brevity, the traditional conventions have been used when designating units. The US Army used Arabic numerals for divisions and smaller ISBN: 978 1 4728 1143 1 independent formations (9th Division, 756th Tank Battalion); Roman PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 4728 1144 8 numerals for corps (VII Corps), spelled numbers for field armies (First US e-Pub ISBN: 978 1 4728 1145 5 Army) and Arabic numerals for army groups (12th Army Group). British/ Canadian practice was somewhat more flexible and the period practice was Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com) to use Arabic numerals for divisions and corps, and spelled numerals for Index by Fionbar Lyons armies. Soviet designations are all rendered in English since the Russian Typeset in Myriad Pro and Sabon language is less familiar to most readers, so 5th Shock Army instead of “5- Maps by Bounford.com aya udarnaya armiya.” The Red Army only used Arabic numerals, no Roman 3D bird’s-eye views by The Black Spot numerals or spelled numbers. Battlescene illustrations by Steve Noon In the case of German units, Arabic numerals were used for divisions and Originated by PDQ Media, Bungay, UK small units. German corps were designated with Roman numerals such as LXXXIV Armee-Korps. Field armies were designated in the fashion 7. Armee, but army groups (Heeresgruppe) were more eccentric. Unless otherwise noted, the photos here are from the author’s collection. GLOSSARY ETO European Theater of Operations   Festung Fortress  FHO Fremde Heer Ost: Foreign Armies East; German intelligence service for Eastern Front  GFM Generalfeldmarschall: German field marshal  Heeresgruppe Army group consisting of several field armies (Armee)  HKL Hauptkampflinie: main defense line  KG Kampfgruppe: battle group, extemporized formation a few companies to a regiment or more in size  MHI Military History Institute, Army Historical Education Center, Carlisle Barracks, PA  NARA National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD  Key to military symbols OB West Oberbefehlshaber West: High Command West (Rundstedt’s HQ)  Army Group Army Corps Division Brigade Regiment Battalion OKH Oberkommando der Heeres, army high command, primarily responsible for the Eastern Front  Company/Battery Platoon Section Squad Infantry Artillery Cavalry OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: high command of the armed forces  Airborne Unit HQ Air defense Air Force Air mobile Air transportable Amphibious RVK Reichs Verteidigungs Kommissar: Reich Defense Commissars; Nazi Party officials responsible for Antitank Armor Air aviation Bridging Engineer Headquarters Maintenance homeland defense  SHAEF Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (Eisenhower’s HQ)  Medical Missile Mountain Navy Nuclear, biological, Ordnance Parachute chemical Stavka Contraction for Stavka VGK (Verkhovnogo glavnokomandovania: Staff of the Supreme High Reconnaissance Signal Supply Transport Rocket artillery Air defense artillery Command)  movement Stellung defense line  Key to unit identification UR Ukreplenniy rayon: Red Army static defense sectors  Unit Parent Verteidigungssektor Defense sector (in Berlin)  identifier unit Commander (+) with added elements Wehrkreis German military district  (–) less elements Zitadelle Citadel; final defense sector in Berlin  CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 2 20/01/2016 14:37 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 CHRONOLOGY 7 THE STRATEGIC SITUATION 9 OPPOSING COMMANDERS 14 German commanders Soviet commanders Western Allied commanders n n OPPOSING ARMIES 21 The German Army The Red Army The Western Allies n n OPPOSING PLANS 31 German plans Allied plans Soviet plans n n THE CAMPAIGN 36 The Ruhr pocket Reducing Festung Ruhr Race to the Elbe Eastern Front: preparing for Berlin n n n n The battle for the Seelow Heights Forcing the Neisse River North of Berlin The race for Berlin n n n n The Berlin defenses The Berlin assault begins The junction of Allied forces The northern Germany n n n campaign The National Redoubt The liberation of Prague Ending the war n n n THE CAMPAIGN IN PERSPECTIVE 89 THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY 93 FURTHER READING 94 INDEX 95 CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 3 20/01/2016 14:37 The final campaign in Germany, April–May 1945 Goteborg Allied advance to April 1, 1945 N SWEDEN Allied advance to April 15, 1945 Allied advance to May 1, 1945 Allied advance to May 15, 1945 Aalborg Inter-Army Boundary May 15, 1945 Randers Karlskrona 0 150 miles DENMARK 0 150km Copenhagen Baltic Sea North Sea Kiel Danzig XXXXX 2 Hamburg Bel. Stettin Rokossovkiy XXXXX Wittenburg 21 Bremen XXXXX NETHERLANDS The HAamguseterdam MMunsotnetrgomerWyesGerEXRXXMXXANY Elbe BXeXrXlXin Be1l.ZXhXuXkXoXv PoPseOnLAND Vistula X Torgau XXXXX Oder Duisburg Kassel 1 Antwerp XXXXX Leipzig Ukr. 12 Dresden Konev Breslau Brussels Cologne BELGIUM Liège Rhine Bradley Chemnitz Remagen Reims LUX.MLuextzemMobseloleurg Mainz XXXXXNurRnebgeergnsburg CPiZlsEenCHOSPLraOguVeXAXXKXIXAXXXBrXunXUnkY4r.eXreXmXXenXko XXXXX Seine Troyes Strasbourg Stuttgart 6XDXeXveXrXs Munich LinDzanube XViXenXnXaX UkM2r.alinovskiy XXXXX 3 Ukr. Dijon HUNGARY Zurich AUSTRIA Tolbukhin Berne Innsbruck Graz FRANCE SWITZERLAND Lake XXXXX Balaton 15 Geneva Clark Lyon Verona Trieste Milan Zagreb Turin Po Venice Brod Rhône Genoa Ferrara Ravenna Bologna La Spezia YUGOSLAVIA ITALY Adriatic Split Marseille Ligurian Sea Sea Perugia CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 4 20/01/2016 14:37 INTRODUCTION By 1945, the Nazi scheme to dominate Europe had failed. It was no longer a matter of whether Germany would be defeated, but a matter of when. Hitler’s sullen vindictiveness ensured that it would be a painful and bloody The Yalta conference held in defeat for Germany. Crimea in early February 1945 In late 1944, Hitler had gambled that a strategy of holding in the east established the Allies’ essential while attacking in the west would offer the best prospects of staving off the political and strategic Allied onslaught. This proved to be fundamentally misguided when the conditions for ending the war. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill Ardennes offensive was halted around Christmas 1944. At the same time, are shown here with their defenses against an inevitable Soviet offensive in Poland had been foreign ministers behind them. woefully ignored. (NARA) 5 CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 5 20/01/2016 14:37 On January 12, 1945, the northern tier of the Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder offensive, crushing the German defenses on the approach to Berlin. By February 1945, Soviet forces were less than 100km from Berlin. In mid-February, the Red Army shifted its focus to its southern tier along the Vienna axis and crushed the last German Panzer reserves that had launched an ill-conceived offensive around Lake Balaton in Hungary. The northern tier of the Red Army broadened its salient towards Berlin, clearing its flanks in Silesia and Pomerania before embarking on its final assault on Berlin. The violence was some of the most brutal of the entire war, engulfing not only the combatant forces but the local civilian populations as well. After years of Wehrmacht depredations in the Soviet Union, no quarter was given when the Red Army arrived on German soil. Having repulsed the German Ardennes offensive, the Allied advance in the west resumed its grinding attritional battles along the German frontier in February 1945, preparing for an assault over the Rhine in March 1945 once the mud and rain had relented. Hitler’s “stand-fast” orders trapped Heeresgruppe B in the Ruhr industrial area and its destruction by mid-April 1945 put an end to any coherent defense of western Germany. The Allied armies raced into central Germany to meet the oncoming Red Army along Ambiguities in the Yalta accords the Elbe River. over the fate of Austria The final Soviet assault on Berlin began on April 14, 1945 and concluded encouraged Stalin to switch the in early May 1945. Hitler committed suicide in his command bunker in focus of the March and early April fighting from the Berlin Berlin on April 30, and the military government under Admiral Dönitz axis to the Vienna axis. Here, a brought the war to a close on May 8–9. Fighting continued for more than a battery of SU-76M assault guns week including a major campaign around Prague. This book focuses on the of the 3rd Ukrainian Front central fronts in Germany during the final month of the war in April– support an infantry attack in Austria in April 1945. May 1945. 6 CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 6 20/01/2016 14:37 CHRONOLOGY January 12 Red Army launches Vistula–Oder offensive.  February 4 Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the conclusion of the war.  February 8 British 21st Army Group launches Operation Veritable to break through the Reichswald.  February 8 Ninth US Army launches Operation Grenade to seize the Roer dams.  February 15 Wehrmacht launches Operation Sonnenwende trying to stymie the Red Army advance on Berlin.  February 17 Stalin halts the drive on Berlin in favor of eliminating the threat to the flanks and pushing on towards Vienna.  February 22 Northern tier of the Red Army launches offensive in Pomerania to pre-empt any future threat from the northern flank.  March 6 Wehrmacht launches Operation Frühlingserwachen in Hungary, the last major German offensive of the war.  March 7 US 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captures the Rhine bridge at Remagen.  March 16 Southern tier of Soviet armies begins its offensive towards Vienna.  March 22–23 Patton’s Third US Army crosses the Rhine at Oppenheim.  March 22–23 Red Army surrounds Festung Küstrin and seizes a bridgehead over the Oder.  March 24 21st Army Group stages Operation Plunder–Veritable to cross the Rhine near Wesel.  March 24 Ninth US Army launches Operation Flashpoint to cross the Rhine north of the Ruhr pocket.  March 25 First US Army launches Operation Voyage, the break-out from the Remagen bridgehead.  April 1 First US Army and Ninth US Army meet at Lippstadt, encircling Heeresgruppe B in the Ruhr pocket.  April 11 US 2nd Armored Division reaches the Elbe River.  April 12 The 1st Belorussian Front begins the preliminary bombardment for a new offensive.  7 CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 7 20/01/2016 14:37 April 15 Vienna falls to the Red Army.  April 15 15. Armee in the Ruhr surrenders.  April 16 Red Army Berlin operation begins.  April 18 Ruhr pocket collapses.  April 20 Red Army spearheads reach the outskirts of Berlin.  April 20 2nd Belorussian Front begins offensive into northern Germany.  April 21 OKW headquarters at Zossen captured by Soviet tanks.  April 23 11. Armee in Festung Harz surrenders.  April 25 Red Army completes encirclement of Berlin.  April 25 American and Soviet forces meet on the Elbe near Torgau.  April 29 21st Army Group launches Operation Enterprise to reach the Baltic ahead of the Red Army.  April 30 Hitler commits suicide in his bunker near the Reich Chancellery.  May 2 Berlin ceasefire begins at 1500hrs.  May 4 Salzburg falls to the Seventh US Army.  May 4 Germans sign ceasefire at Montgomery’s HQ covering northern Germany.  May 5 Czech resistance forces stage Prague uprising.  May 7 At 0241hrs, Jodl signs the instrument of surrender at Reims.  May 8–9 War ends at midnight.  May 9 At 0016hrs, second surrender ceremony at Zhukov’s headquarters in Berlin.  May 11 Most fighting in Prague ends.  May 15 Ceasefire in Yugoslavia.  8 CAM293 LayoutsV6.indd 8 20/01/2016 14:37