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“The Red Army has Berlin. The once fat, strong heart of German power, now a wreck, was taken in 12 days of [the] bloodiest battle by the overwhelming might of Marshals Zhukov and Konev. The surrender of the remnants of the Nazis in the ruins of the Chancellery where Hitler is said to have his end, and the smashed-up Tiergarten turned a page in history>”
This article appeared two days before the German capitulation; the Allies were in Berlin, Hitler was dead and the Pentagon was planning to send some men home while shipping a million off to fight the Japanese.
Even before the Home Front kicked into high-gear, the men who had been picked up in the 1940 draft were causing real problems in every area where a military training camp could be found. Knowing that the enlistments were soon to grow and these problems would be getting worse, the brass hats joined arms with the town elders to curb the drinking and whoremongering. The cure for these difficulties came in the form of the USO, which would be eatablished before the year was out.
A similar article can be read here.
The American magazines and newspapers of late April and early May, 1945, were all about the end of the German Army and now its time to clobber the Japanese. The attached article, from May 6, addressed the subject that this would not be an easy task. If the Atom Bomb hadn’t come along, the Pentagon believed the war would have gone on for another two or three years, and the Japanese were determined to fight until the end:
“The influential Tokyo paper Sangyo Kezei said editorially on April 30: ‘Japan will fight on regardless of any sudden changes in Europe.'”
A similar article can be read here.
“A bitter indictment of the International Red Cross Committee for its failure to tell the world what it knew about barbarous conditions in the prison camps of Nazi Germany, at a time when public indignation might have eased the tragic plight of millions, appears in the May issue of the magazine Jewish Frontier, out today.”
U.S. Representative Emanuel Cellar (1888 – 1981) and a number of senators were all in agreement that the International Red Cross had failed in their task to police Nazi P.O.W. camps for prisoner abuse:
“In accordance with the conditions of the Geneva Convention, the Red Cross has the right to visit prisoner-of-war camps… These killings, starvations, and abuses did not happen in one day. They were prolonged operations. Didn’t the Red Cross know about them?”
“War and the Working Class, Moscow publication, asserts that German labor must be used to restore the destruction wrought by the German Army in Europe…In an article entitled Labor Reparations, it contends that Using German labor for this purpose will achieve effective military and economic disarmament of Germany.”
For reasons unknown, the men who ran the Allied war effort chose to ignore the fact that it was German Admiral Karl Doenitz who issued the order that German U-boats were to machinegun all Allied lifeboats after sinking their vessels. The attached journalist was right in pointing out that Doenitz was whitewashed. But it didn’t stick – he was found guilty at Nuremburg and served 12 years.
When Hitler blew his brains out (April 30, 1945), what was left of the baton was passed to the Nazi fleet admiral, Karl Doenitz (1891 – 1980). This article points out that the admiral was a predictable choice for Hitler to make and no one at SHAEF was surprised.
“Lightning warfare suggests initiative and spirit of the offensive; it carries with it the element of surprise, not so much in the happening as in the speed and force with which the attack is launched and delivered.”
Click here to read about the nature of Total war.
Click here to read about a Kamikaze attack like no other…
“Lightning warfare suggests initiative and spirit of the offensive; it carries with it the element of surprise, not so much in the happening as in the speed and force with which the attack is launched and delivered.”
Click here to read about the nature of Total war.
Click here to read about a Kamikaze attack like no other…
“Berlin has fallen to all intents and purposes. Stalin in a May Day order announces that the victory flag of the red Army flies over the main part of the ruined Nazi capital.”
“The German Army has been defeated, but the German murderers are still murderers, the Junkers are still Junkers and they are still Nazis – and all of them are looking ahead to the next war….Here is what the Germans, whose commanders begged for mercy at the signing of the surrender, did in the 24 hours just before and after the formal deadline for capitulation…”
Recalling the general melancholia that descended upon many societies following the slaughterous First World War, a former member of the British Parliament asked whether we should expect the same after an even larger world war.
If you would like to read 1920 article about the disillusioned post-war spirit, click here.
A PM reporter was present one day in Germany as a mixed mob of Third Army grunts and tank men had a tête-à-tête concerning their observations of the German people:
“Aren’t these Heinies the stupidest people you ever saw?”
This report was filed shortly after the Soviet – U.S. link-up on the River Elbe and one week from the official Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945. The Red Army was in Berlin and the British and Americans were
“pressing relentlessly from all points of the compass on the Nazi Alpine redoubt. A second a third meeting between the Western and Easter Allies may have already taken place… To the south, General George S. Patton’s tank columns, sweeping across the Austrian frontier, were in field radio contact with the Soviets.”
Click here to read about the Soviet – U.S. link-up on the Elbe.
“Though these words are feeble, they come from the bottom of a heart overflowing with pride in your loyal service and admiration as warriors. Your accomplishments at sea, in the air, on the ground and in the field of supply have astonished the world.”
“On March 10, 1945, a group of Superforts crossed Japan’s coast line. Behind them came another group, and another in a line stretching far back toward Saipan. In a long, thin file they roared over Tokyo. They flew low and out of their open bellies spilled bombs of jellied gasoline. When they hit, they burst, spewing out billowing, all-consuming fire. The flames leaped across fire lanes, swallowed factories, destroyed skyscrapers.”
Click here to read about August 28, 1945 – the day the American occupation began.
