Capturing Hitler's Eagle's Nest

adolf hitler's favorite residence during world war ii was the berkoff a house he had had built for himself from the obersalzberg in southern germany the obersalzberg stood above the small town of berchtesgaden in the bavarian alps hitler's house the berkoff was lavishly decorated and was an important diplomatic center before the war and later used as a military command headquarters alongside the wolf slayer in east prussia and the reich chancellery in berlin it was also the one place where hitler could truly relax and lead a relatively normal home life with ava brown [Music] perhaps most famously of all it was home to the eagle's nest a tea house situated high up on kellstein mountain high above the obersalzberg and even higher above beichtesgarden [Music] by late april 1945 hitler was long gone but allied armies were fast approaching the eagle's nest and the oberzeldsberg the only question was who would reach it first the french or the americans 25th of april 1945 a massive royal air force air raid leads the obersalzberg devastated locals loot many of the shattered buildings hitler's home the burkhoff is extensively damaged along with mostly the other major nazi party buildings this air raid took place in order to deny hitler the use of the over-salzburg as an emergency headquarters to defend the remaining rump of the third reich in the alpine regions should he have chosen to flee from the furo bunker in berlin by early may 1945 the french second armored division and the u.s third infantry division were closing in objects garden the main town below the alzberg on parallel routes allied soldiers knew that if their unit captured hitler's mountain hideaway they would enjoy everlasting fame one of the units of the us third infantry division is the 7th infantry regiment it is fought from north africa into germany from sicily anzio southern france the voge mountains and the colmar pocket on the 2nd of may 1945 the unit moved on from munich and liberated dacao concentration camp pushing now into austria the unit captured salzburg without opposition they were surprised by the lack of resistance after the hard fight across germany major general john iron michael daniel commanding the third infantry division realized that his unit was close to bectus garden he proposed a quick dash to take the place the problem was bactus garden and the orbis alzberg had already been placed into the operational areas of the french second armour division and the u.s 101st airborne general eisenhower had expected the third infantry to become bogged down in fighting for salzburg which hadn't happened the 7th infantry regiment controlled the two remaining intact bridges over the zarlak river the only way to approach bactus garden general o'daniel requested his strike but permission was denied the early morning hours of the 4th of may o'daniel decided to disobey orders at 100 hours o'daniel briefed colonel john a heinkes the commanding officer of the 7th infantry regiment heinkes was ordered to assemble a task force that would race the bactus garden and the oversalzburg in the meantime o'daniel's engineers blocked off the bridges refusing to allow any other american or french units to cross for safety reasons iron michael daniel was determined that hitler's home would fall to his division the 1st and 3rd battalion 7th infantry regiment moved out the 1st battalion was led by a battle patrol reconnaissance unit which hurried west on a direct route via bad reichenhall german forces in the alpine town scattered or surrendered almost immediately to u.s forces the third battalion drove east on the autobahn heading also for bactus garden beyond bad reichenhau the special battle patrol ran into an ss unit that was holding a mountain pass they placed the u.s under artillery fire the us horses reorganized themselves and counter-attacked the die-hard ss unit was either killed or scattered in the meantime the third battalion was racing down the autobahn and had covered over 10 miles in one hour and were halfway to bactus garden the last organized defense before bacter's garden was a single german armored car which attempted to stop the americans and was knocked out forces from the first and third battalions began to approach bactus garden a local german commander came out to meet them and negotiate the surrender of himself and his two thousand men american forces now entered and liberated bactus garden and began setting up all-round defense and the headquarters in the town one of the characters they encountered was hermann gehring's nephew fritz who identified himself to colonel heinkes fritz gering led american soldiers to where a large cache of lucid art stolen by gerring was hidden american eyes now turned to the obersalzberg towering above bechte's garden in the mountains lieutenant sherman pratt took a platoon and some tanks and started up the winding mountain road the visibility was excellent the road was clear of german forces each time they glanced up they could see high above them the eagle's nest but pratt and his men were disappointed by what they found a moonscape of shattered burned out buildings and bomb craters pratt and his men didn't hang around for long after a bit of light looting they decided to drive back down to becklesgarden and report what they'd found before leaving the scene one of the officers hauled down the swastika flag that was still flying from outside the burning berkoff and took it with them as a souvenir back in bactusgarden colonel heinkes took the flag and ordered it cut into pieces and given out to his officers as trophies by late evening on the 4th of may the first french troops of the 2nd armour division had reached bactus garden and the next morning on the 5th of may the first men of the 101st airborne division also made it early on the 5th of may colonel heinkes and the french agreed to divide bechtisgarden mutual occupation zones with the railway tracks running through the town being the dividing line the french were given the area that included the obersalzberg later colonel heitkes apparently changed his mind he decided to go back to the berkoff now in the french zone and raise the american flag in the meantime a small french task force of 40 men in half tracks with two sherman tanks started to climb up towards the uber-salzburg on arrival they encountered the platterhole hotel which had been damaged in the british bombing however inside the building was largely intact with tables still set for lunch french troops found an extensive cellar full of wine which they liberated with alacrity then they moved on to the belkov which was largely a smoldering shell devoid of furniture and art then they established a firm roadblock at the old ss gatehouse that guarded the entrance to the berghoff a little while later a joint flag raising ceremony was held outside the berkoff with the departing u.s seventh infantry regiment but who captured the eagle's nest reputedly members of the us seventh infantry had gone as far as the lift below the building but no evidence success that any climbed all the way to the top members of the famous 506th parachute infantry regiment part of the u.s hundred and first airborne claimed that they were the first up shortly after arriving in the area but no conclusive proof of their claim has ever been found however it is known that elements of the french second armour division were present and a group of french and spanish soldiers claimed to have climbed all the way up through the snow on the night of the 4th or 5th of may to be the first allied soldiers to stand in hitler's fabled eagle's nest unfortunately we shall probably never know the truth

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 961,267

Keywords: Adolf Hitler, Kehlsteinhaus, Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Mark Felton, US 3rd Infantry Division, French 2nd Armoured Division, US 101st Airborne Division, Bavaria, Germany, 1945, Berghof

Id: wQ_16W-x2RI

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018