Hitler and Göring's Reaction When Heinrici Told Them That The End Had Come

early April 1945 despite the enormous efforts made it was increasingly clear that the end for the Germans could come at any moment General hin Ricky a man whom the German leaders detested has just been given command of the vula army group to take charge of the last German defensive line which was between the Soviets and Berlin as we just said although this General was not liked by the leadership of the Third Reich there was no one better than him in establishing rigid defensive systems and due to this need he had been called back to active service German leaders such as Hitler and Goring who were increasingly concerned about the situation did not take long to request a meeting with him so that he could informed them of the possibilities that the German Army had of rejecting the next Soviet offensive the first to call it was Hitler in a meeting that took place in his Berlin bunker during the first days of April the tension at that time was maximum since the Soviets were on the bank of the odor just 70 km from the capital and the Western allies had broken the front on the Ry and were advancing practically unopposed towards the interior of Germany at this meeting kidle Bergdorf Krebs Martin Borman himler Goring and donuts among others were present with the presence of these last three men being especially relevant in the auction sale and purchase of units that took place at said conference which we will see throughout the program the conference began when Hitler finally entered the small room of the bunker in which the different generals and other leaders were gathered that was the first time in a long time that hin Ricky saw Hitler in person and his impression was quite bad since he saw him very deteriorated the exact words that hin Ricky used to describe what he felt were that the German leader seemed like a man who had no more than 24 hours to live and who looked like a Walking Corpse it should be noted that hin Ricky hated these types of meetings because he considered them a waste of time and he preferred to stay in an area close to the front the first to speak was Krebs to give way to hin rcky so that he could say what he had to say as soon as possible so that he could return to the front immediately since his presence there was essential ha rai's intention was for everyone to understand that the situation was desperate and that it would be impossible to resist the next Soviet offensive not wanting to say this information in a very direct way the German general began little by little to warm up the atmosphere in this way hin Ricky initially focused on making a description of the two armies that defended the odor from Frankfurt to the mouth of the river some 150 km further north hin Ricky said in this first intervention that many efforts had been made to leave bus's ninth Army in the best possible conditions because it was the place where the main Soviet attack was expected however however the third Panzer Army which was located on the Northern flank was in very precarious conditions and was not expected to be able to contain the enemy Onslaught once the Waters of the river receded and its flow was reduced the general continued to comment that the shortcomings of these last German armies were total there was a lack of weapons of all types ammunition tanks Fuel and well-trained or experienced soldiers as if that were not enough the best Panzer units that arai had in his sector as reserves had been sent to the outskirts of Prague the reason was that the main attack was expected in that area and not from the odor in the direction of Berlin so this meant that hin Ricky had no troops in the rear capable of plugging any breakthrough the Soviets made this would bring an immediate collapse of the front and certain defeat after these words all the men in the room were a little impressed and surprised because they were not used to someone explaining the facts and in such a clear way and even less so in the presence of Hitler the response he obtained was from Krebs who simply said that he should not worry since he would receive all the necessary reinforcements of both men and material during the coming weeks hin Ricky did not take this comment seriously as he knew it was an empty and unrealistic promise after this first intervention and seeing that he had not managed to make them understand how critical the situation was hin Ricky decided to raise the tone and explain it in another way next hin Ricky said my furer I do not believe that the forces on the odor front will be able to withstand the enormous attacks that the Russians are going to launch against us the forces we have now are just chips of the old military capacity of our army most of the front units do not have adequate training or combat experience many officers are simple civil servants without military training who have been promoted in haste to this we must add the lack of ammunition and all types of weapons and reserves Hitler then responded in a calm Manner and said everything necessary must be done to prepare these formations we still have time to do it before the battle hin Ricky responded that it was too late and that in any case the little extra training that could be given to them was not going to give them real Combat experience after this both men entered into a debate in which Hitler commented that the Soviets were throwing in their last reserves these men being of very poor quality which would balance the situation however hin Ricky made him see that this was not the case and that this information was completely erroneous since the Soviets had very experienced troops and were by no means at the limit of their capabilities raising the tone again so that they understood the real situation hin Ricky commented I must warn you that in view of the transfer of armored units to Prague I do not have obes we do not have anything what will happen after the heavy Soviet bombings will our troops withstand that initial impact maybe so but only for a while from then on our troops will be reduced little by little without us being able to send any Replacements and then everything will be lost after a few days everything will be over with that said there was a great silence in the room in an attempt to encourage Hitler and continue to gain his trust and approval Goring said my furer I will immediately place 100,000 lwaa men at your disposal in a few days they will appear on the odor front upon hearing this and not wanting to be outdone himler said the SS has the honor of providing another 25,000 Fighters for the odor front and finally Donuts who was not going to be any less declared I will also send about 12,00 th000 Sailors who will immediately leave their ships to reinforce the odor in hanin rai's words everything had become an auction and they were seeing who could offer the most after a series of considerations by everyone Hitler finally told hin Ricky well you already have 150,000 men which is about 12 divisions there you have your reservations hin Ricky who could not contain his disbelief then said that these troops were not at all prepared for Combat on land and that they would only serve to increase the number of casualties that they themselves would have in battle naturally these words did not sit well with himler Goring or Donuts who began to indicate that their troops were of the highest quality again hin Ricky commented that all those men would be sacrificed at the front without any type of positive result for them and that the only thing he wanted was for them to send back the armored formations that had just been taken from him but this is what Hitler said it was imposs possible finally the German leader told hin Ricky that the most important thing in this situation was for him to maintain faith in victory since his defeatist character was of no use Hitler's last phrase to hin Ricky was I tell you Colonel General that if you are aware that this battle must be won it will be won if you manage to transmit the same belief to your troops you will achieve Victory and with it the greatest success of the war this was the last hope that the German leader kept in his head to try to reach a kind of peace or ceasefire if he managed to repel these last Soviet attacks hin Ricky then gave up and knew that he had not been able to fulfill his objective because he had not managed to make those men understand how difficult the situation was so immediately afterwards he picked up the papers from him and said goodbye to him once outside the bunker hin Ricky told his assistant it's no use anymore everything is useless all useless a few days later on April 8th another of the most seral meetings of these last days of the Third Reich took place this time with Herman Goring as its protagonist on this occasion Herman Goring invited hin Ricky to lunch at his private palace called Karen Hall which was located northwest of Berlin just 30 km away from the odor River in this meeting and as we will see below Goring will appear very nervous and will threaten hin Ricky with telling Hitler a whole series of bad things about him so that he will be removed from command as we have said before we are at the beginning of April 1945 at which time the Soviet offensive on Berlin was imminent in addition to threatening the German Capital the Soviets also threatened many mansions and castles in which high ranking officials such as Herman Goring continued with their luxurious lives thus these men were determined to do everything anything possible to prevent the Soviets from reaching their homes having explained the reason for gor's concern let us now focus on the bad relationship he had with hin Ricky the antipathy that both men had for each other dates back to 1942 with the disaster of the sixth Army's Air Supply hin Ricky had always accused Goring of mishandling the situation and of promising actions that he could not deliver this was a thought that the general expressed publicly and and as is evident Goring did not like him at all the Reich Marshall for his part accused hin Ricky of being insubordinate and of not complying with what he was ordered in addition to these accusations that both men had already maintained since 1943 a few days before another event had occurred that had led them to a new confrontation in the presence of Hitler this had occurred during the meeting in Hitler's bunker that we have just analyzed in which hin Ricky had pointed out that the forces that Goring was going to send from the lwaa were not suitable for combat these words had not sat well with Goring who assured Hitler that his soldiers were of the highest quality the situation being both personal and Military Goring invited hin Ricky to lunch at his rural mansion in Karin Hall so that the two could chat hin Ricky did not like this invitation at all because in addition to not feeling any sympathy for Goring he did not want to leave his Command Post since he knew that the Soviet offensive would occur at any moment however despite everything the truth was that he could not refuse from the greeting that both men gave each other the tension and the little sympathy they had for each other was noticeable as it could not be otherwise hin Ricky was impressed by the size and luxury of Herman gorings property which he had named Karen Hall in honor of his deceased wife the first words that were spoken were a series of accusations among which I highlight gorin's accusation of having insulted him in front of Hitler when he said that his parachute division was not ready for combat as punishment Herman told him that he was going to remove them from his command and in their place he was going to send them further south under the orders of shaer because he was a real Soldier once these first accusations were over hin Ricky and Goring sat down to have lunch again the Reich Marshall began to attack hin Ricky this time he focused on what he had personally seen when a few days ago he had visited various stretches of the odor front exactly these were his words I have toured all the armies that you have under your command and in one sector after another I have found men who did nothing I even saw some that were hiding playing cards Goring said indignantly furthermore I saw others from the work organization who did not even have shovels to carry out their work in some places I found their soldiers without field kitchens and in other sectors almost no defenses had been built everywhere I saw his men lazing around and going from one place to another without doing anything I want you to know that I intend to go tell the fewer all of this I end by saying Goring at such words hin Ricky was about to unleash all his anger on Goring but finally he restrained himself and thought that he was not worth it finally when he finished lunch hin Ricky got up from his chair and prepared to leave as he left gorin's magnificent estate he looked at her slowly and said hopefully my Slackers can save this beautiful estate of yours from the battles to come Goring at these words stared at him with great coldness and anger and immediately afterwards he turned around and re-entered his Mansion how much longer could he continue living there Goring surely thought Heron Ricky would later comment that if Goring had asked him that question he would have answered that he would not be there for more than a week because as soon as the attack began he would be in Soviet hands finally juka's offensive would begin on April 16th although Goring was a little lucky and it occurred a little further south of his residence and it did not affect him directly in this way he greatly benefited from rosovsky army launching its attack a few days later than Juka because his troops had had less time to organize in any case on April 28th Karen Hall was blown To The Ground by order of Goring who did not want under any circumstances for his most prized Mansion to fall into Soviet hands the Reich Marshall would spend the last days of the war in another residence in the Alps finding himself under house arrest and surveillance on Hitler's orders this was due to the telegram that he sent to Hitler's bunker in which it was interpreted that he wanted to carry out a c as you know Herman Goring would end up surrendering to the Western allies after which he would be imprisoned and tried in nurburg possibly committing suicide just before his official execution so what did you think of the program how do you assess the final attitudes of Hitler and Goring

Channel: War Academy

Views: 2,023,622

Keywords: the fall of the third reich, hitler's last meeting, goring's last meeting, hitler's last day, goring's last day, goring's mansion, carinhall, goring's luxurious life, the battle of the seelow hills, the defense of the oder, general herinici, german army defensive, the battle of berlin, eastern front, last days of the second world war, hitler's reaction when he lost the war, why did germany lose the second world war

Id: R4aPB33qz8c

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2023