The Road to Berlin: Setting the Stage to the Final Battle of the War

general i've been in the wilds of hungary i know almost nothing about amigo vestila what it's composed of and what the situation is on the order these have to be thrown back no matter what happens elsewhere the russians must be contained on the odor it's our only hope who prepared this rubbishy road whoever he is he should be committed to a lunatic asylum the troops of the first belorussian front are ready to march in two weeks and it is obvious that konya's first ukrainian front will finish its preparations for the same time we will take berlin and we will take it before the allies when is it planned to launch an offensive in the berlin direction [Music] germany 1945 many things have been said about the deteriorated state of the german war machine in the last months of the war but a closer look shows that the situation was not altogether catastrophic some aspects were bad indeed while others were not so manpower was obviously the main concern the losses in 1944 had surpassed by far all previous years only eight hundred thousand conscripts could be incorporated into the army this year the lowest number since the beginning of the war whereas twice that number was necessary to replenish to full strength the divisions already deployed at the front the deficit is not only in quantity but also in quality not only are the new recruits either under aged or overaged but they are also completely inexperienced more foreign nationals are also incorporated into the vermont and since it is hardly possible to fill up the ranks in the army there is no way to do so for the interior troops either other than to raise a national militia the folk storm of people aged 18 to 65 officially and reality even beyond that age range a frenchman of a german mother who served in the gross deutschland division describes the first battalion of the volksterm he met some of them stooped with arched legs and profuse wrinkles well over their 60 years or the felgra with a mauser on their shoulder but even more surprising were the young people it was really about children who rub shoulders with these old men with sad looks children the eldest of which was barely 16 but i'm not lying when i say that some were barely 13 years old they had been hastily dressed in used uniforms intended for men and armed with a rifle sometimes as large as themselves some laughed and heckled completely forgetting the military education impossible given their age that they had been taught in barely three weeks many of them carried in their school bag recently emptied of all school items some provisions or clothes stuffed inside by other mother's hand sakura and sweets were even exchanged granted by the food distribution to those under 13. between 5 and 10 million people are theoretically eligible for the volkswagen but far fewer actually end up being recruited about 400 000 yet who knows what could have happened had hitler's government been allowed to pursue his criminal policies for a longer time [Music] so yes it is true that in 1945 manpower is scarcer than ever and yes it is also true that the entire german economy is on the brink of collapse the reich is severely lacking resources for most of all the okw reported in january we have 50 000 tonnes of gasoline fuel against 185 000 tons last august down to 28 percent there are 12 000 tons of aircraft fuel compared to 200 000 tons in the previous may the numbers say it all and yet despite the shortages on the rampant disorganization weapons remain relatively abundant and are of excellent quality these levels could only be maintained by extensive use of slave labor an enormous quantity of young men and women from all over europe most of all from the soviet union forced to work in harsh conditions in german factory [Music] just like industry agriculture is also relying on forced labor french pows have become a usual site in german farms since 1940 and goods and raw materials continue coming in from all still occupied countries as a result by the beginning of 1945 the here german ground forces has over four thousand stern geschutz one thousand six hundred mark fours two thousand panthers four hundred tigers and one thousand four hundred yard panzer even the luftwaffe is nowhere near as badly off as has often been written on january 10 it still has 2500 fighters and 1 000 ground attack aircraft these figures will allow the valmak to perform relatively well in this prelude to the last stage of the war but then very quickly the deficit in pilots and fuel was to ground all the remaining aircraft and to immobilize the brand new heavy panzers so let's have a closer look at the composition of first and infantry division and then a panzer division at this time and to compare it to what it was before when the velmat was at its best firstly a typical infantry division in early 1945 it was composed like this the headquarters and headquarter company three infantry regiments each with two infantry battalions instead of three as they were in 41 each of three companies plus a machine gun company a pioneer company an anti-tank company and a heavy weapons company an anti-tank battalion with eight towed 75 millimeter pack guns plus a flat company eight anti-aircraft guns a tank destroyer company with 10 hectare a rifle battalion with heavy machine guns and mortars an artillery regiment with 40 horse-drawn howitzers a communications battalion a pioneer battalion with two companies one of them motorized and the usual replacement battalion medical services logistics etc there were about 1 300 men per regiment 30 offices and 300 ncos in total a significant thoughts of ten thousand men six thousand of whom would actually fight around five hundred machine guns sixty field guns forty eighty tank guns sixty heavy mortars thirty six punch of shreks antique aircraft guns 30 tank destroyers and around 2 000 horses the last part is important for in the last stage of the war the german infantry divisions still relied above all on horses for logistics even more than the first stage in 1939 january 1945 sees a record figure of one million horses used directly at the front and the divisions of the last waves formed between january and april 1945 each have more non-motorized transport 3600 horses 1 600 carts and 1 500 bicycles whereas there are fewer motor vehicles 130 motorcycles 150 light vehicles and 200 trucks now let's consider a typical panzer division there are 15 000 men including 380 officers and 3200 ncos an exceptionally high staff ratio compared to that of the infantry a headquarters and headquarters company one regiment of tanks two regiments of grenadiers one regiment of artillery with 105 on 150 millimeter guns communications battalion a pioneer battalion these were equipped with 45 mark ivs 45 panthers 20 hetzer 30 pack 75 millimeter guns 12 pack 88 millimeter flat guns 60 flat 30 millimeter 50 heavy mortars 40 field guns of 105 on 155 millimeter one of the grenadier regiments is carried on half tracks the other on trucks a terrible firepower in theory but for how long will this strength remain in reality strategic situation in 1941. on january 1st 1945 both the western allies on the rhine and the red army on the vistula are the same distance from berlin about 500 kilometers but then on 12 january the red army launches two of the most gigantic military operations in human history never equalled in scale before or since within three weeks three soviet fronts seized east prussia destroying army group center for the second time six months after the operation bhagaratian had already done it once and advanced through poland from the vistula to the oda shattering army group a in the process by 15 february the gigantic soviet offensive has propelled the red army to the oda 50 kilometers from the capital whereas american and british troops are still struggling in the far reaches of germany pressed by his generals hitler finally agrees to perform a dramatic shift of forces from the western to the eastern front [Music] by 15 march the situation changed from a relatively well balanced one between western and eastern fronts to a completely different one where the better part of the german forces are deployed on the order front facing the soviets so let's have a closer look at the situation in the east at the time our series on the final battle begins four german army groups including 12 armies hold a two thousand kilometer front extending from kurland in the baltic to lake balaton in hungary these forces are about half those available for the invasion of the ussr four years previously they are now totaling one million six hundred thousand men one thousand tanks two thousand assault guns and less than one thousand aircraft only half this strength in manpower is facing west the main part of the german forces in the east is regrouped in an army group on the vistula german here's grupaviksel formed in late january from elements that could be saved from destruction in army group a army group centre and from an assortment of rebuilt and new units army group distiller was to become germany's last major force and the reich's last line of defense at first guderian who was by now head of okh intended to propose field marshal font vikes as commander of the new army group however hitler's desire to transfer control of the conflict from the vermont to the ss prompted him to appoint reichsfield himmler as commander instead himmler who lacked any military knowledge proved inadequate to the task and was replaced by general heinrichy on the 20th of march contrary to himmler who excelled only in crimes against humanity haritzi was a highly experienced officer and among the most humane commanders in the wehrmacht although he was forced to withdraw his first panzer army from hungary into czechoslovakia heinrich had contested the ground so tenaciously that on three march he was informed that he had been decorated with the swords to the oak leaves of his night's cross a remarkable accomplishment for a man who was disliked so intensely by hitler and now he was rushing to zosin the army group headquarters with orders to take over command of the strategically important army group vestila the meeting between guderian and heinrich at zoten berlin region 20 march 1945. the meeting between heinrich and gadarian at zotsun has been depicted in detail by cornelius ryan in the last battle it is extremely informative and revealing of the psychological climate of those days in the high spheres of german power the supreme headquarters of the german army a few kilometers south of berlin had been recently bombed and some buildings were badly damaged the first person hainochi saw was general krebs gadarian's chief of staff who had been injured in the raid monocle rammed in his right eye he sat behind a desk in an office close to gadarians his head wrapped in a large white turban of bandages heinrichy did not care much for cribs though the chief of staff was extremely intelligent heinrichy saw him as a man who refused to believe the truth who could change black to white so as to minimize the true situation for hitler heinrichy looked at him forgoing the niceties and asked abruptly what happened to you krebs shrugged oh it was nothing he replied nothing krebs had always been unperturbable before the war he had been military attache at the german embassy in moscow and he spoke near perfect russian after the signing of the rosso japanese neutrality pact in 1941 which the german diplomat helped to achieve stalin had embraced cribs saying we shall always be friends krebs mentioned to heinrichy that he was still learning russian every morning he said i place a dictionary on a shelf beneath the mirror and while shaving learn a few more russian words heinrichy nodded krebs might find his russian useful soon everyone seemed immaculately dressed in shining high boots well-cut and well-pressed field gray uniforms with red tabs of star frank at the collar among them heinrichy seemed out of place with the fur collar sheepskin that never left him as heinrichy entered the office kaderian rose from his desk warmly greeted the visitor and offered him a chair heinrichy saw that gadarian was tense and edgy broad-shouldered with thinning grey hair and a straggling mustache he seemed much older than his 56 years the creator of hitless panzer forces the general whose armored techniques had brought about the capture of france and who had nearly succeeded in accomplishing as much in russia found himself almost completely powerless now even as chief of the general staff he had virtually no influence over hitler a hot-tempered officer at the best of times gadarian was now so thwarted that he was subject to violent rages as they talked heinrich looked about him the office was spartan a large map table several straight back chairs two phones a green lampshade on the desk and nothing on the yellow beige walls except the usual frame picture of hitler over the map table the chief of the general staff did not even have an easy chair though gadarian and heinrichy were not intimate friends they had known each other for years respected each other's professional competence and were close enough to converse freely and informally as soon as they got down to business heinrichy spoke frankly general i've been in the wilds of hungary i know almost nothing about amigo vestila what it's composed of and what the situation is on the order gadarin was equally blunt briskly he replied i should tell you heinrichy that hitler didn't want to give you this command he had somebody else in mind i was responsible i told hitler that you were the one man needed at first he wouldn't consider you at all finally i got him to agree gadarian spoke in a business-like matter-of-fact fashion but as he warmed to his subject the tone of his voice changed himmler that was the biggest problem getting rid of the manual to replace himmler bitterly gadarian recounted how in january as the polish front began to collapse before the tidal weight of the red army he had desperately urged the formation of army gravistula to command the group gadarian had suggested field marshall von vikes at that time vikes was just the man for the situation so what happened hitler said vikes was too old yodel was present at the conference and i expected him to support me but he made some remark about vice's religious feelings that ended the matter then whom did we get hitler appointed himmler of all people himmler gadarian had argued and pleaded against the appalling and preposterous appointment of this man who had no military knowledge but hitler remained adamant gadarian went on thundering on the himmler the front had all but collapsed the red army had moved exactly as was predictable once the russians were across the vistula part of their forces swung north reached the baltic at danzig cutting off and encircling over 20 divisions in east prussia alone the remaining soviet army sliced through pomerania silesia then they reached the older and nicer rivers everywhere along the eastern front our line was overwhelmed but no sector had collapsed so fast as himmler's his incompetence had opened the gates to the main drive across germany and it had placed berlin in jeopardy hitler finally relieved the overworked overburdened reich's flora but only after a lot of grumbling and with obvious reluctance gadarian paused but only for a moment his acrimonious recital of disaster had been punctuated by bursts of anger now he fled again the mess we're in is fantastic the way the war is being run is unbelievable unbelievable through the previous months we had tried to get hitler to understand that the real danger lay on the eastern front and that drastic measures were necessary we urged a series of strategic withdrawals from the baltic particularly from kirland and from the balkans and even suggested abandoning norway and italy everywhere lines needed shortening each division relieved could be sped to the russian front according to intelligence the russians had twice as many divisions as the western allies yet there were fewer german divisions fighting in the east and the west and the best divisions were fighting eisenhower but hitler refused to go on the defensive he would not believe the facts and figures on january 9 gadarian had told hitler that the russians could be expected to launch their attack from the baltic to the balkans with a great force totaling some 225 divisions and 22 armored corps the situation estimate had been prepared by general galen the chief of intelligence it indicated that the russians would outnumber the germans in infantry by 11 to 1 in armor by 7 to 1 in both artillery and aircraft by at least twenty to one hitler hit the table and denounced in a frenzy the author of the report who prepared this rubbishy road whoever he is he should be committed to a lunatic asylum retorted angrily saying that since he personally fully trusts this data then he should be sent for a psychiatric examination hitler categorically refused all requests to withdraw the troops meaning the defenses at the vistula and east prussia fronts to more advantageous positions he also insisted that 200 000 german soldiers trapped in the kurland peninsula stay there and did not allow their evacuation by sea to protect the borders of the reich gadarium who was disgusted with this ostrich strategy of hitler's headquarters asked for a vacation the eastern front the fuhrer suddenly said trying to calm him down has never before had such powerful reserves as it does now this is your merit and i thank you for that gadarian objected the eastern front looks like a house of cards and if the front is broken in one place then everything else will collapse the irony of this situation was that goebbels said the same thing in 1941 about the red army three days later the red army attacked and galen was proved right gadarian told henry t the front virtually collapsed simply because most of our panzer forces were tied down in the west finally hitler agreed to shift some of the armor but he would not let me use the tanks to attack the russian spearheads east of berlin where did he send them to hungary where they were thrown into a perfectly useless attack to recapture the oil fields why even now there are 18 divisions sitting in curling tied down doing nothing they are needed here not in the baltics if we're going to survive everything has got to be on the odor front galerion paused and with an effort calmed himself then he said the russians are looking down our throats they've halted their offensive to reorganize and regroup we estimate that you'll have three to four weeks to prepare until the floods go again in that time the russians will try to establish new bridgeheads on the western bank and broaden those they already have these have to be thrown back no matter what happens elsewhere the russians must be contained on the odor it's our only hope we've reviewed the situation of the fermat in 1945 we've also had an overview of the soviet strategic operations that ended up on the oda at the gates of berlin and finally we saw how the german command prepared the last line of defence now let's review the state of the red army at this time and see what kind of troops were used in those giant operations that ended up so successfully but first a word about a 50 year old legend that will try to debunk the controversies of the german defeat history is written by the victors as the saying goes and yet the german soviet war contradicts this fact in the west it was the defeated germans who wrote the history of their fight against the red army their prejudices their unending search for excuses and alibis have shaped the perception and judgment of westerners on the real value of the red army the defeated generals of the austria have always emphasized their tactical superiority which isn't generally fair but which also shows that they did not grasp the reasons for their defeat in the east what good is it to have one after another of tactical victories to see the results ultimately swallowed up in strategic disasters it was not until the end of the cold war that a new generation of western historians bought out a hidden reality what the germans believed to be their strength was actually their weakness and the weakness which they found in their enemy actually hid a formidable revolution for leading modern war operations the performances of the vermont in the initial period of the war seemed so extraordinary that they went straight into the books of military legends and thus there's now a paradox even as hitler's army suffered total defeat in the second world war it still remains to this day in the eyes of a large public the credit of having bought up new and almost magical form of warfare called the blitzkrieg on the other hand the soviets are placed by common opinion in the opposite situation they may well have won the war they may have won 20 major battles since stalingrad and yet doubt suspicion or even contempt still too often cling to their military performance in this commonly accepted version the soviet achievements would be characterized by brutal orders since of tactical skill primacy of numbers and raw firepower in reality if this was true in the beginning of the war it was certainly not at the end the world's most powerful army the red army of 1945 has little in common with that of the red army of 1941. gone are the frustrations of the beginning of the war when soldiers and commanders despaired over complete helplessness when troops and material were wasted in vain despite the strong will to fight back when entire soviet armored cores were immobilized for lack of fuel and technical deficiencies when they were heading in the wrong direction for lack of communication or when they were wiped out before reaching the battlefield mauled by german aviation acting with complete immunity gone are the days when soviet pilots could do nothing but ram themselves into enemy fighters to take them down the sky is no longer swarming with yonkers and meshes smiths but with yaks migs and stumovics the lands are now full of thundering stalin tanks and super heavy assault artillery and the soviet soldiers morale is at its highest but just imagine from where they've come from what an incredible comeback for the soviet army since the summer of 1942 soviet industry has already won the arms race against germany with incomparable production levels by 1945 it has matured beyond expectations for over two years now the euro factories are releasing enormous quantities of high quality material that perfectly suits the needs of the troops at the front tank men and pilots are now totally confident in the machines they received which was not always the case before they have nothing to envy from their german opponents they know they are as powerful as them not only in terms of technical abilities but also in training they are fully mastering their tanks and aircraft they have at least as many aces as their enemy and they have all the necessary resources in fuel and ammunition to operate them american deliveries bring a large complement of ammunition food supplies and in particular transport equipment the structures of the units have also been completely redesigned and the fighting tactics brought closer to the doctrines of the 1930s after three and a half years of an abominable struggle the soviet generals have risen to the level of their adversaries for the first time in the war the losses in the austria exceed that of the red army by about a quarter from june to september 1944 then by a third between january and may 1945 not to mention the number of prisoners although the red army tactics remain less flexible when it comes to lower level formations and if the infantry still does not have the same training as the austria the soviet leaders perform better than the germans in leading strategic operations and nothing can compare to the red artillery and still these achievements must not hide the deficiencies of the red army that remain even in the late stages of the war so let's continue busting some of the most popular myths and legends about the red army and have a closer look at the alleged sheer numbers and the waves of men that submerge their opponents since 1944 the most serious problem of the red army was undoubtedly that of manpower in this respect it is similar to the problem faced by germany the losses since 1941 have been so heavy that there are no longer enough men who can populate the 450 infantry divisions deployed at the front in 1945 out of about 12 000 authorized strength a soviet division usually counts five thousand to seven thousand at best a soviet infantry corps has hardly the strength in numbers of a british or an american division just like in the veil act the gaps in the red army are compensated by underage or overage recruits without real military training or by formations hastily raised in the re-conquered territories with liberated prisoners of war and forced laborers freed from german bonds the appearance of the infantry divisions varies a lot whereas the guards keep a martial look the ordinary divisions are often in bad shape the uniforms are dirty in tatters and patched up the units are followed by picturesque herds of cows and sheep horses donkeys camels carts loaded with a motley booty and still this relative weakness is compensated by first-rate equipment a standard 1945 soviet rifle division has a battalion of 16 su-76 assault guns attached as well as an anti-tank battalion of 66 guns it's also very well equipped in automatic weapons 1500 submachine guns the excellent pps 43 and the ppsh-41 500 decked yard of light machine guns 150 gordy unoff sg43 heavy machine guns and 200 anti-tank rifles the second major problem with the soviet inventory in the last stage of the war is its low mobility there are not enough trucks despite the lend lease deliveries there are 665 000 trucks available to the army including 427 000 of american origin for more than six million men for comparison the 1.5 million men of the u.s army can count on one million vehicles of all types soviet infantrymen go on foot artillery and supplies are largely horse drawn we are far from the 100 motorized british and american divisions able to cover 300 kilometers in one day like its german counterpart the soviet rifle division cannot be asked for more than 20 kilometers a day another problem not solved in 1945 the soviet infantry has nothing to compare to the german panzerfaust or panzer shrek the american bazooka or even the british piet its anti-tank rifles have never shown great efficiency and finally if field communications had greatly improved since 1941 they are still lagging behind those of the western armies during the offensive there is a radio link between the regiment and the division as well as between the regiment and the battalions but below that level the situation is still as bad as before the battalions and companies communicate by couriers and the company commander uses hand signals to lead his platoons stalin moscow meeting 1st of april 1945. at about the time heinrichsie met guderian in late march preparations for the berlin operation were ending in moscow a tense atmosphere reigned in the kremlin stalin was convinced that the germans would do everything possible to reach an agreement with the west while fighting like mad in the east the negotiations in switzerland between the americans and general wolf on a ceasefire in northern italy only confirmed the worst suspicions zhukov who was entrusted with the capture of the german capital also shared stalin's fears that the germans would open the front to the western allies on march 27 two days before he flew to moscow a reuters correspondent noted that the british and american units advancing into germany were encountering virtually no resistance this report caused great alarm in moscow stalin argued unfolded the map he had bought with the intelligence data on the opposing forces after stalin carefully studied it he asked when is it planned to launch an offensive in the berlin direction zhukov replied the troops of the first belorussian front are ready to march in two weeks and it is obvious that konya's first ukrainian front will finish its preparations for the same time however rokosovsky's second belarussian front is still engaged in heavy fighting against the german strongholds in poland stalin replied well we'll have to begin the operation without waiting for rokosovsky's front then he went to his desk took a piece of paper and handed it to his interlocutor according to zhukov it was a letter from a foreign source sympathetic to the ussr which warned the soviet leadership about secret negotiations between the western allies and the germans and although the source's information also said that the americans and the british rejected the german proposals for a separate piece nevertheless the possibility remained that the germans would open the front to the western allies stalin asked zhukov zhukov what do you think about this matter but without waiting for an answer he went on roosevelt is unlikely to violate the altar agreements as for churchill you can expect anything from this man two days later on april 1 a decisive meeting was held at the large table in the kremlin office over which were hung the portraits of suvrdov and kututsov marshall's zhukov and konov were invited as well as the chief of general staff general antonoff and his deputy general schlemenka stalin asked both marshals if they were aware of how acute the situation was zhukov and konef prudently replied that they were only as informed as the information at their disposal then the soviet leader asked tamenka to read a letter to them this was a message most likely from soviet military representatives at the headquarters of the allied forces it said that both montgomery's forces and general patton's third army would attack berlin after capturing leipzig and dresden one cannot discount the possibility that there was in reality no such letter and that stalin simply ordered a falsified text and read it to the marshals in order to spur their efforts for the operation stalin carefully looked at the two marshals and asked so who will take berlin we are the allies kind of immediately reply we will take berlin and we will take it before the allies stalin looked at konaf with a smile and asked him very welcome rod konyev how are you going to prepare your troops for this since it's necessary for the first ukrainian front to carry out a large regrouping of forces there is no need to worry about this comrade stalin the front is definitely able to carry out all the necessary measures in time stalin's eyes could not escape konef's frank desire to get ahead of zhukov and take berlin first the soviet leader was satisfied he never missed an opportunity to create an atmosphere of rivalry between his subordinates and if this could win the war even quicker for him all the better this set the stage for the last act of the war the capture of berlin to follow in the next episode you

Channel: Armageddon

Views: 241,116

Keywords: Berlin 1945, TIK, Mark Felton, Guderian, Heinrici, Zhukov, Konev, Seelow heights, Vistula Oder, Stalin, Battle of Berlin, Victory 1945, Road to Berlin, Panzerfaust, Reichstag, 8th Guards Army, German war economy, total war

Id: ehXmin9Q6ZE

Length: 38min 17sec (2297 seconds)

Published: Mon May 03 2021