alternatehistory.com
April-May 1945 - World War 2.5
April-May 1945
Extract: “World War 2.5 – Ten days and ten steps to war” by Coleen McGann, Temple Press, 1979
“It was not an expected war by any means, in fact it was a conflagration that both participants were drawn into quickly and remorselessly, but largely unexpectedly. For the USSR and Joseph Stalin, the priority was consolidating their hold only newly conquered lands in Poland, Germany, Roumania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. For the USA and its President, it was about defeating Germany, trying to get some sort of deal for free elections for the Czechs and Poles, but mainly about moving on to Japan. It was only Churchill who still wished to see communism broken and banished from Europe, yet he was increasingly in charge of a power not of the first rank. Of course, there were others such as Patton made no secret of the fact that they wished to end one war only to start another.
Ambition, egotism, boldness even vanity and a degree of recklessness or risk taking, they sound like dirty words but in fact all are required assets for a successful military commander. Yet like a two edged sword, these assets can cause even the greatest commanders to fall if given unchecked reign, if they are exposed to an environment when the commander no longer acknowledges the possibility of failure, witness the eventual humiliation of perhaps the greatest military commander in the last two hundred years, Napoleon Bonaparte. By April 1945, MacArthur and Churchill’s hubris had reached its peak, as had Stalin’s after the successes of the previous two years.
It can well be said that the first steps to a full shooting war between the Western allies and the USSR harked back to the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in October 1944. This was to bring William Wallace to the Presidency and in January 1945 the dual ticket of the GOP, Dewey and MacArthur. It was a bad combination. Dewey was very direct and often seen as abrasive by people who did not know him well. MacArthur, deified on the altar of public opinion and propaganda during the Pacific War, was not your typical Vice President, content to fade into the background. In fact, he regarded himself as the ultimate resource on all military matters. Having the Pacific War virtually won, he was eager to emboss his own imprimatur on the war in Europe as well.
These factors were firstly to manifest themselves in the proposed 1945 conference. The Russians wanted it at Yalta, MacArthur proposed Paris and after numerous back and forth messages in February 1945 it was decided to postpone it until after the war, itself surely only 2-3 months away. It was a fatal mistake as it served only to feed Stalin’s paranoia that the Western allies would seek to make a separate peace with Germany and were plotting to extend their zone of influence, especially in regards Czechoslovakia and Poland. There was much justification in regards this. Churchill had attempted to influence the new American President throughout January and February 1945, advocating a stronger position in regards Czech and particularly Polish interests, pointing out that this was, of course, the reason the UK had gone to war with Hitler’s Germany in the first place.
Dewey would not be drawn, but Churchill was not the sort of personality to be easily dissuaded and in February 1945 ordered the creation of a plan, Operation Unthinkable, for both a defensive and offensive campaign against Stalin’s USSR. The initial primary goal of the operation was ‘to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire. This may be defined as no more than a square deal for Poland and the Czechs, that does not necessarily limit a military commitment.’ It was to prove a disastrous misstep, as the head of Section 9 that dealt with anti-Communist or anti Soviet activities was none other than Kim Philby, who promptly made Stalin aware of the existence of such a plan in early March. Now more than ever in the Soviet leaders mind the possibility of the Western allies making a separate peace or indeed allying with a Quisling style German Government, evidenced by the rejection of a conference on Soviet soil and numerous statements by MacArthur about ‘pushing all the way to Berlin’. To Stalin, Roosevelt was a known quantity, a man he felt he could trust as much as a man of great paranoia like Stalin was prepared to trust.
Then in late April 1945 a series of incidents occurred that seemingly confirmed many of Stalin’s suspicions. In mid-April two British Divisions and an American Division were transferred to Europe, two of these Airborne Divisions. With the German compressed into an ever-tightening net, Stalin rightly wondered where these units were to be committed. In fact, they were due to be committed to an operation in Bavaria, but the Soviets were unaware of this.
Then on 23rd April, Soviet and American troops clashed near Potsdam in what was initially a case of friendly fire, however, this went further as both sides retaliated to right supposed wrongs. On the 24th the submarine S-13 was strafed by RAF Mosquito’s now operating with impunity in the Baltic. The following day the crew reported they were fired upon by a British submarine (in fact a German Type XXI). On the 26th April, another friendly fire incident occurred West of Cottbus. This was followed the following day by an intense barrage of rocket fire on U.S troops by Soviet artillery in retaliation for the activities of the previous day.
The 28th April saw all German forces in Italy surrender to the Western allies yet not to the Soviets, a deliberate snub engineered by MacArthur in exchange for the hostilities of the previous few days. The 29th April saw the surrender of large German forces in the Battle of Hamburg and Nuremberg, respectively. The later was particularly controversial as many White Russian units had battled their way east to surrender to the Western allies. On the 30th April Soviet artillery lashed U.S troops again near Potsdam, this time likely under instructions from Moscow and British aircraft attacked Russian troops by mistake. That night, Hitler was to commit suicide at 9.30pm.
On the 1st May, Hitler’s successor, Donitz, offered to surrender all German forces to the Western allies only. Enraged by the events of the previous 8 days, Dewey, with MacArthur and Churchill’s backing, instructed Eisenhower to accept and at the same time he announced the suspension of Lend Lease to the USSR. By the 2nd May, the Battle for Berlin was over and further clashes had occurred between Soviet and Western forces. That night Stalin had convinced himself that the Western allies had betrayed him. “Let us safeguard our revolution and dictate out own terms from the Rhine. Our capitalists ‘friends’ have abandoned us and wish to raise the Germans against us again. We need to begin offensive operations against the British and Americans, push our way to the Rhine and make our own terms if they will not honour those agreed.”
By the morning of the 3rd May Stalin’s USSR was in a shooting war with the Western allies, separated only by German units attempting to fight their way to the Western allies to surrender.”
Extract: “World War 2.5 – Ten days and ten steps to war” by Coleen McGann, Temple Press, 1979
“It was not an expected war by any means, in fact it was a conflagration that both participants were drawn into quickly and remorselessly, but largely unexpectedly. For the USSR and Joseph Stalin, the priority was consolidating their hold only newly conquered lands in Poland, Germany, Roumania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. For the USA and its President, it was about defeating Germany, trying to get some sort of deal for free elections for the Czechs and Poles, but mainly about moving on to Japan. It was only Churchill who still wished to see communism broken and banished from Europe, yet he was increasingly in charge of a power not of the first rank. Of course, there were others such as Patton made no secret of the fact that they wished to end one war only to start another.
Ambition, egotism, boldness even vanity and a degree of recklessness or risk taking, they sound like dirty words but in fact all are required assets for a successful military commander. Yet like a two edged sword, these assets can cause even the greatest commanders to fall if given unchecked reign, if they are exposed to an environment when the commander no longer acknowledges the possibility of failure, witness the eventual humiliation of perhaps the greatest military commander in the last two hundred years, Napoleon Bonaparte. By April 1945, MacArthur and Churchill’s hubris had reached its peak, as had Stalin’s after the successes of the previous two years.
It can well be said that the first steps to a full shooting war between the Western allies and the USSR harked back to the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in October 1944. This was to bring William Wallace to the Presidency and in January 1945 the dual ticket of the GOP, Dewey and MacArthur. It was a bad combination. Dewey was very direct and often seen as abrasive by people who did not know him well. MacArthur, deified on the altar of public opinion and propaganda during the Pacific War, was not your typical Vice President, content to fade into the background. In fact, he regarded himself as the ultimate resource on all military matters. Having the Pacific War virtually won, he was eager to emboss his own imprimatur on the war in Europe as well.
These factors were firstly to manifest themselves in the proposed 1945 conference. The Russians wanted it at Yalta, MacArthur proposed Paris and after numerous back and forth messages in February 1945 it was decided to postpone it until after the war, itself surely only 2-3 months away. It was a fatal mistake as it served only to feed Stalin’s paranoia that the Western allies would seek to make a separate peace with Germany and were plotting to extend their zone of influence, especially in regards Czechoslovakia and Poland. There was much justification in regards this. Churchill had attempted to influence the new American President throughout January and February 1945, advocating a stronger position in regards Czech and particularly Polish interests, pointing out that this was, of course, the reason the UK had gone to war with Hitler’s Germany in the first place.
Dewey would not be drawn, but Churchill was not the sort of personality to be easily dissuaded and in February 1945 ordered the creation of a plan, Operation Unthinkable, for both a defensive and offensive campaign against Stalin’s USSR. The initial primary goal of the operation was ‘to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire. This may be defined as no more than a square deal for Poland and the Czechs, that does not necessarily limit a military commitment.’ It was to prove a disastrous misstep, as the head of Section 9 that dealt with anti-Communist or anti Soviet activities was none other than Kim Philby, who promptly made Stalin aware of the existence of such a plan in early March. Now more than ever in the Soviet leaders mind the possibility of the Western allies making a separate peace or indeed allying with a Quisling style German Government, evidenced by the rejection of a conference on Soviet soil and numerous statements by MacArthur about ‘pushing all the way to Berlin’. To Stalin, Roosevelt was a known quantity, a man he felt he could trust as much as a man of great paranoia like Stalin was prepared to trust.
Then in late April 1945 a series of incidents occurred that seemingly confirmed many of Stalin’s suspicions. In mid-April two British Divisions and an American Division were transferred to Europe, two of these Airborne Divisions. With the German compressed into an ever-tightening net, Stalin rightly wondered where these units were to be committed. In fact, they were due to be committed to an operation in Bavaria, but the Soviets were unaware of this.
Then on 23rd April, Soviet and American troops clashed near Potsdam in what was initially a case of friendly fire, however, this went further as both sides retaliated to right supposed wrongs. On the 24th the submarine S-13 was strafed by RAF Mosquito’s now operating with impunity in the Baltic. The following day the crew reported they were fired upon by a British submarine (in fact a German Type XXI). On the 26th April, another friendly fire incident occurred West of Cottbus. This was followed the following day by an intense barrage of rocket fire on U.S troops by Soviet artillery in retaliation for the activities of the previous day.
The 28th April saw all German forces in Italy surrender to the Western allies yet not to the Soviets, a deliberate snub engineered by MacArthur in exchange for the hostilities of the previous few days. The 29th April saw the surrender of large German forces in the Battle of Hamburg and Nuremberg, respectively. The later was particularly controversial as many White Russian units had battled their way east to surrender to the Western allies. On the 30th April Soviet artillery lashed U.S troops again near Potsdam, this time likely under instructions from Moscow and British aircraft attacked Russian troops by mistake. That night, Hitler was to commit suicide at 9.30pm.
On the 1st May, Hitler’s successor, Donitz, offered to surrender all German forces to the Western allies only. Enraged by the events of the previous 8 days, Dewey, with MacArthur and Churchill’s backing, instructed Eisenhower to accept and at the same time he announced the suspension of Lend Lease to the USSR. By the 2nd May, the Battle for Berlin was over and further clashes had occurred between Soviet and Western forces. That night Stalin had convinced himself that the Western allies had betrayed him. “Let us safeguard our revolution and dictate out own terms from the Rhine. Our capitalists ‘friends’ have abandoned us and wish to raise the Germans against us again. We need to begin offensive operations against the British and Americans, push our way to the Rhine and make our own terms if they will not honour those agreed.”
By the morning of the 3rd May Stalin’s USSR was in a shooting war with the Western allies, separated only by German units attempting to fight their way to the Western allies to surrender.”
- johnboy
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