Berlin or Bust - An Unthinkable Operation

[johnboy]

12 October 1944

Admiral Ross McIntyre inwardly sighed. What was it about reporters that was so annoying? He looked at the man from “The Times”, taking in his slight paunch and noting the coffee stain on his shirt lapel and the slight yellowing of his teeth, a sure sign of heavy smoking.

"The President's health is perfectly OK. There are absolutely no organic difficulties at all." McIntyre knew that this was not the full truth. Roosevelt was suffering from a range of complaints including congestive heart failure, but this was not information that the general public needed to know, not in the middle of a war and not when in the middle of an election campaign either. The President would win, he was certain of that, even with a new face like Truman on the ticket and the unpopularity the dumping of Wallace created in the labour unions. Even with Dewey backed by the war hero Douglas MacArthur on the Republican ticket.

14 October 1944

“We announce with the deepest regret that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States since 1933, was found dead this morning in his bed. A White House announcement stated that the President died suddenly from a cerebral haemorrhage. Mr. Henry Wallace, the Vice-President, has already been sworn in as the 33rd President.”

After indicating that an immediate meeting of the Cabinet had been called the White House statement said that the four Roosevelt sons in the Services had been sent a message by their mother which said that "the President passed last night. He did his job to the end as he would want to do. Bless you all and all our love."

"The funeral services will be held on in the east room of the White House," the statement added. "The interment will be at Hyde Park - the President's New York estate - on Saturday."

“In Britain, news of the President's death was conveyed to the King at midnight and he received it with profound regret. Mr. Churchill was greatly shocked when given the news. It is expected that he will pay tribute to the late President in the Commons to-day, and that the House will then adjourn.”

The German radio gave the news of Mr. Roosevelt's death, under an Amsterdam dateline, without comment.

Mr. Wallace, the Vice-President, was working at his office when the news came and he went immediately to the White House. Members of the Cabinet soon began assembling for an emergency session. First to arrive were Miss Perkins, Secretary of Labour, and Mr. Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior.

Later Mr. Wallace was sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. Within ten seconds of the White House announcement, the news was flashed all over the United States by radio and over newspaper wires. Hundreds of people gathered at the White House. The news was given to Mr. Wallace by Mrs. Roosevelt in one of her private rooms in the White House.

The effect of the news on the American public was stunning. Not knowing how to express their grief, people wandered out of their homes and began talking with neighbours, in bars a sudden silence fell, and men and women were unable to adjust their minds quickly to the loss.

For the Democratic Party, this created a conundrum. New President Wallace was not on the ticket for the 1944 Presidential election, now only some 24 days away and this will presumably be now headed by Harry Truman as the Vice-Presidential nominee.

13 April 1945

“The question now Mr President is whether we continue on to Berlin by exploiting our two bridgeheads over the Elbe? Now that the Ruhr pocket is in the final stages of reduction and the 9th has reverted to Bradley’s 12th Army Group, there is the political question not only of Berlin but also of driving for the Baltic to remove access to the Jutland peninsula to the Soviets.

To this point we have given the Supreme Commander authority to make all such decisions, however, some commanders on the spot are keen to continue on and, of course, you are aware of the opinions of the British and indeed Churchill himself.”

Dewey looked over at MacArthur. There was no doubt he could be an annoying personality and that the best thing he saw all day was when he looked in the mirror, but he did know more about military matters; there was no question on that.

MacArthur waited, building the tension in the room, waiting until all eyes were upon him. “We don’t owe the Russians anything. Hell, Stalin accused you point blank of lying to you about our ongoing negotiations with Wolff in regards Italy. Then they would not agree to meet face to face for a conference outside of Russia.

I say we continue on, that way we not only move in lock step with the British but we improve our own post war negotiating position simply be virtue of the real estate we occupy.”

Dewey pondered the situation. Yes, it would mean more lives expended but did he want America to be drawn back into Europe a third time post war, this time facing a Soviet threat? This way, if the allies dominated Western and Central Europe, the Russians would be able to do little without allies to formant Communist agitation within. It would lessen the need to garrison Europe post war against what may be yet another threat. As far as the Pacific was concerned, the Japanese were beaten in any case and that without the Russians, their last super battleship sunk less than a week ago.

It was not like there was an agreed position, after all, hell the Russians had not allowed that to occur by their own intransience. Dewey turned back to George Marshall. “Very well General, signal the Supreme Commander that Berlin is to be a priority objective if, and only if, he deems it militarily possible.”

 

[johnboy]

13 April 1945, London

Field Marshal Alan Brooke was apprehensive, as there was no question that the war in it's current format could not be prosecuted beyond this current campaigning season without some severe compromises being made in the makeup of British Forces, particularly in Europe. The simple fact of the matter was that the British Army was at it's wits end in regards manpower and had, in fact, been making compromises in regards that very lack of manpower ever since the first list of casualties came back from Normandy in June 1944.

A number of Royal Artillery Infantry units had been created in the winter of 1944/45 from surplus AA units with no German air threat present. Most were used as line of
communications troops, but some had been formed into combatant brigades. Three battalions of Royal Marines from surplus landing craft crews were organized into a brigade.
He had broken up the 59th and then the 50th Divisions for replacements and transferred the 5th Division from Italy, where the Germans were on their last legs.

The Army's manpower was 2.9 million, the RAF 0.9 million and Navy 0.78 million. The merchant marine also had it's needs. 25,000 personal had been transferred from the Air Force to the Army in the last 12 months and perhaps he needed to ask for more given the paucity of the Luftwaffe. There were plans afoot to reduce the Army's logistical "tail", however, this was hard to do whilst great and substantial offensive operations were in place, which created an environment where logistical supports were sorely needed. 31st Indian Armoured was the only Division size unit ready for combat that was not allocated in the European Theatre of war. For that matter, even the United States Army only had 16th Armoured and 17th Airborne, the former to move to Germany within days. Of course, the French had four Divisions that had just formed in the last two months not allocated to combat as yet, but that was all.

Brooke scanned the communication authorising operations beyond the Elbe. One could only hope that operations against Nazi Germany would wrap up quickly and that when a link up with Soviet forces was to happen, that no untoward incidents occurred.

 

[Aber]

To this point we have given the Supreme Commander authority to make all such decisions,

Would MacArthur be happy to leave such decisions to the "best damn clerk who worked for me"?

 

[johnboy]

Would MacArthur be happy to leave such decisions to the "best damn clerk who worked for me"?

MacArthur wrapped up nicely the best and worst traits possible in a General, but in the this instance has has not been in a position of power until 20 January 1945 and is now "meddling".

 

[Aber]

MacArthur wrapped up nicely the best and worst traits possible in a General, but in the this instance has has not been in a position of power until 20 January 1945 and is now "meddling".

Wouldn't it be more likely that on 21 January he would be on a flight to Europe to investigate the debacle of the Bulge under the previous administration?
Also wasn't Marshall seen very much as FDR's man, and so ripe for replacement?
Brooke IIRC respected MacArthur's strategic vision, and so probably no opposition from London to some re-organisation - say promote Eisenhower to Army Chief of Staff, and reorganise the command structure in Europe?

 

[oberdada]

Not smiling in this timeline!

 

[johnboy]

23 April 1945, Rembrantstrasse 6, Potsdam, Germany

Christina Schmitt had watched the troops pull out of Potsdam the previous day. The “Thousand Year Reich” was in its death throes. The Fuhrer’s birthday three days ago had provided the usual exhortations of victory. It was out of touch with all reality. What had formerly been her much loved country was now merely a swirling maelstrom of total chaos.

A full two years on the Eastern front as a nurse before a bout of typhus had seen her invalided out had put paid to any starry eyed idealism that may have existed in her own mind. She could have gone back but never did so. She looked in the mirror. A conventional face framed by light brown hair and blue eyes, cheeks too thin and hair untidy. A figure no longer filled out by healthy living and eyes watery from lack of sleep. She looked a fright yet would have to make herself look far less attractive if the lurid stories told by the line of refugees streaming East of what had occurred to women under the Russians were to be believed.

In the mirror she could see the body of the young woman sprawled on the ottoman covered by a thick blanket. She was a perfect example of what happened when you went against the system in Hitler’s Germany. Helene Schmitt was her cousin and as the only two girls in her generation they had been firm friends. Helene had joined the KdF and gone East two years after Christina in 1943. It had not taken long to cut through her starry eyed idealism, a much shorter time period than with Christina herself. Alas, it did not pay to sing a little ditty criticizing or mocking their glorious leader even off stage in front of the wrong people. By March 1945, so many people were pouring into the cells at Prinz-Albrecht Strasse, that some were sent to Postdam to be accommodated locally in jails. When Helene had been conscious during the night, she had told her story.

An SS Oberstumfuhrer had come to Helene’s cell the previous day with two men. “Did you think we had forgotten about you?” he mocked, leading her out into the courtyard. Bodies were everywhere, glassy and unseeing eyes staring upwards toward the sky in the driving rain. To her rear a truck revved its engine as she took in the scene. Before her was a line, all of women, some as young as teenagers, a couple as old as 70. “We saved you ladies until last. We are gentleman that way” mocked the officer.

“Speichellecker”. This had produced a furious punch to the side of her head that left her woozy. She lined up and then heard the command, a sound like fabric ripping and then only blackness. Eager to leave, they must have failed to check their last 20 or so victims. So it was that locals brought her to Christina’s house in a wagon, her head covered in blood from a scalp wound and her ear bleeding from the punch, the only survivor of the day’s work that left over 300 bodies piled in the courtyard for the dogs.

Christina Schmitt reflected on their circumstances. The Schmitt family had once been well known in Postdam, owning not only a jewellery store but also two quarries and a trucking business. It seemed like a lifetime ago. The quarries worked out, the truck commandeered, jewellery not a marketable product in wartime. As for her family, three brother’s dead, all on the Eastern Front. Her father gone from a heart attack, her mother from a broken heart, her Uncle and Aunt dead before the war. All that remained was the house, however, it was one of the tallest in Potsdam, a former church built with a spire and “widows walk” that gave a good view of the city. She walked to the top. It provided a panoramic view. What remained of Wehrmacht units had gone the previous day, along with any SS troops. Was the pathetic unit of Volksturm aged men and young boys still guarding the Glienicker Brucke?

She heard rather than saw the first units of what she hoped may be the Americans or British moving up the Templinerstrasse on the other side of the Havel. Finally, they came into view. It had been a while since she had used her English. It was as the metal beasts crawled forward, men clinging to them like ants, that she first heard it. The two aircraft snarled past her vantage point; the red star prominent on the tail. They swept low over the tanks. A rain of small metal canisters fell from the wings of both aircraft cascading down over the armoured beasts. One fire-balled immediately, then another started to burn. She could see troops on the ground firing back furiously. An aircraft flew away trailing smoke, dropped lower and crashed into nearby trees.

It was not ten minutes later that figures started firing from the tree line to the West and a much larger tank nosed its way from that tree line, firing at what it was now clear were Americans. It carried brown clad figures. Russians?

The Western allies and the communists had arrived at the same time, but why were they firing at each other?

 

[Sceonn]

The Western allies and the communists had arrived at the same time, but why were they firing at each other?

Friendly Fire I would think, Russians wouldn't want to start a war with the West so soon.

But @johnboy Why don't you Threadmark?

 

[Unknown]

Good start to the TL, @johnboy. Just curious, however--what happened to your Under The Southern Cross TL? Will you be updating that soon?

Hope you're doing OK...

 

[stodge]

I'm more curious as to what happened at Yalta which was scheduled for February 1945 and basically set the tone for how the war would end in Europe.

I imagine Dewey would have had no objection to De Gaulle attending (which would have smoothed post-war Franco-American and Franco-British relations). The Conference had been proposed by Roosevelt before his death and would have been Dewey's first significant foreign policy involvement since his inauguration,

Roosevelt wanted Soviet confirmation they would join the war against Japan once Germany was defeated and I imagine Dewey would have wanted something similar.

The European Advisory Commission had already drawn up the occupation zones for Germany and had the Americans advanced beyond the Elbe toward Berlin they would have withdrawn just as they did from Leipzig, Chemnitz and other areas liberated by Americans but in the Soviet Zone.

Dewey might have pushed harder for free elections in Poland but so much would have depended on the Dewey-Stalin relationship (and the Dewey-Churchill relationship as well). Stalin and Roosevelt had developed a friendship f sorts but clearly Dewey's advisers were more strongly anti-communist. However, Dewey in 1944 was not Dewey in 1948 - he supported much of Roosevelt's line on foreign policy including the establishment of the United Nations.

I just can't see the kind of full arms clash between the Russians and Americans some envisage - there were Soviet plans that if the Americans got too close they would face an "accidental" artillery barrage but in fact both sides were monitoring the other's radio signals so had a good idea where they were.

 

[David T]

OOC: The zoning of Germany, including the multi-power administration of Berlin, had already been agreed on in its essence by early 1944 and formally (with a detailed description of the borders of the zones) in the "Protocol on Zones of Occupation and the Administration of ―Greater Berlin‖ (September 12, 1944)" http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Allied Policies 1_ENG.pdf President Dewey is not going to go back on this agreement, no matter who is first to enter Berlin.

Indeed, Dewey's campaign in 1944 was not anti-Soviet. It was devoted to the menace of domestic Communism (to listen to the Republicans, you would think the Democratic ticket consisted of Earl Browder and Sidney Hillman). "Republicans went to great lengths to make it clear that opposition to domestic communism did not imply disrespect for the Soviet Union. Fundamental differences existed between Russian and American economic and social systems, Thomas Dewey said in April, 1944, but these dissimilarities in no way made friction between the two countries inevitable." https://books.google.com/books?id=RSQE0B4hFvkC&pg=PA58

 

[johnboy]

Good start to the TL, @johnboy. Just curious, however--what happened to your Under The Southern Cross TL? Will you be updating that soon?

Hope you're doing OK...

Yes I may well be. It's been a tough year and just when I thought myself on track for retirement I was made redundant. New job is nowhere near as cruisey as the old and I have had issues with my son(drugs-breaks your heart that stuff) that have now hopefully been cleared up. It's been a tough 12-18 months but hopefully coming out the other end of it now. TBH I have also really struggled with ideas for timelines. I've always had trouble with that, starting a timeline. Once I'm rolling I am fine but getting a timeline started is hard. I had even thought of doing one set in the Congo during their cold war with South Africa in the Rudolf will Reign verse.

 

[johnboy]

I'm more curious as to what happened at Yalta which was scheduled for February 1945 and basically set the tone for how the war would end in Europe.

I imagine Dewey would have had no objection to De Gaulle attending (which would have smoothed post-war Franco-American and Franco-British relations). The Conference had been proposed by Roosevelt before his death and would have been Dewey's first significant foreign policy involvement since his inauguration,

Roosevelt wanted Soviet confirmation they would join the war against Japan once Germany was defeated and I imagine Dewey would have wanted something similar.

The European Advisory Commission had already drawn up the occupation zones for Germany and had the Americans advanced beyond the Elbe toward Berlin they would have withdrawn just as they did from Leipzig, Chemnitz and other areas liberated by Americans but in the Soviet Zone.

Dewey might have pushed harder for free elections in Poland but so much would have depended on the Dewey-Stalin relationship (and the Dewey-Churchill relationship as well). Stalin and Roosevelt had developed a friendship f sorts but clearly Dewey's advisers were more strongly anti-communist. However, Dewey in 1944 was not Dewey in 1948 - he supported much of Roosevelt's line on foreign policy including the establishment of the United Nations.

I just can't see the kind of full arms clash between the Russians and Americans some envisage - there were Soviet plans that if the Americans got too close they would face an "accidental" artillery barrage but in fact both sides were monitoring the other's radio signals so had a good idea where they were.

Well in this instance there is no Yalta, it did not occur and due to not being able to agree on a location it was agreed to postpone until after the European war. This has created a number of factors not in existence OTL, namely:

1) Two men who have never met and have not developed any relationship OTL leading the two superpowers
2) A more anti communist US President
3) A Vice President who views himself as the unofficial commander of all US forces globally who is involved in both military decision making and the business of Government to an unprecedented degree for a United States VP, providing a corrosive influence on Dewey
4) Much greater Soviet suspicions that the Western allies are going to undertake a land grab beyond agreed spheres of influence and the fear they intend to reconstitute a new Germany. This has been highlighted by vastly increased German resistance simply for the purpose of making their way West and surrendering, units holding on simply to await Western allies

 

[johnboy]

OOC: The zoning of Germany, including the multi-power administration of Berlin, had already been agreed on in its essence by early 1944 and formally (with a detailed description of the borders of the zones) in the "Protocol on Zones of Occupation and the Administration of ―Greater Berlin‖ (September 12, 1944)" http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Allied Policies 1_ENG.pdf President Dewey is not gong to go back on this agreement, no matter who is first to enter Berlin.

Indeed, Dewey's campaign in 1944 was not anti-Soviet. It was devoted to the menace of domestic Communism (to listen to the Republicans, you would think the Democratic ticket consisted of Earl Browder and Sidney Hillman). "Republicans went to great lengths to make it clear that opposition to domestic communism did not imply disrespect for the Soviet Union. Fundamental differences existed between Russian and American economic and social systems, Thomas Dewey said in April, 1944, but these dissimilarities in no way made friction between the two countries inevitable." https://books.google.com/books?id=RSQE0B4hFvkC&pg=PA58

I fully agree, however, at the end of the day there are multiple examples of wars commencing over far less. It's unlikely to be sure, but with a very different US leadership this scenario is possible, just unlikely. I found it interesting that there had been no timeline on Operation Unthinkable and the ramifications, including the ramifications in the Pacific, so I thought it an interesting possibility to explore. Of course, by 23rd April 1945, nothing could save Nazi Germany as an entity, but the postwar world, well that is another story.

In the Pacific the US Navy will likely win the battle they lost OTL and there will be no Operation Downfall, for instance.

 

[stodge]

Well in this instance there is no Yalta, it did not occur and due to not being able to agree on a location it was agreed to postpone until after the European war. This has created a number of factors not in existence OTL, namely:

1) Two men who have never met and have not developed any relationship OTL leading the two superpowers
2) A more anti communist US President
3) A Vice President who views himself as the unofficial commander of all US forces globally who is involved in both military decision making and the business of Government to an unprecedented degree for a United States VP, providing a corrosive influence on Dewey
4) Much greater Soviet suspicions that the Western allies are going to undertake a land grab beyond agreed spheres of influence and the fear they intend to reconstitute a new Germany. This has been highlighted by vastly increased German resistance simply for the purpose of making their way West and surrendering, units holding on simply to await Western allies

Without wanting to get bogged down in this, Stalin and Churchill were meeting in Moscow from 9-19 October 1944.

Word of Roosevelt's death would have reached them at that meeting and doubtless they would both have paid exhaustive tribute to FDR and given Wallace their best wishes.
In the same way, once Dewey has won the election in November, both Stalin and Churchill would have congratulated the new President.

In the transition period between the election and inauguration, the Wallace and Dewey teams would doubtless have shared full information on the progress of the war across the world. The decision to convene the next meeting of the "Big Three" at Yalta was driven by Stalin either through paranoia or fear of flying (or probably both). FDR had wanted another meeting after Tehran and ideally before the November 1944 election.

I'm puzzled as to why Dewey would not want to take up the opportunity to meet Stalin and Churchill as soon as possible after inauguration and this would be part of continuing the FDR legacy. When he was elected UK Prime Minister, Clement Attlee flew straight to Potsdam to join the meeting.

Dewey would doubtless have exchanged cables with Stalin and Churchill on entering the White House - he might not have been happy (though he would have been aware) of Stalin and Churchill's division of Europe by spheres of influence but there was plenty of American influence on the European Advisory Commission which had been established at Tehran and which had been meeting in London since early 1944.

I do accept Dewey , as Truman in OTL, would not have been as "trusting" shall we say of Stalin as was FDR but he still needed a Soviet commitment to declare war on Japan once Germany had been defeated.

 

[ObssesedNuker]

I was thinking on Unthinkable myself and was considering writing a timeline where Truman goes crazy and agrees to it with Churchill... only for the utter political shit storm that ensues when it inevitably gets out to utterly throw it off the rails and leave the Soviets with an even more enormous bargaining position without ever having to fire a shot.

I don’t really see how Dewey could get it off. A skirmish on the western outskirts of Berlin is all too easy for the Soviets to play off as a “tragic accident” that could be avoided in the future “by both sides sticking to agreed demarcation lines”. Politically, neither the American nor the British public are primed for a war with the USSR yet. Trying to force one through would likely result in Dewey impeached, Parliament tossing out Curchill in a “No Confidence” vote, and raise a genuine threat of mutinies among the Anglo-American armies.

 

[johnboy]

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.”

 

[Sceonn]

Goodness! Will this be the undoing of Stalin after ravaging Europe further?

 

[Aurora4x]

Potential corrections:

13 April 1945, London

Filed Marshal

Field Marshal

23 April 1945, Rembranstrasse 6, Potsdam, Germany

Christina Schmitt

Is the last name supposed to be Schmitt or Schmidt.

to any stary eyed idealism

I think the right term is "starry eyed".

glassing and unseeing

I think the right term would be "glassy" instead of glassing.

Enjoying so far.

 

[Post]

Potential corrections:


Field Marshal

Maybe Filed Marshall is slang for retired Marshall?