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.

 

[johnboy]

23 April 1945, Rembranstrasse 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 criticising 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 beats 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 fireballed 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?

 

[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.”

 

[johnboy]

3 May 1945, Pentagon, Washington D.C, United States of America

Well, thought General of the Army George Marshall Jnr, now the fat was in the fire. It was a hell of a way for the Navy to win it's argument against the invasion of Japan. There would be no Operation Downfall now, no Olympic or Coronet. Instead it would be the Navy's plan that was adopted, a plan that involved the total isolation of Japan, which would be subdued by a combination of bombing and aerial mining, effectively starving the country, now largely helpless outside of China, into submission. Even the Manhattan Project, if it came to fruition, would likely now not be directed at Japan as originally planned but instead in the European theater of operations. The new urgency of the situation had seen him personally contact Nichols to be assured that the weapon was still on track for early July 1945 and after that point at least one weapon per month would be available, sometimes two.

With the Russians attacking all along the common front, it was now a matter of trying to hold onto what part of Europe that had been liberated so far. With Hitler dead and the Wehrmacht shattered, even the Germans were no longer a concern. The Russians would be fresh after only commencing their latest offensives in early April. In many sectors they were still being held up by the Germans, who were streaming West to surrender and still providing resistance to the Russians.

The U.S Army had substantial forces in Europe. To the South Devers 6th Army Group consisted of 10 Infantry and 2 Armoured Divisions, as well as 9 French Infantry Divisions and 6 Armoured. Bradley's 12th Army Group was the most under pressure. It had another 36 Infantry and 12 Armoured Divisions. Montgomery's 21st Army Group has 13 Infantry and 11 Armoured Divisions. In all 99 Divisions or equivalent.

On the Italian and Austrian border was Marc Clark's 15th Allied Army Group consisting of 6 Infantry and one Armoured Division, one Brazilian and five weak Italian Divisions and one South African Armoured Division, as well as 10 British Infantry and 4 British Armoured Divisions. In all 28 more Divisions.

These were not the only forces in Europe, however. The 13th Airborne and 66th and 106th Infantry were in reserve or in France. he British had a Infantry and an Armoured Division in the Middle East and two Divisions in the U.K, both under-strength. The British had two Divisions in Greece. France had 8 Infantry and one Armoured Division in France. In all, it was 145 Divisions in Europe.

Now that there would be no invasion of Japan, it was the Pacific that extra manpower would have to come from. The Borneo operation could be cancelled, freeing two Australian Divisions, likewise the cutting edge of the Navy, the three Marine Divisions that had finished the Iwo Jima invasion. The 98th Infantry. These were Divisions that could be moved immediately or close to it. More than six would likely have to be found, however.

Then there was the vexed questions of the Germans. Whether to rearm and field German units, a conundrum with the French in particular in the field, as well as Polish units.

 

[johnboy]

Map of situation 2 May 1945(German help areas in buff). Solid red lines front line 2 May 1945. Crimson line represent areas where U.S and Russian troops are in direct contact. Map adapted from Wikpedia map

 

[johnboy]

3 May 1945, aboard HMS King George V

How rapidly events had changed thought Vice Admiral Bernard Rawlings. He looked again at his new instructions.

“Proceed to Sydney where you are to rendezvous with HMS Implacable, an Australian squadron and shipping support, there to embark elements of the 7th and 9th Australian Divisions and 4th Armoured Brigade and Commando elements and then proceed to Grand Harbour, Malta for deployment in European Theatre of operations.”

Over 100 ships including five Fleet carriers, three modern battleships, seven light cruisers and more than 20 destroyers, with as many as 70 support ships, were to turn their noses back to Sydney, their eventual destination Malta and then deployment against a new enemy.

Aboard the command ship USS Eldorado, Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner faced the problem of how to move a whole fleet. The U.S 7th Fleet consisted of a hundred of ships but more than five times that. Three Marine Divisions and the 98th Infantry plus a fleet consisting of 22 escort carriers, 13 battleships, 12 cruisers and 51 destroyers as well destroyer escorts and a myriad of other units would all receive order to deploy to Europe. Only the fast carriers would stay in the Pacific region.

 

[johnboy]

3 May 1945, Luneburg Heath, Occupied Germany

Colonel James Ewart considered the brief. “Take all steps necessary to investigate the potential rearming of up to four Divisions of German troops using captured equipment and men from occupied areas allocated to 21st Army Group and from former occupation forces in both Norway and Denmark, which are to be occupied by 5th May by elements of 50th Infantry Division(Norway) and 1st Airborne(Denmark) as part of Operation Doomsday.

Note that a similar process with a view to activating up to four German Divisions using captured material will also be undertaken by United States Army 12th Army Group.”

The political implications were volcanic, especially in regards the French. It was just as well that there were volumes of captured material on hand. German manufacturing had gorged itself on slave labour, especially in the closing 18 months of the war. There would be little capacity to manufacture new armaments aside from the completion of small numbers of units from components on hand at factories that had been largely bombed and burnt out, their workforce's either liberated or scattered to the fore winds. The volume of displaced persons in Germany was beyond comprehension, food and supplies were scarce, housing nonexistent. Only those in rural areas were somewhat better off, the areas that fighting and heavy bombers had bypassed.

Ewart considered the man in front of him. Short, slightly built, with pale blue eyes, fair hair and a trimmed moustache, he looked more like a schoolteacher or accountant than a soldier. Old style spats and a thick lambswool coat completed the ensemble. Yet the man’s nickname “Unser Giftzwerg (our tough little bastard)” indicated he was highly regarded by his own men. Many regarded him as the Wehrmacht’s premier expert on defensive warfare, in particular defensive warfare against the Soviets. He had learned to hold the line with the minimum of men and at the lowest possible cost. Gotthard Heinrici was not the most famous German general, but maybe that was a good thing considering the nature of the task ahead and the politically sensitive implications of this all.