Race To Berlin

Sunday, April 15, 1945
SHAEF Headquarters, Rheims, France
1600 hours


Eisenhower had spent the last hour digesting the contents and implications of the orders he had just received.

"Proceed to Berlin at all deliberate speed. In light of weakening German resistance, Allied forces are to make all haste to Berlin at once. Your orders are now to secure as much of Germany east of the Elbe as possible, and secure Berlin itself. Take care to inform Soviet forces of your intentions. Do not engage them unless in self-defense. Concentrate your attack on the Magdeburg-to-Berlin Axis. The Soviets are being informed of our intentions through Proper channels.

Good luck,
Marshall"

A ragged cheer went up from the assembled staff officers.
 

Deleted member 1487

Interesting. What is the POD here and what about the 'Alpine Redout'?
 
Oh God. This will have strong consequences during Cold War. And imagine friendly fire during battle of Berlin. I hope that you are not doing World War III TL because if not, this will be great.
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Interesting. What is the POD here and what about the 'Alpine Redout'?

POD is basically Truman agreeing with Churchill that Stalin is likely already violating Yalta, so a stronger hand will be needed at the peace conference, in the form of controlling more of Germany.

And the plan is a fairly short timeline, just say, April 15 to May 15, 1945
 

Deleted member 1487

POD is basically Truman agreeing with Churchill that Stalin is likely already violating Yalta, so a stronger hand will be needed at the peace conference, in the form of controlling more of Germany.
What causes him to do so? Yalta was 2 months in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference#Aftermath
AFAIK Churchill wasn't really thinking Stalin was violating the agreement yet and Truman didn't know what was going on, so was just keeping faith with Roosevelt's policies. I'm not trying to deconstruct your TL, just trying to figure out what the potential for Truman and Churchill to be thinking this way are.
 
Quickest way is to convince several German divisions to quietly step aside as British and Canadian and American troops race along autobahn a towards Berlin. Imagine thousands of German soldiers standing on road shoulders as British troops roar eastwards.
Most Wehrmacht soldiers would cheerfully surrender to British or Americans because they much preferred occupation by western nations.
Only fanatical SS troops would slow invasion from the west.
Which way would Fallschirmjagers lean?

Get the Royal Navy involved in leap-frogging troops around Denmark. Drop paratroopers and gliders to secure strategic bridges and landing fields. Follow up paratroopers with as many ground troops as you can stuff into any airplane available. AirDrop food and ammo a day later.
Ignore the Alpine Redoubt and the rest of Southern Getmany.
 
Sunday, April 15, 1945
SHAEF Headquarters, Rheims, France
1800 hours

Eisenhower knew this attack would be fraught with difficulties. He didn't really have his troops in the best of positions. He knew Churchill had never been anything by dubious of Stalin's promises, and while Roosevelt had insisted on sticking with the Yalta Plans, it was apparent Truman, like Churchill, didn't trust Stalin to hold democratic elections, and given the fate of Warsaw, even Ike had to agree it might look that way. He hated the possibility of his men dying for ground they would have to give back. But even before this, Hodges, Simpson, and Patton had all been insisting the German army was disintegrating and the road to Berlin was wide open. It was clear to Eisenhower this was an attempt to gain a stronger bargaining position with the Russians, and not an attempt to actually start a war with them. What worried him was if Stalin would see it that way.

Eisenhower had not anticipated the change in orders. Just a few days before, in anticipation of the Elbe being the occupation line, he'd issued orders for Montgomery's 21st Army Group to clear the North Sea ports, Dever's 6th Army Group was to clear the 'Southern Redoubt' with support from Patton's 3rd Army, while Bradley's 12 Army Group would be split between supporting those drives (eg: Patton's 3rd supporting Devers) and reducing the Ruhr pocket, with a smaller group subduing a smaller pocket in the Harz mountains. Now with the change in directive, he reconsidered.

(OTL Map in extreme detail found here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g5701s.ict21315/ )

Closest to Berlin was Simpson's 9th Army's XIII Corps, just 70 miles away at Stetin and XIX Corps, 75 miles away at Magdeburg. In addition, 83rd Division had a bridgehead over the Elbe at the tiny village of Barby. South of that, the V and VII corps of Hodge's 1st Army was just north and south of Leipzig, and Patton's XX and VIII Corps were in Chemnetz and just south of the city of Jena. These forces would start the attack on Berlin by the next day. 9th army would push straight for Berlin, driving east along the railway and the bridgehead, heading for Brandenburg and Berlin by the most direct route. 1st Army's V and VII corps would bypass Leipzig, meet at Torgau, and drive Northeast toward Potsdam, while Patton would drive for the bombed out remains of Dresden to cover the 1st army's flanks, then swing north to Berlin.

Of the 19 divisions reducing the Ruhr pocket, about half (mostly from Gerow's 15th army) would be shifted to form a reserve and reinforcements for the 12th AG's drive on Berlin, and continue to cordon the Harz pocket as well. Devers would continue to drive into Bavaria and Monty would dispatch the British XII Corps to cover the northern flank of the attack, while the rest of the British would sweep east as they could,and the Canadians would be assigned to take the North Sea and Baltic ports.

(Edit: corrected the map to the correct day. April 15, not 19)
 
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Sunday, April 15, 1945
Headquarters of the 83rd Infantry Division, XIX Corps
Barby, Germany
2100 hours


Major General Robert Mason was startled at the new arrivals, both Simpson and Bradley had shown up. Further surprising him was Hodges, not even is his direct chain of command.

Since taking the small town two days ago and almost leisurely taking an intact bridge over the Elbe, he'd hoped to press forward. It looked like it was going to happen. His bridgehead was strongly held: the 329th Infantry regiment, plus his divisional tank and tank destroyer battalions were already on the other side of the Elbe, along with CCR (Combat Command, Reserve) of the 2nd Armored Division.

Bradley spoke. "Looks like you'll get your wish, Court, Will. Just came down from the Pentagon, we're going to Berlin. General Mason, Your little Remagen here will be remembered, and I need to to expand your bridgehead and prepare for heavy traffic, XIX Corps and a good chunk of 1st army are coming through here tomorrow. I need you to expand your bridgehead to accomodate two corps using this bridge, and probably Gerow's 15th army in 2 or 3 days or so, I need you to keep the bridge open, though this means teh 83rd will not be part of the advance. With German resistance weakening, I expect you to be able to get to Berlin within a week. Maybe less. We don't know how the Soviets are going to react to this, but don't engage them. its going to be messy when we get close to Berlin."

Thunderbolt_div_path_across_Europe.jpg

a post-war map of the 83rds trip across Europe, showing its position as the traffic director for the final attack on Berlin.
 
With the POD being April 15th, I'm curious whether or not Hitler will survive and get captured by the Americans. Would surely make for plenty of divergences whether it be that or he somehow escapes to South America like so many conspiracy theorists claim. At least if the Russians start fighting back, Truman will get the A-bomb in a few months so the a Soviet war isn't unwinnable. Looking forward to how this plays out.
 
Just a note: I haven forgotten this, I'm up to my neck in real world pursuits and trying to research what actual german forces were present, as well as presenting stalin's plans without sounding like an info dump, and german reactions. Will have more info soon, I hope, deep in research right now
 
Just a note: I haven forgotten this, I'm up to my neck in real world pursuits and trying to research what actual german forces were present, as well as presenting stalin's plans without sounding like an info dump, and german reactions. Will have more info soon, I hope, deep in research right now


Hitler was ordering troop movements based on units that no longer existed, or were supposed to be in two different places at the same time. That wouldn't change.

Most of the generals knew Hitler was delusional and the war was lost, so I would expect little resistance on the western front and fierce resistance on the eastern front. We'd probably let the Russians take the Reichstag like they did IOTL, since that had symbolic value only and the symbolism mattered more to them.
 
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