Okay, just fixed it
Thank you sincerely.
Also, apologies for lateness everyone but because of work (I actually write a blog about personal development so it takes up home time as well) I got a little behind. But here's the latest update regardless:
Liberation and Damnation
The Second World War – Christopher Armlong
The first reactions to the Valkyrie uprising among the Allied leaders were broad confusion. It brought the whole conference to a halt as the leaders tried to confirm what had happened. Eventually, at the confirmation Hitler was dead, an eerie silence filled the room. No one was sure whether to celebrate, or curse that Hitler had escaped their justice (though Stalin would always suspect Hitler had faked his death, especially in his increasingly unstable latter years). The powers agreed to adjourn the meeting.
The next day, the first offers from the “Provisional German Government” as the Valkyrie plotters described themselves, gave their offer of conditional surrender (Rommel having still kept his silence on his involvement as he was only supposed to waltz in at the end). It consisted of 1938 borders with Danzig and Memel included, that the German state would be undivided and administer its own war criminal trials, with the German army itself reduced to 1919 levels. The Valkyrie plotters actually thought that this was going to be remotely acceptable to the Allies. Indeed, it had the complete opposite effect. Churchill and Roosevelt were disgusted that ‘the damned fools haven’t learned a thing’, as the former said. At last, the Conference was united: Unconditional Surrender to every party of the Allies, period. None of them were ever going to allow Germany to come out of WW2 with more territory than when Nazism began. “We cannot reward Nazism, even if we’re rewarding Anti-Nazis,” as Roosevelt memorably stated.
One good effect of the offer was that it finally united the four attendees. It actually made them feel they were in the same fight after all, and greatly aided the Conference’s final conclusions. Ultimately, after another week, the major issues were all ironed out:
1) When it came to Romania and Hungary, it was agreed the two countries would be neutralized. No countries could station troops there, nor could they join any military or political alliance. They would both be democratic nations, free from foreign pressure. They could not stop troop movements of either the Soviet Union or Fascist Blocs assuming they stuck to designated train routes. Owing to the political instability and lack of a credible Hungarian governing structure, having been obliterated in the German invasion, Mussolini suggested and got a referendum on the Monarchy in Hungary. In order to get this, it was agreed Finland would get a referendum on joining the Soviet Union, as its own SSR. The territorial acquisitions of the Fascist Bloc and Soviet Union since 1935 were mutually (and quietly) recognised while guarantees were put in place that they desired no further territory. Dobruja would be de-militarized although it would indeed be given to Bulgaria. In order to get this, Turkey would agree to partially demilitarizing its own Soviet border. Bessarabia would return to the Soviets as well.
2) When it came to the locations of occupation, Germany would be divided into multiple sectors. Firstly, in return for Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland, Poland would seize much of Eastern Germany. Of what was left, Germany would be occupied by the French, American and British forces in the West of the country in their own sectors while the Soviets would run the East. Italy would be given an independent Austria to occupy. In Berlin, the Italians would get a slice of the Western sector, but the Soviets still ran the eastern half in its entirety.
3) When it came down to the zones of influence of nations, the Soviets would occupy Slovakia while the Anglo-Americans would occupy the Czech portion of Czechoslovakia, though they would remain one state (or that was the intention). Poland would also be occupied by the Soviets, as would be East Germany and Finland. Stalin guaranteed free elections, regardless. However, this did not mean that Allied forces couldn’t attack German forces if they weren’t in their designated zones while the war still raged; only that they had to pull out when the fighting was done.
4) Nazi War Criminals would be put on International Tribunals to determine guilt and prove their guilt to the world. However, Churchill craftily managed to convince everyone to have the political and military figures trialed separately, which would have huge repercussions after the war, especially in the case of Rommel.
5) The Soviet Union would join the Pacific War in early 1945, though the precise territorial gains would be determined at a later date.
Every one of these decisions would have colossal impact on the world to come. Some for good, some for evil. One effect was that the race for Berlin had begun. Ironically, Western leaders had no intention of letting their troops be the ones to seize the city. They were perfectly happy to let the Soviets bleed to get there. Then something strange happened – the Western advance was suddenly advancing far quicker than anyone had imagined. Wehrmacht troops surrendered in droves while they continued to fight the Soviet troops tooth and nail. Initially, it was due to the total collapse in morale among German troops as well as command confusion, leading many Germans to throw their hands in the air and give in to the relative safety of the Anglo-Americans (a luxury they most certainly didn’t have with the Soviets, or to a lesser extent Jewish and Italian forces).
Almost by accident, the Race to Berlin began. Roosevelt was not happy – General Patton was
very happy.
We're Still Here!: The Story of Poland by Agata Tarski
Many of the Polish resistance were terrified at the thought of bringing ahead the impending liberation of Warsaw – Witold Pilecki, having seen the inside of Auschwitz, was no longer afraid of anything. Many in the Polish resistance, especially the Communists, wanted to wait until the Red Army was right on the doorstep and only then revolt. However, Pilecki was loyal to the Polish government in exile, and knew the Polish resistance was at risk of being subverted into a Stalinist state. He was in communication with the British, who told him to expect Stalin to come barreling into the centre of Poland soon in a desperate dash to Berlin. Though it was hardly ideal, the Warsaw Resistance decided that on May 10th, the city would free itself. Pilecki would hide his rank and fight anonymously with his comrades. [1]
On May 10th, the city erupted into a frenzy of shooting and bombing. The Germans, already baffled as to what was going on in this war, were too divided to properly function. The SS fought to the last while the Wehrmacht was highly individual. Some fought, some surrendered, and many ran. Ironically, the opposite was true against the Soviets. Against the Soviets, no German was stupid enough to surrender or run, because he felt that this was as much certain death as anything else. So while chaos reigned in the command structure against the Western nations, there was no such confusion against the Russians, hence that front being the sole location of decent German performance after the Valkyrie attack, as well as an almost total absence of SS/Wehrmacht conflict. All this ensured that within two days, Warsaw had been declared secure.
Upon news that Warsaw had been taken, Stalin had a rather strange reaction, according to eyewitnesses. One staffer recalled, “he looked like the perfect halfway between anxiousness and anger.” Many suspect that Stalin was angry the Polish resistance liberated Warsaw itself, thus shutting out the Communist government Stalin hadn’t yet established, which would lead to the events that shook the world a few years later. Stalin’s troops were roughly a week away from Warsaw, and he ordered the offensive to keep going to ‘provide support for our allies’. Another staffer recalled, “If it was between killing everyone in the world and getting Berlin, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it”.
On May 20th, Soviet troops came through Warsaw to polite but relatively unenthusiastic reception. From every window, the Polish flag hung draped. In fact, the route had been specifically chosen by the Poles to have the maximum numbers of Polish flags visible. Sometimes, Soviet soldiers passed whole houses painted white and red. They didn’t see a single Soviet flag – in fact, such flags had specifically been forbidden from being waved by Polish Resistance leaders, who wanted to send a message. The meaning was obvious: “Thank you for the help, but this is our country”. To this day, that Poland was the only nation who liberated their capital from Nazism by themselves is a source of immense pride to the Polish people.
Unconquerable: The Story of the Jews of Hungary, by Mel Goldberg
One important, though often overlooked agreement in the Kiev Conference was the clause that allowed troops of any Allied nation to cross into any region as long as it was occupied by German troops, whether to fight like the SS or perhaps surrender immediately like many of the Wehrmacht. This allowed Wingate to begin perhaps his most memorable operation of the war. While Trieste may have defined the Jewish resistance to Hitler itself, the Anglo-Jewish Army itself was soon to have its most memorable assignment.
Wingate contacted Churchill and asked to keep going north from Budapest, into Slovakia and beyond. Wingate tried to convince Churchill of the wisdom of funneling the Soviets into a narrower corridor to delay their advance into Germany. Churchill saw right through it. “I know what you’re asking,” he told Wingate. “While I’m still not entirely convinced of the military wisdom, I want to know it for myself – if the reports are really true. If they are, history will curse me if I don’t go. And who better to go?”
On May 10th, Operation Cyrus began. While the Soviets continued to desperately run to the West to reach Berlin before it fell to the other Allied powers or, God forbid, the Anti-Nazi members of the Wehrmacht, the Anglo-Jewish armies moved from Hungary into Slovakia. They knew they were only staying for a moment – they were cutting right across the country like a scythe. The Wehrmacht ran when the Anglo-Jewish forces came, fearing reprisal for all the cruelties unleashed on Jews during the War and before. Wingate didn’t chase them. The SS fought them, but Wingate and his men fought back with better supplies, morale and purpose. Onward they went – they all knew where.
On June 2nd, the first reconnaissance troops of the Jewish forces could make out Auschwitz.
[1] – True story.
