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Related Works Chapter 200 The Tragedy and Comedy of Power

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    This may be the only precedent in history for high-level military orders to be made public in battle.  <-> Germany's "Werewolf" radio station immediately followed suit, announcing that "the F¨¹hrer has issued an order from Berlin, requiring troops fighting the US military to quickly move eastward to defend Berlin. 16 divisions have begun mobilizing and are expected to arrive in Berlin at any time."  ¡°The whole purpose of this move was to trick the people of Berlin into believing that the Americans were now supporting the Germans against the Soviet Red Army.  Coincidentally, the U.S. military's air combat operations over the central Elbe River suddenly stopped that day, which greatly reduced the pressure on the German 12th Army.

    After we learned that the Germans were actually using the U.S. and British troops to advertise an attack on the Soviet troops that were attacking Berlin, John and I looked at each other, and I just said: "The Germans are now using all kinds of tactics!"

    General Wenck and his staff knew that Keitel was as delusional as Hitler.  General Wenck believed that "we lack combat-capable tanks, and any idea of ????confronting two Soviet armies at this time is absurd. I plan to send a force to continue the attack on Potsdam, and the large force of the 12th Army  The troops would turn eastward to meet up with Basel's 9th Army south of Berlin and help it get out of trouble."

    Chief of Staff Reichhelm nodded and agreed to General Wenke's plan, and specific orders were quickly issued.  Later that day, General Wenck rode in a Volkswagen convertible to address the young soldiers.  Some of these young soldiers would attack Potsdam to the northeast, while others would attack the Soviet forces at Belitz that threatened Troienblitzen and the hospital complex.

    General Wenck said in a deep tone: "Children, you have to fight again. Your actions are no longer for Berlin or the empire. Your mission is to save people from the war and the Russians."  Save him from his hands!"

    Wenke¡¯s affectionate speech moved the soldiers of the 12th Army to their core.  When a young sniper named Hans Dietrich recalled the war, he described the mood at this time as "It was full of a sense of loyalty, a sense of responsibility and comrade-like friendship. I am willing to give  Give everything you have!"

    Although everyone had different ideas, some believed that humanitarian relief operations should be carried out, and some believed that the Russians should be attacked immediately instead of the Western Allies, Wenck's leadership skills deeply moved them.

    "We are about to turn!" Peter Retisi, a battalion commander of the "Scharnhorst" division that had been severely damaged by the Americans, wrote, "Now we must quickly advance eastward to fight against the Soviet army!"

    However, at the same time, General Eisenhower also ordered that the German troops who turned back to attack the Soviet army were released. We watched as a large number of German troops who were confronting us on the Western Front began to attack Berlin.

    Jimmy said a little puzzled: "Why should you let them go?"

    I said: "General Eisenhower hopes that both the Germans and the Soviet Union will suffer losses!"

    At this time, another important general who appeared in the Battle of Berlin was Helmut Weidling, the commander of the German 56th Panzer Corps.  Weidling looks a bit like Professor Eric von Stroheim.  But it's only similar in hair.

    On the morning of April 23, Weidling called the underground bomb shelter of the Reich Chancellery to report.  General Krebs gave an "apparently indifferent" reply and informed him that he had been sentenced to death.  With an extraordinary physical and mental courage, he came to the underground bomb shelter of the Prime Minister's Office that afternoon.  Hitler was apparently so shaken that he decided that the man he had hoped to have executed for cowardice was the perfect man to command the defense of the Reich capital.  As Colonel Radar Fillmore described it, this was a typical "tragicomedy" that occurred within the imperial regime.

    The strength of Weidling's 56th Panzer Corps has been greatly weakened.  Only a few troops of the 9th Parachute Division remained, and a small group of men of the "M¨¹nscheberg" Division also remained.  Although the combat organization of the 20th Panzergrenadier Division remained relatively good, the division commander Major General Scholz committed suicide shortly after entering Berlin.  Only the "Nordland" division and the 18th Panzergrenadier Division still maintain a good state of combat readiness.  Weidling decided to retain the 18th Panzergrenadier Division as a counterattack force.  Other combat formations are dispersed and deployed to different defense areas as the "backbone force."

    The defense of the city of Berlin was divided into eight defense zones, marked by eight letters from a to h.  Each defense zone is commanded by a general or colonel, but most of them have no front-line combat experience.  Within the outer defense line, the Germans established an inner defense ring along the urban railway loop.  Berlin's most central area lies between the Langweil Canal in the south and the Spree River in the north.  The only real strongholds were the three concrete anti-aircraft batteries - Zoo Bunker, Humboldt and Friedrichshafen.  The German army stocked large amounts of ammunition for 128mm and 20mm artillery here.  Due to the underground space between the three forts,The phone lines are connected so the communication status remains very good.  The biggest problem is that there are thousands of wounded and civilians crowded here.

    Weidling found that to defend Berlin, he faced 1.5 million Soviet troops, including his own troops.  There were only about 45,000 airmen and SS men on hand, plus more than 40,000 Volkssturm members.  Almost all of the 60 tanks in the city came from his troops.  It is said that there is also an armored battalion in the city equipped with Volkswagen vehicles, each equipped with a six-unit anti-tank rocket pylon.  But no one knew where the camp was.  In the central government office area, the German army deployed about two thousand soldiers in the Reich Chancellery, and the captain of Monk's brigade would serve as commander.

    On the afternoon of April 23, the most direct threat Weidling faced came from the Soviet 5th Shock Army, 8th Guards Army and 1st Guards Tank Army, which would launch attacks in the east and southeast of Berlin.  That evening, the armored vehicles that were still capable of combat were ordered to return to Tempelhof Airport to refuel.  At the airport, amid a mass of destroyed Air Force warplanes, mainly including the "Mobuki Island", armored vehicles were refueled at a supply depot near a huge government office building.  According to the order, these armored vehicles will turn southeast to launch a counterattack against Blitz.  They would be reinforced by a few Tiger tanks and some smoke grenade projectors, but the unit's primary anti-tank weapon was the "walking Stuka" - the nickname for the anti-armor grenade.

    After completing his inspection of the 12th Army, Keitel returned to the Reich Chancellery at 3 pm. He and Jodl went to see Hitler for the last time.  On the way back to the temporary headquarters of the High Command of the German Armed Forces in Krampnitz, they heard that the Russian army was advancing towards Berlin from the north.  This is the 47th Soviet Army. The Germans abandoned their barracks there early in the morning.

    After Weidling left, the Reich Chancellery was still busy that afternoon.  When Keitel reported on the situation of the 12th Army, Hitler gave himself another dose of "optimistic daydreaming" - this was his incurable habit.  He regained his confidence and firmly believed that the Soviet army would be defeated.  Hitler's friend Albert Speer, the Reich Minister of Production, returned to Berlin to see Hitler for the last time, much to everyone's surprise, including to some extent himself.  On Hitler's birthday, Speer was not very pleased with his farewell as there were so many other people around Hitler.  Although his feelings for the man who was both head of state and master had changed, it was due to the extraordinary friendship between the two - some people called it homosexuality.

    Speer originally came by car from Hamburg, and because he tried to avoid the routes taken by refugees, he finally found that he had reached a dead end.  The Soviet army had arrived in Naun, and he had no choice but to return to the air force airport, where he asked for a two-seat "Moxa" training aircraft, flew to Berlin Gatto Airport in the western suburbs of Berlin, and then transferred to a "White"  Stork" reconnaissance plane and landed at the Brandenburg Gate, thus arriving in the center of Berlin.  Eva Braun, who had always admired him, was overjoyed when she saw him, partly because she predicted he would come back.  Ivan Bauman, who had always hated him because of his jealousy, seemed very happy to see him and welcomed him back at the bottom of the stairs.  Speer was probably the only person who could persuade Hitler to leave Berlin at the last moment.  For Bauman, since he would not be as obsessed with the crazy idea of ??burying himself for the Empire like those around him, especially Goebbels, this was his only hope of keeping his head around his neck.

    Speer found that Hitler was as calm as a dying old man.  After Hitler asked him several questions about Admiral D?nitz, he immediately sensed that Hitler intended to nominate Deng as his successor.  Hitler also sought his advice on whether to go to Berchtesgaden or stay in Berlin. Speer thought it would be better to end it all in Berlin rather than retreating to the countryside, otherwise "it would be difficult to create a legend."  .  Hitler seemed convinced that Speer and he were on the same page, and the two discussed the suicide of Hitler and Eva Braun.

    On the evening of April 23, while Speer was still in the underground bomb shelter of the Chancellery, Bormann brought a telegram sent by G?ring from Bavaria.  G?ring heard third-hand news about Hitler from General Kohler. The news was that Hitler had collapsed the day before and announced that he would stay in Berlin and commit suicide.  Goering was still the legal heir, so he may have been worried that Bormann, Goebbels or Himmler would form strong competition for him.  He apparently did not know that D?nitz had already been chosen as his successor.  Goering spent most of the day discussing the current situation with his advisers and General Kohler.  (To be continued.)
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