On May 6, 1945, in a hotel at Wageningen, General Blaskowitz, commanding the German 21st Army, surrenders
Posted on 05/06/2015 4:29:56 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
LOL! Brother, can you spare a Corps?
On May 6, 1945, in a hotel at Wageningen, General Blaskowitz, commanding the German 21st Army, surrenders
Think about it. The United States not only provided the bulk of the combat power on the Western Front, it simultaneously fought a full scale war in the Pacific, while supplying oceans of war materiel to the rest of the Allied powers.
Was our potential power that obscure, or were the Axis powers simply crazy?
Breslau, Hitler's Final Fortress finally falls, May 6, 1945
Hitler's Final Fortress is the first full length account of the notorious siege of Breslau in English, is based on painstaking research of official documents, newspapers, letters, diaries and personal testimonies.In January 1945, the Red Army unleashed its long-awaited thrust into Germany with terrible fury. One by one the provinces and great cities of the German East were captured by the Soviet troops. Breslau, capital of Silesia, a city of 600,000 people, stood firm and was declared a fortress by Hitler. A bitter struggle raged as the Red Army encircled Breslau, then tried to pummel it into submission while the city's Nazi leadership used brutal methods to keep the scratch German troops fighting and maintain order. Aided by supplies flown in nightly and building improvised weapons from torpedoes mounted on trolleys to an armoured train, the men of Fortress Breslau held out against superior Soviet forces for four months. The price was fearful. By the time Breslau surrendered on May 6, 1945, four days after Berlin had fallen, the city was a wasteland and 25,000 soldiers and civilians had died. Savage retribution was visited on the survivors by the Russian conquerors. What was left of the city was pillaged, its women raped and every German inhabitant driven out of the city which became Wroclaw in post-war Soviet-occupied Poland.
http://adst.org/2014/10/halt-we-want-to-surrender/
Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History
Halt! We Want to Surrender!
“I found myself staring directly into the cannon of an SS tank with a fresh and lively looking crew of SS soldiers on top!” — George Jaeger
May 1945 — the end of World War II. Time to drink a beer, have fun, and enjoy the countryside. But hold on — what’s that on the horizon? A Nazi Panzer division?
George Jaeger was born in Vienna, emigrated to the U.S. and became an interpreter for the U.S. Army. He later served as a Foreign Service officer. You can read about his experience with the Kindertransport, when he and thousands of other children were taken to the UK right after Kristallnacht.
Jaeger:
By early May the German Army had virtually disintegrated, the Americans and the Russians had met at the Elbe, the battle of Berlin was under way and we all knew, as we pressed on across the Bavarian border, that the war was almost over.
In our final push Fifth Corps’s Sixteenth Armored Division, supported by another Division from the south, liberated Pilsen on May 6, 1945 – a glorious, deliriously happy day.
I remember vividly how our command car, wedged into an endless column of muddy American trucks and tanks of the 16th Armored Division, rolled into town (at left). The long streets running through Pilsen’s then grubby, rundown suburbs were lined with thousands of jubilant, cheering Czechs! Girls were throwing us flowers, people were singing and shouting, everyone was waving flags and handkerchiefs and, although desperately deprived after years of war and occupation, people offered us sausages, bread and even bottles of the then very thin Pilsner beer.
When we arrived in town, the main square too was jammed with cheering people and was already decked out with an American flag. It was all a smaller-scale rerun of the tumultuous scenes which had played out at the liberation of Paris! It was great! The following day, May 7, 1945 the war was officially over!…
On a particularly lovely day just after our arrival in Pilsen I “liberated” a bike, slung my carbine over my back and, with a sandwich in my pocket, went off to explore the countryside.
I may have gone several miles, whistling and celebrating in my own way that the war was over, when, coming around a bend on a narrow dirt road at the edge of a forest, I found myself staring directly into the cannon of an SS tank with a fresh and lively looking crew of SS soldiers on top! To make matters worse, behind it I could see a seemingly endless column of other tanks, their SS standards flying, their weathered, battle hardened crews perched on the turrets sunning themselves, all silently staring at me! It was a totally absurd situation!
The question, of course, was: What do you do on a bicycle, with your carbine on your back, when you are looking at a German SS Panzer division at about 20 yards? If I stopped and reached for my gun, I was clearly a dead duck. If I didn’t, and just went on biking, I remember thinking, I would at least not be shot in the back and would show them that I was not a coward!
So I biked on, past the first tank, waved at the fellows in the tank, who looked absolutely “gobsmacked,” as the British would say, then past the second. Nothing happened! After passing a dozen or so more tanks, I saw someone waving farther down the line.
An SS officer came running toward me. This is it, I thought. But he only signaled that I should stop, then stepped aside and left me facing the SS Panzer Division’s SS leather-jacketed Commanding General standing between two tanks, surrounded by several other officers!
He explained, formally and very politely – my German was very helpful at this point – that they had retreated before the oncoming Soviet forces and had been hiding for several days looking for a safe way to surrender to the Americans!
My arrival was therefore most fortunate, since they did not want to become involved in any accidental fire fight with the Americans. Would I therefore accept the Division’s surrender on behalf of the United States?
I tried to look as dignified, under these clearly historic circumstances, as was possible for an only recently promoted Private First Class; said I would be glad to do so; but needed the General’s Luger pistol as a token of his surrender to take to my superiors! He simply handed it to me, we shook hands and both saluted. I got back on my rusty bike and pedaled back, the way I had come, waving to my prisoners of war with new assurance!
Back at V Corps Headquarters it took a bit of convincing, given the nature of chains-of command, to get some follow-up. When I told my sergeant that I had just accepted the surrender of an SS Panzer division, he came very close to putting me on a week’s KP [kitchen patrol]! Even when I had talked my way up the ladder, a major on duty was certain there were no stray Panzer divisions around.
I finally spoke to the colonel in charge of our intelligence: “Oh my God,” he said, “we’ve been looking for this division, and we couldn’t find it. Thank you very much!”
So my facts were confirmed and a second more “official” surrender was arranged, to which, I am annoyed to report, I was not even invited! They even kept the Luger!
Henkster wrote an admirable essay that he reposted not long ago describing the iron logic that led the Germans to attack Russia when they did, that I won't attempt to reproduce.
The Japanese were crazy. Because they were determined to seize at least Eastern China, they got crosswise with the United States and we imposed embargoes that were somewhat biting. They had also invaded French Indochina.
Yamamoto and the Navy opposed the China war, but the thought of stopping their war on China was anathema to the Japanese Army leaders.
Their logic was that because of the American oil and scrap embargoes they needed a source of oil and minerals. That they saw in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. But athwart the line of communication south lay the Philippines. Therefore, in addition to the targets, the Philippines had to be taken. But that meant war with America.
The Navy and Yamamoto in particular opposed an attack on America. Indeed, they had opposed the China war too. Yamamoto was educated at Harvard and had spent several years in postings in the U.S. He was well aware of American industrial superiority and knew that Japan could not defeat America in a war. He was not, however, able to dissuade the militarists and particularly the Army from war. There are many times in history where a military deludes itself into the belief that it's will and fighting ability would enable it to defeat a superior force. By 1914 the French had convinced themselves they could defeat the Germans despite numerical inferiority.
So, the Army won the debate. Yamamoto then devised his Pearl Harbor plan in the belief that if the U.S. fleet were destroyed that would give the Japanese a 2-3 year head start to conquer their empire and dig in to meet an American counterattack. It was their only play and we know how that worked out.
I don't think it mattered that Hitler declared war on the U.S. It was obvious after Pearl Harbor that we were in the whole world war and Roosevelt fully intended a Europe first strategy. So, I won't violate henkster's law and speculate what might have happened if Hitler hadn't declared war.
Britain also declared war on Japan, so that basically removed any restrictions on aiding Britain, only a matter of time before the Germans would have attacked our ships sending aid to Britain, giving us the Casus Belli with Germany.
I was in a field hospital recovered from pneumonia awaiting transport back to my unit when 5 or so Nazis appeared walking down the road. Since no one could carry a weapon but me, they sent me out to meet them. When I got there, I made sure they had no weapons and told them to keep walking since they were walking toward the rear. This was in the beginning of April and the war had another month to go but for most of their soldiers the war was lost - alles ist Kaput meant it was all is over.
I’ve read somewhere that Hitler viewed the U.S. with derision, thinking we were a “mongrel nation.”
It had to be more than a bit surreal by this point.
I guess he didn't learn the right lesson from Joe Lewis and Jesse Owens.
He also forget about the black regiments that served under French command in WWI who kicked German @$$.
http://www.axpow.org/mariglioangelo.htm
Ex-POW ANGELO J ‘SONNY” MARIGLIO
NIAGARA FALLS, NY
INF REG 90 DIV
Captured: NORMANDY
Date Captured: 07/23/44
Camps Held In: STALAG IVB, STALAG IVF, AND STALAG XIIA How Long Interned: 287 days
Date Liberated: 05/06/45
Age at Capture: 19
Medals Received: EUROPEAN AFRICAN MIDDLE EASTERN RIBBON W/ 2 BATTLE STARS, WW II VICTORY MEDAL, AMERICAN THEATER RIBBON, MEDAL OF HONORABLE SERVICE WHILE A POW, AND A MEDAL FOR CONSPICUOUS SERVICE BY THE GOVERNOR FOR THE LEGISLATIVE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Military Job: PFC, RIFLEMAN
Taken prisoner in Normandy shortly after the breakthrough at St. Lo.
Taken to Amiens through Chartres. Reboarded to Leinburg Stag XIIA. Next via the infamous boxcars to Stalag IVB and IVF August 1944. Sent to work hauling trees from the mountains to lumber mills at Mulda near Chzekoslovakian border – Arbeit Camp.
Early April 1945:
“Before sunrise we were ordered from our sleeping quarters and packed into a truck under heavy guard. An American fighter plane spotted us and banked to descend. We were ordered to stay on the truck but a few of us jumped off. The truck was in flames. The guards gained control and marched us towards Breslau. Finding out that the Russians were also marching toward Breslau, they forced us to march back to where we were, 60 miles. We were all suffering from malnutrition, blisters, cuts, leg pains due to poor treatment as well as the indignities from the civilians who jeered and threw stones at us. Many had to be helped or dragged the last 10 miles.
Liberated by the Russians May 6, 1945. We took off for Chernitz May 7, 1945 then to Camp Lucky Strike in France. June 15, 1945 got back to the States at Lake Placid for recuperation. Next to Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Arkansas where I trained raw recruits.”
Discharged December 4, 1945.
Submitted by his wife of 52-1/2 years, Frances A. Mariglio.
Betcha you could get some darn good spaghetti at Sonny and Fran's.
In the 1940’s the USA had an intact industrial base, ethical and patriotic business leaders and trade was a miniscule part of the economy. Since then the religion of offshoring and “Free Trade” has reduced us to second rate economic status, a consumption(debt) based economy.
Eisenhower to Bradley:
"Send that Limey bastard a corps immediately. The sooner we win this thing, the sooner I'll never need to hear from him again.
Sometimes scoops don’t work out so well...
He broke huge story and lost his job
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/05/opinions/lauder-scoop-from-hell/
Sounds credible to me!
:-))
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