Germany – Great History

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

For 26 long and arduous years, the Berlin Wall stayed up. Anywhere between 130-200 people attempted to cross the wall and died trying. Many Presidents and Soviet Leaders came and went, until two very divisive figures showed up.

One of them was Ronald Reagan, a film star turned Governor of California and later POTUS, who had a very tough stance on communism compared to his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. Whilst no-one wanted communism to spread, Reagan was harder on it than most. He advanced technology, especially in the space programme and computers. In order to stop the spread of communism in South America, he actively traded with Iran, who had an embargo due to their war with Iraq who was a US Ally, in order to fund anti-communist militia forces in Nicaragua, in the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
Ronald Reagan, National Association of Evangelicals, 1983

The USSR believed much of what Reagan was doing was an intentional prep for war. Whilst tensions rose, the unthinkable happened. Leonid Brezhnev died. He was replaced by Yuri Andropov, who also died. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, who also died. He was replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, who did not die. He believed that the reason the Soviet system was failing was because people were not satisfied with the outcome of their hard work, due to the lack of free speech in the country.

His changes were enacted quickly. People were allowed to criticise the government, they were allowed to enjoy Western pop-culture and food and the media were allowed to interview western politicians, most notably the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He also began de-escalating the arms race with the West, most notably stopping the production of Intermediate Ballistic Missiles. Where many others in the Eastern Bloc saw reform, Reagan saw an opportunity.

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. . . . Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. . . . As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. […] General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Ronald Reagan, Brandenburg Gate, 1987

Reagan making his famous “Tear down this wall” speech

With all these reforms, many began to question what would become of the Eastern Bloc, an idea that crossed the Prime Minister of Hungary’s mind. He visited Moscow, and asked Gorbachev about reforms he wanted to enact. Gorbachev said that he did not agree with them but would not stop them from happening either.

Many countries in the Eastern Bloc began carrying out free and fair elections, with Poland’s anti-Soviet party winning 99 out of 100 seats in the Senate. Barbed wire began to come down in Hungary and the Iron Curtain was crumbling. One country that did not enact such reforms was Germany, run by hardline Stalinist, Erich Honecker. The still destitute Germans realised that if transport was permitted out of Hungary, then they could get to Hungary and move to the West that way. Tens of thousands practiced this before Honecker stepped in and banned all transport to Hungary. However, the Freedom Fever kept going as the Czech Embassy for East Germany was opened to civilians and political unrest began occurring in East Germany. Honecker was ousted by the Politburo whilst the unrest continued. One target on their minds was the wall.

On November 9th, 1989, in order to quell the chaos, the East German Government held a press conference led by Günter Schabowski, where it was announced that the travel ban from East to West Germany would be lifted. Towards the end of this hectic conference, he was asked when this would take effect he said that “As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay”. This was a mistake. The ban was meant to be lifted the next day. But, the German people had heard what they wanted to hear and, later that day, thousands of Germans came to the wall. The guards, overwhelmed, allowed the people through, whereupon the Berlin Wall was torn down.

The tearing down of the Berlin Wall is considered to be one of the great stepping stones in Eastern European freedom and the downfall of the Soviet Union. Families and friends who had been separated for nearly 3 decades partied into the night. The next year, Germany reunified into one German State.

The Construction of the Berlin Wall

After the end of World War 2, the 4 major powers that defeated the Nazis, the Americans, French, British and Soviets gathered together to discuss the matter of Germany. The powers feared that if Germany were to be reunited, at least immediately, the ideas of Nazism and Fascism could make a rise once more. An idea was proposed, that Germany be divided into West and East as a temporary measure, the West being occupied by the USA, UK and France and the East being controlled by the USSR.

However, soon the question of Berlin came up. Being around 200 miles into East Germany, logic dictated that Berlin fell into the hands of the Soviets. However, whoever controlled the capital practically controlled the country so a subdivision was set up, wherein France, Britain and America made the Western side of Berlin a part of West Germany, whilst the Eastern half was controlled by East Germany.

Soon, this temporary measure became somewhat permanent. The city of Berlin soon became divided into East Berliners and West Berliners. The West promoted the values of the countries occupying such as democracy and liberal market economies whilst the East promoted communism, not just in East Germany but other countries surrounding themselves. Trade from West to East was banned and a practically impenetrable border was made across East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone — Greece with its immortal glories — is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation.
Winston Churchill speaking at a Midwestern College, 1946

Whilst East Germans weren’t strictly allowed to leave East Germany to West Germany, the East Berliners, could simply walk across the road to West Berlin and were allowed to move from there. By 1961, 3.5 million people had followed this practice. This open border posed a problem to the Soviets. The Soviets had been portraying the West as a continuation of Nazism and their citizens were soon finding that wasn’t the case.

Whilst the Western Allies were promoting the reconstruction of Germany after the war, Soviets were extracting resources as war reparations, making the economic situation dire. Many East Berliners sought jobs in the West due to the more stable currency, whilst West Berliners bought products for cheaper prices in the East. Whilst education and healthcare were free in the East, consumer goods, salaries and general freedoms were better in the West, in no small part to the Eastern Secret police, called the Stasi, who would report on and arrest anyone accused of Anti-Soviet behaviour. Eventually, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev had enough of the emigration.

On August 13th, 1961, Berliners woke up to a large fence surrounding West Berlin. With 43km (27 miles) across Berlin and a further 112km (69.5 miles) in East Germany, Berlin was permanently divided. Before further construction could continue, some chose to leap over the barbed wire into the West but, before long, the Berlin Wall was fully constructed.

By 1975, large concrete barricades, rising to 3.6m (11ft) in height replaced the fences, with a smooth pipe to prevent climbing on the West Side. 302 watchtowers were set up in a new area called the Death Strip, a 100m (328ft) wide area in between the main wall and a less developed wall on the Eastern side. This area was littered with landmines, guard dogs and spike traps. Families were divided, friends separated and the ultimate symbol of the Eastern Bloc had been built, an authoritarian impassible wall that represented everything the West believed about Communism.

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

[…]

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. […] While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

What is true of this city is true of Germany–real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. [This] generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people.

[…]

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
John F. Kennedy speaking at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in Berlin, 1963

JFK making his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, 1963

Liberation of the Concentration Camps

When we went to Nohra, […] we took a day trip into Buchenwald. […]It was just unbelievable to see. You couldn’t—there was so much of it, you couldn’t grasp at all. We just see these people standing, you see the bodies. You see the ashes. You see the ditches. It’s just—I can’t really describe it to tell you, you know, how horrendous it was to see these people treated like animals. You might see even worse than that.
Andrew Kiniry, 45th Evacuation Hospital, describing when the 3rd Army liberated Buchenwald

As the allies advanced from the West and the Soviets from the east, many expected to see the remnants of training camps or POW camps. What they found was beyond their wildest nightmares.

What they found were thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, all on the brink of starving to death, who had been left abandoned in fences like cattle. Not only were these people but specific groups of people. Some were disabled, some were gay, some were slavs. But the most notable among these groups of people were the Jews. The soldiers thought they had seen the worst of it but they were very wrong.

They found large gas chambers, in which the prisoners would be put inside, under the pretence of having a shower to cleanse themselves. Then, Zyklon B, a pesticide, would be poured in through the showers. Deaths could take anywhere between 3 minutes to 30. The bodies were then dragged out and burnt in ovens nearby. The specific targeting of Jews was called Germany’s “Final Solution”, which involved the eradication of the Jewish population from Europe. This was known as the Holocaust, but many Jews today prefer to call it the Shoah.

Over 5.7 million Jews were killed in the concentration camps. Others killed included 2-3million Soviet POWs, 1.9 million Poles, 1.5 million Romani, 250,000 disabled people, 170,000 Freemasons, 25,000 Slovenes, 15,000 homosexuals, 5,000 Jehovahs witnesses, 7,000 Spanish Republicans as well as countless others. Over 17 million people died due to the concentration camps alone.

The survivors were liberated, many only to find that their homes had been repossessed. Many Jews sought shelter in Palestine whilst others stayed in Europe, where relentless persecution still occurs to this day. To this day, people still deny these events happened, either that the statistics are overestimates or that such things never occurred and is simply a victim complex made by Jews. Many cite the Holocaust as the greatest humanitarian tragedy in history.

The Incredible Story of Oskar Schindler

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
Edmund Burke

Oskar Schindler was a German speaking man living in the Sudetenland before war broke out. He was very well known in his youth for being a Casanova, before settling and marrying Emilie Pelzl in 1928. However, their marriage was fraught with strife, as Emilie believed that Schindler only married her when he needed someone to come home to.

By 1938, Schindler managed to land himself as a spy for the Germans, infiltrating Czechoslovakian society. Eventually, he was found out and sentenced to death. However, with days, perhaps even hours of his life left, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland and, in accordance with the Munich Agreement, Schindler was let go. He eventually ended up joining the Nazi party just before the outbreak of World War 2. Him and his wife were moved to the industrial town of Ostrava near the Polish Border, where he would bribe Nazi Officials in order to curry favour. Once Poland was invaded in 1939, Schindler saw this as a new business opportunity.

He set up shop in a Jewish Ghetto set up by the Nazis in Krakow, Poland. He made enamel in the city and hired a Jewish man who used to work in the factory he took over, Abraham Bankier, as floor manager and made him hire the employees. This assistant made it so that as many Jews could be considered essential workers so wouldn’t be taken to concentration camps and killed. He justified this to Schindler by saying that, due to Nazi laws, Jews were payed less so would cost him less money than hiring Poles to do the same work. Schindler agreed whilst enjoying the company of the Nazi party officials due to his new stature as an industrialist. He had landed himself a large contract supplying the army with kitchenware in their new war against France and Britain.

By 1941, a new law was passed stating that Jews could now earn zero money, and all money that would usually be payed to Jews would now be paid to the SS. However, this now meant that the survival of the Jews working in the factory was now Schindler’s choice. Schindler decided to use his connections with the black market to supply his workers with food out of his own pocket. This is the beginning of Schindler’s arc to redemption.

By 1942, the Death Camps had begun to open. Many of the Jews in Krakow were sent to Belzec Death Camp. However, because they were employed by Schindler, the now hundreds of Jews under his employ were saved from the gas chambers. However, things soon began to change.

Amon Göth, a second Lieutenant in the SS, ordered a new camp to be constructed in Plaszow, only 4km from Krakow. Every morning and every night, Jews from Krakow would work on building the new camp and then working inside. Göth was ruthless, he would use Jews at target practice and train dogs to attack them on command. Schindler began becoming friendly with the tyrant of Plaszow, by sending him lavish gifts he found on the black market, taking him to lavish parties and charming him relentlessly.

In March 1943, Göth ordered Krakow Ghetto to be liquidated and all the Jews to be moved to Plaszow. 2,000 Jews are moved while another 2,000 are killed during the liquidation. Schindler allegedly hid his employees inside the factory to keep them from harm.

After having witnessed the liquidation, Schindler was said to be appalled. Sol Urbach claimed that:

[Schindler] changed his mind about the Nazis. He decided to get out and to save as many Jews as he could
Sol Urbach, Schindlerjude

Schindler moved his operation to Plaszow and bribed Amon Göth to do so and build a sub camp around the factory, whilst still maintaining a relationship with him. Göth allowed Schindler to do whatever he wanted inside the sub camp in Plaszow, which Schindler took to his advantage. The Jews who worked for Schindler inside his camp were given adequate food and living quarters, banning the SS from entering the camp.

As Germany realised it was on a track to losing the war, Göth ordered all Jews to be moved to Auschwitz to be killed. Schindler managed to, at a large personal expense, to get Amon to allow him to take all his workers to Brunnlitz to set up another factory there.

Amon asked him to make a list of every name he needed for his new factory. This list included 1,100 Jewish names. However, Schindler was unable to write it in person, as the SS had arrested Göth for his black market dealings via Schindler. Schindler was ratted out by Göth and also arrested. He assigned Marcel Goldberg to prepare the list.

One page of Schindler’s List. The list ended up being almost 20 pages long

Every man on the list was successfully sent to Brunnlitz. However, a train carrying the women was sent to Auschwitz by mistake. Whilst in prison, Schindler scrambled to save the women from death, sending a representative down to stop the extermination. Despite a very close call with death, all the women were moved safely to Brunnlitz. By now, Schindler had spent a lot of money on bribes, black market dealings and saving the lives of the Jews. He spent the last of his money on decent clothes for his workers. His workers spent the last days of the war intentionally making faulty guns in order to hinder the Nazi war effort as much as possible.

Once the war was over, Schindler was penniless but had saved 1,100 lives from the hands of the Nazis. However, because he was a member of the Nazi Party, a war profiteer and a profiteer of slave labour, he had to go into hiding in Argentina. He left his wife in 1957 and sailed back to West Germany. He died, poor, with a collapsed business and a failed marriage in 1974. However, for those few years, he would recieve small donations from the thousand lives he had saved from the clutches of evil. Amon Göth was hanged for crimes against humanity. The people he saved named themselves the Schindlerjuden, in his honour. Schindler’s name was added to the Avenue of the Righteous in Israel, a place were those who saved Jews during the Holocaust and risked their lives doing so. He was buried upon Mount Zion in Israel. Over 8,500 people are alive because of Schindler’s actions that wouldn’t have been otherwise.

Oskar Schindler’s grave covered in stones, a sign of respect for the dead in Judaism

Schindler’s story was turned into a book, Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Keneally which was inspired by Poldek Pfefferberg, a Schindlerjude. The book was later adapted into the 1993 film Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won 7, including Best Picture. It is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.

Liam Neeson (left) and Ben Kinglsey (right) portraying Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern respectively in *Schindler’s List*

Whoever saves one life saves the world entire
Ben Kingsley, Schindler’s List

Stauffenberg’s Plot to Kill Hitler

By July, 1944, the war was turning sour for Germany.

A map of the Front Lines by July 15th, 1944 (Allies – red, Axis – white, neutral – grey)

After a disastrous loss of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, the German army was on the run from the Soviets, who had begun to enter Poland. On the Western front, the Allies had made an incredible landing at Normandy, whilst an allied invasion was coming up from the south through Italy, where the Germans were assisting their allies. Germany was now fighting a war on three fronts and losing. Many Nazis began to blame Hitler’s mismanagement. Some of these men wanted Hitler gone. One of these men was Claus von Stauffenberg.

A photo of Stauffenberg before the accident

Claus von Stauffenberg was a general in the German Army. He had been severely wounded in North Africa, losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand and his left eye. While agreeing with many of Hitler’s nationalist policies, he believed that the war would do nothing but run Germany into the ground. During his time in Russia before the accident, he was appalled by the treatment of the citizens there, especially the Jewish ones, by the SS. He believed that the only way to stop the war was to stop Hitler, and the only way to stop Hitler was by killing him. And by 1943, he had met the right man to do it.

Henning von Tresckow was a major general and the leader of a small conspiracy group inside the Nazi high command. Tresckow used to be a staunch Hitler supporter until the Invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Not only that but he knew about the Holocaust and felt he had a moral responsibility to stop this mad tyrant.

Tresckow had previously made attempts himself to kill Hitler. One famous one was in March of 1943, where he had given Heinz Brandt, a lieutenant colonel who was travelling with Hitler, a box containing two bottles of Cointreau. However, the box instead contained a bomb which would be detonated by a crushed capsule of acid, with the intent that the bomb would explode during the flight from Smolensk to Prussia. However, the bomb was stored in the cold cargo hold, whereupon the acid detonator had frozen over and Hitler landed in Prussia unscathed. Thankfully, Tresckow had managed to take a flight to Prussia, swap out the bomb with two bottles and disarm the bomb.

Stauffenberg joined the conspiracy and had eventually rose the ranks to become one of its leaders along side Tresckow. They came up with a new plan, wherein Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche would detonate a British hand grenade at a meeting he would have with Hitler, showing the new Wermacht Uniforms. However, an allied bombing raid on a train shipment delayed their plans, as the train contained the new uniforms. Not only that but during this time, Bussche was seriously wounded and had to have his leg amputated. They now had to find a new man to kill Hitler. This man would be Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, who was only 21 at the time. However, Hitler cancelled on short notice and, once again, the plot could not go through. Eventually, the meeting finally took place on July 7th, 1944, with Hellmuth Stieff as the new assassin. However, Stieff backed out, most likely because he did not want to end his life. The bomb did not detonate and Hitler walked free.

However, the conspiracy went on and this time Stauffenberg wanted to take matters into his own hands. Not only did he want to kill Hitler but also take out the entire Nazi Regime.

On July 20th, Stauffenberg and his aide, Werner von Haeften flew to the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s Headquarters in Prussia. They find out that the meeting had been pushed forward by half an hour due to a visit from Benito Mussolini. Stauffenberg and Haeften rushed into a room, planning on activating two bombs and placing them in Stauffenberg’s briefcase, which would then be placed under the table in the room where the meting was held. Stauffenberg would then leave the room and the bombs would detonate. The meeting was intended to be held in an undergound bunker in the Wolf’s Lair, which would mean that the pressure of the explosion would certainly kill Hitler. Stauffenberg managed to arm one bomb, before they are interrupted, being informed that the meeting was starting. He handed the unarmed bomb to Haeften before entering the meeting.

A diagram of the room where the bomb went off. Survivors are marked in green, casualties in red, the bomb in yellow and Hitler in blue

The plan had now reached a second hiccup. Due to the weather, the conference was being held upstairs in a ventialted room with open windows. The pressure plan would not work. Stauffenberg decided to place the bomb on the left side of the table leg on the right end of the table. Hitler and the bomb were only separated by 1.3 metres. Stauffenberg then gives his briefing on the Eastern front before quickly leaving the room to take an important phone call. Once he leaves, the briefcase was moved to the other side of the table leg. At 12:42, Hitler then leaned over the table to discuss more in depth plans. At this exact moment, the bomb went off.

Stauffenberg watched the explosion 20 metres back from the building. He was very confident that Hitler was dead. He then drove out of the lair with Haeften, tossing the unarmed bomb into the forest. The next step of the plan was about to commence, Operation Valkyrie.

Operation Valkyrie was originally intended to deal with domestic disturbances inside the German Reich and orders to commence the operation would be issued to the reserves. It would implement in the event of a general breakdown in national civil order. It was made by General Friedrich Olbricht, who later became a member of the conspiracy. However, he, Tresckow and Stauffenberg modified the plan to detail that in the event of Hitler’s death, the Nazi Regime would be abolished. However, General Friedrich Fromm was the only one allowed to authorise the plan. Fromm was confronted and decided to remain silent on the matter but declined to be directly involved.

Olbricht was recieving two conflicting messages. From one line, he was being told Hitler was still alive and on the other Stauffenberg was insisting Hitler was dead. Eventually, he gave the go ahead and the reserves began to mobilise, with the orders to arrest High Ranking officials, including SS officers, framing them for a coup. The conspirators would then form a government which would appeal more to the allies and attempt to negotiate peace from there.

Eventually, a group of reserves commanded by Otto Ernst Remer began surrounding the Ministry of Propaganda, with the intent of arresting Josef Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda. However, Goebbels handed Remer the telephone in his office.

Do you recognise my voice?
Hitler on the other end of the line

Hitler had survived the explosion, meaning that Operation Valkyrie could not go through. Remer was ordered to crush the plot as fast as possible. Eventually, the Bendlerblock, the headquarters of the conspiracy, was laid under siege by the Wermacht. Fromm, betraying the conspirators in order to not be caught, rounded up the conspirators. 4 of them were executed in the courtyard of the building, including Olbricht, Haeften, another conspirator called Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg’s final words were:

Long live sacred Germany!
Stauffenberg’s last words

Many of the other conspirators who were not arrested either committed suicide or went into hiding in the following weeks. Many families of the conspirators were also arrested. over 5,000 people were executed for, indirectly or not, being a part of the conspiracy. Erwin Rommel, the famous North African Tank commander, was rumoured to be a part of the conspiracy. Many movies have been made about the sacrifice of these brave men, most notably in 2008, where Mission Impossible Star, Tom Cruise, portrayed Stauffenberg. It was filmed on location in the Bendlerblock, where director Bryan Singer lead the crew in a minute of silence to honour the dead before filming began. In 1980, a memorial museum was opened in honour of these men who, in the face of evil, risked their lives to try and stop that evil from spreading.

The street sign for Stauffenbergstaße in Berlin, named after Stauffenberg. Upon this road is the Bendlerblock

The Battle of Stalingrad

By July of 1942, Operation Barbarossa had been raging for over a year. The United States had entered the war and with no signs of Britain surrendering despite the U-Boat warfare and bombing campaign, Hitler decided to turn his back on his old ally and invade the Soviet Union. For the last 13 months, the operation had raged on and they were beginning to fall short of key objectives. One important thing that the Germans were lacking was oil. They were now over 1,000 miles into foreign territory and, with the Russian scorched earth tactic, supply lines were running thin.

In one last ditch effort to find some more oil. Hitler set his eyes on the Caucuses, an oil rich area of the Soviet Union in modern day Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. However, Hitler added a new objective to the plan. He believed that in order to secure the Caucuses, they would need to capture the key city of Stalingrad.

Stalingrad, named after General Secretary Joseph Stalin, was a massive supply hub, due to its bountiful number of factories and a massive transport hub. Despite this, German High Command did not believe that Stalingrad was a very important objective, who thought that Army Group South should flank the Caucuses by pushing through to Astrakhan and then the armies would go down from there. However, Hitler believed that they should split Army Group South in half from the onset, and assigning Friedrich Paulus and his 6th Army to capture Stalingrad.

A photo of a building in Stalingrad before the war

The advance was swift and forceful, and the city was very close to being surrounded. However, due to the advance the supply line was even thinner. Some in the 6th Army resorted to eating their own horses to prevent themselves from starvation. 1/4 of the casualties from the 6th thus far had been due to disease rather than bullets.

Meanwhile, Stalin had prepped for a change of plans. Wanting to keep the city named after himself, he had built a large number of tanks, placing all his reserves in the city. On the 28th of July, Stalin issued his infamous order 227.

Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters!
An excerpt from Order 227

Any officer or soldier who did not comply with the order would, most likely, be shot on sight. After a large Luftwaffe attack, the 6th Army pushed into Stalingrad, managing to seize much of the suburbs. The Soviet Divisions were now split in two, with the 62nd and 64th armies shipping supplies and reinforcements across the Volga River, whilst under heavy bombardment from the Luftwaffe.

The Russians are ordered to stay close to German lines, in order to stop air support out of fear that Hitler would bomb his own men. The unique urban combat of Stalingrad had begun, with most gunfights engaging within spitting distance of the enemy. The German advance slowed but pushes into the city were still made. The Soviet Divisions in Stalingrad were on their last legs, until the Russian secret weapon eventually came.

The winter soon began to set in. The already hungry Germans were also beginning to feel the effects of the cold. The German advance either halted or slowed to a crawl, allowing Soviet High Command to recuperate and form a plan of counter assault. Whilst the plan is being formed, Paulus, orders another assault. The Germans manage to push back the Soviet forces to a small sliver of land against the Volga. However, having suffered 60,000 casualties, the battered and hungry German army cannot advance. A stalemate began to set in

Barmaley Fountain in the middle of the war torn city

Eventually, Georgy Zhukov, one of the key Russian Generals in the defence of the city, unleashes his master stroke. Operation Neptune goes ahead on November 19th, with 10 entire armies, totalling 1 million men, push through the German line, managing to encircle the German 6th and 4th armies, taking out the Romanian 5th corps, inside the city in only 3 days.

With supply lines cut off, Hitler decided to airlift supplies into Stalingrad. However, for reasons unknown, only army supplies, such as ammunition, was dropped and not food and clean water, a dire resource in the war torn city. Not only that but he also ordered 500 tons of said supplies to be dropped into the city, despite Paulus claiming that they needed 700 and the Luftwaffe saying they could only manage 300. Many Germans starved whilst the wounded succumbed to the elements, dying of hypothermia as winter truly began.

Around Christmas, Erich von Manstein, head of the Wehrmacht, ordered a push through the soviet line in order to relieve the 6th and 4th Army. However, due to orders from the Fuhrer, and dwindling numbers, Paulus did not attempt to meet up with Manstein’s men. Thousands more die in this attempted breakthrough. With no ammunition or food, the Germans are offered 2 surrenders by Zhukov, both of which Hitler orders Paulus to deny. by this time only 40,000 men of the 300,000 who initially marched on Stalingrad are still alive, whilst there are 18,000 men who are injured and yet untreated due to the lack of medical supplies. The situation became even more dire once the Soviets capture the last airfield that could be used for airdrops into Stalingrad. Despite his failure, and the German force in Stalingrad being split in two, Paulus received a promotion to Field Marshal, from Hitler himself. However, Hitler knew that there has never been a single Field Marshal ever who has been taken alive. Hitler had just signed Paulus’ death warrant.

Eventually, the Russians found his base of operations in a worn out department store basement, with the southern part of the army falling not long after that. The Soviets took mercy on Paulus, who lived out the rest of his life in East Germany until 1957. He is the only Field Marshal to ever be taken prisoner. The commander of the northern pocket also subtly requested that his men surrender. 11,000 German insurgents did not surrender and it would not be until March of 1943 before Stalingrad was clear of a German presence.

Many historians cite Stalingrad as a key turning point in the war. If Stalingrad had been captured, it would’ve been a catastrophic loss of life and morale for the Red Army. Thankfully, Hitler’s forces were pushed all the way back to Berlin thanks to the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, leading to the death of Hitler in April, 1945, and the end of the war in Europe. However, it came at a heavy cost. The Battle of Stalingrad was and still is the single deadliest battle in human history.

Casualties

German – 800,000
Soviet – 1.1 million
Civillian – 40,000

The Hunt for the Bismarck

By 1941, Paris had fallen to the Nazis. The next big target on Hitler’s wish list was the United Kingdom. In one ear he had Karl Doenitz, head of the Kreigsmarine and U-Boat effort said that Hitler needed to expand U-Boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean, in order to cut off Britain’s supplies and force them into surrender through starvation. In his other ear, he had Erich Raeder, the Chief of the German Navy High Command, who said that if Hitler built some very large battleships, he could destroy Britain’s mighty Royal Navy. Soon, Hitler’s mind was made up.

Admiral John Tovey, Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow, a large ocean stretch in the North of Scotland. His mission was to patrol the vast expanse of Greenland and Nazi occupied Norway. At his base, he had been receiving regular intel about this ship. A ship so large that it is the third largest battleship in human history and the largest ever used by a European country. That ship was the Bismarck.

Towering over its opponents at almost 30 ft tall, this eight 15-inch gun battleship was the might of the German Navy. Weighing in at around 40,000 tons and being equipped with the top grade armour, it was a flagrant violation of Post WW1 treaties, that limited the size of German ships.

However, while the Royal Navy was mighty once, it had somewhat lost its touch since WW1. Due to naval treaties, battleships could not be produced in the interwar period, so many ships had to be converted to match and, in some cases, not very well. Ships that were produced because of the war were produced very hastily and thus not equipped very well, and hardly had any time to test to see if they functioned.

Whilst it was operating in the Baltics at the time, a real fear of the British Naval command was the Bismarck making a break through the North Sea and escaping into the Atlantic, a guaranteed disaster for the British. And it was possible this fear was becoming a reality, as Tovey was informed that the Bismarck had left a Polish port 3 days earlier, whilst a group of German boats had been spotted passing in between Denmark and Norway. Tovey ordered his men to refuel and stand by.

A photo of the *Bismarck* moored in the fjord

An RAF scouting plane spotted a large boat, shadowed by a small cruiser, in a Norwegian Fjord. The plane sent photos back to base, where analysts confirm it’s the Bismarck, accompanied by the Prinz Eugen. A foul fog soon set in, and Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland is ordered to guard the oceans surrounding the possible path of the Bismarck from a naval base in Iceland, with Tovey believing it’ll take this opportunity to slip out into the Atlantic. A reconnaissance plane flies to the Bismarck‘s last known position below the clouds. It’s gone. Tovey ordered his fleet, who have been stationed at Scapa Flow, to sail for Iceland, filling up the gaps across Holland’s line. Tovey then radioed Holland, ordering him to maintain radio silence.

In the Denmark Strait, two cruisers were patrolling the water. One young crew man spots the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. Knowing that they could not take on the 15-inch guns and that they could not pierce the armour, the cruisers took a sharp turn into the fog. Notifying the other cruiser, the radar was activated, a true technical marvel at the time. However, the second cruiser had a very close call with the Bismarck, only being 6 miles out. Shots rang out from the Bismarck as the cruiser made its getaway. Soon, HMS Prince of Wales, commanded by Captain John Leach and HMS Hood, commanded by Captain Ralph Kerr with Holland aboard, set sail to confront the Bismarck.

Hood, was one of the warships that had been built in 1918 and revamped for WW2 but was still largely considered to be the pride of the Royal Navy, whilst Prince of Wales was a new one, fresh out of the factory only 2 months prior. Prince of Wales was still having mechanical problems, with civilian engineers still fixing hydraulics issues by the time they encountered the German ships. At 6AM on the 24th of May, 1941, Holland ordered his men to fire at the leading ship. However, Hitler had, unconventionally, placed the cruiser first. The Bismarck was the second ship. Realising the error, Leach opened fire on the Bismarck all their shots missed. They had lost the element of surprise and were now sitting ducks.

Whilst a few shots were hit against the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, the British ships were no match for the German 15-inch guns, which laid waste to them. Unfortunately, Hood was struck hard. Leach watched in horror as a large fire erupted from the centre of the Hood, before it exploded, splitting in half and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Both Holland and Kerr were lost in the destruction.

The Prince of Wales manages to put itself in the exact same position that the Hood was in just moments earlier. After getting a lucky hit off on the Bismarck, a shell crashed through the bridge, killing all but 4. Leach was luckily one of those 4. He managed to order a retreat, dispensing a smoke screen to cover his get away. Out of the crew of 1,318 men, only 3 were rescued from the Hood. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a disaster for the British and the Bismarck now had a clear path to the Atlantic but, thankfully, the fight was not over yet.

Reconnaissance planes saw oil slicks in the area, trailing away. It appeared as though Bismarck had been damaged in the battle. This should be a relief but Tovey began to worry. A while back, some of what was Holland’s Icelandic guard had lost the Bismarck on their radars. They had no idea where the beast was. Depending on how bad the damage was, there could be a mid ocean refuelling if the damage wasn’t that bad. If it was bad, it would most likely return to base, at either France or Norway. Analysts believed that it would stop at France, due to the signals being sent to the Bismarck had changed source from Berlin to Paris. Tovey’s map, due to a mathematical error, indicated that the Bismarck was travelling North to Norway. Tovey charged his fleet north, to where he believed the Bismarck might be.

Back on the home front, in Bletchley Park, mathematicians and codebreakers were scrambling to find any clues on the Bismarck’s whereabouts, before one German speaking codebreaker noticed something. A letter from a concerned father to German Naval Command, asking whether his son, who was serving on the Bismarck, was safe after the battle. The Navy confirmed that everyone was fine and that they were headed to Brest for refuelling. This message was quickly conveyed to Tovey aboard the King George V.

A photo of Bletchley Park during the war

Meanwhile, American lent scout planes were surveying the area, and spotted a large battleship leaking oil which opens fire with the anti-aircraft guns. They’ve found the Bismarck. As the planes climbed, they relayed this to the Admiralty. The HMS Ark Royal, an aircraft carrier, headed straight to the location. The had to catch her now, before she got in the range of the Luftwaffe airbases in France, where she would be unstoppable. 15 Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from the aircraft carrier. With intel claiming that it’s the only ship in the area, the Swordfish got into attack formation upon seeing a ship. The HMS Sheffield, however, realises that the Swordfish were targeting them instead. As four of the Swordfish pulled out, having realised their error, 11 released the new magnetic torpedoes. 6, thankfully, detonate on contact with the water and Sheffield managed to weave through the other 5.

The Swordfish returned to the carrier before heading out one last time. This is their final chance to sink the Behemoth. In their attack run, two torpedoes strike the Bismarck, one in its side and one in its stern. They saw the Bismarck sail on. Having prepped to report a mission failure, the jubilant crew of the aircraft carrier reported that the Bismarck was acting erratically, indicating that the torpedo run had damaged its steering.

Over next few hours, destroyers, under Tovey’s orders, have been firing upon the ship, making sure it’s occupied and cannot return to base. However, they still kept their distance till morning when Tovey spotted the Bismarck at around 9 in the morning on the 27th of May, 3 days after the sinking of the Hood. Tovey’s plan involved approaching the Bismarck from all sides, in order to disperse the gunfire across 4 directions. But first, an advance from the West must occur. One of the ships, the old, slow HMS Rodney, managed to take out the main fire control director with its massive 16-inch guns. With the Bismarck falling silent for a moment, the barrage began. The assault was from multiple sides, with even the Norfolk and Dorsetshire‘s 8-inch guns making decent work of the upper deck. An ammunition locker exploded, taking the secondary fire control director with it. The Bismarck’s crew were now firing whenever and wherever they wanted. Once the main guns fell silent permanently and the bridge down, Tovey began slamming broadsides into the Bismarck. Shockingly, it did not go under, even after 50 minutes of fire. Tovey ordered the Dorsetshire to finish the Bismarck while the other ships returned to base, which fires to torpedoes into the hull. The pride of Hitler’s fleet is finally sunk.

As they’re pulling German men out of the water, the crew of the Dorsetshire noticed a periscope peering over the water line. The Captain ordered the Dorsetshire to move, less it be sunk, abandoning hundreds of men in the water. Out of the 2,200 men on the Bismarck, only 114 were pulled from the water.

In Parliament the next day, Churchill sat down just before he was handed a note. He stood and proclaimed:

I have received news that the Bismarck is sunk.
Churchill speaking to the House of Commons

A photo of Churchill in the House of Commons

Bletchley Park erupted into cheers and applause. The sinking of the Bismarck was a naval victory that Britain desperately needed. It showed the competence of Bletchley Park and that they were highly important to the war effort. It distracted the press from the naval losses in the Mediterranean. And, most importantly, it showed the US Congress, who were hesitant about the war, that the Royal Navy could defend American Convoys. Despite Goebbels portraying the Bismarck as a noble last stand Hitler, from then on, would only use capital ships in defence of Germany, listening to Doenitz and expanding U-Boat operations in the Atlantic. Only 3 weeks later, Hitler would attack the Soviet Union, the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. The hunt for the Bismarck showed that even in the face of the might of Germany that Britain would never give up and never surrender.

Invasion of Poland

Gaining living space, striving for land power in the East. France’s opposition to this is unavoidable, but not that of England or Italy. […] France as an ally is possible, but undesirable. Help for South Tyrol only with Italy against France; this also means freedom of movement against the East.
Hitler writing in his second posthumously published book, 1928

After World War 1, many Eastern European countries were unified to form Poland. As such, Poland divided East Prussia from the remainder of Germany. Hitler formed a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, Communist Leader of the Soviet Union. The non-aggression pact also included the East of Poland being occupied by the Soviet Union in the event of an invasion. Many people didn’t agree with this, since Hitler was heavily anti-Communist, with many anti-leftist purges taking place in Germany and in their recently annexed territories.

On the night of August 31st, 1939, 3 men dressed in Polish Army Uniforms infiltrated Gleiwitz Radio Tower, on the Polish-German border. They transmitted anti-German messages, all in Polish, to the people of Germany using a radio tower. The next day, a man in a Polish Army Uniform was found dead near the tower. His body was reported to the police. This was a staged operation by the Nazis.

The man found dead was Franciszek Honoik, a Polish man, who was legally the first casualty of the war. Franciszek was killed by the Gestapo. He was unmarried, 43 and wasn’t even a soldier. The same day, German soldiers marched on the west side of Poland, with Soviet soldiers closing in on the East.

The German tactic known as Blitzkreig, involving striking fast and hard with as many units as possible, was used in taking out many Polish divisions. Not only that, but the highly advanced Panzer Divisions combined with the Stuka Dive bombers made quick work of the Polish Cavalry. The West of Poland was captured within two weeks. On October 6th, the last Polish Division surrendered, having been encircled by the German Army. The invasion only lasted 1 month and 5 days. In accordance with the agreement, Germany occupied the West, establishing the Generalgouvernement in the southern region, with the USSR Occupying the East.

Casualties

Germany – 16,343
Soviet Union – 737
Poland – 66,000

This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
Neville Chamberlain’s radio broadcast to Britain, September 3rd, 1939

Hitler’s Pre-War Expansions

Hitler turned closer to home with his home country of Austria. On the 12th of March, he announced his plans to unify Austria with Germany. According to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg, who was hoping to soothe tensions with Hitler about the Anschluss, Hitler was already good to go on the annexation of Austria when they met in February of 1938.

What is all this nonsense about your independence? Whether Austria is independent or not is not the question. There’s only one thing to discuss. Do you want the Anschluss brought about with bloodshed or without?
Hitler speaking with Schuschnigg

On March 9th, Schuschnigg announced he would hold a referendum on the Anschluss for the 13th. He predicted it would result in a split of around two thirds against the Anschluss. Outraged, Hitler began mobilising for an Austrian invasion the next day and the Chancellor was forced into calling it off and resigning. Only 2 days later, Panzers rolled across the Austrian border unopposed, due to the collapse of the Austrian government.

A referendum was later held that April in which 99.7% of the Austrian people voted in favour of the Anschluss. However the vote was not secret and it is believed that many people were scared to vote against it for fear of being killed. Reminder, this is after the Night of the Long Knives; people knew what Hitler was capable of. After the referendum, anti-semitism was rife in Austria, and around 200 Austrian Jews committed suicide in the weeks following the annexation, fearing a worse fate if they didn’t. It is estimated that, if the election was secret and fair, around 70% would’ve voted against German Annexation. He has the nation of Czechoslovakia surrounded from all 3 sides and he began to look towards the Sudetenland

The country was naturally in an already pretty weak spot. It was bordering a once former and now slowly growing major power, who was very open about wanting to expand its territories. One of its few allies was France, who weren’t exactly enthusiastic about starting another war after losing almost 2 million people in the First World War. Another ally was the USSR, who they did not share a land border with, meaning they would either have to cross through Romania or Poland to assist, both of whom were adamantly against Communism. Czechoslovakia now stood alone as Hitler declared he wanted the Sudetenland, a mountainous region on the German border, that the Czechoslovakian government had just spent quite a sizeable amount of money on forts to defend from their expansionist neighbours. With both their alliances being highly inconvenient, they turned to the UK government for war support. They came back with a less than stellar response.

However much we may sympathise with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbour, we cannot, in all circumstances, undertake to involve the whole British Empire in war simply on her account. If we have to fight, it must be on larger issues than that. I am myself a man of peace to the depths of my soul. Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me. But if I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force, I should feel that it should be resisted. And that such a domination like the people who believe in liberty, would not be worth living. But war is a fearful thing, and we must be very clear before we embark on it, that it is really the great issues that are at stake, and that a call to risk everything in their defense, when all the consequences are weighed, is irresistible.
Chamberlain’s statement on Czechoslovakia

With central European tensions rising and war on the horizon, France and Britain decided to host a peace conference with Germany, with Italy as a mediator. Czechoslovakian officials were not invited. At the conference, Germany was given everything that they wanted, just as long as they promised to not take any more land, not just in Czechoslovakia, but across Europe.

Satisfied, Chamberlain returned home, waving the contract off of a plane, declaring “peace in our time”. Because of the summit, Hitler was selected for Time magazine’s Man of the Year award in 1938.

The cover of the January 2nd 1939 issue of Time Magazine, in which Hitler was declared Man of the Year

The Czechoslovakians had now lost their major forts and Hungary, seeing an opportunity, took lower parts of Slovakia. A now even weaker Czechoslovakia, with no more allies, was powerless to stop Hitler from backing an independence bid for Slovakia, effectively setting it up as a puppet state, before Hungary took a little bit more of the tip of Slovakia. With the majority of their defences, industry and population gone, Czechoslovakia had no choice but to bow down to German oppression and was turned into a protectorate.

Memel is a much shorter story for a much smaller piece of land. Hitler simply sent an ultimatum to Lithuania, who had around 20,000 men, compared to Germany’s bordering a million men and Lithuania was forced into conceding Memelland, a former territory of Imperial Germany.

Hitler Building Alliances

During this time, Hitler formed a pact with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Dictator of Italy. His march on Rome inspired Hitler’s Munich Putsch in 1933.

Mussolini (left) and Hitler (right) surrounded by an adoring crowd

They also wanted Spain to join the pact but were currently in the middle of a civil war, between Manuel Anzaña’s Republicans and Francisco Franco’s Nationalists, the latter of which piqued Hitler’s interest. He sent multiple bombing raids and armoured troops to Franco to help with the war effort. One of the most famous raids was that of Guernica.

Guernica was an old town in North Spain with, at the time, a population of 7,000 people. At around 4:30 in the afternoon on the 26th of April 1936, a Luftwaffe Dornier Do 17 flew above the quaint town and dropped 50 kg worth of bombs onto the town. For an hour and a half, Italian and German planes flew over and bombed the town, killing between 170 and 300 people. This event was painted by Pablo Picasso in one of his most well-known works, simply titled Guernica. Picasso was in Paris at the time of the German Occupation of France. When a German Officer came into his apartment, he spotted a photograph of Guernica. The officer asked Pablo, “Did you do that?” to which Pablo replied, “No, you did.”

*Guernica,* Pablo Picasso’s painting inspired by the bombing

Hitler’s attempts to get Spain into his pocket failed, although the Nationalists won, so he decided to turn his eyes to the east.

By 1938, Japan had colonised Korea, multiple islands in the Pacific, Manchuria, a puppet state of China controlled by the Soviet Union, other parts of China and Taiwan. They had control over most of eastern Asia and started the rape of Nanking, in which 40,000 to 300,000 people were killed and 20,000 to 80,000 peopled raped. Hitler formed an alliance with the Japanese Empire.