WWII – Great History

The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In 1932, in Cavendish University, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Walton bombarded lithium with protons from a particle accelerator. The protons caused the lithium atom to split. Many scientists, the most notably of whom were under Nazi governance in Germany, realised that if they continued to split uranium and plutonium atoms, with the protons from one atom splitting another and the process repeating in a process called fission, they could make a new source of energy. However, with this power, the results could also be used for much more sinister means.

August, 1939. About a month before the outbreak of WW2, Albert Einstein, a highly accomplished scientist who discovered the theory of relativity (E=mc²) sent a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, then President of the United States, on a highly serious matter. Einstein believed that the Germans were working on a super weapon, a super weapon that would harness the power of Cockcroft and Walton’s work and make a fission bomb, that could wipe cities off the map. Despite being a pacifist, Einstein believed that such a weapon would be better in the hands of the Americans than the Germans. By August of 1942, the development of an atomic weapon was granted by FDR. A group of hundreds of scientists all were called upon by the US government to assist in the development of the technology.

One of the top scientists on the project, who led the scientific research and design of the bomb, was Dr J Robert Oppenheimer. He graduated in chemistry from Harvard and obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany. Whilst abroad in Europe, he learned a lot about quantum physics, a field that was not that expanded in the United States. One of the most notable German physicians was Werner Heisenberg, who thought of the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Many believed that Heisenberg was working on the German Nuclear bomb.

Back to Oppenheimer, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkley, where he expanded the field of Quantum Physics in the United States, becoming a professor in 1936. He even partially discovered a black hole in 1939. He was considered to be one of the greatest minds in Atomic Research, the kind of man that the US was after. However, he was under observation by the FBI since 1941 due to his ties to communist groups and union activity whilst in California. Most notably, he was a leading figure in the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians (FAECT), a white collar union for technical professions, and met many close friends through the Communist Party of the USA, of which his brother Frank was a member.

His wife, Kitty, was a former member of the Communist Party before leaving in the 1930s before they met. He also had an on and off affair with active Communist Party member, Jean Tatlock, who committed suicide in 1944. However, whether he was actually a member of the party was heavily debated. During his 1954 security clearance hearing, he testified that he agreed with many of the ideas of communism but would not tow a party line. He also openly campaigned and funded the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, before joining the American Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, which campaigned against Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany. The group was later branded as communist during the era of McCarthyism. As Chief of Security for the Manhattan Project, Colonel Boris Pash was asked to assess Oppenheimer regarding his alleged communist ties. Whilst stating that he “may still be connected with the Communist Party”, Pash did not believe Oppenheimer to be a spy, believing that “Oppenheimer’s personal honour and concern for his reputation would deter him from such action”. Pash therefore did not recommend his removal from the project, but instead that Oppenheimer be accompanied by counter-intelligence agents.

Oppenheimer, as well as many other notable scientists such as Richard Feynman, Edward Teller and Isidor Isaac Rabi, were gathered in Los Alamos, a remote part of the New Mexican Desert where a small town was built in order for the scientists to do their research and accommodate their families. The bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was worked on for months on end. The first contained chain reaction occurred in a secret lab under a Chicago University football stadium. The theory’s were now fact and the development of the bomb begun. During the time creating the bomb, Italy fell after an allied invasion and a small civil war. The Axis powers were on the ropes and the President, now Harry Truman after the death of FDR on April 12th of 1945, was confident that this bomb would be the final push to end the German War Machine. However, it ended a lot sooner than expected.

On the 21st of April 1945, the Soviet forces entered Berlin. Only 9 days later, Hitler fed cyanide to his wife, Eva Braun, and shot himself in his bunker in Berlin. A little over a week later, Germany surrendered. 2 out of the 3 major Axis powers were out of the war as well as the bomb’s target. Truman began to reconsider the target. He had been bombing the Japanese for months on end and he believed that a mainland invasion of Japan would only cost more American lives. With the Soviets beginning to invade Japanese occupied Manchuria, he decided what to do.

On July 16th 1945, in the middle of the New Mexican desert, a fireball erupted. The infamous Trinity Test had been conducted. The bomb worked. Around a month later, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the first bomb was dropped.

Photos of the bombings (Hiroshima left and Nagasaki right)

Buildings were instantly turned to rubble and people were vaporised on the spot, leaving only their shadows on the pavement. However, some would consider these the lucky ones. Akiko Takakura was at the Bank of Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. Despite being within 300 metres of the hypo-centre, she survived the initial bomb.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in the dark. […] After a while, it began to rain. The fire and the smoke made us so thirsty and there was nothing to drink, no water, and the smoke even disturbed our eyes. As it began to rain, people opened their mouths and turned their faces towards the sky and try to drink the rain, but it wasn’t easy to catch the rain drops in our mouths. It was a black rain with big drops. […] We opened our mouths just like this, as wide as possible in an effort to quench our thirst. Everybody did the same thing. But it just wasn’t enough.
Takakura’s account of the aftermath of the bombing

A drawing that Takakura made of her drinking the thick black rain

Takakura’s account is likely due to the bomb vapourising all the exposed water in the surrounding area, hence her dire thirst. The evaporated water had then mixed with the radioactive soot in the atmosphere, producing the thick black rain. Her friend, who also drank the water, succumbed to radiation sickness.

Private Shigeru Shimoyama just stepped into a concrete reinforced warehouse that was only 6 blocks away from the hypo-centre. He was flug against a back wall by the force of the explosion, saving him from falling debris. When he awoke, he found that his arms and shoulders had been impaled on nails protruding from the wall, leaving him hanging about a metre off the ground. Upon freeing himself and leaving the building, he spotted a group of bureucrats carrying a life sized portrait of Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) throught the rubble. He spied a naval vessel patrolling through the river, full of dead bodies, which paused and the crew bowed to the Emperor.

He then turned around and saw a peculiar, pinkish white, fleshy horse. It was then that he realised the horse had gone through a phenomenon known as de-gloving, in which the skin of the horse was removed by the force of the blast, but still kept the horse alive. Shigeru, horrified, ran from the scene. Whenever he turned back, the horse continued to follow him.

Another soldier stationed outside the city heard the bomb go off and saw the mushroom cloud arise from the horizon. At the train station he was at, a passenger train rolled through from Hiroshima, all its windows smashed and most of its passengers burnt to a crisp. Those who weren’t stared out the windows with blank expressions on their faces. Every coach was at least smouldering with two coahces entirely engulfed in flames. After bringing a train to a stop, the group of soldiers decided to turn back in an effort to help survivors. On their way back, they encountered lines of people walking along the railway line, who all had their clothes, skin and muscles peeling off. These people were dubbed the Ant Walkers of Hiroshima.

A drawing of the Ant-Walkers by a survivor of the bombing

3 days later, another bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki, another nearby city. Anywhere between 150,000 and 246,000 people were killed in the bombings, the majority of which were civilians. The Japanese issued surrender on August 15th, with the surrender taking effect on September 2nd. World War 2 was over, lasting 6 years and 1 day.

The Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mamoru Shigemitsu, signing the peace proclamation aboard the USS Missouri

In the ensuing Tokyo Trials, seven out of the 28 people on trial were executed for crimes against peace, war crimes or crimes against humanity, including the Japanese Prime Ministers, Kōki Hirota and Hideki Tojo. Other Prime Ministers during this time were not executed, either sentenced to prison, dying before Japanese surrender or simply not being tried. Most notably, Senjūrō Hayashi and Fumimaro Konoe both died before Japanese surrender, from a brain haemorrhage and cyanide ingestion respectively. Kiichirō Hiranuma was sentenced to life at Tokyo before passing away in 1953. Nobuyuki Abe was arrested by the American occupation government but was never tried for any war crimes. The Emperor, however, was not tried on such crimes, despite being complicit in them, as the United States believed that in order to secure Japan for a democratic future, a stable Emperor must help them in their efforts. In addition, no-one on trial ever implicated Hirohito in any of the atrocities they committed in China and the Pacific.

However, the head of Unit 731, the Japanese human experimentation unit, Shirō Ishii, was not indicted for such crimes, as the Americans wanted to exchange their findings for immunity in court. Some of Unit 731’s experiments involved largely biological research. On occasion, they would release the bubonic plague into populated Chinese villages to study the rate of infection. They would give various diseases to prisoners of war and vivisecting them to observe the results on the human body. They would also cut open a person whilst they were still alive to remove organs to observe what impact it would have on the human body, including connecting the guts back up to the throat. This is only the tip of the iceberg of these experiments and the man behind these experiments got off Scott free.

After the bombing, Oppenheimer became and advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), where he strongly advocated for international control of nuclear power in order to prevent a nuclear arms race with the Soviets. After the testing of the first Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, Oppenheimer was suspected of allowing Russian spies into Los Alamos due to his communist ties. He had a feud with Lewis Strauss, the commissioner of the AEC, who felt sidelined by Oppenheimer’s contributions to the commission and atomic policy at large. Most notably, Oppenheimer believed that the government should be more open about American nuclear capabilities, whilst Strauss believed that such openness would benefit nobody but Soviet military planners. In 1949, Oppenheimer mocked a suggestion by Strauss in a public hearing regarding the medical use of isotopes. This was something that Strauss found humiliating and would never forget.

A photo of Strauss testifying in the 1950s

Eventually, Strauss began to develop a feud beyond just personal and political disagreements. He eventually began to suspect Oppenheimer of being a Soviet Spy. Strauss requested of J Edgar Hoover that he conduct surveillance on Oppenheimer, who discovered no evidence of disloyalty to the United States. However, Strauss persisted, organising with William L. Borden, former executive director of the United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Borden sent a letter to the FBI, stating that “more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union.” The clearance hearing was organised by Strauss, who appointed the board of three men as well as the lawyer to lead the case against Oppenheimer. Most of the evidence used against Oppenheimer was obtained illegally and was not shared with Oppenheimer’s lawyers in advance. Many government officials and scientists at Los Alamos testified at the hearing. Most notably, Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, Military Director of the Manhattan Project, stated the following.

In this case I refer particularly to associations and not to the associations as they exist today but the past record of the associations. I would not clear Dr. Oppenheimer today if I were a member of the Commission on the basis of this interpretation.
Excerpt from Groves’ testimony on Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer’s clearance was revoked in a 2-1 vote. He was shunned from the scientific community and political life for years until Lyndon B. Johnson gave him the Enrico Fermi Award, named after the Italian Physicist who created the first artificial nuclear reactor.

Many scholars today still wonder if the use of nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary. Some say that Japan would’ve surrendered regardless and that the bombing was merely Truman showing the power of the United States. No matter what you may think of the ethics of the bombing may be, the impact of the bombing was undeniable, with many people fearing nuclear annihilation due to rising tensions between nuclear powers, a fear that began in the 40s and is still very prevalent to this day.

A military parade in North Korea in present day, showing off North Korea’s nuclear warheads

The longer the fighting goes on [in Ukraine], the more lives will be lost and the greater risk of nuclear escalation. Those who fuel escalation must know that in the event of a nuclear war, nobody wins.
Jeremy Corbyn, former UK Labour Party Leader, in an article for ‘Tribune’ magazine

Operation Paperclip

During a briefing at Blockhouse 34 of the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex in 1962, three of the most important men in the history of American space exploration were photographed sitting in the front row, President John F. Kennedy, who had promised that man would land on the moon by the end of the 1960s, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who would later serve as President during some of the most important missions to outer space, and Kurt Debus, the first ever Director of the Kennedy Space Centre, who previously served as an Staffelrottenführer in the SS and a key architect in the Nazi V2 Rocket Project, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

By May 1945, the Third Reich was in pieces. With the Führer dead, many high ranking Nazis and military officers, fearing Allied capture for their part in war crimes, including the Holocaust, either committed suicide or fled to South America. Most notably, Martin Bormann, Nazi Party Minister, Joseph Goebbels, Reichminister of Propaganda and Chancellor, and Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler all committed suicide in the final days of the war or in the weeks following, whilst Josef Mengele, a physician and anthropologist, specialising in human experimentation at Auschwitz, and Adolf Eichmann, a high ranking Party Member and Government Official, fled to Argentina, with the latter of the two being captured and executed in 1961 for his role in designing the Holocaust.

However, SS Sturmbannführer Wernher von Braun was less worried than most. In fact, he was bordering on confident, having approached the United States directly with his location, patiently and calmly waiting for their arrival. As a key architect behind the V2 Rocket, Braun was confident that his knowledge would be useful to the United States Government. As predicted, his captors gave him a warm welcome.

Braun (centre, civilian clothes) photographed with Wehrmacht Generals, such as Walter Dornberger, Friedrich Olbricht and Heinz Brandt in March 1941

What was more surprising, however, that this was occurring all across the collapsing Third Reich and during the years of occupation by the Allies. Whilst the Second World War had concluded, the Cold War was beginning to brew, and the Americans were determined on getting the upper hand against the Soviet Union. In all, over 1,500 Nazi Scientists were extracted from Germany between 1945 and 1962, in order to work on the American Space Programme, including Braun and the aforementioned Debus. Whilst Braun had handed himself over to the Americans, other scientists had to be found and extracted. These missing scientists were compiled in a list that, in an unsuccessful effort to dispose of evidence, was flushed down the toilet.

The operation, Operation Paperclip, was named after the paperclips that they would attach to the files, indicating they contained classified information such as Nazi affiliation or suspected war crimes and that all these should be overlooked in the name of advancing American science. For instance, Braun had overseen an SS Operation that involved forced labour at concentration camps.

The United States was not the only one involved in this practice. Whilst the British and French did not have the resources to exfiltrate German scientists without kidnapping or stealing patents, the Soviets used other more brutal methods in order to get the information they needed, such as bribery and forced relocation. The US method was the most controversial, however, offering a clean slate, the willing relocation of entire families and US citizenship.

Naturally, this massive influx of Germans into the United States raised a lot of eyebrows in the media. In response, the government did what every politician learns not to do on day 1 and told the truth. Immediately, there was mass public outcry, from influential figures such as Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Many criticised that the victims of these mens atrocities in the Holocaust struggled greatly to get US Citizenship, ultimately to often get denied whilst the men who perpetrated the Holocaust got a fast track. In addition, there were also those who criticised the fact that former Nazis were now in Government positions, from an aspect of national security. However, as Cold War tensions grew, the argument that these scientists were necessary to combat the Soviet threat grew increasingly stronger.

Braun’s work at NASA involved getting the first American Satellite into orbit after the Soviet Sputnik, as well as the creation of the Saturn V rocket, which helped man land on the Moon. The work of other scientists involved in Paperclip ended up creating the jet engine and advanced pharmaceuticals research, but also developed chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, well known for its use in the Vietnam War.

Whilst these advances in science allowed the US Government to brand paperclip as success, hindsight casts doubt on this judgement. Whilst many minds taken to America in Paperclip were seen as geniuses, such as Braun, many were just your average Joe, who, upon contract completion, either returned to Germany or went to normal civilian life, assimilating amongst the populous. The ethical questions about bringing in scientists from such an evil regime to work on projects of national security still do not have full conclusive answers. However, it is undeniable that these men, no matter how abhorrent and evil their past was, changed our understanding of the universe at large.

The Battle of Berlin

April 20th, 1945. On the Führer’s birthday, Nazi Germany is on its last legs. As the Soviet Artillery begins to hammer the city from the east and the Allied forces closing in on the Rhine from the west, it may have just dawned on Adolf Hitler, who had ruled Germany with an iron fist for the last twelve years, that his thousand year Reich may never come to pass.

Soviet Artillery on the outskirts of Berlin

1944 had been a disaster for the German war effort. Italy had become embroiled in Civil War in the aftermath of the deposition of Mussolini the year prior, with the fascist faction being a puppet of Hitler. The war had turned sour and the Fascist only controlled the North by the end of 1944. In the west, the Allies had made a great achievement with the Normandy Landings on D-Day, and had been liberating France all throughout the year. With mass army encirclements across the Eastern Front, the Red Army was breezily pushing across Eastern Europe, uncovering Nazi war crimes along the way.

Bulgaria and Romania had fallen under Soviet control, with Hungary holding out in Budapest as the last bastion of Fascism in Eastern Europe. Hitler, hoping to secure Hungarian oil fields, had focused the last of his armoured reserves onto relieving the defenders of Budapest. However, this had fallen right into Soviet hands. Considering that Hitler had pushed the armoured corps down to the increasingly pressurised Hungarian front, this meant that the Polish front would, hopefully, be a breeze. In just 11 weeks, the Soviet Army captured Warsaw and arrived on the outskirts of Berlin.

Throughout January of 1945, the outgunned Germans were forced into desperate retreat. General Heinz Guderian insisted to Hitler on the need for more armour in Poland. Whilst Hitler claimed that he would send two SS Panzer Divisions, these only ended up on the Hungarian front, leading to mass surrenders on the Polish Front. Meanwhile, propaganda echoed over the radio, implying the incoming apocalypse, comparing the advancing Soviets to the Mongol horde intent on bringing about the death of civilisation, encouraging thousands of Germans to flee west.

However, the problem with the Soviets speedy advance was that it had left Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov’s flank exposed. He decided not to advance any further onto the capital of the Reich until it was covered. Managing to trap German forces in a northern pocket in Prussia, the new Front line extended from Stettin in the north all the way down to the Czech border.

Despite assurance from the Allies that Berlin would fall into Soviet hands after the war, Stalin was quick to rush the capital, devising an encirclement around the city and a force to push towards the Elba river to meet up with the Allies. The 1st Belorussian Front would be the centre of the thrust towards Berlin, whilst the 1st Ukrainian Front would push from the south towards Potsdam and Dresden and the 2nd Belorussian Front would push from the north in order to prevent reinforcement. Used to open fighting in massive spaces, veterans of the Battle of Stalingrad handed out leaflets regarding the ins and outs of urban combat.

Whilst the German Defence force seemed decent enough, totalling around 760,000 men, with additional tanks, artillery and aircraft, it was nothing compared to the sheer numbers of the Red Army, who had a force of 2.3 million men attacking Berlin. In addition, much of the German defences were made of the Volkssturm, a mass conscripted force of any man between 16 and 60. Much of the army was also comprised of Hitler Youth boys, some even as young as 12. Furthermore, having lost the Hungarian oil fields, they could not rely on their Panzer Divisions or the Luftwaffe for much support.

The battle began on April 16th near Seelow Heights, beginning with barrages from Katyusha Rocket launchers, which lit up the night. One Soviet Soldier described it as being as bright as daylight, with them having to cover their ears to stop them from going deaf. However, due to this mass bombardment, the terrain was significantly more difficult to traverse for the Red Army, not just because of the holes in the ground but also the spotlights, intended to blind the enemy, ended up reflecting in all the smoke, confusing the advancing forces.

A photo of the Berlin Defence force with Panzerfausts at Seelow Heights

The Oder River was becoming another problem in the Soviet Advance, as many who tried to cross it were cut down by the desperate defence forces. Attempting to force a crossing, Zhukov ordered that both tank armies attack simultaneously, causing enormous traffic jams behind the front lines. Upon reaching the heights, the attackers were once more pushed back by concealed artillery divisions and Panzerfausts. Despite these setbacks, the South had eventually broken, and Soviet forces finally had unlocked the gates to the capital city.

As the initial footmen attacked Berlin, Hitler, a shadow of his former self, cowered in the Führerbunker, a secret underground complex buried deep underneath the Old Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Down underneath the city, he was accompanied by Martin Bormann, Personal Secretary to the Führer and Chief of the Party Chancellery, Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin and Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, with his family and Eva Braun, the long time lover of Hitler. His last visit to the surface was on his birthday of April 20th, awarding an Iron Cross to a young boy in the Hitler Youth. He was noticeably withered and older, having developed an undiagnosed tick in his right hand.

One of the last photos ever taken of Hitler on April 20th, 1945

Despite this, Bormann and Goebbels remained loyal to the end. Over the next week, he distanced himself from Hermann Göring, former Head of the Luftwaffe, Speaker of the Reichstag and Minister of Prussia, who, upon learning that Hitler had plans of taking his own life, had telegrammed to the Führer requesting leadership of the Third Reich. Viewing this as an act of treason, he expelled him from the party, fired him from all government positions and ordered his arrest. A similar scenario befell Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS, Reichminister of the Interior and Chief of the German Police, who had began peace talks with the Allies in an attempt to focus all effort onto the Eastern Front. Learning of this on April 28th, Hitler reacted to this the same way he did with Göring. Hitler’s paranoia and delusion was slowly catching up to him.

On the front, many soldiers, who had considered deserting, were hanged in the streets. By now, all the remaining forces could do was simply delay the inevitable, as forces cut in from the northeast and southwest. However, Hitler was still hopeful of a mass counter attack by General Felix Steiner, an Obergruppenführer in the SS, which would hopefully encircle the Soviet forces in the city, in a similar vein to what the Soviets had done to them at Stalingrad two years prior.

However, this attack never came, due to the lack of manpower and supplies in Steiner’s army. Upon learning this news on April 22nd, Hitler flew into a “tearful rage”. His delusions of a Thousand Year Reich shattered into a thousand pieces as he officially declared that the war was lost, saying that he would remain in Berlin until the end, whereupon he would commit suicide. It was not long after this that he heard of Mussolini’s execution by the Italian Partisans, whereupon his body was hanged upside down from the roof of a service station where it was spat on by the people he oppressed throughout his rule.

Soon after this, the encirclement was completed, leaving Berlin with around 85,000 men, 40,000 of whom were in the Volkssturm, defending the city. As the Soviets tightened their grip, the last bits of defence were just around the governmental district. Many high ranking Nazis were making plans of escape out of the city before it was too late. In the early morning of April 30th, the Soviet forces managed to capture the Reichstag, the symbolic heart of the German Reich, defended largely by foreign SS legions.

The Soviet flag billowing over the Reichstag

The previous day, Hitler was observed signing his final will and testament by Goebbels and Bormann. It detailed that Hitler would marry Braun as well as all “[he possesses] belongs – in so far as it has any value – to the Party. Should this no longer exist, to the State; should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of [his would be] necessary” except for portraits that he had purchased, which would be given to a gallery in Linz, his home town. It also detailed that he and Braun would soon commit suicide in order to avoid capture.

He detailed that the role of Führer be split into three bodies, the President, which would go to Karl Dönitz, Chief of German Naval High Command, the Chancellor, which would go to Goebbels, and Party Minister of the Nazi Party, which would go to Bormann. He gave an official order, allowing General Helmuth Weidling, who had largely led the defence of the city, to escape Berlin. Hitler then married Braun in a small ceremony, before both were found dead in his study in the Führerbunker in the afternoon of April 30th, Hitler having shot himself with his Walther PPK handgun, and Braun having taken a hydrogen cyanide capsule. Their ashes were cremated in a bomb crater with petrol as the Red Army’s artillery echoed through the streets

Despite this massive loss in morale for the Third Reich, Goebbels rejected Stalins offer for unconditional surrender, reducing the defence to isolated pockets around government buildings. However, eventually seeing the direness of the situation, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, fed cyanide to their six children before they too committed suicide on May 1st just outside the Führerbunker. His body was attempted to be cremated with the petrol left over from Hitler’s cremation, though it only did half a job, leaving the heavily charred body of Goebbels outside the bunker. His body was later taken into Soviet possession. In 1970, the remains were burned, crushed and scattered in the Biederitz River.

Weilding eventually began peace talks, ordering all the men to lay down their arms. The city fell and the German Reich was divided down the middle. By the time that Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of Germany, only fragments of pre-Nazi German land remained a part of the Reich. Due to the new government never repudiating Nazism, Dönitz was never officially recognised as the President of Germany. Keitel was hanged in a botched execution for war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy on October 16th, 1946. His head hit the trap door rim and it took him 24 minutes to die.

I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons – all for Germany.
The last words of Wilhelm Keitel

Many senior Nazis went into hiding, committed suicide or went on trial for their war crimes. Most notably, Bormann made a bid for freedom on May 2nd, eventually giving up and committing suicide on the grounds of Lehrte Station in Berlin. Unaware of this, the International Military Tribunal tried him in absentia at Nuremberg. His remains were not discovered until 1972 and were conclusively proven as his in 1998. His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Baltic Sea by his surviving family, in order to prevent a potential grave from becoming a neo-Nazi rallying site. His eldest son, Martin Adolf Bormann, openly denounced his father’s Nazi beliefs and Hitler, his godfather, and became a priest and a theology teacher, working on a mission in the Congo and meeting Holocaust survivors in Israel. He passed away in 2013.

Heinrich Himmler was captured by allied forces. After interrogation, he was subjected to a medical exam on May 23rd, including an oral one. Upon declining to open his mouth, he bit into a potassium cyanide capsule concealed in his mouth and died despite efforts to expel the poison from his system. He was buried in an unmarked grave, the location of which remains unknown to this day. His daughter, Gudrun Berwitz, openly associated with neo-Nazi circles and married an official of the neo-Nazi Homeland Party. She passed away in 2018.

Whilst Göring did end up at the Nuremberg trials for the role he played in the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity, he was not given the punishment assigned to him by the tribunal. Before his execution by hanging, he too ingested cyanide and died. His body was displayed on the execution grounds for witnesses before being cremated and his ashes thrown into the Isar River. Edda, his only child, hardly spoke publicly about her father aside from one interview in 1986, where she recalled him fondly. She passed away in 2018

Dönitz was also put on trial at Nuremberg, being found guilty for his crimes against peace. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Whilst never repenting for his role in Nazi Germany, saying that he “acted at all times out of duty to his nation”, he actively avoided contact with neo-Nazis, even when approached by Manfred Roeder, who still believed him to be the legal leader of Germany, something that Dönitz called ridiculous. Roeder, taking this as a declaration of resignation, declared himself President of Germany and became an active terrorist.

Dönitz died on Christmas Eve 1980 at his home in Aumühle. He was buried without any military honours during a service where no-one was allowed to wear military uniform. Despite this, over 100 people in attendance had earned the Knights Cross in battle during the Second World War. Only Dönitz’s daughter, Ursula, survived the war, who remained very private about her family’s history until her death in 1990.

Weilding was taken into Soviet Custody, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes perpetrated during the German occupation of the East. He died of an apparent heart attack in Vladimir whilst in the custody by the KGB in 1955. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery of Vladimir Central Prison. It is unknown if he had any children

Other high ranking Nazis, not directly involved in the Battle of Berlin also befell similar fates. Albert Speer, Reichminister of Armaments and Munitions and a chief Nazi Architect, was sentenced to 20 years at Nuremberg, attempting to portray his role in Nazi Germany as less significant than his peers, claims that were disproven after his death in 1981, being revealed that he was involved in multiple slave labour programmes across Nazi Occupied Europe. Adolf Eichmann, an SS Obersturmbannführer and key architect of the Holocaust, and Josef Mengele, an SS Hauptsturmführer and head of human experimentation at Auschwitz, both escaped to South America after the war. Whilst Eichmann was captured by Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Service, and executed in 1961, Mengele lived out his life in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, until drowning after suffering a stroke in 1979.

In their vengeful advance across eastern Europe, thousands of civilian Germans were murdered by the Red Army, including thousands of sexual assaults of women. In all, 40 million people were killed by the Nazis under their regime, 17 million of whom were killed systematically as a part of the Holocaust. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany strictly outlines laws that will prevent a Nazi-like party from ever rising again.

Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing, and pictures and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.

These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honor.

Art and scholarship, research, and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.
Article 5 of the German Constitution

Whoever allows content (section 11 (3)) suited to violating the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning or defaming a group defined by its national, racial, religious or ethnic origin, ideology, disability or sexual orientation or individuals on account of their belonging to one of these groups to come to the attention of another person who belongs to one of the aforementioned groups without having been requested to do so by that person incurs a penalty of a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine.
Section 192a of the German Criminal Code

One of the first meetings of the democratic Bundestag in West Germany, 1949

Casualties

The Greater Germanic Reich – 917,000–925,000
Soviet Union – 361,367
Civilian – 125,000

The Battle of Okinawa

On May 2nd, 1945, the 77th and 307th Infantry Division alongside the remnants of the 96th and 381st looked up at the intimidating Maeda Escarpment on the island of Okinawa, known to the soldiers as Hacksaw Ridge, a 400 foot cliff which was a natural barrier to a series of trenches, tunnels and fortifications set up by the Imperial Japanese Forces. The climb up Hacksaw Ridge would determine the outcome of the Battle of Okinawa.

By April of 1945, the Empire of Japan was on the ropes. With all their allies in the Axis Powers out of the picture, with Mussolini dead at a service station and Hitler cowering in the Führerbunker, the Japanese were the last members of the Axis with their homeland intact. Facing increasing partisan activity from the Chinese, causing massive losses on the front, and the United States having captured almost every island of theirs in the Pacific, including Iwo Jima a month prior, the last obstacle between the Americans and mainland Japan was the small island of Okinawa.

Located just 563km (350 miles) off the coast of Kyushu island, the southern most part of mainland Japan, Okinawa was a 1,207km² island, home to a vast amount of naval and air bases that would be useful in the event of an invasion of mainland Japan by the United States. Despite the fact that the 10th Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr, and the 5th Fleet, overseen by Admiral Raymond Spruance, vastly outnumbered the Japanese forces on Okinawa, the Japanese had come prepared.

Map of Japanese Army positions on Okinawa

Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima of the Japanese 32nd Army stationed only what was necessary in other parts of the island, focusing the majority of his forces in the south, due to its irregular and hilly terrain, opting to build a vast complex of tunnels, trenches and fortifications. By April, they had constructed 96km (60 miles) of tunnels, enough to accommodate the entire 32nd Army and everything it needed to fight against the Americans. In order to prevent the Americans from getting any supplies of their own, command ordered the massacre of every livestock animal on the island and that the civilians and soldiers live off sweet potatoes instead of the traditional rice.

By now, the Japanese fighting doctrine of Fumeiyo Yorimo Shi, or Death Before Dishonour, had really been set in stone, with many Japanese soldiers, airmen and naval vessels doing suicide runs against American forces. With the infantry, “Banzai attacks”, in which mass numbers Japanese infantry would run at American forces with bayonets screaming “Tenno Heika Banzai” meaning “Long live the Emperor” had become common place. Planes would often fly into American naval vessels, in what were dubbed Kamikaze attacks, named after the Japanese term for “divine wind”, which dates back to at least the 13th century.

A GIF of a Kamikaze aircraft crashing into a US Warship in May 1945

On March 25th, 1945, the US Navy began shelling the island in a week long bombardment in order to soften up defences and support mine clearing. The next day, US Marines landed in the archipelago of Kerama Retto, rooting out Japanese forces there over the next five days, with its capture providing a sheltered anchorage for ships attacked by Kamikaze strikes. Eventually, the full battle began on April 1st, known as L-Day. However, the beach head was formed relatively easily, due to the fact that there was literally no Japanese resistance at the beaches that they landed at.

Having eventually secured a decent chunk of the island, with 60,000 US Troops having landed, they eventually encountered opposition in the North and South. Whilst the North was very easily taken care of, the South, where all the fortifications were, was a bloodbath. Americans would often advance into carefully prepared Japanese killing zones where they were slaughtered in their hundreds by concealed machine guns and mortars. Their idea for an offensive would involve mass artillery shelling of Japanese positions before advancing towards the Japanese pillboxes, which often included the use of flamethrowers against Japanese positions. However, this strategy lead to little success, due to the Japanese remaining sheltered in their fortified tunnels, and caused more bloodshed on both sides, as the Japanese would often launch night attacks after Americans had captured positions. Eventually, the battle reached a stalemate on the Shuri Line, a heavily fortified area located near Shuri Castle.

Meanwhile, Operation Ten-Go went ahead, a one way suicide mission by the Japanese, dispatching the Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, to counter offensives by the US Navy on Japanese infantry positions. It was spotted before it could reach Okinawa and was sunk, along side 5 of its escort ships and the destruction of 100 Japanese fighters, largely in Kamikaze attacks, by an American carrier force, which only lost 10 fighters in comparison. It demonstrated US air superiority and served as a great anti-climax to the largest battleship to ever be made.

Despite the stalemate and consistent bloodshed, Buckner refused to change his tactics, much to the surprise of both US Army high command and the Japanese. Whilst a somewhat successful counter offence was launched by the Japanese after his refusal to change tactics, they still lost 7,000 men in doing so. This allowed Buckner’s forces to gain the upper hand and gain back half a mile of land

During the stalemate on the island, a combat medic known as Desmond Doss served at Hacksaw Ridge, managing to rescue hundreds of men from the rain of fire without being armed with a single weapon due to his Christian beliefs. He was awarded the Medal of Honour, of which Truman said “I’m proud of you. You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honour than being president.” Doss passed away in 2006 due to breathing complications and his memory was immortalised in the 2016 Mel Gibson Film “Hacksaw Ridge”, in which Doss is played by Andrew Garfield.

Desmond Doss receiving the Medal of Honour

Over the next few months, the situation became progressively more dire for the Japanese. Whilst spring rain had slowed the American advance even more than before, Nazi Germany had surrendered and more forces from Europe were now available. In a desperate effort to maintain control over the island, mass Kamikaze strikes were ordered against American Vessels, including the USS Bunker Hill and the USS Enterprise, knocking both vessels out of the war.

Eventually, the Shuri Line became untenable by late May. The Japanese began organising a retreat in stages to the Kiyan Peninsula, the southern most point of the island. Starting on May 24th, the Japanese slowly retreated down the island towards the peninsula. Despite the death of Buckner on the battlefield during an artillery strike, making him the highest ranked US Military officer killed in action during WW2, the entire Japanese garrison was massacred to a man, with a little over 7,000 troops surrendering to the Americans out of the 110,000 stationed on Okinawa before the battle. Out of shame, Ushijima committed Seppuku or more commonly referred to as Harakiri, a traditional Samurai form of suicide via disembowelment, on June 21st. The military garrison on Okinawa had also used much of the civilian population as human shields and convinced many of them to commit suicide or simply killed them, in order to cover up their atrocities perpetrated on the island, saying that the Americans would do worse. The Americans too lost many men in the battle of Okinawa, leading them to question if a mainland invasion of Japan would simply cost more lives, possibly influencing the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan 2 months later.

US Marine Corps plane flying over the razed capital city of Okinawa

Casualties

United States – ~50,000
Empire of Japan – 94,136
Civilian – 150,000

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 Holocaust. 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. Around half of the Jewish deaths were attributed to the gas chambers, whilst the rest were due to forced labour in the camps, starvation in the camps and ghettos as well as mass shootings, most notably by the Einsatzgruppen, a death squad that tailed the Wehrmacht in their march east.

Upon discovery of the concentration camps, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, told his men to film the horrors they encountered. The film reels were then compiled into a 1 hour long documentary, shown as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials and the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Holocaust, after his capture in 1961

Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened
Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking to his men about the Concentration Camps

Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, George Patton and American forces at Ohrdruf concentration camp, a part of the Buchenwald network

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 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, despite the countless amount of evidence recorded not just by the Allies and Soviets but by the Germans themselves. Many cite the Holocaust as the greatest humanitarian tragedy in history.

The Battle of the Bulge

By Februrary, 1943, the Wehrmacht had just suffered a great loss at the Battle of Stalingrad, in which German forces had just suffered 800,000 casualties and the hands of the Red Army. With German Morale low, Dr Joseph Goebbels, Reichminister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, took to the stage of the Berlin Sportpalast to deliver a speech that would change the German attitude to the war.

A photo of the rally on February 18th, the banner reading “Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg” or “Total War – Shortest War” in English.

The German nation is fighting for everything it has. We know that the German people are defending their holiest possessions: their families, women and children, the beautiful and untouched countryside, their cities and villages, their two thousand year old culture, everything indeed that makes life worth living. […] Total war is the demand of the hour. […] The danger facing us is enormous. The efforts we take to meet it must be just as enormous. […] I ask you: Do you want total war? […] I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end? […] Now, people rise up and let the storm break loose!

The applause that ruptured from the hall after this was enormous, with chorus’ of Sieg Heil and chants of “Führer command, we follow!” Nazi banners are raised high. Little do they know, the German people just signed their own death sentence.

As winter set in on the Western Front, the war was not looking great for Germany. With almost all of France liberated, the Italians firmly losing and the Soviets at the gates of Warsaw, Hitler needed a miracle in order to win the war. His miracle would come in the same plan he conducted four years prior.

The largely undefended and heavily wooded Ardennes region of Belgium and France began to look promising for Hitler once again. Having initially invading France in 1940 using the same area as a breakthrough point, Hitler planned to push a surprise attack through the area, cutting off most of the Commonwealth forces in the Netherlands, forcing them into another Dunkirk style evacuation. Many questioned the validity of the plan. Whilst Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command, was in fully support of the plan, many others, such as Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Walter Model as well as General Siegfried Westphal, were much more hesitant, fearing that the attack might not even reach the Meuse River. Despite their concerns, they kept silent for fear of being accused of defeatism, which, by this point, had become a crime in Nazi Germany.

Nicknamed Operation Wacht Am Rhine, after a famous Prussian patriotic anthem, every member of high command involved in the offensive was sworn to secrecy at the threat of death, with regimental commanders only being told a day before the attack. In order to not alert American Forces, soldiers used the cover of night in order to advance from town to town, covering up their vehicles when daybreak came. Complete radio silence was enforced during the whole operation. This secrecy had clearly worked, as the Allies were not expecting an attack in any capacity, with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery of the 21st Army Group confident that the Germans would not counter attack. Whilst the Germans were vastly disadvantaged, in terms of manpower and resources, they weren’t exactly fighting the cream of America’s crop. The defence force in the Ardennes was only seven divisions, most of whom were either new to combat or had been redeployed as an in-work vacation.

American Troops on deployment in the Ardennes

Despite the lack of fuel that was desperately needed in an operation through the terrain of the Ardennes, the 6th Panzer Army, commanded by Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich, the 5th Panzer Army, lead by General Hasso von Manteuffel, and Erich Brandenberger’s 7th Army, began the assault on December 16th, attacking the North, Centre and South respectively, with the Panzer forces set to capture Antwerp and the 7th protecting the flank from American General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army. Dietrich’s main objective was to capture the key bridges over the Meuse within the first 24 hours of the assault, before an advance onto Antwerp, whilst Manteuffel was to capture Brussels. Before these objectives could be reached, however, St. Vint and Bastogne had to be secured first, as it was crucial for maintaining supplies.

The 1st SS Panzer Division of the 6th Panzer Army was given special care by Hitler, as it contained the most elite troops of the Waffen-SS, including the Peiper Unit, consisting of nearly 5,000 Waffen-SS troops with 800 of their vehicles commanded by SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant-Colonel) Joachim Peiper. The full assault was preceded by Operation Grief, in which a brigade commanded by SS Standartenführer (Colonel) Otto Skorzeny adopted American customs, dressed in American uniforms and infiltrated American territory in order to capture bridges, by tampering with road signs, cutting telephone wires and minor acts of sabotage. American forces became so paranoid of encountering one of Skorzeny’s men that they distrusted everyone in an American Uniform, even holding General Omar Bradley, commander of Twelfth Army Group, captive for a short period.

Whilst Dietrich’s Army began with an artillery barrage of American positions, Manteuffel’s fighting force did not go in guns blazing, instead opting for the element of surprise. Despite this disobeying Hitler’s orders of the artillery barrage, the tactic worked well across the board, with many American forces retreating out of fear, with one officer recounting his men wetting themselves and vomiting. The heavy snow also meant that the Allies could not use their superior air power on the battlefield.

A German machine gunner in the Ardennes, December 1944

Despite the vast and quick progress, this was not consistent across the whole German front. Lieutenant Lyle Bouck of the American 99th Division, for instance, valiantly fended off German forces for the whole day with only 18 men, killing or wounding 400 Germans whilst losing only one man. This vexed Peiper so much that he ordered his unit to advance hard on the enemy position, including into a minefield, losing 5 tanks in the process. Meanwhile, the 326th Volks Grenadier Division advanced north, attempting to cut off American reinforcements but were sabotaged by their own artificial moonlight made out of bouncing spotlights off clouds, which silhouetted them in the horizon, where they were picked off like sitting ducks. In addition, the weather also meant decreased visibility and movement ofr their vehicles, slowing the advance significantly.

Despite these setbacks, German High command was satisfied with initial progress on the first day. However, due to the slower advance, Eisenhower was given ample time to move reinforcements to the front, including the famous 101st Airborne Division, to defend the town of Bastogne and block the German Advance. Meanwhile, Peiper’s unit ignored the orders of Hitler due to muddy paths, instead capturing different towns, where they would massacre POWs and civilians during the Maldemy Massacre, wherein 84 civilians and POWS were executed.

A photo of dead US Soldiers in the aftermath of Maldemy

As casualties mounted on the front, especially in the besieged town of Bastogne, an emergency meeting was called between Patton, Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, who ordered that the 7th Army cover for Patton’s position in the south, whilst his 3rd Army moved north to relieve the 101st Airborne and the 28th Infantry Divisions. Even with continuous artillery fire that prevented the Germans from capturing the city, they managed to encircle the 101st and 28th. The Germans were incredibly confident with a potential victory at Bastogne. Despite not having the strength to destroy the defenders of Bastogne, General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz of the XLVII Panzer Corps sent a demand for surrender to General Anthony McAuliffe, commander of the Bastogne Garrison and Artillery Commander of the 101st, simply responded with the following.

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.
McAuliffe’s response to Lüttwitz’s demand for surrender

Eventually, the snow began to ease up, allowing for Allied air superiority to make a comeback, conducting a massive supply drop onto the besieged troops at Bastogne, whilst fighter bombers proved extremely effective at breaking up German attacks. Despite this, Patton strill struggled to breach the German encirclement, repeatedly vexed by blown bridges, activities done by American engineers in order to slow the Germans earlier in the battle.

German Chief of the General Staff, Heinz Guderian, urged Hitler to withdraw forces from the Ardennes, citing it as a massive failure and to put more supplies into the East. However, German forces had just captured Celles, the furthest west of the advance, which buoyed Hitler’s spirits, and so the struggle went on.

Despite this achievement, supplies were running low, to the point where not even a full withdrawal was feasible. When American forces recaptured Celles, they found starved and exhausted Panzer troops greeting them. Runstedt now had to inform Hitler that the plan was a mass failure, to which Hitler, in a fit of rage, dismissed him. Eventually, Patton relieved Bastogne in the most Patton way possible, via a reckless charge from the north, accompanied by storms of napalm.

In a moment of delirium, Hitler commanded that no effort be spared in crushing Bastogne, having forgotten the objective of Antwerp entirely. In attack after attack, more and more lives were lost to Allied Air Superiority and artillery fire, with the Germans eventually giving up and retreating by January 11th of 1945. The Battle of the Bulge, which it was later dubbed, served as the last major offensive operation by the Third Reich, which only delayed the inevitable and now it was a desperate retreat back to Berlin.

American forces marching with an M1 Sherman in the Battle of the Bulge

Casualties

United States – 81,000
The Greater German Reich – 63,000-100,000+
United Kingdom – 1,408

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

John F. Kennedy and the PT-109

John F. Kennedy was, in 1941, a young up-and-comer in the political and law world. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was appointed as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom by Franklin Roosevelt. Once World War 2 had begun, Joe spoke on this, saying that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the United States]” and was forced to resign his position due to the controversy around this statement. Due to his father’s position in government, the young John travelled all across Europe, accompanying his father on diplomatic missions during the lead up to the war. During this time, he wrote his thesis for Harvard, on Neville Chamberlains appeasement methods with Adolf Hitler. The thesis was published and, as one of the first sources of information about these events, quickly became a best-seller. Kennedy was adamant that the US must intervene in the war, opposing his father’s beliefs.

He attempted to join the Officer Candidate School, but wasn’t allowed in due to his physical health, which may have included the chronic back pain that he may have had since he was very young. Eventually, he was assigned to the United States Naval Reserve, commissioned to ensign in October of 1941.

Once Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese, the US was thrust into World War 2. In January of 1942, Kennedy was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence field office in Charleston. Kennedy had wanted to command a Patrol Torpedo Boat but believed that he would be stopped from doing so due to his medical conditions. His father ended up falsifying medical records and convincing PT command that his son’s presence would bring good publicity. He completed his sixth months training and was assigned to the PT-101. Not wanting to be stuck in the Panama canal, Kennedy convinced the Massachusetts Senator to assign him to the South Pacific in order to get some real combat action. By April 1943, he had been assigned to the PT-109.

The PT-109 was a 80 foot (20m) long patrol torpedo boat. It had 3 twelve cylinder, 1,500 horsepower engines, and had a top speed of 41 knots (76 km/h or 47 mph). It was fitted with four 21-inch torpedoes and a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and four .50 calibre machine guns but was not equipped with a radar. At the start of the ship’s deployment, it had a crew of 15:

Lieutenant and Commanding Officer John F. Kennedy
Executive Officer Leonard Jay Thom
Quartermaster, cook and signalman Edgar E. Mauer
Radioman John E. Maguire
Gunners Raymond Albert, Charles A. Harris, Harold W. Marney, Maurice L. Kowal, Edmund T. Drewitch, Leon E. Drawdy and William Johnston
Motor Mechanics Gerald E. Zinser and Patrick Henry McMahon
And Torpedomen Raymond L. Starkey and Andrew Jackson Kirksey

The crew of the PT-109. Top row left to right are Al Webb (friend and not a crew member) Leon E. Drawdy, Edgar E. Mauer, Edmund T. Drewitch, John E. Maguire. Bottom row left to right are Charles A. Harris, Maurice L. Kowal, Andrew J. Kirkesy, Leonard J. Thom, and John F. Kennedy.

In June of 1943, Drewitch had to be discharged after an injury occured when a depth charge was dislodged and landed on his bunk bed. Kowal and Drwady were both injured in July during an attack from Japanese Aircraft.

By the time of the 109’s final mission, there were 13 men aboard, as George H. R. Ross was assigned after his boat was destroyed and was an observer aboard the boat. A 37mm gun was lashed down to the front of the boat in August.

On the night of August 1st, fourteen PT boats, including the 109, were assigned to Kolombangra, an island in the middle of the Solomon islands, where 4 Japanese destroyers were alleged to appear, carrying food supplies and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Japanese Garrison on the island and were set to pass through that night. Their orders were to repel or block the Japanese advance to the island. 24 torpedoes were shot from 8 of the PTs and not one hit the convoy. The entire convoy arrived unscathed at the Naval Base in Kolombangra, due to attacks taking place at night and radio silence being enforced throughout the PTs

The region that the PTs were assigned. The naval base is stationed on the south of the island and was coming south through the Vella Gulf

At around 2:27 am, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, returning from the base, heading north, straight at them. Kennedy decided to turn the boat to attack the destroyer with a torpedo and the newly mounted 37mm. Ross was assigned to the 37mm but he unfortunately suffered from night blindness, meaning that the could not effectively attack the boat. Within the next ten seconds, the 109 began to turn to the starboard side, with the Amagiri being commanded to match the turn.

The collision path of the two boats, graphics by Historigraph (YouTube)

After having made a sharp right turn to avoid a potential collision, the PT-109 was rammed by the Amagiri and split in half. A large fireball erupted from the 109, rising to around 100ft (30m) in the air. Some of the oil that had spilled from the boat had ignited the surface of the water. Kirksey and Marney were killed instantly, whilst McMahon was burnt from being thrown into the flaming water.

The 11 survivors clung to the side of the bow, that had not yet gone under water. They drifted south, down the Vella Gulf. Eventually, Kennedy decided that they needed to reach land before another destroyer found them or the bow sunk. The two largest islands wither side of them, Kolombangara and Ghizo were, at the time, occupied by Japanese forces. Kennedy decided to go to the small Plum Pudding Island, about 3.5 miles (5.6km) south west of their position. Unfortunately, McMahon was unable to swim, as well as two others who had been badly injured during the crash. Kennedy decided to make a raft out of a spare piece of drift wood, broken off from the boat. He then loaded two of the injured men onto the raft, whilst he hoisted McMahon onto his back and swam to Plum Pudding Island. They started the swim at 2pm on August 2 and lasted 4 hours.

Eventually, Kennedy with McMahon on his back reached the northern tip of the island, with the other 9 survivors arriving a little behind. The nearby American naval base at Rendova had received word of the 109’s crash but due to the size of the fireball reported believed that there would be no survivors so no rescue attempt was made. However, American coast watchers on Kolombangara had seen the wreckage of the bow drift down the gulf, who sent out the message to look out for any survivors

Both Kennedy and Ross swam out relatively far off the coast of the island on separate occasions. Both times came up fruitless. The crew had now been stranded for 2 days and were beginning to get hungry and thirsty. Kennedy organised the group to swim a mile (1.6km) south to the larger island of Olasana in search of supplies. Upon arrival, there was no fresh water and nothing to eat but unripe coconuts. That night, the weather worsened, meaning that they could not travel to another island in search of supplies

The next day, Kennedy and Ross swam half a mile over to Naru Island, finding an abandoned wreckage of a Japanese Barge upon their arrival, where there was food, water and other various supplies, including a small canoe. Meanwhile, a patrol boat of Solomon Natives, on the orders of the coast watchers, were investigating the barge from the water and saw Kennedy and Ross aboard the island, heavily sunburnt. Believing them to be the survivors of the barge, they decided to turn away from Naru Island, heading north to Olasana for some water. They passed by the beach, spotting the rest of the heavily sunburnt crew, believing them to also be Japanese. However, Thom’s distinct blonde beard made them realise that they were not Japanese.

The scouts informed the coast watch of the survivors, who immediately organised food and provisions to be sent over to the crew. A torpedo boat was then deployed to rescue the crew and brought them back to the base on Rendova. Battered, bruised but breathing, the crew had made it home.

The much more seriously injured crew were treated while the rest were reassigned to other PT boats. Kennedy would later go on to tell this story of survival whilst campaigning for Senator of Massachusetts and President of the United States.

A campaign parade for JFK’s 1960 Presidential Campaign

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 Reich – 800,000-1.5 million casualties
Soviet – 1.3 million
Civilian – 40,000