After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe (53 page)

Chapter 3: East Meets West

McFadden’s experience is from Horn and Wyczynski,
Paras Versus the Reich
; Derek Thomas’s account is from his unpublished memoir, kindly made available to me by his daughter Amanda Helm. For the American side, see NARA (World War Two Operations Report) RG407; Karel Margry, ‘The US–Soviet Linkup’,
After the Battle
, 88 (1995); Krasilshchik and Scott (eds.),
Yanks Meet Reds
; Dobbs,
Six Months in
1945.
For the Russian side, the account of SMERSH counter-intelligence officer Vladimir Bogolov, and ancillary documents, in
My Life
, are supplemented by the reminiscences in
Yanks Meet Reds.
The comments of Churkin, Odintsov and Sokolov are from
Russian Archives: Great Patriotic War
(vol. XV). On the broader political context Spalding,
Truman,
and Henry Ryan, ‘Anglo-American relations during the Polish crisis of 1945’,
Australian Journal of Politics and History,
30 (1984) have been particularly helpful. Yuri Eltekov’s testimony is from an interview with me. I am grateful to the Russian Council of Veterans in Moscow for arranging this meeting. Accounts of Jary, Lawrenson and Close are from Buckley,
Monty’s Men.
Ronald Mallabar’s testimony is in IWM/11211. Vaughan-Thomas’s report is from Delaforce,
Invasion of the Third Reich.
Marcosovich’s story is from
www.69th-infantry-division.com/Marcosovich
. The US doctor’s letters from Nordhausen are cited with acknowledgement to
www.wwii.letters-to-wilma
. US First Army material is drawn from John Greenwood (ed.),
The War Diary of General Courtney J. Hodges.
All references to British war cabinet meetings from March to May 1945 are from TNA, CAB 195/3, part 1. For the British–Soviet meeting, Karel Margry, ‘The British–Soviet link-up, 2 May 1945’,
After the Battle
, 88 (1995). The background to the German decision not to defend Lübeck is drawn from Liddell Hart Archives, De Guingand, 2/4/1 (report that Field Marshal Busch was ready to surrender the city without resistance to prevent it falling into the hands of the Russians), and City of Lübeck Archives, HS 1099/13 (for which I owe thanks to Richard Hargreaves). These latter records show that Busch’s chief of staff, General Eberhard Kinzel, discouraged any organised resistance to the British advance on Lübeck and Wismar. Eisenhower’s view of the Soviets is from his
Crusade in Europe.
Henry Swan’s letter is from the US National Library of Medicine (Swan Papers), reproduced at
www.profiles.nilm.nih.gov
. Andy Anderson’s diary of 2 May and the dash for Wismar are from Gary Boegel,
Boys of the Clouds.
William Knowlton’s account, ‘Your mission is to contact the Russians’, is from the
Reader’s Digest
, 47 (August 1945). I am grateful for permission to cite extracts from this. Background information is from the US 7th Armored Division After-Action Report, May 1945, transcribed by Wesley Johnston from NARA, 407/15545, folder 14.

Chapter 4: A Shadow Realm

Comments of Böhm-Tettelbach, Becheim and Kretschner are from the ZDF TV programme
Karl Dönitz – the Successor
; material on Ohlendorf is at NARA, RG319, box 165A. On the setting up of the new government, see Lüdde-Neurath,
Unconditional Surrender
; Steinert,
Capitulation
; Padfield,
Dönitz
and Dönitz’s own
Memoirs.
Particularly insightful comments on Dönitz and his relationship with Hitler can be found in Grier,
Hitler, Dönitz and the Baltic Sea.
Von Krosigk’s elevation to foreign minister (he was named as finance minister in Hitler’s will) had an immediate impact. On his policy – which was to nominally adhere to unconditional surrender, but in fact to delay surrendering to the Russians for as long as possible – see Musmanno Collection (Von Krosigk). Statements in these retrospective interviews are sometimes self-serving, but Von Krosigk’s fits well with his broadcast against Bolshevism on 2 May, which strikingly used the phrase ‘iron curtain’ about Soviet-occupied Europe (the full text is given in Jordan (ed.),
Conditions of Surrender
). This was a Nazi anti-Bolshevik slogan – first coined by Goebbels in February 1945. Churchill, who made it famous, was seduced by the power of the imagery, but perhaps should have thought more about its antecedents. John MacAuslan witnessing the sinking of the
Cap Arcona
and the massacre at Neustadt is from IWM/8225. Background material is from Darlow,
Victory Fighters.
The Hamburg negotiations and the reaction of Crozier are from Jordan (ed.),
Conditions of Surrender.
For General von Saucken’s outpost on the Hela Peninsula, see Schäufler,
Panzer Warfare
and information provided by Phil Curme in ‘The evacuation of Pillau, East Prussia (1945)’, available at
www.walkingthebattlefields.com
. The testimonies of Khukhrikov and Rothkirch are from Jones,
Total War.
Kaltenegger’s view of Schörner (
Feldmarschall der Letzten Stunde)
stresses his ‘iron determination’; Bidermann (
In Deadly Combat) –
who fought under him – emphasises his unnecessary cruelty. On Breslau, see Hargreaves,
Breslau
1945
, and Gleiss,
Breslauer Apokalypse.
The accounts of Hartnung and Seifert are from Kempowski,
Das Echolot.
On the Courland Pocket, the comments of Kaese, Willbrand and Meyer are taken from
www.kurland-kessel.de
. Useful background material is provided in Buttar,
Between Giants
; Bagramian,
We Went on to Victory
; Bidermann,
In Deadly Combat
; Isachenko,
Somewhere in Courland.
Elena Rzhevskaya’s account is from her
Berlin
,
May
1945.
Sherman Pratt’s testimony is drawn from John McManus, ‘The race to seize the Berchtesgaden’,
World War Two
(May 2005).

Chapter 5: Lüneburg Heath

For TAC HQ, see: Dallas,
1945: The War that Never Ended
; Kirby,
1100
Miles with Monty
and Caddick-Adams,
Monty and Rommel: Parallel Lives.
Albert Williams’s recollections are courtesy of
Bristol Evening Post
journalist David Clensy and his ‘Old soldiers’ archive. The character sketch of Montgomery is drawn from Horne,
Lonely Leader.
For the theatrical element, see John Keegan, ‘The German surrender to Montgomery at Lüneburg Heath, May 1945’, in Byron Hollinshead and Theodore Rabb (eds.),
I Wish I’d Been There, Book Two
(New York, 2009). The British commander’s gift for transforming morale is noted in Danchev and Todman (eds.),
Alanbrooke: War Diaries.
Eisenhower’s initial praise for Montgomery is from a recently discovered letter auctioned at Bonhams, Lot 320 (12 Nov. 2013). The accepted narrative of the surrender is provided by Montgomery,
Memoirs
, and Moorehead,
Eclipse.
The background to the negotiations is found in General Dempsey’s war diary: TNA, WO 285/12. The initial report, on 3 May, on the purpose of the German delegation – to surrender the three armies retreating from the Russians and now in the Mecklenburgh pocket – is from Churchill College Archives Centre [henceforth CCA], PJGG/9/9/31. The testimony of Captain Derek Knee, Montgomery’s interpreter, is drawn from IWM/Sound Interviews/14881. The comments of Trumbull Warren are from the TV documentary
Monty in Love and War
and Warren’s personal papers, IWM/1864
.
The solicitor’s letter about Montgomery keeping the original treaty, and the field marshal’s reply, is IWM/14881. The British prime minister’s response to the surrender – ‘quite a satisfactory incident in our military history’ – is found in Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy.
For the shock of Belsen, see Hargrave,
Bergen-Belsen
1945
, and Shephard,
After Daybreak.
Sweeney’s letter is IWM/19536. De Guingand’s notes on the German surrender are from the Liddell Hart Archives, De Guingand, 2/4/1–7. The British 2nd Army Intelligence Summaries are at TNA, WO 285/8. I am grateful to Terry Gallacher for permission to use his article ‘Movietone at war: filming the surrender at Lüneburg Heath’, at
www.terencegallacher.wordpress.com
. Additional information is drawn from Wyand,
Useless if Delayed.
For the vital differences in the surrender texts, see Kurt Jürgensen, ‘Towards occupation: first encounters in North Germany’, in Jordan (ed.),
Conditions of Surrender.
Liddell’s meeting with Churchill is from West (ed.),
Guy Liddell Diaries
, Volume II. For Churchill pressurising Eisenhower on accepting Denmark as part of the ‘tactical surrender’ at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May, see CCA, CHAR 20/217/69, and Summersby,
Eisenhower Was My Boss.
The reaction of Channon is from his
Diaries
. Maggie Blunt’s comments are from the Mass Observation Archive. Keitel’s ordinance is from Lüdde-Neurath,
Unconditional Surrender.
Schörner’s Order of the Day to the troops of German Army Group Centre is found in Kaltenegger,
Schörner: Feldmarschall der Letzten Stunde.
On the Canadian occupation of western Holland, see ‘The German surrender May 1945’,
Canadian Militay Headquarters Report
, 56 (1958); Zuehlke,
On to Victory
; and background information in Hodson,
Sea and the Land
and Chris Madsen, ‘Victims of circumstance: the execution of German deserters by surrendered German troops under Canadian control in Amsterdam, May 1945’,
Canadian Military History
, 2 (1993). Hardy-Roberts’s account is taken from Liddell Hart Archives, GB0099. I owe the Brigadier Jim Roberts story to Hastings,
Armageddon.
For the spite counter-attack on Zobten – the last German offensive in the war – see Pencz,
For the Homeland!
, and Moniushko,
From Leningrad to Hungary.
On the orders to the Courland Pocket, that after the surrender to Montgomery all military evacuations by sea would continue, see Bidermann,
Deadly Combat.
T-Force operations in Kiel are sourced from TNA, FO 1031/49. Background information is drawn from Dopheide,
Kiel May
1945.
Tony Hibbert’s account is from
www.paradata.org.uk.Charles
Sweeney’s unfinished letter of 5 May 1945 is found in IWM/19536.

Chapter 6: Prague

For the American advance into Czechoslovakia two articles by Bryan Dickerson have been particularly helpful: ‘The US 9th Armored Division in the liberation of western Czechoslovakia 1945’, at
www.global.com/articles
, and ‘The liberation of western Czechoslovakia 1945’, at
www.militaryhistoryonline.com
. All extended quotations from General George Patton’s diary are from British Online Archives, Papers Related to the Allied Command 1943–45 (full transcript of General Patton’s Diary, 26 Jan.–1 Sept. 1945). The crucial communication between Eisenhower and Antonov is also drawn from Papers Related to the Allied Command, Records of the Supreme Command, and is supplemented by
Russian Archives: Great Patriotic War
(vol. XV). For the personal dimension of the American command dynamic, Jonathan Jordan’s
Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley
has been very useful, alongside Carlo d’Este’s
Patton: A Genius for War.
Patton’s conversation with Patterson is found in Blumenson,
Patton Papers.
Marshal Konev’s dispositions for the Prague campaign are taken from
Russian Archives: Great Patriotic War
(vol. XV). His meeting with Bradley is described in Margry, ‘US–Soviet linkup’. On the crucial German surrender by General von Wietersheim as the invasion got underway, see ‘The end of the 11th Panzer Division’ on the US 90th Division’s website:
www.90thdivisionassoc.org
. For Reed’s ‘we wanted to do something beautiful’, see Karen Jensen, ‘How General Patton and some unlikely allies saved the prized Lipizzaner Stallions’,
World War Two
(November 2009). Churchill’s urgings to Eisenhower and Truman on an advance to Prague are from his
Triumph and Tragedy.
Additional material on the advance to Pilsen is taken from the Pilsen Liberation Festival’s ‘Pilsen – from D-Day to VE-Day’, available at
www.ddayvday.eu
. For Charles Noble’s
coup de main
: Bryan Dickerson, ‘There at the end: the US 16th Armored Division’s liberation of Pilsen’,
www.globeatwar.com/articles
. Krusheski’s remarkable testimony is from Dickerson, ‘Western Czechoslovakia’. Much of the material on the Prague uprising has been provided by Tomas Jakl from his exhibition in the Prague Military Institute, ‘The Czech Uprising in May
1945
’. Jakl’s
May
1945
in the Czech Lands
is also an essential point of reference. I am also grateful to Antonin Sticha, both for providing a strong eyewitness narrative of the uprising and for arranging additional veteran interviews. Two useful articles on the Radio Prague website are ‘“Calling all Czechs!”: the Prague uprising begins’ and (on Greig’s role) ‘A Scottish hero of the Prague uprising’:
www.radio.cz
. And particularly helpful, on the same site, is David Vaughan’s ‘Do not let Prague be destroyed!’, drawing on material in the Prague City Archives. ULTRA decrypts on the progress of the revolt, and the role of Frank, are from TNA, HW 1/3754-8. For the formation and role of the Vlasov Army, see Andreyev,
Russian Liberation Movement
, Hoffman,
Wlassow-Armee
and Ausky,
Vojska Generala Vlasova
. The diary of the German liaison officer Major Helmut Schwenniger, which records the progress of the Vlasov Army’s 1st Division in support of the Prague uprising, is printed in Pavel Zacek, ‘Vlasovci nemeckym pohledem’,
Securitas Imperii
, 18 (2011). On reaction within the Vlasov Army, see Diczbalis,
Russian Patriot.
Material on Francis Konecny’s meeting with Bunyachenko is taken from
www.fronta.cz
. Bunyachenko’s proclamation is from the Prague City Archives.