Berlin Bombed

BERLIN UNDER ATTACK

The Battle of Berlin progresses. It will continue as opportunity serves & circumstances dictate, until the heart of Nazi Germany ceases to beat.

Air Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, November 25th, 1943

Although the RAF had bombed Berlin during the night of August 25th, 1940, provoking the Blitz, it was not one of the target cities selected in the Area Bombing Directive of February 14th, 1942. However, for the sake of morale, it was plain that raids on the German capital were vital. The RAF proposed to give Berlin the same treatment that London had suffered.

The bombings began with two daring daylight raids by RAF Mosquito fighter-bombers on January 31st, 1943. The first was timed to strike just as Hitler’s deputy & head of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was to deliver radio broadcast, celebrating ten years of Nazi rule. Surprised by the lack of anti-aircraft flak – the Germans had not been prepared for a daylight raid – one Mosquito pilot said: “I imagine all the all the gunners were tuned in to Göring & they had left their posts.” The second raid came that afternoon, just as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels took the microphone.

THOUSAND BOMBER RAIDS

In November, Bomber Command began pounding Berlin with thousand-bomber raids, each dropping 2,500 tons of high explosives. By January 20th, 1944, 17,000 tons of bombs had been dropped on Berlin, reducing it to rubble. That night, a Swedish correspondent reported that the sirens went off at 19:00 hours. Within minutes the first bombs were falling. In just over half an hour, 600 Lancaster & Halifax bombers dropped 2,300 tons of bombs, starting 30 major fires. The 3,000-foot cloud of smoke was so thick that the huge four-engined bombers had to dive through it & deliver their bombs from a few hundred feet about ground. After one attack on Berlin with incendiaries, RAF pilots said the flames could be seen 200 miles away. In all there were 363 air raids on Berlin by Bomber Command & the USAAF Eighth Air Force. An estimated 20,000 people were killed, many more injured, & hundreds of thousands rendered homeless.

I did not even hear the air-raid sirens & did not wake until a window shattered about two o’clock in the morning. I jumped from my bed to witness the horror of an air raid over Berlin… Although I could not see the planes, I could hear their continuous grumbling above me. They unloaded their bombs on the north side of town which became a burning inferno. Our searchlights sweeping the sky illuminated it like a dome. Occasionally, they caught a plane in their cross lights & our anti-aircraft guns would roar into full blast & the plane unable to escape would burst into flames & fall to the ground. It was clear to me that our furniture had to be moved out of Berlin for safekeeping, but bigoted Nazis still maintained that Berlin was a safe town.

Herbert Winkelmann, at home in Berlin on leave from the Eastern Front

From The Story Of A World At War: World War II, by Nigel Cawthorne

Part III: The Allies Gain Momentum

ITALY CHANGES SIDES

All Italians who now act to help eject the German aggressor from Italian soil will have the assistance & support of the Allies.

Proclamation by General Dwight D. Eisenhower

On September 2, 1943, a small Allied force had landed on the “heel” of Italy, quickly taking the ports of Brindisi & Taranto. The following day, Montgomery’s Eighth Army crossed the Straight of Messina & landed in Calabria, on the “toe” of Italy. That day, the new Italian government agreed to the Allied peace terms, though their capitulation was not announced until September 8th.

Under the peace agreement, the Italian Navy was to surrender in Malta. On its way there, it was bombed by the Germans. German units also turned on the Italians in Greece & the Balkans, & disarmed them. One the Greek island of Cephalonia & in Croatia, two Italian divisions were massacred by German units. Italian survivors joined the Greek Resistance or Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia. In return for Italy’s capitulation, the Americans had promised to land the 82nd Airborne Division on the outskirts of Rome & take over the city, but the Third Panzergrenadier Division got there first. On September 9th, an Anglo-American force under General Mark Clark landed at the beachhead in Salerno, 30 miles south of Naples. Kesselring had anticipated this move & managed to hold the Allies back in their bridgehead for six days.

GERMANY INVADES

Hitler anticipated the fall of Mussolini & sent 17 more divisions to Italy under the command of Rommel, who set up his headquarters in Bologna on August 17th, 1943. Several Italian units melted away, but Rommel managed to take over ten divisions & add them to his command. Effectively, Italy had been invaded by Germany & Hitler even threatened to arrest the king. On September 12th, Kesselring counterattacked between the British & American forces, attempting then to encircle & crush the American beachhead at Salerno. Clark threw every man he had left into the fight, including a regimental band, orderlies, & cooks. But Hitler denied Kesselring reinforcements & the German advance foundered under a naval bombardment just five miles from the beach. New German radio-controlled bombs hit the US cruiser Savannah as well as the British cruiser Uganda & the battleship Warspite, which had been brought close to the coast. Eventually, the Americans were relieved when Montomgery broke through at Agropoli. On October 1st, the American Fifth Army entered Naples, while more British forces landed at Bari & Termoli on the Adriatic coast. The German Tenth Army had been defeated at a cost of 5,674 American casualties.

On October 13th, 1943, the new Italian government in Rome declared war on Germany. This did not bother Kesselring unduly because German reinforcements were already consolidating their hold on north & central Italy, where a new Fascist republic had been set up under Benito Mussolini, who had been rescued from prison in a daring raid. The Repubblica Sociale Italiana was established on September 18th at Salò on lake Garda. Members of the Grand Council of Fascists who had voted against Mussolini, including his own son-in-law, former Foreign Minister Count Ciano, were arrested & executed. But otherwise, as Mussolini himself admitted, he was merely a puppet. None of the neutral countries – not even Fascist Spain – would recognize Mussolini’s new republic. In Rome Marshal Ugo Cavallero committed suicide rather than accept Kesselring’s offfer of the command of a new Fascist Army.

The Italian declaration of war followed a wave of atrocities & looting after Italy’s surrender. In Rome, German troops stole priceless manuscripts & artifacts. Civilians in Naples had been subjected to a five-day reign of terror by the retreating Germans. In one case, they herded 100 Neapolitans into a room & blew it up with land mines. Hospitals were attacked, food stocks stolen, water mains & sewers dynamited. In villages across the country, Germans murdered Italians at random, claiming that they had betrayed them. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of disarmed Italian soldiers were packed into sealed trains & taken to Germany as slave labor. But in the south the Germans were facing another foe who was not nearly as helpless.

AN ITALIAN PILOT’S STORY

We decided, a few families, a few friends, to go over to the Allies. But there were minefields everywhere. The Yankee or British Navy, I don’t know, were shelling these big towers. There were Germans there. I know this because I helped them. I didn’t want to. I had to. Otherwise, I would be shot. Then I became a bit of a devil. I couldn’t care less what happened to me in those days. A German came & pointed the gun on me & said: “I will shoot.” I said: “You shoot, you bastard, if you like.” You know you become like that when you see so much suffering.

Antonio Colette, Italian Air Force

THE GUSTAV LINE

Rommel’s Panzers checked the American Fifth Army on the Volturno river, just 20 miles north of Naples. But Rommel was urged by Hitler to abandon Rome & withdraw to the north. On November 21st, Rommel was relieved. On the east coast, the British advance had run out of steam when the roads through the mountainous terrain became jammed with vehicles. French colonial troops arrived with horses & mules instead. The Germans dug in for the winter along the Gustav Line, a defensive position that ran for 100 miles across the Italian peninsula which hinged on the town of Cassino with the historic Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino on the mountain above it.

From The Story Of A World At War: World War II, by Nigel Cawthorne

Part II: The Allies Gain Momentum

THE INVASION OF ITALY

A veil has been torn from a treacherous intrigue which for weeks had been enacted by an Italian clique, serfs to Jews, & alien to their own people.

German propaganda broadcast on news of Italian capitulation

After the fall of Mussolini, the Allies began peace talks with the Italians. The new Italian government agreed to surrender terms the day the Allies landed on the mainland. But the Germans simply took over. While Italian resistance faded, the Germans tried to force the Allies back into the sea. When that failed they established a series of defensive lines up the peninsula that would stall the Allies for nearly two years. Churchill‘s strategy of attacking Hitler’s Germany through the “soft underbelly of Europe” failed. He had aimed to race up the peninsula & cut Germany off from the advancing Red Army, but Allied troops had to fight ferocious battles every inch of the way.

From The Story Of A World At War: World War II, by Nigel Cawthorne

Part 1: The Allies Gain Momentum

THE WAR COMES TO ITALY

We pull out in the morning for the invasion of Sicily, I think it will be a pretty bloody show… I doubt that I will be killed or even wounded, but one can never tell. It is all a question of destiny.

General George S. Patton, letter to his wife Beatrice, July 9th, 1943

At a meeting in Casablanca, western Morocco, in January 1943, Churchill had persuaded Roosevelt that, after North Africa, they should attack the “soft underbelly” of Europe – Sicily. However, in an elaborate deception, a body in a Royal Marine uniform was dropped in the waters of Spain with papers suggesting the attacks would be on Sardinia. The Spanish handed the papers to the Germans, who were taken in by the ruse. Hitler ordered the strengthening of fortifications on Sardinia & Corsica. A panzer division was sent to Greece & two more withdrawn from the Soviet Union, immediately before the conflict at Kursk.

THE ALLIES IN SICILY

On July 10th, 1943, at 05:00 hours, Montgomery’s Eighth Army & General Patton’s Seventh Army landed on the southern shores of Sicily to find the island’s defenders were drawn up along the north shore, facing Sardinia. They knew an attack was coming. For a month, their defenses had been pounded by 4,000 Allied planes. In response, the defenders could put up just 200 Italian & 320 German planes, & much of the island’s infrastructure, including its airfields, had been wiped out. Even so, the landings were nearly a disaster. Axis aircraft had spotted the Allied fleet leaving Malta. The fleet was hit by a storm, nearly forcing it to turn back. In the heavy weather, the defenders dropped their guard, but high winds took their toll on the invading airborne troops, blowing its gliders & parachutists out to sea to their deaths. Those that landed on the island were widely dispersed. Nevertheless, they succeeded in harassing enemy movements, & 100 British airborne troops took a vital bridge on the coastal road & held it for five days until the Eighth Army arrived.

THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT

At dawn on July 10th, the coastal defenses were pounded by tactical aircraft & naval gunfire. Then a fleet of 2,590 ships, including 237 troop transports & 1,742 landing craft, began putting ashore 115,000 British & Canadian troops, & 66,000 Americans. Facing them were the 230,000 men & 150 guns of the Italian Sixth Army & two panzer divisions. The Italian coastal force put up a heroic defense but was virtually wiped out. The following morning the Panzers ran into the forward posts of the First American Division, but they came under fire from six Allied destroyers & the cruisers Savannah & Boise, who knocked out 30 German tanks. The Italian “Livorno” Division was also badly mauled. Meanwhile, the British Eighth Army occupied the ports of Augusta & Syracuse in the southeast without a shot being fired, because their garrisons had already been evacuated. On July 14th, the airfields at Comiso & Ragusa in southern Sicily were taken & rapidly put back into commission.

PATTON & MONTGOMERY RACE FOR MESSINA

The Allied dash was then on for Messina, the crossing point to mainland Italy. Once Messina was taken, the enemy would be trapped on the island & forced to surrender, but Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, now the German commander in Italy, preempted them. He sent in another Panzer division & General Hans Hube took over command of all German fighting forces in Sicily.

Montgomery’s dash for Messina was stopped at Catania by stiff defense, halfway up the east coast. He then turned inland, switching his attack to the west of Mount Etna. But this move stepped on the Americans’ toes. Patton pushed westward & captured Sicily’s capital, Palermo, on July 22nd, 1943. He then began his own dash on Messina along the north coast. But Hube stopped him at the small town of Santo Stefano, halfway down the coastal road. Meanwhile, the First Canadian Division pushed northwest, confining German defenders to the northeast corner of the island. The British were now landing the 78th Division at Syracuse, while the American Ninth Division landed at Palermo. This increased the Allies’ strength to 11 divisions. Totally outnumbered, Hube pulled back.

MUSSOLINI’S DOWNFALL

On the night of July 24th, Mussolini told the Grand Council of Fascists that the Germans were thinking of evacuating southern Italy. Hitler was clearly more interested in defending Germany than Italy &, after the reverses on the Eastern Front, some members of the Grand Council believed that his defeat was inevitable. Their priority was to prevent Italy from becoming a battleground. They voted against Mussolini, who was arrested & imprisoned at Campo Imperatore, high in the Abruzzi mountains. Meanwhile, the new Italian government, led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, began secret peace talks with the Allies, while assuring the Germans that they were doing nothing of the sort. After the fall of Mussolini, Kesselring was ordered by Hitler to withdraw from Sicily. The Strait of Messina was bristling with anti-aircraft guns & Hube managed to get two-thirds of his force across to the Italian mainland before, at 08:30 hours on August 17th, 1943, the British & Americans met in the ruins of Messina, leaving just two miles of clear water between the Allied Army & the mainland. The invasion of Sicily cost 5,532 Allied dead, 14,410 cruisers damaged. The Italians lost 4,278 dead & the Germans 4,325. The Allies had taken 132,000 prisoners, along with 520 guns & 260 tanks.

PATTON’S DEFENSE

After winning the race for Messina, “Old Blood & Guts” Patton snatched disaster from the jaws of triumph. Visiting the Allied wounded, he slapped two shell-shocked enlisted men, accusing them of cowardice. The press was outraged, but Eisenhower refused to sack him, saying: “Patton is indispensable to the war effort – one of the guarantors of our victory.” However, Patton was forced to apologize & was ordered to remain behind in Palermo when the Allies invaded Italy. The final blow came when he heard that General Omar Bradley had been chosen to lead the US land forces in the invasion of Normandy.

From The Story Of A World At War: World War II, by Nigel Cawthorne

Kristallnacht: Chapter 1

48 Hours of Kristallnacht
Night Of Destruction / Dawn of the Holocaust

WARNING SIGNS

Germany was one of Europe’s most cultured, sophisticated societies, & all German Jews considered themselves integral to that society. Though a tiny minority of the country – about 525,000 people, or less than 1 percent of the population – were among the elite of German society: prominent doctors, lawyers, professors, & industrialists. Many were assimilated & were not practicing Jews; some had even converted. In the racial ideology of Adolf Hitler, however, German Jews’ self-identification was irrelevant. For Hitler, Jews were parasites whose diseased nature made no difference; it was the impurity of Jewish blood that threatened the racial purity & superiority of the Aryan race.

The official prosecution of the Jew began in April 1933, when the Nazis initiated a boycott of Jewish businesses throughout Germany. Signs & graffiti warned Germans not to buy from the Jews. This boycott was followed by the enactment of a law barring Jews from civil service jobs, including positions as teachers in schools & universities. Two years later, German Jews were stripped of their citizenship & barred from marrying Aryans. Because some of the new laws were announced at a Nazi rally at Nuremberg, they became known as the Nuremberg Laws. These were just some of the 400 separate pieces of legislation that were adopted between the time Hitler came to power & World War II began that prevented the Jews from working, going to school, or otherwise taking part in German society. These decrees robbed them of their possessions & demonized their religion. Many Jews believed the discriminatory measures would cease after the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, & they would have to accept life as a second-class citizens, & most were prepared to do so.

The situation actually improved briefly as Hitler focused on putting Germany’s best foot forward in advance of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Before, during, & for a short time afterward, the Nazis displayed their nationalistic spirit in a way that reinforced the positive image of Germans. Shortly thereafter, however, the situation for Jews began to deteriorate further. They were prevented from staying in hotels; going to restaurants, theaters, or shops; or even sitting on park benches designated for Aryans. By the middle of 1938, most Jewish businesses had been taken over by the Germans.

In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, & 183,000 more Jews became subject to the Nazis’ discriminatory policies. Still, many Jews simply could not conceive of anything permanently altering their status, let alone conceive of the dimensions of Hitler’s ultimate plan. It was this disbelief, even as the persecution against them went from bad to worse, that lead so many to stay in their homes rather than flee. By the time those who remained realized what Hitler intended – & the willingness of their fellow Germans to go along – it was too late to escape.

The world also had a different image of Germany than the Jews who lived inside the country. On September 29th, 1938, France & Britain had negotiated an agreement recognizing Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced after the Munich Agreement that it would lead to “peace for our time.”

From 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction / Dawn of the Holocaust, by Mitchell G. Brad, Ph.D.