When Berlin fell in 1945: Second World War

This image perhaps says it all. The proud young German soldier lies dead before the Brandenburg Gate

The Battle for Berlin saw some of the fiercest and desperate fighting during the Second World war. The Germans were fighting desperately to stave off avenging Russians. The Russians were desperate to get to Berlin first. Also to get hold of the nuclear weapons that the Nazis had invented.

QUOTES

"Hitler's large-scale demands for the Mediterranean meant that...the plans for...an 'Eastern Wall' were overtaken by the increasingly rapid advance of the Red Army"
Lieutenant General Warlimont - (Speaking after the war)

From the BBC

The human cost of the battle for Berlin had been enormous. Millions of shells were fired into a city that was already devastated after two years of relentless bombing raids by British and American warplanes. Nearly a quarter of a million people died during the last three weeks of World War Two, almost as many as the United States lost during the entire war.

The German armed forces, the Wehrmacht, was a shadow of its former self. But its 300,000 German troops were determined to hold out against the vastly superior Red Army. The German resolve to fight was largely due to fear of Russian retributions. Since 1941, Nazi forces had laid waste to large parts of the Soviet Union. More than 23 million Soviet soldiers and civilians had died. Fuelled by Nazi propaganda, the Germans were terrified of what would happen if Berlin fell into Soviet hands.

The not-so-handsome Soviet troops march on the streets of Berlin.

QUOTES

"The battle of Kursk... the forcing of the Dnieper... and the liberation of Kiev, left Hitlerite Germany facing catastrophe."
General Vasili I. Chuikov - Commander of the 8th Guards Army - (Speaking after the war)

BBC

'We started to fire at the masses,' says one former German machine gunner. 'They weren't human beings for us. It was a wall of attacking beasts who were trying to kill us. You yourself were no longer human.'

Russians soldiers wave their flag near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

BATTLE OF HALBE (BBC)

Amongst the rubble of the city centre, Hitler was holding out in his underground bunker, cut off from the reality of the fighting above. During a staff conference on 22 April, Hitler came close to admitting defeat. But then his deputy, Martin Borman, insisted that there was still hope. 'Suddenly they were all busy making plans again,' a former Wehrmacht staff officer remembers.

'It was decided to fight the battle for Berlin and that Hitler would direct it personally.' Hitler's hopes lay with the 70,000 troops of General Wenck's 12th Army south west of the city. He ordered them to unite with General Busse's 9th Army, retreating from the Oder. They were then to launch a counter attack against the Red Army.

But Hitler's final battle plan was pie in the sky. Advancing from the south, Marshall Konev's forces cut off and surrounded the Werhmacht's 9th Army in the forest south of Berlin, near the small town of Halbe. 'The massacre in that forest was appalling,' Beevor observed after a visit to the Halbe battlefield. 'There was absolutely no way of treating the wounded, they were just left screaming at the road side.'

Over 50,000 soldiers and civilians died. Most of the dead were German, many of them SS. It was the Nazi forces' desperate last stand. One local witness remembers how the narrow paths leading through the forest were piled high with corpses. It took the local population months to clear the site. Even today, a thousand corpses are found each year in and around Berlin. Many of them are detected in the now silent forests of Halbe.

Over 50,000 soldiers and civilians died. Most of the dead were German, many of them SS. It was the Nazi forces' desperate last stand. One local witness remembers how the narrow paths leading through the forest were piled high with corpses. It took the local population months to clear the site. Even today, a thousand corpses are found each year in and around Berlin. Many of them are detected in the now silent forests of Halbe.

A Soviet tank trundles by the Gate

RUSSIANS IN BERLIN (BBC)

Zukhov's and Konev's troops were punching their way into the German capital, sometimes accidentally firing at each other in their bid to win the race for Berlin. Ironically, the Soviets' use of tanks in the street fighting was not dissimilar to the tactics used so disastrously by the Germans in Stalingrad. Soviet T-34s were highly vulnerable to the Panzerfaust, the German bazooka, fired by soldiers hiding in destroyed buildings. It meant further unnecessary losses for the Red Army. But the 90,000 German defenders - mainly old people or members of the Hitler Youth - stood little chance against more than a million Red Army troops.

Already, the civilian population was bearing the brunt of the Red Army's revenge. Though the first wave of Soviet troops was generally considered to be disciplined, it was the second that indulged in orgies of rape and violence, fuelled by large stocks of alcohol found in the city.

Based on contemporary hospital reports and on surging abortion rates in the following months, it is estimated that up to two million German women were raped during the last six months of World War Two, around 100,000 of them in Berlin. One woman remembered hiding in the loft of her apartment block, ready to jump out of the window if she was detected, whilst her best friend was being gang raped by Soviet soldiers in the apartment below.

The authorities in Moscow traditionally deny German allegations of mass rape at the end of the war. But during his research, Beevor discovered internal Red Army documents that prove that the Soviet High Command was well aware that some of their soldiers were running out of control. Even more shocking is Beevor's discovery in the Red Army files that Red Army troops also raped Russian women after their release from Nazi slave labour camps in Germany.

The once proud and beautiful city lies in ruins

QUOTES

"It is on this beautiful day that we celebrate the Fuhrers birthday and thank him for he is the only reason why Germany is still alive today"
Josef Goebbels - Ministry of Propaganda - 26th April 1945

WHY WAS STALIN IN A HURRY TO GET BERLIN?

Stalin was desperate to get his hands on the German nuclear research centre, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in the southwest of Berlin - before the Americans got there. The Soviets knew through their spies of the American atomic bomb programme. Stalin's own nuclear programme, Operation Borodino, was lagging behind and Soviet scientists wanted to find out exactly what the Germans had come up with during the war.
As it turned out, the special NKVD troops despatched to secure the German institute discovered three tons of uranium oxide, a material they were short of at the time. 'So the Soviets achieved their objective,' says Beevor, 'the uranium oxide they found in Berlin was enough to kick start Operation Borodino and allow them to start working on their first nuclear weapon.'

The entire generation of young German men was wiped out by the end of the war. Only old men and women remained in Berlin as the Soviet troops poured in. Out of a population of 27,00,000; 20,00,000 were women.

After the battle, more than a hundred thousand German prisoners of war were marched to labour camps in the Soviet Union. Only now did the totality of their defeat sink in on the German people. The country lay in ruins and the population was close to starvation. In addition, confirmation of the Nazis' mass extermination of the European Jews meant that Germany faced a complete moral catastrophe.

The battle for Berlin had brought to an end the bloodiest conflict in European history. 'There's no family in the Soviet Union, Poland or Germany where they didn't lose at least one close relative,' said Beevor in our final interview. 'In Britain, the suffering was real, but it simply cannot be compared to the scale of suffering in Central Europe.'

The French SS men confront the Soviet tanks on the streets of Berlin. There were no German soldiers left except for young boys so the 'Charlemagne battalion' of the French SS was sent to defend Berlin.

All the buildings in ruins with shell and bullet marks.

QUOTES

"On 1 February 1943, an angry Soviet colonel collared a group of emaciated German prisoners in the rubble of Stalingrad. 'That's how Berlin is going to look!' he yelled, pointing to the ruined buildings all around.
From the preface of The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Anthony Beevor 

Before the war. Memory of the past. Hitler marches near the Kroll Theatre as the SS salute.

The grim reality in 1945. A plane had crashed into a five storeyed house. The last ditch fighting was desperate.

Back in April 1945, the battle was coming to a close. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide - together with his mistress Eva Braun, only hours after they were married. Hitler had given strict orders for his body to be burned, so that his enemies wouldn't do what they had done to Mussolini, who was publicly displayed hanging upside down. 'And Hitler,' one former SS guard told us, 'could rely on the fact that the people he gave these orders to would carry them out.'

By 2 May, the Reichstag, the old German parliament, had fallen. Berlin surrendered to Marshall Zukhov, who received the honour of being the conqueror of Berlin. The battle for Berlin had cost the Soviets over 70,000 dead. Many of them had died because of the haste with which the campaign was conducted. 'Of our unit's 360 handsome young men who gathered at the Dnieper River, only 6 made it to Berlin,' says one Soviet veteran.

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Berlin in 1945: First hand account: Notes from the diary of Charles Deutmann

This is a heart-rending account from a man who lived in Berlin after Nazism ended in 1945.


Today we went to Berlin, my wife and me. The streets are cleaned up as far as possible, to restore the traffic barely. It has freed the scattered stones from mortar and built from the ruins of houses. At times you go over a carpet of dust. Alexanderplatz a huge Russian tank was shot in the street. Not far away, a German, who fought his last fight here. The town is a desolate, scary-looking pile of rubble with ghostly shapes of former houses, streets, squares and neighborhoods. Like shattered by the hand of a giant debris field of the 4 ½ million city lies in the sun, surrounded by the green ring of suburbs, not so seriously damaged .

In Berlin, there is dysentery. Large strokes are calling on the people, not drink unboiled water, boil the meat, or roast. All the kitchen or other wastes buried deep.

But what good is all this? The dead lie under the rubble, the rats multiply alarmingly and there is a lack of drugs and alcohol. In front of a butcher's shop were invited from meat. There were large pieces, half, But even during transport, the parts of hundreds of thick black flies were covered. In a field of rubble, which was formerly a mill, grew rye and wheat. On other screes stood tall grass and probably also a flower.

Russian soldiers run through the rubble of the city, honking cars, gangs of Nazi women remove debris and clean the streets, children digging in the rubble stone to wood and painted in between a grizzled man in his makeshift basement shop. "Ladies and men's clothing." In a small bookstore, we were able to buy postcards, stationery and steel springs. In other shops hung signs like "not yet arrived potatoes" or "sold out of bread" or "Today, no more meat," etc.
One sees German police, the women wear colorful clothes, and again in so many tired eyes a spark glimmers of hope.


26 June 1945

A day of joy! After eight weeks we are now receiving 150 grams of margarine. It was evening, fried potatoes, pudding made from wheat grits and stewed rhubarb. In addition, today was the allocation of coffee and sugar. Beautiful!


9 July 1945

We are once again went to Berlin, my wife and me. We ended up following a road block on a small square of the completely destroyed the church in the Weberstrassenwirte.

We stood in front single and mass graves of German soldiers, in graves of unknown dead and dead children. At the burned-out church, surrounded by rubble and debris of destroyed houses is limited, they had found all the next bomb to the devastated place their final resting place. In the midst of the graves, but were parts of the body of a downed American fighter. A wing made of metal, riddled with machine-gun bullets and shrapnel, was leaning against a grave in the church wall.

And most of us, the moment we will never forget - (is there a bear found dead, "asked my wife quietly) - lay the charred Pelzkombination of a downed pilot. From the head, hands and feet of the corpse was nothing more to discover. But the legs and trunk were still required. And hundreds of flies were busy in the thick charred meat and fat around the charred remains of fur, which was once the back of a man. Had these terrible people in the charred remains of a fur coat that looked like a dead, burnt, wild animal is not born a mother, he had not loved anyone who was waiting for him? Why did these poorest of the poor is not buried? He died as an enemy, but with this sad remnant of a human being, we have probably felt deep compassion.

11 July 1945

Remains of cars with sheaves of fire in the cooler, the windows, the outer edges of the bodywork and smashed motorcycles, bomb craters, military equipment, rubble and heaps of stones - that was the Paris Square. Heavily damaged by the Brandenburg Gate, the sad rags hanging of the former wins the car. ZOn both sides of the Charlottenburg Chaussee (via triumphalis) shattered the old, magnificent trees stood with her scanty green and let the view through the vast ruins of the Reichstag building block. To right and left of the road wrecked cars that were skipped when she, the Garbe received fatal bullet, because the guiding man in the last battle with death, the bullets in the body, rearing up suddenly lost to the approaching night, about himself and the car domination.

In between, we always came back to graves, mostly German, one near the road, once removed. Once, with a cross and name, once with the helmet or the simple but the hill.

Scattered throughout the zoo were of German planes dropped bombs supply, which had provided the encircled German troops with ammunition, gasoline, food and bandages. Here also many Russians like to sleep in mass graves. Das Wasser des Landwehrkanals roch fürchterlich nach Leichen. The water of the Landwehr canal smelled terribly of corpses.

Before the big building of the Propaganda Ministry in the Emserstraße had been placed on a mound, the severed head of a black Hitler bust.'s Head wearing a helmet far too little of the SS in the sand, but Prior was crossed with the vagina a rusty SS officer's saber and then a black SS officer's cap with silver cord and skull lay.

Scorn and contempt for a public danger, irrational, silly fools, destroy the megalomaniac surrounded by heartless criminals without a soul and mind races to conquer a world and plunder everything wanted to destroy rational and righteous, and brought untold misery upon the world.

We saw cars with American, British and French officers, soldiers, accompanied by aides in the Army officer rank who wore very good and flattering uniforms.The German officer battered cars on the Leipziger Strasse were empty champagne bottles. At the Potsdam Bridge on Lutzow-shore, we had to wait a little while, get past a British convoy of cars. But it was unbearable, the water flowing below us of the Landwehr Canal brought a terrible stench.

The ruins of the desert Berlin, the largest necropolis in Europe, is impossible to describe in his harrowing uniqueness. All this must have seen a man with steady nerves, to understand at all what must have been committed here.

Rubble, hunger, poverty and broken glass - that is Berlin. We want to see it not for a long time.

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AMAZING: 2004 Tsunami washed ship 2 miles onshore!

The Tsunami in 2004 was a destructive one. Amazingly it carried a thousand tons ship two miles onshore!


This 100-foot fishing boat was swept inland by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which dumped it atop a house near the port of Banda Aceh, on Indonesia's island of Sumatra. Fifty-nine residents fleeing floodwaters took refuge aboard the vessel until waters receded more than seven hours later, giving the boat its name, Noah's Ark

A man gives the boat a lick of paint. It is a tourist attraction

The Apung, a 2,600-ton power-generating vessel that the tsunami deposited two miles inland in Banda Aceh, is now a major tourist attraction. It landed atop two houses, killing the inhabitants.

Resident Bustaman, 45, climbs atop the Apung, remembering the day nearly five years ago when the tsunami struck, taking his 5-year-old daughter. "We were all running in fear when the first wave came,” he recalled. "I was holding my 5-year-old as tightly as I could. But my head was hit by a piece of wood. I don’t remember what happened next. But when I came to my senses, my little girl was gone.”

LATimes

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Assassination attempts on ADOLPH HITLER

Most of thought (including myself) thought there was only one attempt to kill Adolph Hitler. We are badly mistaken! There were many. They are described below.

Agreed, the von Stauffenberg one was the most important one. Hitler almost died then.

MUNICH

Johann Georg Elser, born January 4, 1903, had served an apprenticeship as cabinetmaker (Schreiner) and from 1929 to 1932 worked in Switzerland at this trade then returned to Germany to assist in his fathers lumberyard. He bitterly resented the Nazi stranglehold on labour unions and the growing restrictions on religious freedom. He then decided to kill Hitler by placing a time bomb in one of the columns behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech in the Burgerbrau Beer Cellar in Munich. The bomb was set to detonate at preciesly 9.20pm on Wednesday, November 8, 1939. At 8.10 Hitler enters the beer hall but at 9.12pm he suddenly ends his speech and departs. Eight minutes later the bomb explodes killing eight people and wounding sixty-five including Eva Braun's father. Seven of those killed were Nazi Party members. Elser, who, since 1933, refused to give the nazi salute, is later arrested as he tried to cross the border into Switzerland at Konstanz. He was held for questioning due to the 'strange content' of his belongings. He was transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and later confined in the concentration camp at Dachau. On the 9th Of April, 1945, two weeks before the war ended in Europe, Johann Elser was executed by the SS. In the city of Bremen a street was named in his honour, Georg-Elser Weg. In Berlin a memorial has been erected and a plaque to his memory is sited in his hometown, Koenigsbronn. (In September, 1979, the Burgerbraukeller was demolished. On its site now stands the Munich City Hilton Hotel)

THE BERGHOF

On March 11, 1944, Cavalry Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch attended a conference at Hitler’s villa the ‘Berghof’ on the Obersalzberg. Concealed on his person was a small Browning pistol with which he intended to shoot his Führer and at the same time was willing to sacrifice his own life in the attempt. He felt that the war was now at such a stage that the complete destruction of Germany was inevitable and that Hitler had to be stopped. Breitenbuch enters the conference room behind Field Marshal Ernst Busch, who suspects nothing, but as he approaches the door he is stopped by the Duty Sergeant who explains "Sorry, no adjutants beyond this point, Führers orders". So yet another attempt fails.

BERLIN

On March 20, 1943, Colonel Rudolf von Gertsdorff, General Kluge's chief of intelligence, tried to kill Hitler in the Zeughaus. The concealed bomb was to be detonated by acid while he stood close to Hitler in the exhibit hall. Unfortunately Hitler left the building before the acid could act and Gertsdorff immediately entered the men's room and flushed the fuse down the toilet.

In February, 1944, Infantry Captain Axel von dem Bussche agrees to blow up Hitler and himself while he demonstrates a new army winter overcoat to the German leader. Fate intervenes the day before when during a British air raid the uniforms were destroyed and Bussche was returned to duty at the front. A few weeks later another ‘overcoat’ attempt was made. This time the volunteer model was Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, son of one of the original conspirators and included Major General Helmuth Stieff. Again the RAF saved the day with an air-raid just before the demonstration was about to take place forcing its cancellation.

THE BERGHOF

On July 11, 1944, Staff Officer Lt. Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, convinced that he and he alone could assassinate Hitler, attended another conference at the Berghof. Concealed inside his briefcase was a time bomb. Waiting outside in a gateaway car was his co-conspirator, Captain Friedrich Klausing. Inside the Berghof, Stauffenberg telephones his colleagues in Berlin to tell them that neither Goering nor Himmler is present. They insist that the attempt be aborted. Stauffenberg then returns to Berlin to plan his next assassination attempt.

RASTENBURG

Stauffenberg’s second attempt occurs at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia. On July 15, 1944, he attends a Fuhrers briefing and observes with dismay that Himmler is again absent. The attempt was once again aborted.

RASTENBURG

Thirty six year-old Stauffenberg’s final attempt occured on July 20, 1944. Four days earlier, the attempt was decided upon during a meeting at his residence at No. 8 Tristanstrasse, Wansee. Himmler or no Himmler, the attempt must go ahead, come what may. At 12.00pm Stauffenberg and General Fromm report to Field Marshal Keitel’s office for a briefing before entering the conference room. At 12.37pm, Stauffenberg places his briefcase, containing 2,000 grams of Plastik-W explosives, under the map table, then leaves the room on the pretext of making a telephone call. The officer Colonel Brandt, No.4 who took his place noticed the briefcase and with his foot pushed it further under the table. The heavy oak table support protected Hitler from the full force of the explosion. At 12.42pm, the bomb explodes. By this time Stauffenberg is on his way back to Berlin. At 6.28pm a radio broadcast from Wolf’s Lair reports that Hitler is alive but only slightly wounded. Later that night, at 12.30am, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, Haeften, Olbricht and Mertz, are arrested and executed by firing squad in the inner courtyard of the Bendlerstrasse Headquarters in the glare of a trucks lights.

(Immediately after Colonel Stauffenberg's assassination attempt, his wife and four children were arrested and imprisoned. Freed by the Allies at the end of the war and pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gave birth to her fifth child while in prison. One of her brothers, Berthold, was also arrested and executed after the failed plot)



THE BOMB PLOT AT HITLER'S HQ. The situation as at 12.30pm on July 20, 1944.


1. Adolf Hitler
2. General Heusinger
3. Luftwaffe General Korten (Died of wounds)
4. Colonel Brandt (Died of wounds)
5. Luftwaffe General Bodenschatz (Severely wounded)
6. General Schnunt (Died of wounds)
7. Lt. Colonel Borgman (Severely wounded)
8. Rear Admiral Von Puttkamer
9. Stenographer Berger (Killed on the spot)
10. Naval Captain Assmann
11. General Scherff
12. General Buhle
13. Rear Admiral Voss
14. SS Group Leader Fegelein
15. Colonel Von Bellow
16. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Gunsche
17. Stenographer Hagen
18. Lt. Colonel Von John (Adjutant to Keitel)
19. Major Buchs (Adjutant to Jodl)
20. Lt. Colonel Weizenegger
21. Min. Counsellor Von Sonnleithner
22. General Warlimont (Concussion)
23. General Jodl (Lightly wounded)
24. Field Marshal Keitel


Between August 8, 1944 and April 9, 1945, Ninety persons were executed in Plötzensee prison for their part in the attempted coup of July 20.

PARIS

Another attempt to assassinate Hitler was planned for July 27, 1940, in Paris, where Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg planned to shoot Hitler from the reviewing stand during a military parade in Hitler’s honour. Hitler however secretly visited Paris in the early hours of July 23, visiting all the city’s famed buildings. He began his tour at 6am and by 9am he ended his tour and departed the city. A few days later Schulenberg recieved word that his hoped for July 27 military parade had been cancelled.

PARIS

Despite Schulenberg’s failure to lure Hitler to Paris for the special parade, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben had plans of his own to assassinate Hitler. In May, 1941, he attemped to lure Hitler to Paris under a similar pretext. The visit was scheduled for May 21st but was abruptly called off at the last minute.

SIEGFRIED LINE

In 1939, prior to the outbreak of WWII, German General Kurt von Hammerstein repeatedly attempted to lure Hitler into visiting the Army’s fortifications along the Seigfried Line near the Dutch border where he commanded a base. Hammerstein and his co-conspirator, retired General Ludwig Beck, had planned a ‘fatal accident’ to Hitler during his inspection of the base. Hitler however, never honoured the invitation, instead he turned the tables on Hammerstein by placing him on the retired list.

POLTAVA

Another plot to assassinate Hitler was hatched at Army Group B Headquarters at Walki near Poltava in the Ukraine. This time the conspirators were General Hubert Lanz, his Chief of Staff, Major-General Dr. Hans Speidel and Colonel Count von Strachwitz, the commanding officer of the Grossdeutschland Tank Regiment. The plan was to arrest Hitler on his anticipated visit to Army Group B in the spring of 1943. Hitler, at the last minute, changed his mind and instead decided to visit his forces fighting in Saporoshe further east.

SMOLENSK

On March 13, 1943, three attempts were planned on Hitler’s life. Field Marshal Guenther von Kluge, commander of Army Group Center on the eastern front, finally managed to lure Hitler into visiting his headquarters at Smolensk. However a number of officers on Kluge’s staff had other thoughts on how to assassinate Hitler. Colonel Henning von Tresckow, who hated Hitler and the Nazis, together with Lt. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff and Cavalry Captain Georg von Boeslager had hatched a plan to get rid of their Führer.

Plan 1

Captain von Boeslager and his company were to serve as armed escort to Hitler’s motorcade. During the drive from the airfield the Führer’s car was to be gunned down in an ambush. The attempt was aborted when Hitler arrived with his own armed escort of 50 SS guards.

Plan 2

The second attempt was to take place during lunchtime in the mess hall. At a given signal, Tresckow was to rise from the table and open fire on Hitler as he ate lunch, but the sight of so many SS close to Hitler arouses fear of failure and so once again the attempt was aborted.

Plan 3

As Hitler leaves by plane for Berlin, Tresckow instructs Schlabrendorff to hand over a package to Colonel Heinz Brandt who is flying back with Hitler. The package, containing two bottles of brandy, is a gift for Major-General Helmuth Stieff in Berlin. Concealed in the package is a time bomb but it failed to explode owing to the high altitude cold air freezing the acid in the detonator cap. When news of Hitler’s safe arrival reached the plotters, Schlabrendorf immediately flew to Berlin with the regular courier plane and retrieved the package from Colonel Brandt, replacing it with two genuine bottles.

In February, 1945, Albert Speer, Hitler’s Armaments Minister, came to the conclusion that his Führer was deliberately committing high treason against his own people. It was then that Speer decided that Hitler must be eliminated. During one of his many walks in the Chancellery gardens he took note of a ventilation shaft leading to Hitler’s bunker. An idea formed in his mind and he discreetly asked the head of munitions production, Dieter Stahl, if he could procure some of the new gas, Tabun, which he intended to conduct into the ventilation shaft of the bunker. Stahl, who was sympathetic to the idea, revealed that Tabun was effective only after an explosion and would not be suitable for the purpose which Speer intended. Another gas had to be found but the whole idea was thwarted when armed SS sentries were placed around the bunker entrances and on the roof. A chimney had also been built around the ventilation shaft to a height of ten feet which put the air-intake of the shaft out of reach. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, Albert Speer was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment, which he served to the very last minute, in Spandau Prison, Berlin.

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Little known statistics about the Second World War

We have seen many pictures about the Second World War. We have read much about the war in books. We have seen umpteen movies about it. We have seen many videos on Youtube. Below are given statistics about the war.

Believe me, it is fascinating reading.

WWII Death Count Per Country:

Country	Military	Civilian	Total
USSR	12 million	17 million	29 million
Poland	597,000	5.86 million	6.27 million
Germany	3.25 million	2.44 million	5.69 million
Yugoslavia	305,000	1.35 million	1.66 million
Romania	450,000	465,000	915,000
Hungary	200,000	600,000	800,000
France	245,000	350,000	595,000
Italy	380,000	153,000	533,000
Great Britain	403,000	92,700	495,000
United States	407,000	6,000	413,000
Czechoslovakia	7,000	315,000	322,000
Holland	13,700	236,000	249,000
Greece	19,000	140,000	159,000
Belgium	76,000	23,000	99,000

Death Distribution Of Both World Wars

War	Military Dead	Civilian Dead
WWI	95%	5%
WWII	33%	67%

Number of divisions available for these countries over the course of the war:

Country	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	End of War
France	86	105	0	0	5	7	14	14
Germany*	78	189	235	261	327	347	319	375
Great Britain	9	34	35	38	39	37	31	31
Italy	6	73	64	89	86	2	9	10
Poland	43	2	2	2	2	5	5	5
Romania	11	28	33	31	33	32	24	24
USSR	194	200	220	250	350	400	488	491
USA**	8	24	39	76	95	94	94	94

*towards the end of the war, many of these divisions were either incomplete or poorly equipped
**including both Army and Marine divisions and accounting for the Pacific theater
Aircraft Available In Europe

Date	British	US	Soviet	TOTAL	German	Allied Ratio
June 1942	9500	0	2100	11,600	3700	3.1:1
December 1942	11,300	1300	3800	16,400	3400	4.8:1
June 1943	12,700	5000	5600	23,300	4600	5.1:1
December 1943	11,800	7500	8800	28,100	4700	6:1
June 1944	13,200	11,800	14,700	39,700	4600	8.6:1
December 1944	14,500	12,200	15,800	42,500	8500	5:1

Aircraft Sorties In WWII

Campaign	Allied	Axis	Allied Kills Per 1000	Axis Kills Per 1000	Allied Lost Per 1000	Axis Lost Per 1000
France 1940	4480	21,000	28.6	12.5	58.5	6.1
Britain 1940	31,000	42,000	21.8	29.5	29.5	9.6
Pre D-Day 1944	98,400	34,500	12.7	29.3	10.3	36.1
Post D-Day 1944	203,357	31,833	17.3	16.2	2.5	110.6

Major Warships Sunk In WWII

Country	Aircraft Carriers	Battleships	Cruisers	Destroyers	Submarines	Total
Germany	0	4	9	53	994	1060
Britain	9	5	29	142	75	260
Italy	0	2	15	99	116	232
USA*	11	2	10	82	52	157
France	0	5	10	58	65	138
USSR	0	0	2	34	95	131
Holland	0	0	3	11	15	29
Poland	0	0	1	4	2	9

*includes figures from the Pacific War
Civilian Air Raid Deaths

Country	Deaths
Germany	543,000
Britain	60,400

• According to the law of averages, every rifleman from each division would be killed within a year or two
• Overall, there was a 50% chance of a WWII infantryman being killed or wounded

German/American Rank Conversion Chart

Waffen SS	Wehrmacht	US Army
Schütze	Schütze/Grenadier	Private
Oberschütze	Oberschütze/Obergrenadier	Private First Class
Sturmann	Gefreiter	--
Rottenführer	Obergefreiter	Corporal
Unterscharführer	Unteroffizier	Sergeant
Scharführer	Unterfeldwebel	Staff Sergeant
Standartenjunker	Fähnrich	--
Oberscharführer	Feldwebel	Technical Sergeant
Hauptscharführer	Oberfeldwebel	Master Sergeant
Standarten-Oberjunker	Oberfähnrich	--
Sturmscharführer	Stabsfeldwebel	Sergeant Major
Untersturmführer	Leutnant	Second Lieutenant
Obersturmführer	Oberleutnant	First Lieutenant
Hauptsturmführer	Hauptmann	Captain
Sturmbannführer	Major	Major
Obersturmbannführer	Oberstleutnant	Lieutenant Colonel
Standartenführer	Oberst	Colonel
Oberführer	--	--
Brigadeführer	Generalmajor	Brigadier General
Gruppenführer	Generalleutnant	Major General
Obergruppenführer	General der... (Infanterie, etc.)	Lieutenant General
Oberstgruppenführer	Generaloberst	General
Reichsführer	Generalfeldmarschall	General of the Army

German Occupational Forces, 1939-1940

Country	Population	Area In Sq. Mi.	German Forces	German Ratio To Population
Balkans	21 million	403,000	200,000	1:105
Belgium	8 million	30,400	100,000	1:80
Denmark	3.6 million	22,700	40,000	1:90
France	40 million	550,700	500,000	1:80
Holland	8.5 million	34,200	100,000	1:85
Norway	2.8 million	324,000	150,000	1:19

Location Of German Divisions In June Of Each Year

Country	1941	1942	1943	1944
USSR	34	171	179	157
France, Belgium & Holland	38	27	42	56
Norway & Finland	13	16	16	16
Balkans	7	8	17	20
Italy	0	0	0	22
Denmark	1	1	2	3
North Africa	2	3	0	0

A look at fuel consumption of German tanks:

Year	Types Of Tanks In A Division	Tons Of Fuel Consumed Per 100 Miles
1941	PzII, PzIII, PzIV, Pz38	22.1
1942	PzIII, PzIV	23.7
1943	PzIII, PzIV, Panther, Tiger	31.7
1944	PzIV, Panther, Tiger	35.8

Luftwaffe Aircraft Used Only Against Allied Bombers

Month	Year	Percentage
June	1940	0%
June	1941	7%
June	1942	17%
June	1943	21%
June	1944	29%
January	1945	50%

• Germany got 45% of its oil supplies from Romania, which was captured by the Soviets in August 1944
• In spite of fuel shortages, German tank production doubled in 1943 and went up another 50% in 1944

Oil Production In Tons

Year	Germany	USA
1939	8 million	N/A
1940	6.7 million	N/A
1941	7.3 million	N/A
1942	7.7 million	184 million
1943	8.9 million	200 million
1944	6.4 million	223 million

Percentage Of German Forces On The Eastern Front Each Year

Unit	1941	1942	1943	1944
Divisions	67%	75%	60%	57%
Troops	84%	74%	72%	40%
Aircraft	64%	65%	42%	45%

• By D-Day the Germans had 1.5 million railway workers operating 988,000 freight cars and used 29,000 per day

Germany's casualty statistics:

• By D-Day, 35% of all German soldiers had been wounded at least once,
  11% twice, 6% three times, 2% four times and 2% more than 4 times
• The average officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times
• Germany lost 136 Generals, which averages out to be 1 dead General every 2 weeks
• Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat
• Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths
• 84 German Generals were executed by Hitler

• Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft to accidents

U-Boat Losses

Sunk By	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	Total
Aircraft Carrier	0	2	3	36	140	68	40	289
Ships	5	11	24	32	59	68	17	216
Bombs	0	0	0	0	2	24	36	62
Mines	3	2	0	3	1	9	7	25
Submarines	1	2	1	2	4	5	3	18
Other	0	4	5	6	17	43	17	92
Total	9	23	35	86	236	235	122	746

• By late 1944, the Waffen SS accounted for 10% of the German military and 25% of the German armor
• German bullets had less flash and smoke than American bullets so it was harder to see where the Germans were firing from

German Flak

Unit	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944
Heavy Guns	2600	3164	3888	4772	8520	10,600
Light Guns	6700	8290	9020	10,700	17,500	19,360
Searchlights	2988	3450	3905	4650	5200	7500
% Under The Luftwaffe	50%	61%	54%	64%	74%	70%

Mid-Year Manpower On The Eastern Front

Year	Soviet	German
1941	5 million	3.3 million
1942	5 million	3.1 million
1943	6.2 million	2.9 million
1944	6.8 million	3.1 million

• 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive WWII

• There was a Polish General named Juliuz Rommel, although if they were related it would only be distantly

8th Air Force:
fired 76.9 million rounds of .50 caliber
fired .7 million rounds of .30 caliber
downed 6090 enemy aircraft
had an average of 1 enemy plane shot down for each 12,700 rounds fired (1/12,700)
15th Air Force:
fired 30 million rounds of .50 caliber
downed 2110 enemy aircraft
had an average of 1/14,200
The Germans' average was 1/12,000
Percentage Of All Allied Bombs Dropped

Year	%
1940	.8%
1941	2%
1942	3%
1943	12.8%
1944	57.9%
1945	23.5%

• 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in WWII
• Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs
• That averages out to be 27,700 tons of bombs a month

• 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed
• 3 or 4 ground men were wounded for each killed
• 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
• Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe

Tour Of Duty	% KIA or MIA
Fighters (300 combat hours)	24%
Medium bombers (50 missions	48%
Heavy bombers (30 missions)	71%

D-Day Statistics:

Unit	Allies	Germans	Ratio
Ground Troops	1 million	700,000	1.43:1
Replacements	120,000	20,000	6:1
Other Men	1.75 million	780,000	2.25:1
Total	2.87 million	1.5 million	1.92:1

Unit	Allies	Germans	Ratio
Tanks	5500	1400	3.93:1
Artillery	4800	3200	1.5:1
Others	2000	800	2.5:1

Air Force	Bombers	Fighters	Total
RAF	624	2172	2796
USAAF	1922	1311	3233
Luftwaffe	400	420	820
Ratio	6.4:1	8.3:1	7.4:1

The Canadians' contributions in WWII are often overlooked, yet they had the 4th largest air force and the 3rd largest navy, who helped protect Allied convoys in the Atlantic. They gave an added industrial output as well as 6 army divisions, of whom 45,000 gave their lives for the Allies.

• There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during WWII, 219 of them were given after the receipiant's death

• From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 in Europe the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded

• The US had the lowest casualty rates of the major powers in WWII

The American Sub-Division Of Army Units In WWII:

• squad--around a dozen men
• platoon--3 or 4 squads
• company--3 or 4 platoons
• battalion--3 or 4 companies
• regiment--3 or 4 battalions
• division--3 or 4 regiments
• corps
• army
• army group

US Infantry Regiment In 1944:
6 105mm Howitzers, 9 57mm anti-tank guns, 55 .50 caliber machine guns, many .30 caliber machine guns and enough Jeeps & ammunition to opperate
US Infantry Company In 1944:
193 men, 15 BARs, 2 M1919A4s, 1 .50 caliber machine gun and 6 submachine guns
US Infantry Platoon In 1944:
41 men, 1 M2 carbine, 3 BARs
US Airborne Infantry Company:
176 men, 9 machine guns, 9 BARs, 3 60mm mortars and 3 bazookas
US Airborne Infantry Platoon:
36 men, 2 M1919A6s, 22 rifles, 14 M2 carbines, 1 60mm mortar, 1 sniper rifle and 1 bazooka

• 1/3 of US Airborne troops landed by parachute, 2/3 by glider

Percentage Of Combat Strength Kept In Non-Divisional Formations (regiment, battalion, etc.)

Country	%
USA	45%
USSR	20%
Germany	10%

Total Number Of Weapons During WWII

Weapon Type	World	USA	US %
Aircraft	542,000	283,000	52%
Vehicles	5.1 million	2.47 million	48%

Convoy Battles

Date	Convoy Code	Ships	Sunk	Tonnage	German Subs	Sunk
October 1940	SC-71, HX-79	79	32	154,600	12	0
September 1941	SC-42	70	18	73,200	19	2
July 1942	PQ-17	42	16	102,300	11	0
November 1942	SC-107	42	15	82,800	18	3
December 1942	ONS-154	45	19	74,500	19	1
March 1943	SC-121, HX-228	119	16	79,900	37	2

• 800 U-Boats sank 2640 ships in the Atlantic

Year	Total Ships Sunk	Sunk By Submarine
1939	222	114
1940	1059	471
1941	1299	432
1942	1664	1160
1943	597	377
1944	205	132
1945	105	56



• 40,000 men served on U-Boats during WWII; 30,000 never returned
US Daily Ammunition Expenditure In Tons

Action	Armor divisions	Infantry divisions	155mm battalions
Attack	436-832	353-658	66-121
Defense	596-969	472-768	86-142
Pursuit	107	83	15
Delay	321	256	51

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France during the Second World War: Some random images

The British and French just made defence plans before the Blitzkrieg came. They came to naught. The German strategists were much shrewder and more aggressive.

Two pals having a good time. Hitler and Franco at a station in occupied France


A personal account of France then

A reporter for the London Times published his observations on defeated France shortly after its collapse:

"A problem for all who think about it is how to explain the amazing mental attitude which seems to prevail today in France. Most Frenchmen seem to regard the total collapse of their country with a resignation that has the appearance of indifference. They are, indeed, dazed by the rapidity of the collapse, but register no violent reaction to so great and unexpected a shock. Soldiers in considerable numbers are being demobilized and returning home, and so, it is felt, the catastrophe cannot be too appalling. The German propaganda machine is working on this state of mind. The R.A.F. attacks upon the aerodromes in the occupied region are used as evidence that the British, who have already deserted their Ally, are now making direct onslaughts on the Frenchman's home.

There is little interest among the ordinary people in the maneuvers of the Petain Government. The Marshal himself is not looked upon with any enthusiasm. His achievements as a soldier in the last War are generally recognized, but his last minute entry into politics makes little stir in the Frenchman's heart. On the other hand Laval [a lieutenant of Petain's and the real head of the government], who has never been popular, excites almost general distaste..."

Conditions in Vichy France

"Vichy, for a nation which has reached the nadir in its history, gives an excellent picture of a certain French state of mind. Naturally the place is crowded beyond capacity. It is full of well-to-do refugees from occupied France, as well as French officers, immaculately accoutered, and political aspirants. They crowd the cafes, hotels and boulevards. The refugees and officers are enjoying the calm and the mild pleasures to be had there.

The aspirants are busily fishing in the stirring political pool in the hope of finding an agreeable job. There is adequate food for those who can afford to buy it, always provided that you are not a butter lover or do not expect to find a wide selection of luxuries in the shops. Here is little evidence that France has suffered one of the greatest defeats in her history. Outside the boundaries of this temporary capital, food is not so plentiful, yet in a minor degree the same spirit of indifference exists. The men are returning fairly quickly to their homes and to the harvests which have been in many cases ruined by inattention. But it is hard to discover any serious attempt to meet the formidable problems which are threatening the Vichy Government."

Conditions in Occupied France

"The opinion is often expressed that occupied France is in a much better shape, in spite of all the devastation, than the unoccupied territory. The Germans for many reasons are trying to whip into shape that part of the country which has fallen into their sphere of influence. Their problem is especially serious.

North of Paris there exists a desert. Towns like Abbeville, Amiens, Cambrai, Arras, and scores of others are very largely destroyed, though in most places the churches and the cathedrals seem to be intact. The villages are deserted, the farmsteads empty.

Crops are rotting on the ground. The first wave of the German Army consumed everything. It was, in fact, until a week or two ago a land of the dead, metaphorically and literally, since the corpses of men and animals still littered the ground. Now the people are slowly creeping back, only to find that there is little to eat and less to do. Everywhere the first pick of what is going falls to the army of occupation, the second to those who work for their German masters, the scanty crumbs that remain are left for those who fulfill neither of these conditions."

Treatment of British Prisoners

"One case of refined cruelty was witnessed at Malines, where a body of British prisoners were being marched east. They were in full uniform except for their tin hats. These had been replaced by a variegated assortment of every kind of headgear, male or female: bowler hats, toppers, caps, homburgs, women's bonnets, berets, plumed Ascot models. A pathetically ridiculous spectacle. Its only purpose could have been to make the weary men look clownish or to suggest to the French inhabitants that British troops had been looting the shops. Other tales of discrimination between British and French prisoners of war are common. Nevertheless, on the whole, the treatment of prisoners whose care is left to the second-line troops is not too bad."

References:
This article was originally published in The Times of London on August 17, 1940, republished in The Times of London, Europe Under the Nazi Scourge (1941); Shirer, William L., The Collapse of the Third Republic: an inquiry into the fall of France in 1940 (1969).

Source: "France in Defeat, 1940," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2006).

The triumphant Germans march into Paris. May 1940

The Germans race through the French countryside in 1940

The Germans examine a French tank.

A broken down French tank in 1940 in a french town. Symbolises the state of the French and British then against German onslaught

France, A town near the river Allier, June 1940. A French girls approaches a German NCO

French soldiers valiantly fire at Germans at Dunkirk, 1940. Pitiful.

After the liberation of France the gallant Frenchmen shaved off hair off a French woman who had relations with German soldiers during the occupation

Collaborators were shot.


A dead American soldier on a French beach after D-Day

Captured British POW. The Germans loiter on a light tank in France. 1940

A British vehicle abandoned during the failed raid on Dieppe. 1943

US soldiers with a Nazi flag in France

American officers interrogate a German officer. France 1944

 At last Paris is free! De Gaulle marches in triumph

FRANCE DURING WW2. A BRIEF OUTLINE

1940

10 May : The Germany divisions drive through Holland and Belgium, passing past the French defences via the North. the French try to hold back at Sedan, but the lines are broken on the 12th of May

27 May to 4 June : Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, more than 300,000 French and British soilders where evacuated by boats of all types from the beach.

16 to 24 June : Operation Ariel and Operation Cycle, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers evacuated from the ports Cherbourg, St. Malo, Brest, St. Nazaire, La Pallice, Nantes and Le Havre.

14 June : Paris occupied by the Axis forces

16 June : Petain becomes leader of France

18 June : General de Gaulle called for resistance to the Germans in a broadcast made from London on

24 June : France officially surrenders to Germany

25 June : The Germany advance is halted and France is divided into two regions, The "Zone libre" is placed under the command of the French General Pétain, who was nothing more than a puppet, actin on behalf of the Nazis.

10 July : what is left of the French government hand over all powers to General Pétain, this is the end of the Third Republic in France, which was now a "State".

3 October : Publication "Statut des Juifs", which authorizes the internement of Jews.

Events during 1941

Autumn 1941, 10000 French join the "Forces Françaises Libres". This fighting force was not only built of French men, but aslo, men from Senegal, Chad, Cameroon, Algeria, Marocoo and Tunisia.

The "FFL", where placed under the orders of General Leclerc and his 2nd Armed Division 2eme Division Blindées.
Events during 1942

16 July : 12,884 non French Jews in Paris are taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver and then sent to the concentration camps.

November : The "Zone Libre" is occupied by the Axis.

13 April : Jean Moulin, the most important figure of the French Resistance is parachuted into France. He dies after months of touture in 1943.

Events during 1944

2 April : ASCQ Near Lille 70 killed

6 April : Outrage AT IZIEU Central France capture of young jewish killed all deported

21 May : The massacre of Frayssinet near Tulle, Central France, 15 people killed

5 June : Paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions lauch attack on Sainte-Mère-Eglise

6 June : D-Day landings, Operation Overlord begins with landings on the beaches Silver Utah Gold

9 June : The Tulle Murders near Limoges, Central France, the SS murdered 99

10 June : Oradour-sur-Glane 2nd Waffen SS Panzer Division Das Reich, drove into Oradour and killed everyone that they could find, a total of 642 men, women and children, with only 6 people escaping.

26 June : Cherbourg liberated by American troops.

9 July : Caen is liberated by the Allies.

15 August : Landing in Provence

18 August : Liberation of Paris begins and ends 25 August 1944

12 September : Liberation of Dijon

19 September : Nancy liberated by US First Army.

30 September : German garrison in Calais surrenders to Canadian troops.

24 November : Strasbourg liberated by French troops.

16 December 1944: Battle of the Bulge

The end of the war in Europe

1945

Capitulation of Germany and the signature of the Armistice in Reims, which marks the end of the Second World War in Europe.

RELATED----
France surrenders: June 1940: WW2
Victorious Germans march through Paris: June 1940

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