Showing posts with label British Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Army. Show all posts

Friday, May 9, 2025

Wednesday, May 9, 1945. The last Wehrmachtbericht, Stalin's congrats.

"Pvt. Wallace F. Burket, left, bazooka man with the 80th Infantry Division, U.S. Third Army, finds his brother, Sgt. Wm. C. Burket who was shot down over Africa two years and three months ago. Branau, Austria. 9 May, 1945. Company C, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division. Photographer: Zinni."

The last Wehrmachtbericht was broadcast, which reported Germany's defeat.   The address read:

FROM THE GRAND ADMIRAL'S HEADQUARTERS, May 9-The High Command of the Armed Forces announces:

In East Prussia - German divisions even yesterday gallantly defended to the very last the Vistula mouth and the western part of the Frisches Nehrung. The Seventh Division distinguished itself particularly in this fighting. To their Commander in Chief, General of Tank Troops von Saucken, were awarded diamonds to the Oak Leaves with swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in recognition of the exemplary gallantry of his soldiers.

As an advanced bulwark, our armies in Courland [Latvia], under the well-proved command of Colonel General Guenther, tied down superior Soviet rifle and armored formations through many months and acquired eternal glory in six great battles. They refused any premature surrender. Only the wounded, and later numerous children, were transported in full order by aircraft that still left for the west. Staffs and officers remained with their troops.

At midnight all fighting and all movements were suspended on the German side, under the conditions that had been signed.

The defenders of Breslau, who resisted Soviet attacks for more than two months, succumbed to enemy superiority in the last hour after a heroic struggle.

On the Southeast and East Fronts, from Fiume to Brno [Bruenn] to the Elbe near Dresden, all the higher military authorities have received the order to cease fire.

A Czech rising is taking place in the whole of Bohemia and Moravia and may threaten the execution of the capitulation conditions as well as communications in that area.

The High Command of the Armed-Forces so far has not received any reports regarding the situation of the army groups Loehr, Rendulic and Schoerner.

Far from home, the defenders of the Atlantic bases, our forces in Norway and garrisons of the Aegean Islands have maintained the military honor of the German soldier in obedience and discipline.

Since midnight all weapons have been silent on all fronts on orders of the Grand Admiral, and the armed forces have ceased the fighting, which has now become hopeless, thus ending a heroic struggle that lasted almost six years. This struggle brought us great victories. But also heavy defeats. In the end the German Wehrmacht succumbed with honor to enormous superiority.

Loyal to his oath, the German soldier's performance in a supreme effort for his people can never be forgotten. Up to the last moment the homeland had supported him with all its strength in an effort entailing the heaviest sacrifices. The unique performance of the front and homeland will find a final appraisal in the later, just judgment of history.

The enemy, too, will not deny his tribute of respect to the performance and sacrifices of German soldiers on land, at sea and in the air. Every soldier, therefore, may lay aside his weapon proud and erect and set to work in these gravest hours of our history with courage and confidence to safeguard the undying life of our people.

In this grave hour the Wehrmacht remembers its comrades who have died in battle. The dead impose upon us an obligation of unconditional loyalty, obedience and discipline toward the Fatherland, which is bleeding from countless wounds.

(There followed three minutes of silence).

The German radio has transmitted the last High Command communiqué of this war. We close our news bulletin with an official announcement as follows:

"It is officially announced that effective May 9, 1945, blackout regulations are lifted. Effective also from today the ban on listening to foreign stations has been lifted."

An often missed oddity of this period is that while Germany had surrendered, it's government was still functioning. The Flensburg Government still had a military command, in spite of the surrender, and in some areas it had troops under arms.

Indeed, in spite of the surrender, German forces of German Army Group Ostmark (Lohr) continued to resist in Croatia and to the north.

Stalin congratulated the Red Army. This is regarded by the Russians as VE Day.

Comrades! Men and women compatriots!

The great day of victory over Germany has come. Fascist Germany, forced to her knees by the Red Army and the troops of our Allies, has acknowledged herself defeated and declared unconditional surrender.

On May 7 the preliminary protocol on surrender was signed in the city of Rheims. On May 8 representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied troops and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Troops, signed in Berlin the final act of surrender, the execution of which began at 24.00 hours on May 8.

Being aware of the wolfish habits of the German ringleaders, who regard treaties and agreements as empty scraps of paper, we have no reason to trust their words. However, this morning, in pursuance of the act of surrender, the German troops began to lay down their arms and surrender to our troops en masse. This is no longer an empty scrap of paper. This is actual surrender of Germany’s armed forces. True, one group of German troops in the area of Czechoslovakia is still evading surrender. But I trust that the Red Army will be able to bring it to its senses.

Now we can state with full justification that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany, the day of the great victory of our people over German imperialism has come.

The great sacrifices we made in the name of the freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable privations and sufferings experienced by our people in the course of the war, the intense work in the rear and at the front, placed on the altar of the Motherland, have not been in vain, and have been crowned by complete victory over the enemy. The age-long struggle of the Slav peoples for their existence and their independence has ended in victory over the German invaders and German tyranny.

Henceforth the great banner of the freedom of the peoples and peace among peoples will fly over Europe.

Three years ago Hitler declared for all to hear that his aims included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the wresting from it of the Caucasus, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic lands and other areas. He declared bluntly: “We will destroy Russia so that she will never be able to rise again.” This was three years ago. However, Hitler’s crazy ideas were not fated to come true—the progress of the war scattered them to the winds. In actual fact the direct opposite of the Hitlerites’ ravings has taken place. Germany is utterly defeated. The German troops are surrendering. The Soviet Union is celebrating Victory, although it does not intend either to dismember or to destroy Germany.

Comrades! The Great Patriotic War has ended in our complete victory. The period of war in Europe is over. The period of peaceful development has begun.

I congratulate you upon victory, my dear men and women compatriots!

Glory to our heroic Red Army, which upheld the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy!

Glory to our great people, the people victorious!

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle against the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!

The Battle for Czech Radio in Prague ended in Czech victory.

General Alexander Löhr, Commander of German Army Group E near Topolšica, Slovenia, signed the capitulation of German occupation troops in that region.

British forces took the surrender of troops occupying Jersey and Guernsey.

The Stuffhof concentration camp was liberated.  It had been the first to be established outside of Germany's borders and was the last one liberated.

Vidkun Quisling and other members of  his regime in Norway surrendered to the Resistance (Milorg) and police at Møllergata 19 in Oslo.

The British began Operation Doomsday with the British 1st Airborne Division landing in Norway to act as a police and military force.

Walter Frank, 40, German Nazi historian, committed suicide.

The US 145th Infantry Regiment captured Mount Binicayan on Luzon.

Marines captured Height 60 on Okinawa.

The British 82nd West African Division occupied Sandoway, Burma.
Last edition:

Sunday, May 9, 1915. Combined offensive.

French and British forces launched offensives, the French at Artois and the British to the north at Aubers Ridge.


The British attack was an unmitigated disaster.  The tragedy of it, in a way, resulted in the poignant painting The Last General Absolution of the Munster Fusiliers which appeared in The Sphere.


Russian Grand Duke Nicholas permitted a limited withdrawal of Imperial Russian forces as Austro-Hungarian Third and Fourth Armies pressed forward in the Carpathian Mountains.

The German government released a report accepting responsibility for the sinking of the RMS Lusitania but maintaining that the ship was carrying munitions in spite of its pre trip inspection that showed it was not.

Last edition:

Friday, May 7, 1915. The Sinking of the Lusitania.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Friday, May 4, 1945. The war ends in northwest Europe.

British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, northwest Germany including all islands, Denmark and all naval ships in those areas. 

The US Seventh United States Army captured Innsbruck, Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

German forces in northeast Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria begin rearguard actions in an attempt to reach Anglo American lines.

The Red Army too the Oranienburg concentration camp.

Konrad Barde, 47, German Generalmajor committed suicide.

Fedor von Bock, 64, German field marshal was killed by a strafing British aircraft while traveling by car.

Yugoslav partisans entered Fiume.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 3, 1945. Dönitz sends a surrender delegation.

Saturday, May 3, 2025

Thursday, May 3, 1945. Dönitz sends a surrender delegation.

The British and Soviet forces near Wismar on the Baltic coast, 3 May 1945

Karl Dönitz arranged to send a surrender delegation to Bernard Montgomery's headquarters.

The Portuguese government ordered official flags to fly at half-mast in a day of national mourning for Adolf Hitler.

The British Army entered Hamburg unopposed.

The German liner Cap Arcona was sunk by the RAF in the Bay of Lübeck.  It was carrying 5,000 concentration camp prisoners. Over 400 SS personnel made it to lifeboats and were rescued but only 350 of the prisoners survived.

The British Army took Rangoon.

US troops landed near Santa Cruz in the Gulf of Davao.

Work commenced on the United Nations Charter.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 2, 1945. Berlin taken.

    Monday, May 3, 1915. In Flanders Fields.

    Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army, whom a great aunt of mine served with, wrote In Flanders Fields.


    Italy officially left the Triple Alliance.

    Russian forces retreated from Gorlice.

    Australian, New Zealand and British forces withdrew from Baby 700, a hill at Gallipoli after sustaining 1,000 casualties.


    Last edition:

    Friday, April 30, 1915. Events on either side of Turkey.

    Friday, May 2, 2025

    Wednesday, May 2, 1945. Berlin taken.

    The Red Army took Berlin.


    Yevgeny Khaldei took the staged Raising a Flag over the Reichstag photograph, showing Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the Reichstag.  The unretouched variant is shown above, i which one soldier is wearing two watches, which was later edited out of the photo as at least one of them was no doubt picked up somewhere.

    The Nisei 552nd Field Artillery Bn liberated a Dachau death march.

    The Germans surrendered in Italy and Southern Austria. Among those going into Allied captivity is Dr. Wernher von Braun.

    Admiral Dönitz's formed the Flensburg Government.

    Eamon de Valera paid a visit to Dr Eduard Hempel, the German minister in Ireland, to offer his condolences on the death of Hitler.  Nobody has ever been able to grasp this.

    Erich Bärenfänger, 30, German Generalmajor, Martin Bormann, 44, German Nazi official; Wilhelm Burgdorf, 50, German general; Walther Hewel, 41, German diplomat; Hans Krebs, 47, German general; and Franz Schädle, 38, German commander of Hitler's personal bodyguard, killed themselves.

    Peter Högl, 47, German SS-Obersturmbannführer, Ewald Lindloff, 36, Waffen-SS officerMartin Strahammer, 54, German Generalmajor; and Joachim von Siegroth, 48, German Generalmajor were killed in action.

    The British landed on Rangoon.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, May 1, 1945. German radio reports Hitler dead.



    Friday, April 25, 2025

    Sunday, April 15, 1915. Gallipoli.

    The ill fated Allied landing began at Gallipoli with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing at what became known as Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles.

    Ottoman resistance was immediate.

    Canadian forces failed to retake St. Julien.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, April 24, 1915. The beginning of the Armenian Genocide.

    Monday, April 21, 2025

    Wednesday, April 21, 1915.

    Massive German Artillery barrages made the terrain of Hill 60 the classic pothole terrain of No Man's Land.  

    Anthony Quinn was born in Chihuahua.  The great actor was raised in El Paso, Texas and East Los Angeles.

    Prior to being an actor, he was a boxer and then an architect.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, April 20, 1915. Conditions worsen at Van. US aircraft shot at for the first time.

    Tuesday, April 15, 2025

    Sunday, April 15, 1945. Race to Berlin.

    The Zhukov-Konev Race to Berlin began.

    The British 11th Armored Division liberated Bergen-Belsen under an April 12 agreement to allow the Germans to surrender the camp without resistance.

    The 1st Canadian Army captured Arnhem.

    A Japanese air raid destroyed many US aircraft on the ground on Okinawa.

    Task Force 58 launched fighter sweeps over Kyushu, shooting down 29 Japanese aircraft and destroying 59 on the ground.

    Franklin Roosevelt was interred at Hyde Park.

    The F-82 Twin Mustang had its first flight.

    The U-285, U-1063 and U-1235 were sunk by Allied warships in the North Atlantic.

    Joachim Albrecht Eggeling,age  60, German Nazi Gauleiter committed suicide, something that was becoming something of an epidemic amongst Nazi officials.

    Gen. Friedrich von Rabenau,  age 60, former German officer and Lutheran pastor was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp for his minor role in the July 20 plot.  He had been retired due to his Christian beliefs in 1942.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, April 14, 1945. Operation Teardrop.

    Monday, April 14, 2025

    Wednesday, April 14, 1915. The British secure Basra.

    Ottoman infantry surrendered at Basra.  The British would control the port city for the remainder of the war.

    Zeppelins of the German Navy bombed England resulting in two casualties.

    The Armenian Druzhina seized the lake side city of Van, Turkey.

    Ernest Shackleton wrote in his log that the Endurance was at risk of being "crushed like an eggshell" by the piling mass of ice.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, April 13, 1915. Even matches.

    Sunday, April 13, 2025

    Movies in History. SAS: Rogue Heroes

    SAS patrol in North Africa.

    This is another movie, or rather series, that I thought I"d reviewed, but alas, I had not.

    SAS: Rogue Heroes is a dramatization of the history of the British Special Air Service, which is pretty dramatic in its own right, so its not all that much liberty is taken with their story.

    The first season deals with the formation of the unit and the war in North Africa.  It's excellently done, portraying the conditions that they were created in, and the highly eccentric characters of the men who formed and joined it very well.  Material details are excellent, and the history is well portrayed.  Season one incorporates, interestingly a fair amount of modern heavy metal music, which actually works quite well.

    Season two isn't quite as good, but in retrospect, that's because the story is harder to tell after the war in North Africa had concluded.  It takes place in Sicily and Italy, and while I found it a bit frustrating at first, all in all, it stuck to the history well and that explains the story being somewhat less interesting.  It is, to some degree, a filler between North African and the invasion of Normandy, and has that feel to it.

    This is a British production, and very much has that feel to it.

    Hopefully there will be a third season that will cover the balance of the war.


    Tuesday, April 13, 1915. Even matches.

    Pancho Villa attempted a second assault on Celaya, this one nearly succeeding, with Obregón's forces being saved by the timely arrival of an ammunition train on the following day.

    Meanwhile, Huerta was looking at the situation and weighting on jumping back in.


    A night attack by Ottoman troops was repelled by the British at the Battle of Shaiba, with Arab irregulars routed the following day, massively depleting the Ottoman forces.


    Joe Jeannette beat Sam Langford in a twelve round heavyweight match.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, April 11, 1915. The Tramp.

    Friday, April 11, 2025

    Wednesday, April 11, 1945. US Army enters Buchewald.

    U.S. forces entered Buchenwald.

    Sherman tank in Schweinfurt, April 11, 1945.  This Sherman is an "Easy 8".

    The multi Commonwealth Z Special Force launched Operation Copper which had the goal of capturing a Japanese officer for interrogation and discovering the location of two naval guns of Muschu Island, New Guinea. It was a failure, with seven out of eight men on the mission being killed.

    Operation Opossum ended with the rescue of the Sultan of Ternate.

    Chile declared war on Japan.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, April 10, 1945. The Great Jet Massacre.

    Thursday, April 10, 2025

    Tuesday, April 10, 1945. The Great Jet Massacre.

    The "great jet massacre" occurred in which Allied aircraft shot down fifty Me 262s causing the Luftwaffe to abandon the aerial defense of Berlin.

    The last reconnaissance flight over the UK was flown by the Luftwaffe, using a Ar234.

    US Army Corporal Rick Carrier discovered Buchenwald leading to its liberation the following day.

    " Eating K rations somewhere in Germany are, left to right: Pfc. Marvin Beard, Reeves, Tenn., and Pfc. Philip Isaacs, New Haven, Conn. Großfahner, Germany. 10 April, 1945.  Company E, 385th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division.  Photographer: T/5 Sam Gilbert, 166th Signal Photo Co."

    The US 84th Infantry Division took Hanover.  The 9th Army took Essen.

    The Battle of Authion began in the French Alps

    The RAF sank the U-878 in the Bay of Biscay.

    Despite severe wreckage, no casualties were suffered when poor visibility caused this C-54 to crash on Yonton airfield, Okinawa. Many usable parts were salvaged from the plane. 10 April, 1945.

    The 96th Infantry Division seized part of Kakazu Ridge.

    The 14th Corps reached Lamon Bay and captured Mauban on the Philippines.

    The British 4th Corps captured Thazi in Burma.

    Last edition:

    Monday, April 9, 1945. The End of B-17 Production.