Showing posts with label Volkssturm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Volkssturm. Show all posts

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Thursday, January 25, 1945. The Beginning of the Evacuation of East Prussia and the Nature of the Red Army.

"Members of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Division, march into Butgenbach, Belgium. 25 January, 1945. 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Photographer: Pfc. Fred Linden, 165th Signal Photo Co."

While other dates are also used, this is generally regarded as the end of the Battle of the Bulge.  The 3d Army was across the Clerf and advancing.

German advances in the Ardennes had been completely eliminated by this date.

The US sustained, 19,000 kia, 47,500 wia and 23,000 mia.  The British suffered 200 killed and 1200 other casualties.  The Germans sustained 100,000 total losses.

Volksturm in East Prussia, January 20, 1945. By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R98401 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5368820

The Red Army reached the Baltic north of Elbing, cutting off Army Group North.  The greatest mass evacuation in human history begins with the Germans removing 1.5M to 2M people from the region with 40 large passenger ships and other vessels.

Hitler relieved General Reinhart and appointed General Rendulic to what was renamed Army Group North.

The Germans blue up the Wolf's Lair.

This is a good place to interject a couple of things, which I was pondering on how to interject.

Starting with the evacuation of East Prussia, it was a monumental human tragedy.  One the Germans brought on themselves, but tragic nonetheless.  The character of the fighting at this point began to radically change as the Germans fought on their own ground.  That was in due in part to the character of the Red Army's troops, which we will get to below.  German troops of all types fought tooth and nail at this point, and not simply because they were servants of a monstrous dictatorship that didn't care if they lived or died.  They were fighting to give time to their families to get out of the way of the Red Army.

The Red Army was an armed mob and quite frankly crap. That's a really controversial opinion, but its hte case.  The Imperial Russian Army had been crap, the Red Army was also crap, and the current Russian Army is crap.  It was tactically bereft of the most part and simply relied upon having a lot of men to get killed, and it didn't care if they lived or died.

That can be said about the Germans as well, but the Soviets had a lot more troops to get killed.

A very early edition of the excellent podcast We Have Ways addresses this (I think its Episode 13, Our Russian Allies).  In truth, the myth that has come down of the Soviets doing more to win the war than the Western Allies is simply wrong.  The difference between the two is that the Western Allies used technology and intelligence and didn't spend the lives of its mean.  Most in uniform in the Western armies weren't even combat troops.  Most in the Red Army were cannon fodder.  As that episode explains, had the feared post war war between the West and the USSR actually broke out, the Western Allies would have defeated the Soviet Union.

One of the characteristics of the troops of the Red Army mob was that by this point it was a murderous band of rapist.  There's no two ways about.  They raped thousands of women, and often killed them immediately thereafter, leaving their ravished bodies by the side of the road.  The modern Russian Army has never really gotten over this, and remains criminal in its behavior.

This leaves us with an awkward situation in regard to the late war fighting.  There was really nothing admiral about the Red Army at all, save for a few exceptional leaders and a few exceptional pieces of equipment.  As much as people hate to admit it, but for Western support during the war, the Soviets would have brokered a peace with the Germans in 1943.

It can, perhaps, be said that the Soviet's soldier capacity for enduring horrific conditions was admirable, although in no small part that helped turn them into a mob.  Most of the men in the Red Army had grown up in deprivation and brutality and were therefore somewhat acclimated to suffering making them unique as combatants.  The Soviet failure to control their men once past the borders of the Soviet Union, however, is unforgivable.  Often missed, they weren't just mass rapist in Germany, but also at least in Hungary.

The other difficult portion of this is that late war German resistance to the Soviets was at this point such that its almost hard not to regard it as heroic.  A person doesn't however, as the Germans had brought this disaster upon themselves and acted like monsters inside the USSR.  At this point in many places they fought to the death for the German people, but upon reflection if they'd fought the onset of fascism in the 1930s none of this would have ever occurred.

The British land on Chedube Island south of Ramree in Burma.

The 37th Infantry Division occupies a large portion of Clark Field in the Philippines.

Grand Rapids Michigan became the first city in the United States to fluoridate their water.

Trump nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a wackadoodle, has suggested that Donald Trump will push to remove fluoride from drinking water.  Nuts have always thought fluoride was bad, even though its revolutionary effect on dental health is well demonstrated.  Trump tends to support whatever floats through his head, so we'll see.

Last edition:

Wednesday, January 24, 1945. Himmler given a field command.



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    Saturday, November 2, 2024

    Today in World War II History—November 2, 1944

    Today in World War II History—November 2, 1944: 80 Years Ago: US First Army begins drive on Schmidt, Germany, through the Hürtgen Forest. All German males ages 13-60 are ordered to join Volkssturm militia.

    Wednesday, October 23, 2024

    Monday, October 23, 1944. The Largest Naval Battle In History.

    The largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, began in the Leyte Gulf with the submarines Darter and DAce sinking the Japanese cruisers Atago and Maya.

    The U-985 was irreparably damaged by a mine off of Lista, Norway.

    The Provisional Government of the French Republic was recognized by the Allies.

    German radio reported great success in raising Volkssturm volunteers.

    Japanese-American GIs bring in wounded Jerries in Bruyeres, France. Here, one gets a free ride, probably his last of the war, via the back of one of his comrades. 23 October, 1944.  442nd Regimental Combat Team.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, October 22, 1944. Smokey Smith.

    Friday, October 18, 2024

    Wednesday, October 18, 1944. Levée en masse.

    The Greek government in exile returned to Athens.  The British took Santorini and Scarpanto.

    Germany announced the formation of the Volkssturm with all German men not serving in the Wehrmacht liable for conscription into it if they were between 16 and 60 years of age.

    The British 8th Army took Galeata.

    Rommel's state funeral took place.

    Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann was murdered at Auschwitz at age 46.

    Last edition:

    Tuesday, October 17, 1944 The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

    Wednesday, September 25, 2024

    Monday, September 25, 1944. Withdrawal at Arnhem.

    British airborne POWs at Arnhem.  By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S73820 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5369460

    Operation Market Garden failed to achieve its final objective at Arnhem and the British 1st Airborne was ordered to evacuate at night across the Rhine.  Only 2,400 men of the 10,000 that dropped into fight at the city were recovered.  1,100 were killed in the battle.  6.400 were captured.  A few remained hidden in Arnhem with Dutch families.

    The battle achieved legendary status with the British nearly immediately, and was memorialized in a 1946 movie featuring many original British combatants entitled Theirs Is The Glory.  In spite of the significant American role, the battle tended to be ignored by American historians until 1974's book A Bridge Too Far by popular historian Cornelius Ryan, which was turned into a major movie in 1977.  

    Operation Market Garden has been a matter of enduring controversy in military history circles.  It was an unusually bold plan for Montgomery, but it also emphasized his own forces, with the addition of available American airborne, for what was essentially a very long strike for a roundabout path into Germany based on a narrow advance over a single road, and depending upon all of the bridges that were targeted being taken.  If things had worked perfectly, it's doubtful that it would have brought the war to a conclusion in 1944, as was hoped, as the Germans, after the fall of France, were effectively regrouping for the defense of Germany.

    It tends to be portrayed as an overall failure, which in many ways it was.  It did, however, liberate much of the Netherlands, although it helped to create the tactical scenario which gave rise to the German offensive in Belgium in December.  At the same time, however, Wacht am Rhein, which had already been approved, arguably only achieve a wasting of German resources in the final month of the war.  Moreover, if the offensive was a defeat, as some claim, it bears comparison to the treatment of the Battle of Anzio, which was arguably on part with it as a failure but which is not regarded as a defeat, or the delayed taking of Caen.

    The British 2nd Army took Helmond and Deurne east of Eindhoven.  The Canadian 3d Division attacked trapped German troops in Calais.

    The British urged foreign workers and slave laborers in Germany to rebel.

    The Red Army took Haapsalu, Estonia on the Baltic.

    Hitler ordered the formation of the Volkssturm, the militia formed of civilian men.

    Partisans occupied Banja Luka, Yugoslavia.

    Harvard announced that for the first time it would admit women to medical school starting in the fall of 1945.

    Claire Poe of Miami Beach appeared on the cover of a Life magazine special issue entitled "A Letter to GI's" because she was attractive in the girl next store sort of way.  She was only 18, which is interesting to Generation Jones members like myself, as she clearly looked much more mature than 18 year old girls did when I was 18.

    Life revealed that she'd just entered college with hopes of becoming a math teacher, and was corresponding to a Sergeant in Puerto Rico and an Ensign at Fort Lauderdale.

    Last edition:

    Sunday, September 24, 1944. Market Garden reaches the Rhine.