20.
21. Joachim Ludewig, ‘Walter Model—Hitlers bester Feldmarschall?’ in Smelser and Syring, p. 368.
22.
23. Quoted
24. Carlo D’Este, ‘Model’, in Barnett, p. 329; Kesselring, pp. 250–55, attributed much of the blame for the plight of Army Group B to Model’s operational decisions.
25. BAB, R3/1626, fos. 15–17, ‘Kapitulationsverhandlungen mit Generalfeldmarschall Model und Gauleiter Hoffmann’, notes compiled in internment in ‘Dustbin’, June 1945, by Rohland. And R3/1661, fo. 21, ‘Niederschrift uber die Ereignisse vom 15.3. bis 15.4.1945’, no date, signed by Walther Rohland (entries for 31.3, 2.4, 8.4, 13.4.45); Walter Rohland,
26. Ludewig, pp. 382–4; Rohland, p. 107; Walter Gorlitz,
27. Cited
28.
29. IWM, EDS, F.3, AL2697, ‘Doenitz orders Resistance to the last. 3 Orders—7, 11, and 19 April 1945’.
30. KTB/SLK, part A, vol. 68, pp. 331–2A, Kriegstagebuch des Ob. d. M., 25.4.45.
31. BA/MA, N265/112, NL Heinrici, fos. 1–17 (written during captivity, 1945–7 and incorporating memoirs of Colonel Eismann). Though entitled ‘Der Vortrag bei Hitler am 4.IV.1945’, the meeting appears in fact (see fo. 20) to have taken place not on the 4th but on 6 April. Heinrici had already composed a briefer, though in essentials similar, account of the meeting on 12 May 1945 (BA/MA, N265/108, fos. 3–9, where he dates it to ‘about ten days before the beginning of the battle for Berlin’).
32. BA/MA, N265/112, NL Heinrici, fos. 23–4. Speer, p. 471, dates the meeting to the 15th, not 14 April (as Heinrici has it), and mentions the discussion only of sparing the destruction of Berlin’s installations, not the issue of killing Hitler (which he alludes to, however, elsewhere in his memoirs). In later drafts of parts of his memoirs dating from 1966 or thereabouts, Heinrici again mentions the discussion with Speer about killing Hitler and his rejection of political murder because of his Christian convictions. He adds two points which were not mentioned in his earlier version. An assassination attempt would have been pointless, because of Hitler’s security, greatly tightened since July 1944. And, should such an attempt have nevertheless succeeded, the result would have been revolution 100 kilometres behind the front lines against the Russians. The ensuing chaos would have removed from the leadership all possibility of successful negotiations over an armistice. Whether such notions were in his mind in April 1945 or not is unclear. He drew the conclusion, in the later memoirs, that he had no alternative but to carry out his commission to hold the Oder line to the best of his ability.—BA/MA, N265/26, fos. 22–3 (
33. BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, Kalenderblatter 1945, fo. 87, entries for 5.4.45, 13.4.45.
34. A telex from the Army Personnel Office on 13 April assigned small numbers of officers to the ‘Fuhrer- Reserve’ of several Army Groups but pointed out that they now had to manage their own manpower resources and could not reckon with further allocations in the foreseeable future.—IWM, EDS, F.3, M.I. 14/163, FS to OB Nordwest, etc., 13.4.45. Seven new divisions were somehow thrown together in early April and given light armaments. But they were made up of seventeen-year-olds. They were meant for the defence of Thuringia, but would not be ready for service for a fortnight.—
35. e.g. StAA, Kreisleitung Gunzburg 1/42, Gaustabsamt Gau Schwaben to named Kreisleitungen, 11.4.45.
36. BAB, NS6/756, fos. 2–6, Verstarkung der kampfenden Truppe, 28.2.45.
37. BAB, NS6/135, fo. 160, Vorlage (for Bormann), re Panzernahbekampfungstrupp der Hitler-Jugend, 3.3.45.
38. Information from Dr Hermann Graml, Institut fur Zeitgeschichte, Munich, on his own experience in the Reich Labour Service in the last days of April 1945. Heavy pressure was put on boys to join. It could be resisted if sufficient determination were shown, for example by emphasizing strong allegiance to the Catholic Church, or, as in Dr Graml’s case, by producing call-up papers for the Wehrmacht. A contemporary in Wurttemberg claimed much later to recall that her then seventeen-year-old brother received a letter in February 1945 telling him that he had volunteered for the Waffen-SS, which had not been the case. He hurriedly volunteered for the Reich Labour Service to avoid it.—
39. See the testimony assembled in Nicholas Stargardt,
40. Gunter C. Behrmann, ‘ “Jugend, die meinen Namen tragt”: Die letzten Kriegseinsatze der Hitlerjugend’, in
41. StAA, Kreisleitung Gunzburg 1/43, Strassen- und Flu?bauamt, Neu-Ulm, 13.4.45; Gauleitung Schwaben, 1/28, fos. 328841–2, 328845, Heeresgruppe G to Gauleitung Schwaben, 13.4.45, Bormann to all Gauleiter, 13.4.45, passing on Keitel’s directive of 10.4.45; fos. 328807–8, Bormann’s order to ten named Gauleiter in central and southern Germany, 13.4.45; Gauleitung Schwaben, 1/29, fo. 328843, Aktnotiz fur den Gauleiter: Versorgungslage der Wehrmacht und ziviler Behorden, 16.4.45; fo. 328835, note for Gauleiter Wahl from the Kreisleiter of Neu-Ulm, who, since the enemy was approaching, saw the need to call on the
42. BAB, R3/1622, fo. 102, Speer directive, transmitting Hitler’s order, 24.4.45; printed in
43. BAB, R3/1618, fo. 22, re Fuhrer-Vorfuhrung, 12.4.45.
44. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Uffz. Werner F., 1.4.45. Most soldiers’ letters, and those they received, were unpolitical in content and dealt in the main with inconsequential family or private matters. A report from one censors’ office for March stated on the basis of intercepted and controlled mail that 91.8 per cent of letters checked over the month were ‘colourless’, 4.7 per cent positively disposed towards the regime and 3.5 per cent negative (the last figure certainly underplaying true sentiments, given the dangers of expressing criticism). A separate control, under slightly different criteria, for the last eight days of March gave results of 77.08 per cent ‘colourless’, 8.82 per cent ‘positive’, 6.64 per cent ‘negative’ and 7.46 per cent ‘neutral’. The report included 113 varied extracts from the letters.—BA/MA, RH20/19/245, fos. 31–43, Feldpostprufstelle bei AOK.19, Monatsbericht fur Marz 1945, 3.4.45. For the organization of post to and from the front, see Richard Lakowski and Hans-Joachim Bull,
45. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Tagebuch Uffz. Heinrich V., 10.4.45.
46. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Tagebuch Uffz. Heinrich V., 12.4.45.
47. Fritz, pp. 90–91.
48. LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 319, pt. II, pp. 8–9 (18.4.45). The fate of the officer is not known.
