Eastern Front 1943-45 some details

" On Hitler´s orders, on 22 or 23 April, Schaub burned all of Hitler´s personal papers in the garden about 20m from the garden exit.These consisted of a large quantity of personal notes, memoranda and the like, which Hitler had stored in his personal safes.."

"The last days of Hitler" by Anton Joachimsthaler

 

one does wonder what may have been burned................. luv letters to Eva ? who really knows . . .

 

In 'Hitler And His Generals' - the transcripts of the Military Situation Conferences - the story of the burning of the papers near Berchtesgaden and the subsequent finding and piecing-together of the charred remains is almost as interesting as the documents themselves.....

 

Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin (April 1, 1904 in St. Petersburg – June 16, 1945 in Berlin) was a Soviet Red Army General.

During the Battle of Berlin, Berzarin's 5th Shock Army reached the outskirts of Berlin on April 21, 1945, making them the first Soviet Army to do so. On April 24, he was appointed commander of the city by Marshall Zhukov, in an echo of the Tsarist tradition of rewarding the first commander to enter a city with command over it.

Nikolai Berzarin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Not mine as I just got a bit late to get it but interesting post war autograph:

Jacques Leroy, Führer 1./SS-Freiw.GrenRgt 69 "Wallonie"

 

Siege of Budapest

" Due to a miscalculation at the IX SS staff Hq, the Soviets had been able to capture an immense stockpile of supplies in the outskirts of the city when about 300,000 boxes of rations and 450 tons of ammunition were seized on December 26."

From "Siege!" by Patrick McTaggart

 

Battle of Budapest

" The 2nd Ukrainian Front had been in combat for weeks, and malinovsky urged Stalin to give him time to incorporate reinforcements and new equipment into his battle-hardened units.

"This has to be done, no matter what it costs you," Stalin told Malinovsky

" We cannot seize Budapest off the march," the Marshal responded. He told Stalin that a four or five day delay would allow better concentration of forces.

" You are arguing to no purpose," Stalin replied."

Siege! by Patrick McTaggart

 

The fate of German destroyers Z35 and Z36

Z36

19 February 1944
The destroyer Z36 is commissioned.

12 December 1944
The destroyer Z36 is sunk along with Z35 by a mine in a Nashorn barrage followed by boiler and munitions explosion. Position 59° 37N 24° 51E.

The following map shows the Nashorn barrage area


http://kotisivut.fonet.fi/~aromaa/Navygallery/Images/Maps/slides/Antisub-1944.html


Z35

22 September 1943
The destroyer Z35 is commissioned.

12 December 1944
The destroyer Z35 is sunk by two mines in a Nashorn barrage followed by boiler and munitions explosion. Position 59° 34N 24° 49E.


Their grave is in Southern Finland, Vantaa, and here´s a memorial stone with their names on it.

 

15 Dec 1943

The four Germans on trial for war crimes in Kharkov, Ukraine all pled guilty, with admissions that over 30,000 victims died.

18 Dec 1943

The four defendants in the Kharkov, Ukraine war crime trial were sentenced to death by hanging, to be carried out on the next day.

19 Dec 1943

50,000 people gathered in the square in Kharkov, Ukraine to witness the hanging of four Germans found guilty of killing 30,000 civilians in Ukraine.

http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=220

 

In late June during operation Bagration Hitler refused the 53rd Corps from breaking out. from encircled Vitebsk. Hitler condemned the four divisions to certain destruction.

From Bagration 1944 by Steven J Zaloga

 

On operation Bagration:

On the eve of the Soviet offensive, AGC intelligence had identified only three tank corps when there were in fact eight tank and mechanized corps, and they missed two cavalry corps entirely. Their assessment of Soviet armor strength was only 400-1,800 tanks, when in fact it was more than double the highest German estimate. The presence of the 5th Guards Tank Army was completely missed, as were several other major formations, including, the entire 6th Guards Army near Vitebsk.

From Bagration 1944 By Zaloga

 

By June 1944 seven of the precious Panzer divisions were committed to France, and additional units were held back from the Eastern Front so they could be moved either east or west as the circumstance demanded. In the summer of 1943 about 80% of German tank strength had been concentrated in the East;in 1944 this proportion was only a little more than half.

The most direct consequence of the Anglo-American air campaign to the forces in the East was its impact on the Luftwaffe. German AA artillery and related ammunition represented about a quarter of German artillery and munitions output by 1944, due to the demands of Reich defence. This had a direct impact on the ability of the industry to supply the artillery demands of the German army.

In April 1944 and May 1944 alone the Reich fighter defence force lost the equivalent of 100% of its aircraft and 40% of its pilots in bruising encounters with the US Army Air force. This enormous drain on resources meant that the Eastern Front was denuded of fighter aircraft and that air superiority would be conceded to the Red Air Force even before the summer 1944 campaign began.

By Steven J Zaloga Bagration 1944

 

More than music, my friends.....

" the soviet high commnad expected the artillery to be the arm of decision in the opening phase of operation Bagration.Leading to the heaviest concentration of weapons ever seen."

During a staff conference in 1944 Hitler rebuked the General staff, saying "Unlike the Greek Gods, the Russians do not become stronger every time they fall!"

 

1944 German Ostfront and Luftwaffe

Luftlotte6, opposite the Byelorussian Balcony, had 43 strategic reconnaissance aircraft in early June, of which only 26 were serviceable. These were mainly Ju-88s, Ju 188s and Do 217s. Luftlotte 4, opposite Ukraine, had 43 aircraft, of which 31 were serviceable. During the spring months the heavy cloud cover prevented adequate surveys of Soviet rear areas. By the second week of June Soviet air activity was severely impeding operations, and by late that month, immediately prior to the offensive, Soviet fighter patrols prevented any significant reconnaissance altogether. German intelligence was forced to rely increasingly on signals intercepts, which could be manipulated. Furthermore, the Soviets had adopted a policy of almost complete radio silence, relying mainly on land lines.

Bagration 1944 by Steven J Zaloga

 

By refusing to allow the 53rd Corps to break out from encircled Vitebsk ( 1944 Bagration ), Hitler condemned the four divisions there to certain destruction.

Bagration 1944 by Steven J Zaloga

 

IRRC he wiped himself out on a lease lend motorcycle. I'd like to think ift was a Harley Davidson but probably not.

 

Operation Bagration:

By the end of the first day of full-scale fighting the offensive was progressing well. Vitebsk was on the verge of being surrounded, and the main road to Minsk appeared to be within grasp of the 11th Guards Army. The German OKH still did not appreciate that this was the main Soviet effort, so no real attempt was made to redirect strategic reserves into the area.

By Steven J Zaloga

 

The PzIV was the most common German tank during operation Bagration , as several of the Panzer divisions committed to AGC were having one of their two regiments re-equipped with Pamthers at the time. The small number of Panther tanks was due to the higher priority that had been afforded the western Front since November 1943.

Steven J Zaloga

 

Operation Bagration cotinues:

OKH started to shift resources in late May to AGC.The first of these was the 5th Panzer division, which began arriving in Minsk from Ukraine 26 June. It was given the unenviable task off stopping the major armoured onslaught now pushing down the Moscow-Minsk highway. By German standards, the 5th Panzer Division was a formidable fore, with 70 Panther tanks, 55 Pz IV´s, as well as the subordinate sPzAbt 5050 ( Heavy tank battalion 505) with 29 Tiger I´s. A blocking force was put into position to the north-east of Borisov, consisting of the Tiger tanks, the division´s reconnaissance battalion, its infantry regiments and its engineers. The aim was to hold the Berezina river line and to permit the 4th Army´s retreating units to withdraw to safety.

The Tiger heavy tanks of sPzAbt 505 attempted to halt the Soviet advances on Minsk starting with the skirmish with M4A2 Sherman tanks of the 3rd Guards Tank Corps near Krupski rail station on 28 June 1944. This battalion claimed to have destroyed 128 tanks of the 3rd Byelorussian front, and the Soviet heavy losses led to Marshal Pavel Rotmistrov´s relief from the command of the 5th Tank Army after the campaign. But by the end of the campaign, all the Tigers of this unit were lost in combat and the unit had to be reformed with new vehicles.

Steven J Zaloga

 

Bagration:

The 9th Army near Bobruisk was critical. The 1st Byelorussian Front had trapped around 40,0000 troops in a pocket about 25 km in diameter east of the city. A series of desperate and disjointed breakout attempts were made, but the proximity of the 1st Byelorussian Front´s artillery concentrations turned them them into a shambles. The area of the pocket nearest the Berezina River became a vast killing gound as the Red Air Force joine in the slaughter. Russian accounts claim that 10,000 German soldiers were killed and a further 6,000 captured. Some escaped to Bobruisk. Bobruisk was soon encircled, and its garrison were completely cut-off. Hitler consented to shift the 12th PZ division from AGN to help left the siege. It was understregth, with only 44 Pz IIII´s and PzIV´´s ( its other regiment was re-equipping in Germany with Panthers ). and did not reach Bobruisk in time.

By Zaloga