On March 26, 1941, during World War II, a coup d'état took place in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.
The coup was initiated by anti-fascist forces in Yugoslavia in order to destroy the "contract" between the Yugoslav royal family and the evil Third German Reich.
However, instead of doing any harm to fascist Germany, the coup hastened the fall of Yugoslavia.
With only eleven German troops, the Third Reich took Belgrade without bloodshed, captured Yugoslavia, and captured nearly two hundred thousand Serbs.
So, in what way did these eleven German troops take belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia?
Why did Hitler let these eleven German soldiers be directly discharged after his meritorious service?
During World War II, in the face of Germany's Lightning Armor division, the old powers such as Britain and France were gradually defeated.
Britain, which is known as the "sun never sets" empire, is even more defeated. Under the bombardment of the Germans, they retreated one after another and were instantly forced to Dunkirk.
If Hitler had not hesitated, the British Empire would have lost its bottoms.
Looking at the speed of the German army's overwhelming attack on the city and the ground, Yugoslavia was panicked at this time.
In particular, Prince Paul of the Yugoslav royal family has begun to tremble, he is afraid that the German chariot will directly advance into Belgrade, and at that time, he and his subjects will be taken prisoner of the concentration camp, and the butcher knives of the German army will not be soft at all.
In fact, there was also some headache in the face of Yugoslavia Hitler, although the military strength of Yugoslavia was average, but if it really launched a lifeless resistance, it was indeed enough for the German army to drink a pot.
So Hitler was also thinking about how to take Yugoslavia at the least cost. Of course, if Yugoslavia can learn to be "obedient", take the initiative to sign a contract with the Axis powers, and become an ally of the Axis powers, then there is no need to take Yugoslavia, and it is better to have one more friend than one more wall.
In this way, yugoslavia signed the "Tripartite Pact" with the Axis powers and became a small assistant to the Axis powers.
When the news came, the anti-fascist forces in Yugoslavia could not sit still, because the atrocities of the Nazi German army really made many people with lofty ideals indignant.
Subsequently, massive protests broke out in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, which was also supported by Britain.
The vigorous protests directly turned into a coup d'état, the overthrow of the pro-German regime, and the anti-Nazi Duchamp. Simovich became prime minister.
Although the British supported Yugoslavia's coup against the Nazis, Simovich also knew that if the Germans took military action against Yugoslavia, the British would have no practical assistance.
Because at this moment, the British army is also a mud bodhisattva crossing the river itself.
Although Yugoslavia at this time opposed the Nazis, they still did not dare to tear this veil, let alone openly oppose Germany, and even did not withdraw from the "Three-Power Treaty".
However, this kind of appearance and divinity had already been seen through by Hitler, and the coup d'état supported by Britain directly made Hitler lose the only patience for Yugoslavia.
Hitler decided to go to war against Yugoslavia and bring it into the territory of the Third Reich.
In this war, Hitler decided to devote five divisions of troops.
The war began on 6 April 1941 and on 21 April took Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.
In Hitler's mind, this was not a protracted battle, but tens of thousands of casualties in the war were absolutely inevitable.
The military strength of Yugoslavia was average, but if they dared to have signs of stubborn resistance, the Imperial Army armored divisions and bombers taught them to be human.
On 6 April, the Germans launched an offensive against Yugoslavia, and after a massive offensive deployment, the Germans sent a company commander of the reconnaissance battalion.
This man's name was Klingenberg, and he led a small team to carry out some activities of reconnaissance of the enemy in the front, and cleared some obstacles by the way. Take some key small positions.
On 11 April, Klingenberg had already led his squad to the vicinity of the Danube in Belgrade, when he was surprised to find that there were no Yugoslav troops stationed on the other side of the river.
In the face of such a natural barrier, Yugoslavia actually took the initiative to give up and shrunk the defense into the city, but gave up and gave up, and the Yugoslav army still blew up the bridge on the river with its hands when it left.
If you want to feel that the bridge in the city is a problem, there is no end to the road, when a rotten motorboat comes into view of Klingenberg.
He ordered his men to drag the motorboat over, and after inspecting it, he found that the motorboat was still usable, and Klingenberg prepared to cross the river while sending a telegram to the SS division commander Hauser to explain the situation.
But at this time Hauser believed that the main force of the Imperial army was still in the rear, and if it rushed forward at this time, once it encountered a Yugoslav army that resisted desperately, then this unnecessary loss was not necessary.
Therefore, Hauser ordered this detachment to stand by and not to act without permission before the main force of the troops arrived.
But at this time Klingenberg could not take care of so much, and the time to make a contribution to the empire was at hand, and if he waited for the arrival of the large troops, he would always be a mediocre small company commander.
Klingenberg graduated from the Bad Törtz Military Academy, received a formal higher education, and was a fanatical Nazi, a loyalist of Hitler.
He was bold, thoughtful, and mentally excellent, and as a warrior these qualities were quite good and rare.
At that time, arriving near the Danube in Belgrade, Klingenberg was very dedicated, and the group took an hour to cross the flooded Danube River in a broken motorboat.
But at this time, he thought of the military orders of the commander of the Hauser Division, and it was the taboo on the battlefield that soldiers took obedience to orders as their duty and blatantly disobeyed military orders.
Klingenberg hesitated a little at the thought of this, but if a few people could be sent to stay here on the riverbank to meet the large troops, and the rest of the people continued to reconnoiter, they could not disobey the military orders and could continue to advance on their own.
When the motorboat reached the other side of the river, Klingenberg ordered two soldiers to drive the motorboat back to wait for the main force, and he led ten soldiers to Belgrade to continue the reconnaissance mission.
Unfortunately, the jet ski sank on the way back, and the already dilapidated motorboat, encountering such a turbulent Danube, was overwhelmed to insist on sending Klingenberg and his party to the other side.
Seeing that Klingenberg could not take care of so much here, there was a bold idea in his heart at this time, and in order to implement his idea, he had given up everything, of course, including his life.
Because at present, with him, this squad of eleven men in all has only two light machine guns and five submachine guns.
If there was even the slightest resistance from the Yugoslav troops, the eleven of them would immediately be accounted for here.
After graduating from the military academy, Klingenberg marched all the way to become Hauser's aide-de-camp, but Klingenberg was eager to make a career, to honor, to get the recognition and sideways of the "Führer" on the battlefield, and to become a hero.
So he chose to enter the front-line battlefield, take on combat missions, and become a meritorious figure of the empire through immortal battle achievements.
The opportunity was in front of him, and he chose to continue to move forward, because the German bombers had previously carried out a two-day carpet bombing of Belgrade, so Klingenberg entered the city without seeing a few people, and the road was unimpeded.
But soon after they left, they encountered three military vehicles, Klingenberg, dressed in a conspicuous German military uniform, recognized at a glance, and the two sides began to exchange fire.
Of course, this exchange of fire lasted for a very short time. The Yugoslav soldiers surrendered, three military vehicles, more than twenty soldiers, thus surrendered to eleven German soldiers.
The Yugoslav soldiers panicked the moment they saw the German soldiers, and the German army's record of sweeping Through Europe made them feel uneasy, and even the powerful Anglia were forced to throw away their armor at Dunkirk, not to mention the weak Yugoslavia.
So the morale of the former Yugoslav forces was generally low, because they believed that yugoslav resistance was meaningless in the face of a strong Germany.
At this time, the German army pressed the border, and it was only a matter of time before Yugoslavia was captured, and when facing Klingenberg and his party, the soldiers on the three military vehicles only symbolically fired two shots, and then surrendered.
Because in their opinion, the German reconnaissance detachment has arrived here, and the main force of the German army must be not far from the rear, so they will not make unnecessary sacrifices.
If you surrender, you may be able to go home early.
After capturing more than twenty men, Klingenberg and his party changed into the costumes of Yugoslav soldiers and drove toward the city in a swaggering vehicle.
In this way, Klingenberg and his party drove directly to the Yugoslav Ministry of Defense in the city center, which had been blown up by German bombers.
Klingenberg made arrangements at the gate, and then the "Nazi Cross" flag symbolizing the German Third Reich was raised over the Ministry of Defense, announcing that Yugoslavia had been officially annexed by Germany and incorporated into the German map.
The Yugoslav citizens in the city were dazed, why didn't they hear the gunshots and destroy the country like this?
After a brief moment of consternation, the townspeople hurried home, and the complicated situation could make them ghosts under the guns of the German army at any time.
After raising the flag of the Third Reich, Klingenberg rushed to the German Embassy in Yugoslavia, hoping that the embassy would protect them in an emergency.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the German embassy raised the Nazi flag again.
When the mayor of belgrade heard the news, he stepped out and saw the Nazi flag flying high above the Ministry of Defense, and he panicked.
Why didn't the city hear a loud gunfire? Could it be that the Nazi Germans have already invaded the city? But he did not see any German deployments. No surrender agreement was signed!
Don't care so much, first go to see what's going on, in fact, he himself didn't have much hope for the defense of the city, the Nazi German bombers have already made them suffer a lot these days!
The mayor hurried to the Ministry of Defense with a part of his retinue, only to find that the men had already left, and his men reported that this small group of German troops had gone to the German embassy.
Until 6:30 p.m., the mayor and his party hurried to the German embassy, and on the way, the mayor did not see any German soldiers, but the embassy guards stopped him.
"The two countries are at war, and I ask to meet with your ambassadors for consultation on important matters."
The guards saw the coming mayor and his retinue, and did not take the armed guards and stopped obstructing.
As soon as he entered the embassy, the mayor saw the ambassador and a small group of German soldiers, lined with a line.
"Mr. Ambassador, could you please tell me what happened to the flag of your country that is flying over my Ministry of Defence? I have not signed any surrender agreement, and your actions are simply absurd. I demand that your armed personnel immediately withdraw from our garrison, otherwise don't blame me for not being polite! ”
"How does Mr. Mayor want to fight this battle?"
During the conversation, a neat, tall, handsome, tall soldier appeared in front of the mayor's eyes, quite a bit of arrogance and domineering--this man was Klingenberg.
This momentum made the already weak mayor of Belgrade a little embarrassed.
"I will fight to the death against the defenders of the city and fight for the freedom and independence of Yugoslavia until the last moment"
The mayor was clearly a little weak-minded when he said this, because he knew how insignificant this kind of "fighting" was for the powerful German army.
Klingenberg laughed contemptuously and then said: "The nearly one million SS panzer divisions and bomber units are already waiting outside the city for the order to attack, and with just one order, the Imperial panzer division and bomber units will immediately step on Belgrade!" ”
Klingenberg in front of him looked more aggressive, and a layer of cold sweat appeared on the mayor's forehead.
Yes, as mayor, it would be extremely selfish to use the lives of every citizen as a price and bargaining chip to defend the city, and since he had already heard of nazi atrocities against the Jews, he would not have the slightest doubt about the cruelty of the Nazis.
But at this moment, Klingenberg's SS men looked at the commander's talk and couldn't help but feel frightened.
For they knew that the main German forces outside the city had not arrived at this time, and that the only radio equipment they had had was damaged.
That is to say, if the Yugoslav troops resist at this moment, they will have to sacrifice themselves for the great Fuehrer with two light machine guns and five submachine guns in their hands.
Unexpectedly, the mayor agreed to surrender, and Klingenberg once again showed his strong psychological qualities.
In this way, on the orders of the mayor, the defenders stationed outside the city and the Yugoslav soldiers and militia inside the city were gathered in the square and laid down their arms in front of Klingenberg and the mayor.
At this point, the Belgrade defenders and more than 200,000 citizens all laid down their weapons and surrendered to eleven Germans.
On 13 April, the main German army entered Belgrade without firing a single shot or a single shot.
The mayor, who learned the truth afterwards, was ashamed and shot himself.
On May 14, 1941, Hitler personally awarded Klingenberg the Knight's Cross, and two years later promoted him to lieutenant colonel.
Later, Hitler ordered that these eleven soldiers should be directly discharged from the army to participate in the "Fountain of Life" program, so as to breed more pure-blooded talents for the Empire.
During World War II, Hitler customized the "Fountain of Life" program in order to implement his so-called excellent racial theory.
epilogue:
As a soldier, Klingenberg was undoubtedly competent, and he used his composure and wit to take Belgrade with ease, creating a miracle of winning more with less, saving unnecessary losses and innocent civilian casualties. As a result, he received the honor he deserved.
But throughout world war II, Nazi Germany, as the first to provoke an unjust war, brought a heavy and far-reaching disaster to the peace-loving peoples of the world, and it was doomed to fail and be justly judged.
The so-called racial eugenics proposed by Hitler provided a theoretical basis for the Nazis to massacre tens of thousands of Jews, and this theory with "pseudoscience" color also provided a hotbed for the future spread of racism.
Facts have proved that the vigorous propagation of the theory of racial superiority is a very ironic absurd act, it is a key factor in creating social divisions and antagonisms, and if it is not stopped, the tragedy of history will be repeated.