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Allied expeditions to Europe: (55) Continued expansion of victories

author:子名历史

Along the northern edge of continental Europe, large numbers of flamethrower-wielding Canadian troops invaded the Netherlands, and a sense of urgency was urging them to speed up:

It is said that the night watchman in the Amsterdam morgue kept shaking the keys to drive away rats that gnawed at corpses, and Allied sappers feared that the Germans would blow up the seawall and flood the western Netherlands.

So they reached a truce with the Germans through a secret agreement and left a safe passage for the delivery of aid supplies, which began airdrops on April 29 and land shipments began on May 2.

The surrender of General Blaskowitz of Army Group H and the "Dutch fortress" made the Netherlands boil: although 200,000 civilians still suffered from hunger and cold, people could not wait to put on orange clothes, light bonfires, sing and dance, and look like a spectacle of empty alleys.

A British brigadier general wrote: "The people here are clearly compensating for the oppression they have endured for these five years. ”

Lined up in grey uniforms, captured Germans meandered toward Den Helder, where they would board fishing boats and canoes before crossing Lake Ethel on the long journey to the gates of the camp.

Maslan Gander, a reporter for The Daily Telegraph, wrote: "They left in disgrace like vagabonds and criminals. ”

Allied expeditions to Europe: (55) Continued expansion of victories

Canadian troops walk through a small Dutch town

The prisoners of war were allocated 10 horses and 5 carts for every 180 people ... For every 500 people, they can get 2 bicycles for letter delivery... Everyone was searched before boarding the evacuation raft, and no booty was allowed, only a pen and a watch.

Dumplings and warehouses piled up, including bicycles, sewing machines, furniture, radios, gins, clothing and perfumes.

Gander went on to write: "It was a joyous moment in a fairy tale. ”

Further east, four British divisions flanked Bremerhaven, which was captured on 27 April after five days of fierce fighting.

A British soldier discovered that in what he called "the most depraved place on earth," the Germans were "robbing and drinking and fighting."

Despite Eisenhower's urging, Montgomery crossed the Elbe downstream at his unhurried pace, just as the Soviets were marching on Denmark.

It was almost a race at speed: on May 2, British tanks captured Lübeck, and airborne troops rushed 40 miles to capture Wismar in the Baltic Sea, blockading Jutland and blocking the entrance to Denmark two hours before the Red Army arrived.

On May 3, Hamburg surrendered without a fight, and the 18th Airborne Army, which was responsible for covering Montgomery's right flank, captured 250,000 prisoners of war within two days.

Among the combined Anglo-American armies, the far east was the 3rd Army, and Czech villages erected beautiful arches with garlands on the access roads with signs that read "Welcome Americans."

On the other side of the town, identical arches were erected, with signs that read "Welcome the Soviets."

The British encouraged the 3rd Army to preemptively capture Prague, a trophy that, as Churchill told Truman, "could revolutionize the post-war situation in Czechoslovakia."

Eisenhower was intrigued, and although Marshall warned him that "I do not want to put American lives at risk for political purposes alone," Stalin eventually accepted America's demand to stop at the Elbe.

The Supreme Commander reiterated his previous promise: Anglo-American forces would stop along the line between Pearson and Carlsbad in Bohemia.

Patton's army then advanced towards Linz and Pearson, leaving Salzburg to the 7th Army and Prague to the Soviets.

On May 2, Austrian partisans captured Innsbruck, and two days later the 6th Army entered the city in a snowstorm and camped at a golf resort with tennis courts, where there was also a Viennese band.

At 11 a.m. on Friday 4 May, a patrol of the 411th Infantry Regiment crossed the Brenner Pass to join its comrades in the 5th Army, a meeting between the European and Italian theaters of operations that had been brewing for two years.

German General Erich Brandenberger surrendered with the remnants of the 19th Army, and they carefully arranged the surrender ceremony and even prepared written manuscripts detailing the placement of flags, orderlies, band members, and even pencils.

The U.S. officers neither saluted nor shook their hands, but allowed Brandon Berger's men to keep one pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition for every 10 men to maintain "internal security."

Almost at the same hour, Devers arrived in a sculptor's workshop in the woods outside Hal in a command car with Patch, Heislip and O'Daniel.

The studio was filled with plaster casts and statues, ranging from miniature carvings to magnificent monuments, and German Lieutenant General Hermann Forge stood upright in the studio, ready to lead his 1st Army and Army Group G to surrender.

Devers and his adjutant sat in their seats, and Forge slowly pouted his hips and bowed, and they briefly discussed the terms of surrender, including how to inform German troops far away in the Alps that the war was over.

Subsequently, Devers reiterated that all officers and men of Army Group G between Switzerland and Czechoslovakia would be prisoners of war.

"This is unconditional surrender," Devers said. Do you understand? ”

For a full minute, Fauci stood there stiffly like a sculpture beside him, and one witness recorded: "The muscles of his face twitched, like those people whose spasms were about to attack." ”

Then, with a slight shake of his head, he replied in standard English: "I can tell you with great certainty, sir, that with my remaining strength, I will not be able to stop the development of the situation. ”

Few places are heavier than the Germanic emotions of Berchtesgaden, 80 miles southeast of Munich to this remote Bavarian village.

After a failed coup d'état in 1923, Hitler retired to a log cabin on the site and completed the second volume of Mein Kampf, which sold well and brought him money to build a vacation home.

Allied expeditions to Europe: (55) Continued expansion of victories

Hitler's "eagle's nest"

His holiday home (later known as "Begerhof") was built on the slopes of the Obersalz hill, overlooking the town. It is said that Charlemagne led his mysterious legion to lie dormant in this mountain.

Nazi friends bought houses here, cared out an idyllic enclave where they could indulge in a pastoral life (Bowman had 100 beehives on his trail) or plot to rule the world.

In preparation for the Führer's 50th birthday and to arrange foreign receptions, the Nazi Government requisitioned nearly 4,000 workers to build this palatial hilltop castle near the Eagle's Nest.

There is both an indispensable unique vista and a lavish Carrara marble fireplace gifted by Mussolini, and a Parisian Corinian wall tapestry hangs from the wall above the fire, like an animal fur.

Visitors climb up the hill along winding roads, past five tunnels carved out of granite hills, and then ascend 400 feet to the castle in an Otis elevator with Venetian glass, green leather benches and brass fittings.

On April 25, RAF bombers launched a punitive and heavy air raid on the town, destroying the homes of Baumann and Goering, Hitler's Beghof, and the adjacent SS barracks.

Inspired looters ransacked Upper Salzburg, stealing Himmler's furniture, thousands of watercolors and drawings from Baumann's collection.

On 1 May, the news of the Führer's death prompted SS soldiers to burn their personal belongings and eventually set the entire house on fire as the Allies approached.

At 4 p.m. on May 4, two battalions of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division walked heavily into Berchtesgaden through wildflower-filled meadows, flames still licking the ruins.

On the orders of General O. Daniel, the bridge over the Salah River was heavily guarded, and both the French 2nd Panzer Division and the 101st Airborne Division were blocked outside the village by them.

General Haislip, commander of the 15th Army, told the thunderous General Leclerc: "You have taken Paris and occupied Strasbourg, and you can no longer hope for Berchtesgaden. ”

U.S. soldiers lowered Nazi flags and tore them into 2-inch pieces to take back as a memorial.

Despite the indiscriminate bombardment, burning and looting of Upper Salzburg, the soldiers found that there was much more to loot inside.

In the cellar of Beghoff, the letters "A.H." are printed everywhere." tablecloths, teacups and spoons, as well as various records, magazines dating back to 1930, and a toilet seat in a green-tiled toilet.

American soldiers stole lighting equipment, box-spring mattresses, and maps showing the fighting conditions of the theater headquarters.

An officer who passed through Eva Braun's closet said: "What impressed me the most was the hangers in her closet, at least more than two hundred. ”

The guest house next door has an espresso machine, a beer tap and some frozen ice cream cups.

The RAF did not bomb the eagle's nest, but fearing booby-traps in the elevators, the soldiers tossed and turned to the top of the steep peak.

The scouts found a dining room with blackout cloth with 26 chairs, various pieces of furniture and Swiss five-needle pine panels; There is also a brand new kitchen with a slaughtering area, but it looks like it has never been used.

The fireplace where Mussolini offered was so large that one visitor wrote: "A bull stands on it like a mouthful of phlegm." Soon, 3,000 Allied soldiers poured into the Eagle's Nest in one day, and by Sunday the visitors reached 10,000, while the airborne troops, bored chewing gum, were pulled as guides.

The amount and variety of stolen goods recovered from Goering's house were huge, and many of them were stuffed in a warehouse, which also contained a large vault:

18,000 bottles of red and white wine, 5,000 lighter-sized Melody cameras, 12 suitcases stuffed with women's underwear, pornographic videos, a 14-seater Mercedes bulletproof car.

In nearby railway tunnels and other storage rooms, the Airborne Troops also found many of his infamous art loots.

The collection, which is said to be valued at $500 million, includes hundreds of paintings by famous artists such as Rembrandt, Rubins and Van Dyck, as well as a forgery of Vermeer's painting Christ and the Adulterous Woman, as well as terracotta statues of saints, half-humans and soldiers, tapestries, antiques, golden chalicets, porcelain statues.

One hotel was converted into a makeshift gallery with a poster on the outside that read: "Hermann Goering Art Collection – Thanks to the 101st Airborne Division." ”

Goering's private curator, who was caught hiding among the stolen goods, sighed and said: "Alas, war! Goodbye, goodbye. ”

Goering himself soon appeared, asking to work for Eisenhower in the "restructuring of the German Empire."

The imperial marshal, with a retinue of 75 henchmen, including a cook, a butler and a valet, was captured by the 36th Division 35 miles southeast of Salzburg.

Allied expeditions to Europe: (55) Continued expansion of victories

Goering after capture

He had a full meal of fried chicken, dejectedly photographed in front of the Lone Star of Texas, his head hanging from several Iron Crosses on his chest, and he could keep 4 fully automatic pistols at night in case of scheming by SS killers.

General Darquist wrote in his diary: "He was a fat and vulgar fool who kept saying that everything was Hitler and Ribbentrop's fault. ”

Wearing sky-blue gloves, he told correspondents in a relaxed courtroom that the ugly reports about Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald were "pure propaganda." He went on to say: "I'm not a prophet and it's hard to know what the future holds. ”

His marshal scepter, 16 inches long and embellished with 640 diamonds, 20 golden eagles and 20 platinum crosses, became props for the sale of wartime public debt in the United States.

Then, another marshal's scepter was captured, and the last German command was located in the Alps, where the headquarters of Marshal Kesselring, the sworn enemy of the Anglo-American forces, was located.

The commander-in-chief of the Western Front was waiting for the end of the war on a five-car train along the Austrian border.

He mistook the two reporters who followed him for Eisenhower's envoys, thought they had come to negotiate surrender, and invited them to lunch for ham, cabbage, potatoes, and beef.

After realizing that he had made a mistake, the "smiling Albert" laughed and muttered, "Muddy eggs." ”

An American major then invited Kesselring to Berchtesgadenhof, where he was arranged to live in the best room, with his rifle, medal and marshal scepter.

He sighed that "all six scepters were left by me in the ruins of the headquarters" and was then put in a cell in Luxembourg in difficult conditions, where an interrogator of war criminals was waiting for him.

Before leaving, he was asked how he would evaluate Hitler, and the field marshal sighed deeply and replied: "Hitler is the most extraordinary historical figure I have ever met." ”

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