Hitler remembered the pincer movement by which he defeated the French army through the Ardennes forest. Again Hitler sent his army through the Ardennes forest to trap the American army. This is known as the battle of the Bulge. Hitler’s forces trapped the American army in Bastogne. Coming to know of that Patton’s 3rd army attacked the Germans from the back and pushed back the Germans and the American forces in Bastogne were saved. With this defeat the German army lost its morale. Although they were fighting they did not have the fire they had earlier.
The allied powers from the
west and the Russians from the East were slowly eating up the German empire of
Hitler. They were competing as to who would reach Berlin first. The Russians
became raving mad and started slaughtering everyone they encountered. They
moved forward with lightning speed. The Soviet army reached Berlin first and
was massacring everyone. Hitler could have easily escaped if he wanted but he
did not want to be called a coward who ran away. On 18th April 1945
325,000 German troops surrendered to the Americans. On 20th April
the Soviet forces bombed Berlin. That day was Hitler’s birthday. On 21st
April 1945 the Soviet army came up to the entrance of Berlin.
Hitler sent message to
General Felix Steiner to stop the Soviet army. Next day Hitler came to know
that Steiner said a counterattack was impossible. As it was Hitler was not well
at that time. When he heard that news he fainted. After he got up he said that everything
was over. He blamed his Generals responsible for the defeat. He then asked the
SS physician Heyes as to what is the easiest mode of suicide. Heyes advised
that bullets coated with cyanide is the best option. Earlier in 1941 Hitler
stated the Herman Goering the chief of the Luftwaffe as his successor.
Goering came to know that
Hitler was about to commit suicide. He then sent a telegram to Hitler
requesting for his authorization to take over as Hitler’s successor. Hitler
then stripped off all of Goering’s official title and medals and ordered him to
be arrested.
On 27th April
1945 the Soviet army surrounded Berlin from 4 sides. On 28th April
1945 Hitler came to know the German army under Himmler sent a message to
surrender to the allied forces which they refused.
Hitler was shocked he said
you coward you have lost our prestige by such action and ordered him to be
arrested. Hitler understood that the Allied powers may come anytime into his
bunker.
He then called his
girlfriend Eva Braun and asked her to flee so that she could survive. Eva said
life or death it is with Hitler. There were tears in Hitler’s eyes and he
embraced Eva. Hitler did not want Eva to die as an unknown person. He said the
world has to recognize you as my wife. Then he called his Generals and told
them tomorrow is our marriage, make arrangements. He named Carl Doenitz and
Joseph Goebbels as his successors..
On 29th April
Hitler came to know that his friend Mussolini was lynched by a mob on the
street. That midnight he married Eva Braun. First Hitler used the cyanide
bullets on his favourite dog Blondie. It died in just 5 seconds. On 30th
April at midnight 1 AM. Hitler finally met all his generals and their family
members and bid them farewell. Then he and his wife Eva went into their room.
At 3.30 AM there was a sound
of a bullet being fired from Hitler’s room. The Generals found him lying dead
on the sofa; He killed himself by firing the gun on his temple. Eva did not
have any injuries on her body. She too used Cyanide and died. Then his generals
burnt their bodies and cremated them.
The World’s most dangerous and most powerful dictator ultimately had to
pay a price for his actions.
As a military commander, Hitler had amazing tactics but it was inevitable that he would fail. He was
fighting the entire world all alone. Mussolini was useless in fighting and
Hitler had to support him everywhere. The Japanese were in a far-off area and
their actions did not help Hitler in any manner. He had to simultaneously fight
the English, the US, and Russia as well. However brilliant he may be who can win
such a war?
To see the magnitude of the
difficulty Hitler had look at the following populations of the main powers
engaged in the war rounded off to the nearest crore.
The British Empire including
colonies 55 crores
Soviet Union 17
crores
United States 15
crores
France including colonies 11 crores
TOTAL MAIN ALLIES 98
crores
Germany 9 crores
Italy 6 crores
Japan including colonies 30 crores
TOTAL MAIN AXIS POWERS 45 CRORES.
So the population of the
main allies was double that of the Axis powers. On top of that Japan was as
good as useless to Hitler as it fought its own war in South East Asia and could
not help Japan in any manner militarily. On top of that it stupidly pulled the
US into the war. As for Italy, it was a big liability and it bungled in
whatever it did so Hitler had to support it all the time. Ultimately he had to
takeover Italy with the aid of German forces.
That means Germany with its
population of 8 crores was fighting Russia, Britain & its colonies, the US
and France whose combined population was 98 crores and they were also
economically more powerful than him. If there had been any unequal battle in
history, then this is the one.
Despite that Hitler gave
them a big fright and had it not been for his blunder of attacking Russia, he
would have won Europe comfortably and Britain would not have had a chance
against him without the Eastern front from Russia. Even in Russia he almost won
but for the terrible Russia winter that intervened. It was Russia that did the
bulk of the fighting against the Germans in the 2nd World War and not Britain or
the US as it appears from their films. It was also Russia that entered Berlin
first much before the US or Britain could and after seizing the city raised
their flag on the German Parliament.
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