Hitler Brought Down; Closing the Ring, 1943-20 July 1944

The 12-Year Reich
Session 5
Hitler Brought Down, Closing the Ring
1943-20 July 1944

Stalingrad,
the romance
with Hitler is over
German and
Romanian prisoners,
February, 1943

“Total War”
Now, Volk,
rise up
and
storm burst forth!

U-boat war
the tide turns in the
battle of the Atlantic

American
forces ﬁnish
securing North
Africa
next they prepare
to invade Italy

Italy
invaded;
Duce out,
then rescued
allied propaganda
leaﬂet: “This was the
ﬁrst blow”

the front
draws
nearer
the way to Stalingrad
was through Kiev, then
the Russians in 10
months, have reversed
matters, now the way to
Breslau is through Kiev

in 1944 the
Red Army
advances
DEATH
to the German fascist
bandits

the war in
the west has
begun
German newspaper
account of D-Day,
6 June 1944

20 juli 1944
scene of the failed bomb plot, immediately after
Hitler’s “miraculous” escape

We have not only a “leadership crisis’, but
strictly speaking a “Leader (Führer) crisis”!

Speer,recalling Goebbels’s assessment in late
February, 1943

showing the strain
“rapidly ageing...

“becoming increasingly a physical
wreck...

“showing pronounced signs of intense
nervous strain---

distanced himself ever more from his
people.”

his left hand began to tremble (probably
onset of Parkinson’s disease)

his quack doctor Morell gave more
“energy” injections

his vegetarian diet didn’t help

women in
war work
Hitler grudgingly
agrees to shelve his
chauvinist view--
kinder, kuche,kirche

Fremd und
zwangsarbeitern
Germany felt the press of military versus
domestic manpower conﬂicts

two answers besides women laborers
were resorted to

the ID paper (right) of the
zivilarbeiter(in) civil worker (female)
from Soviet Russia is a blend of the two

workers were recruited from the allied/
occupied countries as volunteers

then they were kept and worked as
slaves

slavery was the initial fate of Jews and
POWs

who shall be the “Total War”
Czar?
Göring, seen here in
happier days, wanted
the job
Goebbels felt he
deserved it
Ley (DAF), Speer,
Saukel, and Bormann
all craved the post

the White Rose
A GERMAN FLYER Manifesto
of the Munich Students

the leaﬂet dropped by Sophie
and her brother Hans Scholl
on 18 Feb 1943
their resistance had begun
the previous summer
the blue writing, “enemy
propaganda”

Hans & Sophie with Christoph Probst
München, 24.Juli 42--at the beginning of the
resistance movement.

swift Nazi “justice”

they began painting slogans on walls: “Down with
Hitler,” “Hitler Mass Murderer,” “Freedom”
then a series of printed ﬂyers
they were seized distributing the 6th ﬂyer on 2/18/43
tried before notorious judge Roland Freisler on 2/22,
they were found guilty and guillotined the same day

other resistance “circles”
the Munich university group was not alone
army ofﬁcers around General Ludwig Beck secretly
plotted
military intelligence, including the director (!), Admiral
Canaris, worked against the war effort
a soon to be world famous Lutheran pastor, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, and others in the church resistance
searched their consciences

a totally unexpected resistance:
the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto

a totally unexpected resistance:
the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto
16.Oct.40--established, population 440,000, the largest ghetto
in Europe. 38% of Warsaw’s pop. in 4.5% of the city’s area

16 Nov--enclosed with a wall & armed guards. thousands of
Polish Jews & Romani (Gypsies) added; food rations reduced to
starvation levels; over 100,000 die of disease & starvation
before deportations to extermination camps

23.July-21.Sept.1942-- about 240,000 sent to Treblinka &
murdered there

by the end of 1942, it was clear that the deportations were to
their deaths, and many of the remaining Jews decided to ﬁght

the Warsaw Ghetto
and the railroad routes to the extermination KZs

Adm Karl Dönitz, (1891-1980)
U-boat Commander (BdU) (Befehlshaber der U-boote)

1916 posted to a U-boat

1918 commander, German U-boat arm

1936 named Führer der U-Boote

1939-1945 U-boats sunk 2,800 ships with
a capacity of 15 million gross registered
tons

when Adm Raeder lost Hitler’s favor in
1943, Dönitz replaced him as OKM,
Oberbefehlshaber der
Kriegsmarine

ironically, “Black May” followed

“Black May,” 1943
U-boats reach their highest number, 240 (118
at sea)

May also saw the greatest losses, 25% of the
operational total

nearly 3x the losses of the previous worst
month

at the same time there was a drop in Allied
losses to the U-boat attacks

shocked, Adm Dönitz ordered a temporary
halt to the U-boat campaign, 24 May 1943

what caused this dramatic shift?
ofﬁcers on the bridge of an escort vessel looking
for U-boats early in the war

ASDIC(Br) / sonar(US)
the naval equivalent of radar, part of the “wizard
war”

Enigma, the Kriegsmarine model M-4
was recovered by the Poles in 1939 and gave
British Intelligence access to the wolfpacks’ plans

the ﬁlm, 2001--the center
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

and a variety of weapons and tactics

and on the Ostfront

Germany’s Victory
EUROPE’S FREEDOM

Leningrad

Moscow

Kursk
Kiev

Großoffensiv “Zitadelle”
major offensive “Citadel”
Kursk
4-20 July 1943

Soviet
poster
you’re not going
“NACH OSTEN” any
more
на запад
to the West!

new Tiger tanks were available
in large numbers
Waffen SS units were optimistic, as was Hitler

Waffen SS

new Tiger tanks were available
in large numbers
Waffen SS units were optimistic, as was Hitler

the new Soviet T-34
was arguably even better. Note the sloped armor
to send “incoming” ricocheting off

the German Panther
tried to get the T-34 slope factor right but was
bedeviled by other faults, side armor too thin

battle of Prokhorovka, 12.juli
“the greatest tank battle of all times”

battle of Prokhorovka, 12.juli
“the greatest tank battle of all times”
the Soviets launched a counter offensive,
hoping to catch the Germans off balance

“best described as a very costly tactical loss
but an operational draw for the Soviets”

neither accomplished their missions that day

losses a contentious subject:

Soviet-200(?) 822 (?) --probably 150-300

German-80(?) “hundreds, including
‘dozens’ of Tigers” (?) --probably 70-80
“operational reductions” short/long term

Red tank recovery vehicle
towing a damaged T-34 from the Prokhorovka
battleﬁeld

immediate results
13 juli- Hitler summons v Kluge & v Manstein to Wolfsschanze

3 days earlier the Western Allies had invaded Sicily, Hitler
announces his intention to “temporarily” call off Zitadelle

Manstein insists “on the brink of victory,” Hitler gives him a
few more days

17 juli- operation cancelled, entire SS Panzer Korps transferred
to Italy

22 august-utter exhaustion, both sides, battle of Kursk ends

long term results
as series of Red Army operations lead to the crossing of the
Dnieper and the liberation of Kiev, autumn of 1943

a new pattern emerges--the initiative passes to the Soviets

Germans spend the rest of the war reacting to their moves

the Italian front drains resources from Ostfront

only the Soviets have the manpower, Lend-Lease, and
industrial production to recover fully

Germany will never again launch a major eastern offensive

strategic outcome
the loss further convinces Hitler of the incompetence of his General Staff

he continues his interference in military matters, by the war’s end he is
involved in tactical decisions

Stalin moves in the opposite direction, he sees Stavka’s planning justified on
the battlefield, steps back from operational planning, only rarely overrules
military decisions

predictable results ensue for both sides:

German Army moves from loss to loss as Hitler “micromanages”

Soviet Army gains freedom and becomes more and more fluid

Now it’s gonna get serious

Italy
MUSSOLINI FALLEN
ITALY BREAKS DOWN

Allied propaganda leaﬂet

“Operation Husky” Sicily Landings
9/10 July -17 August

Italy in chaos--24 July-15 Sept

as Sicily is overrun, alarm spreads

as Sicily is overrun, alarm spreads

24 July--the Fascist Grand Council meets for ten hours,
votes 19-7 to ask the king to save Italy from destruction
25 July--Mussolini summoned to the palace, relieved of
duties and arrested, replaced by Marshall Badoglio
Hitler calls an emergency meeting of his top advisors
after learning of this, urges immediate forceful action--
arrest them all! king, Badoglio, the pope!
wiser heads prevail

a ﬁery interruption, 24 July-3 August
Operation Gomorrah, the ﬁrebombing of
Hamburg

Pietro Badoglio, 1871-1956
victor of the Ethiopian War, 1936

used mustard gas and bombed hospitals,
never tried for war crimes

resigned his commission after the poor
performance in Greece, 1940

called by Victor Emmanuel III to form a
government, 25 July 1943

made a speech promising to continue the
war

secretly began negotiations with the Allies

suspicious, Hitler prepares
Kesselring prepares a brilliant evacuation of
Sicily on the night of 11-12 August

by early September, when Italy’s “treachery”/
good sense came to light, he had 16
divisions on the Italian mainland

hardened SS units from Ostfront

troops formerly stationed on Sardinia,
Corsica, and Sicily

they quickly seized control of central Italy
and took the unprepared Italian Army
prisoner

over 650,000 former “comrades” became Generalfeldmarshall Albert Kesselring
slave laborers 1885-1960

Operation Eiche (Oak) 12.ix
Austrian SS Hauptsturmführer
Otto Skorzeny leads a perfect
airborne rescue mission to free
the Duce

German intelligence had located
the site where he was being held
captive

the German commandos
overwhelmed Mussolini’s guards
without a shot being ﬁred

Skorzeny ﬂew him out in a Fiesler
Storch light aircraft

Nazis prepare strong
defensive lines

Denmark; the greatest
rescue action of WW II

Danish ﬁshing boats used in the rescue

Italy: resistance by the Church
October, 1943

...what happened in Spain [ the church desecrations,
murder of clergy and women religious by the
Republicans] clearly inﬂuenced Pius XII's attitudes
towards Hitler, whom he considered similar to Mussolini
and Franco. I think this helps to explain his support of
Operation Barbarossa and his reluctance to comprehend
the Holocaust, let alone quot;speak outquot; on behalf of the
Jews. The issue is much more complex than that, but
Pacelli seriously misjudged the (admittedly horrible)
world in which he lived. This was not true - nearly all of
the research bears out - of the lower clergy, especially in
Italy but also in Germany and Austria.

Professor Evan B. Bukey, University of Arkansas
e-Mail to JBP, 13 March 2008

Himmler’s Posen speech
4 October 1943

Himmler’s Posen speech
4 October 1943

“… referring to the Jewish evacuation
program, the extermination of the Jewish
people

“… a glorious page in our history, and one
that has never been written and never can
be written

“We had the moral right, we had the duty
to our people, to destroy this people which
wanted to destroy us.

“The difﬁcult decision had to be taken to
have this people disappear from the earth.”

1944--”Hoping for Miracles”
(Kershaw’s Chapter 13)

“undoubting faith & fanatical will
to victory”
despite increasing ill health, Hitler
clings to his mantra

“It is impressive, with what certainty
the Führer believes in his mission.”
-- Goebbels, early June, 1944

“Hitler lived increasingly in a world of
illusion” -- Kershaw

like his hero, Frederick the Great,
Hitler expected to be saved by a rift
in the “unnatural” alliance of the
Western Powers and the USSR

from dilettante to workaholic
“The leisured times of the pre-war years
were gone.

“...detachment from day-to-day
issues...relaxation, listening to music,
watching ﬁlms, indulging in indolence… had
indeed given way to a punishing work
schedule…

“Hitler brooded incessantly over the most
detailed matters of military tactics…

“Nights with little sleep; rising late in the
mornings; … a strict spartan diet, and meals
often taken alone in his room; no exercise
beyond a brief daily walk with his Alsatian
bitch Blondi; the same surroundings
[Wolfsschanze], the same entourage…

“...scarcely conducive to...rational reﬂection.”

threats to his security
Hitler’s press chief warns of an
assassination plan he read in a
Stockholm newspaper

an army ofﬁcer intended to shoot Hitler
with his pistol

security at Wolfsschanze is increased

allied air-superiority leads to heavy raids
on Berlin, so Hitler decides to increase
the strength of the bunkers at FHQ

22 Feb--he leaves for the Berghof while
OT does the work

he will not return until mid-July
Adolf Hitler is the victory!

“No other war leader -- not Churchill, Roosevelt,
or even Stalin -- was so consumed by the task of
running military affairs, so unable to delegate
authority.”

Kershaw, ii, p. 612

Morale on the home front worsens
as bombing intensiﬁes and the Red army draws
closer

SIGN OF LIFE OF Family Tüllmann
text reads: badly damaged, can remain living
[there],letter follows. Engelbert [Tüllmann]

The intensiﬁed level of repression during
the last years of the war, along with the
negative unity forged by fear of the victory
of Bolshevism, went a long way towards
ensuring that the threat of internal revolt,
as had happened in 1918, never
materialized.

Kershaw, ii, p. 614

Hitler placed great hopes
in the Me-262, the world’s ﬁrst jet ﬁghter

its late introduction denied it
a decisive role

its late introduction denied it
a decisive role
designed by Willi Messerschmidt

April, 1941--maiden flight with piston
engines

July, 1942--with jet engines

April, 1944--introduction for training

August, 1944--first combat operations,
early losses led to withdrawal for ”further
training and a revision of combat tactics.”

March, 1945-inflicts heavy losses, but…
too little, too late

Vergeltungswaffe-2
v Braun and Riedel built the ﬁrst prototype
in 1936

problems with liquid fuel, supersonic
aerodynamics, and guidance and control
plagued testing and production

RAF bombing of Peenemunde, August,
1943 caused a shift of production to
Mittelbau-Dora

here 20,000 slave laborers died producing
the V-2s

operations began 2 Sept 1944

over 3,000 were launched, killing 7,000
military and civilian personnel

single most expensive project of the Third
Reich

V-1 “buzz bomb”
begun later, but put in service earlier than the V-2

Vengeance weapon-1
1942--Luftwaffe’s “Kirschkern” program begins
like the V-2, hopes are high and projections of the
production rate are optimistic
January, 1944--production begins, Gen’l Milch
promises Hitler that, beginning on his birthday, 20 April,
1,500 V-1s will achieve the total devastation of London
within three months of such bombing, Britain should be
on its knees
given this sort of talk, Hitler’s illusions become more
understandable

…’working towards the Führer’, striving--as the key
to retaining power and position--to accomplish
what it was known he would favor, to provide the
miracle he wanted, and to accomodate his wishes,
however unrealistic, still applied. Reluctance to
convey bad or depressing news to him was the
opposite side of the same coin. Together the
consequence was inbuilt, systemic, over-
optimism….

Kershaw, ii, p.623

the campaign begins
50 launch sites are built in the Pas de Calais
by early June

12 June--10 V-1s launch against London:

4 crash on launch

5 reach London, cause little damage

Hitler is furious, cancels production

three days later 244 hit London causing a
sensation. Production ordered resumed.

almost 30,000 are made. Approx 10,000 are
ﬁred at England. 2,419 reach London killing
about 6,184 and injuring 17,891

Margarethe I
the occupation of Hungary

Margarethe I
the occupation of Hungary

FLAG OF THE PRO-GERMAN ARROW CROSS PARTY

by aligning with Hitler
Hungary gained back much of what the Paris
peace settlement had taken from her

Horthy’s visit
to the regained
Northern Transylvania
in 1940

Miklos Horthy, Regent of the
Kingdom of Hungary, 1920-1944
CinC of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in
the last years of World War I

his conservative government replaced
the “Red terror” of Bela Kuhn in
November, 1919

when the last Habsburg, Karl I, died in
1922, Admiral Horthy was “regent
without a king”

Hitler woos Horthy with territories from
Slovakia, Romania, & the Carpatho-
Ukraine

he joins the axis with the invasion of
Yugoslavia

Hungary’s fall from favor
begins with Stalingrad, Hitler blames the loss on the
Hungarian and Romanian divisions on the “shoulders”
of the salient where the Red Army broke through
12 February 1944--Horthy writes Hitler demanding the
return of 9 divisions from Ostfront to defend his
Carpathian border from the approaching Red Army
Hitler fears that both Hungary and Romania might pull
an “Italy”, make a separate peace; orders the army to
prepare invasion plans: Margarethes I & II

18 March 1944
the 75 year old head of state is summoned to Hitler
along with his chief ministers and chief of his general staff
Hitler accuses him (correctly) of secretly opening
negotiations with the allies, blames him for leaving his
almost one million Jews without any disabilities
announces he intends to occupy Hungary and demands
an invitation
when Horthy refuses, Hitler compels him to install a
puppet regime
the Wehrmacht enters, as does Adolf Eichmann

a challenge to Hitler’s authority
4.i.44--Manstein ﬂies to Hitler’s headquarters
(FHQ) to report on the danger to Army
Group South

he wants to abandon the Crimea and the
Dnieper bend to shorten the front

Hitler refuses. Manstein asks to speak
privately, renews his request that he, not
Hitler, be made commander in chief of
Ostfront, the way Kesselring in Italy and
Rundstedt in France were

request denied • insubordination duly noted.

Guderian, another favorite general, also met
a stone wall when he asked Hitler to get rid
of Keitel, head of OKW

Generalfeldmarshall Erich v Manstein

Sowjetische Frühjahrsoffensive 1944
Soviet Spring Offensive
4 märz-12 mai

Sowjetische Frühjahrsoffensive 1944
Soviet Spring Offensive
4 märz-12 mai
Soviet gains during their winter offensive
leave them well positioned for the new
assault

the Ukraine was the focus of the Spring
Offensive

the Red Army drove from the Dnieper to
the Bug to the Dniester Rivers

10 April--with the fall of Odessa it
became impossible to supply the
German forces in the Crimea

10 May--Sevastopol is evacuated by
sea

Operation Bagration
Soviet Summer Offensive
opens 22 June

57,000 prisoners from the
4th Panzer Army are marched through the
streets of Moscow
17 juli 1944

war on four fronts

Allied propaganda leaﬂet

closing the ring--July, 1944
26 June--the fall of Cherbourg and the D-Day beachhead ﬁrmly
established, Hitler still “believed” the “Vengeance Weapons” would turn
the tide

22 June--Stalin launches “Operation Bagration” on the third anniversary
of Hitler’s invasion

Hitler refuses Busch’s request to abandon the “fortiﬁed places” (Feste
Plätze)

mid July--they are encircled; the Soviet breakthrough advances 200
miles, within striking distance of Warsaw

a disaster greater than Stalingrad: 28 divisions lost, 350,000 men killed
or captured

15. juli--Hitler greets Gen’l Fromm
at the left, ramrod straight, is Fromm’s ADC,
Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg

20 juli--a bomb bursts
during Hitler’s military brieﬁng
did they get him?

People are saying:
Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein
Schrecken ohne Ende!

Better ‘an end with horror’ than ‘horror without end’!

Hitler Brought Down; Closing the Ring, 1943-20 July 1944

Hitler Brought Down; Closing the Ring, 1943-20 July 1944

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