by Ian Baxter
As the great Red Army drive gathered momentum, more towns and villages fell to the onrushing forces. Suicidal opposition from a few SS and Wehrmacht strong points bypassed in earlier attacks reduced buildings to blasted rubble. Everywhere it seemed the Germans were being constantly forced to retreat. Many isolated units spent hours or even days fighting a bloody defence. Russian soldiers frequently requested them to surrender and assured them that no harm would come to them if they did so. But despite this reassuring tone, most German troops continued to fight to the bitter end. To the German soldier in 1945 they were fighting an enemy that they not only despised, but also were terrified of. Many soldiers, especially those fighting in the ranks of the Waffen-SS decided that their fate would be met out on the battlefield. To them they would rather bleed fighting on the grasslands of Eastern Europe than surrender and be at the mercy of a Russian soldier.
By the end of March the bulk of the German forces that once consisted of Heeresgruppe Mitte, and was now known as Heeresgruppe Vistula were manned by many inexperienced training units. Some soldiers were so young that in their rations they had sweets instead of tobacco. All of them were ordered to stand and fight and not to abandon their positions. Terrified at the prospect of retreating, which would warrant almost certain execution if they did so, many reluctantly opted to bury themselves deep into a foxhole or bunker. Here they hoped the Soviet attackers would give them a chance to surrender, instead of burning them alive with flamethrowers or blowing them to pieces by hand grenade.
By early April the atmosphere among the troops of Heeresgruppe Vistula became a mixture of terrible foreboding and despair as the Russians prepared to push forward on the River Oder. Here along the Oder and Neisse fronts the troops waited for the front to become engulfed by the greatest concentration of firepower ever amassed by the Russians. General Zhukov's Ist Belorussian Front and General Konev's Ist Ukrainian Front were preparing to attack German forces defending positions east of Berlin. For the attack the Red Army mustered some 2.5 million men, divided into four armies. They were supported by 41,600 guns and heavy mortars as well as 6,250 tanks and self-propelled guns.
The final battle before Berlin began at dawn on 16 April 1945. Just thirty-eight miles east of the German capital above the swollen River Oder, red flares burst into the night sky, triggering a massive artillery barrage. For nearly an hour, an eruption of flame and smoke burst along the German front. Then, in the mud, smoke, and darkness, the avalanche broke. In an instant, General Zhukov's soldiers were compelled to stumble forward into action. As they surged forward, the artillery barrage remained in front of them, covering the area ahead.
A group of troops use a bomb crater as cover during heavy unrelenting fighting. After more than four days of constant fighting Hitler refused to permit his force to tactically withdraw and contained them in fixed defensive positions that inevitably led to Red Army rifle divisions encircling and destroying them with relative ease.
A mortar crew withdrawing from yet another position as the Red Army wrench-open the front lines of Army Group Centre in late June 1944.
Under the cover of darkness on the night of 15th April, most German forward units had been moved back to a second line just before the expected Russian artillery barrage. In this second line, as the first rays of light prevailed across the front, soldiers waited for the advancing Russians. Along the entire front dispersed among the 3. and 9.Armee's they had fewer than 700 tanks and self-propelled guns. The heaviest division, the 25.Panzer, had just 79 such vehicles: the smallest unit had just two. Artillery too was equally poor with only 744 guns. Ammunition and fuel were in a critical state of supply and reserves in some units were almost nonexistent. Opposing the main Russian assault stood the 56.Panzer-Korps. It was under the command of General Karl Weidling, known to his friends as ‘smasher Karl’. Weidling had been given the awesome task of preventing the main Russian breakthrough in the area.
When the Soviet forces finally attacked during the early morning of 16 April, the Germans were ready to meet them on the Seelow Heights. From the top of the ridge, hundreds of German flak guns that had been hastily transferred from the Western Front poured a hurricane of fire into the enemy troops. All morning, shells and gunfire rained down on the Red Army, blunting their assault. By dusk the Russians, savagely mauled by the attack, fell back. It seemed the Red Army had under-estimated the strength and determination of their enemy.
By the next day, the Russians had still not breached the German defences. But General Zhukov, with total disregard of casualties, was determined to batter the enemy into submission and ruthlessly bulldoze his way through. Slowly and systematically the Red Army began smashing through their opponents. Within hours hard-pressed and exhausted German troops were feeling the full brunt of the assault. Confusion soon swept the decimated lines. Soldiers who had fought doggedly from one fixed position to another were now seized with panic.
In three days of constant fighting, thousands of German soldiers had perished. Despite their attempts to blunt the Red Army, the road to Berlin was finally wrenched wide open. At this crucial moment a number of top quality SS soldiers had been gathered in the recently established ii.Panzer-Armee under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. The II.Panzer-Armee had been given the task of launching an offensive designed to dislocate the threatened enemy advance on Berlin, but had been halted against massive attacks. When the final push on Berlin begun on 16 April, the 11.Panzer-Armee retained only three reliable divisions. One of these, the 18.Panzergrenadier-Division, was transferred from east of Berlin. A few days later the 11.SS.Panzergrenadier-Division Nordlandwas rushed to Berlin and the SS Brigade ‘Nederland’ was sent out of the capital to help stem the Russian advance. Inside the ruined city, part of the l5.Waffengrenadier-Division der SS from Latvia was ordered to take up defensive positions together with the Belgian ‘Langemarck and ‘Wallonien’ Divisions, and the remaining volunteers of the French ‘Charlemagne’ Division. All of these Waffen-SS troops were to take part in the last, apocalyptic struggle to save the Reich capital from the clutches of the Red Army.
A heavy MG34 machine gun on a sustained fire mount along a defensive position. Even during Bagration German infantry could have considerable staying power against enemy infantry as long as they kept their weapon operational and deployed in good fields of fire.
By 25 April Berlin was completely surrounded, and the next day some half a million Soviet troops bulldozed their way through the city. Beneath the ReichChancellery building, which had now become Hitler's home and headquarters, the Führer was determined to save the crumbling capital and had already ordered remnants of SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's 11.Panzer-Armee to attack immediately from their positions in the Eberswalde, then to drive south, cutting off the Russian assault on Berlin. On Hitler's map, the plan looked brilliant. But it was impossible to gather forces to make Steiner's SS Kampfgruppe even remotely operational. Steiner himself wrote that the forces at his disposal amounted to less than a weak Korps. He was well aware that his attack would receive little or no support as the 9.Armee was completely surrounded and the 12.Armee consisted only of a few battered divisions. As for Hitler's reinforcements they consisted of fewer than 5,000 Luftwaffe personnel and Hitlerjugend, all armed with hand-held weapons. The city was doomed.
A Flak gunner stands next to his 2cm FlaK gun outside the town of Orsha during a lull in the heavy fighting in Army Group Centre. The defence of Orsha was bitterly contested by the 78th Assault Division, but neither the manpower nor weaponry could hold back the overwhelming enemy.
For the next week the battle for Berlin raged. True to their motto, ‘My Honour is my Loyalty’, the Waffen-SS were seen fighting bitterly with members of the Hitlerjugend, Volkssturm, Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht troops. Here the soldiers were ordered to fight to the death and anyone found deserting or shirking from their duties were hunted down by Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler's personal Escort battalion and hanged from the nearest lamppost. But even in th
e last days of the war both the Wehrmacht and the SS proved to be an efficient, formidable and ruthless fighting machine. Even as the last hours were fought out in the fiery cauldron of Berlin, German units, lacking all provisions including many types of weapons, effectively halted and stemmed a number of Russian assaults.
Waffen-SS troops rest in a field. With their distinctive camouflage smocks the troops blend well in the local terrain.
Troops of the SS.Wiking-Division in a crop field in the summer of 1944. The division had suffered heavy losses in the East and would soon be withdrawn into Poland in the defensive battles around Warsaw.
Troops of the SS.Wiking-Division pose for the camera in a defensive position. By 1944 the qualities of the Wiking division as a combat unit were already testified by the number of Knight's Crosses of the Iron Cross awarded to its soldiers.
An interesting photograph showing SS troops passing a halted Panther V in I944. The soldiers are armed with a variety of weapons including the MG42 machine gun, Panzerfaust, and the Stumgewehr 44 assault rifle.
Well camouflaged soldiers of the SS.Wiking Division in July I944. By this stage of the war the Wikingers had attained an elite status equal to the best of the original Waffen-SS divisions.
A StuG.III belonging to the Waffen-SS has halted on a road. By 1944 the StuG.III had become an extremely common assault gun, especially on the Eastern Front. By this period of the war the StuG had been slowly absorbed into Panzer units, Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS.
Two Waffen-SS soldiers armed with the Kar98K bolt action rifle are in a defensive position somewhere in Poland in 1944. A line of stick grenades are also close at hand. In spite of the disintegrating front, the SS fought well in Poland and managed to win a number of defensive battles.
Waffen-SS troops armed with an MG42 and Kar98K rifle have captured two Soviet soldiers hiding in hay during heavy engagements along the frontier of East Prussia where staunch German defences helped halt the Russian onslaught.
SS troops during the defence of Poland inthe late winter of 1944. Although the military situation for both the SS and Wehrmacht looked dire, staunch resistance in many places in the East was actually slowing down the Russian advance.
An MG42 machine gunner and feeder overlooking the Baltic Sea during the battle of the Baltic's in late 1944. During the last weeks of 1944, the German Army was still fighting on foreign soil. Exhausted and demoralised skeletal units that had been waging a battle of attrition for months were now fully aware of the impending defeat.
Wehrmacht troops wearing green splinter army reversible camouflage uniforms inside an inflatable boat move across a river in order to set up a new defensive position. One soldier can be seen armed with the Sturmgewehr 44. This fine weapon was concentrated mainly in special Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS counterattack units.
In the snow a soldier can be seen with a tripod-mounted range finder. This device was able to calculate the approximate height and distance of an object either on the ground or air by a series of grid references imposed on the field of view. Once determined, the information could then be quickly given to the flak crew who would aim accordingly. Behind the soldier is an 8.8cm FlaK gun being used against a ground target.
A heavy MG34 machine gun position on a sustained fire mount in Poland in late I944. In Poland Army Group Centre was dangerously understrength and faced an overwhelming enemy army. The Red Army had a numerical superiority of 11 to 1 in infantry, 7 to 1 in armour and a massive 20 to 1 in artillery.
Wehrmacht troops pose for the camera in a defensive position in Poland in late 1944. During this period the 3rd Panzer Army and 4th Army were holding in the north while to the southwest, along the Narev River, the 2nd Army was fiercely contesting every foot of ground.
An Sd.kfz.25l makes its way through a village during intensive heavy fighting. The Sd.Kfz.25l had become not just a halftrack intended to simply transport infantry to the edge of the battlefield, but also a fully-fledged fighting vehicle
A white-washed 7.5cm PaK40 is positioned in a log-frame shelter with the crew. Such shelters offered no real protection from enemy fire, but did protect the gun, ammunition, and crew from the rain and snow. It also provided a degree of concealment as well.
Soldiers dressed in Greatcoats near to the front lines. They are armed with the Kar98K bolt action rifle and two of the men are carrying ammunition boxes for their Mausers.
An SS mortar crew march in the snow. The soldiers have no winter protection, which probably suggests they are on a training exercise with their commander before going back to the front lines.
A white-washed FlaK gun and crew wearing full winter camouflage smocks in a defensive position against ground targets. The end of I944 ended with the German Army still fighting on foreign soil trying desperately to gain the initiative and throw back the Red Army from its remorseless drive on the German frontier.
Three photographs showing mortar crews in action along the Vistula in early 1945. As the whole military campaign in the East collapsed it was proposed that all German forces located between the Oder and Vistula rivers be amalgamated into a new army group. It was to be named Arm Group Vistula and its commander would be no other than SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.
Two photographs taken in sequence showing troops wearing winter camouflage smocks lying in the snow during fighting in Army Group Vistula in late January 1945. It was here across vast expanses of frozen terrain that the Wehrmacht soldiers together with the Waffen-SS were supposed to prevent the Soviets from breaking through and reaching the frontiers of the Reich.
A Waffen-SS heavy MG34 position on a sustained fire mount. The Red army's winter offensive in January I945 was so fierce that on the first day of the attack it had actually ripped open a breach more than twenty-miles wide in the Vistula Front. Both Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht troops tried desperately to contain the advancing Russian forces.
StuG.111's advance along a snow covered road with grenadiers hitching a lift onboard. Despite the longer 7.5cm barrel this assault gun was continually hard pressed on the battlefield and constantly called upon for offensive and defensive fire support, where it was gradually compelled to operate increasingly in an anti-tank roll.
A PaK crew with their white-washed PaK35/36 anti-tank gun in a defensive role. German strategy faced its ultimate challenge in the East as the Red Army smashed its way towards the borders of the Reich.
Wehrmacht troops on sleds in Army Group North in January 1945. By this period of the war there was a mood of near desperation, but luckily for the Germans the ice and snow hindered the Russian onslaught.
Two photographs taken in sequence showing German troops passing through a village and following the scorched Earth order from their commanders by setting alight to all the buildings. The scorched earth policy was a military strategy or operational method which involved destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area.
An Sdk.Kfz.251 halftrack advances along a road. Throughout the war the performance of the grenadiers and Panzergrenadiers in battle was attributed mainly to the halftrack, which transported infantry units onto the battlefield. Even during the last desperate months of the war, the halftrack was used extensively to ferry men and material back and forth to the front line.
One of the quickest and effective methods of moving across the snow was by sled. Here a FlaK gun has been mounted on a sled and has been pressed into action against an enemy target in early I945.
During the defence of the homeland in 1945. Two Wehrmacht officers confer whilst behind them grenadiers can be seen moving towards the front. An Sd.Kfz.251/9 is armed with the powerful 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24.
On the Oder Front a group of troops converse in the early spring of 1945. It was on 30 March on the Oder Front, that German troops finally evacuated their last remaining bridgehead at Wollin just north of Stettin, leaving the town to be captured by Russian forces.
Waffen-SS troops pose for the
camera before resuming operations on the front lines against overwhelming superiority of the Red Army.
An unidentified SS unit, probably in the Nord-Division during operations in the Baltic's during the last months of the war. The soldiers fought courageously and battled from one receding front to another.
Two photographs taken in sequence showing infantry ferrying supplies across a river. Onboard are loaves of bread, which was a vital ingredient to the dwindling stocks of food supplied to the German forces in the Ost. An MG34 mounted on an anti-aircraft tripod is being used against possible aerial attack.
A column of vehicles carrying supplies and troops has halted on a road near the Oder. Troops can be seen standing next to a stream.
SS troops withdrawn across an open carrying with them ammunition boxes. By March 1945 the bulk of the Eastern Front was being supported by many inexperienced soldiers. All of them though were ordered to stand and fight and not abandon their positions.