Last Days of the Reich

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Visit Blinds.com now to save up to 50% off site wide during our annual fall blowout sale. The History Channel, original podcast. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party have dominated the hearts and minds of the German people for over a decade. But by the summer of 1944, the Soviet Red Army and the forces of the Western Allies are tightening their vice grip on Hitler's Third Reich. The Nazi's complete control is about to crack. This is World War II with Tom Hanks, episode 18, last days of the Reich. The biggest story in Western Europe today is the attempted assassination of Hitler. For the second time since this war began, an assassin has almost succeeded in killing the fear and perhaps changing the course of history. July 20th, 1944. A bomb hidden in a briefcase explodes at the Wolf's Lair. Adolf Hitler's military headquarters. It was the opening move and an elaborate plan to kill the Nazi leader and overthrow his government. Hitler is wounded but survives and the plot fails. The bomb exploded two meters to my right. I myself am completely unheard. I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed on me by providence to continue on the road of my life as I have done hitherto. Surviving the July 20th bombing convinces Hitler beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has been chosen by heaven or by providence to lead the German people. He's on all sorts of medications. He's under more pressure than most human beings can imagine. He becomes even more paranoid than he already has been. He is micromanaging even more. Nazi's takeover armament's production. Hitler and the Nazis mobilize even more men and tighten their grip on Germany and its people. There is no difference anymore between the fate of the public and the German people and the fate of the Nazi state. The thing is the German public is not too happy about how the war goes on. They are aware the Germany may lose the war but they think the only person who can bring this to a close is Hitler himself. As summer turns to fall Germany's strategic situation deteriorates and every German is aware that the Allies demand unconditional surrender. Hitler knows that that's an impossibility. Surrender means humiliation being betrayed ultimately executed. Hitler also knows something about warfare. A passive defense never works. You have to show your adversaries that you're still dangerous. Hitler quotes Frederick the Great. Who was in a similar war in the 18th century? Frederick famously said, "We're going to fight this war till one of our goddamn enemies gets tired." Hitler wants to come up with some Hail Mary. He wants to come up with some plan that will bring advantage back to a heavily disadvantaged situation. In September, Hitler summons his generals to the Wolf's Lair. He outlines a plan that will return his troops to the scene of his greatest triumph, the Arden. The Arden Offensive of 1944 is going to involve multiple German armies across a hundred miles of front. They're going to crash through what they have identified as a weekly held portion of the American line. They're going to drive through the Arden forest, scene of the great victory of 1940. And if all goes well, cross the Muse River and from there make it to Antwerp. Antwerp is the major supply port for the entire Allied force in Europe. If the Germans take Antwerp, it will be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. Hitler sees this as a way to divide the coalition, demoralize the coalition and force the coalition to make separate pieces with him. But Hitler will have to strip hold divisions from his eastern front to execute his gambit in the West. Not all of Hitler's generals are on board. They just don't believe that given their current force levels, that they can blast across the West European continent and take the major city of Antwerp, Field Marshal Gerthon Brunschdeck says, Antwerp, my God, if we even get to the Muse River, that's less than half way, we should get down on our knees and thank God. But Hitler, by this stage of the war, he doesn't really trust very many of his generals. And he does have this belief in luck. He's gotten lucky at various points throughout this war and he might be lucky again this time, so he decides to roll the dice. Hitler will even eventually say that if this doesn't end well, I'd see no other path toward reaching a favorable conclusion. The fate of Germany really hangs in the balance. December 16th, it's a snowy morning in the Ardenne for the Allies. This overcast, this freezing cold. The weather was all full for everybody, but it gave the Germans advantage because the Allied aircraft are mostly grounded. And that's the perfect environment for the Germans to launch this bold offensive. It's only at 5.30, it seems that hell has opened up. Every artillery piece, the German zone, heavy artillery, light artillery, rocket artillery, the famous screaming Mimi's mortar. The American position in the Ardenne simply gets shredded. Trees are thrown through the air with this just shell off the shell. Allied forces, they're caught off guard, they are overwhelmed. They certainly didn't expect the Germans capable of launching something as big as the Ardenne's defensive. Suddenly there's a couple of hundred thousand German infantry with 600 German panzers along a hundred mile front. One of the four divisions holding the Allied line in the Ardenne is the newly-arrived American 106th. The 1.06th division, who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, who have columns of German armour coming out of them from all directions, are just overwhelmed by this. And within a matter of hours, 7,000 men are captured. It's the biggest mass American surrender since Baton. At this point of time, the German troops are in a state of euphoria. For weeks, or months, or even years, they had only known retreat. And now for the first and for a long time, they are on the offense again. German troops are partly motivated because they're being told, "Take no prisoners. This is your chance. Now you get revenge against the Allies." The result is that there is literally a trail of massacres that will lead eventually to the most notorious of about a dozen massacres. And that's the one that takes place in the afternoon of December 17th, just outside the city of Malmade. The first SS Panzer division, they've worked their way forward under their battle group commander, Jochen Piper. Piper's built for speed. He's been told to get ahead as fast as you possibly can towards the muse cross the river, get to Antwerp. And he's just over on a couple of rear echelon U.S. detachments, supply depots, administrative troops. There's a brief firefight, the Americans then surrender about 120 of them. They move them off the road into a field. And the result is that 84 Americans, they are murdered after having surrendered their weapons. This is one of the largest war crimes against U.S. soldiers during World War II, and it shows the ruthlessness which this war has achieved at this point. Some German units advance as much as 20 miles on the first day. The initial success of the Arden offensive confirms Hitler's sense of divine destiny. In Hitler's mind he thinks, again I was right, I took the decision to launch this offensive against the advice of my generals, against the advice of my experts, but I was right. So in the first couple of days of the Arden offensive, it seems for the Germans that they have regained the initiative. The Veramox attack stretches from Belgium to Luxembourg, but the initial reports from the front are sketchy. How to respond to the German assault is the responsibility of one man, General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied commander. So Eisenhower has to determine whether or not this is a faint, right, or the Germans trying to essentially pull his resources in the wrong direction. Eisenhower is this a proper offensive, does he actually have to respond? Eisenhower immediately divides the threat. He says, "This is more than a German faint. This is a major effort." And he thinks, "Let's not see this disaster as anything but an opportunity. The Germans want to fight out in the open? Let's take it to them." Yeah, the Germans are advancing. Yeah, the Germans have driven a deep bulge into my lines, but that offers me the big German salient that I can attack from the shoulders. That's why we refer to this as the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans advance across a 60 mile front, but are held up by the US 28th Infantry Division at the Belgian town of Bastone. Both sides know that Bastone is the key. If the Germans seize it, they can control the road network and motor all the way to the West, perhaps even reach Antwerp. But if the Americans hold it, the Germans are stuck in their tracks. So, it's a race. It's a race for the Germans to take it. It's a race for the Americans to try and resupply it before it's lost. So all of a sudden, Bastone becomes this key road intersection. Not unlike Gettysburg or Waterloo or Thermopoli, it is everything. As the Germans attempt to surround Bastone, Eisenhower calls on the 101st Airborne Division, the screaming eagles. They're big contributions so far as when they get dropped behind enemy lines before it. D-Day? They've basically been in the game since June 5th of '44. To say that the 101st is unprepared for this fight is to understate the matter considerably. They would usually jump into war zones carrying what they can carry, which inherently means they don't have a lot of armor. They don't have any artillery. They don't have the winter gear that equipment that would allow you to fight a tough battle in the middle of December. It's a come as you are, War. It tells you the degree to which this is a crisis that in the midst of this crisis, Eisenhower turns around and looks and says, "I'll take them." Because the one thing they are is they are a hardened group of elites. And they will go in there and do the job despite all the limitations they face. December 18th. The 101st is trucked into Bastone to relieve the battered 28th Division. The defense of this Belgian town is the key to the Allied effort against Adolf Hitler on the western front. And the key to the defense of this town is in the hands of the men of the 101st Airborne. For the Germans, this whole thing has to happen fast. Every day they're standing in front of Bastone is time they don't have, time where the weather could clear up, time where the rest of the Allied armies are starting to get reinforcements in there. And so the Germans are determined to throw everything at Bastone that they possibly have. There's an artillery bombardment. They are attacking from all sides. They're trying to push the Americans out. The 101st Airborne, the fighting around Bastone is as tough as any in the war. It's out in the open, it's bitterly cold, there's snow on the ground. They're short on food and yet, with almost just small arms, bazookas and machine guns, they're able to put up enough bluster and defense that they're able to hold the line. To reinforce the 101st in Bastone, Eisenhower turns to his most aggressive commander, General George Patton and the Third Army. Patton promises him three divisions in two days for Bastone, which is something only George has Patton would promise. Promising three divisions, that's 40,000 plus men, waiting at 48 hours. Patton had already planned for precisely this contingency and was ready to take the lead once he was given the operation. But until the Third Army arrives, the screaming eagles are virtually on their own. The Germans encircle the city and that encirclement will be headline news back in the United States. There was this critical thought that we might lose the entire 101st Airborne Division to the enemy. It looks if the Germans are really in control and they send a message to the 101st Airborne, they say, "You've got to surrender." They're going to give it to the acting division commander, Brigadier General Anthony McCullough. McCullough will read the thing and he'll send back a one-word reply and it says, "Nuts." And I got a matter, you know, some savvy airborne officer gets to go give this to the German delegation. Of course, they read nuts and they're like, "We don't understand the colloquioism." And so he gets to stand there and he says, "It's the same as go to hell." And in a sense, the whole unit kind of reaches out and they hit the collective "I believe" button, which is not so much that they can hold out forever, but Patton's coming. They're all coming. All we have to do is hold out a little longer. Now that fall is in full swing and October report cards are right around the corner, keeping up with classroom lessons can feel like a challenge. That's why I love IXL. IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning, from math and reading to science. It gives kids personalized practice, aligned directly with what they're covering in class, offering instant feedback and clear explanations that build lasting confidence. Whether your child needs a boost in a tricky subject or is ready to move ahead, IXL adapts to their exact level and pace. 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In Bastone, the men of the 101st Division had been under siege for almost a week. But on December 26th, Patton's 3rd Army reaches the outskirts. Famously it was the 4th armored division that has given the task of fighting up a narrow road corridor toward Bastone and on the date after Christmas on December 26th, elements of sea company of the 37th tank battalion pull up to the Bastone perimeter. The Allies break the German lines and now supplies will be able to flow in. And so for the Germans, they aren't an offensive breaks over Bastone. Even though Bastone is relieved, fighting continues across the front for weeks. The United States Army suffers more casualties in the Battle of the Bulge than in any other battle in its history. But ultimately, Hitler's ardent offensive is offensive. For Hitler, the catastrophe of the Ardennis that was the last round in the chamber, the Germans really poured their entire armoured reserve into it. They could have used those troops perhaps to defend more robustly in the east and west simultaneously, but they threw them all away on a gamble and a gamble that failed. As the Allies stop Hitler in the west, the Soviets launch a massive offensive in the east. The Red Army is a force of millions, which has begun its advance everywhere from Finland and the Baltics in the north, all the way down to the Black Sea and the South. The Soviet forces had advanced incredible speed, incredible hard fighting, and Stalin had to stop them between October and December for a very clear strategic purpose. To prepare a massive, massive build-up of armour. So by January 45, they are ready to go on the offensive. Within weeks, Soviet forces cross into Germany. The Red Army has reached the border of the Fatherland. Having Soviet boots on German ground is a major blow for the German psyche, because they consider the Soviets as their mortal enemies, and this is a disaster for them. The war is finally being brought home to the Germans. In theory, the Nazi authorities would have had the time for months to evacuate the civilians. But that's something they didn't do, because if you stay there, you show that you've got more confidence and that you are defending your home territory. Basically, the Russians come with such overwhelming force that the Germans can't stop them of the border, and so this causes mass panic as the German civilians take to the roads to try to escape this Russian onslaught knowing full well what awaits them if they stay. The Germans have fought a horrific war of annihilation in the Soviet Union. Now the Soviets are finally able to take revenge against the Germans. They looted, and they pillaged, and they raped, and they burned, and they destroyed, and they took pleasure in doing these things as they advanced. There's a hundred thousand or more deaths on the German side, and something like a fifth of the female population is raped. This is the beginning of what the Germans can expect to receive when the Red Army break in Berlin. Joseph Stalin engineers the Soviet Union's final moves. As the Red Army continues its march west towards Berlin. Berlin is really the be-all-end all of the war. This is where we have the right chance, where we have the right-stop building, where Hitler has his bunker. Once the Red Army reaches Berlin, the world will be over, and it will be a great victory and a great triumph. For someone who lives in Berlin, it's not lost on them what happens in East Prussia. The Soviets are getting retribution, and it's coming in the form of German bodies, German blood, rapes, killings, and that's coming your way. Almost the image of an incoming tide that you cannot stop. In the spring of 1945, Germany is under assault from multiple directions. The east of the Red Army rapidly advances towards Berlin. In the west, the Allies continue on a broad front as they approach the Rhine River. The Rhine is the German's last key strategic position to try and delay the inevitable of the Allies getting into Germany and defeating the Third Reich. It's a big broad river, fast-flowing deep, and the Germans notice, so they're planning to kind of defend every inch of it. Their defense strategy in the west is to blow up all the bridges across the river Rhine. To use this huge natural barrier. British field marshal Bernard Montgomery designs an operation that will take Allied forces across the Rhine and further into Germany. But unexpectedly, the American 9th Armored Division discovers another way into the German Reich, really out of nowhere, an advanced unit of Americans ends up at the Remargan Bridge. The key bridge across the Rhine. And the Germans, they failed to destroy the bridge properly. It's not because the Germans were dumb, the Germans tried to blow the bridge. It's just that they didn't have enough explosives to do the job. It was very stoutly built. The bridge just kind of jumps on these really heavy stone piers and then settles back into place. The Allies couldn't believe their luck, so they raised forward and then took the bridge. And they get across the Rhine three weeks earlier than anticipated. Once you're over the Rhine, you're into Germany proper. It's a crucial moment for the war in the west. For the Germans, this is a huge blow because now the Allies can bring in reinforcements much quicker and Hitler's absolutely furious about this. Hitler was prone to rage at this time, and he demands that everyone responsible would be immediately court-martialed, not brought to Berlin to explain, but a drum-head court-martial in the field and shot. Hitler retreats to Berlin. He orders the destruction of bridges, roads, railways, factories, anything that can aid the Allied advance. This "near-o-order" named in honor of the Roman Emperor who famously allowed the city of Rome to burn would authorize German forces to destroy absolutely everything as they retreated. Blow up the bridges, blow up the sanitation, blow up the power plants, even if it doesn't do any good in the war effort. There's no reason to worry about a post-war Germany. He stopped caring about the individual people because they're no longer worthy of surviving the war. Hitler commands his loyal and capable Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, to carry out his order. Speer refuses. Because he sees that Hitler's gone mad, essentially. And Speer actually comes to Berlin and says, "I haven't done it." This shows that the bond between Hitler and his leadership is being broken to a certain degree. It's almost to the very last days, the crumbling Third Reich that this link finally starts to collapse. It has now lost control of the entire situation. He's now focused only on the Battle of Berlin. In the garden outside, the Reich cancelsery. The Führer reviews a formation of Hitler youth, who have been awarded the Knights Cross for bravery in battle. Now, many will be ordered to defend Berlin. The Hitler youth, 14 and 15, and 16 year old boys. By any analysis, this is insane. He comes up out of the bunker and he pins medals on these sort of beardless little boys. Any rational onlooker can see that Hitler has lost all attachment to reason. It may be he's thinking of the last lost war. But I think 1918 is enough of a obsession with Hitler, that he is determined that Germany will not give in this time. There will be no surrender. There will be total war to the end. If Germany is going to go down, it's going to go down in a blaze of glory. Allied forces rapidly advance through the Roer Valley and into the heart of Germany. The British and Americans had agreed that Soviet forces should capture Berlin. But Stalin grows suspicious of Allied success. You have to remember that Stalin is naturally and not unreasonably deeply mistrustful. So when the Western Allies start pouring into Western Germany, far faster than anyone expects, Stalin fears that there may be something that he doesn't see. Stalin is always paranoid that the Western powers are going to make a deal with the Germans the last minute against the Soviet Union against the communist. In Moscow, Stalin summons Marshal Georgi Zhukov, the hero of Stalin-grad and Kursk. And Marshal Ivan Konyev, who has led the first Ukrainian front, afamed Red Army Group throughout the war. He sits there with the map and he says, "Who's going to take Berlin?" So Stalin effectively sets up a kind of race between them to see who will take Berlin first. So this is a way of motivating his generals because Stalin, of course, wanted to ensure that the Red Army would be the first to reach Berlin. And in an amazing scene, both Marshal salute and leave the room and run to their cars to start the race, to Berlin. By mid-April, the Red Army is closing in on Berlin. Zhukov's forces approach from the east. Kanye has true. troops will attack from the south. The final assault on Berlin begins with a ferocious artillery barrage, something like 9,000 guns rained down 1.2 million shells. To put that in context, the British fired 1 million rounds of artillery onto the German trenches on the sum over like two weeks in World War I. And now one day, more shells into the streets of Berlin. Zhukov's forces meet particularly fierce resistance in the silo heights, and area the Germans consider the gates of Berlin. The Germans are dug in. They have no desire to surrender, because they know they would be viewed as traitors. Berlin is meant to be a fortress city, the Feshstung Berlin, this means it has to be defended at all costs. Hitler's order was to keep fighting until there's nothing left. They're not going to admit the war has been lost. Hitler is now facing total defeat, and he wants to drag the entire German people into this total defeat. The population has been pressed into service. They've been building tank traps and digging ditches. But I don't think you can fool a bunch of people who are living in cities that are rubble. You hear the artillery in the distance that the Soviets are shooting at your city. I mean, we're past the time of illusions. You're people at the end of the rope. The German troops that are leftist, bizarre assembly of over-aged people that normally wouldn't be drafted or underaged. You have a large number of very young members of the folk storm. They were divided into these tank hunting units where they were 12 and 13-year-old boys that were equipped with this very effective German anti-tank weapon called the Panzer Faust. These basically one-shot German bazookas, and they're going to be in these load of fighting holes waiting for the Soviet tanks to come and take their one shot and then be crushed into pulp under the treads. The ideology of the Reich has gone out of the window. You don't know what you're fighting for anymore. You're now protecting your street and your friends and your family from the marauders that are coming. If you're still in Berlin by April 1945, you're not going to get out. So you're fighting for your life. This is Jill Slesinger from Money Moves. You started a business to follow your passion, not to get buried in financial details. Zero makes managing your numbers simple by bringing accounting, payments, payroll, and analytics together in one place. Instead of trying to sound smart, zero is designed to make you feel smart, with easy to read dashboards and smart insights that give you better control over your money. Join 5 million customers worldwide who trust Zero to keep their business running smoothly without the hassle. Learn more at xero.com. (suspenseful music) On April 19th, Zhukov's troops break through the German lines at silo heights. Kornjev enters the Nazi capital from the south. Battle Berlin is brutal. It's an urban battlefield, which is the hardest sort of fighting and the most costly. It's impossible not to take every building. You can't leave buildings behind you. You're under fire all the time from buildings on both sides. Large amounts of civilians are killed and it's incredibly slow and dangerous. This moonscape of Berlin, it's already been just shattered to rubble, is now just being pounded by companies of Soviet infantry filtering into the city from all points. I mean, literally all points. But in the end, this extraordinary battle, the Soviet troops begin to converge on the chance to rape. Beneath the right chancellery, Hitler is sequestered in a bunker with his companion, Eva Grohn, and surrounded by aides, secretaries, and Nazi party officials. He believes that the military and the German people have let him down. Hitler wants to keep the resistance going for as long as possible to inflict as much damage on the invading armies. However, he does not want to outlast, outlive the war. He does not want to become prisoner of war. He does not want to become some type of curiosity exhibited by his enemies. And so he has to stay alive as long as possible, as close to the bitter end as possible, so that there will never really be an idea of Nazi Germany in people's minds that does not include out off Hitler. He's going to go down in bevognary in fashion and take a world with him. - On April 29th, Hitler is informed that his long-time ally, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, has been executed. His body put on display by Italian partisans. - Mussolini has just been hung upside down in a gas station in Northern Italy, along with his mistress, Clara Patacci, where he's like moped and spat upon and vilified. The Hitler fears the same fate for himself. - The Soviets are right outside the Führer bunker. He's listening to the shelling happening above him. - And so, Adolf Hitler on April 30th, 1945, commits suicide in the Führer bunker, along with Eva Braun, and a city that has been reduced to rubble. - When Hitler commits suicide, Stalin is woken in the night by a Marshal Zhukov, and Marshal Zhukov says to him, "Marshal Stalin, I've got news, Hitler is dead, "and he's committed suicide in the room, "and there's a long silence." And then Stalin says something like, "So that's the end of the bastard that's the phone down." And goes back to sleep. - On May 2nd, the Soviets raised their flag above the ruins of the Reichstag. On May 7th, German general Alfred Joll, surrenders to the Western Allies at Reims France. A day later, the Germans officially surrender to the Soviets. - With a stroke of the pan Nazi Germany ceases to exist on May 8th, 1945. - This is a solemn, better glorious hour. The Allies and our informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. - Here we are at the end of a brutal war against a brutal adversary in Europe. And there was such great cost with so much exhaustion. It's almost impossible to imagine what that must have been like. - Our judging is sober and subdued. By a supreme consciousness as a terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil bans. - Dietler was the ultimate reckless gambler. Risking everything, even Germany, even Europe. - Let us not forget the sorrow and the heartache which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors. - The Second World War unlike the first is one in which the majority of the casualties actually happened among the civilian population. A lot of it was simply because of the vast atrocities committed. The war left terrible scars on the landscape of Europe and the memories of the populations. - We must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world. The West is free, but they used it still in bondage. In the popular mind, World War II tends to wrap up with the glory of the day. It did not happen that way for the people who were fighting it. In the Pacific, there's no end in sight. - On the last Japanese division, as surrendered, unconditionally, then only will our fighting job be done. Until that day, let no man abandon his hope or slacken his effort. - After VE Day, Europeans facing chaos and uncertainty begin the long work of putting their shattered world back together. In the Pacific, the war is reaching a crescendo. As the United States fights its way to the Japanese home islands, a new weapon is tested in the deserts of New Mexico. A noiseless flash with the potential to change the world. World War II with Tom Hanks is produced by A&E Factual Studios, Utopia Limited, Play-Tone Productions, and Back Pocket Studios, in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd, additional voicing provided by me, Jeremy Reagan. From the History Channel, I'll executive producers are Eli Lara and Liv Fiddler. For Play Tone, executive producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Getsman. For Backpocket Studios, our executive producer is Ben Dixting. You are more than just a heart patient. 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