The Death of Hitler's War Machine by Mitcham W. Samuel

Author:Mitcham W. Samuel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery History
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

On Friday, April 13, Hitler summoned Colonel Guenther Reichheim, Model’s brilliant young operations officer, to the Reich Chancellery. Colonel Reichheim thought he saw a tear in Model’s eye, as the field marshal gave him a letter to deliver to his wife.17

Hitler named Reichheim chief of staff of Wenek’s 12th Army and ordered a 12th Army counterattack to rescue Army Group B and push on to the Rhine. Berlin sent optimistic messages to Model, but he knew Army Group B’s situation was hopeless: he faced overwhelming Allied forces, and his army had food supplies for only three more days. Still, when his chief of staff, Major General Carl Wagener, who had replaced Krebs on February 16, suggested surrendering, Model rejected the suggestion as repugnant. The battle continued.

The U.S. 2nd Armored Division crossed the Elbe at the small town of Westerhusen, south of Magdeburg, during the night of April 12/13. By early morning, there were three American armored infantry battalions across the river. General Wenck, however, acted quickly and threw mobile battle groups from the Scharnhorst, Potsdam, and Ulrich von Hutten Divisions into an immediate counterattack against the bridgehead. The young cadets in these groups were inexperienced but enthusiastic and eager to prove themselves in battle. The Americans were desperately trying to finish a pontoon bridge when German artillery shells slammed into it, isolating the advanced American battalions on the eastern bank. The American commanders tried to call in artillery fire, but it was too late. Striking with an elan that the Wehrmacht had not exhibited in many a day, the cadets overran the American positions. More than three hundred Americans were killed, while the rest surrendered or fell back in disarray behind the Elbe. It was the only real defeat the U.S. 2nd Armored Division suffered during the Second World War.

In the Ruhr Pocket, meanwhile, time ran out for the Germans. On April 15, elements of Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway’s U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps pushed to within two miles of Model’s headquarters. Ridgway sent a message, asking the trapped field marshal to surrender. Model refused, citing his personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. Ridgway tried again. “Neither history nor the military profession records any nobler character, any more brilliant master of warfare, any more dutiful subordinate of the state, than the American general, Robert E. Lee.…” he wrote in a personal letter to Model. Yet even the great Lee had chosen “an honorable capitulation” when finally surrounded by overwhelming forces.

This same choice is now yours. In the light of a soldier’s honor, for the reputation of the German Officer Corps, for the sake of your nation’s future lay down your arms at once. The German lives you will save are sorely needed to restore your people to their proper place in society. The German cities you will preserve are irreplaceable necessities for your people’s welfare.18

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