The Adjusted Service Rating Score was the system that the United States Army used at the end of World War II in Europe to determine which soldiers were eligible to be repatriated to the United States for discharge from military service as part of Operation Magic Carpet . This system was referred to as "The Point System" by U.S. soldiers.
113-738: As the end of the war in Europe became a reality, the US War Department began planning for the redeployment of Army personnel following the end of hostilities. The Veterans Replacement and Release Act of 1945 established the US Army Point System. The Readjustment Regulations were first introduced on September 15, 1944, and revised February 15, 1945, and again on March 5, 1945. The rules were simple in general principle: "those who had fought longest and hardest should be returned home for discharge first." The US Army divided units of
226-729: A US force in Western Germany". At a meeting for the foreign ministers of France, the UK, and the US in New York from 12 September – 19 December 1950, it was stated that among other measures to strengthen West Germany 's position in the Cold War that the western allies would "end by legislation the state of war with Germany". In 1951, many former Western Allies did end their state of war with Germany: Australia (9 July), Canada, Italy, New Zealand,
339-672: A Waffen-SS counter-attack forced the Soviets to withdraw from the building. To the south-west the 8th Guards Army attacked north across the Landwehr canal into the Tiergarten. By the next day, 30 April, the Soviets had solved their bridging problems and with artillery support at 06:00 they launched an attack on the Reichstag, but because of German entrenchments and support from 12.8 cm FlaK 40 guns 2 km (1.2 mi) away on
452-696: A counter-attack by the Red Army took back in 24 hours everything the Germans had taken ten days to gain. On 30 March, the Soviets entered Austria; and in the Vienna Offensive they captured Vienna on 13 April. On 12 April 1945, Hitler, who had earlier decided to remain in the city against the wishes of his advisers, heard the news that the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. This briefly raised false hopes in
565-426: A few isolated buildings where some SS troops still refused to surrender, but the Soviets reduced such buildings to rubble. The city's food supplies had been largely destroyed on Hitler's orders. 128 of the 226 bridges had been blown up and 87 pumps rendered inoperative. "A quarter of the subway stations were under water, flooded on Hitler's orders. Thousands and thousands who had sought shelter in them had drowned when
678-424: A large contingent of German soldiers in the basement who launched counter-attacks against the Red Army. By 2 May 1945 the Red Army controlled the building entirely. The famous photo of the two soldiers planting the flag on the roof of the building is a re-enactment photo taken the day after the building was taken. To the Soviets the event as represented by the photo became symbolic of their victory demonstrating that
791-533: A pincer that would meet the IV Panzer Army coming from the south and envelop the 1st Ukrainian Front before destroying it. They were to anticipate a southward attack by the III Panzer Army and be ready to be the southern arm of a pincer attack that would envelop 1st Belorussian Front, which would be destroyed by SS-General Felix Steiner 's Army Detachment advancing from north of Berlin. Later in
904-641: A section of the United States Army's front line south-west of Berlin on the Elbe . With these advances, the Soviet forces drove a wedge between Army Group Vistula in the north and Army Group Centre in the south. By the end of the day, the German eastern front line north of Frankfurt around Seelow and to the south around Forst had ceased to exist. These breakthroughs allowed the two Soviet Fronts to envelop
1017-598: A small area around the town), was not recognized by the Allies. On 12 May an Allied liaison team arrived in Flensburg and took quarters aboard the passenger ship Patria . The liaison officers and the Supreme Allied Headquarters soon realized that they had no need to act through the Flensburg government and that its members should be arrested. On 23 May, acting on SHAEF's orders and with the approval of
1130-548: A surrender document at Caserta after prolonged unauthorised secret negotiations with the Western Allies , which were viewed with great suspicion by the Soviet Union as trying to reach a separate peace . In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff on 2 May at 2 pm. Accordingly, after some bitter wrangling between Wolff and Albert Kesselring in
1243-536: A tearful rage when he realised that his plans, prepared the previous day, could not be achieved. He declared that the war was lost, blaming the generals for the defeat and that he would remain in Berlin until the end and then kill himself. In an attempt to coax Hitler out of his rage, General Alfred Jodl speculated that General Walther Wenck 's XII Army , which was facing the Americans, could move to Berlin because
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#17327909694781356-592: The Führerbunker that there might yet be a falling out among the Allies and that Berlin would be saved at the last moment, as had happened once before when Berlin was threatened (see the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg ). No plans were made by the Western Allies to seize the city by a ground operation. The Supreme Commander [Western] Allied Expeditionary Force , General Eisenhower , lost interest in
1469-754: The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)—the German Armed Forces High Command—not all commanders did so. The largest contingent was Army Group Centre under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner , who had been promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army on 30 April in Hitler's last will and testament. On 8 May, Schörner deserted his command and flew to Austria; the Soviet Army sent overwhelming force against Army Group Centre in
1582-764: The Berlin Police force, boys in the compulsory Hitlerjugend , and the Volkssturm . Many of the 40,000 elderly men of the Volkssturm had been in the army as young men and some were veterans of World War I . Hitler appointed SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke the Battle Commander for the central government district that included the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker . He had over 2,000 men under his command. Weidling organised
1695-819: The Dönitz-led government . The last battles were fought on the Eastern Front which ended in the total surrender of all of Nazi Germany ’s remaining armed forces such as in the Courland Pocket in western Latvia from Army Group Courland in the Baltics surrendering on 10 May 1945 and in Czechoslovakia during the Prague offensive on 11 May 1945. Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners : The total number of prisoners taken on
1808-572: The European theatre of World War II continued after the definitive surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies , signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 ( VE Day ) in Karlshorst , Berlin . After German leader Adolf Hitler 's suicide and handing over of power to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz on the last day of April 1945, Soviet troops conquered Berlin and accepted surrender of
1921-607: The Geneva Convention of 1929 on the treatment of former combatants. By October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. Liberation of Nazi concentration camps and refugees : Allied forces began to discover the scale of the Holocaust , confirming the findings of Pilecki's 1943 Report . The advance into Germany uncovered numerous Nazi concentration camps and forced labour facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at Bergen-Belsen when it
2034-557: The Havel River to the east of Berlin, and another had at one point penetrated the inner defensive ring of Berlin. The capital was now within range of field artillery. A Soviet war correspondent, in the style of World War II Soviet journalism, gave the following account of an important event which took place on 22 April 1945 at 08:30 local time: On the walls of the houses we saw Goebbels ' appeals, hurriedly scrawled in white paint: 'Every German will defend his capital. We shall stop
2147-919: The Lehrter Bahnhof railway station after encountering a Soviet Red Army patrol. Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann, confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998, were unearthed on 7 December 1972. German forces in North West Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands surrender : On 4 May 1945, the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery took the unconditional military surrender at Lüneburg from Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , and General Eberhard Kinzel , of all German forces "in Holland [sic], in northwest Germany including
2260-654: The Ministry of the Interior , were hampered by the lack of supporting artillery. It was not until the damaged bridges were repaired that artillery could be moved up in support. At 04:00 hours, in the Führerbunker , Hitler signed his last will and testament and, shortly afterwards, married Eva Braun . At dawn the Soviets pressed on with their assault in the south-east. After very heavy fighting they managed to capture Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse , but
2373-629: The Neisse River. The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army ), 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars , 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers (nicknamed 'Stalin's Organ'), and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the US. [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet [REDACTED] German [REDACTED] Soviet The sector in which most of
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#17327909694782486-537: The Oder River. The newly created Army Group Vistula , under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , attempted a counter-attack , but this had failed by 24 February. The Red Army then drove on to Pomerania , clearing the right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia . In the south, Soviet and Romanian forces besieged Budapest . Three German divisions' attempts to relieve
2599-555: The Prague offensive , forcing many of the German units in there to capitulate by 11 May. The other units of the Army Group which did not surrender on 8 May were forced to surrender. Debellation: At the time the Allied powers assumed that a debellation had occurred (the end of a war caused by the complete destruction of a hostile state), and their actions during the immediate post war period were based on that legal premise (however,
2712-678: The Red Army . On the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, (General Kurt von Tippelskirch , commander of the German 21st Army and General Hasso von Manteuffel , commander of Third Panzer Army ), surrendered to the Western Allies. 2 May is also believed to have been the day when Hitler's deputy Martin Bormann died, from the account of Artur Axmann who saw Bormann's corpse in Berlin near
2825-553: The Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts ( army groups ) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights and Halbe . On 20 April 1945, Hitler's birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov , advancing from
2938-600: The Soviet Union . Between 14 August 1946 and 9 May 1947, up to five million people were forcibly handed over to the Soviets. On return, most deportees faced imprisonment or execution; on some occasions the NKVD began killing people before Allied troops had departed from the rendezvous points. The Allied Control Council was created to effect the Allies' assumed supreme authority over Germany, specifically to implement their assumed joint authority over Germany. On 30 August,
3051-469: The Vistula–Oder offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin . On 9 March, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz . The first defensive preparations at the outskirts of Berlin were made on 20 March, under the newly appointed commander of Army Group Vistula , General Gotthard Heinrici . When
3164-581: The race to Berlin and saw no further need to suffer casualties by attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war, envisioning excessive friendly fire if both armies attempted to occupy the city at once. The major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the bombing of Berlin during 1945. During 1945 the United States Army Air Forces launched very large daytime raids on Berlin and, for 36 nights in succession, scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed
3277-486: The 1st Belorussian Front began shelling Berlin and did not stop until the city surrendered. The weight of ordnance delivered by Soviet artillery during the battle was greater than the total tonnage dropped by Western Allied bombers on the city. While the 1st Belorussian Front advanced towards the east and north-east of the city, the 1st Ukrainian Front pushed through the last formations of the northern wing of Army Group Centre and passed north of Juterbog , well over halfway to
3390-535: The 1st Belorussian Front north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines; and the remnants of General Dietrich von Saucken 's German II Army , which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig , managed to escape into the Vistula delta. To the south, Marshal Konev shifted the main weight of the 1st Ukrainian Front out of Upper Silesia and north-west to
3503-477: The 1st Ukrainian Front region, engaging the 2nd Polish Army and elements of the Red Army's 52nd Army and 5th Guards Army . When the old southern flank of the IV Panzer Army had some local successes counter-attacking north against the 1st Ukrainian Front, Hitler unrealistically ordered the IX Army to hold Cottbus and set up a front facing west. Next, they were to attack the Soviet columns advancing north to form
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3616-566: The 5th Shock Army, the 8th Guards Army, the 1st Guards Tank Army and Rybalko 's 3rd Guards Tank Army (part of the 1st Ukrainian Front)—were forced back towards the centre, taking up new defensive positions around Hermannplatz. Krukenberg informed General Hans Krebs , Chief of the General Staff of Army high command that within 24 hours the Nordland would have to fall back to the centre sector Z (for Zentrum ). The Soviet advance to
3729-586: The Allied forces, this time in the presence of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and representatives of SHAEF . The signing ceremony took place in a former German Army Engineering School in the Berlin district of Karlshorst ; it now houses the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst . VE-Day : Following news of the German surrender, spontaneous celebrations erupted all over the world on 7 May, including in Western Europe and
3842-458: The American front line on the river Elbe at Magdeburg . To the north between Stettin and Schwedt , the 2nd Belorussian Front attacked the northern flank of Army Group Vistula, held by Hasso von Manteuffel 's III Panzer Army . The next day, Bogdanov 's 2nd Guards Tank Army advanced nearly 50 km (31 mi) north of Berlin and then attacked south-west of Werneuchen . The Soviet plan
3955-514: The Americans, already on the Elbe River, were unlikely to move further east. This assumption was based on his viewing of the captured Eclipse documents, which organised the partition of Germany among the Allies. Hitler immediately grasped the idea, and within hours Wenck was ordered to disengage from the Americans and move the XII Army north-east to support Berlin. It was then realised that if
4068-629: The Battle of Berlin, as well as the Eastern Front hostilities as a whole, ended with the total Soviet victory. As the 756th Regiment's commander Zinchenko had stated in his order to Battalion Commander Neustroev "... the Supreme High Command ;... and the entire Soviet People order you to erect the victory banner on the roof above Berlin". During the early hours of 30 April, Weidling informed Hitler in person that
4181-684: The Control Council constituted itself and issued its first proclamation, which informed the German people of the council's existence and asserted that the commands and directives issued by the Commanders-in-Chief in their respective zones were not affected by the establishment of the council. Cessation of hostilities between the United States and Germany was proclaimed on 13 December 1946 by US President Truman . The Paris Peace Conference ended on 10 February 1947 with
4294-626: The Czech resistance started the Prague uprising . The following day, the Soviets launched the Prague offensive . In Dresden , Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann let it be known that a large-scale German offensive on the Eastern Front was about to be launched. Within two days, Mutschmann abandoned the city but was captured by Soviet troops while trying to escape. Hermann Göring's surrender : On 6 May, Reichsmarshall and Hitler's second-in-command Hermann Göring surrendered to General Carl Spaatz , who
4407-777: The Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers was signed by the four Allies on 5 June. It included the following: The Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by
4520-445: The Dutch town of Wageningen , in the presence of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (acting as commander-in-chief of the Dutch Interior Forces). German forces in Bavaria surrender : At 14:30 on 5 May 1945, General Hermann Foertsch surrendered all forces between the Bohemian mountains and the Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers , commander of the American 6th Army Group . Central Europe : On 5 May 1945,
4633-426: The European Theater of Operations into four categories: New troops would be deployed to Europe as replacements for the veterans returning home. Initially, an enlisted man needed a score of 85 points to be considered for demobilization. The scores were determined as follows: Time of service was calculated from September 16, 1940. The four criteria were the only ones from which points were calculated. Soldiers who met
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4746-663: The Frisian Islands and Heligoland and all other islands, in Schleswig-Holstein, and in Denmark… includ[ing] all naval ships in these areas", at the Timeloberg on Lüneburg Heath ; an area between the cities of Hamburg , Hanover and Bremen . The number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,000,000 men. On 5 May, Großadmiral Dönitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases. At 16:00 on 5 May, German Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande supreme commander Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz surrendered to I Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes in
4859-597: The German 9th Army in a large pocket west of Frankfurt. Attempts by the 9th Army to break out to the west resulted in the Battle of Halbe . The cost to the Soviet forces had been very high, with over 2,807 tanks lost between 1 and 19 April, including at least 727 at the Seelow Heights. In the meantime, RAF Mosquitos conducted tactical air raids against German positions inside Berlin on the nights of 15 April (105 bombers), 17 April (61 bombers), 18 April (57 bombers), 19 April (79 bombers), and 20 April (78 bombers). On 20 April 1945, Hitler's 56th birthday, Soviet artillery of
4972-421: The German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not effect the annexation of Germany [i.e., the document does not authorize the Allies to annex Germany]. The Potsdam Agreement was signed on 1 August 1945. In connection with this, the leaders of the United States, Britain and
5085-400: The German army, and he immediately started to lay defensive plans. Heinrici correctly assessed that the main Soviet thrust would be made over the Oder River and along the main east-west Autobahn . He decided not to try to defend the banks of the Oder with anything more than a light skirmishing screen. Instead, Heinrici arranged for engineers to fortify the Seelow Heights , which overlooked
5198-434: The German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city. The Soviet offensive into central Germany, what later became East Germany , had two objectives. Stalin did not believe the Western Allies would hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet zone, so he began the offensive on a broad front and moved rapidly to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But
5311-426: The German government's legal position during and following the reunification of Germany is that the state remained in existence although moribund in the immediate post war period). Dönitz government ordered dissolved by Eisenhower : Karl Dönitz continued to act as if he were the German head of state, but his Flensburg Government (so called because it was based at Flensburg in northern Germany and controlled only
5424-420: The Germans agreed to a complete unconditional surrender to all the Allies on all fronts. Eisenhower explicitly told Jodl that he would order western lines closed to German soldiers, thus forcing them to surrender to the Soviets. Jodl sent a signal to Dönitz, who was in Flensburg , informing him of Eisenhower's declaration. Shortly after midnight, Dönitz, accepting the inevitable, sent a signal to Jodl authorizing
5537-446: The Germans outside the city. By that time, Schörner's offensive, initially successful, had mostly been thwarted, although he did manage to inflict significant casualties on the opposing Polish and Soviet units, slowing down their progress. The forces available to General Weidling for the city's defence included roughly 45,000 soldiers in several severely depleted Heer and Waffen-SS divisions. These divisions were supplemented by
5650-399: The IX Army moved west, it could link up with the XII Army. In the evening Heinrici was given permission to make the link-up. Elsewhere, the 2nd Belorussian Front had established a bridgehead 15 km (9 mi) deep on the west bank of the Oder and was heavily engaged with the III Panzer Army. The IX Army had lost Cottbus and was being pressed from the east. A Soviet tank spearhead was on
5763-418: The Netherlands (26 July), South Africa, the United Kingdom (9 July), and the United States (19 October). The state of war between Germany and the Soviet Union was ended in early 1955. " The full authority of a sovereign state " was granted to the Federal Republic of Germany on 5 May 1955 under the terms of the Bonn–Paris conventions . The treaty ended the military occupation of West German territory, but
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#17327909694785876-423: The Oder River at the point where the Autobahn crossed them. This was some 17 km (11 mi) west of the Oder and 90 km (56 mi) east of Berlin. Heinrici thinned out the line in other areas to increase the manpower available to defend the heights. German engineers turned the Oder's flood plain, already saturated by the spring thaw, into a swamp by releasing the water from a reservoir upstream. Behind
5989-478: The Pacific were abruptly halted with announcement of the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945. By September 1945, the War Department redesignated all units in Europe as either redeployment forces (those with the highest score being sent back to the United States), liquidation forces (troops with middle scores of 60–79 points) who were required to close down former frontline facilities such as munition dumps or field hospitals, or occupation forces (personnel with either
6102-406: The Piazzale Loreto of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta. This included Army Group Liguria . Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolini's Italian Social Republic . Hitler dies by suicide : On 30 April 1945, as the Battle of Nuremberg and the Battle of Hamburg ended with American and British occupation, the Battle in Berlin
6215-611: The Potsdam Conference, so the French representatives on the Allied Control Council subsequently refused to recognise any obligation to implement the Potsdam Agreement; with the consequence that much of the programme envisaged at Potsdam, for the establishment of a German government and state adequate for accepting a peace settlement, remained a dead letter. Operation Keelhaul began the Allies' forced repatriation of displaced persons, families, anti-communists, White Russians , former Soviet Armed Forces POWs , foreign slave workers, soldier volunteers and Cossacks , and Nazi collaborators to
6328-419: The Red Army's outer encirclement forces west of the city. Early in the morning of 2 May, the Soviets captured the Reich Chancellery. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see General Vasily Chuikov at 08:23, where Weidling ordered the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets. The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower left the building. There was sporadic fighting in
6441-402: The Red Army. This freed up Marshal Rokossovsky 's 2nd Belorussian Front to move west to the east bank of the Oder river. Marshal Georgy Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belorussian Front , which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt (Oder) in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights. The 2nd Belorussian Front moved into the positions being vacated by
6554-399: The Red hordes at the walls of our Berlin.' Just try and stop them! Steel pillboxes , barricades, mines, traps, suicide squads with grenades clutched in their hands—all are swept aside before the tidal wave. Drizzling rain began to fall. Near Biesdorf I saw batteries preparing to open fire. 'What are the targets?' I asked the battery commander. 'Centre of Berlin, Spree bridges, and
6667-478: The SS had carried out the blowing up of the protective devices on the Landwehr Canal." A number of workers, on their own initiative, resisted or sabotaged the SS's plan to destroy the city's infrastructure; they successfully prevented the blowing up of the Klingenberg power station, the Johannisthal waterworks, and other pumping stations, railroad facilities, and bridges. At some point on 28 April or 29 April, General Heinrici, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula,
6780-512: The Soviet Union planned the new postwar German government, resettled war territory boundaries, de facto annexed a quarter of pre-war Germany situated east of the Oder–Neisse line , and mandated and organized the expulsion of the millions of Germans who remained in the annexed territories and elsewhere in the east. They also ordered German demilitarization , denazification , industrial disarmament and settlements of war reparations . But, as France (at American insistence) had not been invited to
6893-460: The Soviets, American Major General Rooks summoned Dönitz aboard the Patria and communicated to him that he and all the members of his Government were under arrest and that their government was dissolved. The Allies had a problem because they realized that although the German armed forces had surrendered unconditionally, SHAEF had failed to use the document created by the " European Advisory Commission " (EAC) and so there had been no formal surrender by
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#17327909694787006-438: The Soviets. On 12 January 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula–Oder Offensive across the Narew River; and, from Warsaw, a three-day operation on a broad front, which incorporated four army Fronts . On the fourth day, the Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to 30 to 40 km (19 to 25 mi) per day, taking East Prussia , Danzig , and Poznań , drawing up on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin along
7119-461: The United States resulted in protests in Manila, France, and London. By December 1, 1945, a new policy was started, which was based on a combination of ASR score and length of service. The points required were as follows: All enlisted fathers with three or more dependent children under 18 years of age were immediately eligible for discharge irrespective of their time in military service. End of World War II in Europe The final battles of
7232-419: The United States. As the Germans officially set the end of operations for 2301 Central European Time on 8 May, that day is celebrated across Europe as V-E Day . Most of the former Soviet Union celebrates Victory Day on 9 May, as the end of operations occurred after midnight Moscow Time . German units cease fire : Although the military commanders of most German forces obeyed the order to surrender issued by
7345-700: The Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy. In the three to four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first Allied -governed Rheinwiesenlager camps were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered Axis Forces personnel. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces , not POWs (prisoners of war). The legal fiction circumvented provisions under
7458-401: The city centre was along these main axes: from the south-east, along the Frankfurter Allee (ending and stopped at the Alexanderplatz ); from the south along Sonnenallee ending north of the Belle-Alliance-Platz , from the south ending near the Potsdamer Platz and from the north ending near the Reichstag . The Reichstag, the Moltke bridge, Alexanderplatz, and the Havel bridges at Spandau saw
7571-430: The city. On 26 April, Chuikov 's 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army fought their way through the southern suburbs and attacked Tempelhof Airport, just inside the S-Bahn defensive ring, where they met stiff resistance from the Müncheberg Division. But by 27 April, the two understrength divisions ( Müncheberg and Nordland ) that were defending the south-east, now facing five Soviet armies—from east to west,
7684-496: The civilian German government. This was considered a very important issue, because just as the civilian, but not military, surrender in 1918 had been used by Hitler to create the " stab in the back " argument, the Allies did not want to give any future hostile German regime a legal argument to resurrect an old quarrel. On 20 September 1945, the Allied Control Council passed its Control Council Law No. 1 - Repealing of Nazi Laws , which repealed numerous pieces of legislation enacted by
7797-412: The complete and total surrender of all German forces. Channel Islanders were informed about the German surrender after : At 10:00 on 8 May, the Channel Islanders were informed by the German authorities that the war was over. British prime minister Winston Churchill made a radio broadcast at 15:00 during which he announced: "Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, but in
7910-411: The course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide . The city's garrison surrendered on 2 May but fighting continued to the north-west, west, and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May (9 May in the Soviet Union) as some German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to
8023-580: The crumbling remains of Nazi Germany . Hitler appointed his successors as follows; Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). However, Goebbels died by suicide the next day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany. German forces in Italy surrender : On 29 April, the day before Hitler died, Oberstleutnant Schweinitz and Sturmbannführer Wenner, plenipotentiaries for Generaloberst Heinrich von Vietinghoff and SS Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff , signed
8136-510: The day, when Steiner explained that he did not have the divisions to achieve this, Heinrici made it clear to Hitler's staff that unless the IX Army retreated immediately, it would be enveloped by the Soviets. He stressed that it was already too late for it to move north-west to Berlin and would have to retreat west. Heinrici went on to say that if Hitler did not allow it to move west, he would ask to be relieved of his command. On 22 April 1945, at his afternoon situation conference, Hitler fell into
8249-478: The defences into eight sectors designated 'A' through to 'H' each one commanded by a colonel or a general, but most had no combat experience. To the west of the city was the 20th Infantry Division . To the north of the city was the 9th Parachute Division . To the north-east of the city was the Panzer Division Müncheberg . To the south-east of the city and to the east of Tempelhof Airport
8362-487: The defenders would probably exhaust their ammunition during the night. Hitler granted him permission to attempt a breakout through the encircling Red Army lines. That afternoon, Hitler and Braun committed suicide and their bodies were cremated not far from the bunker. In accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Admiral Karl Dönitz became the " President of the Reich " ( Reichspräsident ) and Joseph Goebbels became
8475-577: The defensive positions, having suffered about 30,000 dead, while 12,000 German personnel were killed. On 19 April, the fourth day, the 1st Belorussian Front broke through the final line of the Seelow Heights and nothing but broken German formations lay between them and Berlin. The 1st Ukrainian Front, having captured Forst the day before, fanned out into open country. One powerful thrust by Gordov 's 3rd Guards Army and Rybalko 's 3rd and Lelyushenko 's 4th Guards Tank Armies were heading north-east towards Berlin while other armies headed west towards
8588-721: The discovery of their crimes. However, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals eventually fled Europe using ratlines . German forces withdraw from Finland : On 25 April 1945, the last German troops withdrew from Finnish Lapland and made their way into occupied Norway. On 27 April 1945, the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph was taken. Mussolini is executed : On 25 April 1945, Italian partisans liberated Milan and Turin . On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan , Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
8701-532: The early hours of 2 May, nearly 1,000,000 men in Italy and Austria surrendered unconditionally to British Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander on 2 May at 2 pm. German forces in Berlin surrender : The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling , the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, unconditionally surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of
8814-450: The east and north, started shelling Berlin's city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev 's 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised Army and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over
8927-624: The encircled Hungarian capital city failed, and Budapest fell to the Soviets on 13 February. Adolf Hitler insisted on a counter-attack to recapture the Drau-Danube triangle. The goal was to secure the oil region of Nagykanizsa and regain the Danube River for future operations, but the depleted German forces had been given an impossible task. By 16 March, the German Lake Balaton Offensive had failed, and
9040-481: The encirclement of the city. Within the next day, 25 April 1945, the Soviet investment of Berlin was consolidated, with leading Soviet units probing and penetrating the S-Bahn defensive ring. By the end of the day, it was clear that the German defence of the city could not do anything but temporarily delay the capture of the city by the Soviets, since the decisive stages of the battle had already been fought and lost by
9153-669: The end of 1994 (articles 4 and 5). In accordance with the Treaty, occupying troops were withdrawn by that deadline. Battle of Berlin Total: 361,367 Total: 917,000–925,000 The Battle of Berlin , designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union , and also known as the Fall of Berlin , was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II . After
9266-409: The evening of 24 April. During the same period, of all the German forces ordered to reinforce the inner defences of the city by Hitler, only a small contingent of French SS volunteers under the command of SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg arrived in Berlin. During 25 April, Krukenberg was appointed as the commander of Defence Sector C, the sector under the most pressure from the Soviet assault on
9379-556: The fall of " Festung Breslau " ( Fortress Breslau ), General Alfred Jodl arrived in Reims and, following Dönitz's instructions, offered to surrender all forces fighting the Western Allies. This was exactly the same negotiating position that von Friedeburg had initially made to Montgomery, and like Montgomery, the Supreme Allied Commander , General Dwight D. Eisenhower , threatened to break off all negotiations unless
9492-522: The fighting in the overall offensive took place was the Seelow Heights, the last major defensive line outside Berlin. The Battle of the Seelow Heights , fought over four days from 16 until 19 April, was one of the last pitched battles of World War II: almost one million Red Army soldiers and more than 20,000 tanks and artillery pieces were deployed to break through the "Gates to Berlin", which were defended by about 100,000 German soldiers and 1,200 tanks and guns. The Soviet forces led by Zhukov broke through
9605-540: The heaviest fighting, with house-to-house and hand-to-hand combat . The foreign contingents of the SS fought particularly hard, because they were ideologically motivated and they believed that they would not live if captured. In the early hours of 29 April the Soviet 3rd Shock Army crossed the Moltke Bridge and started to fan out into the surrounding streets and buildings. The initial assaults on buildings, including
9718-569: The interests of saving lives the 'Cease fire' began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, and our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today." At 02:41 on the morning of 7 May, at SHAEF headquarters in Reims, France, the chief-of-staff of the German Armed Forces High Command , General Alfred Jodl, signed an unconditional surrender document for all German forces to the Allies. General Franz Böhme announced
9831-629: The last link between the German IX Army and the city. Elements of the 1st Ukrainian Front continued to move westward and started to engage the German XII Army moving towards Berlin. On this same day, Hitler appointed General Helmuth Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Reymann. Meanwhile, by 24 April 1945 elements of 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front had completed
9944-520: The lowest scores or who were volunteers). Nevertheless, the ASR began to create problems for the US Army in post-war Germany as high-scoring personnel plus the attrition caused by sickness, compassionate leave and accidents meant continual loss of many experienced officers and NCOs. Other issues arose with the changing of discharge point thresholds which is outlined below. Overload of transportation back to
10057-414: The most score requirements took precedence, especially if they had dependents. No points were issued for age, marriage, or dependent children over the age of eighteen. Battles and awards were also only accepted from a predetermined list. Some individuals were required to remain overseas longer even if they met the point threshold. These individuals had special skills that were needed. Staying six months longer
10170-668: The national-socialist regime, putting a de jure end to the Government of Nazi Germany . Incidentally, this law should have theoretically reestablished the Weimar Constitution ; however, this constitution stayed irrelevant on the grounds of the powers of the Allied Control Council acting as occupying forces. On 10 October 1945, Control Council Law No. 2 was also passed, formally abolishing all national socialist organisations. The Declaration Regarding
10283-467: The new Chancellor of the Reich ( Reichskanzler ). As the perimeter shrank and the surviving defenders fell back, they became concentrated into a small area in the city centre. By now there were about 10,000 German soldiers in the city centre, which was being assaulted from all sides. One of the other main thrusts was along Wilhelmstrasse on which the Air Ministry, built of reinforced concrete ,
10396-412: The northern and Stettin railway stations,' he answered. Then came the tremendous words of command: 'Open fire on the capital of Fascist Germany.' I noted the time. It was exactly 8:30 a.m. on 22 April. Ninety-six shells fell in the centre of Berlin in the course of a few minutes. On 23 April 1945, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front continued to tighten the encirclement, severing
10509-418: The overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two goals were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the German nuclear weapons program (but unknown to the Soviet Union, by the time of the Battle of Berlin, the bulk of the uranium and most of
10622-514: The plain on the plateau, the engineers built three belts of defensive emplacements reaching back towards the outskirts of Berlin (the lines nearer to Berlin were called the Wotan position). These lines consisted of anti-tank ditches , anti-tank gun emplacements, and an extensive network of trenches and bunkers . On 9 April, after a long resistance, Königsberg in East Prussia fell to
10735-591: The remnants of the Berlin garrison attempted to break out of the city centre in three different directions. Only those that went west through the Tiergarten and crossed the Charlottenbrücke (a bridge over the Havel) into Spandau succeeded in breaching Soviet lines. Only a handful of those who survived the initial breakout made it to the lines of the Western Allies—most were either killed or captured by
10848-559: The roof of the Zoo flak tower , close by Berlin Zoo , it was not until that evening that the Soviets were able to enter the building. The Reichstag had not been in use since it had burned in February 1933 and its interior resembled a rubble heap more than a government building. The German troops inside were heavily entrenched, and fierce room-to-room fighting ensued. At that point there was still
10961-473: The scientists had been evacuated to Haigerloch in the Black Forest ). On 6 March, Hitler appointed Lieutenant General Helmuth Reymann commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild . On 20 March, General Gotthard Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula replacing Himmler. Heinrici was one of the best defensive tacticians in
11074-523: The signing of peace treaties by the wartime Allies with the former European Axis powers ( Italy , Romania , Hungary and Bulgaria ) and their co-belligerent ally Finland . The Federal Republic of Germany , which had been founded on 23 May 1949 (when its Basic Law was promulgated), had its first government formed on 20 September 1949 while the German Democratic Republic was formed on 7 October. End of state of war with Germany
11187-571: The south of the Tiergarten. These Soviet forces had effectively cut the sausage-shaped area held by the Germans in half and made any escape attempt to the west for German troops in the centre much more difficult. During the early hours of 1 May, Krebs talked to General Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, informing him of Hitler's death and a willingness to negotiate a citywide surrender. They could not agree on terms because of Soviet insistence on unconditional surrender and Krebs' claim that he lacked authorisation to agree to that. Goebbels
11300-574: The three occupying powers retained some special rights, e.g. vis-à-vis West Berlin . The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed following the 1990 German reunification , whereby the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in the newly single country, including Berlin. The treaty came into force on 15 March 1991. Under the terms of the Treaty, the Allies were allowed to keep troops in Berlin until
11413-467: The unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway on 7 May. It included the phrase "All forces under German control to cease active operations at 23:01 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945." The next day, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other German OKW representatives travelled to Berlin, and shortly before midnight signed another document of unconditional surrender, again surrendering to all
11526-415: Was against surrender. In the afternoon, Goebbels and his wife killed their children and then themselves. Goebbels's death removed the last impediment which prevented Weidling from accepting the terms of unconditional surrender of his garrison, but he chose to delay the surrender until the next morning to allow the planned breakout to take place under the cover of darkness. On the night of 1/2 May, most of
11639-520: Was captured by Italian partisans. It is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland (through the Splügen Pass ), and was travelling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino (a civil parish of Mezzegra ); the other fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo and executed there. The bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on
11752-540: Was declared by many former Western Allies from 1950. In the Petersberg Agreement of 22 November 1949, it was noted that the West German government wanted an end to the state of war, but the request could not be granted. The US state of war with Germany was being maintained for legal reasons, and though it was softened somewhat it was not suspended since "the US wants to retain a legal basis for keeping
11865-577: Was liberated on 15 April 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division . Four days later troops from the American 42nd Infantry Division found Dachau . Allied troops forced the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses and place them in mass graves. Due to the prisoners' poor physical condition, thousands continued to die after liberation. Captured SS guards were subsequently tried at Allied war crime tribunals where many were sentenced to death. Some Nazi guards and personnel were killed outright upon
11978-455: Was pounded by large concentrations of Soviet artillery. The remaining German Tiger tanks of the Hermann von Salza battalion took up positions in the east of the Tiergarten to defend the centre against Kuznetsov 's 3rd Shock Army (which although heavily engaged around the Reichstag was also flanking the area by advancing through the northern Tiergarten) and the 8th Guards Army advancing through
12091-479: Was relieved of his command after disobeying Hitler's direct orders to hold Berlin at all costs and never order a retreat, and was replaced by General Kurt Student . General Kurt von Tippelskirch was named as Heinrici's interim replacement until Student could arrive and assume control. There remains some confusion as to who was in command, as some references say that Student was captured by the British and never arrived. Regardless of whether von Tippelskirch or Student
12204-551: Was revised down to 80 points after VJ Day . In the coming months it would be lowered again. Scores varied before the end of May 1945 by varied department in the Medical Corps. The discharge program continued until the end of July 1945; the demand to ship personnel and equipment to the Pacific became so great that medical units were prevented from shipping back to the United States for inactivation. However, all transfers to
12317-536: Was still raging. With the Soviets surrounding Berlin and his escape route cut off by the Americans, German dictator Adolf Hitler , realizing that all was lost and not wishing to suffer Mussolini's fate, died by suicide in his Führerbunker along with his long-term partner Eva Braun , whom he had married less than 40 hours earlier. In his will , Hitler dismissed Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , his second-in-command, and Interior minister Heinrich Himmler after each of them separately tried to seize control of
12430-612: Was the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland . The reserve, 18th Panzergrenadier Division , was in Berlin's central district. On 23 April, Berzarin 's 5th Shock Army and Katukov 's 1st Guards Tank Army assaulted Berlin from the south-east and, after overcoming a counter-attack by the German LVI Panzer Corps , reached the Berlin S-Bahn ring railway on the north side of the Teltow Canal by
12543-541: Was the commander of the operational United States Air Forces in Europe , along with his wife and daughter at the Germany - Austria border. German forces in Breslau surrender : At 18:00 on 6 May, General Hermann Niehoff , the commandant of Breslau , a 'fortress' city surrounded and besieged for months, surrendered to the Soviets. Jodl and Keitel surrender all German armed forces unconditionally : Thirty minutes after
12656-571: Was the intended cap for these individuals. Different scores were set for troops in the US Army , US Army Air Forces , Women’s Army Corps and holders of the Medal of Honor . Before the surrender of Japan , officers who may have had to serve again in combat were assessed not only on their ASR score but also on their efficiency and military specialties. Most high-scoring officers could have expected an early discharge after VE Day . The qualifying score
12769-612: Was to encircle Berlin first and then envelop the IX Army . The command of the German V Corps , trapped with the IX Army north of Forst, passed from the IV Panzer Army to the IX Army. The corps was still holding on to the Berlin- Cottbus highway front line. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner 's Army Group Centre launched a counter-offensive aimed at breaking through to Berlin from the south and entering (the Battle of Bautzen ) in
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