Last Days of the Third Reich - The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945 PDF
Preview Last Days of the Third Reich - The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945
The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945 % FPT dN D-bflfl-DbL^fl-D >*1?.^S Last Days of *r Third Reich Lucas is When the righting ended in Europe in May 1945, the world focused its attention on Japan andtheforthcominginvasionoftheLandofthe Rising Sun. There was still anotherwarto end. InEurope, however, death stillhoveredover the land. Many details ofthis book have neverbefore been published. Buttressed by more than 100 maps and photographs, it is the first accountof thefalloftheThirdReichandwhathappenedto its soldiersasthenationsthathadbeenforcibly made a part ofHitler's satanic empire exacted their retribution. Here are the stories of quite ordinary people over whom there swept a de- structive war and who have notforgotten those events although they occurred more than forty years ago. These are not merely the stories of whathappenedtotheGermans—whohadmade themistakeofstartingawarandthenlosingit— butalsothefirst-personrecollectionsofpeople ofothernations. On the Eastern Front, the fighting had taken on a dreadful, bitter aspect early on: Three years of intensive, epic conflict in which each side had seemingly tried to outdo the other in atrocityandterrorhadnotpreparedtheground forpeace and reconciliation. In Germany, pro- paganda predictions ofthe horrors and brutal- itiesoftheRedArmyweretoprovealltootrue. ThebrutalityoftheNaziswouldbefullyparal- leledby that oftheconqueror. For the governors of Hitler's empire, their families, wives and children, escape from the approaching apocalypse meant running the gauntlet of now-confident partisans on the roads to safety. But fear of reprisals was not confinedtothevanquished. ExilesfromRussia, anti-Communists, deserters, even ex-prisoners ofwar, knew well what hard fate awaited them (continue* ' ^flap) ALLEN,COUNTYPUBLICLIBRARY MA 'N LIBRA* fj i 833 00542 3840 943.036 L96L 7107708 LLlucas? James Sidney. Last days of the Third Reich DO NOT REMOVE CARDS FROM POCKET ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 46802 You may return this book to any agency, branch, or bookmobile of the Allen County Public Library. LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD REICH The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945 Below:oneofthemostfamous picturesofthefightingforBerlin. MenoftheRedArmystorm acrossthesquareinfrontofthe Reichstagbuilding, 1 May1945. JAMES LUCAS LAST DAYS OF rI-n HE THIRD REICH The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945 Foreword by the Rt Hon Sir Bernard Braine, dl, mp WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY, INC New York AllenCountyP«bUcUbrary Wayne, Indiana Ft. Copyright© 1986byJamesLucas ILLUSTRATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AllImperialWarMuseumexceptthefollowing: privatecopyright, 127(top);USArmySignalCorps,page99, 111, 157(bottom), 161 (bottom), 166, 179,200,210,211,213, 225 (bottom), 226. DesignedbyDavidGibbons; mapsanddiagramsbyAnthonyA. Evans. Firstpublishedin 1986intheU.K. byBookClubAssociatesbyarrangementwith ArmsandArmourPressLimitedasLastDaysoftheReich Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedorutilizedinanyform orbyanymeans,electronicormechanical,includingphotocopying,recordingorby anyinformationstorageandretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfrom thePublisher. InquiriesshouldbeaddressedtoPermissionsDepartment,William MorrowandCompany,Inc., 105MadisonAve.,NewYork,N.Y. 10016. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lucas,JamesSidney. LastdaysoftheThirdReich. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1.WorldWar, 1939-1—945. 2.—WorldWar, 1939-1945— Germany. 3. Germany History 1933-1945. I. Tide. D755.7.L83 1986 943.086 86-16392 ISBN 0-688-06638-0 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 23456789 10 CONTENTS 7107708 Foreword 7 Preface 9 Introduction 11 PartOne: TheEasternFront 17 1. TheBalticSector: Kurland 25 2. TheReichsCapital: Berlin 33 3. TheBeleagueredFortress: Breslau 65 4. TheCentralSector: Prague 71 5. TheSouthernSector: Austria 95 PartTwo: TheSouthernFront 115 6. Jugoslavia 119 7. Italy 143 PartThree: TheWesternFront 173 8. TheBalticSector: Hamburg 183 9. TheCentralandSouthernSectors 197 10. ReichsPresidentDoenitz 221 Epilogue 227 Appendix 1: ChronologyofEvents 239 Appendix2: TheLastCommunique 245 Bibliography 247 Index 249
The list of books you might like
