Chapter XXVIII: Götterdämmerung
As soon as the news of the Italian capitulation were known, large numbers of troops were redeployed to the Mediterranean border, attempting to encircle the maximum number of Soviet divisions in the northern zones of Italy, even when many soldiers did not understand the need to fight on French soil when Germany itself was threatened. However, the first battles surprised the enemy, who was forced to leave Genoa in the face of the German advance.
German troops advancing into Italy
Back in Germany, a Soviet offensive attacked the city of Nuremberg, with the evident purpose of encircling all troops stationed in Munich and the nuclear reactor located in the Bavarian capital. Due to the strategic importance of Munich, key to all Western Europe, High Command did not hesitate to make a titanic effort to break the siege that threatened the city with various attacks in Augsburg, Regensburg and Bayeruth.
The Wehrmacht´s attempt to relieve the units in Munich
However, the main stage of the Soviet offensive would be in Poland, where more than 300 Russian divisions attacked almost simultaneously along the entire line. Undoubtedly, Zhukov’s plan was to surround the German armies located around Warsaw that totaled over 120 divisions. At first OKH thought the Heer would be able to contain the offensive, but after several days of uninterrupted combat the German lines began to waver and the entire center of the German Army Corps was in danger. Anticipating that the Soviet offensive would end in another victory for the Red Army, High Command decided to retreat into the heart of Germany and start planning the defense of Berlin. Tragically, Poland was already an easy prey for the Soviets.
Soviet soldiers entering Lodz
In the rest of the world, Brazil was losing the war, and British commandos managed to penetrate through the jungle and conquered the northern areas of the country. This was not the only good news for the British, who managed to defeat the Japanese in Manila and took the control of the Philippines. However, the United States would give a new proof of their hypocrisy and moral standings, and on August 10 they used a new type of bomb on the capital of Thailand. According to preliminary estimates, the new American weapon had unleashed a veritable hell in Bangkok, where more than 100,000 people died from the impact and another 200,000 more perished as a result of radiation. With little difficulty the British would take control over Thailand in a few days, but the whole world wondered if this goal deserved the indiscriminate killing of so many civilians; once again, the Allies gave a sample of their "values”.
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
The crimes committed by the Allies would not go unpunished, as in the south of France the German offensive was stopped by an amazing Soviet counterattack to recover Genoa and Grenoble, while German troops located there were now forced to fight a revolt instigated by the allies in Marseille. This would greatly determine the future of Europe and the whole world, as most German political and military leaders were already tired of being the only ones to actually fight the red menace. Common was the view that France and Britain have had plenty of opportunities to stop the Soviets, and yet they only put their efforts in a crazy and wild crusade against Germany. Recognizing the truth behind these criticisms, OKH decided to abandon the defense of France and repositioned all divisions on the western border of Germany; if De Gaulle wanted to save France from the clutches of communism , that was now his task , not that of Germany.
French communist partisans preparing the Soviet advance into France
In Bavaria, the German offensive failed miserably, and within days the Soviets were able to capture more than 120,000 German soldiers in Munich and dismantled the nuclear reactor located in the city. Aware that Germany was already lost, the Chancellor went to the Reichstag and requested a statement to offer the Soviets “Germany’s surrender in order to avoid unnecessary deaths in view of the recent course of the war." Realizing the futility keeping on with an already lost war, the Parliament accepted the proposal and offered the Russians’s to surrender, but in a few hours Stalin rejected such offer under the excuse that “the German criminals deserve no mercy at all." Nobody doubted that the Soviet tyrant was not going to pass up the opportunity to take control of the whole of Europe to draw the map to his pleasure, and the USSR confirmed such views by installing puppet governments in the Italian Union, Czekoslovak Socialist Republic and the recently liberated Estonia.
The new "Governments" of Italy, Czechoslovakia and Estonia
In a few weeks, the Red Army would advance with virtually no barriers across Europe, committing countless war crimes and executing all non-communist political leaders wherever they were. In mid-September the Russians would already be on the Rhine, and controlled the whole of continental Europe. In the United States, F.D. Roosevelt died after a long illness, and Harry Truman sworn into office and offered to the Soviets “to attend an international meeting to set new boundaries of the liberated Europe." However, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov announced that the USSR “would not attend a meeting proposed by the capitalist countries to return Europe into submission to the bourgeois and fascist tyrannies”, and instead established different satellite governments in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and France. The Allies realized too late about the consequences of the German defeat.
The PCF took control of the country and installed a new Stalinist cabinet
The only success of the Allies in Europe would be the entrance of Denmark in their alliance, while the Finnish government completely lost his head and declared war on the Soviet Union. In a few hours, the United States announced that Finland “was not in any way supported by the Western Allies." After several weeks of careful preparation, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky started "Operation Red October”, by which more than 450 Russian divisions tirelessly attacked the vicinities of Berlin. While the fierce German defense caused over a million Soviet casualties in just one week, by the end of September the Russians conquered Berlin and the Reich´s Government prisoner, forcing them to issue a statement ordering the " absolute and unconditional surrender of all German armies and cities . " The war was over for Germany.
After one week, the Soviet authorities in the area announced that "Germany would be subject to a military administration until it is determined how to ensure the freedom and safety of German workers pushed to an unjust war against their Soviet liberators". Directed by Marshal Zhukov, the Soviet Occupation Zone controlled the whole of Germany and Austria, and began to prepare for the celebration of a massive trial against many German political and military leaders. After 5 years of war, Europe was now a huge red spot under the dictates of Stalin, and the rest of the world trembled at this sight.
The Soviet Occupation Zone is created to directly administer Germany