Word: berlin
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...April a Red Army force of 2.5 million had advanced to the Oder River, scarcely 50 miles east of Berlin. Meanwhile, the U.S. Ninth Army had nearly reached the Elbe, about 50 miles to the west. Hitler talked of leaving Berlin by April 20, his 56th birthday, of flying south to organize an invulnerable redoubt in the Alpine forests of Bavaria. But then came fits of wild euphoria, when he ordered his shattered forces to counterattack. "The Russians have overextended themselves so much that the decisive battle can be won at Berlin," he declared. Then came fits of despair, when...
...field headquarters near the Elbe, Lieut. General William Simpson was working on his plans to seize Berlin. There was little evidence of German opposition. Simpson's U.S. 2nd Armored and 83rd Infantry divisions would race right up the autobahn to the capital. Then Lieut. General Omar Bradley summoned him back to headquarters in Wiesbaden. "You have to stop right where you are," Bradley said. "You can't go any farther. You must pull back across the Elbe...
...Where in hell did this come from?" said Simpson. "I could be in Berlin in 24 hours!" Bradley: "I just got it from...
...probably one of Dwight Eisenhower's worst miscalculations, though he never admitted it. Berlin "was politically and psychologically important as the symbol of remaining German power," the Allied Commander wrote later. "I decided, however, that it was not the logical or the most desirable objective ... To sustain a strong force at such a distance from our major bases along the Rhine would have meant the practical immobilization of units along the remainder of the front. This I felt to be more than unwise; it was stupid...
...took the Red Army just ten days to surround Berlin, Marshal Georgi Zhukov encircling it from the north and Marshal Ivan Konev from the south. When the ring was complete on April 25, the Soviets arrayed a fearful multitude of weapons--6,000 tanks, 42,000 guns--and began bombarding the city. In the central area around the Chancellery and the bunker, around the Reichstag and the opera and the university, the shells landed at the rate of one every five seconds. The barrage went on all day and then all the next...