B
Beryl M
Guest
Fall Of The Third Reich
Starting a war is easy - the difficult part is ending it. When Churchill, Stalin and Roosvelt met at Yalta in February 1945 they knew the war against Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich was all but won even if much hard fighting remained. Their attention was focused on postwar Europe and the destruction of the Japanese Empire. These discussions were greatly influenced by the military situation in both theatres of war and we need to remind ourselves of what the world looked like in the months of 1945.
Thje German offensive of 1944 as remembered the Battle of the Bulge consumed the energies of the Anglo and American Armies well into January 1045. When it was over the Allies began preparation for a major offensive that would take them to the Rhine the objective they had tried to reach at Arnhem in September 1944. The operational challenges c confronting the Anglo American armies we compounded by a shortage of replacements and a growing differences by the British and American over conducts of the war Field Marshal Montgomery infamous press conference in which he seemed to claim credit for the defeat of the German Ardennes Offensive which was just one of the issues which strained Allied unity.
On the Eastern front the situation was very different by February 1945 the Red army had reached into the heart of Germany - The success of the Red army and the halting success of the West was evident to all.
Considering circumstances the agreement at Yalta seemed to promise more than Britain and the U.S could have ever hoped for - The Declaration on Liberated Europe – free elections meant a similar future for those under Soviet control - The United Nations was established hailed as a great triumph, but Stalin had no intention of allowing free elections in Poland . Churchill was in full cry of the Soviet Union and urged the U.S to finish the war in Berlin. But Eisenhower was determined to withdraw U.S forces. He planned to leave Berlin to the Soviets. Montgomery committed his troops to a series of costly battles for objectives that would have been bypassed if Berlin had fallen.
Eisenhower’s decision to avoid Berlin would mean that Montgomery’s 21st army corp. was to protect the U.S military flank, clear northern Germany near the Baltic, cutting off any Soviet occupation of Denmark. These opperations proved beyond the resources of the 2nd British Army and Montgomery determined to avoid asking for American assistance drew upon Canadians to help carry out his plan………….
Starting a war is easy - the difficult part is ending it. When Churchill, Stalin and Roosvelt met at Yalta in February 1945 they knew the war against Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich was all but won even if much hard fighting remained. Their attention was focused on postwar Europe and the destruction of the Japanese Empire. These discussions were greatly influenced by the military situation in both theatres of war and we need to remind ourselves of what the world looked like in the months of 1945.
Thje German offensive of 1944 as remembered the Battle of the Bulge consumed the energies of the Anglo and American Armies well into January 1045. When it was over the Allies began preparation for a major offensive that would take them to the Rhine the objective they had tried to reach at Arnhem in September 1944. The operational challenges c confronting the Anglo American armies we compounded by a shortage of replacements and a growing differences by the British and American over conducts of the war Field Marshal Montgomery infamous press conference in which he seemed to claim credit for the defeat of the German Ardennes Offensive which was just one of the issues which strained Allied unity.
On the Eastern front the situation was very different by February 1945 the Red army had reached into the heart of Germany - The success of the Red army and the halting success of the West was evident to all.
Considering circumstances the agreement at Yalta seemed to promise more than Britain and the U.S could have ever hoped for - The Declaration on Liberated Europe – free elections meant a similar future for those under Soviet control - The United Nations was established hailed as a great triumph, but Stalin had no intention of allowing free elections in Poland . Churchill was in full cry of the Soviet Union and urged the U.S to finish the war in Berlin. But Eisenhower was determined to withdraw U.S forces. He planned to leave Berlin to the Soviets. Montgomery committed his troops to a series of costly battles for objectives that would have been bypassed if Berlin had fallen.
Eisenhower’s decision to avoid Berlin would mean that Montgomery’s 21st army corp. was to protect the U.S military flank, clear northern Germany near the Baltic, cutting off any Soviet occupation of Denmark. These opperations proved beyond the resources of the 2nd British Army and Montgomery determined to avoid asking for American assistance drew upon Canadians to help carry out his plan………….
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