[robowombat]

Interestingly at the officer level at any rate there was already in 1945 a clear understanding of what was going to happen when the Reich finally crumbled. US forces reached a stop line about a 100 miles east of the zonal boundaries agreed upon at Yalta in late April. German units were still fighting a very big war to the east with the Soviets right up until the surrender was officially promulgated. In at least the 17th Airborne division it was openly permitted for German units to cross division boundaries and load up on munitions, from overrun German ammo dumps, and head back to resupply units still locked in combat with the Russians. MG Miley made no bones of his detestation of the Soviets and that he believed the US would soon be in some sort of war with them and the Germans (at least a lot of them) would be on our side in that conflict. He was not the only officer that believed that by a long shot.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

After Hitler’s suicide, Doenitz continued the War against the Russians for another week, and encouraged Germans to evacuate to the West. He prolonged the War for a week to give Germans a chance to get behind the American lines. During the Battle of Berlin, a German army fought, successfully, to create an escape route for the defenders of Berlin. While the Volkssturm and Hitler-Jugend were fighting to the bitter end, the Wehrmacht was struggling to stay out of the hands of the Russians.

If the Germans had done to America what they did to the Russians, there probably wouldn’t be a blade of grass alive in Germany today.