Chapter 14. German Retreat Towards the Dome
After the initial shock and confusion created by the Dome's sudden appearance had led to a relative lull, the following days witnessed the resumption of fighting on most fronts.
18-19 January 1945, Outer Northern Italy
As the bulk of
Army Group C began its retreat towards the Dome, several elite Waffen SS formations mounted ferocious but fruitless assaults against the Allied armies on the far side of the
Gothic Line. The only purpose of those forlorn atacks was to serve as a decoy, to obscure the fact that Army Group C was attempting to vacate all the Italian territories outside the Dome within two weeks at the most.
Initially, the Allies believed the German actions to be genuine and, after defeating them, reinforced the defence expecting more attacks which, obviously, never materialized. It is widely believed that the Allies fell to such a transparent ploy only because of false Enigma messages, a tactic successfully used several times by the Germans during the following weeks.
18 January 1945, Outer Northern Italy, Salò
Generalfeldmarschall
Albert Kesselring, Commander in Chief of Army Group C, informed Duce
Benito Mussolini in extremely blunt language that all German soldiers would be inside the Dome within two weeks and the
Repubblica Sociale Italiana will be left to fend for itself.
Impervious to Mussolini's pleas for continued support, Kesselring offered him asylum and the formal leadership of the tiny newly established
Reichsprotektorat Venedig. Mussolini felt terribly insulted, refused the demeaning offer categorically and ordered Kesselring out of his room. Kesselring obliged.
Later that day, Germany withdrew its recognition of the Italian Social Republic and dissolved or interned its armed forces. At the end of the day, Mussolini was missing and any semblance of a functioning Italian State in German Occupied Italy was rapidly evaporating. For all intents and purposes, the puppet state had ceased to exist.
19 January 1945, Outer Switzerland
Mussolini resurfaced in Switzerland where he was interned. Mussolini spoke to the Swiss press and, besides ranting against Hitler and the Nazis, made several important statements:
- The German annexations of Italian territories and the creation of the so called Reichsprotectorat Venedig, were illegal, null and void;
- The Italian Social Republic was dissolved;
- He had resigned all his positions and had applied for political asylum in Switzerland;
- The Italian Kingdom and its legal Government were the only representatives of the Italian People;
- The Italian Fascists should respect the authority of the Italian Government and cease fighting immediately;
- Despite signs showing otherwise, the Germans were rapidly evacuating Outer Northern Italy.
The German Ambassador in Bern protested and the Swiss Goverment complied and belatedly isolated Mussolini from the press after the damage had been already done.
The Allied powers informed the Swiss Government that Mussolini is wanted for war crimes. The Swiss were evasive.
18-20 January 1945, Outer Croatia
Army Group E accelerated its retreat northwards. Bosnia, Dalmatia and Slavonia were to be evacuated within two weeks while Croatia Proper, including Zagreb, a mere 20 kilometres from the Dome limit, was planned to be held for at least another month. No schedule for the retreat of the Wehrmacht from nearby Istria, Fiume and Southern Slovenia had been so far established.
As in Northern Italy, the Wehrmacht began to relocate hundreds of thousands of
Volkdeutsche from the outside to the inside of the Dome. This massive endeavour put an enormous strain on the retreating Wehrmacht. An additional problem was that nobody had asked the
Volkdeutsche whether they actually wanted to leave their homes in Outer South Tyrol, Istria, Outer Slovenia and Outer Croatia and move to hitherto unknown destinations, most probably in German occupied Poland and Czechia.
The fighting in Bosnia and Dalmatia was erratic, in some places extremely vicious, in others merely a pretence, as the Germans and the local Partisans had struck some unofficial deals to let the Germans evacuate their lands unmolested.
While the Germans did not commit any more noteworthy atrocities, the
Ustaše actually doubled down in their quest for an ethnically pure Croatia. On the 19th alone, at least eight thousand Serbs and Gypsies were massacred in the infamous
Jasenovac Concentration Camp.
19 January 1945, Outer Croatia, Zagreb
Poglavnic Ante Pavelić was informed by
Generaloberst Alexander Löhr, Commander in Chief of Army Group E, of the planned retreat of the Wehrmacht from Croatia. Löhr insisted that the German Reich would continue to provide its trusted ally with weapons, ammunition, logistical and diplomatic support, virtually anything short of a German military presence.
When asked about the feasability of a large scale Croatian retreat inside the Dome, Löhr was polite but uncommital. He offered Pavelić asylum and leadership of the small
Reichsprotektorat Kroatien, should the war with the Partisans take a turn for the worse. Pavelić thanked him coldly and stated his firm commitment to fight for Croatian independence until the very end. The meeting ended abruptly when Pavelić received a phone call and the German General was excused.
18-20 January 1945, Inner and Outer Courland Pocket
Almost all of the
Army Group Kurland from the
Outer Courland Pocket managed to retreat to the
Inner Courland Pocket, while sustaining minimal casualties against half-hearted Soviet attacks.
On the 19th, the evacuation of the Inner Courland Pocket by sea began in earnest. As the
Kriegsmarine enjoyed virtual supremacy on the Inner Baltic Sea and Soviet land based attacks against the Inner Courland Pocket were kept in check by the Luftwaffe, the evacuation proceeded almost unimpeded.
The soldiers trapped in the nearby (Inner) Memel Pocket hoped to be rescued as well but Hitler did not authorize the evacuation of any German territory. Only the lessening Soviet pressure saved Memel from its grim fate.
18-20 January 1945, Inner and Outer Norway and Denmark
No significant military actions took place.
18 January 1945, Dunkirk, Outer France
Against all odds,
Admiral Friedrich Frisius attempted a break-out from the besieged
Dunkirk Festung. They hoped to reach the Dome limit which was just 20 kilometres away and be rescued by sea by the Kriegsmarine who had enjoyed naval superiority in the Inner North Sea since that morning's naval battle.
After a short but fierce battle, the Germans were decisively defeated and Admiral Frisius surrendered with all his men.
19 January 1945, Channel Islands
In a daring operation, around two hundred German soldiers were evacuated by submarine. Similar attempts in the following days were not successful and the idea was subsequently aborted.
19 January 1945, Occupied Crete and Dodecanese
While the Germans from occupied Western Crete were completely surrounded by the Allied Armies and Navies and had nowhere to go, those from the Dodecanese were less than 20 kilometres away from neutral Turkey.
Hitler's orders to evacuate all German-held territories outside the Dome with the exception of Norway created confusion and almost one thousand German soldiers from Rhodes fled to Turkey where they were promptly interned.
In the following days, the Turkish Navy managed to stop the refugee flow by patrolling the Rhodes Strait and threatening to sink any German boat heading towards Turkish territory.
18-19 January 1945, Inner Western Front
Unlike the Soviets, whose position seemed to be, at least in the short term, tennable, the Western Allied Armies trapped behind the Dome were in a truly desperate situation: two million doomed Allied soldiers confined in an area with a depth of less than 200 km, with military supplies for less than two weeks and food for less than one week, lacking air support almost completely and, perhaps most importantly, without any glimmer of hope whatsoever.
On the 19th,
General Dwight Eisenhower asked the Allied High Command for permission to begin talks with the Germans about the terms of surrender. At first,
General Bernard Montgomery wanted to keep fighting but, by the end of the day, realized the utter hopelessness of their position.
The delicate political situation in the United States of America, with President Roosevelt dead and President Wallace in the middle of his two days term, prevented a coherent response of the Western Allies. Faced with the indecision of his superiors, Eisenhower decided to stall and instituted strict food and ammunition rationing.
20 January 1945, Inner Western Front
With morale plummeting rapidly, discipline started to fail and, soon, law and order began to dissolve into widespread anarchy. Cases of suicide, desertion and looting began to mount, while the Luftwaffe attacked them with virtual impunity even during daylight.
Newly inaugurated President Harry Truman listened to the desperate pleas of his General and, together with Winston Churchill, gave Eisenhower the green light to commence tratatives with the Germans.
Shortly before midnight, an Allied envoy was received by
Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt.
At the same time, thousands of Allied soldiers forced the Swiss border and were engaged by the Swiss Police and Army. The result was a bloodbath and a very awkward diplomatic crisis. 1229 Allied soldiers and 372 Swiss policemen and soldiers were dead and scores more were injured.
18-20 January 1945, Inner Hungary and Slovakia
Marshall Zhukov had quickly realized the utter impossibility of transferring large amounts of troops over the Carpathians and into Poland due to the lack of usable roads under Soviet control, the proximity of the Axis positions and the unleashed Luftwaffe, once again free to operate under the skies of the Dome.
As the Soviet positions in Inner Hungary were considered untennable, Zhukov ordered to keep fighting until overwhelmed by the Axis forces and then disperse into the countryside and wait for the expected fall of Berlin.
Zhukov's order leaked out to the soldiers and contributed to the already precarious morale. Many Soviet and Romanian soldiers started to desert immediately and go into hiding. By the 20th, the siege of Budapest had already been broken and the whole Hungarian Front seemed to be nearing its collapse.
Romanian
General Gheorghe Avramescu surrendered with all his men to
Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, with the condition that the Romanian soldiers be placed in German rather than Hungarian captivity. General Avramescu hopes to be allowed to fight on the Axis side once again were quickly and bluntly dashed by Pfeffer-Wildenbruch.
18-20 January 1945, Poland
The Soviet
Vistula-Oder Offensive continued unabated, despite the fanatical defence of the Germans and the air superiority enjoyed by the Luftwaffe. Warsaw, Krakow, Łódź and Auschwitz were liberated and the Soviets were already approaching Poznań (Posen).
Although it became quickly apparent that the Soviets could not be stopped before reaching the Oder and trading space for time would have been the best approach, Hitler did not allow a preventive retreat to the more defensible positions on the left bank of the Oder.
The battles were absolutely ferocious, with enormous casualties on both sides. The Soviets fought with the desperation of men who had nothing to lose while the Germans fought bravely to defend their country and protect their families.
19 January 1945, Berlin, Germany
The German Capital suffered a large scale raid, with hundreds of Soviet planes dropping a massive amount of bombs and generating widespread death and destruction.
However, the significant losses incurred by the non-renewable Inner Soviet Airforce and Zhukov's decision to save his aircraft for tactical use made further air raids unlikely.
Reichsminister Joachim von Ribbentrop received the Ambassadors of Sweden and Switzerland to discuss the difficult situation of their countries due to the presence of the Berlin Dome and to negotiate a mutually acceptable settlement. The discussions proved to be tense and extremely difficult.
