The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

82. DZW, 6, p. 742. This figure includes SS and OT members. Howard D. Grier, Hitler, Dönitz and the Baltic Sea: The Third Reich’s Last Hope, 1944–1945, Annapolis, Md., 2007, p. 218, has a Wehrmacht strength of 350,000 troops.

83. Die Niederlage 1945, pp. 423 (3.5.45), 426–7 (4.5.45), 430 (5.5.45); DRZW, 10/1 (Zimmermann), pp. 472–4; DZW, 6, pp. 773–4; Albert Speer, Erinnerungen, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1969, pp. 496–7; Schwendemann, pp. 18–19.

84. BA/MA, RM7/854, fo. 117, Chef OKW, 6.5.45.

85. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 425 (3.5.45).

86. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 432 (6.5.45); DRZW, 10/1 (Zimmermann), pp. 474–5; DZW, 6, p. 758; Müller and Ueberschär, pp. 102–3; Schwendemann, p. 23.

87. BA/MA, RM7/854, fo. 71, Keitel telegraph, 5.5.45.

88. BA/MA, RM7/854, fo. 48, FS Chef SKL, 4.5.45.

89. According to the OKW’s calculations, 1,850,000 soldiers belonged to the army in the east on 7 May 1945.—DRZW, 10/1 (Lakowski), p. 675.

90. DZW, 6, pp. 745, 761, 763; Schwendemann, p. 24, for the figures given above, representing the OKW’s estimates on 8 May. According to DRZW, 10/1 (Lakowski), p. 674, the size of Army Group Centre was estimated at between 600,000 and 650,000 men on 7 May.

91. DZW, 6, p. 740; Müller and Ueberschär, p. 108. On Hela, the commander reported on 3 May that, short of men and weapons, the troops there were facing ‘certain destruction’.—BA/MA, RW44I/33, fo. 26, KR Blitz von General der Panzertruppe, AOK Ostpreußen an Obkdo. d. WMFStOber (H) Nordost, 3.5.45. There were some 150,000 soldiers and 50,000 refugees on Hela at the time.—Schwendemann, p. 23.

92. BA/MA, RW44I/86, fo. 5, Bev. Gen. Kurland, gez. Möller, Brigadeführer, an Dönitz, 5.5.45.

93. Die Niederlage 1945, pp. 426–7 (4.5.45).

94. DZW, 6, p. 758; Rendulic´, pp. 378–81; Schwendemann, pp. 25–6.

95. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 429 (5.5.45). Löhr’s request to be allowed to offer Field-Marshal Alexander his cooperation in an attempt to ‘prevent the total Bolshevization of Austria’ is printed in KTB/SKL, part A. vol. 68, p. 439A.

96. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 430 (6.5.45); Schwendemann, p. 20.

97. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 425 (3.5.45).

98. DZW, 6, p. 761; Die Niederlage 1945, pp. 427–8 (4.5.45).

99. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 422 (2.5.45).

100. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 423 (3.5.45).

101. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 431 (6.5.45).

102. DZW, 6, pp. 758–67; Müller and Ueberschär, p. 104.

103. Die Niederlage 1945, pp. 430–31 (6.5.45).

104. Die Niederlage 1945, pp. 432–3 (7.5.45). Eisenhower had given Jodl half an hour to reach a decision, but communications difficulties with Flensburg delayed the arrival of his message and receipt of Dönitz’s approval.—DZW, 6, p. 774. See also Bodo Scheurig, Alfred Jodl: Gehorsam und Verhängnis, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, 1991, pp. 331–3.

105. Reproduced in facsimile in Müller and Ueberschär, pp. 178–9. Britain had introduced ‘double summer time’ during the Second World War. This placed Britain one hour ahead of Central European Time.

106. Müller and Ueberschär, pp. 106, 180–81; Schwendemann, p. 30; Baum, p. 261. For a description of the scene, see G. Zhukov, Reminiscences and Reflections, vol. 2, Moscow, 1985, pp. 399–400; also Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, pb. edn., London, 2007, pp. 403–5.

107. Speer, pp. 498–9.

108. IWM, EDS, F.3, M.I. 14/284 (A), report on a discussion between Keitel and General Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov, deputy commissar of the NKVD (the Soviet internal security organization, headed by Lavrenty Beria); printed in KTB/SKL, part A, vol. 68, pp. 469–71A. Authentication of part of a jawbone which the Soviets had found in the garden of the Reich Chancellery as belonging to Hitler was only made a few days later. Stalin and the Soviet authorities continued for years to disbelieve accounts of Hitler’s death.

109. BA/MA, RM7/854, fo. 120, Kriegstagebuch Seekriegsleitung, 7.5.45; KTB/OKW, vol. 4/2, pp. 1482–3 (7.5.45); Schwendemann, p. 25.

110. Schwendemann, p. 26.

111. Klaus Granzow, Tagebuch eines Hitlerjungen 1943–1945, Bremen, 1965, p. 177 (5.5.45).

112. BA/MA, NL Schörner, N60/18, unfoliated, proclamation by Schörner to soldiers of Army Group Centre, 5.5.45.

113. Die Niederlage 1945, p. 431.

114. Schwendemann, p. 25.

115. DZW, 6, p. 767.

116. BA/MA, RW44I/54, unfoliated 4pp. ‘Aufzeichnung über die Dienstreise des Oberst i.G. Meyer-Detring zu Feldmarschall Schörner am 8.5.45 (p. 3: Unterredung mit Feldmarschall Schörner); Die Niederlage 1945, p. 438, for Meyer-Detring’s report to Dönitz.