The Fall of Nazi Germany JANUARY 7, 1945 Joseph Stalin agrees to Winston Churchill’s call for a Soviet offensive to ease pressure on the Allies’ drive towards Germany from the west. Five days later, 160 Red Army divisions strike German forces in Poland and East Prussia, setting the stage for the Third Reich’s downfall UNITED KINGDOM London NETHERLANDS BELGIUM Paris FRANCE VICHY FRANCE SPAIN DENMARK SWEDEN Hamburg Berlin Danzig EAST PRUSSIA Warsaw GREATER GERMANY Cologne Nuremberg Munich Dresden BOHEMIA-MORAVIA POLAND Kraków SWITZ. ITALY SVK HUN Riga Vilnius Moscow SOVIET UNION Kyiv UKRAINE 200km 125 miles Height of Nazi domination 1941-42 Greater Germany of Third Reich Occupied by Third Reich Axis powers / Puppet states Allies KEY PLAYERS Adolf Hitler Nazi leader Joseph Stalin Soviet Premier Winston Churchill British Prime Minister JANUARY Jan 14-16, Poland: Soviet forces cut railway line at Kraków. Red Army encircles Warsaw Jan 16, Berlin: Hitler returns to Reichstag, forced to take cover in his bunker as Allied bombers attack city Jan 17-18, Warsaw: Polish capital liberated after five years of Nazi occupation. Soviet government set up Jan 27, Berlin: With Red Army closing in, streets are cleared of refugees to make way for reinforcements Jan 27, Auschwitz: Russian troops enter Nazis’ biggest death camp, where 1.5 million people – including 1.1m Jews – were murdered from 1942-45 in Hitler’s Final Solution Jan 31: Led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Red Army crosses German border into Pomerania – 150km from Berlin, cutting vital Nazi rail link with Danzig FEBRUARY Feb 3: U.S. warplanes drop 3,000 tonnes of bombs on Berlin, setting alight 13 square km of city Allied front line: Feb 8 West Wall NETH. BELGIUM Roer Bitburg Rhine Duesseldorf Cologne Remagen Bridge Bonn Koblenz 20km 12 miles Feb 8-10: Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) attacks key targets, including V2 rocket sites. British and Canadian forces breach West Wall (Siegfried Line) to reach Rhine. Germans blow up floodgates on Roer, flooding area west of Cologne in bid to halt Allied advance Feb 14: RAF and U.S. fire-bomb Dresden, killing more than 50,000 Soviet front line: Feb 2 Soviet front line: Jan 12 Auschwitz Stettin Berlin Frankfurt an der Oder Dresden BOHEMIA MORAVIA Oder Breslau BALTIC SEA POMERANIA Danzig Poznan EAST PRUSSIA Vistula Warsaw POLAND Kraków 100km 60 miles Feb 19: Heinrich Himmler, SS chief and second in Nazi command, makes initial overtures for peace talks with Western Allies Feb 21-22: RAF and U.S. bomb key Nazi transport links, dropping 400,000 incendiaries on Nuremberg Feb 25: After three months of fierce fighting, U.S. 3rd Armored Division cross Roer and advance on Cologne MARCH Mar 3: Finland joins war on Germany Mar 7: Allies capture Cologne and strategic Remagen Bridge, only bridge left intact by retreating German troops Mar 8-25: Allied forces fight their way across Rhine, setting up 56km-wide bridgehead on east bank. Hitler is unable to stop Allied troops pouring across Rhine. Red Army prepares for final assault on Berlin Red Flag raised over Reichstag by Soviet troops, signalling end of Battle for Berlin. Third Reich lies in ruins VE DAY: May 8 declared Victory in Europe Day APRIL Apr 1: Believing that Allies are mounting operation to capture Berlin, Stalin orders Red Army to take it first Apr 12: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. Vice president Harry S. Truman sworn into office Apr 16: Allied armies halt advance on Berlin to allow Soviets to take city. Over 2.5 million Russian troops, supported by over 6,000 tanks and 7,500 aircraft, begin final drive towards Berlin. Hitler retreats to his bunker Allied front line: Apr 8 Soviet front line: Apr 18 Elbe Berlin Potsdam Torgau Colditz Dresden Neisse 25 miles 40km Apr 23: Zhukov’s forces battle to within 150 metres of Reichstag Apr 25: U.S. and Soviet troops meet at Torgau on Elbe River Apr 28: Hitler’s main ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (left), executed by partisans Apr 30: Hitler and his wife of 36 hours, Eva Braun, commit suicide. Their bodies are doused in petrol and burnt May 1-2: Berlin falls to Red Army. Zhukov accepts German surrender in Berlin. War in Italy finally ends with surrender of nearly 500,000 German troops May 4: Britain’s Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepts surrender of all German forces in Netherlands, Denmark and north-west Germany May 7: Germany signs unconditional surrender of “all forces on land, sea and in the air” Sources: Imperial War Museum, Chronicle of the Second World War, The Times Atlas of the Second World War Pictures: Getty Images, Newscom © GRAPHIC NEWS