Operation Eclipse

This led to a climax in the bloody Battle of Berlin. The Soviet advance and ultimate capture of the German capital was virtually unopposed by their allies. In an effort to avoid a diplomatic issue, United States Army General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower had ordered his forces into the south of Germany to cut off and wipe out other pieces of the Wehrmacht and to avoid the possibility that the Nazi government would attempt to hold out in a National Redoubt in the Alps.

However, the failure of Operation Market Garden in late may have played a key role in this decision. The western Allies' decision to leave eastern Germany and the city of Berlin to the Red Army — honoring the agreement they made with the Soviet Union at Yalta — eventually had serious repercussions as the Cold War emerged and expanded in the post-war era. After the Allies agreed at Yalta to specific zones of influence within Germany, the two Soviet armies raced to win control of Berlin, perhaps motivated by a desire to gain control of the German nuclear research program in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute before the Americans.

ARCHIVED - Operation ECLIPSE

Since the Allies landed in Normandy, the British and American armies among affiliated Western Allied forces had both moved swiftly and decisively to take western cities in France, and to move on to liberate Paris. By September , Allied forces had reached the German border, but the subsequent failure of Operation Market Garden and the ensuing deadlock handed the initiative to Germany for a brief period.

In December, Hitler launched a bold but ultimately unsuccessful offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge.

In March , the Allies crossed the Rhine in a decisive manner, but the enormous casualties taken by Allied forces in the Ardennes in the previous months and the still significant distance to Berlin dampened Eisenhower's drive to take Berlin before the Soviets. Britain's Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , urged Eisenhower to continue the advance toward Berlin by the 21st Army Group , under the command of Field Marshal Montgomery with the intention of capturing the city. Even General George S.

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Patton agreed with Churchill that he should order the attack on the city since Montgomery's troops could reach Berlin within three days. In Berlin, the Reichsbanner resistance organization identified possible drop zones for Allied paratroopers and planned to guide them past German defenses into the city.

After General Omar Bradley warned, however, that capturing a city located in a region that the Soviets had already received at the Yalta Conference might cost , casualties, [5] by April 15 Eisenhower ordered all armies to halt when they reached the Elbe and Mulde Rivers, thus immobilizing these spearheads while the war continued for three more weeks. Seventh and Third Armies into southeastern Germany and Austria. Advancing from northern Italy, the British Eighth Army [6] pushed to the borders of Yugoslavia to defeat the remaining Wehrmacht elements there.

Operation Eclipse (iv)

Soviet forces took the offensive after the spectacular defeat of Army Group Centre following Operation Bagration in from which the Wehrmacht forces never recovered. In the winter of they pushed the German front lines back across Poland, with heavy casualties on both sides. At the same time two RAF squadrons of rocket-firing Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers to stand by to land on emergency airfields near Copenhagen as the naval flotilla arrived.

When the airfields had been secured, the headquarters and defence company of Brigadier G. The first Typhoon squadron landed on an airfield outside Copenhagen on the same day, and the second arrived on 6 May. When the relevant order was given, on 1 May, Kiel was 50 miles 80 km beyond the front line and the Germans were still resisting.

Moreover, there was no intelligence about Soviet intentions. For this operation Bols had the 3 rd Parachute Brigade and was allocated an escort of one squadron of the Royal Scots Greys, the divisional artillery, and transport for his lightly armed airborne troops. On 4 May the surrender of Hamburg was completed, and at The 30 th AU deployed to Flensburg and Danish targets. The other document is Planning the peace: Operation Eclipse and the occupation of Germany.

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This is available at: They are leaving out the part about all Western Military units being stopped from advancing past the river Elbe until after the surrender of Germany and the fall of Berlin to the Soviets. It would not suprise me if that omission was intentional. The idea that we would allow the poorly defended captial of Germany fall into Russian hands even though we could have beat them to it is, even today, an overwhelming unpopular decision.

Also, the more I study the World Wars, the more disgusted I get with the United States' misguided alliance with the Soviet Union and our broken promise to the German military that we would join them in joint operations. Instead, we were responsible for the defacto murder of tens of thousands of their troops, the death of hundreds of thousands of their civilian population and the redistribution of their land and assets, effectively converting them from a 4th super power, into at best, a 2nd tier nation. This was all done after the war had ended and Hitler was long gone. The more I study it, the more it seems like this was a war that was not necessarily instigated entirely by the Axis.

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The further one digs, the more it appears that, at least from the German perspective, they were forced into situations where war was the only answer. Russia declares war on Poland and asks Germany to help. Germany does so because they want to gain back territory lost after WW1, and they need Russian oil to maintain their military capabilities. The English land a massive military assault force in France, while France also gears up for war with Germany.

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Germany now shares borders with 3 of it's 4 largest opponents from WW1, two of which are clearly massing forces for a large scale attack on Germany's Western front, and the other is a hated political opponent and one known to be a regular betrayer of treatys.

Instead of allowing the English to continue to mass forces in France, while Russia builds up to their East, Germany attacks France and pushes the English out. They then sign a treaty with the French government, allowing them to continue to self govern, in an effort to shore up the Western front and hopefully appease the Western powers in an effort to prevent further hostilities.

Race to Berlin

Russia stops selling oil to Germany, effectively cutting off the bulk of their supplies. Germany does not declare war over this, but clearly the shakey alliance is on dangerous ground as the German armed forces cannot fuction without oil and their supply from outside of Russia is severly limited. Russia demands that Germany make a large number of concessions to Russia or risk war, including giving up territories and breaking alliances with countries bordering Russia, such as Finland, one of Germany's closest allies. Germany continues to try to get the English to sign a peace treaty, or at least sign an armistice that will be favorable to Germany and close up the Western Front.

England refuses, resulting in the escalation of hostilities and the bombing of England, all in the desperate hope of achieving a lasting peace in the West. Russia invades Finland, forcing Germany to declare war on Russia. The United States stops allowing oil to be shipped to Japan, another feeble German ally, ultimately resulting in a Japanese attack on the US Pacific fleet and a state of war.

The state of affairs at the middle of WW1 is right back where it left off, only the Allies are stronger than ever, and Germany is weaker, with more feeble allies than before. Did I miss anything? The English land a massive military assault force in France.

Germany now shares borders with 3 of it's 4 largest opponents from WW1. Firstly, the final occupation boundaries were decided at Postdam, in June The Allies did have an understanding that the Soviets would get an eastern occupation zone and that Berlin would be under joint control by all three major powers. Secondly, in March , which is when the last offensives were launched, Berlin was miles from the Allied starting point and the Soviets were much closer.